Title Introduction
Author/ URL
1. Impact of road Transport infrastructural
expansion projects development remains a
on the informal major tool for achieving the
sector in Akure, aspirations of the
Ondo State, Nigeria newly introduced economic
Mary Ajayi, Babajide Ojo, principles of the Federal
Michael Olukolajo and Government of Nigeria, the
Abiodun Oyetunji National
https://bit.ly/2OkKJZW Economic Empowerment and
Development Strategy
(NEEDS). However, the
condition of
Nigerian roads has not
ceased to amaze discerning
observers and in effect, the
roads have been
ranked among the worst in
the world. A significant
portion of post independence
studies on
transport systems have been
devoted to examination of
successive Nigerian
government`s
budgetary allocations and
development in the transport
sector in general (Iweze,
2011).
Sustainable development
requires governments to
provide public facilities and
infrastructure that
Methods
Akure Township is located in
the Akure-South Local
Government area of Ondo
State, Nigeria. It
serves as the administrative
capital of both Akure-South
LGA and Ondo State. Akure
has a
population of 253,365
people. The increased rate of
population growth in the
study area is
evidenced by the census
figure of 2006 which puts
Akure south at 353,211
(Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 2007).The spatial
distribution of the population
within the town is related to
the level of economic
development and
government policy. The urban
population is skewed towards
low-
income earning capacity and
relative lack of access to
economic and social
resources. The people of
Akure are mostly traders and
farmers. A few of the
residents are employed in the
Public
Service. Akure has no major
Results
and
Discussion
Respondents were asked
about the type of business,
type of business premise,
number of years in
business, number of years in
present shop, monthly
income (₦), effects of the
road expansion
and adequacy of
compensation by the
government. The results are
presented in this section.
Table 1 shows that trading in
building materials accounted
for 38% of the business
activities on
Arakale road, trading in other
goods accounted for 36%,
service providers such as
tailors,
barbers and hair dressers
accounted for 14% while
artisans such as welder, shoe
maker and
vulcanizer were 12% of the
respondents. These reveal
that the Arakale road is
predominantly a
commercial road where a lot
of workers in the informal
sector earn their living.
The type of business premise
being used by the informal
Conclusion
This paper has revealed the
impact of the expansion of
Arakale road, a major
commercial area in
Akure, Nigeria on the
informal sector, mainly
traders and artisans. The loss
of customers due to
the demolition of business
premises, accompanied by
inaccessible roads to new
make-shift shops
had resulted into reduction in
profit and meager income.
Although the state
government paid a
token as compensation for
the displaced trader, it was
seen as inadequate by the
affected traders
compared to the loss and
inconveniences incurred. The
study recommends the
provision of
accessible and affordable
shopping complexes for the
traders and speedy
completion of the road
project to reduce the
hindrance of customers in
reaching the business area
which affects the
economy of the informal
ensure safety and security,
health and welfare, social
and economic enhancement,
and protection
and restoration of the natural
environment. An early step in
the process of providing such
facilities and infrastructure is
the acquisition of appropriate
land.
Livability in cities is enhanced
by availability of social
amenities including planned
open spaces.
Urban aesthetics, visual order
and cultural characters are
reflected in these spaces. The
urban
open space planning concept
evolved out of evolutionary
trend of western city
development.
Planning for beauty is one of
the dominant issues in formal
city planning and this is
rooted in the
urban spaces development.
Two classical movements
that sharpen the concept of
urban open
spaces planning are the city
park movement made
popular in 1865 by Fredrick
law Olstead
design of city of New York
Central Park (Mumford,1961)
and Ebenezer Howard in
1902
industry. Over 70% of the
residents of Akure are
participating in the
informal economic sector.
The Ondo State Government
under the administration of
Dr. Olusegun
Mimiko embarked on urban
renewal projects and projects
targeted at the welfare of the
people in
the state. The road widening
and beautification projects in
the state capital which are
ongoing
have begun to increase the
beauty of Akure and have
drastically reduced the traffic
congestion at
the major Oba Adesida/
Oyemekun roads. However,
in the process of road
widening and
reclamation of setback, a lot
of workers in the informal
sector who earned their
livelihood at the city centre
were displaced and had to
find alternative locations in
the periphery. This
constituted
to the high demand for space
to erect a temporary
structure in the study area.
Target population is the
informal sector workers
especially owners of business
premises along
workers ranged from lock-up workers. There is need to
shop to take into cognisance the
temporary wooden shop informal sector and
along the road. The type of their space requirement
business premise is while planning the city.
determined by the type
of goods being sold and the
availability of space and
finance. This points to need
for government
intervention in provision of
shopping complexes in
locations that will enhance
both the
livelihood of the informal
workers and the spatial
planning of the city.
Table 3 shows that 32% have
been in business for over 10
years, 38% of the
respondents have
been in business between 6
and 10years while 30% of the
respondents have been in
business for
less than five (5) years. This
shows the increasing influx of
people into Akure for
commercial
activities. From oral interview
with the respondents, most
of them relocated from their
hometowns (mostly from the
eastern part of Nigeria) to
Akure to set up their
businesses in
greener pasture. As a city
grows in population and
``Garden City Concept‟‟ in
England. (Gallion et al, 1980)
Arakale road, Akure.
Participant observation
revealed an agglomeration of
traders and other
workers in the informal
sector along the Arakale road.
The sampling frame for this
research is all
the shops along Arakale road
which numbers
approximately 200 out of
which 50% was used as
the sample size. Shops were
picked using simple random
sampling to select the sample
size of
100 traders. Research
instrument was a set of
closed ended questionnaires
distributed and
retrieved from the
respondents. Oral interview
was also conducted on
selected traders in the
study area.
commercial activities, there is
need for spatial
planning to accommodate
the need for commercial land
use in the city.
Table 4 reveals that 70% of
the respondents have been in
their present shop for less
than two
years while the remaining
30% have been there for a
period between 3-5 years.
This is as a result
of the demolition of their
permanent shops and
structures by the government
in the year 2010.
