In alphabetical order

B

Backyard Production Model

A model with the assumption of equal productivity, constant returns to scale in exchange and constant returns to scale in production. In the model, every consumer is a producer and they will be self-sufficient by producing everything they consume. (O’Sullivan, 2012, p.17-18)

B

Barrier free environment
‘Barrier-free means that our society is accessible for all people, whether people with disabilities or not. Thus, not only the handicapped person, but everyone such as children, elders, and pregnant women can also be benefited in an accessible society’ (Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth, n.d., para.2).

B

Belt and Road Initiative

‘The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposes developing the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road with the intention of promoting economic cooperation among countries along the proposed routes. The Initiative has been designed to enhance the orderly free-flow of economic factors and the efficient allocation of resources. It is also intended to further market integration and create a regional economic cooperation framework of benefit to all.’(HKTDC, n.d.)

B

Bid rent

The amount land users are willing to pay for land on the basis of its distance from the Central Business District in a given city (O’Sullivan, 2012, p.128-130).

B

Biodiversity
‘The term biodiversity (from “biological diversity”) refers to the variety of life on Earth at all levels, from genes to ecosystems, and can encompass the evolutionary, ecological, and cultural processes that sustain life. Biodiversity includes not only species we consider rare, threatened, or endangered but also every living thing – from humans to organisms we know little about, such as microbes, fungi, and invertebrates.’ ... ‘We include humans and human cultural diversity as a part of biodiversity. We use the term “biocultural” to describe the dynamic, continually evolving and interconnected nature of people and place, and the notion that social and biological dimensions are interrelated. This concept recognizes that human use, knowledge, and beliefs influence, and in turn are influenced, by the ecological systems of which human communities are a part. This relationship makes all of biodiversity, including the species, land and seascapes, and the cultural links to the places where we live – be right where we are or in distant lands – important to our wellbeing as they all play a role in maintaining a diverse and healthy planet’ (American Museum of Natural History, n.d.).

B

Biomimicry

‘The term consists of “bios” and “mimesis”, which means “life” and “imitation” respectively — A method of innovation that aims to provide sustainable solutions to humankind's problems in a variety of areas such as the production of new materials, manufacturing processes, construction, and new product development by copying or adapting and employing ideas from nature’ (Emery, 2011, p. 27).

B

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model

‘The study of the progressive, mutual accommodation, throughout the life span, between a growing human organism and the changing immediate environments in which it lives, as this process is affected by relations obtaining within and between these immediate settings, as well as the larger social contexts, both formal and informal, in which the settings are embedded, ranging from the scope of “microsystem”, to “mesosystem”, “exosystem” and “macrosystem”’ (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, pp. 514-516).

B

Build, operate and transfer (BOT)

‘An arrangement that the government licenses the firm to build (B) a project and then to operate (O) the project for a certain period, normally 5 to 30 years, and finally, at the end of the concession period, to transfer (T) the project at no cost to the government’ (Qiu & Wang, 2011, p. 127).

B

Build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT)

A project delivery mechanism in which a government entity grants to a private sector party the right to finance, design, construct, own and operate a project for a specified number of years. (Thomson Reuters, 2019)

B

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

‘Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to more efficiently plan, design, construct, and manage buildings and infrastructure.’ (Autodesk, 2019)

B

Bureaucratic (organisational) decision making model

The model is ‘as "the organizational process", in which the organization's hierarchical structure and systematized routines, or standard operating procedures, are the major determinants of the decision process’ (Allison, 1971, as cited in Chaffee, 1983, p.22).

B

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

'Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a high-quality bus-based transit system that delivers fast, comfortable, and cost-effective services at metro-level capacities. It does this through the provision of dedicated lanes, with busways and iconic stations typically aligned to the center of the road, off-board fare collection, and fast and frequent operations. ' (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, 2019a)

Reference List

Allison, G. T. (1971). Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Little, Brown and Company: Boston. As cited in Chaffee, E. E. (1983). The Bureaucratic Model – Five Models of Organizational Decision Making. Rational Decision making in Higher Education: An NCHEMS Executive Overview, pp.21-22. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED246828.pdf. 

American Museum of National History. (n.d.). ‘What is Biodiversity?’. Retrieved from https://www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/about-the-cbc/what-is-biodiversity

Autodesk. (2019). What is BIM? Retrieved from https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/bim

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development. American Psychologist, 32(7), pp.513-531.

Emery, B. (2011). Biomimicry. In Green Business: An A-to-Z Guide, SAGE: Los Angeles, London and New Delhi, pp.26-28.

Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth. (n.d.). Barrier-Free Facilities. Retrieved from https://e-cgo.org.hk/rehabilitation/en/facilities.

Institute for Transportation & Development Policy. (2019a). What is BRT? Retrieved from https://www.itdp.org/library/standards-and-guides/the-bus-rapid-transit-standard/what-is-brt/

O’Sullivan, A. (2012). Urban economics (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Qiu, L. D. & Wang, S. (2011). BOT Projects: Incentives and Efficiency. Journal of Development Economics, 94(1), pp.127-138.