Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

A Story Of The Social Life Of Yulupa Cohousing, Kayla Ho

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This capstone is a study of the lived social experience of one cohousing community. Cohousing communities are designed with the intention of fostering a community with a mixture of privately-owned units and publicly shared spaces and responsibilities. The study is conducted at a significant point in American history: these communities are a fast-growing phenomenon in the United States yet they remain unknown and/or unattainable to many Americans.

Qualitative information from the community’s current residents is gathered by using research tools of interviewing and photography. Interviews were completed virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photographs were created during a three-day visit …

Better Leveraging Of Processies And Internal Procedures For Public Forms Used By Planning Departments, William J. Munson

City and Regional Planning

A survey was sent to 517 planning and community development departments across California inquiring about how they use interactive PDF files for forms and applications. 139 cities and counties responded, providing invaluable feedback, with 98% stating that their online forms and applications are in PDF format, 62% confirmed that some or all their PDF's are interactive, and over 72% retype the information in the completed PDF forms they receive in a database or spreadsheet program. Why retype data that has already been typed into an interactive PDF in order to enter it into their tracking systems?

Based on the survey …

The Future Of Urban Technology: Exploring Smart Cities And Transportation Through Game Theory And Scenario Planning, Matthew Wilson

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Technological innovation is occurring at a rapid pace in the world of personal devices. This trend of change has not been able to occur as fast in the city infrastructure. Consumers are curious about the next generation of technology and the integration of artificially intelligent technology in transportation and the urban fabric. In this project, I study the motivations and values of a set of characters involved in the integration and innovation of Smart City Technology. These characters create potential future scenarios of the city from their actions and reactions to specific decisions.

This body of work can provide a …

Restoring Lost Heritage, Lewis Culliver

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

One of the best streets to explore in Omaha is N. 24th Street. Many buildings showcase larger than life, vibrant murals that express the creative nature and spirit of this part of historic North Omaha. The murals represent a healing element for the community; many murals cover structures that are in various states of disrepair. Community gardens have risen to fill voids left by traumatic development practices, such as the implementation of the north freeway.

Despite having lost a large part of its heritage, including hundreds of homes and businesses that were destroyed to make way for the north freeway, …

The Old Harbor: A Diachronic Study Of Charleston's Cooper River Waterfront, 1884-1990, Branden Gunn

All Theses

For the better part of three centuries, Charleston’s Cooper River waterfront functioned as an important commercial seaport complete with wharves, warehouses, offices, workshops, and other related buildings. These resources defined the area for nearly three centuries, yet today, most connections to the maritime past have been severed. Revitalization efforts and modern developments have redefined the area and filled voids created by the waterfront’s steady decline throughout the 20th century. With an aim to better understand the Cooper River waterfront’s developmental history, this thesis utilized historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps to track the harbor’s physical and spatial changes from 1884 to …

The Hot Springs Creekway & The Rediscovery Of The Water That Made Hot Springs Famous, Zane Colvin

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

Arkansas’s Hot Springs National Park was the first natural reservation in the United States and is the oldest park in the National Park System. In Hot Springs, 47 springs release almost a million gallons of potable 143° water every day - the problem is, almost all of this water is hidden from sight, funneled directly into an 1884-constructed tunnel underground, where no person (or other life) can experience it.

Hot Springs Creek should be daylighted and connected with the surrounding National Park, creating thermal 'pools' for public use, and restoring its banks to pre-settlement ecologically rich conditions. My plan to …

Electrochromic Windows: Return On Investment Analysis, Thomas Michael Caprio

Construction Management

In recent years, sustainability in construction has become a topic of undeniable interest. With sustainability certifications becoming more prominent and desirable, members of the construction industry have begun to seek alternatives for standard systems to keep up with market trends. One of the main issues that the construction industry faces is accessibility of technology. While there are new products and technologies being released frequently, members of the construction industry lack knowledge on the specific details and implications of working with newer systems. One piece of technology that was recently introduced is electrochromic glass, or smart glass. Electrochromic windows analyze sunlight …

