Showing papers on "Metropolitan area published in 2016"

New York, USA

Abstract: New York City, one of the most populous and ethnically diverse cities in the world, has responded to a variety of enviornmental challenges in its history. The most recent is climate change, which is projected to have wide impacts on the city's critical infrastructure and population through higher temperatures, more intense flooding events and sea level rise. The city recognized the risks early and has become a national and international leader in responding to this new challenge, illustrating how this is possible for a large city. As part of a mature urban region, it is an excellent bellwether for the impacts that may be experienced by other cities, especially those in emerging metropolitan conurbations.

Smart Mobility in Smart City

Abstract: Smart City is a recent topic, but it is spreading very fast, as it is perceived like a winning strategy to cope with some severe urban problems such as traffic, pollution, energy consumption, waste treatment. Smart City ideas are the merge of some other more ancient urban policies such as digital city, green city, knowledge city. A Smart City is therefore a complex, long-term vision of a better urban area, aiming at reducing its environmental footprint and at creating better quality of life for citizens. Mobility is one of the most difficult topic to face in metropolitan large areas. It involves both environmental and economic aspects, and needs both high technologies and virtuous people behaviours. Smart Mobility is largely permeated by ICT, used in both backward and forward applications, to support the optimization of traffic fluxes, but also to collect citizens’ opinions about liveability in cities or quality of local public transport services. The aim of this paper is to analyse the Smart Mobility initiatives like part of a larger Smart City initiative portfolio, and to investigate about the role of ICT in supporting smart mobility actions, influencing their impact on the citizens’ quality of life and on the public value created for the city as a whole.

Borrowing size in networks of cities: City size, network connectivity and metropolitan functions in Europe

Abstract: The current dynamics in the Western European urban system are in marked contrast with the bourgeoning literature stressing the importance of agglomeration for economic growth. This paper explores whether this is due to the rise of ‘city network economies’, leading to processes of borrowed size as well as the rise of agglomeration shadows in networks of cities. The spread of metropolitan functions over Western European cities is analysed. It is found that network connectivity positively enhances the presence of metropolitan functions, but local size remains the most significant determinant for most types of functions. The importance of size and network connectivity differs across metropolitan functions and across cities.

What Are Cities Worth? Land Rents, Local Productivity, and the Total Value of Amenities

Abstract: This paper models how to use widely available data on wages and housing costs to infer land rents, local productivity, and the total value of local amenities in the presence of federal taxes and locally produced nontraded goods. I apply the model to U.S. metropolitan areas with the aid of visually intuitive graphs. The results improve measures of productivity and feature large differences in land rents. Wage and housing cost differences across metropolitan areas are accounted for more by productivity than quality-of-life differences. Regressions using individual amenities reveal that the most productive and valuable cities are typically coastal, sunny, mild, educated, and large.

Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution over Untrustful Metropolitan Network

Abstract: Unconditionally secure communication between remote parties has many applications in finance and industry. Now, a quantum key distribution network spread over a metropolitan area is shown to be secure against untrustworthy relays.

Planning for Cars That Drive Themselves Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Regional Transportation Plans, and Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract: Through a review of long-range transportation plans and interviews with planners, this article examines how large metropolitan planning organizations are preparing for autonomous vehicles. In just a few years, the prospect of commercially available self-driving cars and trucks has gone from a futurist fantasy to a likely near-term reality. However, uncertainties about the new technology and its relationship to daily investment decisions have kept mention of self-driving cars out of nearly all long-range transportation plans. Nevertheless, interviewees are keeping a close watch on the new technology and actively looking to understand and plan for future impacts.

in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Abstract: B AC K G R O U N D The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s largest encyclopedic art museums with artworks spanning more than 5,000 years from all corners of the globe. The multi-cultural richness of the collection positions the Met as a truly global museum; it is a must-see museum for tourists, and a source of enormous pride for New Yorkers. Now, the Met is spreading this message to tourists and locals alike through an institutional advertising campaign.

What is Different about Urbanization in Rich and Poor Countries? Cities in Brazil, China, India and the United States

Abstract: Are the well-known facts about urbanization in the United States also true for the developing world? We compare American metropolitan areas with analogous geographic units in Brazil, China and India Both Gibrat’s Law and Zipf’s Law seem to hold as well in Brazil as in the US, but China and India look quite different In Brazil and China, the implications of the spatial equilibrium hypothesis, the central organizing idea of urban economics, are not rejected The India data, however, repeatedly rejects tests inspired by the spatial equilibrium assumption One hypothesis is that spatial equilibrium only emerges with economic development, as markets replace social relationships and as human capital spreads more widely In all four countries there is strong evidence of agglomeration economies and human capital externalities The correlation between density and earnings is stronger in both China and India than in the US, strongest in China In India the gap between urban and rural wages is huge, but the correlation between city size and earnings is more modest The cross-sectional relationship between area-level skills and both earnings and area-level growth are also stronger in the developing world than in the US The forces that drive urban success seem similar in the rich and poor world, even if limited migration and difficult housing markets make it harder for a spatial equilibrium to develop

