Hongmian Gong

A GPS/GIS method for travel mode detection in New York City

Abstract Handheld GPS provides a new technology to trace people’s daily travels and has been increasingly used for household travel surveys in major cities worldwide. However, methodologies have not been developed to successfully manage the enormous amount of data generated by GPS, especially in a complex urban environment such as New York City where urban canyon effects are significant and transportation networks are complicated. We develop a GIS algorithm that automatically processes the data from GPS-based travel surveys and detects five travel modes (walk, car, bus, subway, and commuter rail) from a multimodal transportation network in New York City. The mode detection results from the GIS algorithm are checked against the travel diaries from two small handheld GPS surveys. The combined success rate is a promising 82.6% (78.9% for one survey and 86.0% for another). Challenges we encountered in the mode detection process, ways we developed to meet these challenges, as well as possible future improvement to the GPS/GIS method are discussed in the paper, in order to provide a much-needed methodology to process GPS-based travel data for other cities.

Spatial Patterns of Foreign Investment in China´s Cities, 1980-1989.

In the 1980s, foreign investment in Chinas cities experienced a northeastward movement from the southern coast to the central coast, and began to penetrate into inland cities, Foreign investment clustered in coastal delta areas and along the Changliang and Huanghe rivers. To understand these spatial patterns, a linear regression model is established. Cities with better power supplies, seaports, water transportation, communication, and investment incentives provided more favorable locations for foreign investment. Agglomerated cities had a better chance of attracting foreign investment than widely separated cities, with larger cities not necessarily attracting more foreign investment. Regression residuals also are analyzed for insights into spatial trends of foreign investment. Urban foreign investment in the near future probably will continue to accumulate in the coastal delta areas. Provincial capitals likely will be favorable locations for foreign investment that will further penetrate from the coastal...

Tempo-Spatial Patterns of Land Use Changes and Urban Development in Globalizing China: A Study of Beijing

This study examines the temporal and spatial changes in land use as a consequence of rapid urban development in the city of Beijing. Using a combination of techniques of remote sensing and GIS, the study identifies a substantial loss of plain dryland and a phenomenal expansion of urban construction land over the recent decade. Geographically, there is a clear shifting of urban construction land from the inner city to the outskirts as a consequence of suburbanization. The outward expansion of the ring-road system is found to be one of the most important driving forces explaining the temporal and spatial pattern of land use change. The uneven distribution of population stands as another factor with significant correlation with land use change. The application of the techniques of remote sensing and GIS can enhance the precision and comparability of research on land use change and urban transformation in China.

A Neighborhood Analysis of Public Library Use in New York City.

The use of 200 public libraries in New York City was analyzed according to their neighborhood characteristics. In addition to demographic, economic, and cultural factors traditionally considered, the social and spatial interactions within a neighborhood were related to public library use. Correlation and regression analyses were implemented for all the libraries. The research found that traditional factors are not enough to explain public library use, especially in a cosmopolitan area such as New York City. Social connections and racial diversity and integration stimulate public library use. Based on these findings, suggestions were made for improving the underutilized library branches in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

A HIERARCHICAL CHANGE MODEL OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IN THE UNITED STATES

Using County Business Patterns from 1977 to 1996, this study found that the location change in business and professional services, measured in relative terms, is organized around the hierarchy of metropolitan areas. Sectors in business and professional services showed different types of location changes during the study period because they are in different stages of a general hierarchical process. This process is conceptualized in a three-stage descriptive model. In the first stage, business and professional services centralize up the hierarchy. In the second stage, business and professional services begin to decentralize at the top while centralization is still going on at the bottom of the hierarchy. The last stage is a complete decentralization down the metropolitan hierarchy with the bottom of the hierarchy getting more and more shares of business and professional services. This model is an effort to fill in the gap in conceptualizing the location of intermediate services. [Key words: services, location change, hierarchical model, metropolitan areas.]

GROWTH OF TERTIARY SECTOR IN CHINA'S LARGE CITIES

Abstract This study interprets the fast-growing tertiary sector in China, especially in 84 large cities, as a result of sectoral labor transition. Large cities in China mostly relied on the tertiary sector for urban job growth during the period from 1990 to 1997 and are ahead of the country in the sectoral labor transition. The tertiary labor share in a large city is not only associated with the per capita income, but also with the urbanization level within the city limit, the per capita foreign direct investment, and the history and size of the city. Compared with other parts of the world, China is more similar to developed countries (with a time lag) than to developing countries in the path of the sectoral labor transition. Yet, the sectoral labor transition (and the growth of the tertiary sector specifically) in China has been strongly influenced by government policies.

The Impact of 9/11 on the Geography of Financial Services in New York: A Few Years Later

An economic census and a survey of seventy-nine firms revealed a changing geography of financial services after 11 September 2001. Although the suburbs benefited from the outward relocation of financial services from Manhattan immediately afterward, they lost considerably two years later, demonstrating the interdependence of the central city and its suburbs. Executives of financial services firms ranked highly locational attributes such as prestige, public transportation, and proximity to clients and other financial services before 11 September, but terrorism also emerged as a major locational factor after 11 September. The impact of terrorism and how it interacts with agglomeration economies, technological changes, and globalization to shape the geography of financial services is examined under the framework of quaternary place theory.

Hazard Perception and the Urban Geographies of Place: Insights from New York City's Financial Executives Following 9/11

Theories of place have yet to be developed to explore societal responses to terrorism in the post-9/11 city. Urban geographers have shown the relevance of place for understanding the way people live in cities, including conceptualizations of the way people perceive those places. Geographers working on environmental risk have also conceptualized perception, but only in regard to hazard perception. They have not focused on the city itself as a hazard site, nor have they studied how the contours of place affect hazard perception. Joining urban geography and risk-hazards scholarship, this study argues for a terrorism-place nexus that links terrorism hazard perception to urban place. Using survey and interview data collected from 79 financial service executives in New York City, it will be shown that terrorism has created a place-based ontological dissonance among financial executives, and we speculate about the implications for the city should these workers restore ontological order by moving away their establishments.

Managerialism and terrorism policy for the urban financial industry: The implications of ignoring geographical process

The urban financial industry is expected to continue to be a primary target of terrorism. Critical policy analyses call for reevaluations of knowledge via direct linkages with served communities. We use interview and survey data from 79 financial executives in New York after 9/11 to study place-based subsidy policies. We demonstrate that place is an important, and often overlooked, geographical concept for understanding how financial decision makers should respond to terrorism. We show that an analysis of local context must be included when crafting effective policies, and we argue that microscales are as important to urban resiliency as the citywide and regional scales.

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND THE GROWTH OF CONSULTING SERVICES IN GUANGZHOU, CHINA

Abstract Despite the low value-added nature of the service sector in China, advanced services have been growing rapidly in major Chinese cities in recent years. This paper analyzes the growth of consulting services in metropolitan Guangzhou as a response to Chinas economic reforms and the intrusion of globalization forces. The social and spatial divisions of labor under globalization have generated an increasing demand for consulting services in Guangzhou. To attract international investment, the improvements on urban infrastructure and urban image have been significant locational advantages driving consulting services into the city. However, a close examination suggests that the path-dependent effects also require serious evaluations. The state still plays an important role in the growth and performance of consultancies in Guangzhou. The case of Guangzhou raises new theoretical questions for the growth of advanced services in the Chinese context.