Search Results (18)

The scientific literature on residential segregation in large metropolitan areas highlights various explanatory factors, including economic, social, political, landscape, and cultural elements related to both migrant and local populations. This paper contrasts the impact of these factors individually, such as the immigrant rate and neighborhood segregation. To achieve this, a machine learning analysis was conducted on a sample of neighborhoods in the main Spanish metropolitan areas (Madrid and Barcelona), using a database created from a combination of official statistical sources and textual sources, such as Wikipedia. These texts were transformed into indexes using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and other artificial intelligence algorithms capable of interpreting images and converting them into indexes. The results indicate that the factors influencing immigrant concentration and segregation differ significantly, with crucial roles played by the urban landscape, population size, and geographic origin. While land prices showed a relationship with immigrant concentration, their effect on segregation was mediated by factors such as overcrowding, social support networks, and landscape degradation. The novel application of AI and big data, particularly through ChatGPT and Google Street View, has enhanced model predictability, contributing to the scientific literature on segregated spaces. Full article

After over 20 years of a strict moratorium on the turnover of agricultural land in Ukraine, an official market for this type of land has recently been established. The purpose of this study was to examine the functioning of the fundamental elements of this market from the moment of its introduction on 1 July 2021 until today, as well as to understand the possible directions for its further development. The analysis of the agricultural land market and the visualization of the obtained results were carried out using the PostgreSQL database, Python and SQL programming languages, and the QGIS and Metabase tools. It was found that the volume of the agricultural land market remains insignificant, as the total area of sold land during this period made up only 0.7% of the arable land area of Ukraine. Prices for land plots remained at the level of their normative monetary value and are still relatively low, which indicates the significant undercapitalization of agricultural land as a production factor. The stability of agricultural land prices under the influence of various factors also indicates their relative virtuality, which, taking into account the further lifting of restrictions on the size of land plots to be sold as of 1 January 2024, requires the use of appropriate land policy instruments in order to fully utilize the multipurpose role of land in the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, which should be based on a human-rights-based approach to rural development, food security, and land policy. Full article

With the recent increase in food demand, urban agriculture has gained attention as a way of increasing food self-sufficiency and providing recreational spaces in cities. In this study, the suitability of rooftop greenhouses (RGs), a type of urban agriculture, was analyzed by combining the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information systems (GIS) in Seoul, the capital city of Korea. To achieve this, we derived location suitability factors through expert consultations and calculated the weights of each factor through AHP. After building the spatial data according to these factors, they were weighted and summed then scaled to a score of 0–100. The highest weight of the RG location factors was for benefit (0.1782), followed by officially assessed land prices (0.0913) and supermarket density (0.0802). The weights of supermarket density and accessibility were high because they are considered the main distribution channels. When analyzing the location of RGs by linking these results with the spatial data according to factor, we revealed that Gangseo-gu (a district of Seoul) had relatively high location suitability scores. This trend was determined to be caused by the rather low officially assessed land price, high supermarket density, and productive population. This result could prove useful when selecting the approximate locations of RGs in Seoul and for promoting food self-sufficiency in cities. Full article

Krakow has a permanent population of over 800,000. The number of inhabitants is increasing year on year due to the influx of working people and students, who often settle in Krakow permanently. This is leading to increased demand and consequently more flats and houses being put into use by developers. The increasing environmental awareness of the population and the resulting financial benefits—particularly evident in 2022—have meant that the classic, or rather ill-considered, building industry is gradually being replaced by better, environmentally friendly solutions. In the first part of the article, the authors focus on smart buildings, and in the second part, they combine them with financial changes in the real estate market. The aim of the publication is to draw conclusions from the changes in the real estate market in Krakow that have taken place in the last decade and to assess these activities from the point of view of environmental solutions. The data are mainly derived from official statistics and trade reports published by research institutes, marketing agencies operating in the real estate sector in Poland, as well as specialist portals and publications dealing with real estate market analysis. The publication analyzes changes in the real estate market in terms of changes in unit prices, number of transactions, and availability. The analysis covers landed property, the primary and secondary premises market, developed property, and tenement buildings. Full article

