Urban, Community and Regional Planning Commons^™

Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the strides made towards addressing climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, it has become increasingly apparent that attempting to mitigate the crisis in such a manner alone is insufficient. This thesis joins a growing body of research on how our societies must adapt to a changing climate, contributing more evidence on common barriers to adaptation and how they might be overcome. Through an attempt to evaluate the progress made towards mainstreaming, or integrating, climate change concerns into five Virginia MPOs’ long-range transportation plans (LRTPs), this study provides support for prior hypotheses around the potential for MPOs …

Planning, Aging, And Loneliness: Reviewing Evidence About Built Environment Effects, Yingying Lyu, Ann Forsyth

Geography & Planning Faculty Publications

Large numbers of people in many countries report being lonely with rates highest among the very old. Does the built environment affect loneliness among older people and if so, how? Using a scoping review, we examined associations between loneliness and built environments at the block, neighborhood, and city scales The (a) neighborhood environment has received most attention. Research has also examined (b) urban contexts, (c) housing, and (d) transportation access. Findings are mixed with the stronger evidence that local resources, walkability, overall environment quality, housing options, and nearby transportation alternatives can help combat loneliness.

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 …

Supporting Shrinkage: Planning And Decision Making For Legacy Cities, Michael P. Johnson Jr., Justin Hollander, Eliza Whiteman Kinsey, George Chichirau, Charla Burnett

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

Supporting Shrinkage describes a new approach to citizen-engaged, community-focused planning methods and technologies for cities and regions facing decline, disinvestment, shrinkage, and social and physical distress. The volume evaluates the benefits and costs of a wide range of analytic approaches for designing policy and planning interventions for shrinking cities and distressed communities. These include collaborative planning, social media, civic technology, game design, analytics, decision modeling and decision support, and spatial analysis. The authors present case studies of three US cities addressing shrinkage and decline, with a focus on issues of social justice, democratization of knowledge, and local empowerment. Proposed as …

Integrative Sonic Urbanism: Artist-Led Strategies For Urban Sound Design In The Contemporary City, Sven Anderson

Doctoral

This doctoral research advances the fields of urban sound design and acoustic planning, presenting new ways of exploring the interrelationship between individual and collective sonic experience, the dynamic potential of the urban sound environment and the complex evolution of the contemporary cityscape. It links urban sound art practices with larger urban design processes, revealing how sound contributes to the production of urban space. The research progresses by crafting a dynamic, integrative methodology that activates contrasting sonic perspectives to critically reassess the role of sound in the public realm. As it discloses this methodology, the research navigates the tension between new …

Interventions To Slums And Informal Settlements: A Case Study Of The Integrated Housing Development Program In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nathan Teklemariam

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid urbanization is currently taking place in developing regions that have yet to address already existing and persistent inequities within their urban centers. There is perhaps no urban policy issue more critical for governments of the global South than the elimination of slums and informal settlements, along with the development of equitable access to affordable housing for low-income residents. Ethiopia has taken on this challenge through its Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP), which incorporates slum clearance and resettlement through a government-led development of condominium housing targeting those displaced and other low and middle-income residents in the city.

Since the launch …

Building On Spatial Mismatch: A New Review Of Literature And An Example Case Study, Steven Matthew Reeves

Planning Theses - Archive

Barriers to employment exist at different levels for minority groups, especially those that are residentially segregated. Many studies have examined these barriers, including a physical separation between the residential location and the available job opportunities since John Kain’s 1968 Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis. However, recent studies of modal mismatch, racial mismatch, and skill or language mismatch, have been identified with significant impact on accessible employment without being included in a comprehensive review of mismatch literature. This research provides an updated literature review of Spatial Mismatch. It also includes a case study of a little-studied region, Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area. …

To Build A Space: A Reading Of Bodies, Temporality, And Urban Colonization, Delaney Tax

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

Historical and modern urban planning theory often focuses on an idealized body and subject, shaped by race, gender, and sexuality, that exists within the city. This passively and actively divides space into thresholds impenetrable by bodies othered by social and political ideologies. This project looks at the realities of colonial urban planning and the gendered, raced, and queered implications forced onto bodies and communities through the built environment. This investigation examines the frameworks present in colonial urban theory that engender meaning and knowledges onto bodies as they move through the cityscape. Exploring modes of in/access and power along built …

Rethinking Participatory Design: Tools For Modelling Community Potentials, Adam Liu, Stephen Marinelli

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis aims to provide an alternative method of community engagement through the process of participatory model-making. Rather than only seeking out community voices for surveys and data collection, this project’s goal is to empower a community’s sense of ownership through collective design.

