Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

A Gravity Model Integrating Land-Use And Transportation Policies For Sustainable Development: Case Study Of Fresno, California, Chih-Hao Wang, Na Chen

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

The idea of urban compaction has been long proposed and promoted to address the problem of urban sprawl in many American cities. However, there are still rare successful cases of such implementation in the United States. This study uses a classic gravity model, TELEM (Transpiration, Economic, and Land-Use Model) to examine to what extent a land-use or transportation policy must be regulated to make the urban compaction occur in a typical auto-dependent city—Fresno, California. Five scenarios are considered (BL, L1, L2, T1, and T2), in which the baseline (BL) is a natural growth scenario. Without any policy interventions, the city …

Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the strides made towards addressing climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, it has become increasingly apparent that attempting to mitigate the crisis in such a manner alone is insufficient. This thesis joins a growing body of research on how our societies must adapt to a changing climate, contributing more evidence on common barriers to adaptation and how they might be overcome. Through an attempt to evaluate the progress made towards mainstreaming, or integrating, climate change concerns into five Virginia MPOs’ long-range transportation plans (LRTPs), this study provides support for prior hypotheses around the potential for MPOs …

Combining Green Metrics And Digital Twins For Sustainability Planning And Governance Of Smart Buildings And Cities, Casey R. Corrado, Suzanne M. Delong, Emily G. Holt, Edward Y. Hua, Andreas Tolk

VMASC Publications

Creating a more sustainable world will require a coordinated effort to address the rise of social, economic, and environmental concerns resulting from the continuous growth of cities. Supporting planners with tools to address them is pivotal, and sustainability is one of the main objectives. Modeling and simulation augmenting digital twins can play an important role to implement these tools. Although various green best practices have been utilized over time and there are related attempts at measuring green success, works in the published literature tend to focus on addressing a single problem (e.g., energy efficiency), and a comprehensive approach that takes …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Planning Cities, Economically Or Communally: A Comparative Study Of Amsterdam And San Francisco, Raina Dawn Whittekiend

Master's Theses

Globalization has spun “community” off its axis. What once defined community is no longer the current state of the community. Increased economic transactions have led to the instability of communities that once depended on one another at the local level. These communities are now dependent on systems that do not know nor understand their actors. This lack of relationship between development and subject is witnessed and highly scrutinized in developing countries all over the world and has been intensely researched in academic literature. This thesis intends to better understand why in modernized global cities these same processes of development and …

Next Steps For Mentoring Program, Patrick Gray

Sustainability and Connectivity

This file provides a jump-off position for students in the fall 2017 semester who want to continue work toward a mentoring program.

Mentoring Brochure: Longer Version, Tim Leonard, Abigail Lisjak, Adam Foster

Sustainability and Connectivity

This is a mentoring brochure we created to show different organizations our ideas. This is the longer of two versions.

Mentoring Brochure: Shorter Version, Tim Leonard, Abigail Lisjak, Adam Foster

Sustainability and Connectivity

We made these brochures to talk to different organizations about our thoughts and ideas. There are two iterations of this. This one has less words.

Dayton Regional Green Meeting Notes, Tim Leonard, Adam Foster, Abigail Lisjak

Sustainability and Connectivity

These are notes from our meeting with Lamees Mubaslat from Dayton Regional Green. She is really excited about more mentoring programs in Dayton.

Housing The Homeless: A Framework For Sustainable, Affordable Housing, Brianna Providence

Student Theses 2015-Present

New York City’s building stock is comprised of nearly one million structures. Buildings are responsible for unconscionable amounts of global energy, water, resources, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thousands of buildings are annually constructed when the truth is that there is a significant stock of buildings that could stand to be rehabilitated. New green developments present an opportunity to increase efficiency while reducing energy use, resource consumption, and waste. If virgin new green developments provide the aforementioned opportunities, then it logically follows that sustainably retrofitting preexisting buildings represents an even greater opportunity to promote environmental sustainability and reduce inefficiencies. As …

Hydropower, Oil Palm, And Sustainability, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

This reflection touches on the writer’s experiences during the EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip in early 2016 to Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore. The reflection involves two events: a visit to a blockade protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam and a meeting with the sustainability department of Wilmar, one of the world’s leading palm oil producers. The first event comments on the tension between the need for renewable energy and the destruction of the natural environment and communities due to the particular energy generation technology chosen. This event highlighted the importance of understanding the societal constraints a technology is being installed …

What Does “Sustainable Development” Mean?, Grace Stewart '17

EnviroLab Asia

A recurring theme throughout the EnviroLab Asia clinic trip to Singapore and Malaysian Borneo was the concept of "sustainable development." In this essay, I explore my own thoughts and concerns regarding this phrase, such as the tension that exists between "sustainability" (the maintenance of resources) and the conventional concept of "development" (which consumes resources and can often wreak environmental destruction). I reflect on this tension within the context of environmental issues faced by the Dayak people in Sarawak--the building of the Baram Dam, and the prevalence of oil palm plantations.

