Despite the volume of literature examining the role of producer amenities (e.g., highways and airports) in firms’ selection of a location, almost no quantitative studies regard the impact of consumer amenities (e.g., theatres and cafes) in attracting firms, as they are hypothesized to attract residents rather than firms or companies. Since the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is regarded as a significant driver and an increasingly important part of the economy in North American and European countries, this research aims to provide insight into the importance of consumer amenities in the location pattern of companies in this sector. Consumer amenities are stated to be important factors in the lifestyle of creative and talented workers such as employees of high-tech industries (Florida, 2003); therefore, this study hypothesizes that ICT firms tend to locate near consumer amenities as they are assumed to be attractive to the talented and highly educated workers that those firms want to employ. ICT firms, because of their size and use, can also be integrated into existing land use, such as downtown where there are lots of amenities. Industrial uses would be more likely to locate near highways because of their land requirements. This thesis looks at a broad pattern as an exploratory study to see if there is a location pattern between consumer amenities and ICT firms’ location. Using census data from Canadian industries, this thesis focuses on exploring a spatial pattern for distribution of ICT companies, both with regards to amenities and the location of firms in other industries. In doing so, information of 66,078 firms that operate in Vancouver and their associated data were obtained from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Business Database. A walkability index is also developed that represents the amenity variable. The findings of this study suggest that ICT firms are more likely to be found in areas with a high concentration of consumer amenities. However, the result shows that there is statistically weak relationship between location of ICT firms and existence of consumer amenities, but this relationship is generally not detected for firms in other sectors. Moreover, the most significant finding of this thesis is that there is a tendency for ICT firms to locate close to and concentrated in downtown cores. As a result, the findings demonstrate that the agglomeration factor in ICT firms’ location decision is more important than the existence of consumer amenities in the place. This study concludes by suggesting that municipalities and their local economic development specialists wanting to attract regional economic growth to better understand and focus on the determinant elements of location decision by ICT firms.

Despite the volume of literature examining the role of producer amenities (e.g., highways and airports) in firms’ selection of a location, almost no quantitative studies regard the impact of consumer amenities (e.g., theatres and cafes) in attracting firms, as they are hypothesized to attract residents rather than firms or companies. Since the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector is regarded as a significant driver and an increasingly important part of the economy in North American and European countries, this research aims to provide insight into the importance of consumer amenities in the location pattern of companies in this sector. Consumer amenities are stated to be important factors in the lifestyle of creative and talented workers such as employees of high-tech industries (Florida, 2003); therefore, this study hypothesizes that ICT firms tend to locate near consumer amenities as they are assumed to be attractive to the talented and highly educated workers that those firms want to employ. ICT firms, because of their size and use, can also be integrated into existing land use, such as downtown where there are lots of amenities. Industrial uses would be more likely to locate near highways because of their land requirements. This thesis looks at a broad pattern as an exploratory study to see if there is a location pattern between consumer amenities and ICT firms’ location. Using census data from Canadian industries, this thesis focuses on exploring a spatial pattern for distribution of ICT companies, both with regards to amenities and the location of firms in other industries. In doing so, information of 66,078 firms that operate in Vancouver and their associated data were obtained from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Business Database. A walkability index is also developed that represents the amenity variable. The findings of this study suggest that ICT firms are more likely to be found in areas with a high concentration of consumer amenities. However, the result shows that there is statistically weak relationship between location of ICT firms and existence of consumer amenities, but this relationship is generally not detected for firms in other sectors. Moreover, the most significant finding of this thesis is that there is a tendency for ICT firms to locate close to and concentrated in downtown cores. As a result, the findings demonstrate that the agglomeration factor in ICT firms’ location decision is more important than the existence of consumer amenities in the place. This study concludes by suggesting that municipalities and their local economic development specialists wanting to attract regional economic growth to better understand and focus on the determinant elements of location decision by ICT firms.