The methods of this project will be tested and examined in collaboration with students from Dr. King Elementary School in Syracuse, New York. By designing a participatory method for model-making, the project will involve students in the early stages of urban design and make it more educationally and socially accessible.

Olympic Gardens After The Games, Kaylee O'Brien

Architecture Thesis Prep

This thesis begins with an intense study of landscape and the garden. In addition to research on the historical, theoretical, and contemporary conditions of the garden, the thesis investigates the architectural and landscape conditions of the Olympic Games. Specifically looking into issues including Olympic Legacy, Olympic Gardens, and urban interventions associated with Olympic Parks, the project aims to understand ways in which these subjects can be studied, analyzed, and reapplied in the context of a new architectural design. This combined research into gardens and the Olympic Games serves as a foundation for the thesis design project, providing strategies and ways …

Urban Contacts: Orientalist Urban Planning And Le Corbusier In French Colonial Algiers, Delaney Tax

Copley Library Undergraduate Research Awards

Algiers, the first French colony in Africa, was conquered in 1830 and gained independence in 1962. During this period, Algiers was constructed into an Orientalist acting ground that was shaped through political, social, economic formations in the built environment. The French colonial fascination with Algiers centered around the casbah, and thus the casbah became a laboratory for ethnographic and urban reflections. The French process of urban planning included military intervention, preservation motivated by exoticism and museology, and superstructure master plans dictated by the present benefit of indigenous communities to the colonial regime. Le Corbusier’s contact with Algiers further expresses the …

Re-Imagining Nature In Dense, High Rise Urban Environment: The Present And Future Of Green Building Infrastructure In Singapore, Claire Yi

Pomona Senior Theses

From the futuristic Jewel at Changi Airport, the healing gardens at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in Yishun to School of the Arts at Orchard Road, greenery has sprouted in buildings vertically and horizontally in Singapore, painting a growing green canopy for the dense, high rise city. This paper combines both analyses from first-hand site visits and case studies from external scholar studies to examine the performance of existing Green Building Infrastructures (BGIs) within Singapore’s unique urban context. The study reveals that the success of BGIs is highly dependent on the programming (i.e. thermal comfort design, accessibility, amenity facilities etc.), as …

The Living Community Challenge: An Uncase Study In Biophilic Master Planning, Jordan Grimaldi

Pomona Senior Theses

In a world that is quickly urbanizing with a climate that is rapidly changing, the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) Living Community Challenge (LCC) offers a whimsical yet highly relevant model for sustainable development—creating cities that are as connected and beautiful as forests. As no certified Living Community exists yet, this thesis serves as an “uncase study” of North Rainier, a neighborhood in Seattle that has registered for the Challenge. In an effort to assess the LCC’s perceived effectiveness as a model for sustainable development, this thesis first summarizes nearly 400 centuries of U.S. developmental history to give greater context …

Lost In Translation? Assessing The Intercultural Sensitivity Levels Of Planners In The Dallas- Fort Worth Area, Eihua Corinne Olivia Shaw

Planning Dissertations - Archive

The inclusion of minorities in the public participation process is one of the greatest challenges within the field of planning. However, the political structures around public participation make it difficult for practitioners to respond to the challenges and needs of an increasing number of cultural minority groups in urban regions. Scholars have advised planners to be more sensitive to the needs of minorities, but there are no tools in the planning field to evaluate cultural sensitivity in practice. This dissertation examines public participation related to intercultural sensitivity. In particular, this research adds to a better understanding of the role of …

Suitability Assessment For Integrated Urban Development In Makkah City Of Saudi Arabia, Mislat Alotaibi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Makkah – the third most populated city in Saudi Arabia with a population of 1,684,408 according to the 2010 demographic survey conducted by the Saudi General Authority for Statistics – is experiencing urban sprawl, which can be defined as an unplanned urban expansion that might degrade the environment and diminish the aesthetic view. This is a persisting problem in Makkah driven by multitude of processes involving the random expansion in its undeveloped land and the removal of its historic mountains surrounding Al-Masjid Al-Haram (the Holy Mosque) in an attempt to push the city limit of urban capacity within its administrative …

