Infrastructure Commons^™

Preventing Obesity: A Social Ecological Exploration Of Centers For Disease Control Prevention Strategies And Guidance Toward Healthy Eating, Physical Activity, And Communities, Ryan Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Obesity has reached nearly 40% of the adult public in the United States, costing the citizen taxpayer over $200 billion annually in healthcare costs. Those suffering from obesity deal with multiple physical and mental repercussions. Through a content analysis of four Centers for Disease Control (CDC) documents and guided by the conceptual framework of the social ecological model, this research explores the federal approach to preventing obesity. The analysis finds that CDC solutions to obesity involve connecting people to each other and healthier choices, an orientation toward local public administration, and an emphasis on environmental and infrastructure improvements. The …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Priorities For Governing Large-Scale Infrastructure In The Tropics, Anthony Bebbington, Avecita Chicchon, Nicholas Cuba, Emily Greenspan, Susanna Hecht, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Susan Kandel, Tracey Osborne, Rebecca Ray, John Rogan, Laura Sauls

Sustainability and Social Justice

National governments, International Financial Institutions, and the G-20 have intensified investments of infrastructure to boost economic growth in the wake of economic recessions and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This infrastructure enables investments in large-scale agriculture, ranching, mining, and oil and gas extraction which tend to intensify the current inequalities. These activities is slated to occur in tropical forests and on lands historically occupied by Indigenous, Afro-Descendant, Traditional and other rural peoples. This has unprecedented negative impact on the ecosystem, the biodiversity as well as on the peoples.

This article calls for a 'three-leg' agenda to align infrastructure, development, …

Connecting The Emerging Markets: China’S Growing Role In Global Digital Infrastructure, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

Rising demand for international communications drive cable capacity growth, yet financing and political risks remain major obstacles. Chinese investments help finance cable systems in multiple emerging market regions. Emerging economies need to develop robust domestic regulations and international coordination to reduce political risks, protect cable infrastructure, and manage cyber risks.

Resource Extraction And Infrastructure Threaten Forest Cover And Community Rights, Anthony Bebbington, Denise Humphreys Bebbington, Laura Sauls, John Rogan, Sumali Agrawal, César Gamboa, Aviva Imhof, Kimberly Johnson, Herman Rosa, Antoinette Royo, Tessa Toumbourou, Ricardo Verdum

Sustainability and Social Justice

Mineral and hydrocarbon extraction and infrastructure are increasingly significant drivers of forest loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and threats to the rights of forest communities in forested areas of Amazonia, Indonesia, and Mesoamerica. Projected investments in these sectors suggest that future threats to forests and rights are substantial, particularly because resource extraction and infrastructure reinforce each other and enable population movements and agricultural expansion further into the forest. In each region, governments have made framework policy commitments to national and cross-border infrastructure integration, increased energy production, and growth strategies based on further exploitation of natural resources. This reflects political settlements among …

Stormwater Management In Philadelphia: The Importance Of Green Stormwater Infrastructure And Community Involvement In Greater Citywide Sustainability, Julie Groff

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found the City of Philadelphia to be in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 due to insufficient stormwater infrastructure. In 2011, Philadelphia initiated a 25-year, citywide plan called Green City, Clean Waters to reduce stormwater runoff by implementing green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). The plan promised significant community involvement in the process. I conducted semi-structured interviews with City employees and individuals in the community that have partnered with the City to administer GSI and participant observation of community meetings and used them to explore different neighborhoods’ experiences with Green City, Clean …

Tallahassee Central City Planning Study, Tallahassee-Leon County Planning Department

City and Regional Planning -- Florida

Study on Developing Downtown Tallahassee

Fertility And Rural Electrification In Bangladesh, Tomoki Fujii, Abu S. Shonchoy

Research Collection School Of Economics

We use a household-level panel dataset from Bangladesh to examine the household-level relationship between fertility and the access to electricity. We find that the household's access to electricity reduces the change in the number of children by about 0.1 to 0.25 children in a period of five years in most estimates. This finding also applies to retrospective panel data and is robust to the choice of covariates and estimation methods. Our finding passes falsification test and corroborates with the predictions of our theoretical model on the households' time use and consumption pattern.

