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Issue Brief: Asset Management For Stormwater, New England Environmental Finance Center, Sustainable Communities Learning Network

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Asset management is a strategic approach to maintaining and sustaining infrastructure in order to meet the needs of the community at the lowest overall life cycle cost. This approach helps communities know how and where to prioritize limited funds in order to achieve the greatest benefit. Often applied to drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, this method is well suited to managing any assets, including stormwater systems.

This issue brief is intended to introduce local governments to the asset management process and to show how it can be applied in managing stormwater assets. It was adapted from an appendix written by …

إبداعية الإدارة العامة بحث مداخل تحديث بيئة المنظمات العامة, منى حيدر عبد الجبار الطائي

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

يمثل الفهم الصحيح لادوار وأشكال الادارات العامة في سعيها لإنجاز الأهداف تلبية للاحتياجات المجتمعية عبر مؤسساتها العامة ، بعداً إستراتيجياً في الأداء الفعال والكفء لهذه الادارات ، وقد كان للتطورات الحاصلة في البيئة الخارجية دوراً مؤثرا أسهم في دفع العديد من الدول لإعادة النظر في أجهزتها الإدارية العامة لتحسين مقدرتها على مواجهة التغيرات المتسارعة والتوجه نحو اعتماد مداخل واستراتيجيات إبداعية حديثة في العمل الإداري لضمان النجاح والتفوق المستمر. ويمكن القول أن نجاح جهود الاصلاح والإبداع تعتمد بشكل كبير على درجة الانسجام والتوافق بين المداخل والتقنيات الجديدة اللازمة لتحقيق التحديث الإداري, يستعرض هذا البحث اهم مداخل إبداع الإدارة العامة اللازمة للتطوير …

Planning Sustainable Food Hubs: Thinking Beyond Economic Viability To Democratize Local Food Access, Ashley Bahlkow

Capstone Collection

In light of an increasing awareness of the detrimental public health impacts of conventional food systems, the New Hampshire Endowment for Health (NHEH) funded a food hub feasibility study to develop a local food hub in the southeastern region of New Hampshire. The study centered on conceptualizing a food hub that would be both viable from a small business standpoint as well one that would increase access to local food, especially for marginalized communities in the city of Manchester--the major population center in the region.

The project work plan contained several activities for determining feasibility, which were completed over the …

Wetlands Utilization And Rural Livelihood Diversification: A Case Of Simiyu Wetland, Magu, Tanzania, Emiliana Mwita

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

In many developing countries wetlands play an important role in supporting the livelihood of both urban and rural communities. In rural areas wetlands are increasingly becoming a focal point of production and livelihood diversification due to their richness and the diverse options they provide. This paper explores the livelihood options provided by Simiyu wetland in Magu District, Simiyu Region, to the community living arround it using social survey methods. This paper is based on a study which shows that wetland farming is the main activity (75%) and significantly contribute to cash income generation, followed by livestock keeping, fishing and handicraft. …

A Critical Examination Of Green Economic Development As A Post-Disaster Recovery Approach: The Case Of Greensburg, Kansas 2007-2012, David Edgardo Leiva

Master's Theses

In May 2007, an EF-5 tornado ripped through and annihilated 95% of Greensburg, Kansas, a town of about 1,500 people in the southwestern portion of the state. On the heels of the disastrous Hurricane Katrina federal response and with the promise of two sitting presidents to use all of the federal support available, the town vowed not only to "survive, but thrive." Months later, Greensburg civic, business and elected leaders - with a host of external expertise - unveiled a recovery plan that not only set in motion the rebuilding of the two-square mile town but also offered the opportunity …

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.

