Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Syllabus: Introduction To Permaculture, Lisa Depiano

Sustainability Education Resources

The Permaculture Design Course is a three-credit course that offers students a foundation in permaculture history, ethics, principles, design process, and practical applications. The framework behind the theory and practice of permaculture is rooted in the observation of natural systems. By observing key ecological relationships, we can mimic and apply these beneficial relationships in the design of systems that serve humans while helping to restore the natural world. This course trains students as critical thinkers, observers, and analysts of the world(s) around them, and then goes on to provide students with the tools needed to design for inspired and positive …

Modeling Effectiveness Of Low Impact Development On Runoff Volume In The Tan Brook Watershed, Christopher Hewes, Robert F. Smith, Craig Nicolson

Research

The Tan Brook is a heavily channelized stream that runs through an urbanized watershed in Amherst, MA. It poses a stormwater management problem for the University of Massachusetts Amherst due to flooding of soccer fields and erosion of a drainage ditch. The purpose of this study was to estimate reductions in runoff volume to the Tan Brook based on the hypothetical implementation of permeable pavements in various combinations of parking lots, driveways, roadways, and sidewalks, which cover 26% of the watershed area. A spreadsheet model-based approach utilized the Watershed Treatment Model to estimate runoff volume. The percent imperviousness of various …

Prelude To A Master Plan: Ware, Massachusetts, Belen Alfaro, Bruno Carneiro, Margaret Engesser, Kathryn E. Fox, Evadne R. Friedman, Timothy Inacio, Anita Lockesmith, Christina Mills, Stephanie Molden, Meagen Mulherin, Russell Pandres, Vinicius Pereira, Brian Reid, Pedro Soto, Jennifer Stromsten

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

Prelude to a Master Plan offers ideas, recommendations, and a toolkit to help the town chart its own path towards that future. While the teams and individual students worked to ‘drill down’ into specific topic areas, the Studio defined three basic areas in order to think about how the various assets, challenges and ideas undermine or reinforce one another. The report is loosely organized in those terms: addressing the outlying rural areas and issues specific to these places, considering one of the key growth areas that has extended from town and the conflicts that arise from the many uses occurring …

Proposed Greenway Of Hatfield, Massachusetts - La497c - Senior Studio, Matthew G. Bent, Henry A. Hess, Andre E. Belperron

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This is one of five reports submitted for the LA497C Spring 2011 Senior Studio project.

This proposed greenway plan will be assessing the features of Hatfield such as, History, natural features, and open space within the town. After a thorough assessment of the towns features the report will cover the extensive proposed greenway plan, focusing mostly on the town center of Hatfield. The town center is the hub of the town where the major community buildings are such as the elementary and high schools, town hall, the town library, and most of the public recreation fields. Once the overall greenway …

Fairmount Greenway - A Community Initative, Leah H. Bamberger, Liliana Carvajal, Mary F. Dehais, Yuanfang Gong, John E. Hulsey, Eric C. Kells, Kimberley Klosterman, Pamela Jo Landi, Adam G. Monroy, Seth A. Morrow, Bryan O'Bara, Jie Su, Arianna Thompson, Owen M. White

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Studio and Student Research and Creative Activity

This studio was based on the Fairmount Greenway that was developed through a series of public meetings with the neighborhood community and with consultants from the firm Crosby, Schlessinger and Smallridge (CSS). The Fairmount Greenway, while drawing its identity from the traditional greenway model is in fact a reinterpretation of an urban greenway. The greenway path follows along both primary and secondary city streets because of the lack of space along the rail right-of-way. The Fairmount Greenway begins at what will be a new station stop at New Market South Bay near Upham’s Corner in northern Dorchester. The greenway follows …

Bolivia's Coca Headache: The Agroyungas Program, Inflation, Campesinos, Coca And Capitalism In Bolivia, John D. Roberts

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Bolivia in the 1980s was wracked by monetary inflation approaching levels of the German Weimar Republic. Immediately following this time of great financial crisis in Bolivia, the U.N. founded a project through the U.N.D.P. to encourage peasant farmers in Bolivia to switch from growing coca (the plant used manufacture cocaine) to growing other cash crops for market. This crop substitution and development program, called the Agroyungas Project, lasted from 1985 to 1991 and is the focus of this study. While many U.N. pundits and journalists considered the program’s initial small successes promising, it has been considered since its conclusion to …

The Valley Of Innovation Springfield Biotechnology Summary Report, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The Valley of Innovation is a new industrial region that is being formed as the result of recent technology transfers and significant growth in the biotechnology sector. The region includes part of western Massachusetts along with Central Connecticut and runs from north to south along the I-91 corridor, following the general borders of the Connecticut River Valley. The region extends from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, through Springfield, Massachusetts, and continues past Hartford, Connecticut, to New Haven, and down I-95 towards New York State.

Currently in embryonic form, the region has the potential to grow rapidly. It is nurtured …

Springfield Biotechnology Study, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This study investigated the biotechnology industry and the potential for the City of Springfield, Massachusetts to attract and nurture biotechnology firms. To investigate biotechnology location factors, over 20 interviews with experts in biotechnology field were conducted, ten case studies of existing biotechnology centers around the country were analyzed and a literature review was compiled.

Biotechnology And Industrial Development, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Biotechnology is defined by the industry as the commercial application of modern biology. It is a fairly young industry and it recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in 1996. There are over 13,000 biotech companies in the United States which employ over 100,000 people. The main focus of their research includes agricultural, environmental and medical applications. The agricultural sector research is directed towards food, food processing, animal and plant breeding applications. The areas in medical research include pharmaceuticals, gene therapy, medical instruments and medical software. Environmental applications deal with bioremediation, biopesticides and other alternatives to waste removal. The biotech industry is …

Connecticut River 2020 Project: Cost And Economic Impact Analysis, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This project addresses the following issues:

1) Analysis of the cost of abating water pollution sources contaminating the Lower Connecticut River for the communities of Agawam, Chicopee, Holyoke, Ludlow, South Hadley, Springfield, and West Springfield.

2) Analysis of the impact of water pollution abatement measures on the economy of Hamden and Hampshire Counties.

3) Analysis of the impact of additional economic development on Hamden and Hampshire Counties resulting from an improved river resource.

4) Assessment and analysis of increased recreational activities resulting from a cleaner river resource.

The research was conducted by the Center for Economic Development at the University …