Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

No. 16: The State Of Food Insecurity In Msunduzi Municipality, South Africa, Mary Caesar, Jonathan Crush, Trevor Hill

African Food Security Urban Network

There is plenty of food in Msunduzi, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, but the urban poor regularly go hungry. This study of Msunduzi’s food security situation formed part of AFSUN’s baseline survey of eleven Southern African cities. The survey results show that the urban poor in Msunduzi are significantly worse off than their counterparts in Cape Town and Johannesburg. A third of the households reported that they sometimes or often have no food to eat of any kind. Household size did not make a great deal of difference to levels of insecurity but female-headed households are more food insecure than …

No. 14: The State Of Food Insecurity In Windhoek, Namibia, Wade Pendleton, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Akiser Pomuti

African Food Security Urban Network

AFSUN recently conducted a survey of poor urban households in eleven major cities in Southern Africa to better understand the seriousness of the urban food insecurity situation. This report looks in detail at the results for Windhoek and seeks to answer one central question, that is, why do the urban poor in Namibia’s capital generally appear to be better off than the urban poor in most of the other ten cities where the survey was conducted and why, at the same time, does Windhoek contain some of the most food insecure households in the region? As a city of migrants, …

No. 13: The State Of Food Insecurity In Harare, Zimbabwe, Godfrey Tawodzera, Lazarus Zanamwe, Jonathan Crush

African Food Security Urban Network

Harare is at the epicentre of the economic meltdown and political crisis that has devastated Zimbabwe over the last decade and led to a mass exodus from the country. Those who remained in Zimbabwe’s largest city and capital endured unprecedented hardship as the formal economy collapsed, unemployment soared and poverty deepened. Household surveys conducted in Harare with official sanction between 2003 and 2009 appear to demonstrate that food insecurity was not a particularly serious problem, a conclusion sharply at odds with reality. In 2008, at the height of the crisis, AFSUN therefore implemented its own baseline food security survey in …

Recipes Of Resolve: Food And Meaning In Post-Diluvian New Orleans, Jessica Claire Menck

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

In 2005 the city of New Orleans experienced catastrophic flooding as a result of the failure of the federal levee system following Hurricane Katrina. This was an immediate disaster that evolved into a longer-term crisis as the city, state, and national government struggled to respond to the event. This study focuses on one part of managing crisis: meaning making. Specifically, the study investigates meaning making within the food community of New Orleans, asking the questions: is food a way for individuals and groups to make meaning following critical change events such as the failure of the federal levee system in …

Amenity Migration, Exurbia, And Emerging Rural Landscapes: Global Natural Amenity As Place And As Process, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion Presentation: Consequences Of Global Climate Change For Water Quality And Community Sustainability Along The U.S.-Mexico Trans-Border Region, Jorge Duran Encalada

North American Energy Water Nexus Roundtable

Panel Discussion: U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Perspectives

Case Studies of Reynosa/McAllen and Laredo/Nuevo Laredo:

- Water availability and quality in Reynosa/McAllen and Laredo/Nuevo Laredo

- Water Consumption

- Socioeconomic Conditions

- Water Quality Scenarios

- Conclusions & Recommendations

Panel Discussion Presentation: The Colorado River — Operation And Current Conditions, Lorri Gray-Lee

North American Energy Water Nexus Roundtable

Panel Discussion: U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Perspectives

The Colorado River: Operation and Current Conditions

- Overview of Basin
- Overview of the Interim Guidelines
- Current and Projected System Conditions

Panel Discussion Presentation: Mexico-U.S. Transboundary Perspectives, Sally Spener

North American Energy Water Nexus Roundtable

Panel Discussion: U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Perspectives

IBWC Mission:

The International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, is responsible for applying the boundary and water treaties between the two countries and settling differences that arise in their application.