Financial Inclusion In Nigeria: Issues And Challenges, Ukpai Kama, Mustapha A. Adigun

CBN Occasional Papers

Financial Inclusion is a state where financial services are delivered by a range of providers, mostly the private sector, to reach everyone who could use them. Specifically, it means a financial system that serves as many people as possible in a country. In recent time, financial Inclusion has assumed a critical development policy priority in many countries, particularly in developing economies. This paper reviewed experiences of other jurisdictions in the achievement of financial inclusion. More importantly, the various country experiences showed that, though financial inclusion may have become a general phenomenon, its nature, form and challenges differ among jurisdictions and …

Cultivating Change: Women Transforming Holland’S Food System, Meg Vandeusen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Women are influential in the production and reproduction of food systems. Historically, domesticity positioned women as gatekeepers to their family’s food consumption; these food practices have in turn informed cultural codes that construct personal identity. Feminist scholars have investigated how cooking and feeding practices affect a woman’s perception of self and interaction with society. Both practices are viewed as a simultaneous burden and pleasure, as an act of victimization and empowerment. These binaries must be deconstructed in order to create change within the food system. The impact of women taking control of the full cycle – gaining knowledge of where …

Department Of Economics Newsletter, V18, Spring 2013, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Economics.

Department of Economics Newsletter

Inside This Issue:
--Scholarship News
--Alumni News
--Alumni Support
--Alumni Notes
--Alumni-in-Residence: Reflections from Jeff Scudder, ‘03
--Alumni Commentaries
--UNI Economics Department: Connections
--Connect With Us!
--Economics Club
--Russia 2012
--Student Writing
--Undergraduate Research Program
--Lawrence M. Jepson International Economics Essay Contest
--Student Activities
--Enhancing the Student Experience
--Commentaries from Faculty
--Balanced Budgets
--Climate Change
--Student Paper: The Effect of Climate Change on the Insurance Industry
--Faculty Notes
--From Our Emeritus Faculty
--Hawaiian Thursday

Designing Affordable Housing For Adaptability: Principles, Practices, & Application, Micaela R. Danko

Pitzer Senior Theses

While environmental and economic sustainability have been driving factors in the movement towards a more resilient built environment, social sustainability is a factor that has received significantly less attention over the years. Federal support for low-income housing has fallen drastically, and the deficit of available, adequate, affordable homes continues to grow. In this thesis, I explore one way that architects can design affordable housing that is intrinsically sustainable. In the past, subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide a short-term solution—as if poverty and lack of affordable housing is a short-term problem. However, I argue that adaptable …

A Proposal For Developing An Arts And Cultural District In East Providence, Rhode Island, Lisa Bruce, Nicole Bush, Gregory Ehlinger, Kenya Fullen, Jonathan Lax, Susan Leonardi, Ana Santana, Neuci Silva, Eric Jacobs

Community Development

In an effort to prevent social polarization within the East Providence community amongst various social groups, we are recommending that the project target multiple census tracts in East Providence and the east side area of Providence. These census tracts are comprised of high-income and low-income families and individuals of all ages. Specifically, there are seniors who live within the neighborhood who might take advantage of expanded opportunities if they felt the area was safe and accessible.

Regional Broadband Plan Priorities Presented To The Nebraska Public Service Commissioners, Charlotte Narjes, Roger Terry, Connie Hancock, Rebecca J. Vogt, Jan Jackson Cejka

Cornhusker Economics

Nebraska Broadband Initiative regional plan priorities were presented to the Nebraska Public Service Commissioners in July. These priorities were created by extension led planning teams located across the state. The Departments of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication (ALEC), along with Extension are collaboratively working on the broadband initiative.

Agrarian Reform And Rural Reconstruction In The Philippines = 菲律宾土地改革与农村重建, Isagani R. Serrano

South South Forum 南南論壇

Agrarian reform is at the heart of rural reconstruction and both are essential to achieving sustainable development. It includes not only land redistribution but also empowerment of peasants as key actors in building the rural economy. Land is not only an asset to be owned and accessed but also as a natural resource with multiple uses for both economic development and protection of ecosystems. Land ownership has hitherto been a centerpiece question in Philippine development, indeed, in nation building. Land monopoly on one side and landlessness on the other have defined to a large extent the history and political economy …

The Utah Model: Lessons For Regional Planning, Brenda C. Scheer

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Utah has become an unlikely leader in regional planning through a voluntary partnership of key leaders, agencies, local government, and the general public. Given that regional planning efforts around the nation have generally evoked strong reactions from residents concerned about losing local control, the success of Envision Utah—the organization that emerged as a key driver of regional planning in Utah—in building a consensus around regional growth management holds lessons for other regions.

