VI - World Planning Schools Congress

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Open Access
A Critical evaluation of the latest regional planning efforts in Turkey
(AESOP, 2016) Dedekorkut-Howes, Aysin; Kaya, Nursen; Howes, Michael
There are a series of problems and issues planners face that are best dealt with at a regional scale such as air quality, water quality, habitat protection, transportation planning, urban sprawl (land use and growth management), economic development and social equity (Wheeler, 2000). However, regional planning is easier said than done. Planning usually occurs within administrative boundaries but economic development and environmental systems transcend these. Most of the time political boundaries do not reflect an economically, ecologically and socially functional region (Calthorpe and Fulton, 2001). When the region is ill-defined planning may not achieve its goals. Planning powers and authority are usually fragmented among competing local governments and agencies with different missions. The new millennium saw the first systematic regional planning efforts in Turkey to guide development. While there have been regional plans since 1960s these have been ad hoc, on a needs basis. The purpose of the earlier plans was to bring some order into the development taking place outside municipal boundaries due to the rapid population growth. However, these plans were not well defined by law at the time resulting in unceasing arguments over the function, content, scale, quality, legal basis of the plans as well as the responsibility and authority to make them (Tekinbaş, 2001).
Open Access
A European perspective of Inter-Municipal cooperation: The institutionalisation of the metropolis (2005 - 2015)
(AESOP, 2016) Dornelles Hosannah, Luciana
In today’s inter-connected world, governments rarely possess the full capability to solve their individual policy areas (Nelles, 2010), municipal borders are often ‘fictitious’ within larger metropolitan territories and all communities are confronted with the increasing scale and complexity of social processes, which result in increasing number of externalities to local policies. The necessity to think beyond municipal boundaries when dealing with key challenges and opportunities has led several European governments to consider exploring inter-municipal cooperation (IMC) as possible institutional solutions. In European context, national governments and the European Union have increased their focus on IMC for regional and metropolitan governance in the past ten years. This is illustrated by several recent institutional reports on the subject (Ahrend, Gamper, & Schumann, 2014; EUROCITIES, 2011; Göddecke-Stellmann et al., 2011; Griesel & van de Waart, 2011; Meijers, Hoogerbrugge, & Hollander, 2012; Tasan-Kok & Vranken, 2011). Academic literature has not, however, kept up with this policy shift, having far fewer academic Europe-wide comparative studies produced in the same period of time (Feiock, 2007; Hulst & Van Montfort, 2007; Otgaar, 2008). This gap between institutional interest and academic productions is important to acknowledge, as it essentially signifies a contemporary political trend in European metropolitan governance that is undergoing fewer academic methodical analysis than would be expected.
Open Access
A research on the features of the rural planning practice in China in the past Decade
(AESOP, 2016) Sun, Ying
Based on the special institution and development process, the urban-rural relations in China are very particular. The rural areas play different roles in different stage of urbanization and the status of rural areas changed a lot. Since the launching of reform and opening-up program over 30 years ago, China has quickened the pace of urbanization, with urban population increasing from 170 million to some 700 million and numbers of cities increasing to 657 in 20111. In 2011, the urbanization rate in China exceeded 50% and China entered “the urban era”. However, while the cities developed rapidly, the rural areas fell into stagnation and recession. With the decline of the rural economy and the large-scale migration to cities, large numbers of villages disappeared or transformed. Since 2003 the central government focus on the rural problems, which gradually becomes a hot topic these year. It is an urgent need for urban planning discipline to expand its research field to rural development and planning. Following the central policies such as “Coordinated Urban-rural development”, “Construction of Socialist New Countryside”, the practice of rural planning flourished. Many urban planners are engaged in various rural planning practice. What are the features of the rural planning in the past decade in China? What are the types, the targets, and the content of rural plans? What does the rural planning contribute to the development of the urban-rural relations? These are the objects of this study.
