Social disruption,mine closure and housing policy: evidence from the Free State Goldfields,South Africa

The creation of mine settlements became a common practice between 1950 and 1980. These mining towns were seen as places of permanent settlement. This permanency, together with the privatisation of mine‐owned houses (mid‐1980s) increased place attachment. Mine decline thus brought with it some form of social disruption. Whereas mining companies in Australia have attempted to minimise the social disruption caused by mine closure by introducing fly‐in‐fly‐out arrangements, the post‐apartheid housing policy in South Africa has focused on asset building in mining areas. We completed 180 interviews with representatives of households. The survey formed part of a panel survey and further included a control group and 15 qualitative interviews. Our results indicate that though members of the mining community have housing units that are larger than those of the control group, incomes are lower in the mining community, real income is in decline, smaller numbers of household members are contributing to income, self‐assessments of wealth are characterised by lower ratings, household assets increase at a slower pace, and there is a stronger preference to continue to reside in the area. All of the above serves to illustrate the consequences of the asset‐based strategies embedded in South African housing policy. The social disruption associated with mine closure further tends to lock households into locations, and thus inhibits mobility.     

Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies,playing video games,internet use,and oil prices

After 50 years of steady increase, per capita visits to US national parks have declined since 1988. This decline, coincident with the rise in electronic entertainment media, may represent a shift in recreation choices with broader implications for the value placed on biodiversity conservation and environmentally responsible behavior. We compared the decline in per capita visits with a set of indicators representing alternate recreation choices and constraints. The Spearman correlation analyses found this decline in NPV to be significantly negatively correlated with several electronic entertainment indicators: hours of television, (rs=-0.743, P<0.001), video games (rs=-0.773, P<0.001), home movies (rs=-0.788, P<0.001), theatre attendance (rs=-0.587, P<0.025) and internet use (rs=-0.783, P<0.001). There were also significant negative correlations with oil prices (rs=-0.547, P<0.025), foreign travel (rs=-0.452, P<0.05), and Appalachian Trail hikers (rs=-0.785, P<0.001). Income was significantly positively correlated with foreign travel (rs=0.621, P<0.005) but negatively correlated with national park visits (rs=-0.697, P<0.005). There was no significant correlation of mean number of vacation days, indicating available vacation time is probably not a factor. Federal funding actually increased during this period, and so was rejected as a probable factor. Park capacity was rejected as limiting since both total overnight stays and visits at the seven most popular parks rose well into the mid-1990s. Aging of baby boomers was also rejected as they are only now reaching retirement age, and thus during the period of visitation decline were still of prime family vacation age. Multiple linear regression of four of the entertainment media variables as well as oil prices explains 97.5% of this recent decline (r=0.975, multiple r2=0.950, adjusted multiple r2=0.925, SE=0.015, F=37.800, P<0.0001). We may be seeing evidence of a fundamental shift away from people's appreciation of nature (biophilia, Wilson 1984) to 'videophilia,' which we here define as "the new human tendency to focus on sedentary activities involving electronic media." Such a shift would not bode well for the future of biodiversity conservation.     

Valuing the benefits of the urban forest: a spatial hedonic approach

This paper measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A Geographic Information System is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of sources. Spatial hedonic housing price models for the Indianapolis/Marion County area are estimated. The models indicate that greener vegetation around a property has a positive, significant effect on housing price, holding everything else constant. This effect is dominated by measures at the neighborhood level. These findings indicate that property owners value the urban forest, at least in part, by the premium they pay to live in neighborhoods with greener, denser vegetation. These findings also indicate that public action to maintain and enhance the urban forest may be warranted. Planners and urban foresters can use these findings to inform public and policy debates over urban forestry programs and proposals.     

Rodent Communities in an Exurbanizing Southwestern Landscape (U.S.A.)

Abstract:  Ranches are being converted to exurban housing developments in the southwestern United States, with potentially significant but little-studied impacts on biological diversity. We captured rodents on 48 traplines in grasslands, mesquite savannas, and oak savannas in southeastern Arizona that were grazed by livestock, embedded in exurban housing developments, grazed and embedded in development, or neither grazed nor embedded in development. Independent of habitat or development, rodent species richness, mean rank abundance, and capture rates of all rodents combined were negatively related to presence of livestock grazing or to its effects on vegetative ground cover. Exurban development had no obvious effects on rodent variety or abundance. Results suggest southwestern exurban developments can sustain a rich assemblage of grassland and savanna rodents if housing densities are low and houses are embedded in a matrix of natural vegetation with little grazing.     

