This study is based on identifying and analysing the problems which arise from suburban expansion into the urban fringe; and on suggesting certain policy measures which could serve as a basis for directing development in such a way as to avoid these problems. The urban fringe is recognized as the contact zone between the city and the countryside. As such, it experiences the major development forces which arise from the growth of the metropolitan population. It is characterised by change and instability; which are reflected in unrealistic land values, speculative land holding, and unproductive use of much of the land. As suburban development encroaches into this zone, so the forces which precede it reach further out into the countryside. Many fringe areas comprise prime farmland and, in some instances, the environmental characteristics of the l and are scenically attractive and offer great opportunities for meeting the outdoor recreational needs of the metropolitan population. The threat to these attributes. constitutes the major problem associated with suburban expansion.

Due to their location on the urban fringe, many historically agricultural counties face development pressure from a spreading urban core. These local communities must contend with often conflicting objectives of providing economic development opportunities while at the same time protecting their county's natural resources. Land conservation policies incentivize landowners to keep land identified as critical environmental resources in their natural state. In this project, we analyze property-level administrative data to evaluate whether land conservation policies and neighbor land use patterns affect the probability of land parcel development. We find some evidence of the contagion effect and that the county's acknowledgment of Priority Conservation areas impacts development motivation. / Master of Science / Communities on the "urban fringe," the transitional area where the town meets the county, are experiencing strong pressures to develop. The population has moved from the city center towards the suburbs for quieter, safer neighborhoods, better schools, and more outdoor amenities. Localities manage this growth while protecting their resources, such as natural land, by implementing conservation policies/preservation guidelines. In this project, we utilize data from Powhatan County to evaluate whether local conservation efforts and land use patterns affect the probability of land development. This is an important topic as local officials work to manage land resources where the development of the county's most valuable land would be difficult, if possible, to reverse.

N/A / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA)

This research presents an attempt to geolocate postmodern urban development within Canadian urban space using changes in the form and structure of the rural-urban fringe areas as a diagnostic tool. The main argument presented herein is that conceptualizations of postmodern urban form and structure, and particularly their treatment in the urban geographic literature, mask the high level of diversity occurring across the Canadian urban hierarchy. A two-stage methodology linking the models describing postmodern urban form and structure found in the North American geographic literature with the theoretical contributions dealing with factors and forces of urban development is employed. First, investigation of the current patterns of differentiation of the urban social space in Canadian metropolitan areas is conducted. This stage of the analysis is informed by a structural approach to urban geography and carried out by means of factorial ecology. A typology of Canadian rural-urban fringe CSDs is developed using data from 1991 and 1996 censuses of population. Second, two indicators of functional relationships existing between urban fringe and urban core areas the geographic extent of personal networks of individuals and the activity spaces of households are investigated in the exemplar rural-urban fringe CSDs. This stage of the analysis is informed by propositions of structuration theory, although it remained compositional with regards to the main focus of analysis. The results of this research suggest that models of postmodern urban form and structure, which have developed in the context of the recent socio-economic restructuring taking place in the United States, do not adequately describe the situation in Canada. While the current context of urban development in Canada shows certain similarities to that in the United States, it also exhibits some unique features that have important implications for the urban development. Variation in urban form and structure in Canada appears to follow two axes the regional location of metropolitan areas and their positions within the national urban hierarchy. Although Canada exhibits a strong spatial differentiation into heartland and hinterland regions, no shift in focus of the socio-economic space comparable to that of the American Frostbelt-Sunbelt dichotomy is observed here. The majority of rural-urban fringe areas that have elements of postmodern form and structure were found at the top of the urban hierarchy and in the region that has historically been the economic and political core of Canada. Urban areas positioned in the middle of the urban hierarchy appear to have a monocentric structure with a significant degree of centrality.

