Lets Not Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water: The Role of Urban Villages in Housing Rural Migrants in China
Authors: Song, Y., V. Zenou, and C. Ding
Report
Synopsis: In the era of China’s economic growth and urbanisation, providing adequate and affordable housing for rural–urban migrants in urban areas is crucial for the success of China’s multifaceted reforms. Yet the urban housing provision system has overlooked the needs of rural migrants since the reforms. Urbanising villages, a unique product of China’s urbanisation and land reform, provide affordable housing for rural migrants. However, these urbanising villages are rejected by policy-makers due to their associated social and environment problems. In this paper, a multinomial logit model of housing type choice is adopted, in which people choose from a number of mutually exclusive housing types. Regression results indicate that rural migrants are shunned by the urban housing market. It is argued that, without accompanying programmes that include rural migrants in the urban housing market, policies that focus on demolishing urbanising villages could be misguided.
Authors: Shih-Kung Lai, C. Ding, Po-Chun Tsai, I-Chih Lan, Minsheng Xue, Ching-Pin Chiu, Li-Guo Wang
Report
Synopsis: The property rights approach to urban development has recently been proposed in the planning literature to explain how urban systems self-organize spatially and institutionally. The land-tenure system is one of the key factors affecting land use and thus urban development. It is not clear, however, how such a factor affects the process of urban development. This research aims to provide reasonable explanations as to how the land-tenure system in China in general affects urban development, by building game-theoretic models which include plans as a manifestation of information and property rights as a manifestation of land-use rights. Viewing regulated development as a collective good, the model is based on the prisoner’s dilemma game, where the local government regulates and the developer makes development decisions. Preliminary results show that land rights in the transitional economy of China are of paramount importance and must be clearly specified in order to make the land development process efficient at reducing transaction costs.
Authors: Song, Y., C. Ding and G. Knaap
Report
Synopsis: To provide the decision-makers in Beijing, China, with an assessment of alternative development futures, we introduce scenario planning to process of drafting Beijing’s 2020 Plan. The sketches of scenarios for Beijing are fruitful in several ways. First, the development of scenarios can meet the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning (BMCUP)’s needs to explore different urban development options. Second, scenario planning can accommodate uncertainty in economic and population growth caused in part by China’s rapid social and economic transformation. Third, in the course of creating evaluation framework to assess scenarios, scenario planning informs decision-makers about choices regarding predicted outcomes. We demonstrate that in a city that is experiencing unforeseen growth in the era of transformations, the decision-making process can be informed by evaluating the performance of alternative development scenarios.
Authors: Ding, C., Y. Wang, and C. Liu
Report
Synopsis: Understanding travel behavior and its relationship to urban form is vital for the sustainableplanning strategies aimed at automobile dependency reduction. The objective of this studyis twofold. First, this research provides additional insights to examine the effects of builtenvironment factors measured at both home location and workplace on tour-based modechoice behavior. Second, a cross-classified multilevel probit model using Bayesianapproach is employed to accommodate the spatial context in which individuals maketravel decisions. Using Washington, D.C. as our study area, the home-based work(Home-work) tour in the AM peak hours is used as the analysis unit. The empirical datawas gathered from the Washington-Baltimore Regional Household Travel Survey2007–2008. For parameter estimation, Bayesian estimation method integrating MarkovChain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling is adopted. Our findings confirmed the important rolethat the built environment at both home location and work ends plays in affecting commutermode choice behavior. Meanwhile, a comparison of different model results showsthat the cross-classified multilevel probit model offers significant improvements over thetraditional probit model. The results are expected to give a better understanding on therelationship between the built environment and commuter mode choice behavior.
Authors: Song, Y., V. Zenou, and C. Ding
Report
Synopsis: In the era of China’s economic growth and urbanisation, providing adequate and affordable housing for rural–urban migrants in urban areas is crucial for the success of China’s multifaceted reforms. Yet the urban housing provision system has overlooked the needs of rural migrants since the reforms. Urbanising villages, a unique product of China’s urbanisation and land reform, provide affordable housing for rural migrants. However, these urbanising villages are rejected by policy-makers due to their associated social and environment problems. In this paper, a multinomial logit model of housing type choice is adopted, in which people choose from a number of mutually exclusive housing types. Regression results indicate that rural migrants are shunned by the urban housing market. It is argued that, without accompanying programmes that include rural migrants in the urban housing market, policies that focus on demolishing urbanising villages could be misguided.
A game-theoretic approach to urban land development in China
Authors: Shih-Kung Lai, C. Ding, Po-Chun Tsai, I-Chih Lan, Minsheng Xue, Ching-Pin Chiu, Li-Guo Wang
Report
Synopsis: The property rights approach to urban development has recently been proposed in the planning literature to explain how urban systems self-organize spatially and institutionally. The land-tenure system is one of the key factors affecting land use and thus urban development. It is not clear, however, how such a factor affects the process of urban development. This research aims to provide reasonable explanations as to how the land-tenure system in China in general affects urban development, by building game-theoretic models which include plans as a manifestation of information and property rights as a manifestation of land-use rights. Viewing regulated development as a collective good, the model is based on the prisoner’s dilemma game, where the local government regulates and the developer makes development decisions. Preliminary results show that land rights in the transitional economy of China are of paramount importance and must be clearly specified in order to make the land development process efficient at reducing transaction costs.
Envisioning Beijing 2020 through Sketches of Urban Scenarios
Authors: Song, Y., C. Ding and G. Knaap
Report
Synopsis: To provide the decision-makers in Beijing, China, with an assessment of alternative development futures, we introduce scenario planning to process of drafting Beijing’s 2020 Plan. The sketches of scenarios for Beijing are fruitful in several ways. First, the development of scenarios can meet the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning (BMCUP)’s needs to explore different urban development options. Second, scenario planning can accommodate uncertainty in economic and population growth caused in part by China’s rapid social and economic transformation. Third, in the course of creating evaluation framework to assess scenarios, scenario planning informs decision-makers about choices regarding predicted outcomes. We demonstrate that in a city that is experiencing unforeseen growth in the era of transformations, the decision-making process can be informed by evaluating the performance of alternative development scenarios.
Exploring the influence of built environment on tour-based commuter mode choice: A cross-classified multilevel modeling approach
Authors: Ding, C., Y. Wang, and C. Liu
Report
Synopsis: Understanding travel behavior and its relationship to urban form is vital for the sustainableplanning strategies aimed at automobile dependency reduction. The objective of this studyis twofold. First, this research provides additional insights to examine the effects of builtenvironment factors measured at both home location and workplace on tour-based modechoice behavior. Second, a cross-classified multilevel probit model using Bayesianapproach is employed to accommodate the spatial context in which individuals maketravel decisions. Using Washington, D.C. as our study area, the home-based work(Home-work) tour in the AM peak hours is used as the analysis unit. The empirical datawas gathered from the Washington-Baltimore Regional Household Travel Survey2007–2008. For parameter estimation, Bayesian estimation method integrating MarkovChain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling is adopted. Our findings confirmed the important rolethat the built environment at both home location and work ends plays in affecting commutermode choice behavior. Meanwhile, a comparison of different model results showsthat the cross-classified multilevel probit model offers significant improvements over thetraditional probit model. The results are expected to give a better understanding on therelationship between the built environment and commuter mode choice behavior.