Ali Soltani

An analysis of the connection between built environment, physical activity and health: comparing three urban neighbourhoods from Shiraz, Iran

There is currently considerable interest in discovering the effects of physical form and built environment on the physical activities done by people. The increasing concerns of obesity, especially among children, women, and old people, increase the necessity of research in this area. However, most studies in this area are from western developed countries and their results cannot be transferred to developing countries where the economic and social context is different. This study attempted to investigate the link between built environment, socio-economics, and physical activity among adults by comparing three neighbourhoods from Shiraz, Iran, using multiple criteria, including analysis of variance (ANOVAs), t-tests, and the correlation coefficient. The hypothesis was that these variables were positively related to physical activity for either transportation or sporting/exercise/leisure activities. An integrated database of built environment characteristics and activity-related features was developed for a sample of specific residential locations (n=328) in the metropolitan area of Shiraz, Iran, and then statistical methods were applied to test the hypothesis. The results from statistical and spatial analysis confirm that the built environment affects both travel and sporting/exercise/leisure activities. However, the patterns of activities are reasonably different from those discovered in developed countries due to considerable differences in social attitudes, lifestyles, and envıronmental design. In fact, improvements in the distribution and quality of urban services are also important in encouraging people to engage in physical activity; however, this is mediated by social and economic constraints.

Travel Patterns of Urban Linear Ferry Passengers: Analysis of Smart Card Fare Data for Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Urban linear ferry systems are an emerging form of public transport in cities worldwide. The travel behavior of passengers who used CityCat ferries in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was investigated with data from 1,675,821 smart card fare transactions for ferry trips made over a 6-month period. Although services used small vessels and had only one main route, about 2.3% of all paid public transport journeys in Brisbane were made on CityCat and the related cross-river ferries. The ferries were used more for commuting and university trips on weekdays with significant patronage in the morning and afternoon peak periods. Use was consistent on weekend days. Although use was strong, most users were infrequent patrons; this use suggested that leisure travel was a significant component of the system. Key terminals with high use rates included those where transfer to cross-river ferry services was possible. The system offered single-stop cross-river travel at many points. However, only 15.8% of paid trips in March 2013 were made this way; 84.2% of trips continued farther up- or downriver. Integration with other buses and trains was significant; about 15% of all ferry journeys were linked to another mode of public transport. Additional investigation into how users access terminals and interact with other public transport modes is suggested. With expansion planned, the CityCat system could increase its contribution to public transport in Brisbane. Increasing the use frequency of the large pool of infrequent riders could increase patronage of the system.

Analysis of intra-urban traffic accidents using spatiotemporal visualization techniques

Abstract Road traffic accidents (RTAs) rank in the top ten causes of the global burden of disease and injury, and Iran has one of the highest road traffic mortality rates in the world. This paper presents a spatiotemporal analysis of intra-urban traffic accidents data in metropolitan Shiraz, Iran during the period 2011-2012. It is tried to identify the accident prone zones and sensitive hours using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based spatio-temporal visualization techniques. The analysis aimed at the identification of high-rate accident locations and safety deficient area using Kernel Estimation Density (KED) method. The investigation indicates that the majority of occurrences of traffic accidents were on the main roads, which play a meta-region functional role and act as a linkage between main destinations with high trip generation rate. According to the temporal distribution of car crashes, the peak of traffic accidents incident is simultaneous with the traffic congestion peak hours on arterial roads. The accident-prone locations are mostly located in districts with higher speed and traffic volume, therefore, they should be considered as the priority investigation locations to safety promotion programs.

Bus route evaluation using a two-stage hybrid model of Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS

Usuarios de transporte publico estao constantemente em busca de regularidade do servico, preco justo, seguranca e conforto fisico e psicologico. Criar um sistema de avaliacao de linhas de onibus pode ser considerado dentre os requisitos basicos para a gestao de transporte publico nas cidades. A necessidade de uma ferramenta logica e cientifica para apoiar as decisoes tomadas pelos formuladores de politicas de transporte publico com o objetivo de uma maior qualidade dos servicos, especificamente em uma area metropolitana em desenvolvimento como Shiraz, Ira, comprova a importância de tal sistema. Neste estudo, primeiramente, seis rotas entre as 71 linhas de onibus da regiao metropolitana de Shiraz foram escolhidos. Posteriormente, 16 criterios com base na literatura teorica e os dados coletados em uma pesquisa realizada pela Organizacao de onibus Publicos de Shiraz (SPBO) foram produzidos. Em seguida, usando um modelo de dois estagios multi-criterio de tomada de decisao (MCDM) contendo um Processo Hierarquico Analitico Difuso (Fuzzy AHP) e metodos TOPSIS, os dados foram analisados e a situacao atual das linhas de onibus selecionadas foi avaliada. Este estudo e o arcabouco de avaliacao apresentado para a analise da situacao atual, juntamente com a comparacao das linhas de onibus, podem ajudar os gestores e formuladores de politicas de transporte de onibus em iniciativas para a melhoria dos servicos, o desenvolvimento, fusao e criacao de novas linhas.

Exploring spatial autocorrelation of traffic crashes based on severity

As a developing country, Iran has one of the highest crash-related deaths, with a typical rate of 15.6 cases in every 100 thousand people. This paper is aimed to find the potential temporal and spatial patterns of road crashes aggregated at traffic analysis zonal (TAZ) level in urban environments. Localization pattern and hotspot distribution were examined using geo-information approach to find out the impact of spatial/temporal dimensions on the emergence of such patterns. The spatial clustering of crashes and hotspots were assessed using spatial autocorrelation methods such as the Morans I and Getis-Ord Gi* index. Comap was used for comparing clusters in three attributes: the time of occurrence, severity, and location. The analysis of the annually crash frequencies aggregated in 156 TAZ in Shiraz; from 2010 to 2014, Iran showed that both Morans I method and Getis-Ord Gi* statistics produced significant clustering of crash patterns. While crashes emerged a clustered pattern, comparison of the spatio-temporal separations showed an accidental spread in distinct categories. The local governmental agencies can use the outcomes to adopt more effective strategies for traffic safety planning and management.

