Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Surmounting Disembodiment: Architecture And Suicide Prevention, Jack Mcgeehan

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Suicide is currently the 10th leading cause of death in the United States, more than double the number of homicide deaths. This thesis questions how architects can design more appropriately for people who are at risk for suicide in the United States. While suicide is individualistic and varies from person to person, there are consistencies that can serve as a basis for mitigating the problem and building an infrastructure for the solution. This thesis begins by examining four key cohorts that are typically high risk in the United States; veterans, the elderly, the homeless, and youths. It examines the behavioral …

Accessible Health: An Evidenced Based Approach To Improve User Experience And Clinical Sustainability Within Rural Healthcare, John Coughlin

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

The manner through which health care is provided evolves through advances in medical knowledge as well as improvements in supporting infrastructure and processes. The rate at which this change is made possible is increasingly driven by non-medical factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, the necessity to operate safely in a COVID-19 pandemic while simultaneously operating with economically sustainable processes and infrastructure. This is especially true for underserved populations in rural communities. Acknowledging and understanding these changing environments allows one to better optimize the sometimes competing interests of user experience with sustainable clinical practices. Healthcare is vital to …

A City Divided: A Gis-Informed Study Of Urban Planning In Amman, Jordan, Ella Lawson

Honors Theses

Amman, the capital of Jordan, faces an impending infrastructure crisis. The city is plagued by water shortages, a lack of affordable housing, extreme traffic congestion, and dwindling open space. Over the past seventy-five years, several urban planning commissions have attempted to address these issues through policy change and other municipal directives. These plans help illustrate the different forces at play in constructing the city—whether they be the residents themselves, city officials, or international consultants. All the plans use neighborhoods as a primary metric for measuring need and organizing development. Likewise, all the plans focus on the importance of green and …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: Analyzing Inhumane Practices In Mississippi’S Correctional Institutions Due To Overcrowding, Understaffing, And Diminished Funding, Ariel A. Williams

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research is to examine the political, social, and economic factors which have led to inhumane conditions in Mississippi’s correctional facilities. Several methods were employed, including a comparison of the historical and current methods of funding, staffing, and rehabilitating prisoners based on literature reviews. State-sponsored reports from various departments and the legislature were analyzed to provide insight into budgetary restrictions and political will to allocate funds. Statistical surveys and data were reviewed to determine how overcrowding and understaffing negatively affect administrative capacity and prisoners’ mental and physical well-being. Ultimately, it may be concluded that Mississippi has high …

The Relationship Between Transit-Oriented Development (Tod) Stations And Health Outcomes, Mohammed Hafiz

Planning Dissertations - Archive

The relationship between the built environment and health outcomes, including obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, asthma, and heart diseases, has been significantly related (Chandrabose et al., 2019). Urban planning plays a significant role in shaping the built environment of cities that are affecting public health. Historically, urban planning and public health are connected due to the impact of the built environment. Consequently, the concerns about health outcomes became an issue in urban planning. This research focuses on health outcomes within the built environment. Specifically, considering more physical activities in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) station areas, the study investigates its …

Socializing Vacancy: An Architectural Thesis, Greg Winawer

Architecture Senior Theses

A large portion of office space has been left vacant, and thus provides no beneficial program to its remaining occupants or the local urbanity it is surrounded by. When considering what can be done with this vacant space, the primary motivation should be to integrate a program which does the opposite: a program which positively disrupts its existing context to hybridize and improve the current outdated programmatic arrangement. To insert a residential program into an existing office tower both disrupts and enhances the rigorous flows of our working and our domestic lives. The predefined universal concept of the ‘working-day’ is …

Proposal For A High Tunnel At Delaney Community Farm, Michael Rh Pham

City and Regional Planning

This paper is a case study of an urban agriculture operation in Aurora, Colorado that focuses on providing refugees with food and work that contributes to a sense of community connectedness and pride. The paper is also a proposal for a high tunnel system that could extend the growing season of the farm and provide unique opportunities for urban farmers to learn about emerging resiliency based food production practices.