Open Access
A spatial and longitudinal analysis of unmet transportation needs during hurricanes Katrina and Rita
(AESOP, 2016) Joh, Kenneth; Norman, Alexandria; Bame, Sherry I.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had a tremendous impact on transportation infrastructure and services in the United States. While other parts of the world have suffered greater losses from natural disasters, Katrina and Rita rank among the deadliest and costliest natural disasters in U.S. history (NOAA, 2014). They ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States within a three-week period, with landfall first on August 29 then September 24, 2005. These disasters led to the largest mass evacuation in U.S. history, strained the region’s transportation infrastructure and services, and tested the effectiveness of state emergency management offices to respond to calls for transportation needs. Although there is a growing literature on the impacts of natural disasters on transportation infrastructure (Freckleton et al., 2012; Szyliowicz, 2013; TRB, 2008; Wolshon et al., 2005), there is scant research on emergency response to transportation needs, particularly unmet needs of disaster victims who face barriers to affordable transportation and services. Objectives This study fills this important gap through an unprecedented analysis of transportation-related 2-1-1 (non-emergency) disaster call data collected in real-time during the period of the hurricanes, allowing for the investigation of unmet transportation needs by location and disaster phases. We conducted a spatial and longitudinal analysis of 2-1-1 transportation-related calls in the US state of Texas to identify “hot spots” of unmet transportation needs.
Open Access
A spatial pattern of housing and transport costs in Bordeaux Metropolitan Area
(AESOP, 2016) Deymier, Ghislaine; Gaschet, Frederic; Pouyanne, Guillaume; Premaillon, Robin
This research focus on sustainable city by developing a methodology of housing and transport costs assessment in order to understand the vulnerability level of households and land in Bordeaux Metropolitan area. It appears necessary to articulate better, in the analysis of urban durability, environmental dimension and socioeconomic dimension. Too often focalized on the only environmental footprint of urban growth, approaches in terms of urban durability neglect most often stakes of social sustainability of housing and transport linked to urban forms. However, the housing issue is essential for understand space inequality. The low-income families is broadly led to move away from urban centers to find a place to live and particularly to achieve ownership. This urban phenomenon of relegation leads to negative effects on mobility of these households: lengthening of travel time and distance and consequently travel costs owing to automobile dependency. In this way, households are confronted with a vulnerability defines itself with regard to the risk of social isolation and on the other hand to the risk of poverty directly linked to housing and transport costs. Exploiting data of notarial real estate transactions and tax level, supplemented by inquiries will allow to assess the vulnerability level and residential mobility of housings. The sustainable mobility of persons concerns notably the outlying suburbs because it raises a certain number of stakes both on environmental, economic and social plan and on space organization of these areas.
Open Access
A study on trip mobility deprivation of residents in migrant community in the urban fringe of Shanghai Metropolitan Area
(AESOP, 2016) Li, Jihuan
As the largest city in China, Shanghai has witnessed a rapidly increasing floating population. Compared with the central city and the outer suburban area, the periphery of Shanghai has been the area with the fastest growth of floating population. Due to its location, relatively low housing prices, and job opportunities, the periphery of Shanghai has accommodated many migrant workers. As a vulnerable group with relatively low income, these migrant workers’ daily travel patterns are quite different from other city dwellers. This paper focuses on trip mobility of residents in migrant community on the periphery of Shanghai metropolitan area. The research tries to figure out: (i) to what extent the trip mobility of immigrants is deprived; (ii) what cause the deprivation; (iii) how can things be improved. Seven migrant communities on the periphery of Shanghai were selected as case studies. In each community, the overall population is more than 10,000, the land area is more than one square kilometer, and the percentage of floating population in total population is more than 80%. In order to evaluate the deprivation level of the migrant’s daily travel, seven other local communities with similar locations and population sizes were selected as control groups. As opposed to the migrant communities, percentages of local hukou residents in these communities are over 80%(Figure 1).
Open Access
Abstract Book 5th World Planning Schools Congress 16th Asian Planning Schools Association Congress Bali, Indonesia - 29 Aug - 2 Sept 2022
(Global Planning Education Association Network, 2022)
With the theme “Planning A Global Village: Inclusion, Innovation, and Disruption”, the congress will bring together several relevant and important issues that challenge planning notions and practices. Recent trends, however, indicate the dramatic and significant shift from the traditional approach of seeing things for granted to ‘disruptive innovation.’ It splintered into many aspects of individuals and communities, including planning and design.
