Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Central Place Theory And The Power Law For Cities, Wen-Tai Hsu, Zou Xin

Research Collection School Of Economics

This chapter provides a review of the link between central place theory and the power laws for cities. A theory of city size distribution is proposed via a central place hierarchy a la Christaller (1933) either as an equilibrium results or an optimal allocation. Under a central place hierarchy, it is shown that a power law for cities emerges if the underlying heterogeneity in economies of scale across good is regularly varying. Furthermore, we show that an optimal allocation of cities conforms with a central place hierarchy if the underlying heterogeneity in economies of scale across good is a power …

Now You Seaweed, Now You Don't: Photographing Rongcheng's Disappearing Seaweed Houses, Yanjing Liu

Social Space

This county-level city is known not only for its picturesque beauty, but also for being the site of seaweed houses— traditional homes built from natural seaweed and stones. Inhabited mainly by local fishermen, these structures are a reflection of northern Chinese marine culture and fishery customs.

Crowdsourcing Bike Share Station Locations: Evaluating Participation And Placement, Greg P. Griffin, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Planners increasingly involve stakeholders in co-producing vital planning information by crowdsourcing data using online map-based commenting platforms. Few studies, however, investigate the role and impact of such online platforms on planning outcomes. We evaluate the impact of participant input via a public participation geographic information system (PPGIS), a platform to suggest the placement of new bike share stations in New York City (NY) and Chicago (IL). We conducted 2 analyses to evaluate how close planners built new bike share stations to those suggested on PPGIS platforms. According to our proximity analysis, only a small percentage …

Centroid-Amenities: An Interactive Visual Analytical Tool For Exploring And Analyzing Amenities In Singapore, Xue Qian Jazreel Siew, Sean Jia Ming Koh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Planning for civic amenities in a fast-changing urban setting such as Singapore is never an easy task. And as urban planners look toward more data-driven approaches toward urban planning, so grows the demand for more flexible geospatial analytics tools to facilitate a more iterative and granular approach toward urban planning. Such specific tools however, are not always readily available as plugins for traditional desktop GIS software, as numerous customizations must be made to model specific temporal planning scenarios for quick analysis, which could prove both costly and time-consuming. Hence, to address this need, open-source tools such as R Shiny could …

Potential Crime Risk And Housing Market Responses, Seonghoon Kim, Kwan Ok Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study how information on local (dis)amenities is transmitted and manifested in housing markets. Using nationwide data on multifamily homes in South Korea, we analyze heterogeneity in the effect of a sex offender's presence on sale prices and rents of nearby homes. Our results demonstrate that the price effect of the offender's move-in varies significantly by spatial context. People react more strongly and persistently to the move-in of the offender in places wherein indicators of social connectedness are stronger, such as places with relatively low population density. We also find that, unlike housing prices, rents do not change in response …

Exploiting The Interdependency Of Land Use And Mobility For Urban Planning, Kasthuri Jayarajah, Andrew Tan, Archan Misra

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Urban planners and economists alike have strong interest in understanding the inter-dependency of land use and people flow. The two-pronged problem entails systematic modeling and understanding of how land use impacts crowd flow to an area and in turn, how the influx of people to an area (or lack thereof) can influence the viability of business entities in that area. With cities becoming increasingly sensor-rich, for example, digitized payments for public transportation and constant trajectory tracking of buses and taxis, understanding and modelling crowd flows at the city scale, as well as, at finer granularity such as at the neighborhood …

How Much Do Users Value A Network Expansion? Evidence From The Public Transit System In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We estimate the network effects of a public transit system by examining the impact of its expansion on housing prices. Our results show that a major expansion of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system increased the price of apartments within 0.5 km of a pre-expansion station by 1.8% relative to apartments that were further away from a station. Evaluated at the mean housing price, the expansion increased the value of pre-connected apartments by at least S$455 million in aggregate, which is equivalent to 9% of the estimated S$5 billion cost of the expansion.

How Much Do Users Value A Network Expansion? Evidence From The Public Transit System In Singapore, Eric Fesselmeyer, Haoming Liu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We estimate the network effects of a public transit system by examining the impact of its expansion on housing prices. Our results show that a major expansion of Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system increased the price of apartments within 0.5 km of a pre-expansion station by 1.8% relative to apartments that were further away from a station. Evaluated at the mean housing price, the expansion increased the value of pre-connected apartments by at least S$455 million in aggregate, which is equivalent to 9% of the estimated S$5 billion cost of the expansion.