Estimating Rapidity of Change in Complex Urban Systems: A Multidimensional, Local-Scale Approach

Abstract: This study illustrates an exploratory approach based on a Multiway Factor Analysis (MFA) to estimate rapidity of change in complex urban systems, based on “fast” and “slow” variables. The proposed methodology was applied to 18 socioeconomic indicators of long-term (1960–2010) transformations in 115 municipalities of Athens’ metropolitan area (Greece), including demography, land-use/planning, and urban form and functions. Athens was regarded as a dynamic urban area with diversified structures and functions at the local scale, expanding through a self-organized pattern rather than a centralized planning strategy. Athens’ urban system was described using nine supplementary (topographic and territorial) variables and 30 independent indicators assessing the local context in recent times. Exploratory data analysis found an increasing connectedness and redundancy among socioeconomic indicators during the phase of largest urban expansion (1960–1990). Only the rate of population growth was classified as a “fast” variable for all five decades investigated. The overall rapidity of change was higher in 1960–1970, 1980–1990, and 2000–2010, decades that coincided with specific phases of urban expansion driven by migration inflow, second-home suburbanization, and Olympic games, respectively. Rapidity of change was high for functional indicators during all five decades studied, while demography indicators changed more rapidly in the first three decades and land-use/planning indicators in the last two decades. Rapidity of change was highest in peri-urban municipalities with a highly diversified economic structure dominated by industry. Our methodology provides a comprehensive overview of the transformations of a complex urban system, quantifying low-level indicators that are rarely assessed in the mainstream literature on urban studies. These results may contribute to design policies addressing complexity and promoting resilience in expanding metropolitan areas.

Urban happiness: context-sensitive study of the social sustainability of urban settings:

Abstract: Previous studies have reported multifaceted, controversial social outcomes of densely built urban settings. Social sustainability of urban environments have rarely been studied in a context-sensitive manner, identifying the specific ways urban structural characteristics contribute to the behavioural, experiential and well-being outcomes. In this study, an online public participation geographic information system (PPGIS) methodology allowed the place-based study of urban and suburban contexts in the metropolitan region of Helsinki, Finland. Respondents (N = 3119) located their meaningful places and reported the experiential and well-being outcomes. GIS-based measures of urban structures were calculated within a 500m buffer around their homes. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the contextual variation and the mediational role accessibility and perceived environmental quality play in linking urban structural characteristics with well-being outcomes. Our findings indicated that although increasi...

The Concept of City Carbon Maps: A Case Study of Melbourne, Australia

Abstract: Cities are thought to be associated with most of humanity's consumption of natural resources and impacts on the environment. Cities not only constitute major centers of economic activity, knowledge, innovation, and governance—they are also said to be linked to approximately 70% to 80% of global carbon dioxide emissions. This makes cities primary agents of change in a resource- and carbon-constraint world. In order to set meaningful targets, design successful policies, and implement effective mitigation strategies, it is important that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting for cities is accurate, comparable, comprehensive, and complete. Despite recent developments in the standardization of city GHG accounting, there is still a lack of consistent guidelines regarding out-of-boundary emissions, thus hampering efforts to identify mitigation priorities and responsibilities. We introduce a new conceptual framework—based on environmental input-output analysis—that allows for a consistent and complete reconciliation of direct and indirect GHG emissions from a city. The “city carbon map” shows local, regional, national, and global origins and destinations of flows of embodied emissions. We test the carbon map concept by applying it to the greater metropolitan area of Melbourne, Australia. We discuss the results and limitations of the approach in the light of possible mitigation strategies and policies by different urban stakeholders.

Urban political ecology II The abolitionist century

Abstract: Attention to the urban and metropolitan growth of nature can no longer be denied. Nor can the intense scrutiny of racialized, postcolonial and indigenous perspectives on the press and pulse of unev...

Lost in protest, found in segregation: Divided cities in the light of the 2015 “Οχι” referendum in Greece

Abstract: The referendum held in Greece on the 5th of July 2015 about the rejection of the conditions for a new loan sought by European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, become an event of great symbolic importance to national and even continental scale, although its precise scope and meaning were to a large extent loose. Participation to vote was rather high (62.5% of the electorate) and the electorate spoke widely in favour of the ‘no’ (61.3%). The concentration of ‘no’ and ‘yes’ votes followed a polarized distribution in the urban area of Athens. The present study analyzes the geographical distribution of ‘no’ votes at the municipal scale in the metropolitan region of Athens testing for the influence of the local socioeconomic context considering 67 indicators explored through the use of multivariate statistics. The polarization of the referendum vote reflects territorial disparities observed at both urban scale (distinguishing urban districts east, north and south of Athens from those situated west of Athens) and metropolitan scale (based on the urban-rural gradient). The percentage of ‘no’ votes at the municipal scale was correlated negatively with average per-capita declared income. Concentration of farmers and tourism activities, population growth rate and the enforcement of a municipal master plan were additional predictors of the spatial variability of ‘no’ votes. Going beyond the traditional division between ‘left’ and ‘right’ urban neighbourhoods, the spatial distribution of ’no’ votes in Athens reflects socioeconomic disparities consolidated during recession.

