Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Enabling An Equitable Energy Transition Through Inclusive Research, Michael Ash, Erin Baker, Mark Tuominen, Dhandapani Venkataraman, Matthew Burke, S. Castellanos, M. Cha, Gabe Chan, D. Djokic, J.C. Ford, Anna P. Goldstein, David Hsu, Matt Lacker, C. Miller, D. Nock, A.P. Ravikumar, Allison Bates, Anna Stefanopoulou, E Grubert, D.M Kammen, M. Pastor, S.Z, Attari, S. Carley, D.L Clark, D. Dean-Ryan, U. Kosar, Kerry Bowie, Tina Johnson

ETI Publications

Comprehensive and meaningful inclusion of marginalized communities within the research enterprise will be critical to ensuring an equitable, technology-informed, clean energy transition. We provide five key action items for government agencies and philanthropic institutions to operationalize the commitment to an equitable energy transition.

From Indicators To Action: Evaluating The Usefulness Of Indicators To Move From Regional Climate Change Assessment To Local Adaptation Implementation, Sally Miller

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

As the effects of climate change become increasingly damaging and costly, a public and political consensus is building for planning that will protect private property and public infrastructure. Climate-related planning has primarily focused on mitigation, assessing vulnerability, and building adaptive capacity. Adaptation has not gained substantial ground in the area of implementation. The uncertainty associated with climate change projection and variability has emerged as a dominant barrier to adaptation. However, as knowledge accrues, the global and national science communities have been developing more detailed, fine-scale climate projections. Regional climate assessments are available for the sub-national climate regions in the U.S., …

Climate Change Adaptation Chapter: Marshfield, Massachusetts, Joshua H. Chase, Jonathan G. Cooper, Rory Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Filipe Antunes Lima, Sally R. Miller, Toni Marie Pignatelli

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

Climate change, understood as a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or its variability, is the greatest environmental challenge of this generation (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001). Marshfield is already being affected by changes in the climate that will have a profound effect on the town’s economy, public health, coastal resources, natural features, water systems, and public and private infrastructure. Adaptation strategies have been widely recognized as playing an important role in improving a community’s ability to respond to climate stressors by resisting damage and recovering quickly.

Based on review of climate projections for the …

The Role Of Structural Stormwater Best Management Practices, Impervious Surfaces And Natural Factors On Base Flow In Massachusetts, Kimberly B. Klosterman

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

This research conducted a GIS analysis of twenty-eight sub-watersheds in Massachusetts and considered five factors which the literature suggested influenced base flow. The literature suggested a positive relation between precipitation, forest cover and base flow and a negative relationship between impervious surfaces, soil drainage class, slope and base flow. A multiple regression analysis of the sub-watershed information confirmed the literature for two factors (soil drainage class and slope) and questioned it on three factors (impervious surfaces, precipitation, and forest cover). The resulting predictive equation indicated that imperviousness and precipitation were the most significant factors affecting base flow. The first derivative …

From Fail-Safe To Safe-To-Fail: Sustainability And Resilience In The New Urban World, Jack F. Ahern

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

Abstract: The extent to which the 21st Century world will be "sustainable" depends in large part on the sustainability of cities. Early ideas on implementing sustainability focused on concepts of achieving stability, practicing effective management and the control of change and growth-- a "fail-safe" mentality. More recent thinking about change, disturbance, uncertainty, and adaptability is fundamental to the emerging science of resilience, the capacity of systems to reorganize and recover from change and disturbance without changing to other states-- in other words, systems that are "safe to fail." While the concept of resilience is intellectually intriguing, it remains largely unpracticed …

Gloucester Marine Station: Future Development Feasibility Study, Jack F. Ahern, Ben Eli Webb

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

The study commenced in July 2009 with historical research about the site and its context, site analysis, including the existing conditions and development regulations. This analysis included: topography, soils, vegetation, structures, utilities, easements, property deed, and city, state, and federal regulations. From this analysis an assessment of future development potentials was made based on the existing data/documents from UMass files, public records, Mass GIS data, site visits, and interviews with Gloucester, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and other officials and stakeholders. From the assessment we identified potential future uses, building locations, and feasible alternative layouts of the site. These alternatives were summarily …

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 …

Land Planning And Development Mitigation For Protecting Water Quality In The Great Lakes System: An Evaluation Of U.S. Approaches, Elizabeth Brabec, Peter Kumble

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

A review of the land use/water quality interface of the Great Lakes system, and the monitoring programs in place. The paper reviews the weakness in the system and suggests opportunities for improvement.

