IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirb/v49y2022i3p777-793.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are patterns of vacant lots random? Evidence from empirical spatiotemporal analysis in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo

Author

Listed:
  • Hiroyuki Usui

    (The University of Tokyo, Japan)

  • Joan Perez

Abstract

According to the Japanese government, vacant lots are randomly generated and accumulated (without being rebuilt after demolition) in the process of increasing vacant lots, a phenomenon called urban perforation. Urban perforation in urban areas may trigger a high degree of inefficiency in public infrastructure management. However, this observation lacks theoretical and empirical foundations, a lacuna to which this paper will focus on. Consequently, our research objectives are to confirm: (1) whether or not vacant lots are randomly generated and (2) whether or not vacant lots are randomly accumulated as a result of random generation. The methodology includes a consistent and bottom-up approach to delineate urban areas (alongside statistical spatial analysis). Through theoretical and empirical analyses in Chiba Prefecture (situated in the eastern part of the Tokyo metropolitan region), we find that the random generation of vacant lots does not tend to continue in the same urban areas. Rather, in most urban areas, this process is a temporary phenomenon. Subsequently, phase transition generally shifts from random to clustered generation or vice versa. Nevertheless, once vacant lots are randomly accumulated in an urban area, this process tends to continue. The contributions of this article are not only to provide important spatiotemporal findings regarding the generation and accumulation patterns of vacant lots, but also to discuss how to apply policy for urban perforation where phenomena are significantly pronounced.

Suggested Citation

  • Hiroyuki Usui & Joan Perez, 2022. "Are patterns of vacant lots random? Evidence from empirical spatiotemporal analysis in Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 49(3), pages 777-793, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:49:y:2022:i:3:p:777-793
    DOI: 10.1177/2399808320956656
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2399808320956656
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2399808320956656?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gert-Jan Hospers, 2014. "Policy Responses to Urban Shrinkage: From Growth Thinking to Civic Engagement," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(7), pages 1507-1523, July.
    2. Cristina Martinez‐Fernandez & Ivonne Audirac & Sylvie Fol & Emmanuèle Cunningham‐Sabot, 2012. "Shrinking Cities: Urban Challenges of Globalization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 213-225, March.
    3. Geoffrey CARUSO & Mohamed HILAL & Isabelle THOMAS, 2017. "Measuring urban forms from inter-building distances: Combining MST graphs with a local index of spatial association," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2837, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    4. Hiroyuki Usui, 2018. "Statistical distribution of building lot frontage: application for Tokyo downtown districts," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 295-316, July.
    5. Xiaolu Gao & Yasushi Asami, 2005. "Estimating the Boundary Lines of Land Lots with a Multiobjective Optimization Approach," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 32(4), pages 581-596, August.
    6. Molloy, Raven, 2016. "Long-term vacant housing in the United States," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 118-129.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hiroyuki Usui, 2023. "Cost-Efficient Urban Areas Minimising the Connection Costs of Buildings by Roads: Simultaneous Optimisation of Criteria for Building Interval and Built Cluster Size," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 65-96, March.
    2. Xiaoming Ding & Shangkun Yu & Yi Miao & Chengxin Wang & Zhenxing Jin, 2022. "Types, Modes and Influencing Factors of Urban Shrinkage: Evidence from the Yellow River Basin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-18, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shao, Shuai & Zhang, Xuebin & Yang, Lili, 2023. "Natural resource dependence and urban shrinkage: The role of human capital accumulation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Bartłomiej T. Sroka, 2022. "Urban Shrinkage as a Catalyst of a Transition, Revolving around Definitions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-12, October.
    3. Shuyi Xie & Elena Batunova, 2019. "Shrinking Historic Neighborhoods and Authenticity Dilution: An Unspoken Challenge of Historic Chinatowns in the United States through the Case of San Francisco," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Hiroyuki Usui & Yasushi Asami, 2020. "Size Distribution of Building Lots and Density of Buildings and Road Networks: Theoretical Derivation Based on Gibrat’s Law and Empirical Study of Downtown Districts in Tokyo," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 43(3), pages 229-253, May.
    5. Beunen, Raoul & Meijer, Marlies & de Vries, Jasper, 2020. "Planning strategies for dealing with population decline: Experiences from the Netherlands," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Shouzhong Zhang & Limin Wang & Xiangli Wu, 2022. "Population Shrinkage, Public Service Levels, and Heterogeneity in Resource-Based Cities: Case Study of 112 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-20, November.
    7. Zezhou Wu & Danting Zhang & Shenghan Li & Jianbo Fei & Changhong Chen & Bin Tian & Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari, 2022. "Visualizing and Understanding Shrinking Cities and Towns (SCT) Research: A Network Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-14, September.
    8. Maria Helena Guimarães & Luis Catela Nunes & Ana Paula Barreira & Thomas Panagopoulos, 2016. "What makes people stay in or leave shrinking cities? An empirical study from Portugal," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(9), pages 1684-1708, September.
    9. Maja Ročak & Gert-Jan Hospers & Nol Reverda, 2016. "Searching for Social Sustainability: The Case of the Shrinking City of Heerlen, The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-22, April.
    10. Bozhidar Ivanov, 2021. "Narratives of Crisis: How Framing Urban Shrinkage and Depopulation Shapes Policy and Planning Responses in Spain, Germany and The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-23, October.
    11. Seth Schindler & J Miguel Kanai & Javier Diaz Bay, 2023. "Deindustrialisation and the politics of subordinate degrowth: The case of Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1212-1230, May.
    12. Hiroyuki Usui, 2019. "Statistical distribution of building lot depth: Theoretical and empirical investigation of downtown districts in Tokyo," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 46(8), pages 1499-1516, October.
    13. Anastasiya Matyushkina, 2023. "How Civil Society Organizations Drive Innovative Cultural Strategies in Shrinking Cities: A Comparative Case Study of Oberhausen, Germany and Riga, Latvia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, April.
    14. Samira Louali & Maja Ročak & Jol Stoffers, 2022. "Social Cost-Benefit Analysis of Bottom-Up Spatial Planning in Shrinking Cities: A Case Study in The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Agnes Matoga, 2022. "Changing Governance Processes to Make Way for Civic Involvement: The Case of Gebrookerbos in Heerlen, Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    16. Syssner Josefina & Meijer Marlies, 2017. "Informal Planning in Depopulating Rural Areas: A resource-based view on informal planning practices," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 9(3), pages 458-472, September.
    17. Qingsong He & Miao Yan & Linzi Zheng & Bo Wang & Jiang Zhou, 2023. "The Effect of Urban Form on Urban Shrinkage—A Study of 293 Chinese Cities Using Geodetector," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-17, March.
    18. Rosanna Salvia & Rares Halbac-Cotoara-Zamfir & Sirio Cividino & Luca Salvati & Giovanni Quaranta, 2020. "From Rural Spaces to Peri-Urban Districts: Metropolitan Growth, Sparse Settlements and Demographic Dynamics in a Mediterranean Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-20, June.
    19. Liu, Xingjian & Wang, Mingshu & Qiang, Wei & Wu, Kang & Wang, Xiaomi, 2020. "Urban form, shrinking cities, and residential carbon emissions: Evidence from Chinese city-regions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    20. Simone Rusci & Diego Altafini & Valerio Di Pinto, 2021. "Urban Demolition: Application of Blight Elimination Programs and Flood Buyout Programs to the Italian Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirb:v:49:y:2022:i:3:p:777-793. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.