绿色住宅内声环境控制

室内噪声主要来源于室外噪声辐射和室内声源。室内噪声会对人的听力、语言交流、睡眠休息、心脏功能、心理、工作效率、儿童发育等多方面产生不良影响。主要分析绿色住宅内部噪声对室内声环境的影响,综述目前绿色住宅建设中存在着的隔声设计隐患,结合“绿色住宅建设技术要求（2001）”,提出改善室内声环境的优化设计方法,从而就如何加强绿色住宅室内噪声污染危害的防治措施提出一些看法。     

中国资源型城市房价时空变化与影响因素分析

基于禧泰数据库的全国城市二手房价监测数据,利用描述统计和GIS空间分析方法详细分析了2011—2018年126个中国资源型城市房价时空变化特征,并采用空间杜宾模型进一步揭示了其影响因素。研究结果表明:(1)2011年和2018年中国资源型城市平均房价分别为4105元/m2和5675元/m2,再生型城市、成熟型城市、成长型城市和衰退型城市的平均房价依次递减;(2)2011—2018年中国资源型城市平均房价呈现出波动上升的态势,房价增长率为38.2%,远低于全国城市平均房价增长幅度55.3%,且不同类型资源型城市房价的增长幅度有所差异,以成熟型和再生型城市的房价增幅相对较大;(3)中国资源型城市房价和变化存在显著的空间集聚特征,房价热点区主要集中在东部地区和中部地区城市,房价冷点区主要以东北地区和西部地区城市为主;(4)空间杜宾模型显示,人均GDP、人均住房开发投资、多样化指数、专业化指数和工业废水排放强度是影响中国资源型城市房价空间差异的主要因素。     

人口收缩背景下资源型城市住宅价格的差异化响应及影响因素

以中国人口收缩现象突出的资源型城市为例,分析了2005年以来案例城市人口和住宅价格的时空演变特征,从住宅价格增幅和增速两个方面比较了人口收缩期内案例城市住宅价格的差异化响应特征,通过灰色关联模型分析了住宅价格差异化响应的影响因素。结果表明：（1）中国资源型城市人口收缩现象呈加剧态势,但人口收缩期内90%的资源型城市住宅价格呈上升态势,仅黑龙江东部、甘肃西北部、山西中部等少数资源型城市住宅价格小幅下降。（2）人口收缩背景下资源型城市住宅价格响应强度差异明显。相比之下,高强度响应等级以人口中期收缩的资源型城市、衰退型与成熟型煤炭资源城市、边境与省际边缘区资源型城市为主。（3）大部分资源型城市的人口收缩和住宅价格响应关联并不紧密,其他影响因素与住宅价格响应的关联相对更为紧密,并随着住宅价格响应强度的不同存在显著差异。     

Environmental regulation as a double-edged sword for housing markets: Evidence from the NOx Budget Trading Program

We investigate the effects of environmental regulations on housing markets using a quasi-experimental setting—the NO_x Budget Trading Program (NBP). Hedonic theory predicts that house prices should rise as pollution levels decrease. However, environmental regulations may also affect labor markets, and thus housing demand. Employing a difference-in-differences framework, we find that house prices shifted up in the regulated areas with low manufacturing intensity, whereas in the areas with high manufacturing intensity, housing markets were weakened. We also find that in high-manufacturing-intensity areas, loan application volume declined, rejection rate augmented, and the probability of loan default increased.     

变革中的中国水资源管理

水资源短缺是世界面临的共同危机,是制约国民经济健康稳定发展的重要“瓶颈”,水资源的可持续利用已经成为经济社会可持续发展的基础性、战略性问题.缓解水资源供需矛盾的关键是加强水资源的管理.文章回顾了中国水资源管理制度的发展演变历程:只管工程的非正式水资源管理、行政命令为主的正式制度萌芽、取水许可管理和基于水权的正规制度管理等四个阶段.尽管在确立以流域管理和区域管理相结合的综合管理体制,建立以水量分配、取水许可、水资源论证为主要内容的水权管理制度和以全成本核算为原则的水价管理制度等方面成绩显著,水资源管理中仍存在水资源权属不清、水环境权得不到保障等问题.今后中国水资源改革,首先应继续深化水权改革,推动水权明晰化,建立水权交易制度;其次,健全水环境权的法律法制规范,提供相关的法律保障;最后,完善部门间的合作协调机制,真正实现对水的协同管理.     

Assessing the impact of household participation on satisfaction and safe design in humanitarian shelter projects

Participation has long been considered important for post‐disaster recovery. Establishing what constitutes participation in post‐disaster shelter projects, however, has remained elusive, and the links between different types of participation and shelter programme outcomes are not well understood. Furthermore, recent case studies suggest that misguided participation strategies may be to blame for failures. This study analysed 19 shelter projects implemented in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013 to identify the forms of participation employed. Using fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis, it assessed how household participation in the planning, design, and construction phases of shelter reconstruction led to outcomes of household satisfaction and safe shelter design. Participation was operationalised via eight central project tasks, revealing that the involvement of households in the early planning stages of projects and in construction activities were important for satisfaction and design outcomes, whereas engagement during the design phase of projects had little impact on the selected outcomes.