This research presents an attempt to geolocate postmodern urban development within Canadian urban space using changes in the form and structure of the rural-urban fringe areas as a diagnostic tool. The main argument presented herein is that conceptualizations of postmodern urban form and structure, and particularly their treatment in the urban geographic literature, mask the high level of diversity occurring across the Canadian urban hierarchy. A two-stage methodology linking the models describing postmodern urban form and structure found in the North American geographic literature with the theoretical contributions dealing with factors and forces of urban development is employed. First, investigation of the current patterns of differentiation of the urban social space in Canadian metropolitan areas is conducted. This stage of the analysis is informed by a structural approach to urban geography and carried out by means of factorial ecology. A typology of Canadian rural-urban fringe CSDs is developed using data from 1991 and 1996 censuses of population. Second, two indicators of functional relationships existing between urban fringe and urban core areas the geographic extent of personal networks of individuals and the activity spaces of households are investigated in the exemplar rural-urban fringe CSDs. This stage of the analysis is informed by propositions of structuration theory, although it remained compositional with regards to the main focus of analysis. The results of this research suggest that models of postmodern urban form and structure, which have developed in the context of the recent socio-economic restructuring taking place in the United States, do not adequately describe the situation in Canada. While the current context of urban development in Canada shows certain similarities to that in the United States, it also exhibits some unique features that have important implications for the urban development. Variation in urban form and structure in Canada appears to follow two axes the regional location of metropolitan areas and their positions within the national urban hierarchy. Although Canada exhibits a strong spatial differentiation into heartland and hinterland regions, no shift in focus of the socio-economic space comparable to that of the American Frostbelt-Sunbelt dichotomy is observed here. The majority of rural-urban fringe areas that have elements of postmodern form and structure were found at the top of the urban hierarchy and in the region that has historically been the economic and political core of Canada. Urban areas positioned in the middle of the urban hierarchy appear to have a monocentric structure with a significant degree of centrality.

This thesis is concerned with analytical and technical capability in using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and spatial analysis as relevant to the policy challenge of urban fringe management, taking as a case study the Seoul Metropolitan Region Perimeter. The primary purpose of this study is to analyse land use change using the tools of GIS and Spatial Analysis as a spatial decision support system for the task of managing the fragmented development of the urban fringe caused by the policy changes introduced by the Korean government in 1994. The case study analysed in this research shows whether GIS and spatial analysis can be applied to manage and monitor land use change in the urban fringe area at a very detailed level using municipal parcel data which occupies about 80% of administrative affairs, especially at the local government level in Korea. The major determinants of land use change in the study area have been investigated in an attempt to enhance the knowledge of how to provide decision support information for local government in Korea using GIS and spatial analysis. The results of the analysis represent the distribution of land use change from 1994 to 1998, the distribution of parcels with more than 50% of their neighbours in urban use and the transition probability of land use within a GIS, etc. The analysis using GIS and spatial analysis proved to be effective ones when providing the information base for modelling land use change in the urban fringe of the Seoul Metropolitan Region in Korea, to enable informed decisions to be made about land management policies in such areas. The lesson which could be drawn from this study is that a GIS and spatial analysis capacity is quite useful for local government to understand where and why land use change is concentrated, how the pattern of land use has changed, and which areas are susceptible to land use change. This study represented the results of analysis as a map, showed the significant patterns of land use change in the study area, displayed the relationship between neighbouring land use and the pattern of land use change, and suggested the transition probability of land use in the urban fringe in the future. Better understanding of the results may enhance the capability of local government to predict future land use change dynamics and devise more effective land use management strategies. This study brings a new approach to understanding the evolution of development patterns using the methods of combining spatial statistical analysis techniques with GIS application at site level.

