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Suitable Housing Placement: A GIS-Based Approach

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Abstract

The intent of this paper is to operationalize some aspects of local sustainability in a suitable development scenario and to compare its energy-use and environmental impacts to trend development. After a discussion of suburban sprawl, local sustainability, and the current state of the Pennypack Creek Watershed in the Philadelphia metro region, these residential location scenarios are presented. The latter were created using geographic information systems software and are based on projections from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. The impacts of the scenarios on energy use, air emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, and biological integrity were estimated with very few data, and the effect on the value of generic ecosystem services was assessed. The suitable development scenario was 29% better in terms of energy use and air and greenhouse gas emissions, 2.4% worse on water quality, and 2.6% better with respect to biological integrity. Given its net beneficial results, recommendations for policies to engender suitable development are made, and an outline of an implementation plan is proposed. Thoughts regarding refinements of the present work and the applicability of the methods used here to other watersheds conclude the work.

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Acknowledgments

This research was performed under Grant CR-83084001-1 from the Office of Science Policy, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, through the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to the Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC) at Temple University Ambler. The authors would like to thank Ms. Anita Street (EPA), Project Officer, Mr. Donald Brown (DEP), PA liaison, and Dr. Jeffrey Featherstone, Director of the CSC, for resources and guidance. The authors also thank Ms. Alice Walters, research assistant at the CSC, for her work on the CommunityViz build-out analyses. The three reviewers provided invaluable insights into what the final product should be, and we are indebted to them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economics Department, School of Business and Management, Temple University Ambler, 580 Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, PA, 19002, USA

    John A. Sorrentino

  2. Center for Sustainable Communities, Temple University Ambler, 580 Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, PA, 19002, USA

    John A. Sorrentino & Md Mahbubur R. Meenar

  3. Community and Regional Planning Department, Temple University Ambler, 580 Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, PA, 19002, USA

    Md Mahbubur R. Meenar & Bradley J. Flamm

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  1. John A. Sorrentino
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Correspondence to John A. Sorrentino.

Appendix

Appendix

Tables and report the basic parameters of the GREET 1.8 model for the representative spark-ignition, conventional, and reformulated fuel auto.

Table A1 Fuel economy and emissions rates of baseline vehicles
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 Table A2 Energy use by and emissions from a typical automobile: gasoline spark-ignition engine, conventional and reformulated gasoline
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Sorrentino, J.A., Meenar, M.M.R. & Flamm, B.J. Suitable Housing Placement: A GIS-Based Approach. Environmental Management 42, 803–820 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9177-4

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