To increase real estate values, developers often apply designs on the land. In the case of a single family housing development, the designs are applied to the unit of subdivisions. In this study, the designs are defined as “value creation concepts,” which increase housing values at the subdivision level. The value creation concepts are classified into five categories – the sense of arrival, product mix, walkability, circulation system, and amenity. This cross-sectional study focuses on exploring the effects of value creation concepts in the subdivision. Two methodologies – the Hedonic Price Model (HPM) and the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) – are used to test whether or not the value creation concepts would increase or decrease single family housing values. The study sample is composed of 6,562 single family houses nested in 85 subdivisions in College Station, Texas. Data are composed of two levels: the housing level and the subdivision level. The scores of the sense of arrival were provided by sixtyone graduate students at Texas A&M University using photograph evaluations. Most structural variables were obtained from the Brazos County Appraisal District, and physical environmental variables were objectively measured using the Geographical Information System. In the both models, sense of arrival, greenway connectivity, sidewalk connectivity, and median length of cul-de-sac variables have positive effects on single family housing values while phased project, the number of accessible entrances, street density, single family density, and median length of block variables have negative effects on single family housing values. At the housing level, several structural variables (e.g. bathrooms, attached garage, porches, etc), attached to a golf course, sports facilities, network distance from the nearest elementary school, population density, and personal variables (i.e., tenure, workable age, employment) were significant (p<.05) predictors of single family housing value. Findings support that the value creation concepts have effects on increasing housing values at the subdivision level, which would provide thoughtful insights for developers in residential areas. In addition, the HLM can be used as the complement of the HPM by controlling interaction terms between housing variables and subdivision variables, or among the subdivision variables themselves.

L’effet du développement résidentiel des bassins versants sur l’habitat et la distribution des macrophytes dans le littoral de six lacs des Laurentides a été évalué à l’aide de carottes de sédiments et de quadrats. Le développement augmente la proportion de milieux déboisés ce qui réduit l’apport en débris de bois et augmente l’érosion et les apports de nutriments dans les sédiments du littoral. Les sédiments sont plus fins, plus denses et contiennent moins de matière organique. Ces changements favorisent les macrophytes en augmentant leur couverture dans les lacs développés. La présence d’espèces submergées de macrophytes est également favorisée au détriment des espèces à feuilles flottantes, plus caractéristiques des lacs moins développés. Même si la biomasse des macrophytes est limitée dans certains lacs, celle-ci augmente dans les lacs développés et montre des signes d’un effet tampon sur les apports de nutriments. Des quantités équivalentes à des valeurs entre 35 et 230% des apports annuels de phosphore et entre 79 et 659% des apports d’azote par les résidents ont été accumulées dans les tissus des macrophytes des lacs dont le bassin versant est très déboisé. Les sédiments s’enrichissent à la sénescence des macrophytes et contiennent alors plus de nutriments que la colonne d’eau et ce, pour tous les lacs. Une présence accrue d’espèces submergées et plus de nutriments dans les tissus des macrophytes des lacs développés, jumelés à l’absence de prolifération de phytoplancton malgré un plus grand apport de nutriments, laisse penser que les lacs des Laurentides sont en état d’eutrophisation précoce. / Effects of residential development on macrophyte habitat and distribution in the littoral zone of six lakes of the Laurentian region were assessed with quadrats and small cores. Residential development increases the proportion of open area which reduces coarse woody debris inputs and enhances erosion and nutrient inputs into the sediments. Sediments are then finer, more compact and contain less organic matter. With less important proportion of forested area in developed watersheds, nutrients inputs are then more important in sediment as well. These changes in macrophyte habitats enhance coverage of the littoral by aquatic plants in developed lakes. Submerged species are also favoured at the expense of floating species that are more typical of pristine conditions. Despite the limitation of aquatic plants biomass in some lakes, macrophyte biomass is higher in developed lakes and showed signs of a buffering effect on nutrient inputs, especially for phosphorus. Macrophyte nutrient content represented values between 35 and 230% of annual phosphorus inputs by residents on the shore of developed lakes and between 79 and 659% of the annual nitrogen inputs. Sediments are enriched by macrophytes at their senescence and therefore contain more nutrients than the water column and macrophytes for all lakes. The greater presence of submerged macrophytes, and the higher amount of nutrients in macrophytes of developed lakes combined with absence of phytoplankton blooms in spite of greater nutrient supply, suggests that Laurentian lakes are in an early stage of eutrophication.

Urban research is aware of being culturally embedded, and inability to break free from history in some cases may explain why the change goes in a particular direction. After more than 70 years of centrally planned community and isolation, present urban structures in Russia stand as arenas for the system transitions. The political and socio-economic changes of the last decades had an impact on urban structures and relations between the different levels of planning. The municipalities are now assumed to be independent in terms of decision-making and local priorities, urban programs and civic engagement procedures. While the degree of success in urban development varies between the different Russian cities, the paper studies the local planning functions as well neighborhood governance and puts the results into the soviet planning context. By using in-depth interviews, the data has been collected providing a knowledgebase of the subject across the study area. The results show both various gaps of transformation (e.g. insufficient legislature, lack of local initiative and federal guidance, marginalized master plan, poor neighborhood governance) and path-dependent system (normativism, unsuccessful civic engagement, lack of communication between different institutions, companies and publics). The discussion argues that at the national scale the issue lies in the uncompleted socio-cultural transformation, which creates a quasi-existent planning system at the local level.

