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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning

A Historical Review And Assessment Of Urban Heat Island Research In Singapore, Matthias Roth, Winston T. L. Chow Nov 2012

A Historical Review And Assessment Of Urban Heat Island Research In Singapore, Matthias Roth, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This historical review of 20 studies since the 1960s examines the influence of urban development on the thermal environment in Singapore, a fast growing tropical island city-state. Past observations are critically assessed with regard to experimental controls and station metadata. Given the availability of historical climate and developmental data spanning almost 50 years, changes in urban heat island (UHI) intensity and spatial coverage can be traced temporally. Rapid urban expansion in Singapore is clearly reflected in spatially and temporally changing air and surface temperature patterns. The nocturnal canopy-layer UHI intensity – measured as the difference between the commercial urban core …


A Feasibility Study Of Crowdsourcing And Google Street View To Determine Sidewalk Accessibility, Kotaro Hara, Victoria Le, Jon Froehlich Oct 2012

A Feasibility Study Of Crowdsourcing And Google Street View To Determine Sidewalk Accessibility, Kotaro Hara, Victoria Le, Jon Froehlich

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We explore the feasibility of using crowd workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk to identify and rank sidewalk accessibility issues from a manually curated database of 100 Google Street View images. We examine the effect of three different interactive labeling interfaces (Point, Rectangle, and Outline) on task accuracy and duration. We close the paper by discussing limitations and opportunities for future work.


Central Place Theory And City Size Distribution, Wen-Tai Hsu Sep 2012

Central Place Theory And City Size Distribution, Wen-Tai Hsu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper proposes a theory of city size distribution via a hierarchy approach rather than the popular random growth process. It does so by formalizing central place theory using an equilibrium entry model and specifying the conditions under which city size distribution follows a power law. Central place theory describes the way in which a hierarchical city system with different layers of cities serving differently sized market areas is formed from a uniformly populated space. The force driving the city size differences in this model is the heterogeneity in economies of scale across goods. The city size distribution under a …


Urban Heat Island Research In Phoenix, Arizona, Winston T. L. Chow, Dean Brennan, Anthony J. Brazel Apr 2012

Urban Heat Island Research In Phoenix, Arizona, Winston T. L. Chow, Dean Brennan, Anthony J. Brazel

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past 60 years, metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, has been among the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States, and this rapid urbanization has resulted in an urban heat island (UHI) of substantial size and intensity. During this time, an uncommon amount of UHI-specific research, relative to other cities in North America, occurred within its boundaries. This review investigates the possible reasons and motivations underpinning the large body of work, as well as summarizing specific themes, approaches, and theoretical contributions arising from such study. It is argued that several factors intrinsic to Phoenix were responsible for the prodigious output: strong …


Public Housing: Appreciating Assets?, Sock Yong Phang Jan 2012

Public Housing: Appreciating Assets?, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The topic of HDB housing is one that is close to the hearts and minds of the majority of Singaporeans. The first part of the presentation will provide a brief overview of price trends in Singapore’s housing sector. The second part delves into the market and policy factors behind the rapid increase in HDB housing prices since 2006. The monograph “Reflections on Housing a Nation” published by the Ministry of National Development in February 2011, contains numerous statements on the goals of housing policy. Briefly, the government is committed to affordable home ownership as a major pillar of Singapore’s public …