- 1944 Water Treaty

- Colorado River Issues

- Colorado Water Minutes

Welfare Reform Policies And Their Effect On Poverty Rates Across The United States, Luke N. Welle

Political Science Theses and Capstones

We have all heard the arguments on the pros and cons of welfare reform, its effect on recipient’s lives, and its effectiveness in achieving its goals. In concluding whether or not it is effective in achieving its goals, the actual goals are broad and difficult to define. I consider the goal being reducing the number of citizens living in poverty. My research focuses specifically on how variations in the welfare system perform in reducing poverty rates across the United States. I investigate what governmental policies each state has in place and their effect on poverty. Those states, in which poverty …

Rebuilding After Hurricane Katrina: The Big Easy, And The Long Road Home., Jennifer S. Boucher

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The objective of this study is to analyze the influences of demographic patterns, planning politics and funding disbursement processes in rebuilding New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina's storm surge engulfed several neighborhoods of Orleans Parish Louisiana, on August 29th 2005.Immediately following the storm surge, national opinion makers began debating the possibility of shrinking the footprint of New Orleans, as part of the rebuilding process. Although recovery efforts were begun almost immediately, at the five year anniversary of the cataclysmic natural disaster more than a hundred thousand of New Orleanians are still displaced. Utilizing regression analysis as a quantitative measure and qualitative …

The Politics Of Subsidizing Sports: Legislative Voting For Three Minnesota Sports Venues, Dave Hitchcock

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Since 1998 the State of Minnesota has funded the building of the Xcel Energy Center, Target Field, and TCF Bank Stadium. The focus of this research is to locate voting trends within the Minnesota House of Representatives towards these venues. I recorded the votes of each member on the legislation approving these venues from the Minnesota Journal of the House and then constructed data sets for all three buildings. From this data, trends emerge potentially linking the voting tendencies of members based on party, gender, and geographical location of their district. Initial analysis supports a fairly strong relationship between district …

No. 08: Climate Change And Food Security In Southern African Cities, Gina Ziervogel, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

The current urban transition in the Global South is at the heart of discussions about the relationship between climate change and food security. This paper explores the links between climate change and food security within the context of the urban transition taking place in Southern Africa. Climate change is expected to negatively accentuate existing levels of urban food insecurity and these adverse impacts are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor. Researchers, planners and policymakers in Southern African cities are starting to explore how changes in weather associated with climate change are likely to affect urban lifestyles and systems. In …

No. 11: The State Of Food Insecurity In Cape Town, Jane Battersby

African Food Security Urban Network

Cape Town is one of the wealthiest cities in the Southern African region. Yet, the vast majority of households in poor areas of the city experience food insecurity. This paper uses AFSUN data to examine the characteristics and drivers of food insecurity in Cape Town. While food insecurity correlates closely with income poverty and household structure, broader factors also impact upon urban food security, most notably urban design and market structure. Efforts to address urban food insecurity should therefore not simply target the household. Instead, a food systems approach is necessary, which considers supply chains, procurement, nutrition support programmes, public …

No. 06: Urban Food Insecurity And The Advent Of Food Banking In Southern Africa, Daniel N. Warshawsky

African Food Security Urban Network

In most African cities, there is sufficient food to feed everyone and considerable wastage of fresh and processed foodstuffs. Poor households are food insecure because they cannot afford to purchase enough quality food and are unable to access the surplus food that exists. Food redistribution NGOs are well established in Southern Africa but more recently large centralized food banks have been advocated as a means to get surplus food to the hungry. In 2009, the first food banks opened in the South African cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban and Port Elizabeth. The South African model of food collection and …

No. 07: Rapid Urbanization And The Nutrition Transition In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne, Milla Mclachlan

African Food Security Urban Network

The nutrition transition, including the presence of malnutrition and obesity in poor urban populations (the so-called ‘double burden’ of disease), is occurring in Southern Africa in the context of massive rural-urban migration and rapid urbanization. This seemingly contradictory situation poses one of the major threats to public health in the developing world, and impacts the poor – and therefore the most food insecure – to the greatest extent. This paper reviews the state of knowledge about food insecurity and the nutrition transition in the urban areas of Southern Africa drawing on existing studies and new research conducted by AFSUN. The …

No. 05: The Hiv And Urban Food Security Nexus, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne, Scott Drimie, Mary Caesar

African Food Security Urban Network

Considerable attention has been devoted to the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic on small farmers and the food security of the rural poor. Despite the rapid progression of the epidemic in rural areas, it remains an ever-growing challenge in the continent’s rapidly-growing cities where prevalence rates are still higher than in rural areas. This report examines the reciprocal relationship between HIV and urban food security. Much of the research and most of the policy interventions on the HIV-Urban Food Security Nexus focus on the nutritional status of individual People Living With HIV (PLHIV). Other members of households with …

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2010, Jonathan Rothwell, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

One year after the Mountain Monitor began tracking recession and recovery in the Intermountain West, the Southern Nevada economy has yet to turn around. The rate of slippage across a range of indicators has slowed measurably, but evidence of a nascent recovery eludes. Las Vegas' poor relative performance over the past year can be attributed not only to the legacy of a particularly devastating initial wave of economic distress, but also to a continued struggle to slow and reverse the downward trend.

