Digital Commons Network^™

Making Cities Mental Health Friendly For Adolescents And Young Adults, Pamela Y. Collins, Moitreyee Sinha, Tessa Concepcion, George Patton, Thaisa Way, Layla Mccay, Augustina Mensa-Kwao, Helen Herrman, Evelyne De Leeuw, Lukoye Atwoli

Brain and Mind Institute

Urban life shapes the mental health of city dwellers, and although cities provide access to health, education and economic gain, urban environments are often detrimental to mental health1,2. Increasing urbanization over the next three decades will be accompanied by a growing population of children and adolescents living in cities3. Shaping the aspects of urban life that influence youth mental health could have an enormous impact on adolescent well-being and adult trajectories4. We invited a multidisciplinary, global group of researchers, practitioners, advocates and young people to complete sequential surveys to identify and prioritize the characteristics of a mental health-friendly city for …

Missing Goals Yet Tangible Indicators Within Sustainability Assessment Literature: The Need To Align Planning And Monitoring In Urban Sustainability, Matthew Cohen, Amelia Miles, John E. Quinn

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Sustainability assessment literature is often based on large indicator sets, frequently lacking organizational framing. Previous research calls for stronger theoretical groundings and for urban sustainability assessments specifically to be goal-oriented, meaning that assessments should articulate goals for sustainable cities and select the indicators most appropriate for tracking progress. Here we analyzed the content of 69 papers from sustainability assessment literature. We asked: What common sustainability goals guide indicator selection? What is the distribution of natural, proxy, and constructed indicators across the literature? And what is the distribution of indicators within and across capital types? We found that less than half …

Cooperative Extension In Urban America: Place-Based Approaches For Improving Health, Dawn Burton, Latoya O'Neal, Erin Yelland, Suzanne Stluka, Rodger Rennekamp

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

While the bulk of Cooperative Extension’s (Extension) historical work has been with rural populations, its future work should also address the needs of those living in urban areas. The opportunity to live a long and healthy life is paramount among those needs. Cooperative Extension’ National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being (Framework) provides a roadmap by which Cooperative Extension can help ensure that all people have that opportunity. The central premise of the Framework is that future work of Extension must include but extend beyond the promotion of healthy behaviors to place-based approaches for improving conditions in which people live, …

Proposal For Uta-Downtown Arlington Bike Network, Anna Laura Harmjanz

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects

Bicycling offers great benefits for cities including sustainable, efficient, and affordable transportation, improved health and wellness, and creating vibrant communities. Universities offer a good starting point for young adults to form sustainable transportation habits. This study explores how the University of Texas at Arlington’s community perceives existing bike infrastructure, services, and amenities on campus and off-campus to create a well-connected and safe bike network. An online survey was used to collect feedback from students and employees on commuting patterns, cycling experience and barriers, perceived safety on various bike facilities, and suggestions. Based on survey responses, a bike network analysis was …

Urban Mayors Press - Spring 2022, John S. Watson Institute For Urban Policy & Research At Kean University

Urban Mayors Policy Center

No abstract provided.

Purpose Built Communities: A Concentrated Urban Poverty Intervention, Shannon R. Bergman

Theses and Dissertations

This collective case study research evaluated how the concentrated urban poverty revitalization model administered by Purpose Built Communities (PBC) works to mitigate or eliminate intergenerational poverty and create thriving neighborhoods. There are 5 elements to the PBC revitalization model: (a) mixed-income housing, (b) a cradle-to-college educational accountability system, (c) focus on community health, (d) a tightly defined geographic neighborhood, and (e) the assignment of a Community Quarterback (CQ). This research demonstrated iterative improvements in the socioeconomic well-being of adults and children from the inception of the revitalized community. This was evaluated by adult employment rates, childhood educational achievement, and health …

Urban Mayors Press-Spring 2021, John S. Watson Institute For Urban Policy & Research At Kean University

Urban Mayors Policy Center

The Urban Mayors Press is a digital newsletter created to highlight the impactful work of New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA) members and to provide resourceful information to municipalities throughout New Jersey from federal, state and local agencies.