A Transit Oriented Development Proposal For The Fourth And King Caltrain Station In San Francisco, Samuel Frederic Fluhmann

City and Regional Planning

The South of Market and Mission Bay neighborhoods have seen an explosion in growth over the last decade because of the high cluster of technology company opportunities in the area and the Bay Area’s high housing cost. These two neighborhoods are home to a public transportation hub with two San Francisco Muni metro and bus lines, Caltrain service, and Amtrak intercity bus service to Oakland and other parts of California. The existing Caltrain Fourth and King Station and railyards have massive potential for prime real estate development. San Francisco has seen a 10% increase in population over the last ten …

The River, The Residents, And The City: A Holistic Vision Study For Logan River's Upper Reach, Lisa Aedo

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The three-mile Upper Reach of the Logan River starting at the USU Water Lab to the 100 East bridge has been negatively impacted by residential development and diversion for agriculture and industry. A task force comprised of faculty at USU, professionals, government and city officials, and concerned residents has developed a Conservation Action Plan focused on twenty-two baseline indicators which, if improved, can help rehabilitate the river. This thesis looks at the factors that created the current challenges and seeks to provide a holistic vision with design solutions to address said challenges in alignment with that Plan. A literature review …

Dissolving Realities: An Endless Domestic Landscape, Hanzang Lai, Phang Lim

Architecture Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the exponential growth in communication technology is changing the way we interact with the tangible and intangible spaces. The invasion of the public into the private, the collective into the domestic, the work into the leisure, and the ability to be constantly connected wirelessly have caused a dissolution of the physical domestic space. The domestic space has lost its value of privacy and intimacy and the boundary between the binaries will be no more. The gap between “the control” and “controlled” has widened and productive workers will be oppressed to be even more productive under the …

A Spatial Analysis Of Supply-Demand Of Public Transportation In Jefferson County, Kentucky., Nastaran Abdoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public transportation is important as it serves individuals, especially the transit-dependent population, by providing a basic mobility service to these people and all others who rely on public transportation. This research utilized estimating public transportation demand and supply to analyze the spatial patterns of public transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The study focuses on the transit-dependent population, and it considers indicators of age, poverty status, vehicle ownership, and foreign-born population with less than five years residency in the United States. This study conducted a public transit supply-demand analysis to identify areas with imbalanced supply and demand in Jefferson County at …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Food Hubs And Rebuilding Missing Middle Market Structure In Agriculture: The Social In Supply Chain Development, Stephen Luoni

Community Design Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

Tens of millions of Americans became food insecure during the COVID-19 pandemic as independent farmers dumped millions of tons of food due to economic lockdowns. Yet contract growers looped into vertically integrated monopoly supply chains escaped system breakdowns. Food provisioning is often seen as polarized between local scale and continental/ global market scale. Food supply and consumption are functions more of market structure than scale. Farmers reliant on direct sales to local restaurants, schools, universities, and hospitals saw their markets evaporate overnight. This Food Away from Home market constitutes 54 percent of food consumed nationally yet is vulnerable since direct-to-consumer …

An Indicator Based Transportation Sustainability Assessment In Regional Development: A Case Study For Cache County, Utah, Humaira Yusuf Nabeela

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Evaluating sustainability for a key system like transportation can be vital for both planners and citizens alike, as planners provide the system and citizens use the system. A sustainable transportation system not only builds a prosperous economy, but it also ensures social equity and a healthy environment for years to come. There are differing scales of sustainability assessment, ranging from neighborhood to global. However, a sustainability scale between the local and national scale is not very common in practice. Therefore, this study offers a regional scale sustainability assessment for the transportation system that will address local changes while also reflecting …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

Social And Solidarity Economy Organizations Allies To Promote Sustainable Development In Colombia, Natalia Patino Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We have been talking for several decades about what development is and what is not, we have added greater attributes to it, and recently we have begun to understand that, like most processes and dynamics that require the interaction of living beings, we must be open to the development does not behave like a straitjacket, unique and homogenizing for all. In this transfer, different elements have been added, and a greater number of actors have begun to have relevance. Aspects such as sustainability and greater participation have meant today we can count on ways through which we do not seek …

