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Urban morphology and spatial forms shape a city's character and user behavior, often embracing a particular type of people and unwelcoming other kinds of gender. City design policies and legislation have favored men since its beginning, affecting overall urban planning and design. While the world is delving into new techniques and methods to empower women, constraints in public space activities remain prevalent. This paper explores the scope of urban design strategies to catalyze women's social and physical inclusion in these spaces. It presents a systematic approach to identifying women's social roles during the use of public spaces and introduces the 'GenUrban: Shaping Cities for All Genders' framework to guide researchers and designers alike promote inclusive urban design and planning. The investigation, in the central area of Hong Kong, focuses on the cultural landscape created by the women-centric 'Foreign Domestic Helpers' community. A desktop literature review, direct observation of public spaces, and in-depth interviews with a focus group of women in the city's heart established and mapped the marginalized users' collective viewpoint and their appropriation of space. The framework can be used by professionals to transform urban spaces through a gender lens to improve the overall quality of public spaces and make them more inclusive and accessible. The paper generates gender-sensitive urban design principles that can be translated for planners to use for various user groups and contexts. When women become key drivers in activating public space, they are given back their right to the city. • Women's traveling patterns are frequent due to their caregiving responsibilities. • The unique cultural landscape of a city creates gender-centered activities. • Integrating gender-specific features ensures urban spaces cater to women's needs. • Reliable public transport is vital for women's mobility and engagement in city life. • A city catering to women tends to accommodate those they care for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity and inclusion continue to pose significant challenges for many cities. Disparities in access to resources and facilities among the residents of these areas are often influenced by factors such as geographical location and income level, among others. Therefore, creating a quantitative basis to detect spatial and socio-economic inequities in residents' access to vital infrastructures is crucial for advancing smart cities. This paper introduces a novel measure of Spatial Inequity that is based on 1) computing building-level scores for each building in terms of access to facilities, and 2) comparing the distribution of the scores of these facilities using the Gini coefficient. The proposed building-level scores will enable the identification of GIS hotspots at a high resolution. Then, the Gini-based measure will facilitate a comparison of the distribution of the scores, and determine if they are evenly distributed and equitably accessible. The Gini coefficient was highest (0.89) for waste management and elderly care, and lowest (0.56) for hospitals, reflecting varying levels of inequality. This study applies this Spatial Ineqity methodological framework to Hong Kong, a representative of Highly Dense Cities. The framework benchmarks urban infrastructure, identifies hotspots, and selects interventions for equitable urban development. • Novel approach identifies spatial inequities via building-level scores & Gini coefficient. • Precise hotspot identification enhances targeted interventions in dense urban areas. • Applied methodology in Hong Kong offers insights into urban development complexities. • Gini coefficient unveils varying degrees of inequality across essential services. • Geospatial analysis & quantitative measures support equitable urban resource allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc worldwide. To mitigate the spread of the virus, societies around the world implemented various social control measures and restrictions on mobility. Traditional work practices were upended, leading to a widespread adoption of telecommuting in many cities, effectively turning urban spaces into expansive work-from-home laboratories. The exchange of digitized documents, virtual conversations, and online transactions replaced physical movements and face-to-face communication, allowing for the continuation of productive activities. This shift to telecommuting raises important questions about the impact on traditional business practices and power dynamics in the workplace. It also prompts us to examine how new communication and surveillance tools facilitate collaboration and enhance worker productivity. Furthermore, it is essential to understand how employees navigate and adapt to the opportunities and limitations presented in a teleworking environment. To gain insights into these issues, this paper focuses on the experiences of work-from-home employees in the community of Tin Shui Wai in Hong Kong, using the concept of governmobility as an analytical framework. The findings reveal that telecommuting is enabled by innovative social interaction mechanisms, changes in power dynamics, and the implementation of new discourse and surveillance methods, all of which are contingent on specific work and life conditions. The various experiences of telecommuting, such as working in a home office, in virtual workspaces, and using on-body devices, demonstrate adaptable responses to the emerging opportunities and constraints of telecommuting. These experiences illuminate the intricate ways in which work and life intertwine in both physical and temporal dimensions. • Exploring the mechanisms of governmobility in telecommuting during the Covid-19 pandemic. • Theorizing diverse telecommuting practices and experiences. • Discussing the prospects of telecommuting in the post-Covid world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the time-varying and land use-induced spillover effects of urban redevelopment, providing a lens through which to understand the welfare implications of both