Digital Commons Network^™

Peak Electric Load Relief In Northern Manhattan: An Exploratory Data Analysis, Hildegaard D. Link, José Pillich, Yehuda L. Klein

Publications and Research

The aphorism “Think globally, act locally,” attributed to René Dubos, reflects the vision that the solution to global environmental problems must begin with efforts within our communities. PlaNYC 2030, the New York City sustainability plan, is the starting point for this study. Results include (a) a case study based on the City College of New York (CCNY) energy audit, in which we model the impacts of green roofs on campus energy demand and (b) a case study of energy use at the neighborhood scale. We find that reducing the urban heat island effect can reduce building cooling requirements, peak electricity …

City Of Concord Complete Streets Study, William W. Riggs, Charlie Coles, Megyn Rugh, Camille Jackson

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this report is to summarize the data collected as a part of the Concord Complete Streets Study and to provide the City with preliminary support in the progress to construct a safer, more bike and pedestrian friendly Concord. The developments and visions found in this document provide a platform for continued discussion on creating a more pedestrian and bicycle friendly environment that encourages other forms of transportation and provides alternatives to dependency on automobiles.

Louisiana's Water Innovation Cluster: Is It Ready For Global Competition?, Stephen C. Picou

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of Louisiana's coastal restoration science and technology assets is paralleled by the growth of business resources to fulfill myriad project needs. Many institutions and organizations in Louisiana seek to further develop the state's research, education, engineering and related restoration assets into a globally competitive set of industries with exportable expertise and products that help the state capitalize on its water challenges. Globally, similar efforts are identified (and often branded) as water technology innovation clusters (or more simply water clusters). This paper explores the phenomenon of the development of water clusters by public-private partnerships and initiatives, nationally and …

Carnuel & West Tijeras Trail Plan Proposal, James Aranda, Tim Imeokparia, Moises Gonzales

Resource Center for Raza Planning (RCRP)

Bernalillo County Parks and Recreation collaborated with the University of New Mexico, Resource Center for RAZA Planning (RCRP), and the School of Architecture and Planning. The County owns and manages several open space properties in and around Tijeras Canyon. In previous history, the County has acquired land in a reactionary way to protect natural resources or preserve recreational areas. They have also worked with UNM and other entities to purchase properties for co-management, like the UNM golf course. The County is interested in being more proactive and create a true link from the City of Albuquerque to the East Mountains …

City Of Merced Bellevue Community Plan, Patrick Gary Gilster

Master's Theses

The Bellevue Community Plan (BCP) was developed to be consistent with the Merced Vision 2030 General Plan, and is highly reflective of its policies, illustrative plans and guiding features, such as providing significant employment generating uses that would benefit from being in close proximity to the UC Merced campus. The BCP establishes a high-level planning framework that strikes a balance between certainty and flexibility by anchoring key land uses while allowing their size to adapt to changing market conditions in response to economic growth and the expansion of UC Merced. While the BCP provides a broad range of uses and …

The Reclamation Of Public Parks: An Analysis Of Environmental Justice In Los Angeles, Allison Rigby

Scripps Senior Theses

People who live in cities are far more likely to suffer the physical and psychological effects of urban environments--high noise levels, automobile emissions, toxic industrial waste, crowded living conditions, and a general scarcity of open space. Combating these issues, public parks do more than provide recreational space. They are fundamental to any efforts focusing on urban revitalization, social justice, and sustainability. In downtown Los Angeles, public parks are rare, especially in low-income communities. Several new public parks have reclaimed abandoned land, unwelcoming spaces, and the City’s brownfields. After years of intense private use and neglect, spent land has been reinvigorated …

Volunteered Geographical Information: An Alternative Solution For Overcoming The Chasm Between Stormwater Management And Community Participation, Yanfu Zhou

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

It is a dramatic challenge to promote public engagement in stormwater management and green infrastructure initiatives. When traditional outreach approaches made important influence on public engagement, their limitations are also obvious. With the development of Web 2.0 technology, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has been emerging as one of the most important user-generated geographic contents. The crowdsourcing data that generated by volunteers through geo-web, smartphones, and other geo-devices provides invaluable mass data for decision-making. VGI can provide a better understanding of planning issues and other challenges. The research aims to develop a mobile information platform to allow citizens to report the …

Gis Spatial Analysis Of Segregation Clustering Evolution In Lincoln, Nebraska, Sarah Aftika

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Rising immigration growth in the Midwest creates Multi-racial communities and segregation such as social class segregation, economic segregation, education segregation, and also housing segregation. In urban America, there are three major sets of explanatory causal factors that have been hypothesized to explain ethnic residential segregation. They are: housing discrimination, socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnic group preferences (French 2008, 1).

Lincoln, as a metro city in Nebraska, shows signs of segregation phenomena as well as other metro cities in Midwest. The analysis tool used for this study is Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial analysis. This tool enables us to examine the …

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 …

Quantifying The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of Hazards: Incorporating Disaster Mitigation Strategies In Climate Action Plans, Michael Germeraad

Master's Theses

Reconstruction after natural disasters can represent large peaks in a community’s greenhouse gas emission inventory. Components of the built environment destroyed by natural hazards have their useful life shortened, requiring replacement before functionally necessary. Though the hazard itself does not release greenhouse gasses, the demolition and rebuilding process does, and these are the emissions we can quantify to better understand the climate impacts of disasters.