This is another very obvious
effect which the expansion of
the road had on the informal
workers/traders on Arakale
road. The table above shows
that 66% of the respondents
earn a
monthly income or profit
which is below ₦10000, while
only 4% have a monthly
income that is
above ₦50000.
Table 7 shows the
inadequacy of the
compensation paid to the
traders/shop owners by the
government. 46% of the
respondents were of the
opinion that the
compensation paid to them
was

2. Impact of Widening The quality of life and socio-
Highway on the economic conditions of living
Socio-economic of people of a so-
Wellbeing of Rural ciety is crucially dependent
Households on the connectivity of their
living in Proximity habitats with roads
Ramprasad Sengupta which would determine the
Dipankor Coondoo speed and ease with which
Bhisma Rout they can move in person and
https://bit.ly/2XnmQVq carry their goods, to have
access to market, place of
work and basic amenities of
life and social services of
health and education.
Development of transport
facility including that of
ground fixed infrastruc-
ture of highways and urban
and rural roads can, however,
play a signifi-
cant role not only in changing
the socio-economic
conditions of living of the
people of a region but also
impact on the distributional
pattern of such
very inadequate. Data from
oral interview with the
respondents shows that each
trader that had a
shop on Arakale road was
paid ₦20000 as
compensation for his shop
that was demolished to be
used to cover their rent but
which was not even close to
the rent paid for the shops.
Nonparametric Regression The outcome variables as
Propensity Score Matching listed can be classified into
Technique seven groups of house-
Method of Differencing hold level outcomes for the
purpose of the present
analysis. These relate to
(i) the poverty status, (ii)
mobility, (iii) income,
employment and occupa-
tion, (iv) housing condition
and asset ownership, (v)
access to health, edu-
Sengupta, Coondoo and
Rout: Impact of widening of
Highway 17
cation and other
infrastructural facilities, (vi)
attitudinal variables
reflecting
a household’s perception
about its own poverty status
and the possibility of
improvement of its
employment opportunities
The basic premise that has
been empirically investigated
in this paper relates
to the effect that a highway
or its widening may have on
the socioeconomic
lives of the people, especially
the poorer people, living in
the proximity of
the highway. From an
aggregative developmental
perspective, an improve-
ment of transport
infrastructure is expected to
lead to income growth by
promoting traffic and freight
movement and thereby
expanding the size and
the access to the markets
through a variety of direct
and indirect linkage
effects. The consideration of
equity demands that the
benefits of such huge
developmental benefits
through dynamic
externalities operating on
geographic space affecting
the geographic landscape of
its the economic activities.
This paper is based on a
study designed to examine
the socio-economic
impact of widening5 of a
stretch of one of India’s
oldest national highways
(viz., the National Highway 2
(NH2)) on the rural
population living in its
Proximity.
The issue of poverty
alleviation gains importance
in this case
because most of the area
through which this stretch of
NH2 passes have high
incidence of rural poverty,
according to official poverty
estimates. In this
paper an analytical
framework and methodology
of socio-economic impact
evaluation has been posed
and applied in assessing the
impact of this four
laning of NH2.
due to the widening of NH2,
and, finally, (vii) composite
indices of household well-
being that combine relevant
outcome variables. The total
number of outcome variables
considered is 29
public investment schemes
trickle down to the poorest in
the society. This
would indeed be so if, at the
household level, the partial
effect of a highway
or its widening ultimately
leads to an improvement in
the level of well-being
of the households,
particularly the poorer ones,
living in the proximity of
the highway.
As we have argued here
analytically in terms of a rural
household model,
such positive effects at the
micro level is likely to take
place, because the
closer a household is to the
highway, the greater would
be its mobility and
connectivity and hence
access to the various
economic opportunities and
amenities of life. To put it
differently, one would expect
the possible welfare
effects of a highway on the
households living in proximity
to decline as the
approach distance of the
household from the highway
rises and ultimately
to disappear beyond a
threshold distance. In other
words, for two otherwise
comparable households,

3. A STUDY ABOUT One of the most vital
THE elements that can serve as
DETERMINANTS OF the key to achieving
ROAD competitiveness is the
CONSTRUCTION IN provision of infrastructure. In
THEPHILIPPINES general, infrastructure serves
Angelico COPO Margarita as the backbone of a
ESQUEJO Dawn GARCIA functioning society by
Zsarmaine SARMIENTO providing a well-suited
https://bit.ly/379sPSB environment for upgrading
the economic status of a
country. Research conducted
by Aschauer (1989) and
Munnell (1990) report a
positive correlation between
public infrastructure and
productivity aggregated to
the national level [as cited by
Eberts, 1990]. Infrastructure
affects economic growth
through its impact on
profitability, levels of output,
income and employment
through lessening production
costs [NEDA, 2000]. The
study will focus on hard
infrastructure specifically
roads. Roads are catalysts in
promoting economic activity.
It helps an economy adapt to
the rapid pace of
In this section, the empirical
model, econometric
techniques, and the data that
will be used to explain the
relationship of road
construction to the various
political, economic, and
geographic factors will be
explained.
Results show that the Gross
Domestic Product per capita
at the time of budget
allocation planning which is 3
years ago per region,
positively affects the
provision of roads, whether
total road or in any road
types. The reason for such
relationship could be
attributed to the fact that in
order to increase economic
activity and investment
attractiveness, it is vital that
hard infrastructure, such as
roads, should be constructed.
It could also be noted that
concrete has the highest
coefficient relative to the 3
other road types, followed by
gravel roads, and then earth
roads. Thus, the government
greatly prioritizes on greatest
quality of roads. Although,
asphalt has the lowest
coefficient, it is important to
note that GDP per capita is
not a determinant of asphalt
for results show that it is
insignificant. It appears in the
results that more quality
there would be a differential
welfare impact of the
highway or its widening –
one living in the influence
zone of the highway
and the other living in the
control zone.