A Small Entrepreneurial City In Action: Policy Mobility, Urban Entrepreneurialism, And Politics Of Scale In Jiyuan, China, Shenjing He, Lingyue Li, Yong Zhang, Jun Wang

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This research details the mundane practices of policy mobility and entrepreneurial endeavour in Jiyuan in relation to the city's changing administrative position, and is one of the first attempts at understanding how entrepreneurial policies are mobilized, mutated and diffused in a small inland Chinese city. We interpret Jiyuan's evolving development strategies and trajectory through two interrelated conceptual lenses—policy mobility and urban entrepreneurialism—bridged by an analysis of the politics of scale. Over the past three decades, governance strategies in Jiyuan have evolved from policy imitation, during the germination of urban entrepreneurialism, to policy mutation and diffusion, under the amplification of entrepreneurialism, …

Trans-Boundary Variations Of Urban Drought Vulnerability And Its Impact On Water Resource Management In Singapore And Johor, Malaysia, Joon Chuah, Beatrice H. Ho, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Low-latitude areas generally experience relatively large precipitation totals, but droughts/dry spells do occur periodically and are potentially hazardous in these regions - especially within rapidly developing urban settlements. These areas typically have high water demand and therefore may potentially be subjected to water scarcity. Effective local water resource management lowering risks and vulnerabilities to drought is thus paramount, and these policies may be affected in regions with national borders sharing a common transboundary water resource. In this study, we (a) quantify and identify drought episodes using the Palmer Drought Severity Index in the neighbouring equatorial regions of Singapore and Johor, …

Policy Innovations For Affordable Housing In Singapore: From Colony To Global City, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Global cities today are facing fundamental challenges in relation to unaffordable housing and growing economic inequality. Singapore’s success in making home ownership possible for 90% of its population has attracted much attention internationally. This book represents a culmination of research by the author on key housing policy innovations for affordable housing. Housing policy changes were effected in the 1960s through reforms of colonial legislation and institutions dealing with state land acquisition, public housing, and provident fund savings. The comprehensive housing framework that was established enabled the massive resettlement of households from shophouses, slums and villages to high-rise government-built flats. In …

Public-Private Partnerships: The Pro-Poor Gap Evaluation, Tung Nhu Nguyen

Asian Management Insights

Improving the future design and implementation of public-private partnerships.

Contesting Access To Power In Urban Pakistan, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Studies of informal housing and urban citizenship in South Asia frequently link the precariousness of squatter life with the struggle to formalize engagement with the state. However, this article argues that the transition to a more formal mode of making claims on the state is a shift in terrain that is no less negotiated and contested. Through an ethnography of access to electrical power in Islamabad, Pakistan, this article explores the pervasiveness of informality in access to service delivery for a squatter settlement and its bourgeois neighbors. The politics of access to urban infrastructure reveal a state of pervasive predation …

Scaling The Nexus: Towards Integrated Frameworks For Analysing Water, Energy And Food, Scott J. Mcgrane, Michele Acuto, Francesca Artioli, Po-Yu Chen, Robert Comber, Julian Cottee, Geremy Farr-Wharton, Nicola Green, Ariella Helfgott, Shaun Larcom, Julie A. Mccann, Patrick O'Reilly, Gloria Salmoral, Marian Scott, Lindsay C. Todman, Terry Van Gevelt, Xiaoyu Yan

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The emergence of the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has resulted in changes to the way we perceive our natural resources. Stressors such as climate change and population growth have highlighted the fragility of our WEF systems, necessitating integrated solutions across multiple scales. While a number of frameworks and analytical tools have been developed since 2011, a comprehensive WEF nexus tool remains elusive, hindered in part by our limited data and understanding of the interdependencies and connections across the WEF systems. To achieve this, the community of academics, practitioners and policy-makers invested in WEF nexus research are addressing several critical areas that …

Understanding The Effects Of Taxi Ride-Sharing: A Case Study Of Singapore, Yazhe Wang, Baihua Zheng, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the effects of ride-sharing among those calling on taxis in Singapore for similar origin and destination pairs at nearly the same time of day. It proposes a simple yet practical framework for taxi ride-sharing and scheduling, to reduce waiting times and travel times during peak demand periods. The solution method helps taxi users save money while helping taxi drivers serve multiple requests per day, thus increasing their earnings. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted, based on real taxi booking data for the city of Singapore, to evaluate the effect of various factors of the ride-sharing practice, e.g., …