Northeast Ocean Planning Baseline Assessment: Marine Resources, Infrastructure, And Economics, Hauke Kite-Powell, Charles Colgan, Porter Hoagland, Di Jin, Vinton Valentine, Brooke Wikgren

Publications

This document summarizes the status of coastal and marine resources in the Northeast region of the United States, and how these resources generate economic and ecological value. The Northeast region, for ocean planning purposes, includes the coastal counties of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and the New York counties (bordering Long Island Sound) of Queens, Bronx, Suffolk, Nassau, and Westchester. The coastal and marine natural resources and coastal infrastructure of the Northeast, and the economic activities and cultural/recreational services that rely them, directly and indirectly support more than 500,000 jobs and $40 billion in economic value (GDP) …

The Cost Of Earmarks, Nicholis John Zappia

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Finding revenue is a challenge that faces many municipalities in the United States. As the tax base continues to decline and demand for government services increases, local governments are forced to make hard choices. Low on the list of priorities for local governments is the maintenance, and construction of infrastructure. Traditionally there have been several ways for local governments to fund long-term infrastructure projects including, federal-aid through the process of earmarking. The practice of earmarking has been around since the first congress, but hit its peak between 2003 and 2007. The earmarking process is controversial for several reasons; earmarking bypasses …

Paying For Infrastructure In An Urban Environment: Roles Of Ideological Beliefs And Self-Interest In Support For Two Funding Mechanisms, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Lenahan O'Connell, Khairul A. Anuar, Kaitrin Mahar

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

This study examines public preferences for two revenue options—fuel taxes and tolls—to finance transportation infrastructure in an urban area with the use of the results of a survey of residents of the Hampton Roads region of southeastern Virginia. Specifically, the study addresses two related research questions: (a) To what extent do residents support instituting tolls, increasing the fuel tax, or both? (b) What roles do self-interest and ideological beliefs play in support of increasing the fuel tax, imposing tolls, or doing both? The study finds that 50% of respondents expressed a willingness to support fuel taxes or tolls for infrastructure, …

Infrastructure Provision, Gender And Poverty In Indian Slums, Prithi Parikh, Kun Fu, Himanshu Parikh, Allan Mcrobie, Gerard George

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We examine the relationship between infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation by analyzing 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non-serviced slums in India. Using a mixed-method approach of qualitative analysis and regression modeling, we find that infrastructure was associated with a 66% increase in education among females. Service provision increased literacy by 62%, enhanced income by 36%, and reduced health costs by 26%. Evidence suggests that a gender-sensitive consideration of infrastructure is necessary and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will not suffice. We provide evidence that infrastructure investment is critical for well-being of slum dwellers and women in particular.

Public Works Department Organizational And Operational Analysis: Town Of Saugus, Massachusetts, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

This report presents the results of the management assessment of the Saugus Public Works Department conducted by the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Collins Center for Public Management (“the Center”). This first Section introduces the analysis – outlining principal objectives and how the analysis was conducted – and presents an Executive Summary.

The project team conducted a comprehensive organization and management analysis of the Department’s existing operations, service levels, infrastructure management, organizational structures and staffing levels. The analysis was to be fact-based and include all aspects of service provision by the Department.

Staffing And Organizational Assessment Of The Public Works Department Of The Town Of Watertown, Ma, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

This report presents the results of the management assessment of the Watertown Public Works Department (the “Department”) conducted by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston (“the Center”). This first section introduces the analysis, outlining principal objectives and how the analysis was conducted, and it offers a summary of the recommendations described in detail later in the document.

The project team conducted a comprehensive organizational and management analysis of the Department’s existing operations, service levels, infrastructure management, organizational structure, and staffing levels.

Re.Invest, Denise Thompson

July 10, 2013: Best Practices and Communications Strategies for Adapting to Sea Level Rise and Flooding

No abstract provided.

A Systemic Approach To Next Generation Infrastructure Data Elicitation And Planning Using Serious Gaming Methods, Ersin Ancel

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Infrastructure systems are vital to the functioning of our society and economy. However, these systems are increasingly complex and are more interdependent than ever, making them difficult to manage. In order to respond to increasing demand, environmental concerns, and natural and man-made threats, infrastructure systems have to adapt and transform. Traditional engineering design approaches and planning tools have proven to be inadequate when planning and managing these complex socio-technical system transitions. The design and implementation of next generation infrastructure systems require holistic methodologies, encompassing organizational and societal aspects in addition to technical factors. In order to do so, a serious …

Generic Wish-Lists For State-Centric Policies, Edzia Carvalho

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Central America depicted in the article under review resembles a region visited by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—colonial Conquest, civil War, Famine and other natural disasters, and poverty, disease and Death. Added to this list of woes are the recent drug-fueled conflict, democratic instability, weak state capacity, and the socio-economic fallout of the economic recession in the United States. While the first half of the article records these problems, the author shifts gears in the second half and provides an array of responses to these challenges, with a forceful recommendation that states in the region focus their efforts …

Policy Analysis Of Rural Development Strategy In Mexico: Creation And Management Of Infrastructure Systems, Carlton J. Rueb

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores rural development strategy in Mexico within the context of infrastructure development. It finds that although the tenants of decentralization and neoliberalism on which the strategy is based are conducive to gains in productivity, equity, and environmental sustainability in rural Mexico, the current government apparatus creates a number of market failures which limit the beneficial potential of the development strategy. Lessons learned from the Mexican experience should be applied in other contexts for development strategies.