Based on the results
gathered, the paper finds
that almost all the
independent variables
positively impact the roads
provided in a region. Some of
the independent variables
that greatly contributed to
the dependent variable
include GDP, private business
establishments, and number
of employed individuals. The
results for the other
regressions, which also
include the official budget for
road expenditure as a
dependent variable, remain
consistent with the literature.
However, it can be noted
that population density in
most of the results has a
negative relationship with
the dependent variable, both
for total roads constructed
and the official budget
allocated as dependent
variables. In addition, the
centre periphery model
proves to hold in the
Philippine setting. Based on
the results obtained from the
globalization. Roads promote
the mobility of goods and
services. Transport costs are
considered as a crucial
determinant of the location,
scale of economic activity,
and the pattern of trade. The
presence of good quality
roads help in decreasing
transport costs and attaining
better market access. There
are lesser incidences of
spoilage or breakage of
goods transported. There will
also be lesser repairs to the
vehicle used in transporting
goods. Travel time will be
shorter causing more
efficiency. If the
transportation cost is
reasonable, it will also be
easier for the government
and for the firms to achieve
their target in food
production, farm crops, and
manufactured goods [Llanto,
2003]. In addition, roads also
help foster trade, foreign aid,
market networks, and
livelihood for the people. This
study is anchored towards
verifying whether there is
unequal distribution of
infrastructure in the
Philippines. It will focus on
examining the possible
determinants of road
allocation in the geographic,
roads such as concrete are
constructed in centers which
usually have higher GDP per
capita as compared to the
peripheries with low
economic development.
study, it can be observed that
there is a large disparity
between the NCR and the
other regions, especially the
ARMM region. Because of
this inequality between
regions, the growth of these
periphery areas is stunted (or
overshadowed) by the
growth experienced by the
center regions one of which
is NCR. The DPWH should
implement stricter measures
in investing for programs per
region. All of the regions
should get what they aptly
deserve. Though it may not
be in the exact same
denominations, at the very
least, the budget allocated
for such expenditures should
be proportional to the region
in question.
political, and economic
aspect. The geographic
determinants that will be
tested are population density
and number of vehicles. The
political determinant is the
official budget for road
construction. Finally the
number of private
establishments, number of
employed individuals, and
GDP per capita will be part of
the economic determinants.
These determinants will be
tested on a per region basis
to help answer the question
whether the distribution of
road infrastructure is really
unequal or not through
analysis of the regression
results which are to be
presented later in this paper.
The dependent variables are
road quality kilometers
constructed like that of
concrete, asphalt, gravel, and
earth plus the official budget
to measure road allocation in
monetary terms. This will
help provide information on
whether the
abovementioned
determinants also affect the
budget allocation for road
construction. The results
attained can help offer
suggestions to help alleviate
the plight of regions with
 limited road infrastructure.
4. Urban Road Rapid urban expansion is an
Network Expansion important period for
and Its Driving developing countries due to
Variables: A Case the burgeoning
Study of Nanjing economy as well as the road
City network expansion [1]. The
Ge Shi world’s urbanization rate has
Jie Shan increased from
Liang Ding 39% to 52% for the last three
Peng Ye decades and is expected to
Yang Li reach around 66% by the
Nan Jiang year 2050. The increase
https://bit.ly/2QqiVpv in urbanization in developing
countries is much more rapid
than in developed countries
[2,3]. Managing growing
cities is both critical and
complex. Urbanization
development greatly
increases convenience
for the residents but at the
same time carries the risks of
arable land shortage, over-
population, traffic
congestion, food security
problems, environmental
pollution, public health
threats, and so on [4,5]. For
this reason, research about
the regulation of urban
expansion has become even
more significant in
order to keep the city
sustainable. Urban expansion
regulation has been an
important research topic for
This paper uses the road
network data of Nanjing for
2012 and 2016, provided by
the National
Earth System Science Data
Sharing Infrastructure
(http://www.geodata.cn),
Yangtze River Delta
Science Data Center
(http://nnu.geodata.cn:8008)
[48], which serves as
Nanjing’s basic geographic
map. However, the data does
not provide the road grades
and types like artery roads or
branch
roads, thus the road network
in this paper refers to all
types of roads in Nanjing
aggregated
together. All images provided
are under the WGS1984
coordinate system.
• City Boundary Data
This paper uses city boundary
data of Jiangsu province from
the National Science &
Technology Infrastructure of
China, National Earth System
Science Data Sharing
Infrastructure
(http://www.geodata.cn)
[48].
• Social and Economic Data
This paper uses Jiangsu
Statistical Yearbook data and
The road network
distribution of Nanjing in
2012 and 2016 was taken as
the case study. The
spatial distribution patterns
of the road network are
generated based on the line
density estimation
model (Figure 2). It revealed
that the distribution is
uneven across the city, and
there is obvious
concentration to the south of
the Yangtze River, with some
of the densest regions spread
along the
Yangtze River, and then
gradually dispersed to the
periphery. The overall
distribution of the road
network shows a
morphological character of
two horizontal and one
vertical concentration lines.
There is no doubt that the
downtown area has the
highest road network density,
which was mainly
distributed in Xuanwu
district, Qinhuai district and
the east part of Jianye district
in the year 2012. It
is clear to see the high
density district expanded
until 2016, mainly around the
former high-density
In this study, taking the road
network of Nanjing for 2012
and 2016 as an example, we
analyzed
the temporal and spatial
patterns of the road network
distribution, its dynamic
patterns, and potential
social and environmental
influences through a
mathematical and spatial
model. To be specific, we
analyzed the road network
line density spatially, road
network expansion rate, and
the correlation
between road network
expansion and the industry
structure, PM2.5
concentration and population
distribution. From the
discussions above, the
following main conclusions
were reached:
(1) The distribution of the
road network appears
uneven in Nanjing, where the
downtown area has
the highest road network
density, which decreases out
to the periphery. The Yangtze
River divides
the city and the road network
concentration into two clear
parts. In the southern part,
there
years, and scholars have
studied it from multiple
perspectives. Existing studies
about urban expansion are
mainly about
economic development,
built-up area growth, land
use and cover change, and
population growth,
which have been investigated
using government statistic
year books, Landsat remote
sensing images,
and so on [12–15]. The
primary objective of this
research is to fill the gap in
the previous research by
exploring the
regulation of urban growth
during a rapid economic
development period from the
perspective of road
network expansion and its
potential social and
environmental influences in
Nanjing from 2012 to 2016.
