Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Assessing Impermeable Surface Area Impacts On Modeling: Implications For The Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan In Omaha, Nebraska, Andrew D. Szatko

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

The report looks at assessing the accuracy of estimating impervious surface areas (ISAs) by zoning code, the method utilized by the City of Omaha, Nebraska. A 101 acre subcatchment had all ISAs manually digitized and compared the actual with the estimated value. The subcatchment was then modeled with 10 percent decreases of ISAs to establish the relationship with peak flow rates and total volume in the combined sewer service area. The results show a significant relationship between the two that may provide insights into a new approach to manage CSO events with the integration of green infrastructure.

The Consistency Doctrine As Applied To Comprehensive Plans And Zoning In Nebraska Counties: An Argument For Periodic Plan Updates, Jeffrey Lee Murman

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

A citizen’s participation in the process of formulating goals for a particular locality is essential to the idealistic development of a comprehensive plan. Adopting a comprehensive plan is a manifestation of goals and ideals expressed by those participating in formulating the comprehensive plan. Consistency doctrine requires zoning regulations have a certain level of conformance to an adopted comprehensive plan. An adopted comprehensive plan should be reviewed at a certain level of regularity to ensure that citizens have a voice in the constantly shifting developmental alterations. Nebraska county zoning enabling statutes require zoning regulations be consistent with an adopted comprehensive plan …

Creation Of A Gis Based Model For Determining The Suitability Of Implementing Green Infrastructure: In The Town Of Berlin Maryland, Ronald A. W. Marney

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

This project is entitled “Incorporation of Green Infrastructure Into Comprehensive Storm Water Management and the Effective Utilization of LiDAR: In the Town of Berlin ”. The goal of this research was the creation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) based model for determining the suitability / feasibility of green infrastructure implementation, as defined by this study, within the study area. This model was only applicable for the identified elements or tools under green infrastructure as defined by this study. This enabled clear and concise definitions and more readily identified the criteria and their parameters. The scope of the model’s applicability …

Water Borne Diseases: A Cry Of A Trapped Community, Passmore Mudundulu

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand the problem of attaining safe and clean water that has contributed to high incidence of water borne diseases and to investigate its effects on the residents of Chawama Township, Lusaka, Zambia. A survey was used to collect data from 400 male and female participants to determine their source, treatment and storage of water; sanitary facilities; attitude, experience and knowledge of waterborne diseases. Findings indicated that, the most common source of water was communal city taps and residents did not boil or add chlorine to make it safe for use, making it susceptible …

Sioux Falls Downtown Design Guidelines: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Colin Punt

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

In the late 1980s, Sioux Falls, South Dakota recommitted to its downtown, removed a dead pedestrian mall, and joined the National Main Street program. The city‘s downtown revival efforts have been largely successful in the past twenty-some years, but this success has rendered the current downtown design guidelines from the early 1990s both function-ally and aesthetically outdated. The original city ordinance written in conjunction with the design guidelines has given both the City Planning Department and the Downtown Design Review Committee, which is appointed by the Director of Planning and administered by Downtown Sioux Falls, Inc., very little power to …

Experiential Interior Design: Branding Entertainment And Nightlife For The Postmodern Young Urban Professional, Niccole S. Skomal

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Past study on Interior Design has been primarily looked at through the lenses of aesthetics and functionality. Only recently have scholars begun to see the influence marketing, in the form of branding, can have on the Interior Design process in targeting specific lifestyle groups. The purpose of this research is to understand the fabric of the postmodern Young Urban Professional lifestyle as a marketing tool for branding and designing services in the form of entertainment and nightlife. With an increasing lack of community and social connectedness in today’s postmodern society, Young Urban Professionals tend to consume entertainment and nightlife as …

Factors That Cause Growth And Development In The City Of Lincoln, Ne, Kaylene Tegtmeier

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

This qualitative study looks at what factors may contribute to the outward growth and development of the city of Lincoln, Nebraska. The two main factors the study discusses are the Lincoln Public School planners and their placement of schools in the city, and the “American dream” of the people, looking at where the people of Lincoln want to be living throughout the city and what some of their daily habits are. This study also discusses some of the main visions of the city of Lincoln’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan how the plan’s ambitions may affect the two factors looked at in …

A Health Impact Assessment Of Mixed Use Redevelopment Nodes And Corridors In Lincoln, Nebraska, Katie Clear

