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Off-Grid Living For The Normative Society: Shifting Perception And Perspectives By Design, Patsun Lillie

Masters Theses

Off-grid houses in the United States are often connoted with mostly non-professional, home-made structures and isolated, hippie living in remote rural areas. These off-grid homeowners may also complete their consumer-independent commitment with a minimal-waste, land-dependent lifestyle that includes methodical harnessing and recycling of resources and materials, raising livestock, and productive gardening on the property. This research paper explores the background, methods and kinds of typical off-grid living structures, their ability to harness natural resources for function and performance, and the ability of its occupants to remain resilient in the face of depleting fuel resources, extreme weather patterns, and rising costs …

Identifying New England’S Underutilized Seafood Species And Evaluating Their Market Potential In A Changing Climate, Amanda G. Davis, Michelle D. Staudinger, Katherine E. Mills

Environmental Conservation Faculty Publication Series

Developing and diversifying market opportunities for lesser known yet abundant seafood species has been a successful strategy for seafood businesses in the Northeast United States. Since climate change and other stressors are currently threatening the economic vitality of New England’s seafood industry, it is important to identify if there are lesser-known species that could simultaneously support additional market opportunities and remain resilient in a warming climate. We developed a quantitative definition for the term “underutilized species’’ based on five criteria derived from science-based sustainable fishing metrics. Using this definition, we evaluated 47 stocks in the Northeast United States during the …

Buildings Integrated Into Landscape & Making People Care For Them: Exploring Integrated Land-Building Ecosystems And The Lifestyles Needed To Support It, Sara Mallio

Masters Theses

As climate change worsens, it is imperative that we make drastic changes to how our

buildings are designed. We need to create building systems that work with and enhance the surrounding ecosystem. Many of these types of systems were developed and tested during the back to land and environmentalist movements of the 1970’s. What is needed now is to synthesize these systems into packages that can be more easily adopted by the mainstream culture. By paying special attention to what people are willing to invest into their home’s system maintenance and adapting the sustainable systems to meet those needs, we …

New England’S Underutilized Seafood Species: Defining And Exploring Marketplace Potential In A Changing Climate, Amanda Davis

Masters Theses

New England’s seafood industry has been searching for opportunities to diversify their landings and build resilience as it faces socio-economic challenges from a changing climate. Developing markets for underutilized species is one way the New England community could help their seafood industry build resilience. This thesis identified New England’s underutilized fish species and explored their marketplace potential by examining their availability in a changing climate, current availability to consumers, and consumers’ responses. In Chapter I, I account how New England’s seafood preferences have changed over time. In Chapter II, I identify New England’s seven underutilized seafood species: 1) Acadian redfish …

Intermodal Transit Terminal: Integrating The Future Of Transit Into The Urban Fabric, Guy Vigneau

Masters Theses

The very foundation of transportation relies on its ability to efficiently move people and goods through a transitional space. Transportation hubs are key to achieving this goal. However, many transit terminals are outdated or poorly designed to fit the needs of the modern world. At the core of this thesis are two overarching questions. First, how do we design intermodal transit terminals so that they successfully integrate into an existing urban fabric? Second, how do we design for innovative modes of transportation, such as hyperloop technology? This thesis explores how architectural design can recover existing transit connections within an urban …

An Incremental Intervention In Jakarta: An Empowering Infrastructural Approach For Upgrading Informal Settelments, Christopher H. Counihan

Landscape Architecture Masters Theses Collection

Incrementalism is a growing movement within multiple design disciplines that approaches design with sustainable, social, and resilient aims structured around participatory, infrastructural, and phased approaches to design. Carefully considered structural and independent infrastructural frameworks allow infill and accretion according to the demands and needs of individuals and communities. This paper outlines the theories, case studies, and conditions driving incrementalism. My research has informed my project proposal for an incremental upgrade of a slum located in Jakarta using a phased, soft infrastructural, resident facilitated upgrade and development strategy creating new housing units, productive landscapes, and urban form. Incremental development will foster …

