Researchers are retiring conventional paper-and-pencil research methods and embracing an expanded array of online methodological options. In urban and planning studies, new digital tools, data accessibility, and online applications are changing how urban planning research is conducted. Online Research Methods in Urban and Planning Studies: Design and Outcomes provides an overview of online research methods in urban and planning studies, exploring and discussing new digital tools and Web-based research methods, as well as the scholarly, legal, and ethical challenges associated with their use. Chapters from academics and professionals give an informed overview of groundbreaking online resources, review their strengths and shortcomings, and provide practical guidance on how to apply these new methods, online tools, and evolving data acquisition techniques.

"The first edition of Municipal finance and accounting was published in 2007, and was the first comprehensive text on the principles and best practice of municipal finance and accounting to appear since Dr Jack Cowden's 1968 treatment of more or less the same subject matter. The first edition was revised in 2011, the main changes being the inclusion of considerable additional material on the legislative framework governing municipalities, an extensive revision of the chapter on municipal budgets in order to incorporate the approaches introduced by the 2009 regulations on budgets and reporting requirements, and various amendments to chapters 3 and 4 to reflect the advent of further GRAP standards and changes in important local government statutes. The example of the annual financial statements contained in Chapter 5 was entirely redone to accord with the requirements of GRAP, and the chapter itself amended to include summaries of most of the prescribed GRAP standards. The many changes in municipal finance that occurred since 2011 have now necessitated a second revision. All new enacted legislation and amendments to existing legislation have been included, as well as important impending legislation and new regulations, particularly those issued in terms of the Municipal Systems Act and Municipal Finance Management Act. Important MFMA circulars are also covered, as are other significant guidelines issued by the National Treasury. Various other matters of importance in relation to the financial administration and governance of municipalities are also dealt with, including municipal public accounts committees (MPACs), new approaches to grants, the supply chain management reporting framework and several significant court cases. An updated version of the annual financial statements has also been prepared. As with the original edition, this revised version deals holistically with all the key features of municipal finance and accountancy, with emphasis on the principles of sound financial governance in municipalities. It is designed for use in tertiary education and also for regular consultation by accounting officers, financial and non-financial officials and councillors in the performance of their duties. Municipal finance and accounting should be useful to anyone involved with, or interested in, the financial administration and governance of municipalities."

This book presents current developments in smart city research and application regarding the management of manufacturing systems, Industry 4.0, transportation, and business management. It suggests approaches to incorporating smart city innovations into manufacturing systems, with an eye towards competitiveness in a global environment. The same pro-innovative approach is then applied to business and cooperation management. The authors also present smart city transportation solutions including vehicle data processing/reporting system, mobile application for fleet managers, bus drivers, bus passengers and special applications for smart city buses like passenger counting system, IP cameras, GPS system etc. The goal of the book is to establish channels of communication and disseminate knowledge among researchers and professionals working on smart city research and application. Features contributions on a variety of topics related to smart cities from global researchers and professionals in a wide range of sectors; Presents topics relating to smart cities such as manufacturing, business, and transportation; Includes expanded selected papers from EAI International Conference on Management of Manufacturing Systems (MMS 2016), EAI Industry of Things and Future Technologies Conference - Mobility IoT 2016 and International Conference on Smart Electric Vehicles and Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (SEVNET).