Envision Utah adopted several strategies that have distinguished Utah’s regional planning efforts from other regions and given rise to what can be called the “Utah model” of collaborative …

Sustainable Water Management On Brownfields Sites, Ryan Fenwick, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

This practice guide was developed by the Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN) through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Through a cooperative agreement with HUD, EFCN is providing capacity building and technical assistance to recipients of grants from the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an interagency collaboration that aims to help towns, cities, and regions develop in more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable ways.

Green Infrastructure Resource Directory, New England Environmental Finance Center

Sustainable Communities Capacity Building

Green infrastructure is an approach for managing stormwater that uses vegetation and soils to capture and treat rainwater where it falls. Unlike single-purpose gray infrastructure, green infrastructure realizes multiple benefits at once, including flood mitigation, improved water and air quality, community beautification, provision of recreational opportunities, and energy and cost savings. This resource directory is intended to help communities design, implement, fund, and monitor green infrastructure practices and programs. It was compiled by the Environmental Finance Center Network through the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program funded by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. …

Halos, Alibis And Community Development: A Cross National Comparison Of How Governments Spend Revenue From Gambling, Lynn Gidluck

Occasional Papers

This paper provides a cross-national comparison of how governments around the world distribute revenues from state-directed gambling and how these choices have been justified by proponents and vilified by critics. Case studies where governments have popularized gambling expansion by “earmarking” revenues for particular good causes and where the state has collaborated with the voluntary sector to deliver programs from this revenue stream are examined. Lessons learned from challenges of various approaches are considered.

Razing Lafitte: Defending Public Housing From A Hostile State, Leigh Graham

Publications and Research

The contentious politics of the demolition of Lafitte public housing in post- Katrina New Orleans and its replacement with mixed-income properties is a telling case of the strategic conflicts housing advocates face in public housing revitalization. It reveals how the qualified outcomes of HOPE VI interact with local institutional and historical circumstances to confound the equity and social justice goals of housing and community development advocates. It shows the limits to public housing revitalization as an urban recovery strategy when hostile government leadership characterizes a region, and the state is recast as an adversary rather than revitalization partner. This case …

Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Tom Dunne

Articles

Tom Dunne explores the long term drivers of dysfunction in Ireland's housing markets and what a more sustainable housing system would look like.

Driving The Economy Home: What Matters Most To Northeast Ohio's Economy (Dashboard Of Economic Indicators 2011), Emily Garr, Ziona Austrian, Merissa Piazza

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report describes trends which occur between 2007 and 2010, the most recent year for which data are available. The essay distinguishes between those that take place in the “recession period” (from the peak of the economic cycle in 2007 to the start of economic recovery in 2009) and the “recovery period” (from 2009 to 2010).

Beyond ‘‘Green Buildings:’’ Exploring The Effects Of Jevons’ Paradox On The Sustainability Of Archival Practices, Mark D. Wolfe

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

The sustainability of archival institutions will be greatly affected by attempts to mitigate their carbon footprint to meet the challenges of global climate change. This paper explores how recordkeeping practices may enhance or undermine the sustainability of archives. To enhance sustainability, it is a common practice to increase the efficiency of recordkeeping practices. However, increases to efficiency may lead to a phenomenon known as Jevons’ Paradox. Jevons’ Paradox occurs when improvements in efficiency to a system or process result in an increase in use (instead of a decrease) of a resource. The failure of the paperless office demonstrates Jevons’ Paradox, …