Human Rights Education In Peace-Building: A Look At Where The Practice Has Come From, And Where It Needs To Head, Tracey Holland

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The world’s peace-building and development organizations increasingly are incorporating human-rights frameworks into the myriad of activities now under their purview. Slower to develop, however, are the capacity-building programs designed to impart knowledge about human rights to citizens and communities. Field-workers throughout the world indicate that the lack of such guidance-giving education hinders them when it comes to monitoring activities, helping to rebuild public institutions, setting up and organizing electoral politics, building an unfettered media, protecting human security, setting up transitional justice mechanisms, and the myriad of other peace-building activities and democratization challenges they face in post-conflict situations. This paper not …

Boston's Big Dig Project: A Cautionary Tale, Wendy Haynes

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Stakeholder Contributions To Container Port Capacity: A Survey Of Port Authorities, Michael J. Maloni, Eric C. Jackson

Faculty Articles

Given recent concerns about North American port congestion, this paper examines stakeholder involvement in expanding port capacity to meet significant volume growth. North American container port authorities were surveyed to identify key capacity factors and subsequent participation requirements by stakeholders such as terminal operators, longshore labor, railroads, steamship lines, truckers, and government. The resulting analysis indicates port frustration with participation currently offered by all stakeholders, especially the federal government and railroads. Such results further validate the requirement for a multi-stakeholder approach to port capacity expansion and suggest the need for national freight policy and planning leadership.

Quantifying Vulnerability To Critical Infrastructure, Barry Charles Ezell

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Military and civilian leaders have the responsibility to protect our Nation's critical infrastructure, communities, and symbols of American power from terrorists, home and abroad, as well as from natural disasters. To this end, assessments are conducted to reduce vulnerability. The literature offers multiple definitions of vulnerability and measurement has not been adequately addressed. Thus, the purpose of this research has been to develop and deploy a systems-based model that quantifies vulnerability to critical infrastructure. This research defines critical infrastructure vulnerability as a measure of the susceptibility of critical infrastructure to threat scenarios. Vulnerability is a function of (1) threat scenario, …

Industrial Resources: Ohio County, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Ohio County

"Resources for Economic Development: Ohio County, [Kentucky]" prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research, Frankfort, Kentucky, July 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Union County, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Union County

"Resources for Economic Development: Union County, [Kentucky]" prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research in cooperation with the Union County Economic Development Foundation, Inc., Morganfield, Kentucky, July 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate

Industrial Resources - Gallatin County, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Gallatin County

"Resources for Economic Development: Gallatin County, Kentucky” prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research, and the Gallatin County Chamber of Commerce, 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Graves County - Mayfield, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Graves County

"Resources for Economic Development: Mayfield, Kentucky” prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research, and the Mayfield – Graves County Local Development Corporation, 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Logan County, Kentucky Library Research Collection

Logan County

"Resources for Economic Development: Logan County, Kentucky]" prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research in cooperation with the Logan County Economic Development Commission, Russellville, Kentucky, July 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Crittenden County - Marion, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Crittenden County

"Resources for Economic Development: Marion (Crittenden County), Kentucky" prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research, and the Crittenden County Economic Development Corporation, 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Webster County, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Webster County

"Resources for Economic Development: Webster County, [Kentucky]" prepared by the kentucky Department of Economic Development, Division of Research in cooperation with the Webster County Economic Corporation, Dixon Kentucky, July 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.

Industrial Resources: Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Muhlenberg County

"Resources for Economic Development: Muhlenberg County, Kentucky" prepared by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, Division of Research in cooperation the Muhlenberg Economic Enterprise, Greenville, Kentucky, June 2000. The report includes, but is not limited to, information about: population, labor market, local manufacturing, transportation, utilities, fuel, water, sewage, industrial sites, local government and services, taxes, educational and health facilities, housing, communication, recreation, natural resources, markets, and climate.