This is a history of the cultural biases undergirding housing segregation. This history of the idea of 'neighborhood' in a major American city examines the transition of Atlanta, Georgia, from a place little concerned with residential segregation, tasteful surroundings, and property control to one marked by extreme concentrations of poverty and racial and class exclusion. Using Atlanta as a lens to view the wider nation, LeeAnn Lands shows how assumptions about race and class have coalesced with attitudes toward residential landscape aesthetics and home ownership to shape public policies that promote and protect white privilege. Lands studies the diffusion of property ideologies on two separate but related levels: within academic, professional, and bureaucratic circles and within circles comprising civic elites and rank-and-file residents. By the 1920s, following the establishment of park neighborhoods such as Druid Hills and Ansley Park, white home owners approached housing and neighborhoods with a particular collection of desires and sensibilities: architectural and landscape continuity, a narrow range of housing values, orderliness, and separation from undesirable land uses - and undesirable people. By the 1950s, these desires and sensibilities had been codified in federal, state, and local standards, practices, and laws. Today, Lands argues, far more is at stake than issues of access to particular neighborhoods, because housing location is tied to the allocation of a broad range of resources, including school funding, infrastructure, and law enforcement. Long after racial segregation has been outlawed, white privilege remains embedded in our culture of home ownership.

"Sustainable Urban and Regional Infrastructure Development: Technologies, Applications and Management", bridges the gap in the current literature by addressing the overall problems present in society's major infrastructures, and the technologies that may be applied to overcome these problems. It focuses on ways in which energy intensive but 'invisible' (to the general public) facilities can become green or greener. The studies presented are lessons to be learnt from our neighbors and from our own backyard, and provide an excellent general overview of the issues facing us all.

Assisted by globalization and the rapid application of advanced technologies, the transformative power of urbanization is being felt around the world. The scale and the speed of existing and projected urbanization poses several challenges to researchers in multiple disciplines, such as computer science, engineering, and the social sciences. Optimizing Regional Development Through Transformative Urbanization provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of applications within urban growth interventions. It also explores the strategies for new urban development tools such as the rise of new platforms for digital activities, concepts of sharing economy, collaborative economy, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cryptocurrencies, public-private partnership, and urban governance, this book is a vital reference for city development planners, decision makers, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and professionals seeking current research on the delivery of transformative urbanization changes.

Nowhere on Earth is the challenge for ecological understanding greater, and yet more urgent, than in those parts of the globe where human activity is most intense - cities. People need to understand how cities work as ecological systems so they can take control of the vital links between human actions and environmental quality, and work for an ecologically and economically sustainable future. An ecosystem approach integrates biological, physical and social factors and embraces historical and geographical dimensions, providing our best hope for coping with the complexity of cities. This book is the first of its kind to bring together leaders in the biological, physical and social dimensions of urban ecosystem research with leading education researchers, administrators and practitioners, to show how an understanding of urban ecosystems is vital for urban dwellers to grasp the fundamentals of ecological and environmental science, and to understand their own environment.

Exceptional communities possessing a definitive sense of place, the cities and towns presented in this book have created or re-created a style, ambience, or character that transcends the ordinary and is used as the basis for community economic development. Adapting the idea of concept marketing, these communities have found a niche or specialty to create community recognition and serve as a basis for garnering external investment, tourism, and other revenue-generating events. This book examines the use of popular and corporate culture, retail establishments, historical tradition, and surrealism in community concept marketing and profiles examples of communities from a diverse array of contexts and geographical settings. Bellows Falls, VT, for instance, a once-depressed former milltown has transformed itself to a vibrant community through an arts integrated development strategy, while Austin, MN, the home of Hormel Foods, has drawn on the town's corporate culture with the opening of a new SPAM Museum. Manchester, VT, taking a retail approach, has become a designer outlet mecca, and Walnut, IA, the state's "Antique City." Cape May, NJ, has restored its historic properties and successfully marketed itself as a seaside resort, while Holland, MI, exemplifies the surreal approach, marketing itself as a Dutch town. Considering these and other uniquely marketed communities, this book examines the elements necessary for a successful concept marketing strategy to community economic development.

Containing research from the 25th edition of the Urban Transport conference, the papers included in this book address the need to solve important pollution problems associated with urban transport. There is also a growing need for integration with telecommunications systems and IT applications in order to improve safety, security and efficiency. The need for better urban transport systems and for a healthier environment has resulted in a wide range of research originating from many different countries. These studies highlight the importance of innovative systems, new approaches and original ideas, which need to be thoroughly tested and critically evaluated before they can be implemented in practice. The variety of topics covered in this volume reflects the complex interaction of the urban transport systems with their environment and the need to establish integrated strategies. The aim is to arrive at optimal socio-economic solutions while reducing the negative environmental impacts of current transportation systems.

