Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Planning [And] The Sanitary City: Understanding Implications Of Community-Based Ecological Sanitation Reforms In The U.S., Catherine K. Bryars

Masters Theses

Though most commonly regarded as a revolutionary public health invention, the introduction of conventional wastewater sanitation systems has a mixed legacy in the U.S. A growing body of research links sewage-based sanitation systems with nationwide ecosystem degradation and an unsustainable dependence on vast inputs of materials and resources. In addition to contributing to chronic problems across the country, today these wastewater infrastructures are in various states of disrepair. The EPA estimates that at least $270 billion must be invested in coming years to prevent massive sanitary failures, but municipalities are increasingly unable to fund these expensive (re)investments in buried water-carriage …

The Future Of Oregon’S Agricultural Land, Christy Anderson Brekken, Lauren Gwin, Megan Horst, Nellie Mcadams, Sheila A. Martin

Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies Publications

Sixty-four percent of Oregon's farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, yet many Oregon farmers are unprepared for succession. Simultaneously, beginning farmers are finding it harder to start farmers because of dramatically increasing land prices. These distinct but interwined challenges are addressed in a new research report from the Oregon State University Center for Small Farms, Portland State University's Planning Oregon/Institute for Metropolitan Studies, and Rogue Farm Corps. The study examines trends in land tenure and the effects they might have on Oregon's economy, rural communities, and environment. The report was in many ways inspired and …

From Empty Lot To Garden Plot: Urban Agriculture In Chula Vista, Jennifer E. Gutierrez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project is an exploration of how agriculture can be incorporated into the fabric of the city of Chula Vista, which has both uniquely urban and suburban areas. The proposal is to integrate agriculture as a design tool to reconnect to the city’s agricultural past and as a model for cities of the future. First, I discuss Chula Vista’s history and contemporary context, including demographics. I review the existing urban agriculture policies Chula Vista has and compare them to other cities in California. The second part of the project is concerned with how to choose and develop a site for …

A New Vision For An Old Institution: Addressing The Challenges For Urban And Peri-Urban Agriculture At The Waltham Experiment Station, Kevin C. Hartzell

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

Urban and peri-urban agriculture has a new place in (sub)urban landscapes because of the suite of ecosystem services it can provide including, but not limited to; increased local food production, waste recycling, stormwater infiltration, and reconnecting urban dwellers to their food source. The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Waltham Experiment Station, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, is poised for redevelopment as a model for multi-use urban agriculture production, research, and education as well as a living laboratory to monitor and document the ecosystem services provided to the surrounding community. This project will focus on educational and research categories within the theme of …

Eating In East Harlem: An Assessment Of Changing Foodscapes In Community District 11, 2000-2015, Cuny Urban Food Policy Institute At The Cuny School Of Public Health And Health Policy, Nicholas Freudenberg, Melissa Fuster, Diana Johnson, Marissa Sheldon, Michele Silver, Apoorva Srivastava, Janet Poppendieck, Ashley Rafalow, Nevin Cohen

Publications and Research

The report analyzes changes in five domains -- food retail, food insecurity and food benefits, institutional food, food and nutrition education, and diet-related health conditions -- in East Harlem from before the election of Michael Bloomberg through the first two years of the de Blasio Administration. Its goal is to assess the ways in which food environments in East Harlem have improved, stayed the same, or worsened in this 15-year period in order to inform setting food policy goals for the next 5, 10 or 15 years.

Although East Harlem is blessed with a multitude of organizations and individuals dedicated …

Developing An Ecological Sanitation Transect, Ian Kolesinskas

Masters Theses

A sanitation problem exists for people across the globe: basic human waste collection and treatment is inaccessible to much of the world’s population; and the status-quo gray infrastructure system of sanitation is unsustainable and unsuitable for widespread application. A paradigm shift is needed: this thesis makes the case for developing an Ecological Sanitation Transect to bring back the closed loop that connects consumption, waste excretion, sanitation, and food production. The Ecological Sanitation Transect is a synthesis of ecological sanitation, where human excreta is reused, and the urban transect, where development density is conceptualized along a continuum from rural to urban. …