Digital Commons Network^™

Research On A Future Senior Housing Model In Wuhan, China, Fangyuan Shi

Theses

Recently in China, seniors’ health and living conditions after retirement have become the focus of increasing political and social concerns. Due to fertility policies in China since the 1980s, improvements in living conditions have led to longer average lifespan, increasing demand in the country’s senior housing market. This research explores the future development of senior housing for this and the next generation, the evolution of needs after retirement, and possible future solutions for providing an up-to-date senior housing community in Wuhan, China. Through documentary analysis of the current conditions as well as the needs and social concerns of seniors, case …

Post-Gated Era: Towards Integrated Urban Communities In China, Xiaojing Lin

Theses

Gated communities, which typically refer to residential compounds that have strict boundaries with entrances guarded by securities and other technology appliances for surveillance, are the most common developments in Chinese cities over the past few decades. These enclosures of isolated city blocks have caused heated discussion since The CPC (Central Committee and State Council) published a guildline in 2016 to prohibit the construction of Gated communities in Chinese cities. For unique historical and social-cultural reasons, “Gated” has been deeply embedded in Chinese traditional dwelling ideology for a long time, and it is still widely accepted by the vast majority as …

Re-Imagining Downtown Rochester Creation Of An Equitable Urban Master Plan, Douglas Templeton

Theses

Downtown Rochester, New York has seen a renewed interest in the past decade. However, most of that interest and reinvestment has occurred within the eastern half of the downtown area. The western half, which is roughly bordered by the Genesee River to the east and Interstate 490 and the Inner Loop to the west, has only been lightly touched by developers. Most new building projects tend to center around creating residential apartments, many of which have price points that may exclude many populations in Rochester.

Additionally, street networks and connections tend to reinforce usage of private automobiles and dissuade the …

What Supports Are Needed To Encourage And Assist Community Festivals And Events To Succeed And Grow? An Empirical Study., Helen Mcdwyer

Theses

Abstract: Communities are motivated to host festivals and events for a myriad of reasons. They generate important economic and social benefits for an area with increased visitor numbers, increased local spending and greater community cohesion. Festival and event tourism is an important segment of the overall tourism product in Ireland, particularly in an area such as Kerry where there is a heavy reliance on tourism. Many festivals and events in Kerry are organised by community and voluntary groups and yet these groups are increasingly pressurised to increase the professionality of their offering to compete for regional funding and sponsorship. Changes …

Adaptive Water Governance And Community Resilience: Assessing The Impact Of The Cache River Wetlands Joint Venture Partnership On Communities In The Cache River Watershed Of Southern Illinois, Rachel Emeline Boucher

Theses

Resilience is a concept that is becoming heavily researched in the sustainability and resource management literature. For rural resource-dependent communities, community resilience is the ability to adapt to various drivers of change while maintaining or enhancing community well-being. In recent decades, the field of water resource governance has been transitioning from a reliance on command-and-control institutional structures toward adaptive multi-level institutions, such as adaptive co-management and adaptive governance. These transitions offer potential opportunities for enhancing the resilience and sustainability of resource-dependent communities. However, the relationship between these emerging governance approaches and community resilience is not fully understood. The Cache River …

Living In Place: A Study Of Vitality Through Sense Of Place, Susan M. Wylie

Theses

The built environment can respond to human needs and influence behaviors. An approach to design that grows from essential human conditions arguably is a preferable means of structuring the built world in a responsible and sustainable manner. Although new and innovative building technologies can achieve great strides in sustainability, underlying and fundamental human needs and behaviors may be an equally important source of inspiration and creativity in the built environment.