Walking is the most sustainable means of daily travel for short trip distances and is a key component of the overall transport system. This paper documents variation in walking rates among countries, cities in the same country, and in different parts of the same city. Our international analysis of official government statistics shows that walking rates are highest for short trips, higher for women than for men, decline with increasing income, and remain constant as age increases. Walking fatality rates are much higher in the USA compared with the other countries we examined, both per capita and per km walked. Government policies that would increase walking rates while improving pedestrian safety include: integrated networks of safe and convenient walking infrastructure; roadways and intersections designed for the needs of pedestrians; land-use regulations that encourage mixed uses and short trip distances; lower city-wide speed limits and traffic calming in residential neighborhoods; reduced supply and increased price of parking; traffic laws that give priority to pedestrians; improved traffic education for motorists and non-motorists; tax surcharges on large personal vehicles; and strict enforcement of laws against drink and distracted driving. Five decades of success with these policies in many European cities provide practical examples for car-oriented cities to follow, especially in North America. Full article

This paper empirically investigates the heterogeneous impacts of the media sentiment about policies with different themes on the real estate market in China. Based on the policy texts collected from both official and unofficial sources, we construct sentiment indices to capture the sentiment about policies with different themes, including real estate policies, fiscal policies, monetary policies, land policies, healthcare policies, household registration policies, and education policies, using text mining methods. Mediation models and GARCH models are then established to examine the impact of these sentiment indices on the real estate market. The E-GARCH model is established to examine the asymmetric effect of positive and negative sentiment on real estate market. The results show the following: (1) The real estate market in China is more affected by the policy sentiment on official media compared with the unofficial ones. (2) Policy sentiment affects the real estate price through the mediating variables of interest rate, real estate construction area, and real estate sales. (3) The impacts of sentiment with different themes on the volatility of the real estate market are heterogeneous. (4) The impacts of policy sentiment on official media are more pronounced in a tight government-policy environment than those in a loose one. (5) The effect of negative unofficial media policies sentiment on real estate price is bigger than the positive unofficial media policies sentiment. Full article

The Czech Republic uses a dual system of agricultural land prices, namely the formal/official price—for tax purposes—and the market price in the case of a standard sale or purchase of farmland. This paper focuses on the construction of an econometric model to quantify the influence of soil hydrological characteristics on the production potential in a given climatic region. It also focuses on the use of this model for the determination of the official price of agricultural land, which is expressed on the basis of the code of the evaluated soil-ecological unit (ESEU) and based on defined soil characteristics. The pricing itself is based on the production potential of the land, which in practice is very important for spatial planning, as it determines the classes of agricultural land protection with regard to the possibility of setting aside agricultural land for non-productive purposes or for drawing subsidies for less favourable areas. In this context, the non-productive functions of agricultural land are also frequently discussed, especially its retention, which plays a very important role in the currently changing climatic conditions. There are a number of studies on soil retention, and numerous approaches to measuring it, but none of them address its impact on production potential and thus on the price of land. For this reason, this paper focuses on defining the influence of the retention of the main soil units (defined for the conditions of the Czech Republic) on production potential. For this definition, SUR models are used, where the endogenous variable is expressed as production potential and the exogenous variables include the basic soil characteristics such as grain size, porosity, hydrological component of the soil, and retention. The obtained outputs show both the high explanatory power of the model and the adequate parametric significance of most variables, which provides sufficient support for the use of the results in practice. In addition, the estimated models across all climatic regions are consistent with substantively logical assumptions about the link between production potential and soil hydrological properties, which secondarily demonstrates their applicability in practice, especially for state administration, but also for local government in the sense of municipalities, cities, and other organizational units. Full article

