Surface water and groundwater are the most important water sources in the natural environment. Land use and seasonal factors play an important role in influencing the quality of these water sources. An in-depth understanding of the role of these two influential factors can help to implement an...

North American urban areas have changed dramatically over the last four decades. While downtowns were thought to be in long-term decline 40 years ago, central business districts are today the most vibrant residential and commercial centers throughout a largely suburban continent. This paper...

The purpose of this paper is to consider the effectiveness of land use policy as aninstrument for reducing environmental and other external costs associated with ownership anduse of the private automobile. Emphasis is placed on the long run, since land use change is a slowprocess, and...

Spatial planning and policy continues to be used as a tool to bring about changes in travel behavior. Policy suggests that by creating particular urban forms, demand for travel by car can be reduced. This paper uses data collected in 2006 from 280 households in Glasgow and Edinburgh to analyze...

Previous literature has suggested that the urban form (i.e., city size, density, and center distribution pattern) influences urban energy consumption. It has been argued that more dense development is likely to result in more energy-efficient and sustainable cities. However, very little is known...

This paper measures the benefits of the urban forest by examining its effect on housing prices. A Geographic Information System is used to develop a measure of the urban forest, the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index, from satellite imagery and to construct other variables from a variety of...

This paper explores the relationship between land use patterns and individual mobility from a comparative international perspective. There is a vast literature on US automobile dependence. Major explanatory factors include: transportation, housing, land use and tax policy; per capita incomes;...

Bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have gained prominence worldwide as a cost-effective alternative to urban rail investments. However, some question the city-shaping potential of BRT, in part due to a belief it delivers fewer regional accessibility benefits than rail, but also to the social stigma...

Stormwaters, flowing into storm sewers, are known to significantly increase the annual pollutant loads entering urban receiving waters and this results in significant degradation of the receiving water quality. Knowledge of the characteristics of stormwater pollution enables urban planners to...