Social Benefits Of Niche Agricultural Products: The Case Of Pasture-Based Beef In Appalachia Part 1: The Conceptual Framework, Inocencio Rodriguez, Gerard D'Souza, Alan R. Collins, Tim Phipps

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Niche agricultural products are growing in economic importance. This growth is driven mainly by the increased demand for more healthy, nutritious, fresh and locally grown food products. There is obviously a potential increase in private benefits to producers/landowners as a result of increased production of the underlying crops to satisfy this demand. What is less obvious is the potential to also generate increased social benefits, particularly as they relate to energy conservation, alternative energy or biogas development and carbon sequestration. In other words, calories and kilo-calories are becoming more linked. The objective of this analysis is to develop a conceptual …

The Atlanta Empowerment Zone: Description, Impact, And Lessons For Evaluation, Rachana Bhatt, Andrew R. Hanson

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Knowns, Unknowns, And Impacts, Randall Jackson

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the SRSA, Jackson sums up what we regional scientists do and do not know at this stage in the field’s development.

A Mixed-Methods Study Of Resident Readiness, Engagement, And Relocation During Mixed-Income Redevelopment, Laurie A. Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 1990, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has supported mixed-income redevelopment (MIR) strategies to address the problems of concentrated urban poverty neighborhoods with traditional public housing structures. This study focused on two neighborhoods in Denver, Colorado, with more than 38% of the residents living in poverty, which are facing transit-oriented MIR in the coming years. Residents in both neighborhoods have engaged in formal planning processes and community organizing as a way to be prepared for the change.

The study posed three research questions: (1) what predicts a community's readiness for MIR, (2) what predicts resident involvement as …

Diamonds In The Rubble: The Women Of Haiti—Institutions, Gender Equity, And Human Development In Haiti, Tonia Warnecke, Andrew Padgett

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Publications

Although Haiti's 2010 earthquake brought to light the inconceivable poverty existing in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti's struggle for economic development long pre-dated that earthquake. One problem in Haiti is the high level of gender inequity, and we argue that human development theory is the best mode for change. We provide a brief background of Haiti's economic development over the last several decades, along with the status of women's rights and gender-differentiated socioeconomic outcomes. We analyze the ways that policy neglect of gender equity in Haiti has contributed to failed economic development in the past. Finally, we identify ways that other …

Three Sisters Exchange: Building Alliances And Promoting Justice From The United States To Ecuador, Ariel Climer

Capstone Collection

This paper presents a proposal for a social justice and action-based study abroad program with foundations in the short-term reality tours of the education and human rights-based NGO, Global Exchange, a far-reaching non-profit with friendships built on solidarity against the spread of elite globalization. The program is called the Three Sisters Exchange to honor the sustainable design of indigenous crop planting prevalent around the world. The design comes at a time when international educators offer few programs with foci in social justice. The international education field needs more sustainable programs that take into account global systems. A propagation of such …

Knowns, Unknowns, And Impacts, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Jouke van Dijk opened the most recent issue of Papers in Regional Science with “Long lasting knowledge in Regional Science,” an editorial highlighting the role that the Association”s journal has played in documenting much of the key regional science research since its inception. Publications obviously provide a long lasting chronicle of research in regional science, but I had rather hoped to find in his editorial an actual identification and enumeration of examples of specific long lasting knowledge gleaned from the regional science record. My hopes stemmed from having spent the past year contemplating appropriate content for this Presidential Address on …

Fayette County, Wv Case Study: A Look At The Movement Towards Energy And Water Efficiency, Davina Bird, Hodjat Ghadimi, Randall Jackson

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

The focal area for this study is Fayette County, West Virginia. Using a qualitative semi-structured interview process, information was gathered so as to present a clear overview of what both the private and public sector are doing with regard to energy and/or water efficiency within the county. Given the pervasive nature of the issue of efficiency, interviewees were encouraged to describe their agency or organizational efforts as it relates to what they thought “energy and/or water efficiency” entailed. On the basis of the twenty-one interviews conducted, the progress being undertaken by different entities was noted and divided under five themes …