The social life of commercial streets

The social life of cities is a key concept related to social cohesion, which has been the subject of extensive studies in several disciplines including sociology, psychology and the built environment. Social life studies conducted in the built environment discipline have mostly focused on city centres; while the significance of neighbourhoods as integral elements have been sometimes overlooked. As a result, this research will specifically explore commercial streets in residential suburbs. Suburbs are frequently perceived to be lacking in vitality and street life. The method of inquiry in this research investigates how the physical characteristics of commercial streets can either promote, affect or mitigate the social life of neighbourhoods and generate a sociable environment. Therefore, this study captures the social behaviour of three commercial streets in Geelong, Australia. This paper utilizes a qualitative approach to the study of the social life of commercial streets. The primary methodology used in this research is recording, documenting and mapping users’ activities through behavioural observation. The observations have been conducted in four days (on two weekdays and two weekends). The case study has been divided into eight sections that are similar in length. Short movies of 30 seconds have been recorded from each section, every two hours from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. Afterwards, the movies have been transmitted into street mappings, documenting the type of activities, placement of activities, gender and approximate age by exploiting suitable pictograms. There are several physical characteristics that are believed to be contributing to the social life of commercial streets. This study utilizes a bottom-up approach to evaluate the complexities of the role that built environment plays in terms of vitality through the three selected characteristics, including typomorphology and street layout, diversity of uses, and soft facades. Better understanding of how neighbourhood environments influence the social life of neighbourhoods can provide academics and professionals in architecture and urban design with sound evidence on which to base future research and design.

HOSPITAL SITE SELECTION USING TWO-STAGE FUZZY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING PROCESS (doi: 10.4090/juee.2011.v5n1.032043)

In this study the rainfall- runoff response of the Ammameh watershed located in Tehran, Iran was studied using TOPMODEL, a semi-distributed and geomorphologic model that simulates runoff at the watershed outlet based on the concepts of the saturation excess runoff and subsurface flow. Topographic index as an indicator of the spatial distribution of excess runoff generation in the catchment was calculated using Dinf and D8 methods which compute the flow direction from each cell using two different algorithms. The analysis was done at three time scales: event, daily, and monthly. The modeling performance of TOPMODEL in simulating runoff process for each of three types of time series was analyzed and compared visually and statistically. Also, the effects of D8 and Dinf methods on rainfall- runoff modeling were validated and compared and it was realized that modeling result of Dinf algorithm, especially in event- based rainfall- runoff modeling was more accurate than the D8 algorithm; whereas, the difference between the results were not notable in the daily modeling. Although the obtained results demonstrate the capability of the TOPMODEL in both event-based and daily simulations, the model could lead to the more reliable results in daily modeling because of considering the watershed soil moisture conditions, perfectly.

The development of a walkability audit. Based on Iranian cities pedestrian environment

Given its influence on public health and the vehicle usage and its negative consequences, walkability has attracted much attention in recent decades. Meanwhile, the development of a method to measure walkability of urban areas in order to improve this feature is of utmost importance. Hence, after a comprehensive investigation into environmental measures related to the walking behavior of the users, it was attempted to develop an efficient and reliable environmental audit tool based on these measures. Following the development of a protocol for utilization and management of the tool, two different tests were employed to validate it. The participants were taught how to use the tool, then it was tested in the Eram neighborhood of Shiraz and the results were statistically analyzed. 13 of the environmental measures were found not to have validity to be used in various environments. However, given the remaining 50 items, the tool is valid for being applied to other urban areas.

Exploring city branding strategies and their impacts on local tourism success, the case study of Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan

ABSTRACT City branding is a managerial procedure which offers any given city a distinct identity; providing cities with a chance to present as different, positive and distinguishable from other competitors. In Japan, the use of mascots for city branding is often part of urban planning strategy. Kumamon is the most successful regional mascot in Japan and offers an opportunity to explore the nature of mascot city branding strategies. Employing a large number of promotional strategies, the local prefecture created a unique Kumamon city brand and enhanced the local image, resulting in significant economic benefits. The paper argues that five main factors contributed to the success of Kumamon: government support, power of emotional attachment and anthropomorphism, efficient public transport and tourism services, the mascot branding, and social media. Understanding how Kumamon mascot branding succeeded can assist makers to decide whether to replicate the use of mascot branding in other cities and regions.

Analyzing the Influence of Neighborhood Development Pattern on Modal Choice

Although several studies have been undertaken on the association between built environmental characteristics and travel patterns in western societies, the impacts of the local built environment on individuals’ travel behavior considering the specific conditions of developing nations have remained largely unknown. Thus, this paper investigates the travel behavior effects of local planning and design in three residential neighborhoods of Shiraz, a city in the southwest of Iran. The data on land use and built environment characteristics were extracted primarily from an existing digital map and GIS, whereas the data on individuals’ socioeconomics and their daily travel behavior were purposefully collected using a field questionnaire survey (). A nested logit model (NLM) based on the microeconomic utility concept was then applied to discover the impacts of personal characteristics and built environment factors on the choice mode of the individuals. The results and the associated policy implications can be helpful in defining a strategic agenda for neighborhood design and planning.