Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Towards Systematic Prediction Of Urban Heat Islands: Grounding Measurements, Assessing Modeling Techniques, Jackson Voelkel, Vivek Shandas

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

While there exists extensive assessment of urban heat, we observe myriad methods for describing thermal distribution, factors that mediate temperatures, and potential impacts on urban populations. In addition, the limited spatial and temporal resolution of satellite-derived heat measurements may limit the capacity of decision makers to take effective actions for reducing mortalities in vulnerable populations whose locations require highly-refined measurements. Needed are high resolution spatial and temporal information for urban heat. In this study, we ask three questions: (1) how do urban heat islands vary throughout the day? (2) what statistical methods best explain the presence of temperatures at sub-meter …

Planning A Sustainable Portland: A Digital Library For Local, Regional, And State Planning And Policy Documents, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is intended as a guiding framework for the collection and digitizing program of the Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library (OSCDL). The document addresses the following issues: (1) Portland and Oregon as centers of innovative planning (2) The institutional context of planning (3) The types of planning documentation typically found (4) The definition and dimensions of sustainability (5) Issue areas and topics that are most significant and interesting for electronic access.

It then offers suggestions about priorities for digital archiving based on a historical interpretation of Portland’s key planning and policy accomplishments and its consequent planning "gems" that are …

Five Downtown Strategies: Policy Discourse And Downtown Planning Since 1945, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Downtown planning since World War II has been based on constantly changing assumptions about the nature of central business districts. From 1945 to 1955, downtown was seen as the city's unitary center, and the focus of planning activity was the improvement of downtown access and circulation. Between 1955 and 1965, downtown became a declining activity center and failing real estate market; planners and business groups fought decline and competition from the suburbs through programs like urban renewal. In the decade after 1965, a reaction against urban renewal led to a new conception of downtown as a set of distinct functional …