Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Can A Global Fund Help Solve The Global Marine Plastic Debris Problem?, Karen Raubenheimer, Alistair Mcilgorm

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The problem of marine plastic debris impacts all of the world’s oceans and requires all nations to respond. However, developing States require funds to improve waste management infrastructure and services in order to reduce marine debris at source. Plastics manufacturers and retailers globally must be incentivised to design products for the environment as well as for the collection and end-of-life treatment facilities available within the intended markets. Given the oceans are a global common, we investigate the option of developing a global fund mechanism to progress the necessary actions to reduce plastic waste entering the world’s oceans. This requires consideration …

Conflicts Abound: How Future Development Along The Wasatch Front Will Replace Critical Migratory Bird Habitat Around Farmington Bay, Aubin A. Douglas

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Student Research

Every year, the Great Salt Lake (GSL) and its associated wetlands provide critical habitat to over 250 migratory bird species from both the Pacific and Central Flyways. The GSL borders the Wasatch Front, which is the fastest growing and most populous region in Utah. To support the ever-increasing working population, the government of Utah aspires to increase economic growth in the region through more economic incentives and infrastructure development. As this area continues to develop, greater pressure will be placed on the surrounding natural resources, including the GSL, its wetlands, and the open space and agricultural lands that act as …

Identifying And Assessing Conflicts Between Future Development And Current Migratory Bird Habitat Around Farmington Bay, Utah, Aubin A. Douglas

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Every year, the Great Salt Lake (GSL) and its associated wetlands provide critical habitat for over 250 migratory bird species from both the Pacific and Central Flyways. The GSL borders the Wasatch Front, which is the fastest growing and most populous region in Utah. To support the ever-increasing working population, the government of Utah aspires to increase the robust economic growth of the region through economic incentives and development of infrastructure. As this area continues to develop, greater pressure will be placed on the surrounding natural resources, including the GSL, its wetlands, and the open space and agricultural land that …

Pedestrian Pedagogy Of Place: Nurturing An Ecological Consciousness Through Slow Explorations Of The Public Realm, Kevin M. Pozzi

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

As increasing institutional paralysis and polarization demonstrate, citizens are not engaged or motivated by ecological challenges because they struggle to identify with our catastrophic relationship to nature in this urban, anthropocentric, and climactically-fraught modern era. Rather than focus solely on natural areas as a pathway to ecological consciousness and action, educators can inspire citizens through a “Pedestrian Pedagogy of Place” that brings wonder and enchantment into our urban public realm. Using the principles of sustainability education and place-based education as a framework, this pedagogy recognizes the sidewalk and pedestrian experience as a shared classroom through sensory, awareness-based learning modalities.

Justice Served Fresh: Associations Between Food Insecurity, Community Gardening, And Property Value, Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour Ph.D

McNair Poster Presentations

Numerous stakeholders in Nevada have used a variety of efforts to combat the growth of food insecurity facing Nevadans. The purpose of this research project is to understand the association between food insecurity, community gardens, and property value. Following the wealth of scholarship on these topics and data collected from community garden agencies in Southern Nevada, the research questions for this project include: (1) Where are community gardens located in SNV? (2) What efforts community gardens agencies are doing to address food insecurity (most interested in their efforts using community gardens)? (3) What are the perceptions of supports and barriers …

Measuring Landscape Performance: Case Study Investigation, Hannah Michelle Lopresto, Brandon Zambrano, Catherine De Almeida

UCARE Research Products

Participating in the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s 2018 Case Study Investigation has been an incredibly informative experience for our research team at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are eager to shine a spotlight on the landscape performance of two Great Plains projects: P Street Corridor, a revitalized downtown streetscape in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park, a waterfront redevelopment in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Working on the post-occupancy study of both projects has been extremely beneficial in understanding how reclaiming underutilized sites can create high-performing landscapes. Both are public projects in urban settings with primary goals of transforming formerly unpleasant, …

Building A Sense Of Community: A Case Study Of The Fairmount Neighborhood In Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Bethany Yeo

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This thesis study examines the relative sense of community by isolating key factors that contribute to a sense of community: social trust, identity, and bridging/social cohesion. It also analyzes the relationship, if any, between these three factors and the built environment. Data was collected from 107 archived community impact measurement surveys from NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. The results show that residents experienced a lack of sense of community despite the built environment although results were not significant.

Foreclosures For Sale: Revisiting Stories Of Worcester's Mortgage Crisis, A Radio Documentary, Hallie Blashfield, Beatrice Misher

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This radio documentary uses the personal stories of homeowners fighting to keep their homes in Worcester Massachusetts to explore the state of Foreclosure in Worcester ten years after the Great Recession. It follows the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team (WAFT) and its members in their fight against illegal foreclosures and their battles in Worcester Housing Court. Grounded in personal narratives, the documentary highlights systemic issues with the banking and legal system.