Mountain Monitor-2nd Quarter 2010, Jonathan Rothwell, Kenan Fikri

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

The Intermountain West exemplifies the peculiarities of the Great Recession and its subsequently fragile and protracted recovery. Where pre-recession growth in employment and housing prices was fastest, employment losses and housing price declines have been the most severe—in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Boise most starkly. The profundity of the recession and sluggishness of the recovery have ensured that no metro in the region escaped unscathed, however, and in the second quarter even the best performers fell on some indicators. Perhaps most significantly for the region, housing prices are unlikely to keep falling much further. An analysis by Howard Wial and …

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 …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 85, No. 49, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Wilson, Laurel. Tuition Hike Limited to 5 Percent
• Wilson, Laurel. Halftime Adjustments: Gary Ransdell Reflects as Administrative Changes Bring Transition
• Harris, Shakia. Regents Approve New Programs – Art History, Asian Religions & Cultures, Organizational Leadership, Water Resource Management
• Duvall, Tessa. Community Colleges Pledge to Improve Graduation Rates – Kentucky Community & Technical College System, KCTCS
• Kasnic, Dave. A Thousand Words – Nell Ferguson, Jamboree Barn, Rosine, Kentucky, Bluegrass
• Duvall, Tessa. Land Sale Approved for Greek Village – Regents, Planning, Design & Construction, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Nu
• Simpson, …

No. 01: The Invisible Crisis: Urban Food Security In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

Over 1 billion people in the world are now undernourished. The current international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on the food insecurity of rural populations and ways to increase smallholder production. The plight of the urban poor is marginalised in this agenda leading to neglect of the ‘invisible crisis’ of urban food insecurity. This paper argues that the future of Southern Africa is an urban one and that urban food insecurity is therefore a large and growing challenge. The causes, determinants and solutions for food insecurity are not the same in rural and urban settings. This paper suggests that …

No. 03: Pathways To Insecurity: Food Supply And Access In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Bruce Frayne

African Food Security Urban Network

As in many parts of the world, supermarket expansion and control of food supply chains is having a major impact on the quality, quantity and price of food available to urban residents. Growing numbers of poor households in Southern African cities now obtain their food, directly or indirectly, from supermarkets. In most cities, these same households spend over 40 percent of household income on food. Supermarket expansion is also having a major impact on the informal sector. This paper reviews the changing nature of the urban food supply in Southern African cities, the role of supermarkets and the informal sector …

No. 04: Urban Food Production And Household Food Security In Southern African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Alice Hovorka, Daniel Tevara

African Food Security Urban Network

Optimism about the role of household food production (urban agriculture) in improving the food security of the urban poor has given way to pessimism and even scepticism. This paper critically examines the views of advocates of urban agriculture and suggests that it cannot be isolated from a broader consideration of the changing nature of urban food supply systems in Southern African cities. Urban food production by poor households is currently very limited across the region and even fewer produce for market. While food production is a useful livelihood supplement in some cities and a source of income to some wealthier …

No. 02: The State Of Urban Food Insecurity In Southern Africa, Bruce Frayne, Wade Pendleton, Jonathan Crush, Ben Acquah, Jane Battersby-Lennard, Eugenio Bras, Asiyati Chiweza, Tebogo Dlamini, Robert Fincham, Florian Kroll, Clement Leduka, Aloysius Mosha, Chileshe Mulenga, Peter Mvula, Akiser Pomuti, Ines Raimundo, Michael Rudolph, Shaun Ruysenaa, Nomcebo Simelane, Daniel Tevara, Maxton Tsoka, Godfrey Tawodzera, Lazarus Zanamwe