In doing so, the line density
estimation model and other
spatial analysis supported by
ArcGIS (Esri
Inc., Redlands, CA, USA)
technology were used to
extract the spatiotemporal
patterns of the road
network evolution. Then, the
geographically weighted
regression model was applied
to discover the
China City Statistical
Yearbook data
from 1996 to 2016, from the
National Bureau of Statistics
of China. This dataset is
provided by the
National Earth System
Science Data Sharing
Infrastructure
(http://www.geodata.cn),
Yangtze River
Delta Science Data Center
(http://nnu.geodata.cn:8008),
which provides the Jiangsu
province’s
annual socioeconomic
dataset [48]. This dataset
includes statistical
information of all cities in
Jiangsu province and includes
economic, social,
demographic, agricultural,
urban construction,
environmental, and other
related city statistics. This
data reflects the yearly
economic and social
region. In the suburban
regions like the Liuhe district,
Lishui district, and Gaochun
district there are
some small-scale
aggregations. The expansion
trend is obvious by
comparing the two period’s
maps,
and a deeper comparison of
the changes will be analyzed
in the next section.
are one clear downtown
center and two sub-centers.
The overall layout shows a
morphological
character of two horizontal
and one vertical spatial road
network distributions.
(2) Since 1990, the expansion
of the road network has
occurred to different degrees
across Nanjing
City. The expansion continues
while the expansion rate has
declined since 2012. From
2012 to
2016, the expansion mainly
happened in the suburban
area near the downtown
region due to the
new district construction
planning.
(3) The GWR spatial analysis
model enables us to discover
that, apart from the policy
issue, the
first industry and the second
industry significantly
promote road network
expansion, while the
third industry, PM2.5
concentration, and
population have a negative
correlation. Among the
aforementioned industries,
the second industry was the
most significant influencing
factor for
the road expansion during
relationship between urban
road network expansion and
other social and
environmental changes. The
results and conclusions about
the road network growth
patterns and their potential
influences aim
to provide useful suggestions
for planning authorities that
need to make right decisions
in order to
maintain sustainable
development during a fast
urbanization and
industrialization period in the
same
or similar regions with a rapid
growth trend.
the research period. The road
network expansion is mainly
affected by
the second and third
industries, PM2.5
concentration, and
population density in the
metropolitan
region and by first and
second industries in the
suburban region. This is not
only the result of
urbanization but also reflects
the planning decision making.
This paper presents a
comprehensive insight into
the spatiotemporal patterns
of road network
distribution and expansion in
Nanjing City at a district scale
for the first time. Nanjing,
one of the
core cities in the Yangtze
River Delta city circle in the
eastern coastal region of
China, has a rapid
development speed and will
continue to maintain a
superior social and economic
development trend in
the near future. The road
network is a complex system
and performs as the skeleton
of the city, which
needs to be carefully studied
to maintain sustainable
development. This finding
has implications for
 future transportation
planning based on the road
network patterns discussed
above. In a future study,
we should focus on
promoting the usage
efficiency of the existing road
system and seek
development
under the framework of
social and environmental
benefits.
5. Social Impact of the In the past few years,
City Planning Bangalore, like other metros
Machinery Case in India, has witnessed the
Study of Road- introduction of many
Widening in mega projects, often under
Bangalore the urban renewal schemes,
Sanam Roohi that have been rapidly
https://bit.ly/35aThte altering the landscape
of the city. One such mega-
intervention is the road-
widening /realignment
projects and schemes
whereby the existing width of
the road is to be increased by
demolishing part of
properties, mainly
private, that fall on either
side of the roads slated for
widening. Roads are being
widened for two
reasons in Bangalore – one
for decongesting roads and
secondly for the purpose of
building the
metro rail – both based on
different compensatory
 models. The focus of this
paper is largely on these
road width realignment
projects, where the official
reason cited is decongesting
the city for smooth
vehicular movement. This
involves multi-pronged
interventions - from making
roads wider, often
from two laned to four or
more laned, making some
corridors signal free, building
flyovers,
underpasses and magic
boxes.
6. The Impact of Road New roads have important We conducted a mixed- Twelve FGDs were conducted The interoceanic highway
Construction on implications for the methods study with an in 2014 with a total of 50 (IOH) in Madre de Dios, Peru
Subjective Well- previously isolated iterative process of female and 33 male has driven dramatic change
Being in communities affected by qualitative and survey data community members in the Peruvian Amazon
Communities in their collection and analysis to with no more than 13 basin. We conducted a mixed
Madre de Dios, construction. In the Amazon explore individual participants per group, methods study to examine
Peru basin, the deforestation and perceptions of well-being, as lasting ninety minutes on the impact of
land degradation often well as related topics average. Twenty-one KIIs these changes on the
associated with including health, were subjective well-being (SWB)
these projects can environmental change, and held in 2014, and 13 were of four communities on the
dramatically change community dynamics. The held in 2015. These included IOH. Themes that
relationships between people study comprised (i) key 17 KIIs with elected emerged qualitatively
and their environment. This informant interviews; (ii) authorities, 10 with health included changing health
may focus group discussions with professionals, five with threats, environmental
include limiting rural community members; and (iii) education professionals, and degradation, and the impact
livelihood options or quantitative two with community of increased migration. To
generating new economic members with leadership achieve a higher level of
opportunities, and increasing Int. J. Environ. Res. Public positions (e.g., leader of SWB, respondents
access to infrastructure or Health 2018, 15, 1271 3 of 16 community kitchen). A emphasized the need for
putting stress on existing surveys. The project was minimum of two and a higher
services [1]. As a result, the embedded within a larger maximum of seven incomes, opportunities to
impact of these projects multi-disciplinary study interviews learn new skills, and a better
 on well-being and poverty is
complex, and relatively little
is known about how
communities perceive
these changes. We examined
changing barriers and
enablers of SWB, both
qualitatively and
quantitatively,
in eight communities in
Madre de Dios alongside the
IOH. In the quantitative
analysis, we defined
SWB based on life
satisfaction using a validated
instrument—Happy Ladders
[21]—to (1a) estimate
SWB scores, both overall and
disaggregated by migration
history, gender, and age; (1b)
examine
household-level factors
associated to SWB scores;
and (2) described factors that
community members
reported as relating to their
potential future well-being.