The objective of this study was to investigate the application of multiscale satellite remote sensing data for assessment of land cover change in the rural-urban fringe. Inherent in this assessment process was the interpretation of multispectral data collected by several medium resolution satellite systems and evaluation of the quality of the resulting change information. Each dataset was acquired for a single date and classified at two levels of detail using standard classification algorithms. The optimum classification approach for each date was identified and the changes in land cover evaluated in several ways. The contribution of spatial and thematic errors and their propagation through the analysis process was investigated.Data for this research were acquired over an area approximately 4.5 km square located in the southern metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. At the time of the initial data acquisition in 1972 the area was predominantly rural and comprised mostly dense pine plantations, however by the final stages of data acquisition in 1991, the area was almost completely given over to urban residential land use. Changes were interpreted from classified Landsat Multispectral Scanner (MSS), Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT (System Pour l'Observation de la Terre) High Resolution Visible (HRV) multispectral data, and were compared to reference maps compiled from medium scale aerial photographs. The geometric properties of high resolution panchromatic IRS1-D data were also evaluated to test the geometric potential of high resolution satellite data.Supervised and unsupervised classification algorithms were used for derivation of land cover maps from each multispectral dataset at two levels of detail. Data were classified onto four general levels at the broadest (Level I) classification, and into nine levels at the finest (Level II) classification. The ++ / Kappa statistic and its variance were used to determine the optimum classification approach for each dataset and at each level of detail. No significant differences were observed between classification techniques at Level I, however at Level II the supervised classification approach produced significantly better results for the Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data. Classification at the more general Level I did not produce substantially higher classification rates compared to the same data at Level II. Additionally, higher spatial resolution data did not provide increased accuracy, however this was due mainly to a much greater complexity of land covers present at the time the higher resolution Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data were recorded.Land cover changes were assessed separately at Level I for all datasets, and also between Landsat TM and SPOT HRV data at Level II. Integrated multiscale assessment of land cover change was undertaken using classified Landsat MSS data at Level I and Landsat TM data at Level 11. This enabled the continuity of change to be established across classification levels and sensor systems, even though there were variations in the level of detail extracted from each image.The sources of spatial and thematic errors in the data were investigated and their effects on change assessment analysed. The evaluation of high resolution panchromatic satellite data emphasised the contribution to the analysis of spatial errors contained within the reference data. The multiscale data also indicated that combined propagation of spatial and thematic errors requires investigation using appropriate simulation modelling to establish the influence of data uncertainty on classification and change assessment results.This research provides useful results for demonstrating a process for the integration of information derived from remotely sensed data at different measurement ++ / scales. Availability of data from an increasing range of remote sensing platforms and uncertainty of long term data availability emphasises the need to develop flexible interpretation and analysis approaches. This research adds value to the existing data archive by demonstrating how historical data may be integrated regardless of the spectral and spatial characteristics of the sensors.

As urban areas continue to expand into rural areas the world is experiencing a loss of productive agricultural land and diminishing natural habitats and associated ecosystems. The space where urban meets rural is known as the rural-urban fringe and what happens in these areas ultimately determines urban development patterns. Despite being such an important area, the rural-urban fringe is poorly understood and is often described as a “blurry” space – blurry in land patterns because it is where multiple uses collide and in how individuals interact in this space (since actors with often diverse opinions on how land should be used coexist there). Furthermore, there is no single body of scholarly literature that explains why and how decisions get made in rural-urban fringe areas. This thesis contributes to filling this gap in literature by helping to (i) understand and explain decision-making processes at the rural-urban fringe; (ii) create an analytical framework for understanding decision-making dynamics at the rural-urban fringe within two UNESCO Biosphere Reserves: the Cape Winelands Biosphere Reserve, South Africa and the Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve, Canada; and (iii) construct a theory of decision-making for better outcomes at the rural-urban fringe. The analytical framework is divided into two parts with components drawn from problem-solving (including governance and management) and critical (critical political economy and resilience) theories. The premise is that each part contributes to a holistic understanding that they cannot accomplish on their own. The analytical framework is used as the analytical platform for consideration of the research data and is the basis on which the thesis’ theoretical contribution is built. Specifically, each case study is first examined within the context of existing governance and management processes. This reveals the character of key issues and dynamics and the resulting policy responses. The cases are then located within the broader analytical contexts of critical political economy and resilience. This reveals the historical and structural dynamics often overlooked or neglected in problem-solving approaches. The thesis reveals that in both case studies, government policy notwithstanding, decision-making within the rural-urban fringe is primarily determined by neoliberal ideologies of economic development and ‘return on investment’. What emerges from the application of the analytical framework to the two case studies is a theory of decision-making for better outcomes at the rural-urban fringe wherein "better" means a process for achieving outcomes in line with the stated goals of policies and plans, generally framed by the idea of sustainable development. The theory asserts that effective decision-making for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable outcomes at the rural-urban fringe requires six conditions to be in place: (1) sufficient economic resources; (2) adequate knowledge; (3) forgiving time scale; (4) capable state; (5) robust legal structure; (6) favorable global context. All six are important though at this stage it cannot be said with absolute certainty whether better-for-all decisions may emerge in the absence of one or more of these conditions. This theory makes a meaningful contribution to the scholarship on the rural-urban fringe and advances knowledge by articulating a new integrated approach to better decision-making that addresses the explanatory weaknesses identified by this thesis for each of the five bodies of literature considered.

