Environmental Design Commons^™

Plastic Pollution, Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 39.2

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Plastic Pollution, Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 39

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Reimagining Future Sustainable, Climate-Resilient Urban Design For Apia, Samoa: Developing Plans For A Developing Nation, Alyssa Kaewwilai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Small island developing states are arguably the most vulnerable, exposed nations on a global scale to the harmful effects of climate change. Particularly in Samoa, an abundance of environmental, economic, and social impacts have severe impacts on both the country as a whole as well as on an individual level. This study analyzes future mitigation strategies of land use and urban design to recreate Samoa’s capital of Apia as a more climate-resilient city to encourage economic growth and to ensure the well-being of all inhabitants. This planning is based upon current challenges of Samoa driven by climate change such as …

Street Life And The Built Environment In An Auto-Oriented Us Region, Keunhyun Park, Reid Ewing, Sadegh Sabouri, Jon Larsen

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Urban planners and designers believe that the built environment at various geographic scales affects pedestrian activity, but have limited empirical evidence at the street scale, to support their claims. We are just beginning to identify and measure the qualities that generate active street life, and this paper builds on the first few studies to do so. This study measures street design qualities and surrounding urban form variables for 881 block faces in Salt Lake County, Utah, and relates them to pedestrian counts. This is the largest such study to date and includes suburbs as well as cities. At the neighborhood …

Climate Futures 1| Climate Futures, Design And The Just Transition, Schedule, Liberal Arts Division, Ncss Graduate Program

Climate Futures Symposia

Schedule of events distributed at the Symposium.

Re-Live Downtown Pine Bluff, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

Once a prosperous cultural urban center in the Mississippi River delta, but now the nation’s second fastest shrinking city, Pine Bluff (population: 42,700) is Arkansas’ Detroit. Indeed, a study of black wealth conducted by famed sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois in 1899 found that Pine Bluff had the fourth highest rate of black wealth in the nation behind Charleston, Richmond, and New York City. The school’s community design center prepared a downtown revitalization plan, Re-Live Downtown Pine Bluff, a housing-first initiative focused on building neighborhoods around downtown “centers of strength”. While the revitalization approach is triaged around a …

Center For Farm And Food System Entrepreneurship, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The average age of the American farmer is 58. Since communities are not reproducing the next generation of farmers, universities are establishing training centers to model new concepts and technologies in farming. The Farmers Training Center is both an immersive program in the rhythms of farm life and a public facility for hosting gatherings that celebrate value-added food products. Part of the University of Arkansas’ farm operations near campus, the center is the public face of agriculture where farmers and the public meet. Student farmers learn by farming, from organic vegetable production in fields and greenhouses, to machine repair, marketing, …

New Beginnings Homeless Transition Village, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

More than three million Americans experience homelessness annually. Emergency shelter capacity is limited while local governments are unable to provide even temporary housing. Informal housing involving interim self-help solutions are now popular adaptive actions for obtaining shelter despite nonconformance with city codes. Unfortunately, most informal solutions have resulted in objectionable tent cities and squatter campgrounds where the local response has simply been to move the problem around. Our homeless transition village plan prototypes a shelter-first solution using a kit-of-parts that can be replicated in other communities. Village design reconciles key gaps between informal building practices and formal sector regulations, creating …

Willow Heights Livability Improvement Plan, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

Willow Heights is a 43-year old public housing complex owned by the Fayetteville Housing Authority (FHA) within the federal public housing portfolio administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The school’s design center was commissioned by a local foundation to study an alternative to the FHA’s plan to sell the downtown Willow Heights complex to a developer of high-income housing, necessitating relocation of low-income residents to another complex outside of downtown. Using equity as a driver of decision making, the studio introduced scenario planning to organize reluctant stakeholders in considering transformations to the five-acre complex.