In the qualitative exploration,
we examined
community perceptions of
well-being and of how the
IOH had affected well-being.
7. Getting Road The world is undergoing an
Expansion on the unprecedented expansion
Right Track: A of human infrastructure.
examining anthropogenic
change along the IOH and
related changes in rodent
population dynamics and
risks of rodent-borne
disease
Analysis was performed at
0.0833° (~10 km x10 km)
scale, corresponding to the
were conducted in each of
the eight communities.
Our results suggest that
people in the communities
surround the IOH in Madre
de Dios, Peru link
subjective well-being not only
to health and income, but
also to their community and
environment.
We found a range of
identified impacts of the IOH
on well-being.
Our analyses indicate that
even within a global
biodiversity hotspot
education for their children.
Potential threats
to SWB included marital
problems and poorer health.
Quantitative analyses
suggested that social
support and a sense of
security impacted reported
SWB scores based on life
satisfaction, and the
impact of income on life
satisfaction was mediated by
food security. Although long-
term residents
felt that specific
determinants of SWB had
both increased (food variety,
transport and access to work)
and decreased (access to
natural resources and
hunting), the majority
reported that their lives had
improved overall. Health had
been affected by the IOH in
both negative ways
(increased dengue
and road accidents) and
positive ways (improved
access to health services).
Our results suggest
that the rapidly-changing
communities near the IOH
link well-being to health,
income, community,
and the environment.
We overlaid this
information with maps
summarising the
 Framework for For example, more than
Smart 450 new hydropower dams
Infrastructure are planned for the
Planning in the Amazon, Congo, and
Mekong Mekong basins alone [1].
Likewise, a recent report
Andrew Balmford from the International
Energy Agency states that
Huafang Chen
by 2050 the world will build
Ben Phalan
an estimated 335,000 km
Mingcheng Wang of new railway tracks and
ChristineO’Connell 25 million km of new road
Cath Tayleur lanes—the great majority
Jianchu Xu, in developing countries
https://bit.ly/35as9u8 [2,3]—while the newly
established Asian
Infrastructure Investment
Bank alone has already
built up US$100 billion in
capital for investments in
the Asia-Pacific region,
and the New Development
Bank has starting capital of
US$50 billion [4]. Road
building is a top priority for
China’s “One Belt One
Road” development
initiative
Infrastructure
development—especially
road construction—is often
aimed at enhancing food
production and reducing
poverty. New and
upgraded roads can
reduce the transport costs
of agricultural inputs and of
getting products to market,
lower postharvesting food
waste, and increase
resolution of the coarsest
data layers for the region,
and excluded permanent
water bodies (as mapped
in [46]). In building our
aggregate surfaces
describing the potential
food production benefit and
environmental cost of road
development, whenever
different data layers were
added or averaged, we first
rescaled them (on a 0–1
scale, with equal-area
deciles) to ensure that any
outlying values did not
have disproportionate
influence.
(characterised by
extensive habitat
conversion and exceptional
biological value [41]) there
is scope, in principle, for
well-planned road
enhancement to boost
agricultural production at
relatively limited
environmental cost. This
result was not apparent in
a previous global-scale
analysis (Fig 3 in [15]), in
part because in the present
study, environmental costs
were scaled against
broadly high subregional
values (cf. lower global
ones in [15]); this is
appropriate given the need
to identify lower-cost
options for lifting food
production in an area with
rapid population growth
and marked poverty. But
two other reasons for our
result are more interesting.
First, there are significant
gaps in crop yields across
much of the GMS, where
production could be
increased without
expanding cropland area.
Second, the extent of
habitat conversion, most of
it to cropland, varies quite
considerably.
importance of remaining
habitats to terrestrial
vertebrates and (as
examples of major
ecosystem services) to
global and local climate
regulation. This
intersection revealed
several largely converted
yet relatively low-yielding
areas (such as central,
eastern, and northeastern
Thailand and the
Ayeyarwady Delta), where
narrowing yield gaps by
improving transport links
has the potential to
substantially increase food
production at relatively
limited environmental cost.
Concentrating new roads
and road improvements
here while taking strong
measures to prevent their
spread into areas which
are still extensively
forested (such as northern
Laos, western Yunnan,
and southwestern
Cambodia) could thus
enhance rural livelihoods
and regional food
production while helping
safeguard vital ecosystem
services and globally
significant biological
diversity.
access to technological
improvements [6,19–22].
To the extent that farming
becomes more profitable
(or demand is stimulated
by falling food prices), this
can in turn accelerate
conversion of natural
habitats to agriculture.
