Factors influencing vertical urban development at the parcel scale: The case in Brisbane, Australia

Abstract

Increasing urban density has become an important focus in mitigating the adverse impacts of urban sprawl. A common way to increase urban density is the development of multi-story residential housing, or vertical urban development (VUD). Compared to low-rise detached housing, VUD has been purported to be more effective in mitigating the adverse impact of urban sprawl. This paper examines factors influencing VUD through a case study of Brisbane, Australia. Three types of housing developments – low-rise detached houses, low-rise apartments, and medium- to high-rise apartments – are explored, with the latter two types classified as VUD. Building on the literature that suggests a range of environmental, socio-demographic, built environment, and planning regulations factors driving or constraining VUD, our study further explores how land parcel size and parcel change over time either through parcel amalgamation or subdivision as factors driving VUD. The findings show that parcel size and parcel amalgamation are key factors leading to VUD, particularly in the form of medium- to high-rise apartment development. On the other hand, land use upzoning alone does not appear to be sufficient to drive VUD. Our study enriches the understanding of the scale effects of land parcels and zoning regulation on vertical urban development, and contributes to parcel-based land use planning policies that are targeted at more intensive urban land use.

Three-dimensional land-use configuration and property prices: A spatially filtered multi-level modelling perspective

“…Helbich et al (2013) used data derived from three-dimensional airborne laser scanning to model the solar radiation premium of flat prices, while Kara et al (2020) discussed using three-dimensional information to better estimate and explain property unit values. More recently, Huang et al (2022) explored the factors contributing to vertical urban development in Brisbane, Australia. There is a dearth of empirical work exploring such relationships in the context of China.…”

Developing A Strategic Framework to Build Future Last Mile Delivery Scenarios: A Scenario Thinking Approach

“…Growing pressure for urban compactness and burgeoning demand for e-commerce in large urban agglomerations have made LMD more complex, inefficient, costly, and labour-intensive (Ewedairo, Chhetri, & Jie, 2018;Lemardelé, Estrada, Pagès, & Bachofner, 2021;Perboli & Rosano, 2019). As the demand for LMD is expected to grow by 78% over the next decade (Rode, Heeckt, Huerta Melchor, Flynn, & Liebenau, 2021), the evolving urban development and planning on city compactness model, increased dwelling density in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) nodes and vertical urban growth continues to shape the future of LMD (Huang, Lieske, & Liu, 2022;Limb, Grodach, Mayere, & Donehue, 2020). During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, e-retailers and parcel logistics operators were compelled to adopt a variety of delivery models to enhance operational efficiency of last mile distribution (Winkenbach & Janjevic, 2018) to maintain financial viability and short-term business sustainability.…”

“…Yet, the cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency of LMD logistics have remained challenging to cope with the growing global trade volatility with increased restructuring of cities. To retain cost-effectiveness and ontime delivery of urban freight, future LMD logistics needs further investigation, given the evolving uncertainties and complexities associated with the creation of compact cities (Huang et al, 2022;Randolph, 2006).…”

“…The provision of LMD logistics is not only an operational problem but also a policy challenge. The growing built and regulatory environment controls to contain and manage urban growth and freight traffic continues to impact cost-effectiveness of LMD (Chhetri, Han, Chandra, & Corcoran, 2013;Huang et al, 2022;Limb et al, 2020). Controlling the land use also increases the city compactness in strategic nodes/hubs, and is more likely to deter the movement of urban freight around TOD nodes and thus create further challenges to LMD (Cardenas et al, 2017;Ewedairo et al, 2018;Morris, Kornhauser & Kay, 1999).…”