Built Environment, Land Use, And Crime: A Las Vegas Study, Stacey Lynn Clouse

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined land use and crime against persons and crime against property in Las Vegas, Nevada at varying spatial levels of analysis. Using crime data provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Clark County Assessor’s office, results at the macro-level of analysis reveal that property crime rates concentrated on commercial, transportation, communication and utilities, and industrial land use, whereas violent crime concentrated at commercial, multi-residential, and civic, institutional, and recreational land use. Upon examining the subtypes of land use that generate or radiate more crime, property crime concentrated on transportation land use, class 1 resorts, and …

Neo Development Of The Workplace Environment In Response To Evolutionary Social Changes, Dafne Odette

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study is to identify the needs and wants of remote workers to support their health and well-being in response to evolutionary social changes. Many workers were once tethered to live in the city where their job office resided. Additionally, economic forces have long been a deciding factor in where one lives. The COVID-19 virus of 2020 provided an opportunity for many people to work remotely to control the virus (Latham, Higgins, & Judish, 2020). This has allowed people to retain higher salaries while living in rural areas where the cost of living may be lower. In 2021, some businesses …

Land Rich, Cash Poor: Hispanic Subsistence Agri-Culture On Acequia Farms Of Northern New Mexico, 1880-1950s, José A. Rivera Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Acequia-based agriculture in Hispanic northern New Mexico originated with the arrival of settlers from the central valley of Mexico in the late sixteenth century and later following the Camino Real into the upper Río Grande and its tributaries. The high desert environment required irrigation for food production and survival. Land parcels in the rural villages of northern New Mexico were small, and crop yields were limited to home consumption on a subsistence basis, an economy that lasted well into the territorial period and statehood of New Mexico. Despite a wage economy introduced with the arrival of the railroad around 1880 …

Annexation For Good: An Equity Approach For Social And Environmental Justice With Municipal Annexation, Russell H. Stall

All Theses

Municipal annexation is a powerful tool for improving communities. United States cities historically use municipal annexation to increase tax revenues, grow populations, and increase land areas. However, attitudes about annexation are changing, and there is emerging interest in broadening annexation practices to advance a broader range of social and environmental benefits. For example, annexation can be used to improve blighted areas, control overdevelopment, protect environmentally sensitive areas and open spaces, and improve the lives of residents. It is not clear if cities support using annexation in this way, and if so, when those uses are possible.

Despite restrictive laws and …

Case Studies On Architecture And Economics Of Public Housing, John Kent

Honors Projects

Public is an historical and contemporary issue faced by many cities. Many new developments often include plans for some form of public or affordable housing. The purpose of this paper is to explore a few case studies in public housing through the lens of community development, architectural and urban design, and economic investment. The selected projects included: Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri (1954), Cabrini Green in Chicago, Illinois (1962), Karl Marx Hof in Vienna, Austria (1930), Caoyang New Village in Shanghai, China (1951), and various Soviet housing projects in the former Soviet Union (1922-1991). Historical and contemporary research was used …

An Educational Framework For Equity And Inclusion In Planning, Jacob Schlange

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

As societal discourse about equity has increased, so has the need for planning practitioners to be educated about equity-related issues. This study examines the planning curricula of the 22 land-grant institutions accredited by the Planning Accreditation Board (PAB) to assess whether these programs align with the new emphasis on equity in the most recent PAB accreditation standards. Finding a notable lack of required courses explicitly addressing the topic among most of the programs surveyed, this thesis goes on to propose a framework for developing a course on equity in planning, using existing literature on planning education and guidance from the …

Celebrating Wetland Foodways: Joining Ecosystems & Cultures On The Louisiana Gulf Coast, Deborah La Rue

LSU Master's Theses

Coastal Louisiana is bountiful in cultural and ecological diversity. Spotted with thriving estuaries, meandering bayous and swamps, and rippling grasses of coastal marshes, these wetland ecosystems sequester carbon, purify floodwaters, and buffer against storm surge. Historically, southern wetland landscapes have offered refuge to people of many folk and ethnic traditions escaping violence and oppression. Until the mid-twentieth century, the people living in present-day Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes enjoyed relative isolation from the rest of America, constructing cultural practices that emphasized attachment to wetland plants, animals, and ecosystem dynamics.