Social Justice In Outdoor Experiential Education: A Literature Analysis Of K-12 Outdoor Education Programs In The United States, Digby Kalert

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Historically, the field of outdoor experiential education (OEE) has been exclusionary and has primarily served white middle- and upper-middle class male populations. Scholars have called for research on how to address issues of social justice in the field for decades, and leaders are finally making steps toward becoming more inclusive. Through a secondary analysis of empirical studies on OEE, this paper examines how the field has modified its focus towards minority populations in K-12 OEE programs in the United States and provides recommendations for practitioners of OEE. There is evidence of an increase in studies on how OEE is perceived …

Saying "No" To (The) Oxygen Capital? Amenity Migration, Counter-Territorialization, And Uneven Rural Landscape Change In The Kaz Dağları (Ida Mountains) Of Western Turkey, Patrick T. Hurley, Yılmaz Arı

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Diverse forms of conservation and development are transforming the material landscapes and related livelihoods of communities in rural places around the world. While many studies focus on changing protected area governance and ecotourism efforts associated with nature protection, other studies focus on residential development in areas experiencing amenity migration. We use a comparative political ecology approach that draws on key insights from the political ecology literature, first, on neoliberal protected area expansion, and, second, on exurbia that highlight the dynamics of competing rural capitalisms and reterritorialization in areas experiencing amenity migration to explore these coupled conservation and development dynamics. Drawing …

Desalination Concentrate Disposal: Ecological Effects And Sustainable Solutions, Ryan Hanley

Global Honors Theses

Freshwater availability is a growing global concern, and desalination is often presented as the solution, but from this important technology comes issues of toxic waste. Ecosystems are delicate areas that contain species adapted to that specific location, and any chemical or physical changes can disrupt the fitness of species. The concentrate byproduct waste from desalination plants is toxic to species if the concentrate is not compatible with the receiving water body. A critical review of scientific articles, industry-leading books, conversations with industry experts, and information from the American Membrane Technology Association conference was used to analyze the current knowledge. Species …

“Un Poder Transformador”. Creatividad Y Habilidades De Pensamiento Que Nutren La Experimentación De Nuevas Ideas Sustentables”, Vanesa Abadie A. Abadie

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

Si partimos de preguntas tales como: ¿Qué vale la pena enseñar?, ¿Cómo las habilidades de pensamiento promueven prácticas que conducen a la sostenibilidad ambiental y la revitalización?, ¿Cómo promovemos el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento que conduzcan al uso del conocimiento, la tecnología y la innovación para promover la sostenibilidad y la revitalización?

Como docentes debemos introducir desafíos en contextos adecuados para así generar en los alumnos nuevas ideas. Tanto la creatividad como el pensamiento crítico son procesos que se nutren con la experimentación de ideas. Ellas pueden surgir a través de una acción, un relato, una imagen, un tópico …

Using Digital Mapping Techniques To Rapidly Document Vulnerable Historical Landscapes In Coastal Louisiana: Holt Cemetery Case Study, Alahna Moore

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis outlines a technique for rapid documentation of historic sites in volatile cultural landscapes. Using Holt Cemetery as an exemplary case study, a workflow was developed incorporating RTK terrain survey, UAS aerial imagery, photogrammetry, GIS, and smartphone data collection in order to create a multifaceted database of the material and spatial conditions, as well as the patterns of use, that exist at the cemetery.

The purpose of this research is to create a framework for improving the speed of data creation and increasing the accessibility of information regarding threatened cultural resources. It is intended that these processes can be …

The Impacts Of Green Spaces On Crime In New York City, Matthew Edward Iannone Jr.

Student Theses 2015-Present

From the early 1960s through the mid-1990s, crime in New York City ran rampant. With a gradually dwindling police during this time, a high unemployment rate, and an rapidly increasing metropolitan population, crime peaked in the early 1990s, with the murder rate hitting a record-high of 2,245 in 1990. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office in 1994 and appoint Bill Bratton as the NYPD police commissioner, these rates immediately plunged. Numerous factors may have contributed to this sudden decline in crime: the police force grew significantly through the 1990s, more criminals were placed and held in prison, and the economic …

Science, Advocacy, Policy, Planning: Tools For Advancing Transportation Equity, Garrett S. Mcallister

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

The theme of this portfolio is how different tools and approaches can be used for advancing transportation equity. Broadly defined, transportation equity is about fairness in transportation. There are a number of ways this fairness can be assessed. The most common way to assess transportation equity is by looking at the fairness of outcomes, distributed geographically, socially, or even by mode of transportation. Equity can also be defined by the fairness of processes. The first half of the portfolio illustrates some of the problems with the current transportation system and how it is unhealthy (Piece 1) and unjust (Piece 2). …