African Food Security Urban Network

The number of people living in urban areas is rising rapidly in Southern Africa. By mid-century, the region is expected to be 60% urban. Rapid urbanization is leading to growing food insecurity in the region’s towns and cities. This paper presents the results of the first ever regional study of the prevalence of food insecurity in Southern Africa. The AFSUN food security household survey was conducted simultaneously in 2008-9 in 11 cities in 8 SADC countries. The results confirm high levels of food insecurity amongst the urban poor in terms of food availability, accessibility, reliability and dietary diversity. The survey …

Organizational Life And Political Incorporation Of Two Asian Immigrant Groups: A Case Study, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Civil society is the foundation of a healthy democracy but its immigrant element has received little attention. This paper is a case study of immigrant organizations of highly skilled Asian Indians and Chinese immigrants in a suburban town of Edison, New Jersey. I find that civic participation of Asian Indian immigrants spills over into political incorporation while Chinese immigrant organizations remain margin- alized. I argue that local processes of racialization are central in explaining differences in political incorporation of immigrants. In the local context, the Chinese are seen as successful but conformist model minorities and Asian Indians as invaders and …

Resistant Place Identities In Rural Charleston County, South Carolina: Cultural, Environmental, And Racial Politics In The Sewee To Santee Area, Cassandra Y. Johnson, Angela C. Halfacre, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

The cultural and political implications of landscape change and urban growth in the western U.S. are well-documented. However, comparatively little scholarship has examined the effects of urbanization on sense of place in the southern U.S. We contribute to the literature on competing place meanings with a case study from the rural “Sewee to Santee” region of northern Charleston County, SC. Our research highlights conflicting cultural, environmental, and racial politics and their roles in struggles over place meanings. Using focus groups, interviews with elected officials, and participant observation, we document initial African American resistance and eventual compliance with the prevailing anti-sprawl …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 84, No. 21 [31], Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. Articles:

• Hale, Marianne. Former ALIVE Center Director Signs Plea Agreement – Katrina Phelps
• Barczak, Mary. Student Government Association Sets Date for Student Regent Election
• Hale, Marianne & Josh Moore. Unexpected Outcome – Mike Reynolds, J. Marshall Hughes, Elections
• Sanchez, Armando. A Thousand Words – Rodrix Brooks, Prisoners
• Hale, Marianne. Western Sells $47.6 Million in Bonds – Van Meter Hall, Gordon Ford College of Business, Preston Health & Activities Center, Ivan Wilson Hall, Thompson Science Complex, Parking Lots
• Erskine, Anne. Editorial Cartoon re: Journalistic Freedom! – Roller Coaster
• Extra! Extra! …

Sustainability Efforts At South Dakota State University, Joshua A. Schuttloffel

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

South Dakota State University wants to develop a sustainable environment. However, the University has, thus far, refused to make a formal commitment to sustainability. This paper examines how the ecology, communication networks, politic decisions, and issue networks of the University have influenced the University administration to have a goal towards sustainability yet refuse formal commitments to improving the sustainability of the University. Interviews with individuals intimately involved with issues of sustainability at the University are used to present a case study of events from the time sustainability became a goal of University to current. Public administration theory is used to …

Community, Conversation, And Conflict: A Study Of Deliberation And Moderation In A Collaborative Political Weblog, Samantha Isabella Soma

Dissertations and Theses

Concerns about the feasibility of the Internet as an appropriate venue for deliberation have emerged based on the adverse effects of depersonalization, anonymity, and lack of accountability on the part of online discussants. As in face-to-face communication, participants in online conversations are best situated to determine for themselves what type of communication is appropriate. Earlier research on Usenet groups was not optimistic, but community-administered moderation may provide a valuable tool for online political discussion groups who wish to support and enforce deliberative communication among a diverse or disagreeing membership.

This research examines individual comments and their rating and moderation within …

Eminent Domain: The Unintended Consequences Of Kelo, Tracy Lynn Bower

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In recent years, local governments in the United States have increasingly used eminent domain to promote economic development, raising concerns among property-right advocates over what those advocates view as unlawful, or what should be unlawful, takings of private property in order to benefit another private property owner. This philosophical and legal dispute reached a crisis point in the 2005 United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In that decision, the court narrowly upheld a Connecticut Supreme Court ruling granting the City of New London permission to redevelop land that had been seized from existing homeowners …