Allis shad (Alosa alosa L.) populations have suffered declines and even regional extinction across their distribution range, mainly due to river impoundment, overexploitation, and pollution. In Portugal, the species is classified as Endangered (EN). This fish is regarded as a valuable delicacy, and commercial fisheries dedicated to this species in Portugal are found in rivers in Minho, Lima, Cávado, Douro, Vouga, Mondego, Tagus, and Guadiana. Official landings state that, in the last 10 years, around 10 t of allis shad were sold annually at the Figueira da Foz fish market. Fisheries are selective since the allowed mesh size for the nets employed does not capture smaller fish. Moreover, larger fish are more desirable, attaining higher prices per kg at fish auctions and thus generating higher revenue for the fishermen. The fishing pressure on this threatened resource in the Mondego is significant and bound to impact its population structure. With the present work, we assess the impact of fishing pressure and gear selectivity on the dimensional structure of the Mondego’s shad spawning population, one of the last strongholds for allis shads, and identify possible consequences for the future of the species. The dimensional structure and gender proportion of over 800 shads sampled at Figueira da Foz fish auction from 2015 to 2019 was analyzed. All shads sampled were between 400 mm and 745 mm in total length, with an average of 592 mm. Simultaneously, we used images recorded in the monitoring window at Açude-Ponte Dam’s fishway in Coimbra to study the shads reaching the upstream spawning areas in order to check for differences in the dimensional structure possibly related to fishing pressure. The results obtained aim to increase the existing biological knowledge of this population and the human pressure it is subjected to, thus contributing to future management efforts. Full article

The Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) for continental Portugal was approved in December 2019 and has established a novel framework for those players that carry out maritime activities. In light of this challenge, our work addresses the current status of the fishing activity in the north-western region of Portugal, where relevant small-scale fisheries (SSF) are still well established. Based on official statistical data and a stakeholder survey, structural, economic, and social issues that significantly influence the sustainability of this industry were studied. Throughout the 2012–2019 pre-COVID-19 period, the price revalorization of primary products in first-sale markets was the key aspect that allowed fisheries to partially counteract the loss of economic value associated with the decreased fishing production (a decline of 46% of the total nominal catches). Regarding the regional fishing trade network, the fact that a given species reaches a wide range of prices in closely located major landing ports (Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, and Viana do Castelo) constitutes, nonetheless, an issue that deserves attention and optimization. A survey conducted among training professional fishers confirmed a deeply rooted family/regional tradition but revealed concerns about the future generational replacement. The trainees demanded stronger support from the government, a modernization process for fishing activity, as well as higher social salary standards. Moreover, they assigned a high relevance to the sustainability of aquatic resources. In conclusion, the results shown in the present study reveal a noticeable ability of the regional fishing industry to overcome the challenging economic circumstances that have occurred in the last few years. Against the new scenario decisively influenced by the MSP, a generation of future regional fishers that pursue high social and environmental standards is certainly a solid basis for an optimistic future performance of this activity. For that purpose, a firm commitment to the use of technology seems like a key strategy to adopt in order to further the sustainability of the fisheries in the north-western region of Portugal. Full article