Studying the spatial distribution and redistribution of population has long been a major concern of demography, because population changes can reflect deep and massive social changes. For decades, the major population change was the moving of people from rural to urban regions. However, with the advancement of transportation and information technology, many new regions have become more attractive to people, such as small and new metropolitan, nonmetropolitan, suburban, and rural areas. Traditional migration and population redistribution studies emphasize economic and social factors. Relatively little attention is paid to how natural amenities and transportation affect changes of population size and net migration. Using data from various sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau, National Land Cover Database, United States Department of Agriculture, National Transportation Atlas Database, and Air Carrier Activity Information System, this dissertation examines the roles of natural amenities and transportation in explaining population change and the net migration rate from 2000 to 2010 in the United States at the county level. Spatial regression models are used to treat spatial dependence and investigate relationships between variables and their neighboring values. Results show that population growth is higher in counties with higher natural-amenity-ranking values, regardless of whether those counties are in metropolitan or nonmetropolitan areas. However, natural-amenity-ranking values only positively affect net migration rates in nonmetropolitan counties. Forest coverage only positively affects population change and the net migration rate in nonmetropolitan counties. Land developability is negatively associated with population change in nonmetropolitan counties. Man-made amenities are negatively associated with population change and the net migration rate in both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Population growth and the net migration rate are higher in counties characterized by greater airport accessibility. Highway density is positively associated with population change in nonmetropolitan counties only. This dissertation illustrates the importance of natural amenities, forest coverage, land developability, highway density, and airport accessibility as correlates of population growth in America, especially in nonmetropolitan counties.

Stadsutvecklingsprojekt är ofta stora, komplexa och sker under lång tid. Vid utvecklingen av nya stadsdelar sker byggnationen ofta i etapper vilket kan resultera i ytor som saknar ett aktivt syfte. Vissa aktörer har däremot valt att tillfälligt använda dessa ytor i syfte att åstadkomma ett sorts värdeskapande, parallellt med stadsutvecklingen. Genom att tillfälligt upprätta allmänna attribut, och att i vissa fall även arbeta med placemaking, vill aktörerna skapa attraktiva platser som tillför värde för både boende och besökare i stadsdelen. Tidigare studier har inte undersökt tillfälliga attribut och deras effekter vid utvecklingen av nya stadsdelar. Eftersom tillfälliga attribut anläggs parallellt med stadsutvecklingen är det av intresse att undersöka motiven och effekterna dessa attribut har på området i dess helhet. Syftet med studiens är därmed att utveckla en förståelse för varför allmänna attribut tillfälligt anläggs i nya stadsdelar. Studien syftar även till att kartlägga hur utvalda aktörer arbetar med tillfälligt anlagda attribut samt vilka värden aktörerna vill skapa med hjälp av dessa. Studiens resultat baseras på intervjuer med tolv branschrepresentanter. Resultaten visar på att både kommuner och byggaktörer tillfälligt anlägger olika allmänna attribut i nya stadsdelar, däremot i en varierande omfattning. Författarna presenterar idéen att allmänna attribut kan delas in i två kategorier utifrån hur viktiga och vanligt förekommande de är i nya stadsdelar. I arbetet klassificeras dessa kategorier som nödvändiga attribut samt bonus-attribut. Motiven till att anlägga tillfälliga attribut är för att det vid tidpunkten ej går att anlägga dem permanent. Samtidigt behöver både kommuner och byggaktörer tillgodose boendes behov av allmänna platser redan från första inflytt och göra stadsdelen både levande och trygg. Tidigare studier visar på att det i befintliga stadsdelar finns en betalningsvilja för att från sin bostad ha närhet till permanenta allmänna attribut. Resultaten i den här studien visar på att både byggaktörer och kommuner anser att detta även gäller i nya stadsdelar, oavsett om attributen är permanenta eller tillfälliga. Slutligen lyfts placemaking fram som en användbar metod för att möjliggöra att ytterligare värde skapas från de anlagda attributen. Genom att skapa mer värde blir stadsdelen attraktivare och efterfrågan på bostäder i stadsdelen kan öka ytterligare. / Urban development projects are often large, complex and takes a long time to be completed. In these large development projects, the project is often divided into different stages, which can result in unused spaces. Some actors have begun using these unused spaces in order to parallel with the development create value. By building temporary amenities, and in some cases working with placemaking, the actors aim to create attractive places that bring value for the inhabitants and visitors in the city district. Earlier studies have not looked at how temporary amenities impact and affect urban development projects. It is therefore interesting to research the motives and effect of these amenities in the city district. The aim for this study is to create a better understanding of why these temporary amenities are being built in urban development projects, and what value they are deemed to bring to the project and the actors who build them. The study also reaches out to some selected actors and maps what kind of temporary amenities, if any, they have worked with and what values these amenities create. The results of the study are based on interviews with twelve industry representatives. The result indicates that both construction clients and municipalities both use temporary amenities in large urban development projects, but to a varying degree. The authors claim the amenities can be categorized into two types, necessary-amenities and bonus-amenities, based on how important and commonly occurring they are. The motive to build temporary amenities is that it is simply not possible to build the amenities in a permanent manner at the time. But even though it is not possible to build permanent amenities the municipality and construction clients still need to accommodate early inhabitants and create good conditions for a safe and vibrant living environment. Earlier studies have concluded that permanent amenities raise the willingness to pay resulting in a higher price. This study also acknowledges that construction clients and municipalities also deem this true in new development projects, whether the amenities are permanent or temporary. Lastly, placemaking is recognized as a method to further create value of the built amenities in the city district, and that this can further increase the value amenities create and make the amenities even more desired for potential customers, and thus increase the demand on housing in the urban development project even further.