The objective of the diploma project was to repurpose the area of military barracks in theresidential neighbourhood of Černá Pole in Brno. I aimed to create a new urban environment which would seamlessly blend in with the current residential housing development. Included in the given perimeter is also located a new town hall for Brno-Sever. Another of the project’s goals was to design a public place adjacent to the town hall where cultural and other events would be hold. Also, an elementary school, a kindergarten, student dormitories and a new library building and a community center can be found in the area. The rest of the perimeter consists of city blocks, of predominantly residential purpose.

Moravský Krumlov is a town on the Rokytná river in the Znojmo District in the South Moravian Region. The city with a unique panorama struggle with the separation of its individual districts and an insufficient network of pedestrian paths. The separation of the district is caused by the relief of the terrain, the river and its floodplain, as well as the part of industrial areas around the historic center. In my diploma thesis I deal with the space adjacent to the historical center, which I call the area under castle. It is bordered by the middle meander of the river Rokytná. At present, there are industrial areas that limit the movement of people between all parts of the city, prevent the use of space around the river and reduce the attractiveness of the city. In my design, I am creating a new residential development with quality public spaces. I also propose a network of pedestrian paths, which will provide good access to the area under castle and connections to other parts of the city. The project supports the concentration of inhabitants near the historic center and naturally unites the city into one functioning whole.

Who runs the development? A comparative study of the construction of residential buildings in Nacka and Södertälje. The aim of this study is to identify actors involved in the initiation and implementation of residential house construction in two Swedish municipalities. This means who is taking initiative for new residential buildings, who affects the planning process, who finances these new buildings and who builds them. By exploring empiric material from the municipalities of Nacka and Södertälje, the above questions will be answered and by referring to pluralism, growth machine theory and regime theory a link to general theories of political science is made. The results found show that the analysed municipalities have quite different possibilities for acting and that these backgrounds are also important for which actors will take initiative for new residential buildings and which actors will be allowed to state their opinion during the planning process. Due to these differences I claim that the empirical material from the two municipalities are best described by two different theories from the above mentioned.

L’accélération du processus d’urbanisation, constatée à l’échelle mondiale depuis les dernières décennies, conduit à une artificialisation progressive des milieux naturels. La construction d’infrastructures de transport ou de nouveaux bâtiments fragmente les paysages de manière irréversible et cause une réduction des habitats écologiques et de leur connectivité. Le maintien de la fonctionnalité des réseaux écologiques, s’intègre désormais dans les politiques d’aménagement du territoire ou d’urbanisme soucieuses de la préservation de la biodiversité.En se focalisant plus particulièrement sur les évolutions urbaines à l’horizon 2030 dans l’Aire Urbaine de Besançon (développement résidentiel et variations de trafic routier), cette thèse cherche à évaluer l’impact potentiel des formes d’urbanisation sur la connectivité des réseaux écologiques des espèces animales. Ce travail de recherche privilégie l’approche par la modélisation en s’inscrivant à la fois dans le champ de la géographie théorique et quantitative et de l’écologie du paysage.L’application de cette démarche se fait en trois étapes : (1) simuler le développement résidentiel et ses évolutions de trafic associées à l’horizon 2030, à l’aide de cinq scénarios prospectifs présentant des formes urbaines différenciées ; (2) modéliser les réseaux écologiques de plusieurs espèces animales avec des graphes paysagers construits à partir de cartes d’occupation du sol et de données écologiques ; et (3) évaluer les impacts potentiels de chaque scénario sur les réseaux écologiques à partir de ces graphes à l’aide de métriques de connectivité, par mesure de la perte de connectivité imputable à chaque scénario de développement résidentiel.Les résultats obtenus montrent que les formes de villes denses et compactes, contrairement aux villes étalées, sont celles qui favorisent le mieux le maintien des connectivités écologiques pour la plupart des groupes d’espèces analysés. Des analyses plus approfondies mettent en avant la contribution importante des variations de trafic aux impacts écologiques de chaque scénario.D’après les analyses de sensibilité effectuées, le modèle utilisé est robuste, ce qui montre l’intérêt de la modélisation dans le processus d’aide à la décision pour la protection environnementale et la planification urbaine afin de penser la ville de demain de manière durable. / The global increase of urbanization during the past decades have induced a progressive artificialization of natural environments. The building of transport infrastructures and new housings causes a landscape fragmentation in an irreversible way and a strong decrease of the connectivity of ecological habitats. Maintaining the functionality of ecological networks is becoming a major goal of sustainable urban planning policies. With a special focus on urban evolutions in the horizon 2030 in the urban area of Besançon in eastern France (residential development and road traffic evolutions), this thesis aims to assess the potential impact of urban forms on landscape connectivity of animal species’ ecological networks. This research work promotes a modelling approach both on the field of theoretical and quantitative geography and landscape ecology.This approach follows three main steps: (1) simulating residential development and its associated road traffic changes using five prospective scenarios of differentiated urban forms; (2) modelling landscape graphs of various animal species using land-cover maps and ecological data; (3) assessing the potential impacts of each scenario on ecological networks from these graphs using connectivity metrics, with measures of the connectivity decrease attributable to each residential development scenario. Contrary to sprawled cities, the results show that compact and dense urban forms best promote the maintenance of ecological connectivity for the majority of species groups. Further analysis highlights the great contribution of road traffic evolutions regarding the ecological impacts of each scenario.According to some sensitivity analysis, the model used is quite robust. It demonstrates the interest of modelling in the decision-making process for environmental conservation and urban planning to think out the city of tomorrow in a sustainable way.