United In The Struggle: The Role Of Land Titles For Communities Of Internally Displaced Persons In El Salvador, Corie Welch

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Multiple episodes of dispossession and displacement characterize the lives of landless rural and semi-rural families across El Salvador. The residents of 30 de Abril, a semi-rural community in El Salvador formed from displaced families, engaged in a five-year struggle to force the government to make good on its promise of land to the rural poor. Now, with legal titles in hand, residents continue to work together to seek additional services and resources for their community, proving their resilience in the face of displacement. Based upon the experience of 30 de Abril, this paper explores the trajectory of one community‟s struggle …

The Etm And Alce Testing: Summer Internship In Clark Labs, Wenle Jiang

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Abstract

The ETM and ALCE testing: Summer internship in Clark labs

Wenle Jiang

This paper is a description of my internship with Clark Labs in the summer of 2017. I worked as research assistant responsible for testing the Earth Trends Modeler and the American Land Change Explorer. Earth Trends Modeler is a revolutionary earth observation tool that allows for the modeling and analysis of earth trends and ecosystem dynamics. The American Land Change Explorer (ALCE) is a free web application designed to illustrate the potential of predictive land change modeling using a subscription-based service called the American Land Change Modeler …

Creating Web Maps Of Forest Restoration Plots At Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Center, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Daniel Lassila

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this report is to provide a detailed account, discussion, and analysis of my internship at Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research Center in Minas Gerais, Brazil during the summer of 2017, where I worked under the direction of GIS Supervisor Mr. Cliff Jones. The central focus of my work dealt with consolidating existing GIS data on the organization’s rainforest restoration effort into a single normalized database - based on the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact, creating a structure for future forest restoration volunteers including enabling offline field collection using Collector for ArcGIS, then creating an ArcGIS Online web map based …

Examining The Effects Of National Monument Establishment On Surrounding Communities, Sarah Maloney

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument, located in northern Maine just outside the town of Millinocket and created by President Obama in August 2016, has elicited vocal support and opposition. It has been heralded on one hand as a massive victory for conservation in Maine, and on the other hand, as an overreach by the federal government. This controversy was so widespread that it resulted in the Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument being included in a Department of the Interior review of twenty-seven National Monuments during the summer of 2017, which was conducted by Secretary of the Interior …

Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Cuba is the global leader in practicing agroecology, but agroecology is just one component of a larger climate-ready socio-economic system. Degrowth economics address the need to constrain our total global metabolism to within biophysical limits, while allowing opportunity and resources for "underdeveloped" countries to rebuild themselves under new terms. Degrowth recognizes the role of overdeveloped countries in surpassing the ecological limits of our planet at the cost of wellbeing for billions of dispossessed people within and between countries. Cuba's circumstances during and following the Special Period exemplify both sides of the degrowth scenario, as well as demonstrating policy and grassroots …

Mapping Energy Access In Rural Tanzania: 2017 Summer Internship With The World Resources Institute, Naramena Mccray

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This report details my 2017 summer internship experience; both the report and the internship being requirements of the GIS for Development and Environment Graduate Degree at Clark University. My internship was hosted by the World Resources Institute, an international non-profit organization in Washington D.C. As implied by my position title, “Energy Access-GIS Intern”, I spent the duration of my internship (14 weeks) applying my geospatial expertise to address the topic of energy access which is an issue effecting rural areas of many developing countries. I was given the responsibility of creating an interactive map application of Tanzania accessible by energy …

A Socioeconomic Valuation Of Urban Wetland Ecosystems And Policy Recommendation For College Lake, Michael Dunmyer

Student Scholar Showcase

The current dilemma of College Lake offers a unique case study for how urban ecosystems can not only subsist within cities but provide pivotal functions for them as well. With the potential for a dam-breaching storm event increasing in possibility with each passing year, concerns regarding the structural integrity of the College Lake dam in Lynchburg, VA have arisen. Such concerns have led the City of Lynchburg to consider reinforcement or removal of the dam in order to mitigate flood risks along the Blackwater Creek floodplain. Since its formation following the installation of the Depression-era dam, however, College Lake has …

Summer Of Sidewalks: Accessing Lynchburg's Walkability And Planning Within Community Development In Lynchburg, Virginia, Lauren Fishbein

Student Scholar Showcase

For an urban community to be sustainable, it must also be accessible to community members across all socio-economic groups. Due to the current trends in development, communities are beginning to re-evaluate their transportation options. Urban planners are beginning to discourage ‘single family vehicular' reliance and explore other facets such as; public transportation, safe bike lanes and safe sidewalks. Safe, connected and maintained sidewalks can have many benefits including public health, environmental and economic advantages. I interned with City Planning, a department within Community Development in Downtown Lynchburg, and aided their goals to edit the zoning ordinances to make sidewalks a …

