Takafumi Arima

Driving factors of urban sprawl in Giza governorate of the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Region using a logistic regression model

ABSTRACT Since the 1950s, The Greater Cairo Metropolitan Region (GCMR) has witnessed an unprecedented rate of urban sprawl that has been mainly concentrated in arable lands against urban planning regulations, and has presented a critical challenge to the urban environment and serious corrosion for arable lands. Thus, the need to identify the driving factor of sprawl is crucial to understand the future of the GCMR urban environment and to overcome the serious challenges of rapid urbanization. We focused on the Giza governorate as a critical area in the GCMR and divided it into three sub-sectors to collect data and analyse. A primary list of driving factors was identified by literature review. Later this list was narrowed down to seven factors after interviews with local urban experts and consideration of the availability of data. Next, a logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate those factors with data derived from existing maps and remotely sensed data for the period of 2004–2013. An operating characteristic (ROC) evaluation of the logistic regression analysis gave high accuracy rates for the entire study area. The findings of the research revealed decreasing significance of the CBD and Nile River as drivers of sprawl. The most significant factors according to the analysis were neighbourhood factors, local urban centres, and accessibility factors of distances to urban uses and major roads. The research suggests more future urban expansion by the existing urban cores and along major roads, leading to more informal urban settlements. It also points to the possibility of persistent deterioration in the urban built environment and agricultural lands. Thus, these findings should be applied to actual urban planning policies, and development regulations should be strengthened to protect the urban environment from further deterioration.

A Web-Based Public Participation System that Supports Decision Making

Abstract Public participation in making decisions regarding urban development projects is very important. In Japan, local governments must develop policies concerning area management based on discussions with local citizens rather than depending on the central government. Therefore, workshops with stakeholders have been conducted to discuss issues relating to urban projects, where visual tools, as well as the Internet - in a few cases - were used as a tool for collecting opinions. However there is a need to build an advanced Decision Support System (DSS) that facilitates a participative design process and expands stakeholder participation. A web-based public participation system is introduced via this case study. Stakeholders utilize a developed system to visualize proposal alternatives, using virtual reality to provide their opinions, and then to share collected information and results. The proposed DSS aims to enhance the decision making processes by encouraging citizen involvement and participation during the projects developmental stages. The evaluation reveals that using effective visual and opinion collecting tools can motivate effective citizen participation while giving transparency and legitimacy to the decision making process. Utilizing the proposed DSS at workshops in conjunction with the Internet makes the collected opinions more reliable.

Using the SLEUTH urban growth model to simulate the impacts of future policy scenarios on land use in the Giza Governorate, Greater Cairo Metropolitan region

ABSTRACT The goal of this paper was to find an appropriate urban policy to preserve arable land that is being consumed by highly accelerated urban growth in the Giza Governorate of the Greater Cairo Metropolitan region for the last 50 years. We simulated three different urban policies and relevant growth scenarios for Giza from 2015 to 2035 by using the SLEUTH model to investigate their effects on arable lands. The first scenario used historical growth trends to simulate the persistent growth trends under existing conditions. The second was a compact growth scenario with robust restrictions on development in areas outside of designated growth centres. The third scenario considered officially planned growth that integrated stricter growth plans and stronger protections on lands with natural resources at a level that could be realistically accomplished with strong political commitments. The input data required by the model, including slope, land use, exclusion, and urban growth, transportation, and hill shade were derived from three Landsat satellite images from 1984, 2000, and 2013, according to supervised classifications. The simulation results found that the compact growth policy scenario had the least negative impact on arable lands, while the historical growth scenario had the worst impact.

Using computer graphics to compare the visual environments of urban streets in Japan and Taiwan

This research compared the visual environments of urban streets in Japan and Taiwan. Different building standard laws, regional cultures, and traditions create unique townscapes in each country. The research uses three-dimensional computer graphics to express quantitatively the openness of urban space and the characteristics of the visual environments of urban streets in Japan and Taiwan. The analysis of the urban visual environment consists of two parts. In the first part, the characteristics of the visual environments of urban streets in Japan and Taiwan were analyzed by constructing simple town block simulation models, which reflected the floor area restrictions, road setback regulations, site boundary setback regulations, and absolute height controls in each country. In the second part, streets of different width in the center of the commercial districts in Oita City, Japan, and Taichung City, Taiwan, were used to analyze the characteristics of the different visual environments.

Using API services to visualise urban activities in Japan

Nowadays, we can find plenty of information on urban activities, which has been archived on the World Wide Web (Web). Recently, the number of internet users in Japan has been outstanding compared to other countries. Also, several servers have started providing the stored information via API (application program interface) services. This study tries to propose a new viewpoint to understand urban conditions and human activities by utilising the API services to obtain dynamic data based on information from the Web. Furthermore, it has been examined how to visualise the geographical characteristics of the information by using GIS in order to provide better and clearer understanding for various users.