Developing a Health-Spatial Indicator System for a Healthy City in Small and Midsized Cities.

A recent examination of the significant role of public health has prompted calls to re-investigate how the urban environment affects public health. A vital part of the solution includes Healthy City initiatives that have been the subject of extensive policies, implications, and practices globally. However, the existing literature mainly focuses on big cities and metropolitan areas, while investigations into small and midsized cities (SMCs) are lacking, and thus reflect the underlying issues of health inequity. This study develops an indicator system for evaluating Healthy City initiatives in SMCs, linking urban design and public health, supported by the analyzed opinions from experts collected using both questionnaires and interviews. The indicator system includes six primary dimensions and 37 variables: urban form and transportation (UFT); health-friendly service (HFS); environmental quality and governance (EQG); community and facility (CF); green and open space (GOS); and ecological construction and biodiversity (ECB). A fuzzy synthetic evaluation technique was used to assess the relative importance of factors, emphasizing the importance of UFT, HFS, and EQG, with importance indexes of 0.175, 0.174, and 0.174, respectively. This indicator system is helpful for SMCs seeking to construct a Healthy City in the future, and is based on urban design and governance inputs and for enhancing the Healthy City knowledge base of cities of varied scales.

A Policy Framework for Producing Age-Friendly Communities from the Perspective of Production of Space.

Given various hindrances in the macro context, how to efficiently develop age-friendly community policies requires further research. Currently, such kinds of frameworks are lacking. This paper aims to develop a policy framework to minimise cost and resolve conflict of interest between different generations in age-friendly community development. The study adopted a scientometric method to review the theoretical development of age-friendly community studies. Firstly, with a search for the keywords "age-friendly" and "community" on Web of Science, 72 English academic papers were found containing explicit theories. Most of the studies were conducted in the Global North. Then, a mixed analytical method was used to find a suitable theory, "the production of space", to develop the policy framework. Lastly, a policy framework was developed to overcome barriers to age-friendly community development strategically. Echoing previous studies, this paper proposes a way to counter financial austerity in age-friendly initiative investment and balance the consideration for older and younger populations in urban development. For practice, the policy framework can provide a reference for more efficient age-friendly community policymaking in different regions. For future research, the framework provides a model for more empirical studies considering the social dynamics in age-friendly community development.

Environmental management system vs green specifications: how do they complement each other in the construction industry?

Environmental Management System (EMS) has been one of the important tools for sustainable construction for around two decades. However, many issues concerning sustainable development have not been properly addressed, and there is a need for the introduction of green specifications to advance green performance in construction through contract management. This paper defines green specifications, identifies the reasons for adopting green specifications and highlights the environmental issues that may not be addressed by solely adopting EMS. It also presents the results of a recent survey of practitioners concerning their opinions towards green specifications and possible impacts arising from their adoption. From the results of the survey, a framework for developing green specifications is deemed valuable for the cities striving for sustainability. Interestingly, the level of acceptable changes brought about by green specifications as perceived by different industry stakeholders is found to be unrelated to whether they were from organizations implementing EMS or not.

Factors affecting the implementation of green specifications in construction.

Green specifications constitute one of the important elements in green construction. New sustainability requirements and changing priorities in construction management have spurred the emerging green specifications to a faster pace of development. A cross-sectional survey has been conducted in Hong Kong in 2007 to identify principal factors leading to the success of preparing green specifications. Based on extensive construction management literature, 20 variables concerning sustainable construction were summarized. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, the subtle differences between stakeholders in specifying construction work have been detected even with the high consistency of the responses among the groups. Moreover, five independent factors for successful specification of green construction have been categorized by factor analysis. They are related to (1) green technology and techniques, (2) reliability and quality of specification, (3) leadership and responsibility, (4) stakeholder involvement, and (5) guide and benchmarking systems. Whilst the first and fourth factors are generally more important, different stakeholder groups have different emphases. The results of the survey have been validated against established principles.

Evaluation of Hall's Professionalism Scale for professionals in the construction industry.

Hall's conceptualisation of professionalism, among other studies, was considered the most representative modern concept; his scale has been studied widely. This study aimed to evaluate empirically the Snizek modified version of Hall's Professionalism Scale for building professionals. The scale was tested in a cross-section of 510 qualified building professionals selected from four countries. Using a cross-national electronic questionnaire survey, a series of statistical analyses were conducted to evaluate the Snizek's modification. Analysis suggested that data for scale validation are consistent in confirming it is a five-factor scale; however, the scale should be subjected to a further refinement before it can be used in research.

Urban Fringe Land Use Transitions in Hong Kong: From New Towns to New Development Areas.

Land in urban fringe area is the primary source for land supply and development. In Hong Kong (HK), nine new towns have been built in New Territories since 1970s, providing 172.6 km2 built-up land and large amount of residences for 3.4 million people. However, due to land scarcity, development restriction, and social opposition, New Development Area (NDA), as the small-scale extension of New Town (NT), was designated as one of the main approaches for HK medium and long term land supply. To demonstrate the characteristics of urban fringe land use transitions in Hong Kong, literature review and case study were used in this research. The history of new town development and the scheme of new development areas were introduced firstly. Afterwards, the land use features of NT and NDA were compared and the case of Hung Shui Kiu NDA was illustrated. It is concluded that while housing, infrastructure and facility were the main elements in NTs, employment, vibrancy and environment were suggested to be the new compulsory elements in NDAs integrated to the traditional planning concepts. As for the development approach, lease modification was adopted in NDA to allow private landowners directly develop their land, in addition to the traditional development approach of land resumption in NT. It is suggested to ensure the development of NDA, the proposed development plan should be persuasive to provide the optimal land use distribution as a trade-off among the profits of developers, the interests of local villager, government concern and the provision of land for future residents. Also, community engagement will play a more important role in NDA planning process. Referring to the analysis of urban fringe land use transitions and strategies for planning and development, the study would also be helpful to others growing cities.