Transformation, Wallace M. Meyer Iii

EnviroLab Asia

Prior to leaving for Claremont Colleges’ Envriolab Asia trip to Malaysia and Singapore, I was conflicted by the question: Do we have the moral authority to interfere with resource extraction and oil-palm development in SE Asia? At that time, the trip seemed imperialistic. Why should people from Malaysia, Indonesia or any developing SE Asia country listen to a group of liberal arts college faculty from a city where widespread habitat modifications have led to significant loss of native habitats, declines in biodiversity, and changes in how these ecosystems function? Many observations transformed my opinion and have inspired me to advocate …

Institutional Responses To Pressures For Sustainable Palm Oil, Stephen Marks, Justin Lauw '18, Shivang Mehta '19, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

As the two leading palm oil producing countries, Indonesia and Malaysia have come under external pressures to limit deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions related to land use conversion for oil palm cultivation. We examine various institutional frameworks that have emerged to mediate these pressures. These frameworks can be distinguished by their geographic scope—domestic, region, and global—as well as by the nature of control—private, non-profit, and governmental. The frameworks have taken the form of sustainability certification systems from non-profit organizations or governments, corporate sustainability policies, or the setting through global or bilateral negotiations of voluntary national targets for limiting deforestation or …

Bioswales For Stormwater Remediation And Infiltration: Assessing Regulatory Climate And Quantifying Filtration Capacity Of A Claremont Bioswale, Skyler Lewis, Boyu Liu, Paul Picciano, Liana Solis, Char Miller

Environmental Analysis Program Senior Projects

Watershed management is critical in ensuring a sustainable water supply. This project is designed to assess the impact of bioswales in the context of Southern California’s climate. The patterns of droughts and floods make these green infrastructure appealing as they offer potential to boost water quality and regenerate local aquifers, while reducing the area of impermeable surfaces in our urban landscape. As bioswales have not been commonly incorporated into infrastructure development, our project focuses on a relatively new bioswale, added in 2012 and located on Pomona College’s campus, to serve as our case study in determining the viability of bioswales …

The Effect Of Urbanization On The Embodied Energy Of Drinking Water In Tampa, Florida, Mark Vincent Eli Santana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has serious implications for resource and energy use. One of these resources is drinking water. The increased amount of impervious surfaces associated with urban development is responsible for increased runoff during rain events, which may have a negative impact on the quality of nearby bodies of water, including drinking water sources. The growing populations associated with urbanization require a higher water demand. In addition, urban drinking water systems use energy to collect, treat, and distribute a safe reliable effluent to users. Therefore, this study focuses on the degree to which urbanization influences the embodied energy of drinking water …

Slides: The Colorado River: Innovation In The Face Of Scarcity, Anne J. Castle

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Anne J. Castle, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

40 slides

Slides: Perspectives On Water Management In Arizona, Kathy Jacobs

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Kathy Jacobs, Director, Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions (CCASS), Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona

25 slides

An Analysis Of The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority’S Ability To Achieve Sustainability As Defined By The Transportation Index For Sustainable Places, Vanessa Trafas

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper analysis the ability of the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to adhere to sustainability under the Transportation Index for Sustainable Places (TISP). Analysis focuses solely on the environmental domain of the TISP and the criteria included within that domain. Three pieces are analyzed: the Los Angeles Sustainable Implementation Plan, the Sustainable Rail Plan, and the Regional Connector Transit Project. These pieces are found to adhere to the sustainability criteria under the environmental domain of the TISP.

Ridazz, Wrenches, And Wonks: A Revolution On Two Wheels Rolls Into Los Angeles, Donald Parker Strauss

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

How can we make cities more livable? Los Angeles, in particular, is a notably challenging place to live. For many, it is hard to see Los Angeles—city or county—as anything other than a huge, sprawling, and some would say placeless place. Los Angeles is known by many as the place that tore up more than 1,000 miles of streetcar lines to make way for millions of cars and hundreds of miles of freeways. Because of this, Los Angeles is also known for its poor air quality and jammed freeways. Those who live in Los Angeles know that it can be …

The Reclamation Of Public Parks: An Analysis Of Environmental Justice In Los Angeles, Allison Rigby

Scripps Senior Theses

People who live in cities are far more likely to suffer the physical and psychological effects of urban environments--high noise levels, automobile emissions, toxic industrial waste, crowded living conditions, and a general scarcity of open space. Combating these issues, public parks do more than provide recreational space. They are fundamental to any efforts focusing on urban revitalization, social justice, and sustainability. In downtown Los Angeles, public parks are rare, especially in low-income communities. Several new public parks have reclaimed abandoned land, unwelcoming spaces, and the City’s brownfields. After years of intense private use and neglect, spent land has been reinvigorated …