Phoenix: A Cubesat Mission To Study The Impact Of Urban Heat Islands Within The U.S., Sarah Rogers, Jaime Sanchez De La Vega, Yegor Zenkov, Craig Knoblauch, Devon Bautista, Trevor Bautista, Ryan Fagan, Cody Roberson, Stephen Flores, Raymond Barakat, Vivek Chacko, Johnathan Gamaunt, Antonio Acuna, Judd D. Bowman, Daniel C. Jacobs

Small Satellite Conference

Phoenix is a student-led CubeSat mission, developed at Arizona State University (ASU), to study the effects of Urban Heat Islands in several U.S. cities through infrared remote sensing and educate students on space mission design. The spacecraft is designed using commercial off-the-shelf components (COTS) and several custom support boards developed by the student team. As such, the student team was responsible for the design, test, and validation of the spacecraft to demonstrate the capability of using COTS hardware to conduct high-fidelity science. This paper details the mission’s concept of operations, as well as the spacecraft and ground system design that …

The Eastern Goochland Greenway: Connecting Goochland's Past, Present, And Future, Scott A. Newhart

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Eastern Goochland Greenway Plan proposes a shared-use trail that is nested within the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) conceptualization of a statewide trail system called the James River Heritage Trail (JRHT). The JRHT includes shared use bicycle and pedestrian facilities as well as water trail access points that would connect pre-existing trail systems to new proposed trails that are parallel with and in close proximity to Virginia’s James River corridor and all of the natural, cultural, and historic resource opportunities that the surrounding areas offer. Specifically, the Eastern Goochland Greenway aims to serve two major purposes; to …

3014 Meadowbridge Rd: A Community-Engaged Opportunity-Based Re-Investment Action Plan, Antwan L. Hoy

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan is an asset-based community response for 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church CDC as a way to revitalize and uplift the Six Points neighborhood of Highland Park. This plan was designed to provide a template for community engagement that would reintroduce a legacy of service to the community while partnering with other community assets to reinvest into the community. The primary action that makes this a prime engagement opportunity is the restoration of 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church location at 3014 Meadowbridge Rd. Treating the building as an asset for the community and not only the church …

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Urban Wreckage And Resiliency: Articulating A Practical Framework For Preserving, Reconstructing, And Building Cities, John Travis Marshall, Ryan Max Rowberry

John Travis Marshall

No abstract provided.

Urban Wreckage And Resiliency: Articulating A Practical Framework For Preserving, Reconstructing, And Building Cities, John Travis Marshall, Ryan Max Rowberry

Idaho Law Review

No abstract provided.

Dense, Urban And Walkable: The Lived Experience Of Apartment Dwellers In Post- Suburban Sydney, Cole E. Hendrigan, Nicole T. Cook, Shanka Herath, Sophie-May Kerr

Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities - Papers

Urban density is commonly identified as factor that contributes to active transport, including walking, across all age groups. While a significant body of literature explores the factors that influence the likelihood of walking for commuting, leisure and or strolling, the experiences of residents in rapidly densifying outer suburbs have been much less well considered. Recovering these experiences is important as factors influencing walking – such as greenspace, leafiness and quieter streetscapes- are unevenly available and often shaped by wealth effects. However, investment-driven densification continues regardless across Australia’s eastern cities with little understanding of whether (and how) residents negotiate and practice …

Utopia Or Dystopia: A Contested Space On Sydney's Urban Frontier, Ian Willis

Ian Willis

Australia is a settler society where the rural-urban fringe of the major cities and regional centres is a contestable stage. There are a range of actors who compete in place making processes re-shaping the cultural landscape when there is collision over the ownership of space and the dominant narrative. This paper examines the proposition that Sydney's urban growth has created a zone of conflict on the city's metropolitan frontier between cultural heritage and the interests of development. In recent years Sydney's rural-urban fringe has encroached on the village boundaries of Menangle where there has been a collision between the expectation …

Utopia Or Dystopia: A Contested Space On Sydney's Urban Frontier, Ian Willis

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Australia is a settler society where the rural-urban fringe of the major cities and regional centres is a contestable stage. There are a range of actors who compete in place making processes re-shaping the cultural landscape when there is collision over the ownership of space and the dominant narrative. This paper examines the proposition that Sydney's urban growth has created a zone of conflict on the city's metropolitan frontier between cultural heritage and the interests of development. In recent years Sydney's rural-urban fringe has encroached on the village boundaries of Menangle where there has been a collision between the expectation …