Open Access
Agglomeration benefits and polycentric growth: envisioning an efficient central metropolitan area in Belgium
(AESOP, 2016) Boussauw, Kobe; van Meeteren, Michiel; Sansen, Joren; Storme, Tom
In Flanders (Belgium), the regional government engages itself to develop an efficient ‘metropolis Flanders’, which is large enough to assume an important economic position in the network of urban regions of the north-western European delta. The heart of this urban agglomeration is the metropolitan core area that comprises roughly the functional space of the quadrangle Brussels-Leuven-Antwerp-Ghent, also known as the ‘Flemish Diamond’ (Albrechts & Lievois, 2004). This densely populated core area is well accessible and embedded in the European context, but experiences a variety of pressures. For example, a large portion of the predicted population growth of Flanders and Brussels is expected to settle in this area. As a consequence, the development of a ‘metropolis Flanders’ should be based on solid strategic planning policies. The current paper reports on a research project (Van Meeteren et al., 2015), aimed at determining whether the defined metropolitan area operates as a well-integrated urban agglomeration, and at developing a spatial vision on strengthening this metropolitan core area through a stakeholder debate. We make this analysis respectively with regards to the labour market, the housing market, and the transport sector (with the emphasis on public transport). The study is positioned within the guidelines as set out by the Green Paper on Spatial Policy in Flanders (Flemish Government, 2012), meaning that the emphasis will be put on the ability to support a spatial visioning process, rather than aiming for an exhaustive spatial analysis. The exercise is carried out in a complex institutional context. Boussauw et al. (2013) indicate that the central-Belgian metropolitan area spreads out across three administrative regions (Flanders, Brussels Capital Region, and Wallonia), with the Dutch-French language border as a very strong barrier within some subsystems (e.g. within a range of public services), but nonetheless negligible in many other subsystems (e.g. international businesses).
Open Access
An evaluation of municipal efforts for climate change mitigation and adaptation: two cases from Turkey
(AESOP, 2016) Gedikli, Bahar; Balaban, Osman
Climate change mitigation and adaptation is a multi-level challenge, i.e. it requires simultaneous action at international, national and local levels. Since climate change is a global problem, political responses have been primarily developed at international platforms where nation-states participated. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol are significant attempts in this regard. Meanwhile, the “local” has been also widely recognized as an appropriate level to tackle the climate change problem. Accommodating roughly half of world’s population, more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions are generated in cities. Ironically, cities are also the places which are vulnerable to climate change effects (Rosenzweig et al. 2010, Hunt and Watkiss 2011). The most severe potential effects of climate change on cities are heat waves, periods of extreme winter cold, increased frequency of air and water pollution episodes, rising sea levels and increased risk of storm surge, changes in the frequency and severity of flooding associated with more intense precipitation (Wilby 2007). The growing concerns for climate change have led to urban responses by municipalities across the world particularly since the 1990s. Municipalities with their authorities over land-use planning, water and waste management, energy consumption and transportation can play significant roles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, they can go beyond their already defined responsibilities, and develop bottom-up initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Betsill and Bulkeley 2005). It should be noted that the growing interest and involvement of municipalities in climate change mitigation and adaptation has also led to establishment of climate-related international and regional partnerships and networks for the last two decades.
Open Access
An intuitive “Scientific Workflow System” for spatial planning
(AESOP, 2016) Florescu, Tiberiu; Sârbu, Cătălin N.; Mitrea, Andrei; Chirilă, Corina T.; Chiș, Alin D.; Cocheci, Vlad; Costin, Alexandru V.
Recent years have witnessed a sharp increase in complex spatial planning problems. Consequently, almost every research exercise has to face the rise of vast new bodies of information, which become increasingly difficult to handle. At the same time, big data expands rapidly through recurrent additions of new datasets. In principle, such readily available data should pave the way for greater transparency in planning, research and decision-making. Unfortunately, the increased availability of data comes with a huge drawback: data is usually available in many flavours of varying quality. Therefore, one needs to clean, normalize and filter such data, prior to connecting it with other sets of already processed information. This is most certainly a necessary exercise. However, it subjects the researcher to the arduous task of cleaning and sorting data, which is normally a time consuming, repetitive and often boring task. Moreover, it represents just a fraction of the entire problem he or she aims to address. In addition, these new kinds of research require an inter-disciplinary approach: statistics, mathematics, informatics, geography, economics and sociology, urban and regional planning, as well as law and politics, to name only a few. Any researcher involved in such activities therefore needs to work with different tools, each coming with its own files, formats and language. It quickly becomes very difficult to keep track of all the data within one’s workspace.