The Czech Republic is more or less unique in its dual system (official and market price) of agricultural land prices. In the case of the market price, there are several studies and approaches that assess the impact of individual variables on the market price of land. If we focus on the official price of land, its value in the Czech Republic is influenced by the evaluated soil ecological unit (ESEU) price. The ESEU price expresses the production potential of the land on the basis of soil quality indicators, which include the climatic region, the main soil unit, slope and exposure and, last but not least, the depth of the soil profile and skeletonisation. Climate change also means that the current values of the definition (e.g., for a climatic region, this refers to the average temperature or average precipitation) do not correspond to reality. No studies have looked in detail at the impact of soil quality indicators or climate change on the price of ESEUs. New and more accurate measurements of soil characteristics are increasing the number of ESEU codes, and prices have not yet been set for some codes. For this reason, we proposed the use of a hedonic method to determine shadow prices, which reflect the intensity and direction of the effect of each input variable on the price of an ESEU. A heteroscedastic corrected linear regression model was used to determine the coefficients, which presents in detail the effect of all included parameters on the final price of an ESEU in the results section. From the results, it was obvious that the shadow price coefficients themselves corresponded to basic generally accepted assumptions regarding the direction of effect. In the conditions of the Czech Republic, a significant influence on the price of an ESEU was mainly the slope with exposure and the depth of the soil profile with skeletonisation. These factors affected the productive capacity of the soil, which, in turn, translated into lower profitability of agricultural entities. The high explanatory ability of the hedonic model, with a high parametric significance for most of the used variables, was an important factor determining the robustness of the model as a repricing tool. The model set according to the prices of the applicable price decree can be used to set the prices of new or not-yet-valued ESEU codes under the conditions in the Czech Republic, or shadow prices can be used during climatic changes in the event of the transfer of the given soil unit to another climate region according to the general specification. It is therefore an important tool for the needs of the public administration. Full article

Local governments play an important role in structuring urban transportation through street design, zoning, and shared jurisdiction over ride-hailing, transit, and road pricing. While cities can harness these powers to steer planning outcomes, there is little research about what local officials think about regulatory changes related to autonomous vehicles (AV). We compile key AV-related policies recommended by scholars but rarely implemented, and conduct a survey of municipal officials throughout the United States, exploring their personal support and perceptions of bureaucratic capacity, legal limits, and political backing for each policy. This paper finds broad personal support for regulations related to right-of-way, equity, and land use, such as for increasing pedestrian space, expanding access for low-income people, and reducing sprawl. However, officials emphasized uncertain bureaucratic and legal capacity for city intervention outside of these areas, reaffirming limited local power in the federal system. Only a minority expected political support for any policy. Greater population size and more liberal resident political ideologies are strongly associated with personal and political support for many policies. Local population growth is correlated with greater capacity to undertake policies. This work contributes to the growing literature on transportation governance in the context of technological uncertainty. Full article

Only a limited number of studies have examined land price issues based on official land price maps. A very unique timeline of official land price maps (2006–2019) allowed research to be conducted on four Czech cities (Prague, Olomouc, Ostrava, and Zlín). The main aim of the research was to describe the links between land price, land use types, and macroeconomic indicators, and to compare temporal changes of these links in four cities of different size, type, and structure by using spatial data processing and regression analysis. The results showed that the key statistically significant variable in all cities was population size. The effect of this variable was mostly positive, except for Ostrava, as an example of a developing city. The second statistically significant variable affecting land prices in each city was discount rate. The effect of other variables differed according to the city, its characteristics, and stage of economic development. We concluded that the development of land prices over time was slightly different between the studied cities and partially dependent on local spatial factors. Nevertheless, stagnation in 2010–2011, probably as a consequence of the global economic crisis in 2009, was observed in each city. Changes in the monitored cities could be seen from a spatial point of view in similar land price patterns. The ratio of land area with rising prices was very similar in each city (85%–92%). The highest land prices were typically in urban centers, but prices rose only gradually. A much more significant increase in prices occurred in each city in their peripheral residential areas. The results of this study can improve understanding of urban development and the economic and spatial aspects of sustainability in land price changes. Full article

