Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science

This paper presents an analysis of general shopping and travel-related attitudes collected from a custom-designed Internet-based survey conducted in the spring of 2006, of randomly selected residents of two communities in Northern California. These and other data collected in the survey will eventually lead to models of shopping mode (channel) choice, intention, and frequency among other analyses. In this early examination of the data (N = 966), exploratory factor analysis is performed to identify the conceptual constructs underlying a group of forty-two general shopping-related attitudinal statements, with which respondents agreed or disagreed on a five-point Likert-type scale. From the nineteen potential constructs identified in the design stage, thirteen dimensions emerged empirically: shopping and store enjoyment, price and time consciousness, impulse buying, materialism, trust, caution, trendsetting, and opinions with respect to credit card usage, technology, exercise, and the environment. Cluster analysis is then conducted to identify seven market segments having different attitudinal profiles: store shopaholics (15%), bichannel shopaholics (14%), time-starved worriers (16%), nonmaterialistic greens (16%), unwired antishoppers (14%), practical and leisure-oriented (13%), and technoconservatives (11%). These segments differ significantly, in logical ways, on a number of sociodemographic and other characteristics, including shopping channel choices. Thus, more detailed investigations of choice behavior using these market segments should prove fruitful.

The use of the Internet for information searching and purchasing of goods and services has rapidly increased. The development of e-shopping might have an impact on travel activity, but for the present the results from different studies are still inconclusive. In this paper the interaction between information searching, e-shopping, and travel activity is examined. The analysis is based on answers from 2700 Norwegian respondents. The dataset provides detailed information about the respondents' activities and trips, and which type of goods and services they search for information about and purchase. The analysis indicates that there are different segments using the Internet for information and purchase, and that different types of goods attract different customers. The analyses of the interaction between e-shopping and travel suggest no direct relation between the two phenomena. There is no indication of substitution of travel by shopping online. The multivariate analyses show, rather, a higher mobility among frequent e-shoppers than among those buying on the Internet less often. E-shopping seems to be a complementary activity to traditional shopping, at least for the time being.

A major trend, recently drawing much attention, is the employment of new technologies in retailing. This involves a shift from some aspects of the traditional store format towards the introduction of electronic means of performing retail activities. E-retail encompasses three main activities—specifically, a product search activity (often referred to as a product-evaluation or information-gathering facility), an online purchase function, and the product delivery capability. Early studies have asserted that information technology would generate a revolution in the retail sector, owing to the potential of the web to reduce the costs of transaction, transportation, and searching. Yet the proportion of virtual shopping is significantly smaller than that of traditional shopping. An understanding of this difference can be obtained by modeling consumer choices. This paper will examine the different shopping activities, by modeling both purchase and delivery choices. Identifying the reasons that consumers use virtual (electronic) modes is crucial in order to influence the share of electronic shopping and to understand the potential impacts. Modeling the probability of using e-shopping should reveal the significant variables that may encourage or discourage the use of this mode of shopping.

Recent studies have examined what factors affect the adoption of e-shopping (electronic shopping), why people adopt e-shopping, and what changes in activity–travel patterns will occur as a response to e-shopping. Very few studies to date, however, have investigated the impact of geographic context on people's e-shopping behavior. This study reexamines the explanatory factors that are related to people's e-shopping patterns through a study of the Columbus Metropolitan Area, OH. It focuses on the effect of accessibility to local shops and the residential context on the adoption of e-shopping and the frequency of buying online. Using an activity–Internet diary dataset, the results suggest that people with lower levels of accessibility to local shopping opportunities are more likely to engage in e-shopping, since the Internet enhances the efficiency of shopping by providing more product information and by eliminating the need of travel in the physical world. Further, people who live in areas with a white majority are more likely to adopt e-shopping. The magnitude of the impact of these context factors on e-shopping, however, is quite small.

Thus far, the empirical literature on the impact of e-shopping on in-store shopping has paid scant attention to the implications of e-shopping for shopping centres. Using a nationwide sample of 3000 Dutch e-shoppers we provide more insight into this topic. Results indicate that city centres are most likely to face the substitution of e-shopping for in-store shopping, followed by city district centres. Surprisingly, village centres are less affected by e-shopping than city centres. Moreover, for neighbourhood and convenience centres the adverse effects of e-shopping are small. The probability of substituting e-shopping for in-store shopping at particular shopping locations is largely influenced by the extent to which people shop online, as well as personal and geographical factors.