Constructing Social Environments: The Evolving Relationship Between Uses And Management Of Urban Greenspace In Stone Town, Zanzibar, Mara Basich-Pease

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Despite the overwhelming enthusiasm for urban greenspaces throughout the Global North, discussion around parks in the developing world has scarcely been met with the same vigor. This study aims to bring attention to the unique aspects and strengths of urban greenspaces in East Africa, as well as the ways in which these spaces can be improved. The history, use, and management of greenspace was examined through literature review, observation, and interview. The historical and cultural significance of greenspace throughout Stone Town was found to both influence and run contrary to the current uses. Management of greenspace was convoluted and inefficient …

Assessing Adaptive Capacity Of Pioneer Valley Farmers, Angelica Carey

Masters Theses

This thesis explores Pioneer Valley farmers and their agricultural practices, knowledge and resources as they relate to climate change. Adaptive capacity is used throughout scientific literature, and often includes numerous components; for this thesis the measurement of farmers’ adaptive capacity would be assessed according to only three components: knowledge, past experiences and use of resources. Climate change and its impacts on agriculture have been studied but what is unclear is how prepared farmers are to deal with these impacts. Through literature review, survey development and recorded interviews, data was then analyzed both for quantitative and qualitative results to understand farmer’s …

Identifying Gaps In United States Federal Environmental Policy & Practice Through Greening Big Box Infrastructure, Elizabeth Kubacki

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The purpose of this report is to identify policy and practice gaps in resource consumption reduction in the United States, and doing so by using big box retailers as the case study industry.

Through reviewing the history of U.S. federal resource reduction policies, and standard industry practices for greening big box infrastructure, I explore how regulations on sustainability and consumption agree with the Porter Hypotheses. By using the Porter Hypothesis as a theoretical framework for the regulation of green infrastructure in big box retailers, I will identify gaps in both literature and industry practices that can be filled by following …

Media Analysis Of City-Wide Local News Portrayals Of Youth Criminality: Worcester, Massachusetts, Andrea Boffice

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

This study consists of a comprehensive media analysis of local news in Worcester, Massachusetts that explores portrayals of youth criminality of an entire city’s local media landscape. It examines how local media portrayal of youth is primarily dominated by coverage of youth crime and youth victimization. As our nation is questioning our trust and reliability in ever-changing news, this study asks whether our local news, with the new platforms that are emerging, have been compromised in providing a fair portrayal of youth. Particularly, whether it fairly portrays Black and Latinx youth in representations of criminality proportional to crime occurring. During …

Agribusiness, Food Insecurity, And Chronic Diet-Related Ailments In Worcester, Ma: Toward A Nuanced Narrative, Adam Wriggins

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

The following research paper begins with an acknowledgement of the global food crisis and, more specifically, the agribusiness model of food production and distribution in the United States. It then zeroes in on the fundamental issues with many of the United States food movements. It then outlines a narrative with the frame that food security is a human right by elucidating concepts of food justice and food sovereignty. Once this foundation has been laid, the paper examines chronic food-related ailments (diabetes and coronary heart disease) in Worcester, Massachusetts, and how these ailments are related to racial/ethnic minorities (Black and Hispanic/Latino …

Worcester Community Clean Energy Project: A Preliminary Assessment Of Project Aims And Potential, Gabe J. Epstein

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

E4TheFuture is orchestrating two pilot Community Clean Energy Projects (CCEP) in the state of Massachusetts. This paper is a preliminary analysis of the Worcester CCEP and is commissioned by E4TheFuture. The CCEP incorporates multiple types of renewable energies and a cooperative energy approach to provide clean energy access to any community member regardless of income level or homeowner status. The paper examines the CCEP’s mission statement and project estimates, using data provided by E4TheFuture and academic literature. The analysis seeks to determine the feasibility of the Worcester CCEP, its potential impact on underserved communities, and the potential for project replication.

Locating Provisioning Ecosystem Services In Urban Forests: Forageable Woody Species In New York City, Usa, Patrick T. Hurley, Marla R. Emery

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Scholarship on the ecosystem services provided by urban forests has focused on regulating and supporting services, with a growing body of research examining provisioning and cultural ecosystem services from farms and gardens in metropolitan areas. Using the case of New York, New York, USA, we propose a method to assess the supply of potential provisioning ecosystem services from species and spaces other than those explicitly designated for food production. We analyze the abundance and spatial distribution of trees and shrubs with known uses for food, medicine, craft, and other purposes across urban greenspace types. To do so, we created a …