Effects Of Historic Preservation Policy On Urban Neighborhood Stabilization, Lisa Vaughan Jordan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the 1960s, urban neighborhoods in the United States have been affected by historic designation and local historic preservation policy raising concerns about social inequity in housing and services, environmental resources, and economic challenges. Although there is consensus that the role of public policy in historic preservation decision-making is related to neighborhood stabilization, little is known about the extent of the impact. Using Ostrom's social-ecological systems theory as a guide, the purpose of this single case study of a historical district in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic region was to investigate the impact of implementation of local historic preservation policies and programs …

Collaboration Across The Curriculum: Urban Planning & Public Health, Lula Geyre

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The way our communities are designed impacts our health. and there is an increasing need for collaboration between urban planners and public health professionals. Yet, it is not clear to what extent universities are preparing public health and planning students to work together. Our research will shed light on this important topic by evaluating the course requirements for both of these disciplines in accredited institutions and look at how they are addressing interprofessional issues such as land development, transportation policies, air/water quality, and community growth issues. The current study explores the availability of interdisciplinary courses in accredited undergraduate and graduate …

Cityscape Connections: National Park Service Relevance And Resilience In Urban Areas, Elizabeth Eleanor Perry

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The National Park Service (NPS) strives to embody U.S. democratic ideals, conserving our collective stories and scenery for their intrinsic value and the enjoyment of current and future generations. However, although these places are conserved for all, they are not enjoyed by all. As with other conservation agencies, the NPS finds itself increasingly concerned with building relevance with diverse potential stewards. In cities, where 80% of the U.S. population and 40% of the NPS portfolio is based, there is a prime opportunity to build relevance with large, diverse, and proximate audiences. Recognizing this opportunity, the NPS initiated its Urban Agenda …

Equitable Access To Public Transport: Corridor Plans For Transit-Oriented Development In Soweto, South Africa And Boston, Massachusetts Compared, Janice Griffith

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

The article argues that municipalities should play a major role in ensuring equitable access to public transportation and in planning for transit-oriented development. It presents two case studies that illustrate the importance of these undertakings. In South Africa, apartheid spatial and racial segregation resulted in the exclusion of non-white residents from the urban core where the economy was centered. These residents, who were forced to live in a city’s outlying areas, experienced considerable difficulty in commuting to the workplace. To address the lack of transportation equity, the City of Johannesburg, with support from the national and provincial governments, embarked on …

First Street Corridor Plan And Development Code-- Gilroy, Ca, Michael Gibbons

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Beyond Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learned Information In Forodhani Park, Jaimie Lynn Mulligan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This ethnographic study examines Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Mji Mkongwe (Stone Town), Zanzibar, and how ecological knowledge shared by locals on the island is formed and is shared among locals in a park setting. Using a framework of political ecology, this study specifically highlights ecological pressures of local population growth, global climate change on a local scale, and local economic changes as the key drivers for the creation and cultural importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. To discover both the ecological pressures and the examples of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, I conducted semi-structured, open-ended interviews in Forodhani Park, a public park on …

Assembling Urban Regeneration? Resourcing Critical Generative Accounts Of Urban Regeneration Through Assemblage, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Kathy Mee, Kristian J. Ruming

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In critical urban studies, managed urban regeneration has been linked to trajectories of neo-liberalising urban policy and urban entrepreneurialism. While the insights arising from this work have been many and valuable, significant gaps remain particularly in terms of the foci of analysis and the conception of politics. In this paper, we aim to address these gaps and to reposition the conceptualization of regeneration as a performed and emergent consequence of 'relatedness' and as subject to a range of relational effects and determinations. To do so we work through four capacities of assemblage thinking that are particularly productive for this task: …

Retrofitting Urban Flood Resilience: An Investigation And Evaluation Of Current Strategies, J. D. Harper

