Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Towards Sociobiogeochemistry: Critical Perspectives On Anthropogenic Alterations To Soil Nitrogen Chemistry Via U.S. Urban And Suburban Development, Christopher D. Ryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ecological impacts of changes to land use are relevant to concerns about climate change, eutrophication of waterbodies, and reductions in biodiversity. As a foundational component of ecosystem functioning, changes to soil biogeochemistry have significant effects on overall ecosystem health. With cities continuing to grow and develop in extent, the impacts of urbanization and suburbanization on soils are of particular concern. Despite a wide range of natural climatic and geologic conditions, several factors have driven similar patterns of land transformation and management across the United States. In particular, federal initiatives including the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, …

Secondhand Shopping Is Now The Coolest Way To Get Your Clothes, Camryn Quick

Capstones

Shopping secondhand has experienced an uptick in popularity in the past few years. There are a few reasons for this, all of which are examined in the project. One reason for the increase in secondhand shoppers is the daunting news about the state of our environment. Another reason, perhaps even more powerful than the fear of environmental collapse, is that thrifting has become a fashion phenomenon showcased and distributed throughout social media apps like TikTok. Essentially, shopping secondhand has become cool. This project explores these driving forces behind the thrifting boom, as well as the possible impacts, including "thrift store …

Tectonic And Geotechnical Review Of Bengal Basin For Seismic Risk Assessment In Bangladesh, Mir Fazlul Karim, Jnana Ranjan Kayal, Daya Shanker, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Arif M. Sikder, M Zillur Rahman, Muhammad Qumrul Hassan

Publications and Research

Four major geotectonic provinces of the basin are recognized: 1) the continental slope to the west of the Hinge Zone, 2) the stable shelf, 3) the deep central trough (Sylhet-Hatiya) and 4) the Chittagong-Tripura fold belt to the east. The ~300 km long Dauki Fault demarcates the elevated Shillong Plateau, part of the Indian Shield to the north and the deep basin to the south. The basin experienced three strong to major intraplate earthquakes: a) 1885 Bengal earthquake (rev. Mw 6.8) close to the Hinge Zone, b) 1918 Srimangal earthquake (rev. Mw 7.1) on the Sylhet (trough) fault and c) …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit To Climate-Displaced And Host Communities, Gül Aktürk, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as salinization of water and soil, people lose their lands, homes, and natural resources. Catastrophic events force people to move voluntarily or involuntarily. The relocation of communities is a debatable climate adaptation measure which requires utmost care with human rights, ethics, and psychological well-being of individuals upon the issues …

Applying The Food-Energy-Water Nexus Approach To Urban Agriculture: From Few To Fewp (Food-Energy- Water-People), Silvio Caputo, Victoria Schoen, Kathrin Spect, Baptiste Grard, Chris Blythe, Nevin Cohen, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Jason Hawes, Joshua Newell, Lidia Poniży

Publications and Research

Many studies examine the correlation between the use of resources such as water, energy and land, and the production of food. These nexus studies focus predominantly on large scale systems, often considering the social dimensions only in terms of access to resources and participation in the decision- making process, rather than individual attitudes and behaviours with respect to resource use. Such a concept of the nexus is relevant to urban agriculture (UA), but it requires customisation to the particular characteristics of growing food in cities, which is practiced mainly at a small scale and produces not only food but also …

Integrating Digital Tools In Remote Learning To Enhance The Delivery Methods Of Technical Content In Undergraduate Geosciences, Ruslana Baker, Malek Shami, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer

Publications and Research

The global transition to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic was an extremely difficult task for both students and faculty in geological sciences. Technical courses, such as Structural Geology, Mineralogy, Petrology, and Invertebrate Paleontology, that require in-person lectures and laboratory sessions involving various rocks and mineral samples, fossils, maps, and models, were a major concern at the start. The challenge of delivering the technical content via Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Zoom, and other internet based platforms was not only a burden for the faculty to carry, as students were struggling to conceptualize outcrop-and-type-section-based information and link …

Brooklyn Trash Problems, Christina Diaz

Capstones

Walk through the streets of New York and at some point you’ll inevitably pass by a wafting smell of garbage, but residents of North Brooklyn are handling more than their share of the smelly load and they’re tired of getting dumped on.

A newly formed coalition of neighbors and environmental activists has begun a turf war against Brooklyn Transfer LLC, a waste transfer station located on Thames Street in East Williamsburg, which handles private commercial waste through ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Five Star Carting.

Link to Map: https://www.zeemaps.com/map?group=1769408

Estimating Stormwater Runoff For Community Gardens In New York City, Mara Gittleman

Theses and Dissertations

While much of the literature cites community gardens as providing urban ecosystem services, there is very little research quantifying these benefits. This thesis compares the stormwater runoff rates of urban vacant lots, community gardens, and residential developments in New York City and evaluates community gardens as green infrastructure.

In Harm's Way: How Philadelphia's Urban Renewal Practices Steered Marginal People To Marginal Land, Katera Ya'shea Moore

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dumping of locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) on marginal communities has been well documented, however environmental justice scholars have rarely written about how marginal groups have come to occupy their landscapes, particularly when natural hazards lie beneath.

This dissertation research focuses on a broad definition of the environment that includes the built, social, and physical. I am interested in extending Logan and Molotch's Growth Machine theory to consider how the political and economic elite guided the urban renewal process to place particular communities on particular landscapes, despite the presence of a flooding hazard. To understand this issue, I examined …

Suburban Heat Islands: The Influence Of Residential Minimum Lot Size Zoning On Surface Heat Islands In Somerset County, New Jersey, Jennifer Renee Cox

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The process of suburbanization blurs regional bounds, forms mega-regions and fosters the expansion of multifaceted environmental problems, such as the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Defined by differences in air- and surface- temperature between rural and urban areas, UHI is the result of the characteristics of urbanization which modify the land surface condition, urban geometry, thermal properties of construction materials, anthropogenic heat and air pollution, which increase storage and re-radiation of heat to the atmosphere. Climate change is predicted to worsen the UHI effect. Hence, the objective of this research to characterize the UHI effect as it pertains to suburban …