Traditionally, employment accessibility is one of the most important factors to decide residential location in the field of urban planning or urban economics. Considering the size and spatial distribution of employment area, the potential model, which...
Traditionally, employment accessibility is one of the most important factors to decide residential location in the field of urban planning or urban economics. Considering the size and spatial distribution of employment area, the potential model, which estimates potential location of the residential area, has been used broadly to allocate residential location demand spatially, which is caused by the market economy. Also it has been applied to new town development or housing development projects. As there have been growing concerns about environmental amenity, it has been cleared that a main factor of residential location is not only employment accessibility but also environmental amenity. Especially, comparing choice of present residential areas with the key factor of residential location in the future, a preference of environmental factors such as parks, green areas, and open-spaces picks up considerably. Hence, the importance of environmental amenity is greater and greater. Quantitative analysis combining the concept of open-space accessibility with traditional employment accessibility to find out the residential location demand is needed for accurate results.
This paper modifies the potential model of residential location by introducing and combining the concept of environmental amenity with traditional employment accessibility. Bringing a focus on quantification, the concept of open-space accessibility has been applied. The point of analysis is the effect on residential location of open-space accessibility; that is the additional effects of open-space accessibility.
Building the modified potential model empirically, it has founded that the potentiality of open space proximity has significant effects on residential location. This result has made open-space accessibility a primary factor in residential location. If the employment accessibility is fixed, the closer proximity of larger open-spaces, the more residential location are demanded. Also it supports various studies which insist on environmental amenities are important key factors in residential location decision-making.
Adding open-space accessibility to residential location factors, the explanatory power increases by 12~15% compared to traditional potential model. It means that the explanatory power of the model can be stronger by applying the modified potential model to new town development or allocation of housing demand in the process of land-use planning.
Comparisons among the observed and the predicted values of the traditional and the modified models also demonstrate that suburbanization can be facilitated further as the importance of open-space accessibility increases in the future.
Modifying traditional potential models into one incorporated with open-space accessibility, the predictive power will increase more realistically and accurately. Also it will contribute to estimating residential location demand and the placement of new housing areas.