Predicting Success Of Energy Savings Interventions And Industry Type Using Smart Meter And Retrofit Data From Thousands Of Non-Residential Buildings, Clayton Miller

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper discusses the creation of targeting and segmentation information about non-residential buildings that are equipped with advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) meters, or smart meters. Statistics, model, and pattern-based temporal features are extracted from over 36,000 smart meters. They are then merged with a database of past energy efficiency interventions such as lighting, HVAC, and controls retrof its from 1,600 buildings. The buildings are divided into Good, Average, and Poor performing classes according to consumption from before and after the retrofits. Classification models are developed that improve the ability to predict retrofit success and standard industry class by 18.3% and …

How Useful Is Gsv As An Environmental Observation Tool? An Analysis Of The Evidence So Far., Katherine Nesse, Leah Airt

SPU Works

Researchers in many disciplines have turned to Google Street View to replace pedestrian- or carbased in-person observation of streetscapes. It is most prevalent within the research literature on the relationship between neighborhood environments and public health but has been used as diverse as disaster recovery, ecology and wildlife habitat, and urban design. Evaluations of the tool have found that the results of GSV-based observation are similar to the results from in-person observation although the similarity depends on the type of characteristic being observed. Larger, permanent and discrete features showed more consistency between the two methods and smaller, transient and judgmental …

Integrating Person Directed Care Into The Client Experience, Tammy L. Marshall Ms., Joann P. Reinhardt, Orah Burack, Audrey S. Weiner

Patient Experience Journal

Culture Change leaders in long term care have identified creative ways to implement a model of Person Directed Care to improve the client experience by providing choice, instilling dignity, and fostering deep relationships among its community members. One organization created an environment of care called ”The Small House” and educated its’ workforce using the Green House® Project Legacy Alignment program to redesign the organizational structure, experience and environment. Interviews were conducted with elders, staff, and family members (N=20) about their experiences living, working or visiting a Small House as compared to experiences in their previous dwelling, a traditional nursing home. …

Evaluating Variables Of Patient Experience And The Correlation With Design, Dyutima Jha, Amy Keller Frye, Jennifer Schlimgen

Patient Experience Journal

The objective of this paper was to understand the variables of patient experience by analyzing recent and relevant evidence and to identify design solutions within the hospital environment that positively impact those variables. A systematic review of literature published from 2008-present was conducted to identify variables that contribute to patient experience benefits. Identified variables were documented and categorized into a design, organizational, and outcome variable matrix. Interviews were conducted with professionals from healthcare institutions, architecture firms and organizations committed to improving the patient experience. Data from healthcare facilities, with high patient experience scores, was also examined to derive effective design …

Climate Change In The Hudson River Estuary: Promoting Adaptation And Resilience Through Stakeholder Engagement In Design And Visualization, Gabrielle S.D. Weiss

Bard Center for Environmental Policy

In response to the growing risk to communities from climate change impacts, Professor Cerra at the Cornell University School of Landscape Architecture developed the Climate Adaptive Design (CAD) program. CAD is being implemented as a partnership between the Hudson River Estuary Program (Estuary Program) and Cornell that utilizes participatory design and visualization to engage communities about planning for future climate impacts. The goal of CAD is to build climate resilience, galvanize community participation and education, and build links to external sources of support including local institutions of higher education. This thesis outlines background for the development of the program and …

The Freeman Performing Arts Center, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The Freeman Performing Arts Center marks the threshold between prairie and civic life. This small agricultural community of 1,300 has an outsized Anabaptist music tradition recognized nationally. The 37,000 sf hall-type building unifies a miscellaneous collection of public buildings and landscapes at the southwest corner of the town’s one-mile grid. The center’s massing projects an ascending system of familiar gable roofs, which absorb the fly tower into a composition reflective of pragmatic building forms. The principal face of the building is a translucent curtain wall that illuminates interior massing—a beacon on the prairie. A thru-Porch celebrates transitions between the prairie’s …