This thesis addresses social and psychological needs of the aging population in three communities in the vicinity of Rochester, New York. Through understandings of sense of place, the inquiry is …

Rethinking Dalian New International Airport: The Exploration Of A Net-Zero Airport Powered By Tidal Power Energy On An Artificial Island., Xiaofan Jiang

Theses

Fossil fuel is still the number one energy resource in China, and among the fossil fuel, coal is the primary resource to generate electricity and heat during heating days. Fossil fuel will result in global warming, sea level rising, but we may not perceive these because of the relatively subtle changes. Nevertheless, China got the punishment from the natural in recent years, most of the mainland China is experiencing the terrible smog, which gets worse in the winter. The cause of the smog is same to London, a huge amount of coal has been consumed in last few decades. To …

Regional Sustainable Standard Exploration: The Case Of Chinese Rural Areas, Jinzuo Zhang

Theses

Evaluation criterion of sustainability is an effective method of protecting stable Eco-system, enhancing life quality and reducing the waste of resource.

Recently, with the emergence of resource shortage and environmental degradation, people started to shift their attention to the development of sustainability, which is to find the balance among social, environmental and economic factors. Especially in the end of the 20th century, the concepts of sustainability had been approved by the countries around the world [8]. Some developed countries took the lead in starting develop sustainable practices and set evaluation standard based on the real needs of project construction.

However, …

Re-Thinking The Urban Form Of Social Housing In Brazil: A Search For Urban Sustainability, Lis Moreira Cavalcante

Theses

During the last decade, Brazil has witnessed the construction of an unprecedented number of social housing developments, due to an ambitious federal program named “My House My Life” (Minha Casa Minha Vida - MCMV). In seven years, it has contracted 4.2 million of housing units, and 2.6 million of them were already delivered to beneficiaries. The program is currently in its third phase, and it covers three different ranges of income with two main goals: to boost the construction sector and reduce the housing deficit of the country by encouraging homeownership. However, the resultant large scale developments are providing residents …

Towards A Localized Form-Based Code For Abu Dhabi Urban Neighborhoods, Arwa Khalid Sabri

Theses

Form-Based Code (FBC) is a sustainable planning tool that helps realize sustainable urban form and sustainable communities from different perspectives, including mixing of land uses, diversifying housing types, achieving walkability and cycling as well as permitting community involvement in decision making and design processes. It is therefore considered as a comprehensive tool that regulates different planning scales from master plan to individual buildings. Locally, Abu Dhabi Emirate lacks a FBC that could help achieve its sustainability-orientated 2030 vision and thus promote its envisaged sustainable urban identity. This research aims at studying to what extent the present form-related standards and guidelines …

Carbon Dioxide Capture By Steel-Making Residues In A Fluidized Bed Reacto, Suhaib Mohammad Hameedi

Theses

Global warming is one of the most challenging problems facing societies these days, and it is known to be caused by the increasing emissions of Green House Gases (GHG's), mainly CO₂, from various human activities. To solve such a problem, or at least minimize its effects, several actions have been considered. One of these actions is carbon capture, which has many different options and techniques. This research focuses on the capture of CO₂ through reactions with steel-making residues, an alkaline solid by-product of the steel-making process. The aim is to sequester CO₂ and form carbonates, which …

Retrofitting Urban Flood Resilience: An Investigation And Evaluation Of Current Strategies, J. D. Harper

Theses

There are two trends that are creating a worldwide crisis. Firstly, cities are growing denser every day, and many of the major cities developed along the coasts or with adjacencies to water, stemming from a thriving trade industry and industrialization. On a separate track, the effects of global climate change are projected to increase sea level along with the frequency and intensity of flooding disasters. Therefore, these projections are placing cities at a highly vulnerable crux with few foreseeable solutions in sight.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) were redrawn, and buildings that previously …

Water Hyacinth - The Green Potential, Ratchanon Keawmanee

Theses

Aggressive invasion of floating water hyacinth has always been a big problem in Tropical countries, including Thailand. The ever growing amount of water hyacinth has polluted and block the flow of water in many rivers. A current solution for this problem is removal of water hyacinth from the rivers which basically harvest the plants from the rivers and dispose them someplace else. As stated, they are just plain and temporarily solutions, so such a problem still persists as time passes. My idea is to make use of what is so called "natural waste" and turn them into marketable goods which …

Architecture As Communication: A Study Of The Role Of Form, Function And Context In Evoking Meaning, Priyanka Sondhi

Theses

The aim of this thesis is to understand and design an architecture that includes as part of its program, the function of communication of a certain encoded idea(s) through the public's everyday interaction with it. This thesis is divided into two parts - exploration and design project. The exploration part studies the methods and history of communicating meaning through architecture. Based on this study a design project was defined which included picking an appropriate site, identifying the meaning to be communicated for the site context, studying the context for such communication and designing a building program and form.

