Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

Rebuilding Karachi-Bulldozing One Livelihood At A Time, Haddiqua Siddiqui

MSJ Capstone Projects

The story revolves around Pakistan’s powerful mafias who illegally occupy state and private property, mostly in urban areas and unclaimed land. They are backed by the police, bureaucracy and politicians. This is a norm in countries where these encroachers occupy a piece of land for as long as they want without any legal right or documents. These encroachers occupy the property for weeks, months or even years before voluntarily leaving it for a better spot or being forcefully evicted by city authorities. Saddar, the city’s center; is considered a safe haven for these land grabbers. For decades the heart of …

The Water Tanker Mafia, Yousuf Sajjad

MSJ Capstone Projects

This is a thesis about the Water Tanker Mafia in Karachi. The citizens of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi suffer from an acute lack of water for drinking and domestic use. To cover for this lack of water, there is a network of tankers, run illegally but also with a large degree of connivance with parts of the state in Karachi, that provides water to the citizens of this city. This paper seeks to explain this network, its history, organization and the infrastructure in Karachi that it supports or in many cases, supersedes. This paper places the Karachi water tanker mafia …

Campus Design: Assessing Outdoor Spaces At California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo To Improve Student Experience, Meha Patel

City and Regional Planning

The outdoor space of university campuses is an aspect of design which still remains, to a certain degree, uncharted. There are merely not enough relevant case studies and research in creating foundational principles which adhere to the design of a functional outdoor space on university campuses.

The success of the student body for a college, academically and socially, is dependent on creating a welcoming and holistic learning environment for students to thrive. Social spaces bridge the gap between the built and natural environment, therefore, providing proper physical components in an outdoor space becomes vital in creating a desired environment which …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Public Space: Zoning, Urban Design, And Use Value. A Case Study Of Downtown San Francisco, Joaquin Cabello Silva

Master's Projects and Capstones

This paper seeks to understand how zoning, urban design, and use value control the dynamics of a city and the public space, from the way they are shaped, to the way they are built, and finally to the way they are used. In this research the first step is to recognize that the strategies of zoning in a city are a way of governing and guiding the development of the space, followed by the urban design—which is a more tangible way of interpreting the different rules because it is the actual form zoning takes—to then see how they generate an …

Webster Square Neighborhood Plan, Conor Mccormack

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

In this study, Webster Square is examined as a neighborhood and commercial node within the City of Worcester, MA. Using a variety of data sources and analyses, the study looks at the characteristics of the area to define the condition and context of Webster Square as it currently exists.Guided by current planning theory, contemporary practice, and key informant interviews, this study then suggests different directions for future development and growth in Webster Square. These visions for the future look to address key issues to help make the neighborhood a more vibrant, cohesive, and walkable community. More broadly, this study highlights …

A Framework For Cooperative Housing In Portland, Me: Lessons From 13 Existing Cooperative Houses In The U.S., Cyndi Gacosta

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

Cooperative housing may be a viable and financially-sound alternative for individuals and families of low to moderate income, as Portland, Maine’s downtown area becomes gentrified raising property values to unaffordable heights. Of the 13,546 family households in Portland, 8.7% earn below $25,000, which for an average family of four $24, 250¹ is considered to be in poverty, and 18.4% earn between $25,000 and $50,000. Meanwhile, 13.2% of the 16, 561 non-family households are below the poverty line, and 27.5% earn between $25,000 and $50,000 (US Census Bureau, 2014).

As it becomes increasingly difficult for low to moderate income earners …

Robert Moses And The Real Estate City: A Reexamination Of The Legacy Of New York's Master Builder, Jack Fascitelli

Senior Theses and Projects

The history of New York City would not look the same without Robert Moses. For over three decades, the city's "master builder" reshaped its urban landscape during an era of unprecedented top-down planning and mega-projects. The ideas of this era, once reviled, have seen a revival in the modern day, particularly in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. This essay seeks to reconcile this revival with the ongoing legacy of Robert Moses and to present an argument that such a reconciliation argues for a reconsideration of his career and his ideas.