A generalization of cellular automata was developed that allows flexible, dynamic updating of variable neighborhood relationships, which in turn allows the integration of interactions at widely disparate spatial and temporal scales. Cells in the landscapes were modeled as vertices of dynamic graph automata that allow temporally variable causal connectivity between spatially nonadjacent cells. A trial was carried out to represent changes in an Amazonian and a tropical Andean landscape modeled as dynamic graph automata with input from a Landsat TM-derived Level 1 classification with the following classes: for the Amazon—forest, nonforest vegetation, water, and urban or bare (soil); for the Andes—forest, scrub (shrub or grassland), agriculture, and bare or exposed ground. Explicit automata transition rules were used to simulate temporal land-cover change. These rules were derived independently from fieldwork in each area, including vegetation plots or transects and informal interviews. Such a generalization of cellular automata was useful for modeling land-use–land-cover change (LULCC), although it potentially increases the computational complexity of an already data intensive process (involving 5–8 million cells, in 1000 stochastic simulations, with each simulation encompassing 15 annual time steps). The interannual predicted LULCC, while more nuanced in the Andean site, poses a serious threat to compositional and configurational stability in both the Andes and the Amazon, with implications for landscape heterogeneity and habitat fragmentation.

This study investigates two groups of recreational cyclists' environmental preferences for, and satisfaction with, existing cycling facilities in a technopolis. An in-depth examination of between-group differences in demand for recreational cycling was carried out on the basis of personal characteristics, cycling experiences, and cycling resources. An omnibus test was conducted to examine whether there were any differences between the two groups of workers in terms of their environmental preferences for cycling facilities. Additional analyses were conducted to examine the importance that the cyclists placed on environmental factors, as well as their levels of satisfaction. Significant between-group differences were found regarding the environmental preferences and significant within-group differences were also found regarding the importance ratings of the environmental components, as well as their ratings of satisfaction with those components. The results provide valuable information for evaluating the efficiency of governmental-resource allocations and, by extension, providing guidelines for an appropriate cycling policy when constructing recreational cycling facilities.

This paper reports on an in-depth study of the status of sustainable housing design (SHD), in Sutherland Shire, Sydney, Australia. The motives and attitudes of key stakeholders towards SHD were identified. Also investigated was the feasibility of an Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI) developed by Sutherland Shire Council, to assist as a tool for the assessment of residential developments. Residential surveys, reviews of development applications, and interviews with housing professionals all indicated that the status of environmentally sustainable housing in the area was inadequate and was not improving. Despite an overwhelming majority of people supporting the principles and goals of environmental sustainability this did not translate into practice in terms of SHD. This indicates that government education and financial incentives to include SHD features in new homes were not sufficient to affect significantly decisions made by stakeholders during the development process. The findings support the use of simple and flexible sustainability tools such as the ESI in this area, with obvious potential in broader contexts. This study suggests the need for initiatives such as an ESI to provide gradual cumulative environmental benefits towards sustainable cities in Australia and internationally, provided that they receive the necessary political will, and public and local government administrative support for sufficient implementation. The study also raises a wider agenda for interdisciplinary research into sustainable design indices.

Urban greenspace has consistently been argued to be of great importance to the wellbeing, health, and daily lives of residents and users. This paper reports results from a study that combined the visualisation of public results from a study that combined the visualisation of public greenspace with environmental economics, and that aimed to develop a method by which realistic computer models of sites could be used within preference studies. As part of a methodology that employed contingent rating to establish the values placed on specific greenspace sites, three-dimensional computer models were used to produce visualisations of particular environmental conditions. Of particular importance to the study was the influence of variables including lighting, season, time of day, and weather on the perception of respondents. This study followed previous work that established a suitable approach to the modelling and testing of entirely moveable physical variables within the built environment. As such, the study has established firmly that computer-generated visualisations are appropriate for use within environmental economic surveys, and that there is potential for a holistic range of attributes to be included in such studies.