La Sostenibilidad De La Reconstrucción 2014-2019 Tras El Gran Incendio En Valparaíso: Una Mirada Desde La Habitabilidad, Resiliencia Y Preparación En La Gestión De Desastres, Dana Kulma

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The beautiful port city of Valparaíso, Chile is home to 42 colorful hills that overlook the Pacific Ocean. This unique city, however, is also home to multiple disasters, including urban and forest fires, tsunamis, landslides and earthquakes. This descriptive study explores the case of the 2014 “mega-fire” that destroyed 3,000 homes and affected the lives of 11,000 residents. Through five semi-structured interviews and the review of several academic and official documents, the present study analyzes the process of post-disaster reconstruction, seeking to understand the habitability and the resiliency of the reconstructed houses and neighborhoods. In order to understand the challenges …

Age Of Concrete : Housing And The Shape Of Aspiration In The Capital Of Mozambique, David Morton

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Age of Concrete is a history of the making of houses and homes in the subúrbios of Maputo (Lourenço Marques), Mozambique, from the late 1940s to the present. Often dismissed as undifferentiated, ahistorical “slums,” these neighborhoods are in fact an open-air archive that reveals some of people’s highest aspirations. At first people built in reeds. Then they built in wood and zinc panels. And finally, even when it was illegal, they risked building in concrete block, making permanent homes in a place where their presence was often excruciatingly precarious.

Unlike many histories of the built environment in African cities, Age …

Webster Square Neighborhood Plan, Conor Mccormack

Sustainability and Social Justice

In this study, Webster Square is examined as a neighborhood and commercial node within the City of Worcester, MA. Using a variety of data sources and analyses, the study looks at the characteristics of the area to define the condition and context of Webster Square as it currently exists.Guided by current planning theory, contemporary practice, and key informant interviews, this study then suggests different directions for future development and growth in Webster Square. These visions for the future look to address key issues to help make the neighborhood a more vibrant, cohesive, and walkable community. More broadly, this study highlights …

“In Principle” Versus “In Reality”: Assessing The Potential Of Adaptive Urban Governance Toward Urban Flooding In Ho Chi Minh City’S District 7, Cindy Pham Nguyen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Flooding has become the new normal in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). During the rainy season, many areas of the city experience severe inundation that seriously impacts infrastructure, traffic, and economic transactions. As the effects of climate change unpredictably and rapidly manifest in Southern Vietnam, the frequency and impact of urban floods are projected to increase. In addition, within the last few decades, HCMC has rapidly developed and urbanized, transforming itself into the economic center of Southern Vietnam. However, previous studies and international experts have determined that rapid, poor development may be exacerbating urban flood issues.

In recent years, city …

How Autonomous Vehicles Will Reshape The Urban Landscape, Ian R. Mccarville

City and Regional Planning

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will bring one of the largest revolutions to the nation’s transportation system, with major changes in planning policies and the urban environment. While AVs have already been introduced to our mobility network, they still require a human operator behind the wheel. In coming years, as AV technology becomes more sophisticated, it will begin to dominate the roadways due to the technologies ability to maneuver at a much high accuracy and predictability than human drivers. This transition into an AV oriented future will promote road safety, increase productivity, reduce travel and labor costs, and reinvent the urban landscape.

Feeling Green: The Benefits Of Green Space On Urbanites' Mental Health, Kathryn A. Hoagland

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

This investigation intends to determine the best methods for incorporating public green space into dense urban areas, for the betterment of residents' mental health. Data from studies showing differences in the prevalence of anxiety and depression in urban and rural areas are discussed alongside data from studies looking at the effect that certain types of green space might have on mental health. While there is no exact consensus on the extent to which nature has positive effects on mental health there is enough of a correlation to argue for the implementation of public green spaces in urban design, in order …