Examining An Opportunity For Collaboration Among Stakeholders To Promote Conservation In Sea Turtle Tourism In Gili Trawangan, Lombok, Indonesia, Allison Mccabe

Travel and Tourism Research Association: Advancing Tourism Research Globally

This study focuses on sustainable sea turtle tourism development in small islands, focusing on a case study on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. All species of sea turtles are globally endangered, largely due to impacts of unsustainable tourism development. Gili Trawangan is an island dependent upon a flourishing marine tourism industry. It is crucial to determine stakeholder perspectives to reveal barriers and influences in tourism development to help promote sea turtle conservation and protect the livelihoods of local communities. The study was conducted in 2010 to examine an opportunity for stakeholder collaboration to promote conservation in sea turtle tourism. The study applied …

A Comparative Sustainability Study For Treatment Of Domestic Wastewater: Conventional Concrete And Steel Technology Vs. Vegetated Sand Beds (Vsb’S) And Their Relative Differences In Co2 Production, Alicia M. Milch

Masters Theses

Conventional wastewater treatment in the U.S. is an energy dependent and carbon dioxide emitting process. Typical mechanical systems consume copious amounts of energy, which is most commonly produced from fossil fuel combustion that results in the production of CO₂. The associated organic load is also metabolized by microorganisms into CO₂ and H₂O. As the desire to reduce CO₂ output becomes more prominent, it is logical to assess the costs of conventional treatment methods and to compare them to alternative, more sustainable technology. Vegetated Sand Bed (VSB) and Reed Bed (RB) systems are green technologies …

Syllabus: Foundations For Sustainable Enterprise, Bogdan Prokopovych

Sustainability Education Resources

In this course we examine environmental and social challenges that arise as a result of how businesses and organizations interact with their natural environment. From a managerial standpoint we explore national and international implications of business' and governments' responses to these challenges. Can businesses contribute to the shift towards a more sustainable future? We analytically consider both supporting and opposing answers to this question. We learn about drivers of sustainability initiatives adopted by organizations and become familiar with current debates related to sustainability among business thought leaders. Finally, we look at the challenges of adopting sustainability strategies by organizations, learn …

Monitoring Waste To Minimize Waste At The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Dylan J. Masi, Timothy C. Shea, Jacob M. Downs, Amy W. Chou

Student Showcase

The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to sustainability, however, the campus could further reduce its costs and save energy by optimizing the current method of waste removal. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that by the end of the century, Earth’s average temperature will rise by 11 degrees Fahrenheit unless society takes action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to the EPA, about one-third of carbon emissions in the U.S. come from transportation. Campus garbage bins are collected by carbon-emitting trucks daily, and large truckable waste compactors are collected about three times per week. The amount of harmful …

Environmentally Conscientious Orchards Connection, William Mp Burgess, Michael Iwata, Sarah Schomp, Andrew Wooldridge

Student Showcase

California’s almond industry uses over 1.2 trillion gallons of freshwater annually, more water than is used by almost any other crop. Although California is in a severe drought, its almond industry is expanding because the crop is a valuable commodity, providing California with more than $11 billion to its gross state product each year. While almond production is inherently water intensive, current agricultural processes in the San Joaquin Valley waste almost 50% of the freshwater it uses each year from over-watering, runoff ₆ , evaporation, and contamination ₃₅.

Much of this waste can be eliminated if various California stakeholders …

Sustainable Design Of Student Centers Retrofitting And Adaptive Reuse Of Umass Student Union, Tianye Song

Masters Theses

Based on the research of university Student centers and students’ daily activities within a campus, this Thesis focuses on how to strengthen the relationship between the student and the Student Center, by developing a methodology for a successful architecture that towards making the daily life of a student better. This approach will help overcome current disconnectbetween students’ daily activities and an environmentally integrated experience. The Thesis project focus will be the UMass Amherst’s Student Union. The existing Student Union has long been unable to meet the needs of today’s students, and its shortcomings have been felt throughout the campus, from …

Syllabus: Public Space Design Plus: Integrating Sustainable Design Through Exploration And Research, Carolina Aragon

