As the problem of urban-rural inequality in China becomes increasingly severe, urban-rural integration has become a hot topic among both researchers and policymakers. However, to achieve urban-rural integration faces the challenges from dualism in institutional arrangements, diversity in territorial contexts, and uncertainty in development environments. In response to these challenges, this research employs the idea of ‘economic linkages of small towns’ to develop a rural-centred, place-based, and process-oriented approach towards urban-rural integration. This research examines the functions, patterns, and dynamics of economic linkages of small towns under the wider economic-spatial restructuring process brought by rapid economic growth and urbanisation in China. More specifically, this research explores the implications of small towns’ economic linkages for integrated development of urban and rural areas. Based on the idea of ‘problem-solving’, this research develops the conceptual framework of ‘Learning-based Territorial Economic System (TES)’ which includes ‘knowledge system’, ‘organisational system’, and ‘territorial system’. This conceptual framework conceptualises ‘economic linkages’ as interactions between economic actors who participated in various ‘interactive situations’ in solving local development problems. This research carried out two case studies of successful small town and rural development in Kunshan, Jiangsu and Shunde, Guangdong. The empirical findings demonstrate that economic linkages are crucial in identifying local development problems, getting access to key economic resources, and coordinating economic activities in uncertain circumstances. Based on the empirical findings, this research develops two development models of Learning-based TES – the Kunshan Model and the Shunde Model – as coherent systems of economic linkages in problem-solving processes. Explicitly, the Kunshan Model features interactive situations of competitive positioning, elite coalition-building, and synchronised operation and the Shunde Model features interactive situations of reflective monitoring, skill matching, and communicative mediation. In application of these two development models, this research formulates a ‘3-step formula’ as key policy implication, including assessment, experiment, and institutionalisation. Such ‘3-step formula’ can contribute to build up local problem-solving capacities that lead to more substantial urban-rural integration.

Les montagnes Uporoto sont un territoire agricole densément peuplé dont les conditions environnementales permettent la production d’une gamme variée de cultures à destination des marchés urbains nationaux. Située à 1700 m d’altitude, à la périphérie sud-ouest de la Tanzanie, la ville de Mbeya compte environ 400 000 habitants. Elle est la métropole régionale et la porte d’entrée pour les pays enclavés de la sous-région. La ville de Mbeya et les Uporoto sont des entités entre l’urbain et le rural et entre plusieurs échelles géographiques. La fonction d’échange prédomine, elle s’appuie sur l’essor d’un modèle agricole basé sur les cultures alimentaires commerciales. A travers une approche systémique, ce travail géographique montre comment le développement agricole et l’urbanisation sont imbriqués et produisent les causes et les effets de leurs dynamiques. Le propos s’organise en quatre parties et neuf chapitres qui analysent comment l’émergence d’un modèle d’intégration fondé sur de nouvelles cultures commerciales, reposant sur un réseau de marchés et sur la complexité des flux, produit un système qui redéfinit la montagne et sa place dans le territoire. La cohésion du système montagnard est fondée sur les complémentarités à l’intérieur du massif et entre ce dernier et les basses terres, elle est imprégnée de logiques commerciales qui renforcent la dépendance des Uporoto vis-à-vis du marché. Cette thèse propose que l’organisation extravertie du système montagnard participe à une fragmentation du massif et à une intégration défaillante au territoire national. / The Uporoto Mountains are highly populated agricultural lands whose environmental conditions allow the production of a wide range of crops which feeds various national urban markets in Tanzania and its neighboring countries. Located at 1700 m above sea level, on the south-western outskirts of Tanzania, Mbeya City has about 400,000 inhabitants. It is the regional center and the business gateway to the landlocked countries of the sub-region. Mbeya City and Uporoto are entities which are located between urban and rural areas and between different geographical scales. The exchange function predominates, it leans on the development of an agricultural model based on commercial food crops. Through a systemic approach, this study shows how geographic agricultural development and urbanization are interwoven and produce the causes and effects of their dynamics. The thesis is organized into four parts and nine chapters that analyze how the emergence of an integration model based on new food-cash crops, based on a network of markets and on the complexity of the flows, produces a system that redefines the mountain and its place in the territory. The cohesion of the mountain system is based on the complementarities within the mountain and between the latter and the lowlands; it is characterized with commercial logics that reinforce dependences of the Uporoto towards the market. This thesis proposes that the outgoing organization of the mountain system contributes to its fragmentation and to a failing integration nationwide.