Open Access
Analyzing Incremental Changes in Local Planning Institutions: Investigating transformation process after city-county consolidation in Tainan, Taiwan
(AESOP, 2016) Yang, Yi-Chen; Huang, Wei-Ju
For two decades, some planning scholars have tried to apply the concept of institutionalism in the studies of planning theory, but most of them mainly focus on how institutional innovation occur in a particular place, or how planning systems vary in different places (for example Pasty Healey, Bishwapriya Sanyal, and so on). Recently, Andre Sorensen proposes a historical institutional (HI) research agenda in planning theory. He argues that applying the HI approach to study the development of planning institutions in a particular place or to compare planning systems in different places can strengthen their theoretical framing and provide meaningful connections between physical and social phenomena. However, applicability of the approach and its contributions in planning studies remains further exploration. In light of this, this study aims to explore the potential of the HI approach in planning research via investigating the transformation process of planning institutions in Tainan City, Taiwan after a city-county consolidation. Historical institutionalist provides a systematical way to analyze what contribute to the institutional change or path dependence after critical junctures. Historical institutionalism is best known for the concept of ‘path dependence’ and ‘critical junctures’. According to Sorensen (2015, p. 21), ’[t]he core idea of path dependence is that, once established, some institutions tend to become increasingly difficult to change over time, and so small choices early on can have significant long-term impacts.’
Open Access
Architecture and urban planning: creating a new place for women
(AESOP, 2016) Castro, Paula Donegá de
The presence of women in Architecture and Urban Planning schools isn’t something new; Brazil had its first female graduate in architecture as early as 1908. Over time, women reached the numerical supremacy in this field. Nevertheless, being majority over their male colleagues does not prevent these professionals from having considerably lower incomes, or their works from being less prominent. If we hope to shape our cities into more inclusive environments, which take into consideration the multiple contexts and needs of its citizens, we must listen and acknowledge all kinds of experiences. The sexism in the field not only backtracks women’s careers, it also makes it harder for them to give extremely important input as knowledgeable professionals. To this day, the main voice behind planning and urban politics are those of men. Therefore, this paper will cover analyses and conjectures about the context and the social processes that have contributed to establish the situation women architects are currently facing in Brazil, where the sheer power of numbers is not enough to prevent them from being sidelined. These analyses were grouped into three distinct categories named “myths”. These proposed axes – elaborated after reading and analyzing multiple sources – were the ones considered essential to the better understanding of the place created for women in this field of knowledge. The choice of the term “myth” to name them derives from the understanding that those are anachronistic and outdated concepts, detached of today’s reality, although they still have a great impact on people’s daily lives.
Open Access
Artistic urban interventions, informality and public sphere: research insights from ephemeral urban appropriations on a cultural district
(AESOP, 2016) Costa, Pedro; Lopes, Ricardo
Artistic intervention in cultural districts can be an outstanding viewpoint to understand the multiple layers of uses and segregations that bring everyday life vitality to the complex organisms cities are. Urban informality contexts can be fundamental for the expression of this diversity and to liminality strategies, particularly interesting in the case of artistic intervention, as artistic creativity is often about transgression, differentiation, and, therefore, conflict. Small initiatives that develop in an informal and ephemeral way by artists who choose the city as stage for their work, exploring the ambiguous and flexible boundaries between public and private spaces are particular interesting, evidencing the usual conflicts verified on creative milieus but being also important to keep these places as vernacular as possible and to avoid gentrification processes. In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban interventions, informality and public sphere appropriation, analyzing the way informal artistic dynamics can contribute to urban re-vitalization and to the enhancement of real creative milieus. Drawing on a research-action based methodology the authors explore the results and impacts of three experiences of urban intervention that they developed in three consecutive years in informal urban contexts in Bairro Alto, the main cultural quarter of Lisbon, Portugal. These ephemeral artistic interventions introduced in the city new spaces of public use, performing different public and private spaces, and bringing them to the public sphere, creating also “new” zones that re-gain a utility in the city, contributing to the vitality and symbolic centrality of this area.