the temporal dynamics and the land use changes that occur through urban transformation. By analysing redevelopment project and housing transaction data from Hong Kong between 2005 and 2020, we find significant, positive spillover effects of urban redevelopment on local housing prices following the redevelopment announcement, with diminishing magnitudes as the redevelopment project proceeds. We also find heterogeneous spillover effects associated with different functional land use changes in redevelopment projects. The direction and extent of these externalities depend on the trade-off between the changes in local amenities and the changes in the level of competitiveness in the local housing market. • Redevelopment has time-varying and land use-induced spillover effects. • In general, spillover effects show a diminishing magnitude as the project proceeds. • The time-varying spillover patterns depend on the specific changes in land uses. • Redevelopments pose negative spillovers through the competitiveness channel. • Redevelopments pose positive spillovers through the amenity channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by economic concepts of product competition, this paper uses publicly available and accurate business information on establishment names and addresses obtained from the Yellow Pages of the contemporary Hong Kong telephone book and census socio-economic data backed by oral testimonies, to dispel the myth that the "Kowloon Walled City" was an incarcerated ghetto. The use of this imagery in the title for this City as a built up, politically sensitive zone levelled to the ground to make way for a public Chinese garden shortly before Hong Kong was returned to China, is treated as a form of 'product differentiation' in the academic research marketplace. As a contribution to planning theory, the paper uses the City as a show case of how academic branding, through descriptors, creates images of places and offers a countervailing image. Technically, it demonstrates the immense archival value of telephone directories and business chronicles apart from census data as sources of socially significant data for urban studies and informed re-interpretation of subjective imageries of an urban place. • Challenge dark views of Kowloon Walled City with socio-economic statistics & oral testimonies • Refute representation of Kowloon Walled City as a dark prison • Project a bright picture of Kowloon Walled City [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Kwun Tong Promenade in Hong Kong is an exemplary case of government-driven commodification of public space. The waterfront public space was an integral part of the government's plan to redevelop the former industrial center into a new premier business district. Through document analysis, site observations and interviews, this paper seeks to examine how the government has driven commodification of the Promenade and to illustrate how the process was manifested both socially and spatially. It is clear from the findings that the Kwun Tong Promenade was developed and managed by the government primarily to attract investment and drive growth in the area, and, as a result, the voices and needs of the local communities were largely neglected. In addition to the decline in publicness of the public space, the government-driven commodification of the Promenade also led to the exacerbation of uneven development across the rapidly transforming district. By examining the commodification of the Kwun Tong Promenade and highlighting its link to spatial injustice, this paper represents a call for more critical attention to government-driven public spaces as public space developments become increasingly complex and contested in different social, economic, and political contexts. • The Kwun Tong Promenade was largely developed by the government to drive urban redevelopment and attract investment. • Marginalized groups such as the residents and the creative community were neglected and excluded in the development process. • Government-driven commodification of the Promenade has led to its decline in publicness and exacerbated spatial injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public open space (POS) is essential to urban areas. Assessing them usually requires tedious approaches such as fieldwork and manual processes. Street View Imagery (SVI) and Computer Vision (CV) have been adopted in some urban environment research, bringing fine granularity and human perspective. However, limited aspects have been subject in these studies, and SVI and CV have not been used for holistic POS assessment. This research introduces a novel approach of employing them in conjunction with traditionally used geospatial and remote sensing data for automating POS assessment and doing so extensively. Indicators from both subjective and objective perspectives are developed, and CV algorithms are adopted for retrieving visual features. In a case study spanning 800 POS in Hong Kong and Singapore, a method is designed to predict both subjective and objective scores. The results demonstrate the perceptual models achieved acceptable to high accuracy scores, and suggest that SVI reflects different aspects of POS compared to previous approaches. The paper concludes that SVI can be adopted in POS assessment as a new instrument, extending their research scope to rarely considered off-road areas, and contributing with a new approach for the design and allocation of POS in urban planning. • Comprehensive assessment using street view imagery and computer vision • Uncovering the usability of rarely used street-level images beyond streetscapes • Developing and comparing objective and subjective perspectives for assessment • Combination of multi-sourced indicators reduces the bias of single data source. • Imagery adds unparalleled insights to traditionally used GIS or remote sensing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a principal-agent analysis of the public sector decisions made by a non-democratic planning body under public scrutiny. The central idea is that divergence between the interests of the principal (citizens), whose objective