Search results

As historic cities evolve, change in their urban form can be expected. Yet, uncontrolled change of land plots, which represent a significant element of urban form, leads to uncontrolled change in buildings' configurations and typologies threatening accordingly the urban character of heritage contexts. Mechanisms controlling plot subdivision, however, can play an effective role in guiding developments and in controlling urban change in heritage settings. The present study seeks to assist decision-makers in their attempt to control urban change in heritage areas through a plot-based approach.

This paper is divided into three sections: the first focuses on plot subdivision as a key aspect of urban form; the second illustrates the case of the heritage village of New Gourna in Luxor and the third includes discussion and implications of adopting a plot-based morphological approach to control morphological transformation in heritage contexts. For the morphological analysis of New Gourna, the study relied on comparative cartographic analysis of original drawings of the village versus the situation in 2022. The morphological analysis focuses mainly on qualitative and quantitative aspects of plot configurations and building patterns.

Findings support the urgency of establishing a plot-based strategy to maintain urban character of heritage contexts in Egypt and call for a plot-based morphological approach to control change and inform new development attempts.

The present research provides an assessment of the morphological transformation of the heritage village of New Gourna. In addition, it proposes a plot-based approach for heritage contexts under transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is possible to identify a number of physical design properties of plots that are associated with coastal alteration and to develop a predictive model or metric to evaluate the potential alteration caused by that resort. Investors may have economic plot size concerns not considered by planners, tourists may prefer close proximity to deep waters, and urban planners may have failed to realize the importance of certain plot ratios or minimum dimensions etc.

A combination of geographical information system and statistical tools is used to identify and model these properties. The research uses data from three different resorts in two countries along the Red Sea coast (Hurghada and Safaga in Egypt and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia). Landsat TM7 images are obtained for each location and analysed to detect regions with the largest alteration along the coast using the post‐classification change technique. Physical properties of each village are generated using ArcGIS 9.2 both before and after alteration. Finally, a predictive decision‐support tool for urban planners and environmental auditors is formulated using stepwise discriminant analysis.

Two‐step cluster analysis and discriminate analysis show that alteration takes place based on factors that include original width and original distance to deep water in three distinct groups. The predictive model that is developed classifies any given resort into one of three clusters, by virtue of their physical design characteristics. This gives a rough prediction of the likely alteration that might take place under a given condition. Subdivision plans that ignore the power of these two factors literally “invite” owners to violate shorelines and encroach on the sea. Planners are urged to join hands with policy makers and developers to formulate guidelines to plot subdivision and environmentally acceptable design solutions to facilitate access to deep water.

Till now, there has been no metric to relate a plot's geometric properties with the encroachment it makes. If such an association could be made, a developer's resort plans may be evaluated to predict the degree by which an encroachment is likely. The model can be used to identify resorts whose properties present a risk to shorelines, dredge or fill to maximize usable land. Two benefits may be thought of for this approach. First, the model helps urban planners develop a sustainable coastal area by bearing in mind the needs of tourist‐developers as well as the properties of their adjacent coast. Second, the factors can be used to rationalize building guidelines and land use regulations to minimize such risk.

The purpose of this monograph is to present the first English translation of a unique French colonial report on women living under colonial rule in West Africa.

The issue begins with a discussion of the contribution this report makes to the history of social development policy in Africa, and how it serves the on‐going critique of colonisation. This is followed by the English translation of the original report held in the National Archives of Senegal. The translation is accompanied by explanatory notes, translator’s comments, a glossary of African and technical terms, and a bibliography.

The discussion highlights contemporary social development policies and practices which featured in identical or similar forms in French colonial social policy.

As the report demonstrates, access to basic education and improving maternal/infant health care have dominated the social development agenda for women in sub‐Saharan Africa for over a century, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in the Millennium Development Goals which define the international community’s agenda for social development to 2015. The parallels between colonial and post‐colonial social policies in Africa raise questions about the philosophical and cultural foundations of contemporary social development policy in Africa and the direction policy is following in the 21st century.

Though the discussion adopts a consciously postcolonial perspective, the report that follows presents a consciously colonial view of the “Other”. Given the parallels identified here between contemporary and colonial policy‐making, this can only add to the value of the document in exploring the values that underpin contemporary social development practice.

The rapid urban population growth in Ethiopia is causing an increasing demand for urban land, which primarily tends to be supplied by expropriation of peri-urban land. The process of urban development in Ethiopia is largely criticized for forced displacement and disruption of the peri-urban local community. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to introduce how Ethiopia’s urban development system could be built on the participatory and inclusive approaches of land acquisition.

The study has employed questionnaire survey results, focus group discussion with panel of experts and previous research reports to examine the peri-urban situations and then to show why an alternative land development approach is needed to be introduced in the urban land development system of Ethiopia. Desk review on land readjustment was also made to explore best lessons from other countries applicable to the peri-urban contexts of Ethiopia.

This study has explored that land readjustment is potentially an appropriate land development tool to alleviate peri-urban land development limitations in Ethiopia.

Researchers, policy makers and government bodies that are interested in peri-urban land would appreciate and consider implementing the adapted land readjustment model as an alternative land development tool. Consequently, the local peri-urban landholders’ rights would be protected and maintained in the process of urbanization.

Although land readjustment has the potential to achieve participatory peri-urban land development, awareness of the method in the Ethiopian urban land development system is inadequate. This study contributes to fill this gap and create an insight into the basic conditions for the adaption of the tool.

The purpose of the article is to improve the understanding of the role of institutional factors in real estate development. The authors take into account zoning (existence and type), type of right of disposal and type of buyer and seller of property in a multivariate econometric estimation. Dependent variable of the analysis is the time between acquisition of empty land and the application for a building permit, a period when many important development decisions have to be made. This indicator is closely related to debated phenomena like land hording and speculation.