Open Access
Assessment of "social" and "economic" sustainability in peri-urban territories: a proposal of methodological framework and its application to Lisbon Metropolitan Area
(AESOP, 2016) Costa, Pedro; Pinto, Teresa Costa; Ferreiro, Fátima; Bernardo, Fátima; Colaço, Conceição; Santos, Sebastião; Lopes, Ricardo; Coelho, Rosa
Carried out within the framework of the multidisciplinary research project PERIURBAN (Peri-urban areas faced with the challenges of sustainability: developing scenarios for Lisbon Metropolitan Area) this article aims to propose, discuss and implement criteria for assessing the sustainability of peri-metropolitan territories at the social and economic level, starting from its application to the specific case of 5 parishes in Lisbon Metropolitan area. The peri-urban territories have gained a renewed interest in contemporaneity, in the face of the challenges of sustainability. However, the exploitation of its potential requires an approach that goes beyond the classic urban perspectives of a space to be consolidated and (re)developed. To that extent, a more comprehensive perspective is required, focused on their specific needs and their particular aptitude to contribute to an increase of the life quality of the population. Recognizing that the opportunity of these territories lies in the ability to integrate multiple sectoral policies and visions in the territorial planning process, the PERIURBAN project intended to develop scenarios with a view to identifying the main constraints and potentialities of the peri-urban areas, with the active cooperation of the stakeholders involved in its change.
Open Access
Bicycle transportation in Brazilian cities: motivations and challenges
(AESOP, 2016) Andrade, Victor; Marino, Filipe; Britto, Ana Lucia
The current scenario of urban mobility in Brazilian metropolitan areas is critical. Urban mobility has a direct impact on social and environmental dimensions. The environmental and life quality provided in a city are inherent to the mobility infrastructure. In this context, the active transport - defined here as cycling and walking - plays a key role in building a more sustainable city. Despite the central importance of active transport, the knowledge about the motivations and difficulties related to walking and cycling in Brazilian cities is still scarce. This background brings a major challenge for policy makers, Non-Government Organizations and other actors involved in project development and implementation of public policies aimed at active transport. Focusing on the bicycles transport, this article aims to present the results of the first Brazilian national survey about the motivations and challenges for the use of the bicycle as a urban transportation, as well as the profile of users of this means of transport. This study was conducted through a partnership between the Sustainable Mobility Lab of the Post Graduate Program in Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro – PROURB/UFRJ, the Non-Government Organization Transporte Ativo and the Research Center Observatório das Metrópoles. The questionnaires were applied by a network of researchers related to the subject between June and August 2015 and were tabulated in September 2015 for further analysis.
Open Access
Bottom-up energy transition. An analysis of successful and failed niche projects as basis for an energy transition as an overall social learning process
(AESOP, 2016) Schneider, Mario; Schönwandt, Walter
The energy transition is one of the most complex transformation processes of this century. In view of the threat of climate change, the energy supply system, developed over more than a hundred years, with its energy supply chains and energy consumption patterns is planned to be largely replaced by a new system protecting the climate and the environment by the year 2050. An optimisation of the existing system alone will not suffice to reach the necessary climate protection goals. Due to the accelerated phase-out of nuclear power in the wake of the reactor accident at Fukushima in 2011, time pressure and the need for action in Germany are particularly great, since the shut-down of nuclear power plants leads to an increasing combustion of coal for power generation, which has negative effects on climate development. The large energy supply companies have so far invested very little in the expansion of power generation from renewable energies and economically still strongly depend on their fossil fuel-based power plants. Since it is not yet clear which new technologies are suitable for renewable power production - especially for the energy transition - and will establish themselves in markets, they are holding back large investments for the time being.
Open Access
Bridging cities for building Europe: the case of the French North-Eastern Border
(AESOP, 2016) Paris, Didier
Europe is a recent construction at the scale of the history. In 1958, its ambition was to ensure peace in a continent which has known a lot of wars and crises. One aspect has concerned the effacement of the borders, if not their disparition. So, since the 80’s, crossborder cooperation have been encouraged. A programme like Interreg is emblematic of this orientation. But one of the most interesting evolution concerns the territorial cooperation, linked to territorial project in métropolitan areas and main cities located in border regions, such as Aachen, Maastricht, Liège (Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium), Vienna and Bratislava (Austria and Slovakia), Frankfurt-on-Oder and Slubice (Germany and Poland). The case of the French North-Eastern Border is surely emblematic of this evolution toward peace and development due to the role of crossborder projects around metropolises and main cities. From Dunkirk in French Flanders to Mulhouse and Saint-Louis in Alsace, cities and metropolises along the frontier with Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany constitute the new gates of the French « open field », in reference to the theory of the « Pré Carré » (France considered like something as an enclosure) of Vauban, military engineer of the king Louis XIV, who fortified, in the XVIIth century, all the cities, from Flanders to Alsace against enemies and invaders.