Location-specific amenities have been shown to play an increasingly important role in individual migration decisions. The role certain amenities play in the location decisions of the highly educated may be the cause of persistent regional differences in certain types of human capital, and consequently in regional productivity. This dissertation examines the determinants of the location decisions of new Ph.D. recipients in science and engineering (S&E). A discrete choice random utility model of the city location decisions of new Ph.D.s is developed to estimate preferences for city attributes as well as willingness to pay for improved amenity quality. By estimating the value Ph.D.s place on various urban amenities, the results of this research help inform policymakers as to their ability (or inability) to attract and retain highly educated workers to their region through public investment in amenity quality. To link the choice of city with the geographic attributes of cities, a unique micro dataset is used which reports the planned employment city location of S&E Ph.D. recipients in the U.S. at the time of degree. The primary data comes from the 1997-1999 Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), administered by Science Resources Statistics of the National Science Foundation. The SED is given to all new doctorate recipients in the U.S. at or near the time of degree, and has a response rate over 90%. The application focuses on approximately 23,000 new Ph.D.s who received their degree in one of twelve S&E fields during the period 1997-1999, and who had made a definite commitment to an employer in a known U.S. metropolitan area. The results consistently suggest that natural amenities, such as summer or winter temperatures, play a larger role in the location decisions of new S&E Ph.D.s than reproducible amenities, such as crime or air quality. The implication is that policymakers have only a limited ability to improve the composition of their workforce through amenity investment. The results also indicate that the influence of amenities on location choice is related to a number of observable characteristics such as age, race, marital status, citizenship, and Ph.D.s’ previous migration behavior.

No description available.

The past literature suggest that transportation can impact quality of life (QOL) both directly and indirectly. The first part of this dissertation attempted to comprehensively evaluate the impact of transportation (specifically public transit, and walkability) along with physical built environment, and sociodemographic indicators on community QOL, and overall life satisfaction (OLS) of an individual living in his community. The study used an advanced technique of structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the impact of these factors on community QOL and individual’s OLS. The study results revealed that physical built environment, public transit need for a community, perceived public transit importance for a community, quality of public transit services, quality of walkability conditions, ease of travel in a community (mobility indicator), and sociodemographic indicators significantly impact community QOL, and also individual’s OLS either directly or indirectly through community QOL mediating variable. The literature review suggests that accessibility to important non-work amenities improve people’s QOL. So, it is important to examine social equity in terms of individual’s ability to access non-work amenities that are important for their daily life interests. The second part of dissertation focused on equity analysis in terms of people’s ability to access non-work amenities through public transit, and walk in the US. The non-work amenities considered in this study are: 1) grocery store or supermarket, 2) personal services, 3) other retail shopping, (4) recreation and entertainment, and (5) health care facility. It is concluded that equity in terms of public transit access to non-work amenities is regressive for the older age people, people without driving license, individuals who are covered under Medicare/Medicaid program (elderly, low income, people with disabilities), and non-metro area residents disadvantaged groups. In terms of walk access to non-work amenities, it is concluded that older age people, people without driving license, physically disable people, unemployed and students, people living in non-metro areas, and females face injustice. These groups are already disadvantaged in society because of their financial, and physical health constraints and should be having sufficient and easy public transit and walk access to their daily needs.