The proposed methodology draws data from existing emission and hazard resource literature and combines the information in a community scale life cycle assessment. Case studies of past disasters are used to refine the methodology and …

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Suburban Sustainability

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

Westport Affordable Housing Design, Kyle Baron, Joe Cardella, Eric Figueredo, April Gaddis, Heather Gillock, Jack Hamm, Ben Horst, Colby Karambelas, Jacob Levine, Evan Mozzer, Tim Pranaitis, Chris Rossi, Jacob Wheeler, Ulker Copur, Arnold Robinson

Architecture and Urban Design

Currently, there are not any fire stations within an appropriate range for development on the Drift Road site. This will make it essential for a proposed development to contain a pond and pump onsite for immediate fire control until further assistance arrives. Should municipal water not be available for residents on this site, private well systems will need to be built on each property, a minimum of 100 feet away from any septic system.

Evaluating The Unintended Impacts Of Socio-Economic And Demographic Shifts In Transit Served Neighborhoods On Mode Choice And Equity, Steven Apell

Planning Dissertations - Archive

The use of transit-oriented development (TOD) as a policy intervention is a popular strategy for metropolitan areas seeking to advance sustainable urban growth. At the same time, urban areas in America are experiencing rising energy prices and new geographies of employment, poverty, and wealth. Furthermore, the Millennial generation, and some Baby boomers are changing their residential preference from the suburbs to the central city. These modifications in the urban economy and residential preferences are likely to intensify competition for housing in the central city. Increased demand for housing generates high rents, which often results in the displacement of low-income, transit-dependent …

Impact Of Urban Planning Policies On Carbon-Dioxide Emissions: An Indian Perspective, Kiranmayi Raparthi

Planning Dissertations - Archive

Climate change is a multidimensional observable fact and is regarded as one of the greatest challenge human society is facing in the 21st century. Debates on climate change advocate that, urban areas not only contribute to climate change by emitting huge amounts of carbon-dioxide (CO2) gas into the atmosphere, but also play a vital role in addressing climate change. International negotiations highlight the need to respond to climate change by mainstreaming climate change mitigation in urban planning however these have remained research rhetoric. One reason for this gap between research and planning practice may be due to the lack of …

The State Of Community Design: An Analysis Of Community Design Center Services, Donovan Finn, Jason Brody

School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Community design is a specific type practice rooted in participatory and emancipatory notions of planning and design to overcome environmental, social and economic injustice at low or no cost to the client. Since its beginnings in the early 1960’s, many of community design’s early and then-radical ideas have become more mainstream. In order to assess the state of modern community design, in comparison to its activist roots, this project reviews the websites of 81 community design centers in the United States to ascertain the approaches that centers use in order to successfully achieve operational goals. The research suggests that the …

Broadway Corridor: Tod Guidline, Nuri Cho

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

The City Of San Luis Obispo Housing Element Review, Januar Saptono

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Midway Village Mixed Use Development, San Diego, Julia Hill, Andrew Levins

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Implementing Bicycle Improvements In Redwood City, Ca, David E. Leong

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Complete Streets Unveiled: City Of Guadalupe Complete Streets Plan, Sara J. Muse

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

The Real Estate Economics Of Walkability Components: The Influence Of Built Environment On Housing Value In Lincoln, Nebraska, Dohee Kim

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This study analyzes the association between walkability and housing value in neighborhoods of Lincoln, Nebraska in order to observe the impact of walkability as one of prominent smart growth principles in creating economic value. The study estimates walkability through walkability components in each neighborhood of Lincoln based on the Lawrence Frank walkability index model. For the housing value assessment, a hedonic regression model was created to estimate median housing value in Lincoln based on the census block group dataset. The result of the model shows that walkability components have weaker influence on estimated housing value compared to other physical, demographic, …

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.

Strategic Plan For Wine Tourism 2013, Templeton, California, Krista Galatolo, Nicole De La Rosa

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

How Land Use Regulations Inform Sustainable Development: A Look At Commercial Development In Bakersfield, California, Darcy Marie Reed

Master's Theses

This research analyzes the relationship between local land use regulations and commercial development in the City of Bakersfield, California, specifically focusing on how the regulations are used to inform commercial development to be sustainable or not. This research contributes to similar research efforts through its contribution of the Sustainable Development Indicator Checklist, the tool used to measure sustainable development within the regulations as well as the built environment. Analysis of six case study locations falling under the C-B (Central Business), C-C (Commercial Center), and PCD (Planned Commercial Development) zone designations indicated the local land use regulations were not informing development …

Food System Planning Benefits & Recommendations For The City Of San Luis Obispo, Ca, Tessa Salzman

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.

Baby Boomer Living: Designing A Modern Continuing Care Retirement Community, Ryan Michael Wassum

Master's Theses

With the largest U.S. generation in the midst of retirement, the Baby Boomer cohort is vastly changing the senior housing landscape. As the housing market gradually improves and the development of senior housing chases the increasing demand, Baby Boomers are a highly selective cohort with more buying and spending power than their predecessors, are healthier and more active, and are demanding an unconventional modification of alternative senior housing. The “traditional” senior community is outdated and no longer seen as a viable choice for retirement, and new and innovated models have surpassed the old-fashioned establishments.

Among the innovative senior community models, …

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 …

Trinity Restoration Inc. Theater Design, Arnold Robinson

Architecture and Urban Design

Problems: (1) Sound travels very quick around the curve of the wall creating a disproportional amount of sound on the opposite ends of the arc. (2) Sounds that start in front of the curve gets reflected back to a focal point. The location of that focal point moves depending on where the sound is located. As a result, loud refocused echoes are created at the focal point. When heard, the sounds seem to come from a mysterious place. The effects of the curved walls are extremely strong and need to be addressed. One common mistake is over applying absorptive material …

Main Street Revitalization: Woonsocket, Ri, Arnold Robinson

Architecture and Urban Design

A healthy environment that utilizes local urban ecologies will positively impact the health and well being of the community. It is important to create an environment that will foster understanding and inspire learning about native plants and animals, how to care for them, and how to protect them.