Open Access
Bridging food commons and planning: exploring a dialogue between consumer cooperatives and socio-spatial strategies in Istanbul
(AESOP, 2016) Dogancayir, Caner; Murat Inal-Cekic, Tuba
Emerging trends regarding the food supply for urban consumers trigger growing interest of research and policy in urban and regional planning agenda, which once considered as external for urban dynamics. Offered to be defined as “new food equation”, prominent researchers unfolded these emergent trends as decreasing affordability, reliability and security of food supply. Also increasing discontent and objection of urban citizens for such circumstances, apparent transformations of eco-systems related with agri-food sector in the era of globalization and new land conflicts triggered by the growing demand on food by increasing numbers of urban consumers have been the popout headings. Concept of Alternative food networks (AFN) became a far-reaching research strand and policy based tool to cope with emerging trends of food supply, considering urban consumers and rural (or so called peri-urban) producers. AFN literature and policy practice offers contemporary research agenda topics regarding future attempts to deal with food supply of urban areas in regional and local scales. These topics include on the one hand an evaluation of the potential and limits of local food networks to illustrate whether they are ecologically sustainable in environmental level, just enough to promote more integrated and embedded social relations across urban and rural settings in social level and healthy enough to respond to food crises. On the other hand they require creating new ways of policy-making to suggest or force grassroots initiatives and local governments for new institutional structures to maintain food-supply.
Open Access
Bridging sustainability and liveability notions through building codes and regulations: an examination of streetscapes shaped by urban renewal, housing and infrastructure policies in Peru
(AESOP, 2016) Pineda-Zumaran, Jessica
The discussion about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the recently approved United Nations global development agenda post-2015, generated an intense debate on the urban SDG (or Goal 11) during the preliminary rounds. Unexpectedly, this debate convened the academic and the policy circles alike, somehow revealing certain alignment in the concerns of both arenas. Although some interpret this alignment as a step forward in closing the pervasive gap between academic research and (global/national/local) urban policy-making, it is apparent that the fulfilment of the main aim of Goal 11’s: “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” would entail some conceptual and operational trade-offs that need to be addressed during the implementation stage. It can be argued that these trade-offs revolve around the synergies and contradictions of two notions: sustainability and liveability. Defined as the “sustainability vs. liveability” debate by the literature, scalar, temporal, disciplinary and measurement issues have been pointed out as main features to consider when operationalising these notions through policy and planning frameworks. To an extent, the contradictory nature of these issues has not been fully addressed, as revealed by the approaches currently dominating some policy and planning frameworks. In fact, it can be observed that many cities that nowadays are deemed as successful and with high quality of life have shifted their policy and planning agendas from sustainability to liveability approaches in the last decade (e.g. Vancouver, Toronto, Seattle, etc.).
Open Access
Built environment, active transportation, and childhood overweight: an exploration analysis
(AESOP, 2016) Li, Jianling
The prevalence of overweight and obesity continues to challenge public health professionals and planners in the United States (US). During 2009–2010, more than a third of adults and nearly one of five youths aged 2–19 years was obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The problem is more profound in socioeconomically disadvantage groups. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is an important issue as obesity is one of the leading causes of death and disability and the cost of treatment has climbed over the years in the U.S. The lack of physical activities is considered as one of the important factors contributing to obesity and other chronic diseases. The public health and planning literature suggests that the built environment may play a significant role in health outcomes. Land use and transportation planners have long advocated smart growth solutions such as transit-oriented development and changes in the design of the built environment to promote sustainable development and active transportation. Despite the recent efforts on promoting physical activities through change in design of the built environment, more empirical studies are needed to demonstrate the linkage between built environment, active transportation, and health benefits, especially the health benefit of children. Using the 2008 Cook Children’s Community Needs Assessment Survey (CCHAPS) data in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and GIS and statistical analysis techniques, this study investigates the complex relationship among built environment, childhood overweight, and other socioeconomic and behavior factors.