Robert W. Marans

Understanding environmental quality through quality of life studies: the 2001 DAS and its use of subjective and objective indicators☆

Abstract A major program of research aimed at measuring the quality of community life using subjective and objective indicators is described. Impetus for the research was a need to inform planning and policy decisions in the Detroit metropolitan area. The study also addresses theoretical concerns about relationships between objective conditions in cities, towns and rural areas and people’s subjective and behavioral responses to the conditions. In addition to measuring subjective well being of Detroit area residents, issues explored in the study include travel and transportation, neighborhoods and neighboring, parks and recreation behavior, housing and residential mobility, and sprawl and open space preservation. The program of research also involves parallel studies in other world cities.

Life Cycle and Environmental Factors in Selecting Residential and Job Locations

Home and workplace location choices are closely related. The determinants of these choices operate differently based on an individuals life cycle, particularly with regard to the presence or absence of children. Individuals with children often place value on greenspace and recreational opportunities, while those without children often prefer smaller residential lots and locations with access to services. Existing studies have found that if residential location desires are satisfied, people are less likely to emphasize the importance of job location irrespective of their life stage. Taking a different approach, this study examines home-workplace decisions from a commuting standpoint. Commute durations and personal characteristics are used to analyse individual behavior. The contributions of this work include the finding that environmental characteristics and amenities may explain the connection between commuting behavior and residential location choices. Existing studies have not connected environmental characteristics and commuting behavior. This study also uses various GIS modeling techniques to explore the effects of previously unanalysed variables on residential location decisions.

Factors Influencing Individual Recycling Behavior in Office Settings: A Study of Office Workers in Taiwan

This study explores office recycling behavior and its antecedents through a survey administered to 1,788 workers in Taipei, Taiwan. The instrument measured household and office recycling behavior, commitment to and motives for recycling, and the convenience of carrying out recycling in their office settings. Prior experience was shown to be an excellent predictor of office-based conservation behavior. However, to be effective, prior experience must be of the same specificity as the office behavior being predicted. Thus prior experience with general household recycling was effective at predicting general office recycling behavior, but was unable to predict more specific recycling behavior. Likewise, prior experience with a particular material—In this instance paper—predicted office conservation behavior with respect to that material alone. Organizational commitment and individual commitment were found to be modest predictors of office-based conservation behavior, although economic motivation was not found to be a particularly effective predictor of such behavior. Implications for office-based recycling programs are discussed.

Characterizing Location Preferences in an Exurban Population: Implications for Agent-Based Modeling

Powerful computational tools are becoming available to represent the behavior of complex systems. Agent-based modeling, in particular, facilitates an examination of the system-level outcomes of the heterogeneous actions of a set of heterogeneous agents: for example, patterns of land-use and land-cover change, such as urban sprawl as a result of residential location decisions. These new tools create new demands for data, and empirical studies of the selection behavior of residents. Using resident responses from the 2001 Detroit Area Study survey, we compared two alternative approaches to characterizing the heterogeneous preferences of agents; both based on a factor analysis of resident responses to questions about their reasons for moving to their current location. We used cluster analysis to identify how many and what types of residents there are, grouped by similar preferences. We also evaluated the relationships between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and location preferences using regression trees, and evaluated the fit of the relationship to determine the degree to which socioeconomic characteristics predict preferences. The results showed that the preferences of resident exurbans of single-family homes in the Detroit metropolitan area were heterogeneous and that distinct preference groups do exist in resident populations, but are not well characterized on the basis of simple socioeconomic and demographic variables. We conclude that, given the heterogeneous nature of preferences and a relatively limited number of preference groupings observed in the survey respondents, agent-based models simulating resident behavior should reflect this diversity in the population and incorporate distinct agent classes of empirically derived preference distributions.