China has adopted Sustainable Development as a national strategy for all industries. In civil construction sector, sustainability is regarded as the development of Green Building in China. Since 2000, China has introduced a series of policies and laws to promote Green Building. Green Building was defined as buildings that are “energy-efficient, land-efficient, water-efficient, and material-efficient” and emit “minimal pollution” in during its entire life cycle, and meets a specified standard for indoor environment at the same time. However, energy efficiency is the central issue of current Green Building development in China, while issues of resources and pollution are neglected, which is partly due to China’s energy structure. Social and economic aspects are also always ignored. The main aim of this thesis is to map pathways towards more comprehensive frameworks for how residential areas in China could be constructed in a more sustainable way in hot –summer and cold-winter area. Case study was the main method used to examine the specifications of Green Residential Building in China. This paper offers a general overview of the current green trend in China and presents a specific analysis on three cases to search for the proper approach for China’s unique situation by three specific cases representing three types of Green Building: Modern Vernacular Architecture, Eco-office and Mass-housing, according to their features in scale, location and function. This paper then presents a specific integrated sustainability analysis of the Landsea Housing Project in Nanjing, a hot-summer/cold-winter zone. Hammarby Sjöstad, a cutting edge project in Stockholm, is also discussed as a reference area from which experiences can be drawn for China. The aim was to improve the framework for construction of residential buildings in China in a more sustainable way, from energy efficiency to integrated sustainability. The paper also discusses the relationship between the economic growth and energy consumption in the fast-growing situation, presents several scenarios depicting energy and comfort and makes suggestions for China. The roles of government, developers and residents are also addressed. The paper argues that an adaptive and holistic approach, which must be expanded from both spatial scale and temporal span, should be established for the Green Residential Building development in China, as an effective way to meet the sustainability goal. / QC 20101013

for the master's thesis The structure of the master's thesis includes an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, the references and applications. The foundations of the complex and spatial development of the city and their features are determined in the first chapter. The main directions of the complex development of the city are systematized and examples and peculiarities of quarterly construction and foreign experience of implementing projects based on the principle of quarterly development are considered. The second chapter describes the methodological aspects of the study on the choice of the strategy for the implementation of the project. The socio-economic consequences of realizing development projects and on their results the forming of the optimal way of construction are also examined. The residential property market in the city of Yekaterinburg is also analyzed. The third chapter presents an analysis of the development project, implemented by the necessary criteria and carried out its economic evaluation. The project budget was drawn up and the efficiency of the investment project for the construction of the residential property was assessed. The main part of the thesis is presented in 90 pages, contains 7 tables, 2 figures and 2 formulas. / Структура магистерской диссертации включает в себя введение, три главы, заключение, список использованных источников и приложения. В первой главе определяются основы комплексного и пространственного развития города и их особенности. Систематизируются основные направления комплексного развития города и рассматриваются примеры и особенности квартальной застройки и зарубежный опыт реализации проектов, основанных на принципе квартальной застройки. Во второй главе проводится анализ методических аспектов исследования по выбору стратегии реализации проекта. Рассмотрены социально-экономические последствия реализации девелоперских проектов и на их результатах cформированы оптимальные пути строительства. Также анализируется рынок жилой недвижимости в городе Екатеринбурге. В третьей главе представлен анализ девелоперского проекта, реализуемого по необходимым критериям и проведена его экономическая оценка. Составлен бюджет проекта и проведена оценка эффективности инвестиционного проекта по строительству объекта жилой недвижимости. Основная часть диссертационной работы изложена на 90 страницах, содержит 7 таблиц, 2 рисунка и 2 формулы.

This Diploma thesis is dealing with development construction of residential real estates in the area of Brno – Pisárky from the beginning of development in the end of 19th centuries till present. It is includes the history of this area and development of this location in the future. This thesis is divided into few construction periods, where are described in detail survey of significant residential buildings including pictures and photographs. The highest quality development was during inter-war period with beginning of functionalism. Development of this area is almost finished in the seventies of 19th century and from this time it is built just a few of new buildings or building attics or reconstruction. This thesis also contains historical maps, where we can see how was the area amplify and development.