Understanding Spaces Of Abandonment Through Virtual Frameworks In Landscape Architecture, Aus Perez

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In recent years, design professionals have implemented many contemporary landscape architecture projects across the United States. With a primary goal of returning nature to urban environments, contemporary landscape architects and other transdisciplinary partners work diligently to sculpt physical spaces that reflect the human-living experience. However, a leap into the world of video game design could allow landscape architects and urban planners to more freely create virtual social environments to address rising issues of abandonment in today’s urban and rural spaces. Video game mechanics and methodologies can be used extensively in the disciplines of design that value participatory processes, like landscape …

On The Wrong Side Of The Track: The Role Of Karachi Circular Railway In Determining Intra-City Boundaries, Aneela Kiran, Dr. Faisal S. Qadri

CBER Conference

No abstract provided.

Urban Resilience And Impact On Utility Services - Panel Discussion Iii, Noman Ahmed, Laeeq Ahmed, Sadia Dada, Javed Younas

CBER Conference

The government services departments are ill-equipped to provide sufficient services to the people of Karachi. The authorities are solely responsible for lack of provision of services resulting in the city’s dysfunction in the event of natural disasters. The physical existence of service delivery corridors should be notified to the public and a comprehensive plan needs to be put in place to create awareness about the rights of the consumers and utilities service providers. 75% of Karachi today does not experience load-shedding, adding that the illegal encroachment in the city is leading to safety impairment. Currently the eco-system is not conducive …

Landfill Pollution Assessment In Residential Urban Spaces In Lebanon, Yasmine Amkieh

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Landfill site is a significant and risky part at the same time in the city. In planning an urban city, the pollution caused by landfill damages the surrounded areas, especially the residential zones, if it does not follow the sanitary landfill rules. The pollution from landfills threat the environment and, consequently, human health and wellbeing, so it is essential to maintain a safe and healthy environment in selecting the landfill site. From this point of view, the research aims to create a method to evaluate the affected residential zones by the nearest landfills to protect people from pollution's negative impacts. …

Underground Construction And Space Utilization: A Bibliometric Analysis, Mugdha Praveen Kshirsagar Mrs, Sanjay Kantrao Kulkarni Dr, Nilesh Vedprakash Arora Mr, Devesh Dinesh Maheshwari Mr, Ankush Kumar Meena Mr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Land use optimization is a major concern as the world's population grows at an exponential rate. Surface land is already being depleted at an alarming pace. As a result, buildings can be constructed safely underground, allowing for more productive land use. The primary goal of this paper is to perform a bibliometric review of the literature related to Underground Construction in order to determine the growth of Underground Construction as a method of energy or land optimization in recent years. Between 1975 and 2020 is the time span considered for this survey. The results of the Scopus database are the …

Factors Influencing Fixed-Route Transit Decision-Making: Exploring Differences By Disability And Community Type, Jordana L. Maisel, Molly E. Ranahan, Jimin Choi

Journal of Public Transportation

Transit agencies utilize the following complementary initiatives to encourage greater fixed-route transit usage by people with disabilities: (1) implement more rigorous paratransit eligibility determination practices and (2) address the factors that deter people with disabilities from using fixed-route transit. This research focuses on the latter and uses previously conducted survey data to determine the most important factors individuals with disabilities consider when deciding to use various transportation options, and how these factors vary by disability and community type. Findings indicate that individuals with mobility impairments consistently rated the built environment factors as more important to their transit mode decision-making than …

Memorial Parking Trees: Resilient Modular Design With Nature-Based Solutions In Vulnerable Urban Areas, Haroon Stephen, Fortino Acosta

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Nature-based solutions (NbS) include all the landscape’s ecological components that have a function in the natural or urban ecosystem. Memorial Parking Trees (MPTs) are a new variant of a nature-based solution composed of a bioswale and a street tree allocated in the road, occupying a space that is sub-utilised by parked cars. This infill green practice can maximise the use of street trees in secondary streets and have multiple benefits in our communities. Using GIS mapping and methodology can support implementation in vulnerable neighbourhoods. In this research, we based vulnerability assessments for London, Rio de Janeiro, and Los Angeles on …