Sustainability Education Resources

This studio focuses on the integration of sustainable technologies into the design of a public space on campus. We will explore this integration at various scales: the human scale, the site scale, and the campus scale ––while covering subjects like materiality, people’s behavior, and innovative sustainable solutions for landscape applications. The work of the studio will be a combination of creative exploration and research supporting this exploration. The methodology will include experiential learning ––learning by doing, research through direct observation, and research using library resources. Through research and use of library databases, students will gain a broader perspective of the …

Community Development In Emerging Cities: A Case For Lagos,Nigeria, Olaoluwa Olakunle Silva

Masters Theses

Urban spatial expansion resulting from urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is growing and will not stabilize in the near future. Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban growth rate is climbing faster than developing economies. Efforts should be concentrated on accommodating this phenomenon through the promotion of sustainable urban planning and development.

Relying on secondary data, this research examines models of indigenous Sub-Saharan African urban forms and residential architecture vernacular to understand these forms and their characteristics, and how these models and associated management, design, and planning principles can be adopted in a contemporary context. Also, studies of established indigenous building materials and technology, …

Sustaining Community: A New Social, Economic, And Environmental Path For Ware, Ma, Aviva J. Galaski

Masters Theses

In Western Massachusetts, as in many regions of the United States, the municipalities with significant population size are significantly eclipsed in both number and area by the surrounding towns and villages. Struggling rural locations often face similar challenges to their urban counterparts: declining or failed industry, high levels of unemployment or under-employment, and lack access of quality housing across income classes. In addition to these obstacles, they also face additional difficulties of both physical and social isolation. While a great deal of recent effort has been placed in studying the architectural and planning interventions needed in struggling urban locations, rural …

A Sustainable Alzheimer's Garden - Creating Outdoor Spaces At Long-Term Alzheimer Care Facilities, Barbara Jean Constable

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Gardens built specifically for those with Alzheimer's disease are designed with the intention to improve the quality of life for the patient, caregivers and family. The focus on human health is built into Alzheimer's garden design. This project summarizes recent literature and establishes ten elements necessary in the design of an Alzheimer's garden and seeks to relate those ten elements to sustainability by focusing on relatable sections from the Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009. The Alzheimer's garden design elements and principles on sustainability are then applied to a design for a Sustainable Alzheimer's Garden at a long-term …

Of Dirt And Decomposition: Proposing A Place For The Urban Dead, Katrina M. Spade

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The intent of this thesis is to challenge our society’s existing options for the care and processing of the deceased, and to design a space and a ritual which are both deeply meaningful and ecologically beneficial. The community for whom this architecture is designed currently lacks the religious or cultural rituals which would otherwise guide them through the process of laying of their loved ones to rest. For this community, both traditional burial and cremation are devoid of meaning and culturally irrelevant ways of dealing with the deceased, in addition to being unnecessarily wasteful processes. Likewise, the community for which …

A Sustainable Urban Village For The "Six Corners" & "Old Hill" Neighborhoods Of Springfield, Massachusetts, Patricia O'Flaherty

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In the United States, traditional urban centers, particularly in the Northeast, have suffered from neglect, dilapidation, and the general decay of their built environments over the last 50-60 years. Corresponding with this on the social side are increased poverty, unemployment, crime, and the disruption of the family unit.

Our current knowledge of the disciplines of architecture and sustainability can be applied to a built solution that will yield a greater public good. Good design can improve the lives of people by creating homes, neighborhoods, and villages that are comfortable, secure, and sustainable for all of the activities that make life …

Effect Of Building Morphology On Energy And Structural Performance Of High-Rise Office Buildings, Mohamed Krem

Open Access Dissertations

The civil engineering and architectural communities are highly focused, these days, on designing buildings that maximize utilization of energy available from natural resources. This dissertation presents a quantitative study of the effect of high-rise office building morphology on energy and structural performances for the major climates. The parameters of the building morphologies are varied - the building footprint shape, the placement of the structural core/walls, and the building orientation. The energy analysis is performed using Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2011; while using SAP2000 for the structure analysis and design. The key observations are: 1) the building morphology has a significant effect …

Reclamation - An Eco-Industrial Park In Greenfield, Massachusetts, Sage W. Sluter