However, if new roads are
deployed strategically—
deliberately targeting
already cleared areas with
poor transport connectivity
and attracting agricultural
growth that might
otherwise spread
elsewhere, within a context
of well-enforced land-use
zoning—they could in
principle play an important
role not just in increasing
food production but in
safeguarding unconverted
areas of high
environmental value
[19,23]. Viewed this way,
judicious road planning is a
potentially promising
mechanism for delivering
land sparing: boosting farm
yield (production per unit
area) while at the same
time protecting or restoring
natural habitat on other
land that is then not
needed for meeting
agricultural demand
To address this gap, our
paper adopts, refines, and
 tests the approach of the
global road-planning
strategy to examine its
potential to contribute to
finer-scale decision making
on road investment
8. Effects of urban Reducing traffic growth and
road capacity greenhouse gas (GHG)
expansion – emissions from transport are
Experiences from long-held objectives in many
twoNorwegian countries and cities, but they
cases have proven to be difficult to
achieve (European
Aud Tennøy Environment Agency, 2018;
Anders Tønnesen European Commission, 2011;
Frants Gunderse Owens and Cowell, 2002;
https://bit.ly/33V7jyR Norwegian Environment
Agency, 2015; UN Habitat,
2013). These objectives are
also high on the agenda in
the Norwegian Parliament’s
climate agreement and the
National Transport Plan, as
well as in many regional and
municipal plans. According to
these policy documents,
increasing transport demands
caused by the rapid
population growth in
Norwegian urban regions
should not cause growth in
road-traffic volumes, and this
is often termed the zero-
growth objective (Ministry of
Local Government and
Modernisation, 2012,
Ministry of Transport and
Communications, 2013,
The research questions,
together with the multi-
causal nature of the problem,
and our focus on investigating
the mechanisms involved, call
for in-depth case studies,
longitudinal studies and a
mixed-methods approach
(Yin, 2003). We selected two
cases of urban road capacity
expansions in pressured
urban road systems for our
study. One is located in the
medium-sized city (in a
Norwegian context) of
Ålesund, with 46 000
inhabitants, which is the main
city in its region. The other is
located in the Norwegian
capital, Oslo, with about 700
000 inhabitants in the
municipality and about 1 000
000 inhabitants in the city
region. In aspects other than
city size, the cases share
similarities: The roads are
located in the outer parts of
the cities and reducing
congestion and traffic on
parallel roads were important
motivations for constructing
them. The main data sources
Unsurprisingly, results show
traffic-inducing land-use
development in the period
after the road capacity
expansions. Differences in
planning policy and practices
affected how trafficinducing
the land-use development
was. The traffic growth was
stronger in the affected road
corridors than expected, and
as compared with Norway.
No or only short-term
congestion relief was found.
It is concluded that the road
capacity expansions were
necessary conditions for the
land-use sprawl, and
consequently, contributing
causes for the traffic growth.
Ex-ante analyses seem not to
have included the land-use
effects, and this is
understood as part of the
explanation for the
discrepancies between ex-
ante expectations and actual
development. In both cases,
municipal and regional
authorities currently attempt
to steer land use
development in directions
In conclusion, our first
research question ‘How have
urban road capacity
expansions affected land-use
development, consequently
affecting traffic volumes and
congestion levels, in the
cases?’ can be answered as
follows: We found that the
road capacity expansion was
a contributing cause for a
more sprawled and car-
dependent land-use
development than what
would otherwise have
occurred, as well as longer
commutes, in both the
smaller and the larger city.
This contributed to stronger
traffic growth in the road
corridors than would
otherwise have occurred, and
no or only short-term
reductions in congestion
levels in rush hours.
On this basis, our second
research question ‘How have
land-use planning and policy
affected the land-use effects
of road capacity expansions?’
can be answered as follow:
The traffic-inducing land-use
2017). Other motivations for
zero-growth than reducing
GHG emissions are improving
urban transport efficiency,
liveability, public health and
the local environment, as
well as reducing congestion
and the need for
infrastructure investments.
Achieving the zero-growth
objective, as the population
in the urban region grows,
requires that the average
inhabitant reduces his or her
average daily traffic volume
by making fewer trips,
shorter trips and/or a lower
share of trips as a car driver.
A main strategy for achieving
this is developing land-use
and transport systems in
directions contributing to
reduced transport demand
and shifts in the modal split
toward less car usage
(Ministry of Local
Government and
Modernisation, 2015). This
strategy largely leans on.
The aim of this article is to
contribute to existing
literature with more nuanced
and context-related empirical
investigations of traffic
inducing effects of road
capacity expansions in
pressured urban road
systems, focusing on the less
were register data of various
kinds, documents and
interviews. Documents,
mainly plans and analyses
related to the road projects,
municipal and regional
master plans, and 13 semi-
structured interviews with
knowledgeable practitioners
(eight in the Ålesund case and
six in the Oslo case; see list of
interviewees in Appendix A
and interview guide in
Appendix B), provided data
concerning motivations for
the road projects and the
context in which they were
implemented. These sources
were also important when
describing land-use planning
regimes and practices in
relevant municipalities before
and after the road capacity
expansions, as well as how
the current situation is
perceived.
contributing to stop traffic
growth, in accordance with
national policies
effects were weaker where
municipalities took a strong
position and steered toward
high-density land-use
development in areas close
to centres with excellent
public transport accessibility,
and stronger where
municipalities allowed
landowners and developers
to build on new land, with
lower densities, in areas with
poor public transport
accessibility.
Based on our analyses, we
find in both cases that the
road capacity expansions
were a necessary condition
for the traffic-inducing land-
use development, which in
turn contributed to traffic
growth and returned
congestion. Thus, the answer
to our third question ‘How do
road capacity expansions
affect the potential to stop
traffic growth in urban
areas?’ would be that these
findings add to the body of
studies concluding that
expanding urban road
capacity is more of a part of
the problem than the
solution for cities striving to
achieve more sustainable
urban mobility and more
adequate policy responses
are needed, and that this also
researched land-use effects, is valid for smaller cities.
and including reflections on
how differences in land-use
planning and policy affect
interrelations and
development. Through
analyses of longitudinal
empirical data in two cases of
urban road capacity
expansions, as well as
document studies and
interviews with relevant
practitioners, we present
more disaggregated analyses
of the mechanisms involved
than most previous studies
have done. We think our
analyses and findings also
have the potential to inform
practitioners and
policymakers about how road
capacity expansions affect
land-use, travel behaviour,
and traffic, as well as the
implications for land-use and
transport planning if
sustainability goals are to be
achieved, possibly resulting in
these mechanisms being
more consciously addressed
in future analyses and plans.
We also discuss alternative
policy responses to
congestion and perceived
demand for road capacity
expansions, based on findings
concerning current planning
and ideas in the case cities.