The Heritage-Making Conundrum In Asian Cities: Real, Transformed And Imagined Legacies, David Ocon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The process of heritage-making is farfrom straightforward. Defining the meaning of heritage in young nations and citieswhere land availability is limited is a challenging exercise. It often crossesthe paths of history, religion, memory-shaping, development, andidentity-building. It requires fluent communication channels between civilsociety, local organisations and governments. Willingness to cooperate from allthe parties involved is essential; dialogue a must.In land-scarce or densely populated Asiancities, expansion and growth is colliding with the preservation of legacies, thepast and memory. This paper examines regional case studies from Hong Kong,Manila and Singapore, where preservation of cultural patrimony, development anddaily life follow conflicting paths. It sheds …

Do Voluntary Commons Associations Deliver Sustainable Grazing Outcomes? An Empirical Study Of England, Shaun Larcom, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In 1965, the Commons Registration Act came into force in England and Wales. The Act led to the removal of the capacity of commoners to regulate the intensity of grazing via traditional legal means. From this policy shock a number of voluntary commons associations were formed. These voluntary groups relied on their members to agree upon how the commons should be managed. Using two-stage least squares regression analysis we find that commons governed by these associations are much more likely to produce sustainable grazing outcomes. These results are robust to the existence of a variety of controls, including overlapping institutional …

Achieving Universal Energy Access And Rural Development Through Smart Villages, Terry Van Gevelt, C. Canales Holzeis, S. Fennell, B. Heap, J. Holmes, M.Hurley Depret, B. Jones, M.T. Safdar

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

With just 12 years to go to 2030, progress in providing universal energy access and improving rural development outcomes in many rural areas has been too slow if the Sustainable Development Goals are to be met. Over a three-year period, the Smart Villages Initiative gathered evidence and views from over 1000 stakeholders from 70 countries to identify the framework conditions necessary for the provision of energy services to rural communities and to ensure that energy access translates into improved rural development outcomes. This short communication provides an overview of the key findings of this process and suggests a number of …

Smart Cities And Urban Management, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Office of Research

In this booklet, read about SMU’s research and initiatives related to smart cities and urban management, and how we strive to make meaningful impact on business, government and society for Singapore and beyond.

Contents:

Liveability and quality of life

• Community participation through mobile crowdsourcing
• Smarter, healthier eating with Food AI
• Data-driven community eldercare platform for sustainable ageing-in-place
• A date with AI
• Smart mobility accessibility for barrier-free access
• Food security

Optimisation and resource management

• Collaborative urban delivery optimisation
• Seat occupancy detection through capacitance sensing
• Large-scale crowd simulation based on real-world data
• Gaining insights through Wi-Fi technology
• Taxi driver guidance system
• Efficiency …

The Ideological Alignment Of Smart Urbanism In Singapore: Critical Reflections On A Political Paradox, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Over the past decade, much has been written about the potential of smart urbanism to bring about various and lasting forms of betterment. The embedding of digital technologies within urban infrastructures has been well documented, and the efficiencies of smart models of urban governance and management have been lauded. More recently, however, the discourse has been labelled ‘hegemonic’, and accused of developing a view of smart technology that is blinkered by its failure to critique its socio-political effects. By focusing on the case of Singapore’s ‘Smart Nation’ initiative, this paper embraces the paradoxes at the heart of smart urbanism and, …

An Integrated Framework For Modeling And Predicting Spatiotemporal Phenomena In Urban Environments, Tuc Viet Le

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This thesis proposes a general solution framework that integrates methods in machine learning in creative ways to solve a diverse set of problems arising in urban environments. It particularly focuses on modeling spatiotemporal data for the purpose of predicting urban phenomena. Concretely, the framework is applied to solve three specific real-world problems: human mobility prediction, trac speed prediction and incident prediction. For human mobility prediction, I use visitor trajectories collected a large theme park in Singapore as a simplified microcosm of an urban area. A trajectory is an ordered sequence of attraction visits and corresponding timestamps produced by a visitor. …

Indigenous Community Preferences For Electricity Services: Evidence From A Choice Experiment In Sarawak, Malaysia, Terry Van Gevelt, C. Canales Holzeis, F. George, T. Zaman

