Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/11375/9455
Title: | Exploring and Modeling the Urban Land Development Process in Hamilton, Ontario |
Authors: | Koronios, Manolis |
Advisor: | Kanaroglou, Pavlos S. Maoh, Hmma F. |
Department: | Geography and Earth Sciences |
Keywords: | Earth Sciences;Geography;Earth Sciences |
Publication Date: | May-2009 |
Abstract: | <p>The form of many Canadian cities has dramatically evolved over the past six decades due to urban sprawl. Several patterns can characterize this evolution including unlimited horizontal expansion of the city, scattered, leapfrog, and power center retail development. Hamilton, Ontario is an example of a Canadian city that has experienced such patterns of development. The evolution of urban form is mainly dliven by the land development process. Since land developers are the drivers of such process, their behaviour is an important factor contributing to the spatial configuration of urban areas. However, our knowledge of the residential development process and the behaviour of land developers is still limited. This thesis has two objectives. First, it explores the spatiotemporal patterns of the land development process in Hamilton between 1950 and 2003. Second, it explains the major locational factors affecting the behaviour of land developers with respect to the choice of the housing type when they develop a site for residential use. For the first objective, a number of spatial statistics techniques, namely kernel estimation and K-function estimation, are used to examine the locational patterns of urban land development. The study is based on parcel level data for the period 1950 - 2003. The findings indicate that sprawl and suburbanization have been evolving Hamilton's urban form from monocentric to polycentric over the study period. Furthennore, time lagged co-clustering between the locational patterns of commercial and residential land development is pronounced in the 1990's. For the second objective, several Multinomial Logit Models that explain the housing-type choice behaviour of land developers are estimated. Four alternative type-choices facing developers are modeled: detached, semi-detached, row-link, and condominium housing. The specification of the four utilities includes road infrastructure, residential amenities, and general site characteristics variables. The results suggest that developers supply detached, row-link, and semidetached houses at locations that exhibit suburban characteristics. However, semidetached development is attracted to locations in suburban municipalities at sites that have more urbanized characteristics. In addition, the row-link housing type is attracted to suburban locations that enjoy very high levels of mobility and accessibility to amenities and road infrastructure. Finally, the condominium housing type is attracted to locations that exhibit the most urbanized features.</p> |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/9455 |
Identifier: | opendissertations/4577 5597 2048522 |
Appears in Collections: | Open Access Dissertations and Theses |
Files in This Item:
File | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|
fulltext.pdf | 64.93 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.