Today, changing environmental conditions and high rates of relative sea level rise …

Albuquerque Public School’S Vision Zero For Youth Initiative: Engaging Student Youth In Designing A School District Transportation Safety Program, Cordell S. Bock

Architecture and Planning ETDs

The APS (Albuquerque Public Schools) Vision Zero for Youth Initiative adopts the global Vision Zero traffic safety movement’s goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and injuries to pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular crashes. The APS Vision Zero for Youth Initiative is comprised of a traffic-safety curriculum for K-8 students, an action plan that sets traffic-safety goals and progress evaluation frameworks for the school district, and a campaign to build a new culture of traffic safety for students, families, and local communities.

This project employs participatory methods that build the capacity of students enrolled in local public schools to produce and share …

Surface Urban Heat Island In South Korea’S New Towns With Different Urban Planning, Kyungil Lee, Yoonji Kim, Hyun Chan Sung, Seung Hee Kim, Seong Woo Jeon

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

A new town is strategically built within a short period compared to naturally developed cities. It is considered an appropriate study area for analyzing the urban climate problems such as surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) that is differently generated according to urban planning and development. In this study, we suggest comprehensive method for determining and comparing changes in surface UHI distribution during 1989–2048 in two new towns with different urban planning. First, a substantial increase in built-up areas was observed from 1989 (< 5%) to 2018 (> 40%) in both new towns. However, SUHI phenomenon-increasing patterns were different of about 12.25% depending on urban …

Mapping The Impact Of A Trailway System On The Amount Of Trash Present Within Two Watersheds Of Lynchburg City, Virginia, Lillian Smith

Student Scholar Showcase

Transportation of trash debris within water systems is a prominent occurrence which has been linked to natural and artificial processes such as wind, rain, and littering. Recreational areas, such as activities along greenway trails, have been determined to be a source of debris found in waterways. This study examines whether the presence of an established recreational trail system limits trash accumulation in the entirety of a watershed. Trash data collected at Blackwater Creek, which contains an established trail system, was compared to trash data collected at Fishing Creek, containing a non-established trail system, to answer this hypothesis. A distance of …

Planning For Local Resilience, Natasia Peacock

All Theses

Planning for resilience to climate change within the comprehensive plan is a keyway to help protect local communities. State legislations provides the guidelines to local governments to if a comprehensive plan is needed for the community and what is required to be within the comprehensive plan. This research assesses state legislation for resiliency policies for comprehensive plans and assesses comprehensive plans to see if local governments are adequately applying the legislation.

Nine states across five geographic regions, were used in evaluation of state legislation. A variety of comprehensive plans were also evaluated at both city and county levels within these …

Restoring Dignity In The Gardens Of Ekhenana, Jordan Buser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study investigates the lived experiences of eKhenana, a shack settlement under the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo, as they attempt to navigate the increasingly unequal urban landscape. The research presented is focused on theories of urban marginality, food sovereignty, and dignity. I advocate that, in the margins, dignity can be restored through the implementation of a communal garden. Presented as a case study, this research centers the voices and experiences of the commune. The paper first depicts a brief timeline of eKhenana, and explains how they have created not just a place to live, but a community and a …

Murals & Mother Nature: Urban Environmental Art In Lisbon Reveals Great Concern And Appreciation For The Environment, Ana Gunther

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Urban art is a novel dimension of the environmental movement. Utilizing highly trafficked areas, urban art has the potential to spread environmental messages both because of the size of the audience and because of the contrast between nature-centered art and the urban context. The paper discusses 15 environmental urban artworks in Lisbon and conducts a visual and thematic analysis. The analysis revealed five themes present in Lisbon: the power and beauty of nature, connection with nature, environmental loss and degradation, waste management, and climate change. The most prevalent theme in Lisbon was the connection with nature, followed by a tie …