No abstract provided. / Thesis / Bachelor of Arts (BA) / Introduction: The study attempts to explain the geographical conditions in Westminster Township. Emphasis is placed on the relationship existing between the township and the city of London, the large metropolitan centre adjacent to it. The problem is attacked from a functional point of view. The physical geography of the township is described. However, since historical forces are recognized in any study of settlement, one chapter is devoted to historical geography. The following chapters are devoted to communications and land use patterns, both rural and urban. The thesis is changing interrelationship, between the city and the township. It shows clearly that the city does not terminate at its political boundary, but encroaches upon the adjacent rural township. The result is a change in the character of the township in the shape of an "Urban Fringe" specialized agriculture and new super imposition of communications.

The fast development of the tourism industry has created both positive and negative impacts on host communities. Reacting to these impacts, host residents hold various attitudes towards tourism and tourists. It has come to common agreement that a supportive host community plays a vital role in the successful and long-term development of community tourism. In order to explain the antecedents of community attitudes towards tourism, researchers have investigated the topic from both the extrinsic perspective (such as stage-based models) and the intrinsic perspective (such as the Social Exchange Theory). Nevertheless, there are still several important research gaps and deficiencies within the existing literature. First, the influence of psychological factors (personality) on attitudes towards tourism is somewhat neglected. Second, when examining the relationship between community attitudes towards tourism and the influential factors, the majority of previous studies do not distinguish the orthogonal dimensions of attitudes (such as positive dimension and negative dimension). Third, the existing literature has not addressed the issue of whether specific attitudes towards tourism will lead to a corresponding behaviour when interacting with tourists, and what other factors are determinant in host-guest interactive behaviour. Aiming to address such research gaps and deficiencies, this study has a major objective of developing a theoretical model (encompassing attitude element) to understand the antecedents of host-guest interaction. A quantitative approach was employed for the entire project. A self-administrated questionnaire survey was used to collect primary data. A total of 878 useful questionnaires were returned for analyses. Stratification sampling methods were utilized in communities where population database was accessible, while random sampling methods were used in other communities. The findings from this study confirmed the two major hypotheses in terms of community attitudes towards tourism. First, there was a significant relationship between an individual's personality and his/her attitudes towards tourism. Residents being high on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness traits and low on the Neuroticism trait tended to be more positive towards tourism than their counterparts. Second, while some factors were found to be influential on both positive and negative dimensions of attitudes towards tourism, others only demonstrated influences on one dimension. The Resident-Tourist Interaction Model developed in this study provided a comprehensive theoretical framework in modelling and predicting host residents' interactive behaviour towards tourists. Drawing on the evaluation results of three leading behavioural theories belonging to the school of cognition, the Model identified attitudinal, volitional, social, motivating and habitual factors for the prediction of resident-tourist interactive behaviour. Motivating factor (intention) was the critical and immediate element for action, which, in turn, was best predicted by subjective norms. External factors (gender, age and personality traits) only moderated the predictive power of the Model by less than two percent. The Model was valid and reliable for the current data. The present study advanced resident-tourist interactive behavioural study by establishing a sound theoretical framework. It also consolidated the body of knowledge in understanding community attitudes towards tourism. Findings from this study have significant practical implications for community tourism planning and management.