Gentrifications in pre-Olympic Rio de Janeiro

Abstract: The highly variable residential landscapes of Rio de Janeiro are changing rapidly in response to intersecting vectors: a cycle of global mega-events that has accelerated real estate speculation, the occupation of strategic favelas by state military police, and the implementation of state-led urban development projects. The general trend has been toward an increase in rents across the metropolitan region with an identifiable process of gentrification occurring in select neighborhoods. By examining data from Rio de Janeiro’s primary online real estate search engine (zap.com.br), newspaper reports, interviews with residents and personal experience, this paper examines the processes of gentrification in four different regions of the city: (1) Flamengo, a centrally located middle-class neighborhood; (2) the Zona Portuaria, a port region undergoing state-financed, privately led “revitalization”; (3) the Vidigal favela in Rio’s Zona Sul; (4) the suburban neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, site of closed-co...

Uber and Metropolitan Traffic Fatalities in the United States

Abstract: Uber and similar rideshare services are rapidly dispersing in cities across the United States and beyond. Given the convenience and low cost, Uber has been characterized as a potential countermeasure for reducing the estimated 121 million episodes of drunk driving and the 10,000 resulting traffic fatalities that occur annually in the United States. We exploited differences in the timing of the deployment of Uber in US metropolitan counties from 2005 to 2014 to test the association between the availability of Uber's rideshare services and total, drunk driving-related, and weekend- and holiday-specific traffic fatalities in the 100 most populated metropolitan areas in the United States using negative binomial and Poisson regression models. We found that the deployment of Uber services in a given metropolitan county had no association with the number of subsequent traffic fatalities, whether measured in aggregate or specific to drunk-driving fatalities or fatalities during weekends and holidays.

The systematic structure and predictability of urban business diversity

Abstract: Understanding cities is central to addressing major global challenges from climate and health to economic resilience. Although increasingly perceived as fundamental socio-economic units, the detailed fabric of urban economic activities is only now accessible to comprehensive analyses with the availability of large datasets. Here, we study abundances of business categories across U.S. metropolitan statistical areas to investigate how diversity of economic activities depends on city size. A universal structure common to all cities is revealed, manifesting self-similarity in internal economic structure as well as aggregated metrics (GDP, patents, crime). A derivation is presented that explains universality and the observed empirical distribution. The model incorporates a generalized preferential attachment process with ceaseless introduction of new business types. Combined with scaling analyses for individual categories, the theory quantitatively predicts how individual business types systematically change rank with city size, thereby providing a quantitative means for estimating their expected abundances as a function of city size. These results shed light on processes of economic differentiation with scale, suggesting a general structure for the growth of national economies as integrated urban systems.

Do Strict Land Use Regulations Make Metropolitan Areas More Segregated by Income

Abstract: Problem, research strategy, and findings: Income segregation has risen in each of the last four decades in U.S. metropolitan areas, which can have lifelong impacts on the health, economic productivity, and behaviors of residents. Although it is widely assumed that local land use regulations—such as minimum lot sizes and growth controls—exclude low-income households from wealthier neighborhoods, the empirical research is surprisingly limited. We examine the relationship between land use regulation and segregation by income using new measures for the 95 biggest cities in the United States. We find that density restrictions are associated with the segregation of the wealthy and middle income, but not the poor. We also find that more local pressure to regulate land use is linked to higher rates of income segregation, but that more state control is connected to lower-income segregation.Takeaway for practice: Density restrictions do drive urban income segregation of the rich, not the poor, but should be address...

Crisis and the city: profiling urban growth under economic expansion and stagnation

Abstract: Economic crises have influenced urban growth altering building cycles and re-shaping house and labour markets as a consequence of increased socioeconomic disparities. In southern Europe, one of the most affected regions by the 2007–2008 global crisis, evidence on the recession’s impact on urban growth characteristics and directions are still occasional and restricted to local contexts. This study contributes to this issue by identifying similarities and differences in short-term urban expansion before and during recession. Population growth over 2000–2007 and 2008–2014 was assessed in 235 urban districts and municipalities of Rome metropolitan region, Italy. Local-scale changes in the distribution of resident population are considered a reliable indicator of recent growth trends at the city scale and were compared with evidence from previous studies exploring trends in settlement and land-use indicators. Local-scale population distribution showed relevant differences in the time intervals investigated. While early-1990s depopulation of some central districts continued over 2000–2007, demographic re-polarization was observed especially over 2008–2014 in an increasing number of inner districts. At the same time, suburban growth occurred in different spatial directions and speed over the two periods. Our results identify a more rapid growth rate and a higher spreading of population over space during 2000–2007 compared to 2008–2014, identifying a trend towards population densification and settlement re-compacting in the last years. Our results corroborate previous evidence from other southern European urban agglomerations bringing insights on the debate over the future development of sprawling cities.