The township in the South African context is a unique consequence of Apartheid spatial planning. Envisaged as settlements for black labourers on the outskirts of the city, they have become home to many South Africans. Mamelodi was established as an effectively designed township for labourers working in Pretoria, and grew at an exponential rate, leading to a sizeable demand for housing. A mass provision of housing was implemented then and, post 1994 to meet this demand. The same strategy of housing is still continuing through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). This provision of housing has not been complimented by a provision of public amenities and has led to monotonous neighbourhoods filled with housing and no public space. The ever growing community of Lusaka, in the east of Mamelodi, is a community with a landscape of housing without public amenities and public spaces. This neighbourhood has large amounts of people moving in and out, with some people seeing it as a place of permanence and some as a temporary detour. This influx of people and the duality of temporality and permanence creates a very dynamic society, one that the current architecture cannot respond to. The new architecture has to address the above mentioned issues, providing the community with access to public amenities and public spaces that add value to their environment. The solutions derived can be discussed and used to address similar problems plaguing townships around South Africa. / Informele nedersettings in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks is 'n unieke gevolg van Apartheid se ruimtelike beplanning. Oorspronklik in die vooruitsig gestel as nedersettings vir swart arbeiders het hulle 'n tuiste vir baie Suid-Afrikaners geword. Mamelodi was gestig as 'n effektief ontwerpde informele nedersetting vir arbeiders wat werk in Pretoria en het teen 'n eksponensi?le koers gegroei wat gelei het tot 'n groot aanvraag vir behuising. 'n Massa voorsiening van behuising was toe en n? 1994 ge?mplementeer om hierdie aanvraag te voorsien. Dieselfde strategie van behuising word steeds voortgesit deur die Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Hierdie behuisingsvoorsiening was nog nie aangevul deur 'n voorsiening van openbare geriewe nie en het gelei tot eentonige woonbuurte wat gevul is met behuising en geen openbare ruimte. Die steeds groeiende gemeenskap van Lusaka, in die ooste van Mamelodi, is 'n gemeenskap met 'n landskap van behuising sonder openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes. Hierdie woonbuurt het groot getalle mense wat in en uit beweeg, met sommige mense wat dit sien as 'n plek van blywendheid en ander as 'n tydelike ompad. Hierdie instroming van mense en die dualiteit van tydelikheid en blywendheid skep 'n baie dinamiese samelewing, een wat die huidiglike argitektuur nie op kan reageer nie. Die nuwe argitektuur moet die bogenoemde kwessies aanspreek om die gemeenskap toegang te bied tot openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes wat waarde toevoeg tot hulle omgewing . Deur dit te doen kan die oplossings wat afgelei is bespreek en gebruik word om soortgelyke kwessies aan te spreek wat informele nedersettings regoor Suid-Afrika teister. Argitektuur is vir die mense / Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Architecture / MArch (Prof) / Unrestricted

This thesis investigates how a closure of a maternity ward affects the moves intoand out of a municipality. The policy focus of a centralization of maternal care in Sweden may bring unseen consequences that matter for society in a larger sense than only births. By treating closeness to a maternity ward as a positive amenity for a municipality, these closures introduce an exogenous variation that is used to estimate how moves change over time. With the lack of data availability, utilizing Sweden’s administrative areas, the lack of data over amenities as well as other factors such as employment possibilities are compensated for, revealing the possibility of using similar areas as potential substitutes for amenities. The results indicate that closures are likely to introduce a lower mobility for the regions as both fewer moves in and fewer moves out are revealed in the estimates. The results are strongly significant, a one minute increase of travel time would be associated with a decrease of around 3 moves in and 2.7 moves out. These results are mostly robust, and findings suggest north and south of Sweden are fundamentally different.

No description available.