Voices Of Cully: A Case Study Of The Living Cully Weatherization And Home Repair Project 2.0, Lucy J.T. Cultrera

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Cully neighborhood is situated in the Northeast quadrant of Portland, Oregon. It is 2.75 square mile plot of land and home to roughly 13,000 people. In addition to being one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Portland, it is the most densely populated, with the smallest amount of parkland per capita. Over the last two decades, home value has increased 203% in Cully, compared to a 90% citywide increase. Amidst these development trends are stories of incredible resilience, resistance and activism from the affected community. My project is a case study of one anti-displacement initiative, which was developed and …

Solar Urban Planning: Addressing Barriers And Conflicts Specific To Renewable Energy Policy And The Current Field And Practice Of Urban Planning Within The Context Of A Changing Climate, Toryl P. Hanna

Capstone Collection

The world is in a period of rapid urbanization while experiencing unprecedented rise in global temperature as a result of climate change. Questions have been raised as to how strategies for urbanization will be able to address the fetish for energy, while halting carbon emissions produced by traditional energy sources for urban inhabitants around the world. First, this paper seeks to look to cities, at the intersection of solar energy and the field of urban planning, looking into the opportunities and challenges that are currently surfacing. Conflicts and barriers in traditional urban land use patterns emerge as a topic of …

Exploring Access To Portable Water And Sanitation Practices In A Post-Conflict Environment: The Case Of Gulu District, Northern Uganda, Peyton Going

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the course of 30 days of fieldwork in October and November of 2016, data was collected through interviews conducted with local government officials, researchers and academics, and village community members of Gulu District.

The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which agencies have improved water and sanitation in the region. The case study of Gulu utilized in-depth interviews with key informants, focus groups, and observations, and sought to determine who the local stakeholders in water and sanitation are, the water sources and sanitation facilities available and their uses, the perception local people have about their …

From Empty Lot To Garden Plot: Urban Agriculture In Chula Vista, Jennifer E. Gutierrez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project is an exploration of how agriculture can be incorporated into the fabric of the city of Chula Vista, which has both uniquely urban and suburban areas. The proposal is to integrate agriculture as a design tool to reconnect to the city’s agricultural past and as a model for cities of the future. First, I discuss Chula Vista’s history and contemporary context, including demographics. I review the existing urban agriculture policies Chula Vista has and compare them to other cities in California. The second part of the project is concerned with how to choose and develop a site for …

Cyclist Path Choices Through Shared Space Intersections In England, Allison Boyce Duncan

Dissertations and Theses

In the last several years, there has been growing worldwide interest in making streets safer for all users--pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. One approach, shared space, is a traffic calming technique as well as urban design concept. This technique strives to fully integrate the roadway into the urban fabric by removing elements such as lane markings, curbs, and traffic signs. By removing these elements and creating a more plaza-like space, these sites become ambiguous and no user group as priority. The technique is relatively new, and the majority of existing research concerns pedestrians only. This mixed methods research focused on six …

Long Wave Radiation Exchange For Urban Scale Modelling Within A Co-Simulation Environment, Clayton Miller, Daren Thomas, Jérôme Kämpf, Arno Schlueter

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper describes the implementation of long wave radiation (LWR) exchange as part of a co-simulation process of an urban scale simulation program, CitySim, and a building scale program, EnergyPlus. This coupling process was achieved through the use of functional mockup units (FMU) to exchange various weather, load, and environmental information between the two simulation engines. LWR is an important factor to exchange between the programs as CitySim has more advanced capabilities for radiation exchange calculations from a set of urban buildings and EnergyPlus has a more advanced building heating and cooling load calculation engine. The LWR exchange between surfaces …

Forensically Discovering Simulation Feedback Knowledge From A Campus Energy Information System, Clayton Miller, Arno Schlueter

