Many scholars focused on the location based attributes rather than the non-location factors in decision making on land prices. Further, new research studies have identified the importance of the non-location attributes with the location factors. Many studies suggest that, many attributes exist which affects the housing price. Since the attributes involved and dominant for a particular case differs from one situation to the other, there cannot be an exact list of attributes. Yet, identification of factors that determine housing price and their relationships and the level of influence have poorly understood in planning and property development in the context of Sri Lanka. This study attempts to address what make householders to decide on housing price and application of hedonic pricing approach to estimate the implicit price of housing attributes in context of Sri Lanka. A sample study of selected fifty (50) single house transactions in Maharagama urban neighborhood area has been utilized to illustrate the applicability of the hedonic pricing model. As a methodology, correlation analysis has been carried out to study the degree of relationship between the housing price and the independent variables. The attributes which correlate with housing prices, the study identified the most significant attributes. A model was developed to estimate the future house price by applying the pricing model which is incorporated with these attributes. A hedonic house price model derived from multiple liner regression analysis was developed for the purpose. The findings reveal that six attributes as design type of the house, distance to the local road, quality of Infrastructure, garden size, number of the bed rooms and property age are contributed to estimate the implicit value of Housing property. The model developed would be used to identify implicit values of houses located in urban neighborhood area of Sri Lanka.

The quality of the neighboring environment plays a major role in encouraging people to walk when attending their daily needs. Although past studies have identified a relationship between neighborhood design factors and the level of walkability, this interdependence is poorly understood in urban planning in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study is to determine factors and conditions that influence walkability in a selected neighborhood in the town of Panadura and develop a model to predict what design factors enhance walkability in the neighborhood area. Ninety three (93) factors that affect the walkability in urban neighborhood were identified as the findings of the literature review of this study. Seventy six (76) walkability factors identified through perception surveys were examined within a 100m radius of 70 buffered circles representing 140 participants' residences through a questionnaire survey and field observations. Chi-square and Bivariate correlation analysis were carried out to identify the most decisive factors for walkability. Multiple Linear Regression analysis was applied to develop a model to assess the level of walkability of residents in the selected area based on the most significant factors. The study has identified main nine variables that determine the level of walkability. Based on the significant values the model can be used to assess the level of walkability of the people in Sri Lankan context.

Many scholars agree that there is no clear consensus regarding what “urban sprawl” is or what causes it. The term “sprawl” can be used or defined a number of ways for many situations. When its definition is ambiguous, it is impossible to determine its causes or consequences, including the effects of any policies designed to contain it. In this paper, first, we provide a conceptual definition of urban sprawl based on different dimensions such as density, concentration, proximity to services, automobile dependency, and extent of vegetation cover being paddy, eco-sensitive, or with decreased plantation areas. Such a definition provides a basis for understanding urban sprawl, its nature and its characteristics being location and context specific. Second, an “extended urban area” is demarcated as the geographical base for the study of the urban sprawl. Each dimension is defined and tested in 25 urbanized and suburbanized areas in the Colombo Metropolitan.

Urbanization tends bring out a number of problems, such as inadequate housing and urban services, increase land prices and construction costs, propagation of slums, pollution and deterioration of the urban environment. Currently, spatial development activities focusing on major cities of Sri Lanka are demanding urban infrastructure and services where municipalities are facing challenges on provision of the infrastructure and proper urban management too. This study seeks to identify the relevant criteria, indicators and a method for assessing the urban management performance of municipalities in Sri Lanka since specific measurement criteria and related indicators are not yet identified to evaluate urban management by the central government or local government levels. Based on Literature review, five criteria and 25 indicators were selected considering their applicability for the context of Sri Lanka. The Full Permutation Polygon Synthetic Indicator Method (FPPSI) was applied to synthesize indicators and the Synthetic indicator has been used to show the performance of each criterion in terms of urban service delivery. Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte Municipal Council (SJKMC) and Moratuwa Municipal Council (MMC) have been selected as the case studies for this research. Although selected cases are within Colombo Metropolitan Region, none of the municipalities were achieved the “High” or “Very High” level of synthetic indicator (SR>= 0.50) that shows the standard of municipal service delivery of Sri Lanka as a whole. This research lays the platform to evaluate the functional performance of Municipal Councils to guide the future scenario and to make decisions at the grass root level for managing the urbanization related issues in the country. Also this research helps the government to know the current trends of development impact and to take necessary policy level decisions to guide the economic growth in a correct direction with the political manifestoes.

The main objective of this research is to examine the determinants of place attachment of horizontal and vertical residential environments (specifically at neighbourhood level). Place attachment determinants and its scale were formulated by reviewing literature: 16 variables (social and physical determinants) were identified. Structured questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 200 residents of each residential environment in fast growing Colombo Metropolitan Region in Sri Lanka. The gathered data were subjected to statistical analysis in Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS). According to the results, the level of place attachment of horizontal residential neighbourhood is higher than the vertical residential neighbourhood, while respondents of both neighbourhoods indicated more than average level of attachment. Regression analysis shows that, in both neighbourhoods, both physical determinants and social determinants appear as significant determinants to explain the changes in place attachment. Moreover, residents feel more attached to the place due to physical determinants, whereas, the residents of the horizontal residential area feel more attached to the place due to the social determinants. The comparison of two types of neighbourhoods might provide additional insights into place attachment. The result of this study can be useful for planners, architects and policy makers when planning the different types of residential environments.