The human dimension of energy conservation and sustainability: A case study of the University of Michigan's energy conservation program

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the behaviors, attitudes, and levels of understanding among faculty, staff, and students in efforts to design programs aimed at reducing energy use in University of Michigan (UM) buildings.Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐method approach is used in five diverse pilot buildings including focus groups, behavioral observations, environmental measures, and web surveys. The analyses consider differences between buildings and between the three population groups.Findings – Among the findings, UM staff are most concerned about conserving energy in UM buildings while students are the least concerned. A significant proportion of survey respondents are not aware of past university efforts to conserve energy; among those who are aware, many felt that university efforts are inadequate. The observations and self‐reports reveal an abundance of energy‐consuming equipment in offices, and lights and computers are often left on when work spaces and conference rooms ar...

Measuring Overall Architectural Quality A Component of Building Evaluation

Using data from a post-occupancy evaluation of an award-winning federal office building, asthetic or architectural quality and the factors associated with it are considered. Various measures of quality are derived from responses to questionnaires administered to three user groups: the office workers, public visitors, and the community at large. Findings show that, on average, the public is likely to agree the building is worthy of its architectural awards. The office workers on the other hand, tend to rate the architectural quality of the building poorly. The analysis demonstrates that views on architectural quality are significantly related to the way workers assess the building as a place to work and the general ambience of their particular agency. Agency ambience is seen as having both asthetic components and functional components such as noise levels, temperature, and people movement. It is suggested that linkages exist in the minds of occupants between the quality of the workplace including its nonaesthetic components and assessments of overall architectural quality.

Perceived Quality of Residential Environments

Environmental planners and designers have given more attention to the residential environment than to any of the systems that interact to make up the metropolitan area. This attention is understandable. The residential environment is viewed as the place where an individual can relate himself socially and functionally to the complex world around him. It is considered to be richly diverse, both physically and socially, and constantly changing in terms of an aging landscape and a mobile population. And by design and redesign, it offers planners the opportunity to improve the quality of the physical surroundings and, in a very direct way, the livability of metropolitan area residents.

An Overview of Quality of Urban Life

There is a long history of quality of life (QOL) studies based on two distinctive analytical approaches. One covers objective indicators involving the analysis of spatially aggregated secondary data whereas the other approach focuses on the analysis of subjective measures of QOL domains derived from household surveys. Aided by the use of GIS technology, efforts have been made to integrate the subjective approach with spatial objective data, especially where there is a focus on the analysis and modeling of quality of urban life (QOUL). The chapter presents an overview of the evolution of these approaches in QOL/QOUL studies and sets the stage for subsequent chapters.

Linking recycling behavior to waste management planning: A case study of office workers in Taiwan

Abstract In recent years, planners have become increasingly involved in issues related to solid waste and the need to develop comprehensive waste management programs. Policy options have been suggested for reducing consumption—an important mechanism for addressing the solid waste disposal problem. These options range from educational programs which encourage individuals and organizations to voluntarily minimize consumer waste to regulations that mandate waste reduction behavior, including recycling, resource reduction, and re-use. In deciding among policy options, planners need to understand those factors that are likely to influence these behaviors in different settings. Although there is a growing body of research covering factors which influence household recycling, determinants of recycling in the workplace are largely unknown. In this paper, a model displaying factors that may contribute to recycling behavior in the office is presented. Components of the model are then analyzed using data from questionnaires administered to 1788 office workers in 32 organizations in the Taipei metropolitan area. The role of prior recycling experience at home and the organizational and physical context of workplaces in determining office recycling rates are analyzed, as are relationships between environmental attitudes and motivations and recycling practices. Finally, policy options (i.e. educational programs, financial incentives, establishing social norms) for conserving resources through waste management are discussed in light of the findings.

Designing Healthy Neighborhoods: Contributions of the Built Environment to Physical Activity in Detroit

Detroit is a city with low-density housing and a high proportion of lower-socioeconomic-status multiethnic residents. Physical activity tends to be lower in low- to moderate-income urban communities. To understand the design components of healthy neighborhoods, interrelationships between built environment characteristics and walking behavior were studied for three neighborhoods. Results suggest that as independent predictors, higher density and multiple land uses tended to deter walking. However, residents of neighborhoods with strong well-connected street networks (both locally and globally) reported higher levels of walking as compared to those in less well-connected neighborhoods.