Publications

@article{Masoumi2019c,

title = {Residential location choices and the role of mobility, socioeconomics, and land use in Hafizabad, Pakistan},

author = {Aslam, S. Atif Bilal; Masoumi, Houshmand, E.; Naeem, Nida; & Ahmad, Mohammad},

doi = {DOI: 10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2019-30-01-004},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-06-23},

journal = {Urbani Izziv},

volume = {30},

number = {1},

pages = {115-128},

abstract = {Residential self-selection in developing countries and its relation to urban transportation are understudied and not fully understood. This knowledge gap is even greater in the case of small cities in the developing world. This study takes Hafizabad, Pakistan as a case study with the objective of providing data for future quantitative analyses about residential location choices in small cities on the Indian subcontinent. A sample of 365 residents was interviewed from four neighbourhoods with a combined population of 19,042. This resulted in individual and household response rates of 1.92% and 12.65% and confidence levels of ±5.08% and ±4.79% for individual and household questions. The results show that the most important factors influencing residents’ decisions about moving are availability of utilities/services and affordable prices. Factors related to transportation, accessibility, and social issues, such as proximity to work and relatives, come next. The role of transportation in residential location choices in Hafizabad is less important in comparison to high-income countries. This finding shows how urban form can shape residents’ travel behaviour and suggests that small cities are more compact and walkable because about 40% of job-related trips are made by walking. The results of this study will help inform relevant government organizations about how to effectively devise policies for small cities because policies grafted from large metropolises might not work well at a smaller scale.},

keywords = {community-based planning, sustainable mobility, transportation decisions, transportation preferences, urban development strategies, urban policy, urban travel behavior},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{Masoumi2018,

title = {Neighborhood size in planning large cities of the Middle East and North Africa: insights to mobility and social interactions},

author = {Houshmand E. Masoumi},

url = {https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs10708-018-9859-2.pdf},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-018-9859-2},

issn = {1572-9893},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-02-22},

journal = {GeoJournal},

pages = {1-12},

abstract = {Recently a number of cities of the Middle East and North Africa like Tehran, Istanbul, Cairo, Mashhad, and Esfahan have defined a new neighborhood-level division system. According to academic literature and the implemented practice, the Iranian cities have had the main goal of promoting bottom-up approach in urban governance as well as public participation in regeneration/gentrification plans. Based on the statistical analysis by Analysis of Variance and Welch’s Test undertaken in this study, the areas determined for the neighborhoods in Tehran, Mashhad, and Esfahan are significantly larger than that of the historical cores of two cities in central Iran, namely Yazd and Kashan. This finding indicates that Iranian decision makers did not mean to use the vernacular urbanism to generate a city of short distances with local centrality that leads to sustainable mobility and enhanced social effects. Focusing only on public participation and local governance and neglecting the potential benefits of changing human behaviors and perceptions by means of sustainable urban forms may be targeted by other Middle Eastern and North African countries like Turkey and Egypt, because the size of the new quarters in these countries are very similar to that of Iran. As a result of this analysis, the planning bodies of the region are recommended to include two main fields in their neighborhood planning in parallel: (1) community-based planning with the aim of enhancing public participation and urban gentrification; (2) physical neo-traditional neighborhood planning with the aim of creating human-scaled fabric and promotion of sustainable mobility and social effects.},

keywords = {community-based planning, Middle East and North Africa, neighborhood planning, sustainable mobility, traditional neighborhood development},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}