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Obesity is a growing threat to America’s health. The national rate of obesity is 34% (Health Consequences, 2011), and Lincoln, Nebraska is not far behind that trend at 20.7% (BRFSS, 2011). Increasing physical activity is one way to reduce weight gain, (Edwards, 2008) and further studies show that small changes to the built environment can induce people to use alternative and more active forms of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation (Edwards, 2008; Zheng, 2008). The 2040 Comprehensive Plan for Lincoln, NE includes language to create a more walkable community. The proposal is to redevelop existing areas within …

The Urban Fabric Of The Great Plains, Andrew Becker

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

To most Americans the Great Plains region of North America is mysterious place. There are disagreements when defining its limits, and some people just refer to it as the Midwest. The Great Plains has been a place under an ocean, a place under glaciers, and a place on fire. It was once dubbed “the Great American Desert,” but is now known for its agricultural viability. The Great Plains sparks imagination because it is so massive and was one of the final frontiers for Euro-American settlement. The Great Plains is seen as a rural place but the majority of the region’s …

Building Low-Carbon Cities Through Local Land Use Planning: Towards An Appropriate Urban Development Model For Sustainability, Ting Wei

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The main purpose of this thesis is to study how to establish low carbon, attractive cities for human beings. This paper attempts to contribute to sustainable development by encouraging the development of low-carbon cities through local land use decisions. The study proposes to answer the following two research questions: 1) how well do the fastest growing cities in the U.S. implement low-carbon principles in their local comprehensive land use plans?, and 2) how can local land use plans be improved to achieve the goal of low-carbon cities? Through evaluating the local land use comprehensive plans of the top fifty fastest …

Managing Stormwater Runoff With Green Infrastructure: Exploring Practical Strategies To Overcome Barriers In Citywide Implementation, Shaojing Tian

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Cities in the United States are facing the challenges of protecting water resources, drinking water and public health with a rapid pace of population growth and urban sprawl. Large quantities of stormwater runoff arising from increased imperviousness on urbanizing watershed will cause municipal sewer system overflow and discharge of untreated runoff into waterways, and as a result, pollute local water bodies and affect the quality of drinking water in the long run. It has been increasingly acknowledged that Green Infrastructure (GI) and Low Impact Development (LID) can be used as an effective tool to capture and retain stormwater on site …

Walkability, Social Interaction, And Neighborhood Design, Theresa A. Glanz

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Typically suburban neighborhoods within the United States are often not pedestrian friendly especially when it comes to destination walking.  Since the 1980s New Urbanists have been working on developing neighborhoods that not only allow people to walk for leisure but also allow the residents to walk to nearby shopping and public spaces. These increases in opportunities for walking can enhance people’s lives through improved health, reduction in financial outputs for fuels, enhancement of the physical environment through reductions in carbon monoxide, and the potential for increased social capital through accidental and intentional social opportunities. This paper discusses neighborhood design as …

Developing A Drought Planning Evaluation System In The United States, Mark D. Svoboda, Zhenghong Tang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Drought is a normal part of the climate cycle, affecting every climate regime on the planet. Drought indicates a special period in which an unusual moisture scarcity causes a serious hydrological imbalance. Drought is related to the timing and effectiveness of the rains, high temperature, high wind, and low humidity. The typical impacts of drought may include dry lands, low or empty water-supply reservoirs, low groundwater levels (dried up wells), crop damage, and ensuing environmental degradation. In the United States, drought accounts for losses in the billions of dollars. In fact, a FEMA (1995) report estimates the average annual losses …

Regulating Green Buildings, Jeffrey S. Webert

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Green buildings are becoming the new fixation for the building industry because of the impact they have on the carbon footprint and the cost savings they offer for utility costs. Governments have begun to produce policies and regulations that implement and mandate green buildings due to these successes. However, the policies are having troubles increasing the popularity and quantities of green buildings. There is a need for a way to produce better policies and regulations that will increase both the amount of green buildings their popularity. A decision-making tool, such as a decision tree, should be created to help policymakers …

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska's Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966–1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976–1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992–2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources pertaining to the settlement of the …

Impediments To And Opportunities For Fulfillment Of The Rational Comprehensive Intent Of The National Environmental Policy Act, Brian P. Mcmullen