At heart, transportation policy and research are about people: connecting individuals and the places they live, ensuring sufficient and equitable access, and facilitating movement. Whether at the regional, city, or neighborhood scale, the loss of population presents unique challenges where transport is concerned. It is not only about preservation of existing access, but possibly even a question of increased need for connectivity and mobility. Demographic changes that accompany depopulation--aging for example-- also impact existing systems, preferences, and needs.

Can transportation problems be fixed by the right neighborhood design? The tremendous popularity of the 'new urbanism' and 'livable communities' initiatives suggests that many persons think so. As a systematic assessment of attempts to solve transportation problems through urban design, this book asks and answers three questions: Can such efforts work? Will they be put into practice? Are they a good idea?

Dairy products have always constituted an essential component in the Mediterranean diet. In addition to their nutritional values, they also represent a part of the cultural heritage of the people. Prospects for a sustainable dairy sector in the Mediterranean, preconditions for its development and the future consumer demand were some of the issues covered by the papers presented at the EAAP - CIHEAM - FAO Mediterranean symposium. It was organized by the Tunisian Office for Livestock and Pastures and the National Agronomic Research Institute and supported by the Government of Tunisia, FAO, ICAR and CIRVAL. Over 280 participants from 25 countries took part. The symposium identified a variety of technically viable and scientifically sound policy options, and defined the main fields requiring further scientific research and the development of new sustainable technologies. The available technologies to address intensive, semi-intensive and extensive production systems and the existing institutional framework (research, education, extension systems, organization of the sector), although requiring continuous adjustments and improvements, have proved to be in a position to meet a variety of demands and challenges. In this respect, the Symposium called for an increase in research for the semi-intensive farming systems in the South and emerging issues resulting from changes in agricultural policies in the North. It emphasized the importance of producers associations as representatives of the interests of the sector and partners in the overall dialogue on policy matters and in the identification of research needs. The Symposium confirmed the wish and capacity of the dairy sector in the region to contribute to the sustainable rural development, to the creation of new employment opportunities and to the reasonable and harmonious management of the natural resources.

The efficient usage, investigation, and promotion of new methods, tools, and technologies within the field of architecture, particularly in urban planning and design, is becoming more critical as innovation holds the key to cities becoming smarter and ultimately more sustainable. In response to this need, strategies that can potentially yield more realistic results are continually being sought. The Handbook of Research on Digital Research Methods and Architectural Tools in Urban Planning and Design is a critical reference source that comprehensively covers the concepts and processes of more than 20 new methods in both planning and design in the field of architecture and aims to explain the ways for researchers to apply these methods in their works. Pairing innovative approaches alongside traditional research methods, the physical dimensions of traditional and new cities are addressed in addition to the non-physical aspects and applied models that are currently under development in new settlements such as sustainable cities, smart cities, creative cities, and intercultural cities. Featuring a wide range of topics such as built environment, urban morphology, and city information modeling, this book is essential for researchers, academicians, professionals, technology developers, architects, engineers, and policymakers.

The book embarks on the tasks to systematically analyze the macro background of the spatial patterns of China's urban development, the theoretical foundations and framework, and its changing trajectory. From a quantitative perspective, we attempt to evaluate the rationale behind the spatial patterns of China's urban development and systematically simulate the various scenarios. From the simulation results, we propose the optimizing goals, priorities, models, and strategies for the spatial patterns of China's urban development. The work in this book attempts to provide constructive suggestions and potential strategies to support the effort to optimize the spatial patterns of China's urban development. It would be a valuable reference for planning departments, development and reform committees, and science and technology administrative departments at various governmental levels. It could also be a valuable addition to graduate students of urban planning, urban development, urban geography and relevant disciplines.