Rochester, being …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Role Of Geography In Sustainability Education, Makayla Jane Bonney

Theses

Many within and outside of the discipline of geography see it as a highly appropriate home for sustainability studies. Despite a history of human-environment education within geography and support from professional research or education organizations, some studies show that geography has not developed a lead role in sustainability education. This study examines the role of geography in offering "Sustainability Focused" courses as reported by AASHE STARS institutions with geography programs. The results show that although geography departments are highly utilized when available at an institution -offering the highest proportion of sustainability courses, averaging 14% of "Sustainability Focused" curriculum- there is …

Approach To Flood Mitigation - A Post Sandy Study In New Jersey Meadowlands Area, Banshari Datta

Theses

In the last decade the continuous change in the climate has resulted in an increased frequency of natural catastrophic events and the magnitude of their impact. The immense damage caused by such events brought to light the vulnerabilities of the impacted communities. Coastal communities are alarmingly vulnerable due to flood and storm surge impacts such as those caused by super storm Sandy in 2012. In order to mitigate this risk, the communities need to look beyond the short term recovery measures, and build a sustainable community by implementing long term mitigation measures. The objective of this thesis is to investigate …

Innovations In State-Level Solar Energy Policy : Motivating Community Investment In Resiliency, Sarah Katheryn Gentile

Theses

Community-level resilience in the face of climate change is critical for New Jersey. Through a review of current literature, evidence is provided that a majority of work being done with respect to climate-change planning is taking place at the local level. On the basis of case-study analyses, three community renewable energy projects are examined as well as two policy tools that are helping to facilitate development of local capacity to generate renewable energy. The best elements of these initiatives are extracted and form the basis of a policy discussion intended to encourage local level generation of renewable energy, thereby increasing …

Virtues And Optimal Moral Education In The Values Education In Australian Schools Project, Martin Fitzgerald

Theses

This thesis argues that a sustained treatment of virtue is missing from the project undertaken to introduce values education into Australian schools over the period 1999 – 2010. It maintains that the inclusion of a focus on virtue, both in relation to the cognitive content and the behavioural impact of education in the virtues is an indispensable part of optimal moral education. One of the aims of the Australian values education project was that it should serve as a form of moral or character education. The absence of a serious treatment of virtue has resulted in an impoverished understanding of …

What Factors Influence Wind Perceptions, Tatiana Stein

Theses

Over the last decade, wind power has emerged as a possible source of energy and has attracted the attention of homeowners and policy makers worldwide. Many technological hurdles have been overcome in the last few years that make this technology feasible and economical. The United States has added more wind power than any other type of electric generation in 2012. Depending on the location, wind resources have shown to have the potential to offer 20% of the nation's electricity; a single, large wind turbine has the capacity to produce enough electricity to power 350 homes. Throughout the development of wind …

Compliance & Communication With Kosovar Taxpayers : [Presentation Given On May 22, 2012], Adriana Nixha

Theses

Not provided.

A Sense Of Place: Branding The Richardson Olmsted Complex Through Architectural Motif, Lisa Mauro

Theses

(keywords: Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Thomas Kirkbride, Romanesque architecture, Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, 19th century English design reformers, Richardsonian Romanesque, motif, psychology of pattern, pattern design, architectural ornament, place-branding, Buffalo, NY) Motif design and repeat patterns have been used to decorate, communicate and imbue surface with meaning across cultures and eras. It is also evident that pattern satisfies a fundamental psychological need in humans for order and beauty. Motifs are a well-suited graphic design basis from which to create an effective branding strategy with potential to communicate with a subliminal power and in a way that …

Waste Management Action Plan For The Municipality Of Prishtina : [Presentation Given August 23, 2010], Ibrahim Krasniqi

Theses

Not provided.