Airport Infrastructure In The Shrinking City: Planning For Smart Decline In Cleveland’S Regional Airport System And Its Role In A Dynamic Urban Future, Garret Forst

Senior Theses and Projects

Cleveland, while having experienced some growth and regeneration in the 21st Century, still experiences some of the salient characteristics of the "shrinking city." It continues to slowly lose population. Metropolitan-level economic growth remains elusive. Its status as a shrinking city and metropolitan region has consequences for its systems of infrastructure, especially its regional system of airports. This study illustrates how shrinking cities theory applies to Cleveland's airport system. Namely, the airport system has experienced challenges associated with maintaining substantial levels of flight operations in addition to having experienced certain financial challenges since 2000. This study then theorizes how a plan …

Feeling Green: The Benefits Of Green Space On Urbanites' Mental Health, Kathryn A. Hoagland

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This investigation intends to determine the best methods for incorporating public green space into dense urban areas, for the betterment of residents' mental health. Data from studies showing differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depression in urban and rural areas are discussed alongside data from studies looking at the effect that certain types of green space might have on mental health. While there is no exact consensus on the extent to which nature has positive effects on mental health there is enough of a correlation to argue for the implementation of public green spaces in urban design, in order …

A Town Centre Management Framework For Rural Ireland: Fit For Purpose, David Jordan

Theses

The purpose of this study was to identify a Town Centre Management Framework [TCMF] for future-proofing towns in rural Ireland. Town centre management has been widely credited as a mechanism for town rejuvenation to combat high vacancy rates, online retail sales, changing demographics, out of town shopping centres, changing consumer behaviours. Despite the popularity of this public-private partnership model growing internationally in the last decade (Currently over 600 schemes currently operating in the UK), Ireland remains steadfastly dependent on volunteers anchoring up retail-focused strategies. Initiatives, through Business Improvement Districts [BID] somewhat redress this imbalance in some larger towns. The model, …

Barriers To Implementing Urban Plans In Kenya, Rose Chelangat Kitur

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a long history of urban planning, Kenyan towns are still characterized by informality, uncoordinated development, urban sprawl, and congestion. Government documents and reports acknowledge that, despite planning, no deliberate effort has been made to implement plans. Little is known about what impedes plan implementation in Kenya. This study sought to develop an in-depth understanding of the barriers to plan implementation from the perspectives of public officials responsible for planning. Using path dependency theory, forwarded by Pierson, and force field analysis, advanced by Lewin, the research questions focused on legal and institutional development, as well as on the nature of …

A Deep Dive Into The Land Development Dynamics Of A Complex Landscape, Pariya Pourmohammadi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Land development is a complex and dynamic process simultaneously interacting with numerous environmental, cultural and economic procedures. In this research we studied past, present and future of land transformation in Appalachia. This dissertation is organized in three-essay format and each essay is focused on one aspect of land development processes in a sub-region in the Appalachian region. In the first essay, deep learning techniques are used to build predictive models for the land development. This study presets deconvolutional neural networks models in predicting land development. On the second essay, spatial data analysis and remote sensing are used to investigate the …

Reconciling The Dissonance Between Historic Preservation And Virtual Reality Through A Place-Based Virtual Heritage System., Danny J. Bonenberger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study explores a problematic disconnect associated with virtual heritage and the immersive 3D computer modeling of cultural heritage. The products of virtual heritage often fail to adhere to long-standing principles and recent international conventions associated with historic preservation, heritage recording, designation, and interpretation. By drawing upon the geographic concepts of space, landscape, and place, along with advances in Geographic Information Systems, first-person serious games, and head-mounted Virtual Reality platforms this study envisions, designs, implements, and evaluates a virtual heritage system that seeks to reconcile the dissonance between Virtual Reality and historic preservation. Finally, the dissertation examines the contributions and …

Vivienda Social Progresiva Y Productiva Para La Integración Urbana En Bogotá, Johan Alfredo Florez Hernandez

Arquitectura

El tema que trata el presente proyecto es la vivienda de interés social en la ciudad de Bogotá. Está estructurado como una investigación propositiva, es decir, demuestra la necesidad de abordar el tema para posteriormente adoptar conceptos e investigaciones (de otros autores), que formular estrategias para el desarrollo de un proyecto de vivienda VIS en Bogotá.

La semilla que justifica el enfoque social es enteramente lasallista, con ello me refiero a la misión y la visión de la universidad como institución. El primer paso que se da para abordar el proyecto, tiene lugar en el tercer encuentro de hábitat ONU …

Exploring Transit-Based Environmental Injustices In San Gabriel Valley And Greater Los Angeles, Bailey Lai

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to disentangle the multilayered interactions between Greater Los Angeles’s history, its built environment, and its inequitable treatment of different peoples, focusing on how transportation in surrounding suburban communities like San Gabriel Valley has developed in relation to the inner city of Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles contains a long, winding trajectory of transit-based environmental injustices, from the indigenous societies being overtaken by the Spanish missions, to the railroads and streetcars boosting the farmlands and urban growth of Los Angeles, leading into the decline of transit and rise of automobile-oriented suburbia. Within the San Gabriel Valley, the suburban …