Interactive content from ONS (UK)

We have already posted here some interactive content from The Office for National Statistics - ONS (UK Statistics Authority) - the interactive population pyramids of the United Kingdom.

Now you can look out for more interactive content from ONS here. You'll find animated maps of life expectancy, fertility, mortality, etc. (via @worldmapper RT @theboysmithy)

I'm more interested in this kind of data: Commuter journeys inside Greater London, 2001

[image credit: ONS]

Urban Africa

• Edgar Pieterse (African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town) talks about African Urbanism at LSE - available as youtube video or mp3.
  .

• Mapless Map: Urban populations living in slums (via maptd). If anyone knows where to find data on Africa urbanization, please let us know!

[image credit: Riccardo Pravettoni - UNEP/GRID-Arendal]

Stupid Measures: The end of population

It has been a while since we have created a 'Stupid Measures' session here at Urban Demographics Blog. The Economist Magazine has published this chart that shows the years at which national populations will disappear.

This chart is stupid, both for technical reasons and because humankind will be extinct much earlier than that!

[Thanks Bernardo Furtado for the tip]

[image credit: The Economist Magazine]

ISUF 2011 - 18th International Seminar on Urban Form.

The 18th International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF 2011) starts today !

Unfortunately, I couldn't attend to the event, but I hope there will be other opportunities to discuss our methodological proposal for quantifying urban centrality.

Labor Force and Economic Growth

Recently there has been some public debate about the shortage of skilled workers. The debate emerges either in developing countries with booming economies or developed countries with aging populations.

In any case, it's all about:  (1) working-age population and skilled workers; (2) educational policies in the long term and migration policies in the short term.

[image Credit:  Bill Hatcher]

Here are some interesting articles on this issue:

• Some notes on new immigration trends in Canada and it's implications to real state, social inrqualities, labor force.
  
• Labor force dependency ratios and migration in Canada.
  
• Education levels of an area’s workforce and its economic performance (via The Urbanophile).
  
• The Spiegel on East German workforce shortages (via DM).
  
• There are now more high skilled than low skilled imigrantes in the US now - Brookings report on "Skilled Immigrants: A Growing Force in America"(video here).
  
• Paper discussing the decisions governments face when employers request migrant workers.
  
• The Mysterious Labor Shortage in China.
  
• Shortage of primary-care doctors in the USA (?).

Assorted Links

• Call for Papers - 2012 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (PAA) - Deadline for submissions: 23 September 2011. (thanks Joice Vieira for the tip)

• Urban Analysis Using Mobile-Device Data (via Michael Batty)

• The new issue of the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JLUT) focuses focuses on coevolution: how transport drives changes in land use, and vice versa. Here!
  

• A special edition from Scientific American discussing "Better smarter cities" (via Manu Fernandez)

Demographics under the spotlight

• Demographic changes in Brazil by National Geographic (via Leo Monasterio)
  
  
• Financial Times Special Report on the new demographic challenges around the world (via 'my wife' - thanks my dear for the link) - I confess I still have to take a closer look at this.

And a beautiful video composed completely of photographs of Paris (by Luke Shepard via Daniel Lippman)

Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

Policy Evaluation - book recommendation

If you are looking for a book on the topic, I would recommend you this one:  Program Evaluation: Alternative Approaches and Practical Guidelines (Fitzpatrick, J. L.; Sanders, J.R.; Worthen, B.R.) - Portuguese version here.

I would also recommend this LSE Public Lecture on Academic impact on policy-making (particularly the Session B: A ‘how to’ guide to measuring your own academic impact)

Atlas of Urban Expansion

If you are looking for data on urban sprawl around the world, you should check out the Atlas of Urban Expansion by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

This is a sample of what you can do with their data (by Urban Change).

[image credit: Urban Change]

Assorted links

• Urban Network Analysis: A Toolbox for ArcGIS 10 (via @jmichaelbatty)
  
  
• G-Econ - Geographically based Economic data (via devecondata)
  
  
• ‘Middleweight’ Cities as Growth Engines
  
  
• NYT tool for Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census (via UPB)
  
  
• A fresh look at US population trends
  
  
• Mapnificent (via The Map Room)

Mapnificent from Stefan Wehrmeyer on Vimeo.

off-topic: São Paulo CBD

I have just come back from a work trip to São Paulo*. I ran into this as I walked through the CBD. 

Banespa Building

[Photo credit: Rafael Pereira using qbro]

*Where I was promoting the book "Urban-Regional Dynamics - Urban Network and its Interfaces" (my poor translation )

The death of distance and the rise of cities

Glaeser gave this lecture on November 13, 2008, at LSE. This event marked the launch of the Spatial Economics Research Centre.

He starts talking about this apparent paradox "The death of distance and the rise of cities" (audio only). In this lecture he tackles regional policy and declining cities, urban sprawl, urban environment and gas emissions, density, affordable housing and all other trending topics in urban studies you should be aware of.

Overestimated China

I think China is overestimated (but I might be wrong - just as my grandfather was when he said that the internet was not going anywhere).

China is going through a rapid aging process. This means that "[...] local governments across the country will have to cope with a fast-rising population of retired people whose pensions, if any, will have to be paid for by contributions from a shrinking working population." The chinese one-child policy might be reconsidered in next few years (here).

The demographic factors that would support China's economic growth are most likely to become a demographic trap.

bonus track: China’s New Housing Agenda (lessons to learn?)
bonus track 2: (updated): More on China's demographic trends here

[Image credit: Chinese American Aging Issues]

Science of Cities and the 15 percent rule

A new blog on the Science of Cities written by Professor Michael Batty.

If you are into this, you should listen to Geoffrey West at TED. (via Urbanophile)

World Population and Different Ways of Life

We have already seen "World population and the NY way of life" and "Netherlands population and the Manhattan /Los Angeles way of life".

Per Square Mile has extended this idea. Check it out.

(via @Worldmapper)

ps. when it comes to urban density, I'm with Glaseser!