Sustainability Of Ngos In Kosova: Challenges Of The Third Sector And The Ways Forward : [Presentation Given May 18, 2010], Dardane Nuka

Theses

This capstone project addresses the problem of sustainability of NGOs in Kosova as the vast majority of NGOs face serious difficulties in sustaining their work. Except for a small number of Kosova NGOs, that managed to achieve a desirable level of institutional and financial sustainability, the rest tend to be failing. According to the numbers provided by the NGO Registration and Liaison Office of the Government of Kosova, out of the around 5000 registered NGOs, about 10% are estimated to be still active or partially active.1 The research methodology of this capstone project was quantitative and qualitative based on surveys …

We Support Our Troops, Javier Maldonado-O'Farrill

Theses

We Support Our Troops is a series of three mural sized prints in panoramic format. The images can be described as Rochester urban landscapes in which the commercial images of the billboards were replaced with images of Latin American resistance movements. The title is an appropriation of the United States pro-war slogan twisted into the support context of these movements. The prints are made in the contemporary and non-toxic printmaking technique 4 Color Inversion Intaglio-Type, developed by Master Printmaker Keith Howard. The Intaglio-Type techniques are the ones in which the photopolymer film ImagOn® is used.

A technical and historical approach …

Portable Housing For Mexican Migrant Workers, Janet Corzo

Theses

A capable migrant labor force is critical in sustaining the United States' agriculture industry. Yet, migrant farm workers are among the most economically disadvantaged people in the United States (NCFH). The housing available to migrant workers in the United States is typically substandard and subject to other factors, such as local availability, social stigmas and legal status. While housing is usually provided by a grower (on-the-farm) or acquired by the migrant worker himself (off-the-farm), there seem to exist no examples of portable housing that a worker can transport from job to job. This study seeks to explore the viability of …

Element Analysis Of The Green Building Process, Richard Zigenfus

Theses

This thesis studied the definition of a green building and the elements associated with the construction of single family home versus an office building. There are many rating systems available across the Country both private and public. The most well known is the LEED rating system developed by the United States Green Building Council. LEED has several rating programs now available. The eight elements of LEED for Homes are used as the basis of the research to create commonality throughout the documentation. Thirty single-family homes and office projects were examined and detailed in order to determine the aspects within each …

Tourism And The Environment In Small Island Developing States: Development Of A New Framework For Assessing Sustainability, Katie Kimmel

Theses

Title: Tourism and the Environment in Small Island Developing States: Development of a New Framework for Assessing Sustainability Author: Katie L.K. Kimmel Thesis Summary: Purpose. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an analytical framework that can be used to better understand the impacts of tourism on small island developing states (SIDS). In particular, the framework will address tourism in light of sustainability goals(environmental, economic, social, and political). Because tourism is both a major economic driver for many SIDS, as well as a primary cause of environmental degradation within these states, a framework is needed that allows for systemic, …

Incorporating Triple Bottom Line Strategies Into Corporations, Bill C. Lin

Theses

In this new era of globalization, the competition among multi-national corporations in various industries is tighter than ever. Due to this intense struggle for corporations to grow their bottom line, the corporations have recognized that a new approach to business is necessary. Corporations have realized that they can no longer just think about their economical profitability to survive in this environment, but they also have to be good stewards to the people they employ and be conscious of the impact the corporation's daily operations have on the environment. Because of this new found recognition, corporations have started using phrases such …

Altered, Pamela Bentzien

Theses

This thesis explores, through photography, the question: What will the landscape of next generations look like? What are we leaving behind for future generations? The author created images which impart a ponderous mood which reflects on how individual lifestyles affect our natural environment. Are we leaving behind any natural resources for our future generations?

A Sustainable Kitchen, Hyeon-Gyeong Yun

Theses

None provided.