In the construction industry, the relationship between clients and contractors has been usually characterized by uncertainty and adversarial behaviour. More recently, their relationship is said to be changing from a traditional and arms-length basis to more collaborative forms, e.g. partnering. There is evidence that such collaborative forms can have a substantial impact on project performance, not only with regard to time, cost and quality objectives, but also with regard to more general outcomes, e.g. greater innovation and improved user satisfaction. However, such benefits are less well understood due to limited research and in particular an absence of robust and appropriate methods of evaluation. The purpose of this research is to address this shortfall and seek to evaluate these wider aspects of project performance relative to different degrees of collaborative working. To achieve this, collaborative working and project performance first need to be transformed into a measurable form by breaking them down into a variety of attributes or indicators. Surrounding these attributes/indicators, item statements are developed and a Likert Scale is then adopted for questionnaire design. Questionnaires were mainly administered by semi-structured interviews in which the client and contractor from the same project were invited to evaluate their collaborative working and the corresponding project performance. After unidimensionality and reliability testing for the composite measures, the response difference between client and contractor group is explored through conducting paired samples t-test. Subsequently, cluster analysis is conducted to produce a taxonomy of collaborative working and correlation and regression analysis are conducted to explore the associations between collaborative working and project performance. The final conclusion strongly supports the existence of a strong positive linear relationship between collaborative working and project performance, provides valuable regression formulas to make project performance predictions and gives a more precise classification of collaborative working to help reduce the confusion over its definitions in a novel way.

The success of any public-private partnership (PPP) project in a country is largely dependent on the country’s maturity on critical success factors (CSFs) that made PPP projects successful. Thus, identification of metrics and standards for measuring the maturity of stakeholder organisations on CSFs for PPP projects implementation remains a challenge. Though studies on CSFs for PPP projects abound, approaches of using CSFs to develop PPP process maturity received scarce attention. Against this backdrop, this research becomes imperative to create efficient and transparent operational strategies with a view to using CSFs to develop process maturity for stakeholder organisations in PPP projects in Nigeria. Data for the research were obtained through mixed methods approach namely: quantitative and qualitative approaches. Questionnaires were administered on five different stakeholder organisations comprised public sector authorities (i.e. ministries, department, and agencies), concessionaires, local lenders/banks, consultants, and contractors involved in different PPP projects implementation in Nigeria. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Also, the qualitative approach was conducted through an expert forum and six PPP infrastructure project case studies in Lagos metropolis, Nigeria. The expert forum was constituted to refine and verify the conceptual framework developed. Also, structured interviews were conducted with primary stakeholders in the six PPP infrastructure project case studies in the study area. The research identified fourteen CSFs that made PPP infrastructure projects successful in Nigeria. These CSFs were employed for capability maturity levels definition ranging from level 1(Ad hoc) to level 5(Optimising) in accordance to Capability Maturity Model (CMM) concept. This led to the development of stakeholder organisations capability enhancement framework (SOCEF) in PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria. The framework was validated by PPP experts to ensure it is comprehensive, objective, practical, replicable, reliable, and suitable for use in Nigeria. Thus, a quantitative assessment tool was developed with the framework in assessing the current capability maturity levels of stakeholder organisations involved in PPP infrastructure projects on fourteen CSFs identified in this research. The findings revealed that public sector organisations were between maturity level 1 and maturity level 2 (out of 5 maturity levels) on CSFs applicable to them. The majority of the private sector organisations were in maturity level 2 on CSFs associated with them. It is established in this research that Nigeria’s maturity is between maturity level 1 and maturity level 2 (out of 5 maturity levels) on CSFs that made PPP infrastructure projects successful. The findings emanated from this research provided both the theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge. The theoretical contributions include the methodology for developing capability maturity levels in PPPs, new insights into the usefulness of CSFs in PPP projects, and contributed to the wider body of knowledge of process improvement in the construction industry at large. The practical contributions are the capability level definitions and enhancement framework for PPP practice, and the specific CSFs for PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria. The framework developed in this research had provided the benchmark for the identification of methodical approach and standard to process improvement in PPP infrastructure projects in Nigeria. It is believed that the framework would provide a useful guide and roadmaps for improvement by indicating ‘what’ needs to be done by stakeholder organisations involved in PPP projects in achieving higher capability maturity levels on identified CSFs for PPP projects in Nigeria and developing countries at large. Thus, the framework could be used to benchmark future studies.