The authors estimate a Cox proportional hazard model with the time between acquisition and application for a building permit as dependent variable and institutional indicators and a number of control variables as explanatory variables. Study area is the GZM Metropolis in the South of Poland. This region shows enough variability in institutional arrangements to allow for this type of analysis.

The analysis shows that institutional factors significantly influence the real estate development process. In areas that have not issued a zoning plan, the period until the building permit application is significantly longer. When the state is involved in a transaction (as purchaser or seller), it also takes longer until the building permit application is submitted. Although the instrument is usually intended to speed up development, perpetual usufruct implies a longer period until building permit application. Because of the results the authors get for control variables and for robustness checks, the authors are confident of the results of the analysis.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that deals with the question how institutional factors influence the timing of real estate development. By using data for a region in Poland, the authors also add to knowledge about real estate development in CEE countries.

This paper reports on a pilot project to develop a 32-acre site made available by the City of Kampala for housing with the express purpose of promoting urban agriculture. Started in 2004 under the leadership of a city agronomist, with the aid of research teams from McGill University, Montreal, Makerere University, Kampala, and financial support from IDRC, the project is still ongoing. The process is one of participatory planning with the future residents, a group of mixed ethnicity and religions from all parts of the city, and includes training in house construction and agricultural techniques. Project implementation has been slower than anticipated due to unforeseen hazards such as mislaid title deeds, unavailability of government resources, communication shut-downs, the time required to transact business, acquire permissions, permits and the like, and most recently by the threat of a major power line from the Bujagali Falls to serve Kampala being thrust through the site. We nevertheless remain optimistic of ultimate success.

This study aims to test the effect of Seattle’s discontinuous sidewalk requirement, on the number of housing units per construction permit.

This study uses discontinuity linear regression (DLR) on a database of Seattle’s housing construction permits during January-2015 to January-2018, controlled by 51 socioeconomic, planning and geographic variables. The sidewalk requirement is continuous inside the designated urban villages; however, it is spatially and quantitatively discontinuous in the rest of the city: certain blocks at certain locations require sidewalks’ design and construction in permits with six or more housing units. DLR detects the effect of the discontinuity while controlling for a vast array of confounding variables.

The primary finding is that the discontinuous requirement reduces the number of housing units in about 75% of a housing unit per permit, which at the aggregate level amounts to around 335 fewer housing units during the period of analysis.

The database is relatively small, which has limited a more thorough specification process and robustness tests.

Besides directly testing the effect of a discontinuous in-kind development contribution, the research setup allows to discuss a wider, more structural problem: the possibility of contributions avoidance due to spatial substitution. In contrast, spatially continuous (i.e. city-level) contributions cannot be avoided by performing spatial substitution, and they are internalized by the housing supply side (market-neutral).

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the experiences of a small business, Deer Creek Land Developments (DCLD), which has been very successful in negotiating the competitive pressures in a mature industry over time and has built sustainable competitive advantage. The firm has been quite successfully navigating the ups and downs of the market. The case provides an excellent example of how small businesses can open their business models to respond to changes in the external environment, such as an economic downturn, and/or simply to grow.

The paper uses a single case study approach. Detailed interviews of the owner and the manager were used to collect data for the case study.

DCLD's success is found to be hinged on its ability to consistently enhance operational efficiencies, move to higher valuations by adopting an open business model that exploits core in‐house capabilities and those acquired through contractors and partner organizations.

The paper provides several interesting insights useful for small business managers and entrepreneurs. Small businesses can use openness of both types, as demonstrated in the case, to create strategic differentiation and also to reduce operating costs.

This paper initiates a rich field enquiry, which provides some interesting insights to small business managers. The case study is used to demonstrate how a small business can effectively use an open business model to negotiate competitive and environmental pressures.

In the early 1990s, Sweden suffered from a severe property crisis. This study aims to analyze the market for income properties in Sweden over a 20‐year period, 1980‐2000, taking a fresh look at describing the depth of the property crisis. The study specifically attempts to examine if appraisal bias was present when the state‐owned Nordbanken bank foreclosed on a large number of properties.

Using transaction data, the article estimates a set of hedonic price indices. The result is used to calculate predicted market values. To assess if the appraisals are biased they are compared with both the predicted market value and the actual transaction price.

The study does not find any indications of the appraisals being systematically biased. For the comparison with transaction price, however, a caveat in drawing these conclusions is that the appraisals could have had a direct impact on the reservation prices. The results further suggest that there is added information in appraisal beyond those characteristics that are available in public registers.

The study presents a new set of price indices based on a limited set of property characteristic. Most indices in actual use are based on appraised values. This study has shed light on the depth of the Swedish property crisis and enabled us to assess the quality of appraisals in general.

The intention of this work is to generate a tool to facilitate the visualization of urban parameters, critically discussing the current form of urban planning in Brazil and thus facilitate popular participation in decisions, considering that since 2001, it is foreseen by law that the elaboration processes of municipal urban plans in Brazil must have popular participation in order to be legitimized.

The method consists of three-dimensionally modeling the constructive potential within the lots, using the parameters of the Ribeirão das Neves city master plan (State of Minas Gerais, Brazil), using computer software, to predict the impact on landscape that the parameters generate and comparing different software programs.

With the proposed tool, it became clear that many of the city's parameters alone cannot reach the guidelines of the master plan, and the comparison of two software programs generated options for different local realities. It is a methodology that is able to provide excellent support for urban planning laws in Brazil to be more effective and less delayed.

The software was configured with a script developed by the Geoprocessing Laboratory of a university in Brazil and was used for the first time to completely analyze a municipal master plan for the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, generating a tool able to be used in master plans' review.