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Honors Projects

Sustainable Industrial Design
Reclaiming a Brownfield in Greenfield, Massachusetts
Abstract:
For the senior capstone project at the University of Massachusetts, this student completed a conceptual site design project for the City of Greenfield. The City of Greenfield wishes to redevelop the Brownfield site, currently known as the Bendix Property, into an eco- industrial park. Working closely with the City’s officials, the student created a realistic vision for the site. After twenty years of soil and groundwater treatment, the site is ready to come back to life. The student investigated what an eco -industrial park is, and how the businesses cooperate …

Sustainable Tourism Development--How Sustainable Are China's Cultural Heritage Sites, Dan Liao, Dr. Philip Wang

National Environment and Recreation Research Symposium

Abstract

In many countries around the world, the UNESCO World Heritage sites are major tourist attractions. The purpose of this study is to examine the level of sustainability of 28 cultural heritage sites in the People’s Republic of China. An analysis of the official websites of the –28 heritage sites was conducted using five sustainable development criteria: authenticity, tourists’ understanding of cultural value, commercial development, cooperation with the tourism industry and the quality of life in the community. Results showed most of the tourism destinations did well in authenticity preservation, commercial development and in obtaining economic revenue. For sustainable management …

A Model For Community - Based Sustainable Tourism Development In Developing Countries: The Case Of Rural Tourism In India, Makarand Amrish Mody

Graduate Student Research Conference in Hospitality and Tourism

An aspect often overlooked in sustainable tourism development literature is that much of it has originated from developed countries and hence does not take into account the socio-economic, political and legislative conditions of the developing world. The purpose of this study is to provide a phased model for sustainable tourism planning and development in developing countries by incorporating two major factors: an ‘integrated stakeholder’ approach and the inclusion of appropriate sustainability indicators of the human, socio-cultural, economic and environmental categories of capital stock.The model would be developed based upon an examination of rural tourism initiatives in India, and would seek …

Designing For Deconstruction: Extending The Lifecycle Of A Commercial Retail Building, Anthony Bene

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In our fickle economy today, retail can be booming one year and going out of business the next. When things aren't going so well commercial retail buildings are left vacant and then can become eyesores that lead to a communities economic downturn. This thesis proposes a solution by designing commercial buildings for re-use by designing for deconstruction; so that whole buildings can be disassembled and relocated, or that building components can be recycled back into the materials loop.

The Role Of Customers In Sustainable Supply Chain Mmanagement In Tourism, Marianna Sigala

International CHRIE Conference-Refereed Track

Previous literature has mainly focused on sustainability implementation in internal business operations and in manufacturing. Although, managing and achieving sustainability is important from the product design to the stage after product consumption, research investigating sustainability throughout the supply chain (SC) is scant. The limited research in sustainable SCM has not considered the customers’ contribution in SC operations, while most studies have solely paid attention to the behavior and role of customers at the purchase stage. In services, the customers’ impact on SC is critical, since customers actively participate in SC operations. This paper fills in this gap by extending current …

A Sustainable Design For The American Commercial Strip Mall, L. Carl Fiocchi, Jr.

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The purpose of this project is to present an alternative in form, materials, and energy performance to the existing building type that has been the staple used in construction of American Commercial Strip Malls since the latter part of the nineteenth century. The project progresses through two phases. The initial phase is the designing of an energy efficient structure that is the basic unit in a system of modularity. This structure permits joining itself together with similar units to form an assortment of assemblies with different possible geometries that are in turn able to respond to various site geometries and …

Regenerative Agriculture Infrastructure Design: The Built Environment Of Food, Culture, & Soil, Jesse Jw Selman

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The goal of this work is to explore the built context of our food system as a manifestation of a set of social and environmental conditions that are antithetical to the long-term health and survival of human life on this planet. The specific focus of this work is the small-scale, integrated farm. The farm is but one piece of the puzzle of how we eat and resides within the larger context of storage, distribution, economy, culture etc. Using precedents, both past and present, and through design explorations this work seeks to develop a positive course forward that will enable humanity …