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1960 (NEPA) initiated the study and practice of environmental impact analysis. Upon passage, NEPA transformed the process in which the federal government plans, seeks input on, and documents major projects of environmental significance. While NEPA has surely affected project-level incremental actions, its rational comprehensive mandate as expressed in Title II of the statute has remained largely unfulfilled. Neglect of Title II has occurred as a result of broad language in NEPA that is difficult for federal judges to interpret and administrators to implement. Political interference with the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has …

Perceptions Of The Quality Of Life Among Residents Of Crete, Nebraska, James J. Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Christopher Hussey

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Crete, Nebraska, is on the cutting edge of a global economy in which people are migrating to places that offer jobs and a better quality of life. Between 2000 and 2008, the population of Crete rose from 6,028 to 6,241, an increase of3.5%. In the year 2001, when the initial study was conducted, Crete's local Farmland pork processing plant increased its workforce from 1,200 to 1,650. In today's economy, these 450 new jobs are likely to attract workers from around the world. In recent years, for example, workers have come to Crete from Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Croatia, Serbia, Iraq, and …

Moving From Agenda To Action: Evaluating Local Climate Change Action Plans, Zhenghong Tang, Samuel D. Brody, Courtney E. Quinn, Liang Chang, Ting Wei

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Climate change is conventionally recognized as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyzes how well they recognize the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The results indicate that local climate change action plans have a high level of “awareness”, moderate “analysis capabilities” for climate change, and relatively limited “action approaches” for climate change mitigation. The study also identifies specific factors influencing …

An Analysis Of Small Business Loan Guarantee Funds, William E. O'Bryan Iii

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Small businesses are considered important engines for job growth and economic development by policy makers worldwide. One of the most commonly cited constraints of small businesses is a lack of access to capital. To address this constraint, small business loan guarantee programs have been established in over 100 countries. There are a variety of types of guarantee funds, with the most significant differences being which borrowers are eligible for guarantees, and how borrowers are approved for guarantees. There is currently no clear delineation between types of programs and the economic conditions they operate in, though some trends are becoming apparent. …

Targeted Updates To The Bicycle Plan For The University Of Georgia Main Campus, Athens, Georgia, Srikanth Yamala

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Through this Professional Project, the author examines circulation and suitability pertaining to bicycle planning on a college campus, in the real-world setting of the University of Georgia (UGA) main campus located in Athens, Georgia.

Based on existing on-campus activity, bicycle circulation is established. Using an analytical tool, namely the bicycle level of service (BLOS) analysis, roadway segments within the study area are evaluated for suitability with respect to adjacent motor vehicle traffic. Several improvements are suggested throughout the project to enhance the existing BLOS, and in turn enhance the bicycling conditions. Most of the suggestions are based on traditional improvements, …

Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions Through Local Land Use Planning, Zhenghong Tang, Christopher Hussey

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Land use and land use planning have profound implications for greenhouse gas emission (GHG). Local land use planning is well suited to play a critical leadership role in addressing the effects of climate change by encouraging change in development patterns to reduce GHG emissions and their impacts. Although some studies have begun to discuss the role of local land use planning in climate change, little research has been conducted to determine how to convert the concepts of climate change into local land use planning tools and empirically integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies into local land use planning. The …

Assessing Local Land Use Planning’S Awareness, Analysis, And Actions For Climate Change, Zhenghong Tang, Christopher M. Hussey, Ting Wei

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend the previous larger-scale climate policy studies to the local jurisdiction level to evaluate local land use planning capacity for climate change.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper evaluated 53 recently developed local comprehensive land use plans in California and analyzes how well these plans recognized the concepts of climate change and prepared for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Findings: The descriptive results show that local land use plans reflect very low awareness and little analysis for climate change; however, the actions for climate change varied widely in scope and content in their plans.
Originality/value: …

Stress, Status, And Sociability: Exploring Residential Satisfaction In The Rural Midwest Following Rapid Immigration, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Amy E. Boren

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

This investigation examined predictors of residential satisfaction among newly arrived residents (NAR) and long-term residents (LTR) of a rural community following a rapid influx of immigrants into the community. The physical environment, social/cultural aspects of life, and resources and public services were hypothesized to affect perceptions of residential satisfaction. Both LTR and NAR were pleased with environmental attributes, sociocultural attributes, and public services. An inverse relationship was revealed between stress and residential satisfaction. The primary sources of stress for LTR related to economics and social status issues, whereas the primary sources of stress among NAR involved issues concerning family and …