Gathering "Wild" Food In The City: Rethinking The Role Of Foraging In Urban Ecosystem Planning And Management, Rebecca J. Mclain, Patrick T. Hurley, Marla R. Emery, Melissa R. Poe

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Recent “green” planning initiatives envision food production, including urban agriculture and livestock production, as desirable elements of sustainable cities. We use an integrated urban political ecology and human–plant geographies framework to explore how foraging for “wild” foods in cities, a subversive practice that challenges prevailing views about the roles of humans in urban green spaces, has potential to also support sustainability goals. Drawing on research from Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle, we show that foraging is a vibrant and ongoing practice among diverse urban residents in the USA. At the same time, as reflected in regulations, planning practices, …

Understanding Urban Sustainability And Quality Of Life: A System Dynamics Approach, Abby Elizabeth Beck

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For an urban area to be sustainable, its resources cannot be depleted faster than they can replenish. If an urban area is to provide a high quality of life (QOL), it must offer and maintain an amenity package that satisfies its resident's preferences. Past studies on these topics all have a common thread: sustainability and QOL both pertain to people's relationship to capital. Capital is something that can accumulate and add value to a person or society. If sustainability and QOL are a function of people's relationship with capital, how they use it, deplete it, replenish it and transform it …

Agenda: Drawing The Blueprint For A Sustainable Natural Gas Future, University Of Colorado At Denver. Wirth Chair In Environmental And Community Development Policy, University Of Colorado Boulder. Natural Resources Law Center. Intermountain Oil And Gas Bmp Project

Drawing the Blueprint for a Sustainable Natural Gas Future (January 18)

A stakeholder-led forum discussing the key topics affecting natural gas as a safe and sustainable energy resource. Participants learned about the current research and related resources at Colorado’s three research universities and participated in designing future research needs.

Unlv Stars Unabridged Report, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Reports (USI)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, by earning a 2011 Silver Rating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Ratings System (STARS), is ahead of the curve among public universities – and improving.

STARS is a voluntary, self–reporting framework developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to help measure sustainability performance over time and among colleges and universities nationwide. The UNLV Sustainability Council oversaw STARS, which by measuring sustainability can help UNLV to reduce energy consumption and waste, improve education, attract research, and generate jobs.

A rating of Silver puts UNLV in great company – with …

Growing The Urban Ecosystem In Detroit, Michigan, Sean Basalyga

Social Sciences

Many views of the future are seen as bleak and devoid of the life where once stood beauty and abundance. However, the Living Cities Design Competition challenges these views and calls for a vision of the future that inspires hope, biodiversity, and a healthy interaction between human and natural systems. We chose to redesign the city of Detroit, Michigan to be a living city by the year 2035. As the earth scientist on an interdisciplinary team, I acted as an ecological consultant. By developing the urban ecosystem of Detroit, a number of social, economical, and environmental problems can be solved. …

Designing A School Garden Space That Emphasizes Children's Wants And Uses Permaculture Design Methods, Mikhaela Mullins

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at Saratoga Elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraska to obtain data on what children desire in a garden space. To collect this data a school garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented. Students who participated in the after school garden club partook in the study by drawing their ideal garden. Elements that the subjects drew were identified and categorized into ‘highly desired’ and ‘somewhat desired’.

These elements were then incorporated into a proposed garden design plan for Saratoga. The proposal plan uses Permaculture design methods to emphasize sustainability.

Strategic Environmental Assessment And Regional Infrastructure Planning: The Case Of York Region, Ontario, Denis Kirchhoff, Daniel D. Mccarthy, Debbe D. Crandall, Graham S. Whitelaw

Denis Kirchhoff

Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is seen as an instrument that is essential to realizing sustainability goals that transcend project-level undertakings (e.g. policies, plans and programmes). The purpose of this case-based, collaborative research was to extend practical and theoretical understanding of SEA to the related, but in practice poorly coordinated, processes of project-level environmental assessment (EA), master planning and regional land use planning. Semi-structured key informant interviews and review of policy documents were used as the main sources of qualitative data to explore the key events that have led to an emerging strategic approach to planning and EA in York Region. …

Integrating Education, Evaluation & Partnerships Into Large-Scale Sustainable Stormwater Management Programs, Vivek Shandas, Anne Nelson, Carine Arendes

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Integrated stormwater management using green infrastructure shows promise in saving money and mitigating environmental impacts caused by urban development. Equally important are the potential community benefits, including better understanding of ecological systems, increased access to urban green spaces, safer and healthier neighborhoods, and informed residents that are equipped to take action to improve watershed health. As a partnership between the City of Portland Environmental Services, Portland State University, and residents of the Tabor to the River (T2R) neighborhood, we conducted a survey to understand the role of civic ecology in green infrastructure projects. The survey results indicate a high interest …