From Yellowstone to the Great Smoky Mountains, America's national parks are sprawling tracts of serenity, most of them carved out of public land for recreation and preservation around the turn of the last century. America has changed dramatically since then, and so has its conceptions of what parkland ought to be.

In this book, one of our premier environmental historians looks at the new phenomenon of urban parks, focusing on San Francisco's Golden Gate National Recreation Area as a prototype for the twenty-first century. Cobbled together from public and private lands in a politically charged arena, the GGNRA represents a new direction for parks as it highlights the long-standing tension within the National Park Service between preservation and recreation.

Long a center of conservation, the Bay Area was well positioned for such an innovative concept. Writing with insight and wit, Rothman reveals the many complex challenges that local leaders, politicians, and the NPS faced as they attempted to administer sites in this area. He tells how Representative Phillip Burton guided a comprehensive bill through Congress to establish the park and how he and others expanded the acreage of the GGNRA, redefined its mission to the public, forged an identity for interconnected parks, and struggled against formidable odds to obtain the San Francisco Presidio and convert it into a national park.

Engagingly written, "The New Urban Park" offers a balanced examination of grassroots politics and its effect on municipal, state, and federal policy. While most national parks dominate the economies of their regions, GGNRA was from the start tied to the multifaceted needs of its public and political constituents-including neighborhood, ethnic, and labor interests as well as the usual supporters from the conservation movement.

As a national recreation area, GGNRA helped redefine that category in the public mind. By the dawn of the new century, it had already become one of the premier national park areas in terms of visitation. Now as public lands become increasingly scarce, GGNRA may well represent the future of national parks in America. Rothman shows that this model works, and his book will be an invaluable resource for planning tomorrow's parks.

Implementing Automated Road Transport Systems in Urban Settings provides valuable, objective, often difficult-to-obtain data, gleaned from the largest demonstration project on automated road transport systems (ARTS) in the world to date. The book features chapters authored by those deeply involved in CityMobil2-providing an easily accessible, cross-referenced resource for data and information on each aspect of the project. Chapters cover vehicle technical specifications, infrastructure analysis, operating systems, future scenario analysis, automated and conventional vehicle comparisons, and legal frameworks for system implementation. The book examines project field tests, showing the technology's adaptability and different requirements based on geographic location. Government officials, researchers, and transportation practitioners require real-world data and analysis in their efforts to bring automated and intelligent transport systems into the mainstream. The CityMobil2 demonstration transported more than 60,000 passengers in seven European cities, providing immense amounts of feedback and data to be analyzed. The book provides international expert opinion on this real-world data, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the project, as well as providing comparisons to both past and planned ARTS demonstration initiatives. The technical specifications developed from the project will help cities considering similar ARTS initiatives.

Advances in Transport Policy and Planning assesses both successful and unsuccessful practices and policies from around the world on the topic. This new release includes chapters that focus on An Empirical Investigation of the Reward Incentive and Trip Purposes on Departure Time Behavior Change, Planning Sustainable Transport Systems by Promoting Urban Cycling in Moscow, Russia: Learning from International Experience, the Past, Present and Future of Transit-Oriented Development in three European Capital City Regions, Institutional Influences on the Development of Urban Freight Transport Policies by Local Authorities, Rethinking of Parking Policies for the new Transport Planning Era, and more.