While the market price of land in Czechia has increased in recent years, the officially set land price, published by the State Land Office and the Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation, has decreased in several regions (Olomouc, Zlín, South Moravia, Moravian-Silesian, and Central Bohemia Region). Four out of five of these regions are said to have the most fertile soil. The main reason for the official land price decrease has been the re-evaluation of land parcels which are based on field sample testing. Based on these sample tests some parcels have been re-evaluated as less fertile. This paper aims to identify the main determinants, which led to the decrease of the official land price and soil fertility in these regions of Czechia. It has been determined that crop structure significantly differs from the “valuation type structure” which indicates optimal share of individual crops to achieve the optimal yield without soil degradation. It has also been determined that there were statistically significant differences in all selected regions for all observed crops (excluding rapeseed in Moravian-Silesian Region) and Czechia between the shares of individual crops and shares according to the “valuation type structure”. It may be concluded that farmers follow short-term interests (profit) instead of long-term goals (soil fertility) in the selected regions. Moreover, results for Czechia suggest that this trend is becoming more common in every region of Czechia. Thus, the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index was utilized. The Herfindahl–Hirschman Index shows decreasing crop diversity in all selected region, as in Czechia as well. Based on the data analysis, it is possible to identify several crops, which are prevailing (wheat, barley, rapeseed, and fodder crops). Three of these crops (wheat, barley, and rapeseed) in combination with intensive farming and poor crop rotation have been found to be problematic and a potential threat which may cause degradation in soil fertility. Based upon this the following measures have been recommended: First, to focus on proven agricultural practices, including crop rotation and fodder crops. Second, the fodder crops production should be supported, and the structure of the “single area payment subsidies” should reflect the negative impact of the three main prevailing crops (wheat, maize, and barley) on soil fertility and the decrease of livestock production in Czechia. Full article

Chile faces a housing affordability crisis, given that most of the population is unable to secure a house. While housing prices between 2008 and 2019 increased by 63.96%, wages only increased by 21.85%. This article presented an analysis of the housing price configuration for the main borough in the country—Santiago. The assessment focused on verticalised housing constructed between 2015 and 2019. The article developed an exploratory study on the price of housing in Santiago to generate a diagnosis to identify the role played by expectations of profitability when configuring price. Based on the information generated, we sought to contribute to the discussion on public policies that advance the development of affordable housing in central boroughs with high urban value, as is the case for Santiago’s borough of Greater Santiago. We hypothesised that profit expectation of real estate developers plays a key role in the housing prices, and an adjustment in the profit ratios might increase the affordability while keeping the housing market above profitable rates. This research addressed the lack of data transparency in the Chilean housing market with archival research, reconstructing costs and earnings from projects based on official registrations of transactions at the borough level. In Chile, the access to investment costs, land values, yields, and house price formation are not publicly available, even though these factors imply that many households are facing severe difficulties in paying for and accessing decent housing. Full article

In Taiwan and other countries, glyphosate has been used widely as a non-selective herbicide over 40 years in crop lands and non-crop lands. However, public concerns about its environmental and health risks have increased rapidly because the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) reclassified it as Group 2A (probably carcinogenic to humans) in 2015. From the viewpoints of environmental quality, food security and human health, it is necessary to regulate the release of glyphosate into the environment due to its massive use. The purpose of this case study was to analyze the historical consumption of glyphosate in Taiwan and also summarize its current regulatory measures through multi-ministerial levels. It showed that the sales quantities of glyphosate in Taiwan can be grouped into three stages, which include a ramping period (1984–1992), a stable period (1992–2007), and a declining period (2007–2016). These variations can be correlated with the annual price, manufacturers’ promotion and other non-selective herbicide competitors (i.e., paraquat and glufosinate), as well as the excellent action features of glyphosate. It should be noted that its sales quantities significantly increased from 3200 metric tons in 2015 to 4535 metric tons in 2016 mainly due to the official announcement of paraquat ban effective in February 2019. The core regulations for protecting food security and water quality from the use of glyphosate are based on its residual limits and standards under the authorization of the Food Sanitation Management Act (FSMA) and the Water Pollution Control Act (WPCA), respectively. More importantly, there are occasional reports of contamination by herbicides (including glyphosate) in drinking water sources. Unfortunately, glyphosate is not yet considered among chemical items when evaluating drinking water quality standards in Taiwan. Full article