An Appraisal Of The Arab City Experience In Running Urban Observatories, Tahar Ledraa, Abdullah Althabt, Majed Hallawani

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The paper sets out to evaluate the Arab city experience in running urban observatories (UOs). As Arab states face the challenges of staggering rates of urbanization (i,e; Kuwait 100%, and Qatar 99.2%), their cities require the provision of more services and more efficient urban management. As the world is witnessing some drastic changes such as the shift from government to governance and the rise of the civil society, the Arab city cannot be immune to such transformations. Some have lately adopted urban observatories (UOs) as a tool to cope with these changes. The government observatory type has been embraced as …

A “First And Last-Mile” Assessment Of California Rail Stations: A Sketch Planning Approach, Henry Mckay

City and Regional Planning

The purpose of this study is to assess the pedestrian and bicycle accessibility of rail stations in California by providing a sketch planning toolkit enabling planners and decision-makers to compare various accessibility factors and to develop and compare metrics.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Accessibility is a highly important area of transportation planning, especially as it pertains to rail stations. While a well-planned rail network can serve many people, travelers must get to and from rail stations on either end of their trip in order for the rail service to be of any use. The mode by which travelers make these trips …

Egyptian Women’S Agriculture Contribution; Assessment Of The Gender Gap For Sustainable Development, Noha El Khorazaty

Theses and Dissertations

Women’s contribution to the agriculture sector in developing countries is undeniable, yet they do not have equal access to the resources and opportunities they need to be more productive. Sustainable development entails inclusive and effective management of natural resources, this entails gender equity in agriculture. Bridging the gender gap in agriculture far exceeds the benefits of the individual. According to the latest estimates bridging the yield gap in agricultural productivity could possibly decrease the numbers of undernourished people in the world by around 100 – 140 million people. Sustainable agriculture development and gender equity necessitate policy interventions targeting the gender …

Z33 Hasselt: Hortus Conclusus As A Model For An Urban Interior, Bie Plevoets, Shailja Patel

Interiority

This contribution reviews the recent renovation of Z33—House for Contemporary Art, Design and Architecture in Hasselt, Belgium—in the light of its unique implementation of different levels of interiority. The institute is housed in the former beguinage, a site with a rich and layered history and one of the few green public spaces in the city centre. The intervention by architect Francesca Torzo builds further on and strengthens the existing qualities of the site through a creative process of copying and improving. By doing so, she changed the overall appearance of the beguinage, strengthening its quality as an enclosed …

Towards Good Governance In Upgrading Deprived Areas: An Approach To Empower Participatory Management In Egypt, Mohammed S. Ali

Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)

Slums are a problem facing the whole world as a result of poor housing policies and rapid urbanization. Previous Egyptian housing policies created the problem of slums from scratch. The Egyptian government tries to eliminate slums with centralized policies, but it does not succeed. Egypt recently recognized the need to participate in slum upgrading through community partnership. Previous upgrading policies did not perform as required due to their distance from a participatory and fair representation of stakeholders. The independent participatory intermediary model achieves great results if it has decentralized decision-making. The problem is the relation between the governing parties in …

Housing Designs For Sullivan, In, Laurie Wojak

2020 Fall Reports (Sullivan)

The city of Sullivan, IN has a neighborhood revitalization plan and requires new housing that will attract new homeowners to Sullivan. The IAD251 course offers Interior Architecture Design sophomores and juniors the opportunity to design their own unique home, so they were tasked with developing concepts and floor plans for Sullivan’s empty lots. The course developed ten housing designs, and six are represented in this report.

Generation Of 3d Model Of Downtown Sullivan, Jim Speer

2020 Fall Reports (Sullivan)

The City of Sullivan identified the downtown area as an area for improvement and needed a way to depict areas. In ENVI 610, one graduate student was able to address the agreed upon goals of developing a 3D model of the downtown square. Some recommendations for future use of the 3D model were made for land-use planning, drainage systems, elevation, and more.