As the population of the greater Las Vegas area grows and the climate warms, the threat of a water shortage looms over southern Nevada. But as Christian S. Harrison demonstrates in All the Water the Law Allows, the threat of shortage arises not from the local environment but from the American legal system, specifically the Law of the River that governs water allocation from the Colorado River. In this political and legal history of the Las Vegas water supply, Harrison focuses on the creation and actions of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to tell a story with profound implications and important lessons for water politics and natural resource policy in the twenty-first century. In the state with the smallest allocation of the Colorado's water supply, Las Vegas faces the twin challenges of aridity and federal law to obtain water for its ever-expanding population. All the Water the Law Allows describes how the impending threat of shortage in the 1980s compelled the five metropolitan water agencies of greater Las Vegas to unify into a single entity. Harrison relates the circumstances of the SNWA's evolution and reveals how the unification of local, county, and state interests allowed the compact to address regional water policy with greater force and focus than any of its peers in the Colorado River Basin. Most notably, the SNWA has mapped conservation plans that have drastically reduced local water consumption; and, in the interstate realm, it has been at the center of groundbreaking, water-sharing agreements. Yet these achievements do not challenge the fundamental primacy of the Law of the River. If current trends continue and the Basin States are compelled to reassess the river's distribution, the SNWA will be a force and a model for the Basin as a whole.

This book presents new insights into the consequences of the impending growth in and impact of the older segment of Latino aging adults across distinctive regions of the Americas. It uses a comparative research framework to further understanding of current issues in health and aging in the transnational context of the health and migratory experiences of the U.S.- Mexican population. It provides an important contribution to the interdisciplinary investigation of chronic diseases and functional impairments, social care and medical services, care-giving and intervention development, and neighborhood factors supporting optimal aging, using new conceptual and methodological approaches (inter-group comparisons). Specifically, the chapters employ different methodologies that investigate trends in aging health and services related to immigration processes, family and household structure, macroeconomic changes in the quality of community life, and focus on the new realities of aging in Latino families in local communities. The book focuses on measurement, data-quality issues, new conceptual modeling techniques, and longitudinal survey capabilities, and suggests needed areas of new research. As such it is of interest to researchers and policy makers in a wide range of disciplines from social and behavioral sciences to economics, gerontology, geriatrics, and public health.

The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and costly solutions. The public sector has a responsibility to stimulate the marketplace in favor of the provision of more resource-efficient and less polluting goods, services, and works in order to support environmental and wider sustainable development objectives. Developing Eco-Cities Through Policy, Planning, and Innovation: Can It Really Work? examines the economic, political, social, and environmental objectives essential to the planning and support of future communities. Highlighting a range of topics such as environmental sustainability, waste management, and green cities, this publication is an ideal reference source for environmental engineers, environmentalists, city development planners, urban planners, technology developers, policymakers, industrialists, academicians, and researchers interested in solving environmental issues.

What's the difference between a group of houses and a real community? Author Lola L. Lucas explores this question in "At Home in the Park: Loving a Neighborhood Back to Life."

Lucas chronicles the rebirth of Enos Park, a section of Springfield, Illinois, just north of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Like many cities, the area went through a period of urban decay before rebounding. The Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association (EPNIA) was largely responsible for this change.

Lucas's columns about Enos Park have appeared in the "EPNIA Banner" since 1992. With wisdom and wry humor, she shows why it's worth the effort to reweave a neighborhood's social fabric in order for residents to once again enjoy their homes. Lucas writes about community policing, ice cream socials, neighborhood patrols, and evening strolls on tree-lined sidewalks. Through the efforts of the EPNIA, the citizens of Enos Park reclaimed their streets and loved their neighborhood back to life.

Promoting rural entrepreneurship is a necessary step to limit the negative effects of classical agricultural policy based on a linear process and attracting secondary resources to the economic process. The analysis of agricultural policy and rural development in conjunction to entrepreneurship in terms of production may represent a further step in understanding the role and importance of diversifying the rural potentials in contemporary economies. The Handbook of Research on Agricultural Policy, Rural Development, and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Economies is an essential publication of academic research that examines agricultural policy and its impact on shaping future resilient economy in rural areas and identifies green business models and new business patterns in rural communities. Covering a range of topics such as entrepreneurship, product management, and marketing, this book is ideal for researchers, policymakers, academicians, economists, agriculture professionals, rural developers, business investors, and students.