Land use regulations are typically established as a response to development activity. For effective growth management and habitat preservation, the opposite should occur. This study considers tree preservation ordinances of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area as a means of evaluating development regulation in a metropolitan context. It documents the impact urban cores have on regulations and policies throughout their region, demonstrating that the same urban-rural gradient used to describe physical components of our metropolitan areas also holds true in terms of policy formation. Although sophistication of land use regulation generally dissipates as one moves away from an urban core, native habitat is more pristine at the outer edges. To more effectively protect native habitat, regional preservation measures are recommended.

Objective: Screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) can reduce disease incidence, morbidity, and mortality. However, few studies have investigated the urban-rural differences in social and behavioral factors influencing CRC screening. The objective of the study was to investigate the potential factors across urban-rural groups on the usage of CRC screening. Methods: A total of 38,505 adults (aged ≥40 years) were selected from the 2009 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) data - the latest CHIS data on CRC screening. The weighted generalized linear mixed-model (WGLIMM) was used to deal with this hierarchical structure data. Weighted simple and multiple mixed logistic regression analyses in SAS ver. 9.4 were used to obtain the odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: The overall prevalence of CRC screening was 48.1% while the prevalence in four residence groups - urban, second city, suburban, and town/rural, were 45.8%, 46.9%, 53.7% and 50.1%, respectively. The results of WGLIMM analysis showed that there was residence effect (p < 0.0001) and residence groups had significant interactions with gender, age group, education level, and employment status (p < 0.05). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that age, race, marital status, education level, employment stats, binge drinking, and smoking status were associated with CRC screening (p < 0.05). Stratified by residence regions, age and poverty level showed associations with CRC screening in all four residence groups. Education level was positively associated with CRC screening in second city and suburban. Infrequent binge drinking was associated with CRC screening in urban and suburban; while current smoking was a protective factor in urban and town/rural groups. Conclusions: Mixed models are useful to deal with the clustered survey data. Social factors and behavioral factors (binge drinking and smoking) were associated with CRC screening and the associations were affected by living areas such as urban and rural regions.

Many North Americans have been moving to exurbia --low density, rural housing within the commuting range of urban areas. It has been assumed that employment is a major link. of exurban households with urban areas. It has been assumed that employment is a major link. of exurban households with urban areas. This analysis of exurban commuting patterns is based on a mail survey of 1408 households who bought homes in 1987 near Portland, Oregon. The bid-rent model of urban form predicts that exurbanites will trade-off long commutes for lower housing prices. But previous research suggests that exurban living may not require long commutes because of decentralized employment. The study finds that exurban commuters travel farther than suburban commuters and pay less for housing. Exurban home buyers do not, however, have longer commutes the farther out they live. Instead those with urban jobs generally locate closer to the city center than those with decentralized jobs. The commuting times of exurban principal wage earners are also influenced by occupation, flextime use, and by the presence and employment status of other adults in the household. The commuting times of exurban secondary wage earners are influenced by the number of hours they work, their mode of travel, and the number of children they have. Although most exurban home buyers moved to obtain a bigger lot and a more rural environment, there were many differences among households. Four types of exurban households were identified with cluster analysis. Only the Child-Raising households take full advantage of decentralized jobs to live in rural areas without longer commutes than suburbanites. In contrast, Long-Distance Commuters travel nearly twice the average time because they usually hold urban jobs and want large, but inexpensive, lots. Affluents also hold many urban jobs but can afford larger lots closer-in than others. The Economy-Minded commute average distances to obtain cheaper housing on smaller lots. This study improves understanding of the exurban development process. The study also finds that the bid-rent model of urban form is a useful theory for understanding exurban development despite the decentralization of employment and the predominance of two wage earner households.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第19160号 / 地環博第135号 / 新制||地環||27(附属図書館) / 32111 / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎環境マネジメント専攻 / (主査)教授 ｼｮｳ ﾗｼﾞﾌﾞ, 教授 岡﨑 健二, 准教授 西前 出 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

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