Measuring Tsunami Planning Capacity On U.S. Pacific Coast, Zhenghong Tang, Michael K. Lindell, Carla S. Prater, Samuel D. Brody

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Abstract: The U.S. Pacific coastal states are at risk from both locally and distantly generated tsunamis. This vulnerability can be reduced by effective hazard management plans, but no studies have been conducted to determine how local jurisdictions have incorporated tsunami hazard management into their planning frameworks. This paper analyzes the quality of hazard management plans from 43 coastal counties in these states. Plan quality was measured by a plan evaluation protocol defined by five components and 37 indicators. The results show that few Pacific coastal counties have prepared well for tsunamis. Most plans have a weak factual basis, unclear goals …

Evaluating Local Coastal Zone Land Use Planning Capacities In California, Zhenghong Tang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Local jurisdictions’ coastal zone land use plans play an important role in protecting critical coastal resources and ensuring coastal communities’ sustainable development. This study extends the previous national and regional measurement systems to local coastal zone land use planning. This study evaluates 46 California local jurisdictions’ coastal zone land use plans and analyzes the factors influencing local coastal zone land use planning capacities. The descriptive results show that planning quality varied widely in scope and content, and did not fully utilize available coastal management tools and mechanisms to influence local development patterns. The regression results further highlight the influence of …

Evaluating California Local Land Use Plan’S Environmental Impact Reports, Zhenghong Tang, Elise Bright, Samuel Brody

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Local land use planning has profound impacts on environmental quality; however, few empirical studies have been conducted to systematically measure local land use plans’ environmental assessment quality and to identify the factors influencing it. This paper analyzes the quality of 40 Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) of local jurisdictions’ land use plans in California. A plan evaluation protocol defined by five core components and sixty-three indicators is developed to measure the quality of local land use plans’ EIRs. The descriptive results indicate that the local jurisdictions produce relatively good quality on its EIRs, but there is still much room for improvement. …

Demographic Characteristics And Concerns Of New Arrivals To Rural Nebraska, James Potter, Rodrigo Cantarero, Nicholas Pischel

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Immigration is often thought of as a problem primarily for large metropolitan areas. However, much of the recent literature dealing with the meat processing industry focuses on the migration it generates towards small, rural towns in the American Midwest. The prior studies frequently use a qualitative method. The primary goal of this study was to explore the characteristics of new arrivals to two Midwestern towns (Schuyler and Crete, Nebraska). The basic method used for developing the inventory of demographic characteristics and concerns was analyzing data from two quantitative studies previously conducted by the authors. Identical questions were selected from each …

Appropriation Of Architectural Ruins In Britain During The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, Rumiko Handa

Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Each year all over the world, from Acropolis to Jerusalem, from Angkor Wat to Machu Picchu, tourists flock around ruins. They are fascinated by the lives of the people who are long gone, displaced for political, cultural, or unknown reasons. Ruins entice the visitors' imaginations because of the physical and metaphysical incompleteness - missing roofs, decayed stones, or lost way of living, which once kept the buildings alive. While some ruins of historical significance are set for preservation by lawful designations, some buildings are turned into hotels and other tourist facilities.1 New buildings are also constructed mimicking the form but …

Linking Planning Theories With Factors Influencing Local Environmental-Plan Quality, Zhenghong Tang

Community and Regional Planning Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

The major planning theories provide a theoretical foundation for environmental planning. This study extends the major planning theories and develops a robust conceptual framework to measure the key factors influencing local environmental-plan quality. A random sample of forty Californian local comprehensive land-use plans and associated planning processes is analyzed to identify the critical factors influencing environmental-plan quality. Results from multiple regression analysis indicate that regular updating, environmental-information management and sharing, and planners contribute significantly to local environmental-plan quality. The findings expand established planning theories and practice by suggesting ways to improve local environmental-plan quality.

Form-Based Code As A Regulatory Tool For Mixed Use Urban Infill Development In Lincoln, Nebraska, David A. Gaspers

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

The separation of incompatible uses by zoning has been an established land regulatory tool for the past eighty years. The Standard State Zoning Enabling Act was made available to states by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1924 to provide state governments with standardized language with which they could pass legislation that would grant governments the authority to enact zoning ordinances to promote the health, safety and welfare of the public. The United States Supreme Court held up the legality of zoning with the landmark 1926 case of Euclid v. Ambler Realty. Since that time, zoning has been the predominant …