Barriers To Implementing Urban Plans In Kenya, Rose Chelangat Kitur

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite a long history of urban planning, Kenyan towns are still characterized by informality, uncoordinated development, urban sprawl, and congestion. Government documents and reports acknowledge that, despite planning, no deliberate effort has been made to implement plans. Little is known about what impedes plan implementation in Kenya. This study sought to develop an in-depth understanding of the barriers to plan implementation from the perspectives of public officials responsible for planning. Using path dependency theory, forwarded by Pierson, and force field analysis, advanced by Lewin, the research questions focused on legal and institutional development, as well as on the nature of …

Comprehensive Rezonings, Sara C. Bronin

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Of all powers given to local governments, the power to zone is one of the most significant. Zoning dictates everything that gets built in a locality—and thus effectively dictates all of the key activities that take place within it. Nationwide, most zoning codes were adopted in the first half of the twentieth century. Many, including the zoning codes of New York City and Chicago, were significantly revised in the 1960s. While these codes have been revised piecemeal, just a few American cities have undergone a comprehensive revision: replacing the old code with a completely new one.

A comprehensive rezoning can …

Exploring Transit-Based Environmental Injustices In San Gabriel Valley And Greater Los Angeles, Bailey Lai

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis attempts to disentangle the multilayered interactions between Greater Los Angeles’s history, its built environment, and its inequitable treatment of different peoples, focusing on how transportation in surrounding suburban communities like San Gabriel Valley has developed in relation to the inner city of Los Angeles. Greater Los Angeles contains a long, winding trajectory of transit-based environmental injustices, from the indigenous societies being overtaken by the Spanish missions, to the railroads and streetcars boosting the farmlands and urban growth of Los Angeles, leading into the decline of transit and rise of automobile-oriented suburbia. Within the San Gabriel Valley, the suburban …

Social Media Communication By Local Governments And Its Implications For Urban Planning, Leiming Zhao

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Social media has altered traditional communication and enriched traditional social networks. In addition to its use for personal communication and business marketing, social media has also been proved to be a valuable tool for urban planners and managers. However, there are relatively few studies about how social media communication may inform the design of urban master plans. The objectives of the thesis are to understand how the city governments have used social media to engage with the general public on urban planning issues, and assess if social media contents can be used to inform urban planning. The 10 top digital …

An Evaluation Of Public Open Space In Downtown Lincoln, Nebraska, Karl Dietrich

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Public open space provides many benefits to a downtown area. Among the benefits are economic growth, social connectivity, health, and helping to create an identity for a city. As many cities continue to sprawl outwards, it is important that their downtown areas create a sense of place so that businesses and people stay and visit. Public open spaces can help provide that much needed sense of place. This study examines whether the “public space index” designed by Vikas Mehta (2014) is effective at evaluating public open spaces. This was done by using four public open spaces (Foundation Garden, Tower Square, …

Gentrifier By John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, And Marc Lamont Hill, Hannah Brais

The Goose

Review of John Joe Schlichtman, Jason Patch, and Marc Lamont Hill's Gentrifier.

Progressive Commemoration: Public Statues Of Historical Women In Urban American Cities, Melanie D. Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Women who made notable accomplishments are underrepresented in commemoration. Some American cities have brought women to the forefront of becoming visible through commemoration in statues. This thesis compares the commemoration of historical women in four different American cities. Stakeholders hold the key to implementing and changing public policy to increase the visibility of women and people of color in public monuments. Cities which lack representation of women and people of color may learn from and follow the efforts of a leading city to achieve lasting and effective change in representing those who historically been underrepresented.

"Safety In Numbers" And Bicycle Safety: A Detailed Analysis Of The Denver Metropolitan Area, Rachael Thompson Panik

All Theses

Recently across the US, there has been a push to accommodate and encourage the viability of alternative modes of transportation—especially bicycling. Leaders across all levels of government, trade groups, advocacy and policy groups, and others are promoting different methods to make urban areas more bikeable. Now, as planning practice is moving towards implementing a transportation system that serves different types of travelers, the US faces challenges involved with retrofitting existing automobile-oriented streets.

While implementing bicycle safety initiatives is becoming a popular movement among municipalities, there have been differing opinions on the best way to make cities more bikable in academic …

A Model For Sustainable Living In Guanajuato, Mexico, Melina Smith

City and Regional Planning

No abstract provided.