 We seek to answer the
following research questions:
How have urban road
capacity expansions affected
land-use development,
consequently affecting traffic
volumes and congestion
levels, in the cases? How
have land-use planning and
policy affected the land-use
effects of road capacity
expansions? How do road
capacity expansions affect
the potential to stop traffic
growth in urban areas? The
article is organised as follows:
Section 2 presents the
theoretical understandings
forming the basis for the
empirical investigations and
analyses, while Section 3
delineates the research
design, methods, data, and
the main challenges
experienced. Section 4
describes the two cases and
results. The main conclusions
are presented in Section 5,
followed by a discussion of
the significance of the
results.
9. Road Expansion, Few issues in the urban For purposes of empirically Based on beta weights, Claims that roadway
Urban Growth, and transportation field have testing the hypothesized about 55 percent of the investments spur new
Induced Travel: sparked as much path model, a system of association between travel and thus fail to
A Path Analysis controversy and loglinear equations was freeway expansion and relieve traffic congestion,
Robert Cervero
threatened proposed road specified and estimated. In VMT growth was known as induced
https://bit.ly/33UqNUn
projects as claims of this functional form, accounted for by the path demand, have thwarted
“induced demand”. For
decades, highway critics
have charged that building
new roads or expanding
existing ones to relieve
traffic congestion is a futile
exercise. Improved roads
simply spur additional
travel or divert trips from
parallel routes, quickly
returning a facility to its
original congested
condition. Traffic is
thought to behave more
like a gas than a liquid – it
expands to fill available
space. Regional
transportation plans, such
as in the San Francisco Bay
Area, have been mired in
legal and political
squabbles on the very
grounds that they failed to
account for the possibility
that new roads might
induce sprawl and the
extra trips associated with
it. Claims of induced
demand have spawned
such clichés as “build it
and they will come” and
“you can’t pave our way
out of traffic congestion”.
Using data for a panel of
coefficient estimates
represented elasticities,
revealing the proportional
change in one variable as a
function of a proportional
change in another, all else
being equal. For the
longer-run analysis, the 7
estimated equations took
the following form (with all
except the fixed effect
variables expressed as
natural logarithms)
model.ii Thus while the
postulated path model
was supported by
empirical analysis, more
research is needed in
different settings and at
different resolutions of
analysis to further refine
our understanding of the
co-dependencies between
road investments, land-use
shifts, and induced travel –
hopefully research that is
firmly rooted in behavioral
and economic theories,
and that adopts a casual
modeling framework
road development in both
the United States and
abroad. Most past studies
point to a significant
induced demand effect.
This research challenges
past results by employing
a path model to causally
sort out the links between
freeway investments and
traffic increases, using
data for 24 California
freeway projects across 15
years. Traffic increases are
explained in terms of both
faster travel speeds and
land-use shifts that occur
in response to adding
freeway lanes. While the
path model confirms the
presence of induced travel
in both the short- and
longer-run, estimated
elasticities are generally
lower than those of earlier
studies. This research also
reveals significant
“induced growth” and
“induced investment”
effects – real-estate
development has
gravitated to improved
freeway corridors and
road investments have
California freeways, this been shaped by traffic
paper aims to fill past trends in California.
methodological gaps by Fighting road projects on
postulating and empirically the grounds of induced-
testing a path model of demand should be
induced travel. A short-run carefully considered.
model, which focuses on Energies might be better
relationships within a one- directed at curbing mis-
year time frame, holds pricing in the highway
that changes in road sector and managing land-
supply affect travel use changes spawn by
speeds, which nearly road investments.
instantaneously affect
traffic levels. In contrast to
most recent analyses of
induced demand that
measure VMT growth as a
direct function of lane-
mile additions, this
analysis introduces an
important intermediate
step – namely, that road
improvements confer
benefits, in the form of
higher travel speeds, and
that it is changes in
operating conditions that
influence demand, not the
physical attributes (e.g.,
lane miles) of a project. A
longer-run model traces
how road investments
induce major building
activities over a multi-year
 time horizon, and how
resulting land-use shifts in
turn lead to increased
travel. A feedback loop is
also modeled, capturing
how traffic growth
influences road
investment decisions.
10. Forecasting Land use and land cover
Urban Expansion change (LULCC) has
in the Seven become a global issue with
Lakes Area in San long-term impacts on the
Pablo City, environment (Foley et al.,
Laguna, the 2005). This is most
Philippines Using especially true with
the Land urbanization since
Transformation established infrastructure
Model is more costly to revert
Anna Laura Quintal back to a natural state
Charlott Kendra Gotangco than an agricultural area.
Maria Aileen Rapid, unplanned
Leah Guzman urbanization can be
https://bit.ly/33TGtqF especially problematic
since it can lead to wildlife
fragmentation, energy
inefficiency, loss of
farmland and increased
temperatures among
others (Bhatta, 2010).
Cities themselves also tend
to have adverse effects on
the environment. For
example, cities consume
The study uses the LTM to
investigate historical
patterns and drivers of
urbanization in order to
forecast possible
expansion of built-up
areas. Given the potential
environmental impacts of
urbanization, policies need
to be implemented to
guide urban planners and
developers on where and
to what extent they can
build an infrastructure
without compromising the
benefits gained from
ecological services from
the surrounding
ecosystem.
Historical drivers of the
expansion of built-up areas
are identified and
validated through the
application of LTM to land
cover maps from 1988 to
2015. Identified drivers
include distance to roads,
distance to trails, distance
to the Seven Lakes,
distance to existing built-
up areas, slopes and
population density per
barangay. Results from the
percent correct matrix
(PCM) were 79.88 per cent
for the 1988–2003 runs
and 66.42 per cent for the
2003–2015 runs, while the
Kappa statistic for both
time periods was higher
than 0.60, which indicates
high levels of agreement.
Forecasted scenarios were
business-as-usual (BAU)
Managing urban growth is
essential to the
conservation of the Seven
Lakes ecosystem in San
Pablo City, Laguna
province in the Philippines.