Theses

There are two trends that are creating a worldwide crisis. Firstly, cities are growing denser every day, and many of the major cities developed along the coasts or with adjacencies to water, stemming from a thriving trade industry and industrialization. On a separate track, the effects of global climate change are projected to increase sea level along with the frequency and intensity of flooding disasters. Therefore, these projections are placing cities at a highly vulnerable crux with few foreseeable solutions in sight.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) were redrawn, and buildings that previously …

Energy In The Ecopolis, Sara Bronin

Sara C. Bronin

Climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental degradation demand a paradigm shift in urban development. Currently, too many of our cities exacerbate these problems: they pollute, consume, and process resources in ways that negatively impact our natural world. Cities of the future must make nature their model, instituting circular metabolic processes that mimic, embrace, and enhance nature. In other words, a city must be a regenerative city or, as some say, an “ecopolis.” So, how to get there—to ecopolis—from here? In this Comment, I propose a partial answer by focusing on certain legal frameworks that must be reenvisioned to enable the …

Volunteered Geographical Information: An Alternative Solution For Overcoming The Chasm Between Stormwater Management And Community Participation, Yanfu Zhou

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses and Student Projects

It is a dramatic challenge to promote public engagement in stormwater management and green infrastructure initiatives. When traditional outreach approaches made important influence on public engagement, their limitations are also obvious. With the development of Web 2.0 technology, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been emerging as one of the most important user-generated geographic contents. The crowdsourcing data that generated by volunteers through geo-web, smartphones, and other geo-devices provides invaluable mass data for decision-making. VGI can provide a better understanding of planning issues and other challenges. The research aims to develop a mobile information platform to allow citizens to report the …

Sentiments Of Community Stakeholders Living In Southern Nevada Neighborhoods, Erin Sheehy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Community stakeholders provided insight to their local neighborhoods and shared their thoughts about the potential redevelopment of their neighborhoods. This study utilized data from the Southern Nevada Strong ethnographic research project. Ethnographic research was conducted over ten weeks in Summer 2013. Neighborhood observations and interviews with community stakeholders were conducted to understand how neighborhoods are utilized, how residents feel about potential redevelopment, and what areas of the neighborhoods residents would like to see improved in the future. Photographs were also collected to further examine the characteristics, aesthetics, and spatial landscape of the neighborhoods. The purpose of this qualitative research project …

Lessons For New York: Comparative Urban Governance And The Challenge Of Climate Change, Andrea L. Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Inter-Ethnic Partnerships: Remaking Urban Ethnic Diversity, Alexander Tindale, Natascha Klocker, Christopher Gibson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Inter-ethnic couples are a growing population with unique and understudied residential geographies. Using customised 2006 Census data for the Greater Sydney region, we investigate the prevalence and geographic distribution of a socially significant subset of cohabiting inter-ethnic couples: ethnic majority-minority couples. These couples are comprised of an Anglo/European or ('white') Australian partner and a partner from a 'visible' ethnic minority group. We find that ethnic majority-minority couples are most concentrated in inner-city areas of moderate ethnic diversity and high socio-economic status; and are more residentially dispersed than their respective ethnic minority groups. Inter-ethnic partnership appears to alter the residential geographies …

Reconnecting Urban Planning With Health: A Protocol For The Development And Validation Of National Liveability Indicators Associated With Noncommunicable Disease Risk Behaviours And Health Outcomes, Billie Giles-Corti, Hannah M. Badland, Suzanne Mavoa, Gavin Turrell, Fiona Bull, Bryan Boruff, Christopher Pettit, Adrian E. Bauman, Paula Hooper, Karen Villanueva, Thomas Astell-Burt, Xiaoqi Feng, Vincent Learnihan, R Davey, Rob Grenfell, Sarah Thackway

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Aim: Liveable communities create the conditions to optimise health and wellbeing outcomes in residents by influencing various social determinants of health - for example, neighbourhood walkability and access to public transport, public open space, local amenities, and social and community facilities. This study will develop national liveability indicators that are (a) aligned with state and federal urban policy, (b) developed using national data (where available), (c) standard and consistent over time, (d) suitable for monitoring progress towards creating more liveable, equitable and sustainable communities, (e) validated against selected noncommunicable disease risk behaviours and/or health outcomes, and (f) practical for measuring …