Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

The Cost Of Green Infrastructure: Worth The Investment?, Martha Sheils

Green Infrastructure

Is GI worth the investment?

• LID techniques often lead to cost savings when we look at WHOLE PROJECT COSTS

• Natural Infrastructure investments for flood control, drinking water protection and wildlife habitat can yield SIGNIFICANT AVOIDED COSTS and additional co-benefits to communitites

Issue Brief: Auditing Your Town's Development Code For Barriers To Sustainable Water Management, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This issue brief is intended for town officials who want to understand how development regulations in their community affect local water resources. Municipal development codes – the set of regulations that control the built environment – can have a great influence on the availability of clean and healthy water for drinking, recreation, and commercial uses. This in turn affects the community’s social, environmental, and economic vitality.

Comprehensive plans, zoning codes, and building standards are just a few examples of regulations that intentionally or unintentionally regulate the way water is transported, collected and absorbed. Regulations that produce dispersed development or large …

Issue Brief: Saving By Mitigating, University Of Louisville, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Natural disasters can cause loss of life, inflict damage to buildings and infrastructure, and have devastating consequences for a community’s economic, social, and environmental well-being. Hazard mitigation means reducing damages from disasters.

Local governments have the responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens. Proactive mitigation policies and actions help reduce risk and create safer, more disaster-resilient communities. Mitigation is an investment in your community’s future safety, equity, and sustainability.

Recommendations To The City Of South Portland, Related To Phase 2 Of The Energy Action Plan, Karen Purinton

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

South Portland’s Energy Action Plan (EAP) has not been updated since the completion and approval of the most recent South Portland Comprehensive Plan in October 2012. The current EAP has three phases, of which the first has been partially implemented, calling for energy and other resource conservation practices to be put in place in all City departments. Phase 2 is concerned with how the municipality can engage and incentivize businesses within the City to address energy use and efficiency, and is discussed in three sections below. Phase 3, yet to be drafted, will address residential opportunities for decreased energy use …

Geotechnics And Regionalism: The Lineage Of Thought From John Wesley Powell To Benton Mackaye, Nikkilee Cataldo

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

John Wesley Powell and Benton MacKaye, each developed exceptionally comprehensive and innovative regional planning visions that had a great deal in common. They both were Jeffersonian idealists, who considered those who tilled the soil and worked the land for primary production a class of men above all the rest.

This paper will explore some of the fundamental theory behind the work of both Powell and MacKaye, as well as examples of the plans that they developed. It will become clear that the two men were working from very similar theoretical vantage points, though in relatively different socio-political eras. It will …