This study simulates
potential conversion of
agricultural lands to built-
up areas using the land
transformation model
(LTM), which integrates
geographical information
systems (GIS) and an
artificial neural network
(ANN). Historical drivers of
the expansion of built-up
areas are identified and
validated through the
application of LTM to land
cover maps from 1988 to
2015. Identified drivers
include distance to roads,
distance to trails, distance
to the Seven Lakes,
high amounts of energy
and have high emissions
and waste outputs making
them dependent on
external sources (Odum &
Odum, 1980; Pickket et al.,
1997 cited in Chen, Chen,
& Fath, 2014). Due to the
difference of properties of
soil and cement, urban
areas tend to have higher
radiation surface,
increasing the ambient
temperatures (Cengiz,
2013) and allowing little
percolation of rainwater to
refill aquifers. Hence,
understanding the trends
of LULCC becomes more
important for supported
decision-making for urban
planning.
This study focuses on the
Seven Lakes area of San
Pablo City in the province
of Laguna, the Philippines.
The site is important for
tourism, agriculture and
aquaculture purposes, and
has been undergoing
urban expansion. The
extent of LULCC can be
affected by several factors,
which vary depending on
growth, doubled growth distance to existing built-
and strict law up areas, slopes and
implementation protecting population density per
the vicinity around the barangay. Results from the
Seven Lakes and other percent correct matrix
natural areas. (PCM) were 79.88 per cent
for the 1988–2003 runs
and 66.42 per cent for the
2003–2015 runs, while the
Kappa statistic for both
time periods was higher
than 0.60, which indicates
high levels of agreement.
Forecasted scenarios were
business-as-usual (BAU)
growth, doubled growth
and strict law
implementation protecting
the vicinity around the
Seven Lakes and other
natural areas. In the BAU
scenario, urban expansion
spread out along the road
networks. The doubled
growth scenario showed
that further expansion will
likely extend around the
proximity of the lakes,
which may adversely
affect the livelihoods of
the local fishing
communities. As such, it
was recommended that
preventive measures, such
 the biophysical as strict implementation of
characteristics of an area, buffer zones coupled with
socio-economic and regular monitoring, be
political trends, factors of taken to manage land use
accessibility and more. in the surrounding lake
These are known as areas.
‘drivers’ of LULCC. The
factors which drive LULCC
can vary from factors
contributing to
accessibility, such as
proximity to an existing
road network (Pijanowski,
Long, Gage, & Cooper,
1997; Singh, 2003),
pressure to urbanize given
proximity to an already
built-up area (Pijanowski
et al., 1997) as well as
high-density areas
(Pijanowski et al., 1997).
Socio-economic
opportunity is also a driver
of land use change
(Mulatu, 2014), which can
be manifested from
resource extraction from
the lake areas, especially
since aquaculture and
fishing activities were
observed.
11. ASSESSING THE In the 21st century, The ultimate aim of this This study found out that The ultimate aim of this
IMPACT OF ROAD urbanization has been study is to understand the road expansion led to study was to understand
EXPANSION IN escalating at an alarming residential development the emergence of some the residential
 PERI-URBAN rate in the cities of the
AREAS. THE CASE Global South, increasing
OF KASOA, their growth as well as
ACCRA CITY their physical
development. The rapid
EMMANUEL JUNIOR urbanization increase in
ADUGBILA the Global South has
https://bit.ly/2OkfGNL resulted in a spatial
pattern of planned,
unplanned and slum
residential fragments
(Balbo, 1993). For
instance, urbanization in
Africa is estimated to
reach about 58% in 2050,
with urban centres on the
continent hosting nearly a
quarter of the global urban
population (Cobbinah,
Erdiaw-Kwasie, &
Amoateng ,2015; UNDESA,
2012). Such rate of
urbanization and its
related consequences like
informal settlements in
the Global South have long
and short term impacts on
sustainability of the built
and natural environments
(Cobbinah et al., 2015;
UNDESA, 2012). However,
such impacts are not
limited to urban areas but
periurban areas as well.
dynamics due to road
expansion in peri-urban
areas in Accra city. In this
context, this study adopts
a case study approach for
the cause-effect of its
objectives and questions
(Bryman, 2012). A case
study design is an
experiment analysis which
aims to find out about any
contemporary matter in an
actual dimension (Yin,
2013). The case study in
this research helps to
know the residential
development dynamics in
peri-urban areas due to
road expansion.
residential developments development dynamics in
patterns such as gating in peri-urban areas due to
the two communities. road expansion, the case
Secondly, the road of Kasoa in Accra city,
expansion led to Ghana. This research
gentrification as it partly surveyed two communities
served as a conduit for the in Kasoa categorized into
influxes of middle and richer and poorer areas to
highincome residents draw empirical scenarios
which caused for the two areas in the
displacement of some perspective of the impact
poor people in the of the Accra-Kasoa road
communities owning to expansion over a decade
harsh living conditions, ago.
though more social
services were made
available in them. Thirdly,
the road expansion
resulted into the decline of
integration in both
communities, as asking for
help, knowing one another
and social interactions
with other
neighbourhoods were
perceive to have
decreased in the
communities. Finally, the
road expansion led to both
positive and negative
residential development
dynamics in the case area,
which have the potential
of affecting living
 Given the current rate of conditions and socio-
urbanization in the Global spatial spheres of its
South, peri-urban towns communities and other
have now become the next surrounding communities.
destinations for residential
and economic
developments (Ravetz,
Fertner, and Nielsen, 2013;
Simon, McGregor, and
Nsiah-Gyabaah, 2004),
owing to availability of
land at low cost and their
nearness to job places in
cities (Thuo, 2010). The
effect of the rapid
urbanization on peri-urban
communities has led to
the construction of more
roads expansion in such
areas (Amoateng,
Cobbinah, & Owusu-
Adade, 2013).
The main objective of the
research is to understand
residential development
dynamics due to road
expansion in peri-urban
areas in Accra city.
12.
13.
14.
15.