is to maximize the total value of the land in Hong Kong, and the agent (planning approval authority), whose concern is about Approval Risk, which is the agent's risk of being accused of collusion or even bribery. This principal-agent analysis can be applied to any public-sector decision-making process in a society with the rule of law and freedom of speech. It was found by a logit analysis of 1440 sets of disaggregate data that planning applications by non-profit applicants for uses in Government/Institution/Community (GIC) zones were more likely to be approved than those by for-profit private organizations, in line with the idea of a lower perceived Approval Risk. Amongst the applications by private organizations, proposed high-value land uses were less likely to be approved than those proposed for low-value uses, probably because the former results in potentially higher economic gain for the applicants. The legislative change that took effect in July 2005 has allowed a wider public participation in the planning application process. This policy change was used in this study as a test condition for the effect on planning approvals of an increase in the principal's involvement in the decision-making process. It was found that the policy change did increase the success rate of planning applications made by private organizations, though the impact was mainly on the applications for low-value land uses only. The empirical result shows that the perceived Approval Risk for high-value land uses was too high to be affected by the policy change. • A principal-agent framework is used to analyse the decisions of the planning authority in Hong Kong. • The agent (planning authority) aims to minimize the "Approval Risk" which diverge from the principal's (citizens) interests. • The applications for conversion of land zoned for GIC use to for-profit private uses is less likely to be approved. • High-value for-profit private land use applications are less likely to be approved compared to the low-value counterparts. • Increase in public participation has increased the success rate of low-value for-profit private land use applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on organizational knowledge theory, this paper investigates collaborative knowledge creation for social change in the urban planning context through an in-depth case study of Hong Kong's recent participatory planning exercise for transitional social housing. Using the concept of 'ba', the enabling context of knowledge creation, this paper explores how 'ba' contributes to or limits participatory planning for social innovation. The study found that while the conversion between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge in participatory planning takes place in a manner similar to that in organizational knowledge creation, collaborative knowledge creation in planning is largely influenced by the 'ba' that has been in place on the city and neighborhood scale for a long time and the availability of capable institutions as knowledge activists. Understanding collaborative knowledge creation in participatory planning from the organizational perspective advances the theoretical discourses to understand the dynamics of the new modes of participatory planning, but also expands the empirical application of organizational theory to the urban context. • Co-creation in planning can be understood as collaborative knowledge creation. • 'Ba', the enabling context of knowledge creation, is important. • The locationality of 'ba' affects the outcomes of participatory planning. • The state could be in a critical position as a knowledge activist in planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines informal housing supply factors through rent gap analysis. Gentrification brings displacement implication, especially for households in the lower end of the housing market. Serious affordability problem excludes households from formal housing sector. Informal housing often emerges when formal market cannot fully respond to affordable housing demand. Incentive for property owners to supply lower-cost units by informal means e.g. apartment subdivision for higher rental return is created with the rent gap between informality and formality. It is largely attributed to quasi-rent which is temporary in nature. Meanwhile, renters' housing needs are met by forgoing living space and housing facilities. Informal housing supply leads to displacement of original incumbents and inflow of lower-income class. With assistance of local non-governmental organizations, this study examines informal housing supply determinant based on a case study of sub-divided units (SDUs), which are Hong Kong's key informal housing component. Rent gap size, disinvestment conditions and accessibility of the apartments are found to be key SDU supply factors. The results could be generalized to other cities with serious housing unaffordability and informal housing arrangements. Implications are also drawn from the results for future affordable housing supply and social welfare policy implementation. • The paper studies informal housing which often emerges when formal market can't fully respond to affordable housing demand. • Incentive for the supply of lower cost informal rental units is created with rent gap between informality and formality. • Meanwhile, renters' housing needs are met by forgoing living space and housing facilities. • Rent gap size, disinvestment conditions and accessibility of the apartments are key sub-divided unit supply factors. • Implications are also drawn for social welfare policy implementation and future affordable housing supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic congestion has been a persistent problem in cities globally. Theoretically, commuting-related congestion can be relieved by promoting working from home (WFH). Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, WFH arrangement has been encouraged or enforced to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Under these circumstances, it was reported that traffic congestion has been alleviated in many cities. However, changes in congestion patterns within a city have not been studied in-depth. In this study, we analysed the congestion index (CI) at peak hours, when commuting-related congestion is typically most serious, throughout different waves of the pandemic in Hong Kong. Results show that under WFH arrangement, peak-hour congestion has been alleviated. Within a day, morning peak congestion was more relieved. Spatially, significant drops in CI were found not only in the central business district and urban cores but also in some new town areas. This paper has significant implications for urban planners in creating more sustainable cities that duly consider the commuting needs of residents, and cautions against the optimism that WFH can relieve urban transport problems despite jobs-housing imbalance. While the WFH arrangement has potentials to ease commuting congestion, future e-working and transport measures need to take spatial and temporal dimensions into account. • Spatio-temporal dynamics of urban traffic congestion under COVID-19 were captured. • In Hong Kong, work from home had a bigger impact on morning than evening peak. • Morning peak congestion relief was not only limited to the CBD. • The two commuting peaks were identifiable even during work from home periods. • About 25% of planning units had lower peak-hour congestion under the "new normal". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, the private sector has actively participated in delivering transport infrastructure assets in cities. Typically, Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) approaches have been used to deliver urban rail transit (URT) systems. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreements or variants thereof have been the procurement method of choice by governments. However, PPPs have been unable to provide governments with value for money and concessionaires with sufficient operating revenues. The corollary, in this case, has meant that governments have been drawn to consider alternative forms of financing to procure and support the economic viability of a city's URTs. Land value capture (LVC) has been identified as a potential finance mechanism that can be integrated with a PPP to ensure its economic success. There are, however, only a limited number of cities that have integrated LVC with a PPP to successfully their URT projects. In this paper, an exploratory case study approach is used to learn from the experiences of Delhi Airport Metro Express and Hong Kong's Mass Transit Rail. Consequently, we develop a conceptual model that integrates land value capture and PPPs that can assist policy-makers with the procurement of their rail infrastructure. The implications of our developed model for procurement policy are presented. • Reviews urban rail transit (URT) public-private partnerships (PPP) that utilise land value capture (LVC) • Examines the success and failure of URT's procured using PPPs with LVC in Delhi and Hong Kong. • Develops a robust model for integrating PPPs and LVC for procuring URT projects • Provides recommendations to manage better the procurement policy of URT projects [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic, an exceptional crisis, sparked the introduction of new digital infrastructure to halt the novel coronavirus's spread. This paper explores how such digital infrastructure's impact might reverberate over the long term, by comparing Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China's utilization of digital technology in response to the 2003 SARS outbreak, and their responses to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We find that advancements in digital technology since 2003 have boosted governments' surveillance and segregation abilities substantially—most dramatically so in China. Even though some of these new digital interventions are ostensibly designed to be temporary ones to address the needs of the immediate crisis, we argue that the resultant extensions of state power experienced during COVID-19 are likely to have profound long-term effects because they fundamentally affect sociopolitical contexts, institutional capabilities, and digital cultures. We also find that the extent to which governments can extend digital surveillance and segregation abilities during the pandemic is contingent on their respective sociopolitical, institutional, and digital cultural contexts. • COVID-19 pandemic sparked calls for a new digital infrastructure. • We compare 2003 SARS outbreak to COVID-19 pandemic. • New digital technologies increased governments' ability to surveil and segregate. • Their impact on surveillance and segregation will persist post COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is it possible to control the covid-19 pandemic in large cities like Hong Kong? Many cities have adopted various mitigation measures to contain the covid-19 pandemic. But few studies have been made to measure the impact of mitigation measures on infection risk at city level such as Hong Kong. This paper introduced three indicators to measure the infection risk of covid-19 under mitigation measures: the infection rate, the primary risk of infection and daily risk of infection. Two factors are introduced to consider the impact of mitigation measures on infection risk in Hong Kong. They are the number of trips per day and the percentage of people wearing face masks. With these two mitigation measures, the daily risk of infection was reduced from 1826.11 per million to 644.58 per million in the peak of covid-19 infection on 2 August 2020. The covid-19 infection risk would be 2.83 times higher if above mitigation measures were not adopted. The covid-19 pandemic continues in 2021 and city governments are strongly recommended to take effective measures to encourage the public to reduce unnecessary trips and wear face mask before the pandemic is fully controlled. • A measure of daily risk of covid-19 infection is introduced. • It is possible to control the covid-19 pandemic in large cities like Hong Kong. • The peak of infection risk would be 2.83 times higher without mitigation measures in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]