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Providing indigenous communities with electricity services requires an understanding of preferences to ensure that electrification schemes are congruent with the communities’ specific development pathways. We contribute to the literature by using a choice experiment to rank and quantify household preferences for electricity services in two indigenous villages in Sarawak, Malaysia. Specifically, we disaggregated electricity services into five attributes: private use for household appliances and lighting, public use for community facilities, productive use for income generation, the operator model and the monthly tariff. We found that the most value was placed on the operator-model underpinning the provision of electricity services and …

Regulating The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Interdependencies, Transaction Costs And Procedural Justice, Shaun Larcom, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

There have been calls for an overhaul of regulatory and governance frameworks to incorporate the implications of the water-energy-food nexus. We map one small component of the regulatory space of the nexus and highlight its immense complexity. We draw on insights from the economics and socio-legal literatures to show that a decentralised approach to regulation based upon procedural justice can enable the trade-offs of the nexus to be considered and addressed. We use a nexus case study of micro hydro-electricity generation in Dartmoor National Park in England to show that when we take into account interactions between state and non-state …

Mobile Cities, Modelling Policies: Importing/Exporting The Singapore ‘Model’ Of Development, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A recent focus of research has been the making, mobility and mutations of urban policy. The global circulation of urban models – or exemplars of best practices and values that are deemed to be desirable and achievable – has gained significant traction. Such models are those that are dislocated from their place of origin, and transplanted to an adopted site. This chapter draws on the case of Singapore: one of the most emblematic examples of an importable/exportable urban model – a prototype for growth-oriented urban development with its normative and technical plans for growth and management – to foreground problems …

Balancing The Sacred And The Secular, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Lily Kong, widely regarded as one of the world’s leading social and cultural geographers, studies the complexities that surround a society’s religious spaces and practices.

See her book: Religion and space: Competition, conflict and violence in the contemporary world

and journal article:

Religious processions: Urban politics and poetics

Letting Cities Develop Naturally, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Hsu Wen-Tai uses mathematical models to study urban landscapes and what makes big and small cities different.

See the paper: Optimal city hierarchy: A dynamic programming approach to Central Place Theory

Singapore: Real State Control, Sock Yong Phang

Research Collection School Of Economics

The author explains how the government of Singapore has taken on the role of land use planner and housing developer to ensure affordable housing. Numerous instruments have been devised by governments to provide affordable housing. These can be classified into four broad categories: taxes and subsidies, land use and market regulations, public-private partnerships, and institutions that supply housing or provide financing.

Sequential Decision Making For Improving Efficiency In Urban Environments, Pradeep Varakantham

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Rapid "urbanization" (more than 50% of world's population now resides in cities) coupled with the natural lack of coordination in usage of common resources (ex: bikes, ambulances, taxis, traffic personnel, attractions) has a detrimental effect on a wide variety of response (ex: waiting times, response time for emergency needs) and coverage metrics (ex: predictability of traffic/security patrols) in cities of today. Motivated by the need to improve response and coverage metrics in urban environments, my research group is focussed on building intelligent agent systems that make sequential decisions to continuously match available supply of resources to an uncertain demand for …

Insights From An Energy Poor Rwandan Village, Terry Van Gevelt, C. Canales Holzeis, B. Jones, M.T. Safdar

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

We used primary data collected from 163 households in an off-grid Rwandan village to provide insights into energy poverty at the household-level. Informed by the rural livelihoods literature, we constructed a novel asset- and income-based index to disaggregate our results by socio-economic status. We also employed microeconometric techniques to investigate the determinants of household willingness-to-pay for electricity. We found statistically significant differences between households of different socio-economic status for expenditure on lighting and other electricity services, willingness-to-pay for electricity, income-generating activities and food security. Overall, our findings suggest that initiatives aiming to end energy poverty and catalyze rural development should: …

Mining And Clustering Mobility Evolution Patterns From Social Media For Urban Informatics, Chien-Cheng Chen, Meng-Fen Chiang, Wen-Chih Peng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this paper, given a set of check-in data, we aim at discovering representative daily movement behavior of users in a city. For example, daily movement behavior on a weekday may show users moving from one to another spatial region associated with time information. Since check-in data contain both spatial and temporal information, we propose a mobility evolution pattern to capture the daily movement behavior of users in a city. Furthermore, given a set of daily mobility evolution patterns, we formulate their similarity distances and then discover representative mobility evolution patterns via the clustering process. Representative mobility evolution patterns are …