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Simulation model calibration has been long identified as a key means of reconciling the consumption and efficiency characteristics of buildings. A key step in this process is the creation of the actual diversity factor profiles for occupancy and various energy end uses such as lighting, plug-loads, and HVAC. Creation of these model inputs is conventionally a tedious process of site surveys, interviews or temporary sensor installation. Sometimes measured energy data can be used to create these schedules, however there are many challenges, especially when the sensor network available is large or unorganized. This paper describes a process applying a series …

Bicycle Tourism Plan For Economic Development: A Template For Rural Agricultural Towns And A Case Study For The City Of Winters, California, Marisa Rene Lee

Master's Theses

Bicycling is a method of tourism transportation that is healthy, non-invasive, environmentally responsible, and economically sustainable. It allows freedom, mobility, and sightseeing potential that is not made possible by other modes of transit. Thousands of bicycle tourists travel from all over the globe annually to explore California on touring bikes via established cycling routes and robust determination. Thousands of additional domestic and international visitors take weekend trips, plan family vacations, travel for business, or tour California from abroad, many of whom are excellent candidates for local and regional bicycle touring at a more gentle intensity level.

The increasing popularity and …

Bim-Extracted Energyplus Model Calibration For Retrofit Analysis Of A Historically Listed Building In Switzerland, Clayton Miller, Daren Thomas, Silvia Domingo Irigoyen, Christian Hersberger, Zoltán Nagy, Dino Rossi, Arno Schlueter

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Building retrofit analysis in Switzerland traditionally relies on expert heuristics and best practices. These processes are not often supplemented by data or model-driven techniques that would enhance the accuracy and ability to quantify the impact of innovative technologies. We present a process of calibrated building energy model (BEM) analysis of a case study using a building information model (BIM) and measured data from a custom wireless sensor network. The case study is a mixed-use office and residential historically listed building in Zürich, Switzerland. A BIM model was first developed in Autodesk Revit and then extracted to an EnergyPlus model through …

City Of Los Angeles Arts District Form-Based Code, Ryan Jupiter Banuelos

Master's Theses

Los Angeles is experiencing a loss of inventory with Industrial land due to adaptive reuse and property conversion. The primary factors behind the conversions are

inconsistent land use regulations and a strong market

demand for residential property. In an effort to streamline land use regulation,

the city will create a new zoning code. In conjunction with the zoning update,

the purpose of this project will be to develop a form-based code for the Los

Angeles Arts District. The new land use regulation will explore methods to

preserve job producing industrial space and accommodate the growing

residential market in the area. …

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 …

Financing Public Solar Projects: California Public Jurisdictions' Experiences In Acquiring And Financing Solar Photovoltaic Installations, Dana M.C. Hoffman

Master's Theses

More efficient technologies, state laws as well as environmental, social, and political pressures have all contributed to placing solar acquisition on the agenda for California’s public entities over the last half decade. But a key question for these frequently cash-strapped jurisdictions is how to utilize public dollars and lands, and how to leverage incentives to obtain solar PVs. As an alternative to outright purchase, a promising financing option made available to jurisdictions in recent years is ownership by a third party, usually the solar company, including various forms of Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) and leasing. Due in part to state …

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 …

New Land: A Look At Very Large Floating Structures, Li Peng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Very large floating structures(VLFS) are large, tethered buoyantstructures on a body of water.Due to land reclamation, heavysea traffic and a narrow strait tothe north which is shared withMalaysia, Singapore has littleterritorial waters to spare. Theseconsiderations will constrainlarge-scale VLFS deployments.

Like Laws And Sausages: The Tale Of A Mere Portion Of The Process To Develop The South Broad Street Corridor Plan, Amy R. Lopez

Master's Theses

The processes to develop community plans share certain standard activities and stages while remaining distinctive and without pre-scripted procedures. This study documents the process that yielded the South Broad Street Corridor Plan June 2012 draft. The objective is to present the decision-making processes and their connections to the final plan document along with the plan document itself.