Meridian Hill Park: The Making Of An American Neoclassical Landscape, Elizabeth Brabec

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

The neoclassical design was the dominant design movement in landscape architecture at the turn of the last century, dictating the form and design of public parks for most of the first half of the twentieth century. Meridian Hill Park, located just north of the White ouse in Washington, DC, is considered the most ambitious neoclassical park ever conceived in the United States. The paper provides an overview of the design development of the park, illustrating how classical design precedents were used to create a contemporary neo-classical park.

The Usher Plant Review And 8-Point Action Plan, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The Usher Plant is located on Arch Street off of Route 2 in Erving, Massachusetts in the center village of the town. The plant is a rich part of the social, economic, and cultural identity of the town and its residents. The Erving Paper Company occupied this plant from 1964 to approximately 1990, when the company consolidated and moved its operations leaving over one-hundred workers either displaced or unemployed and the Usher Plant vacant.

The closing of the Usher Plant approximately 10 years ago has had a tremendous impact on the community residents, as well as Erving's center village merchants …

Town Of Charlton, Massachusetts Rural Preservation Planning Study, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The town of Charlton, Massachusetts has experienced relatively high population growth over the past two and a half decades. From 1970 to 1990 the population more than doubled, and this growth is projected to continue into the next millennium. this boom in residential growth and development has placed financial pressures on the town, impacting the town's ability to provide services to its residents. For example, many of the new residents moving in to Charlton are families with children who increase the funding necessary for the town's school system budget. To offset these financial pressures, the town is actively engaging economic …

City Of Gardner, Massachusetts Inventory Of Existing And Removed Tanks, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The purpose of this project is to provide the City of Gardner with a list of contaminated sites in the Rear Main Street Area. During the past month, I have been researching potential brownfield locations within this corridor, and inputting them into a working database. Overall, the problem identified is that the city has little knowledge of how much land is contaminated within its city. Therefore, the goal of my project was to identify the parcels in the Rear Main Street Area that have been contaminated with hazardous materials.

Brief On The Bicycle-Pedestrian Pathway Dedication By The Rails-To-Trails Conservancy, The League Of American Bicyclists, The Bicycle Federation Of Oregon, National Wildlife Federation, And The American Society Of Landscape Architects As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent. Florence Dolan V. City Of Tigard, In The Supreme Court Of The United States, Andrea Ferster, Elizabeth A. Brabec, Glenn P. Sugamelli, Daniel L. Rabinowitz

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Faculty Publication Series

No abstract provided.

Polygon Explorer For Massachusetts Data: Initial Report, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Polygon Explorer is a program written for Macintosh computers that links data stored in standard spreadsheet formats with a geographic database. It differs from similar programs such as MapInfo and ArcView in that it provides a statistical visualization capability in the form of bar charts, histograms, scatterplots, and other views, and further these views are linked to one another so that any action in one view results highlighting in other views.

Polygon Explorer was initially developed with the support of funding from the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station, and parts of a donation form the Environmental Systems Research Institute and a …

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 …

Greenways As Vehicles For Social Expression, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

Traditionally, the recognized functions of greenways include water resource protection and pollution abatement, riparian habitat enhancement and biodiversity, flood hazard reduction, recreation, environmental education, noise attenuation, microclimate enhancement (cooling and pollution abatement), and the reduction of bank erosion and downstream sedimentation (Platt, 1992). Phil Lewis simply prefers to think of greenways as environmental corridors, which he dubs "E-ways," for the four main purposes of environment, ecology, education, and exercise (1990). In this paper a fifth "e" purpose of expression will be suggested.

As a beginning four different ways of promoting expression will be illustrated with examples. These means will include …

Mill Reuse Potential The Draper Mill Complex Hopedale, Massachusetts, Center For Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The purpose of this study was to determine the reuse potential of the 1. 7 million square foot Draper Mill in Hopedale, Massachusetts. The study was undertaken at the request of the Hopedale Industrial Development Committee. Their goal was to develop a means of diversifying the community's tax base. When the Draper Mill was in full operation approximately sixty percent (60%) of the Town's taxes were paid by the Mill. Today, with the Mill empty, ninety percent (90%) of the Town's taxes come from residential uses. The Committee sought to develop a means to diversify Hopedale's tax base and thus …

What To Do With Scrap Tires In The 1990'S Technology, Market And Policy Considerations, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

The purpose of this report was to look at the issue of what to do with the millions of scrap tires in surplus, and those added to the waste stream each year. The report goes on to identify and evaluate the options with regards to the reusing and disposing of scrap tires, discuses and evaluate the recycling of tires as a tool to generate economics development in Western Massachusetts, and explores the current options for disposal of existing tire stockpile.

Using Water For Local Economic Development, Umass Amherst Center Economic Development

Center for Economic Development Technical Reports

This report was meant to evaluate the quality and the quantity of water available to the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. The report looks at the demand for clean water, and how the city provides it to the residents of the city.