Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

New Jersey's Waste Management Data: Retrospect And Prospect, Jordan Howell, Katherine Schmidt, Brooke Iacone, Giavanni Rizzo, Christina Parilla

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

Reliable data about collection, volume, tonnage, stream composition, and disposal price have long been described as key components of successful solid waste management planning. Yet, concerns about data quality and quantity have continued to limit even the most sincere, progressive waste management schemes. This paper examines solid waste management data that has been collected in the US state of New Jersey starting in the 1960s. We present the origins of waste management data collection in New Jersey and trace some of the applications that have been made with the data over time. We compare the New Jersey dataset to waste …

No.05: Food Security And The Changing Landscape Of Food Retailing In Nanjing, China, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The expansion of supermarkets and online food markets are changing the complexion of food retailing in Nanjing. At the same time, traditional forms of retail display considerable resilience.

■ Nanjing has low levels of food insecurity overall as measured by the HFIAS and HDDS. The one in five households who are food insecure are primarily low-income and female-centred.

■ Concerns over food safety are a major characteristic of all consumers in Nanjing irrespective of income and food security status.

■ Policy implications include ensuring food access for households with higher levels of food insecurity, promoting trustworthy food sources in …

No.04: Enabling Informal Food Vending In Urban South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Food vending is an important component of the South African economy, where it provides employment, income, livelihoods and contributes to the food security of poorer households.

■ Policies towards the informal food sector in most South African cities are restrictive and often punitive, and undermine the critical contributions of informal food vending.

■ To maximize their impacts, informal food vendors need an enabling policy environment with less red tape, better infrastructure, greater financial and other supports, and public recognition of their positive role in the urban food system.

Designing Single-Family Residences: A Study Of The Positive Impact Of Interior Design In Creating New Home Value, Shawn M. Falcone

Interior Design Program: Student Creative Activity

This study seeks to demonstrate that interior designers should be included as primary stakeholders in the home construction market. The market demand for new single-family homes in America is a relative constant. The primary stake and role that land developers, architects, draftsman, home builders, bankers, appraisers, real estate agents, and buyers have in the home construction market is clear. What is less clear is the role in value an interior designer has in the home construction market. This thesis examines the impact designers have on home value when their expertise is utilized in space planning (i.e.: layout, function, room utilization, …

North Wasco County School District Enrollment Forecasts 2019-20 To 2028-29, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Joshua Ollinger

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

North Wasco County School District population, housing, and social and economic profile.

A Comprehensive Examination Of Electronic Wayfinding Technology For Visually Impaired Travelers In An Urban Environment, Martin Swobodzinski, Amy T. Parker

TREC Final Reports

In this project, we distilled an inventory of smartphone-based electronic travel aid technology for the wayfinding of visually impaired travelers in an urban environment based on a thorough review of software marketplaces and the academic literature. Subsequently, we solicited structured input from domain experts and visually impaired individuals on their experiences and evaluations pertaining to personal telecommunication technology for safe and efficient wayfinding. The insights gained from this project are instrumental for the conceptualization and development of integrated route planning and guidance application that address the distinct information needs and expectations of individuals with a vision-related functional impairment. The very …

Update On Electricity Customer Choice In Ohio: Competition Continues To Outperform Traditional Monopoly Regulation (Executive Summary), Andrew R. Thomas, William M. Bowen, Mark Henning, Edward Hill, Adam Kanter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Key Findings at a Glance:

Deregulated Markets Save Ohio Electricity Consumers Billions

• Since 2011, deregulation has saved Ohio consumers $23.9 billion.
• The Study Team anticipates that savings will continue for the near term to be around $3 billion per year. However, these savings may be lost, in whole or in part, if deregulated energy markets continue to be undermined by cross subsidies.

Competition Outperforms Monopoly Regulation

• Competition has driven down average electricity prices in deregulated Midwestern states while their regulated peers have seen a steady increase in price of generated electricity.

Update On Electricity Customer Choice In Ohio: Competition Continues To Outperform Traditional Monopoly Regulation (Full Report), Andrew R. Thomas, William M. Bowen, Mark Henning, Edward W. Hill, Adam Kanter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The purpose of this study is to provide an update to the research team’s 2016 report “Electricity Customer Choice in Ohio: How Competition Has Outperformed Traditional Monopoly Regulation” using data for 2016 through 2018.

Key Findings:

1. Since 2011, Ohio consumers have saved $23.9 billion because of deregulation.

2. Competition has driven down average electricity prices in deregulated Midwestern states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois), while their regulated peers (Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin) have seen a steady increase in price of generated electricity.

3. The Study Team anticipates that savings will continue for the near term to be around $3 billion per year. …

Spring 2019 Commuting And Parking Survey Report Prepared For West Chester University, Eric K. Foster

WCU Campus Sustainability Initiatives

A second annual commuter survey was conducted at West Chester University in the spring of 2019. The purpose of the survey was to measure community members' current commuting and parking habits and to informally investigate their willingness to participate in alternate forms of transportation. Data from the previous year's survey is compared to 2018 survey data.

Urban (Un)Planning And Social Vulnerability In The Context Of Rapid Urbanization And Data Constraints: A Quantitative Study Of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania., Sheliza Bhanjee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores intersections between vulnerability and urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa, where distinct forms of urbanization are occurring and where there are significant data constraints limiting local studies and urban assessments in the region. The three studies which make up this dissertation offer methodological and theoretical pathways toward examining and measuring the influence of urbanization and planning factors on vulnerability of urban populations in the region. The first study is a literature review and examines existing literature for vulnerability conceptualization in urban environments, the notion of ‘urban vulnerability’, and roles of urban planning and related factors in relation to …

Impartiality, Social Network Effects And Collective Memory: Three Essays On Trust In Police., Matthew Robert Fischer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an historical and empirical examination of police organizational efforts at influencing public perceptions of trust in police. It begins with an historical overview of police organizational reform, focusing on the various strategies employed by police reformers have attempted to influence public perceptions of police trustworthiness and legitimacy. It uses Rothstein’s impartiality as Quality of Government thesis and the theory of collective memory to argue for an understanding of the importance of the normative context in which police tactics and strategies are deployed for garnering trust in police and how the presence of social network effects for trust …

Municipal Annexation Reform In Texas: How A Victory For Property Rights Jeopardizes The State’S Financial Health, Julie Polansky Bell

St. Mary's Law Journal

Municipal annexation is the expansion of city boundaries. The greatest motivator behind municipal annexation is maintaining and improving economic prosperity of the annexing authority. The issue of annexation involves a balance of rights between property owners and municipalities of the state. Historically, Texas cities had broad annexation authority under an involuntary annexation scheme. However, in recent years the power has shifted as lawmakers have given property owners greater control over the annexation process. This trend culminated in the passage of the Municipal Annexation Right to Vote Act (MARVA) by the 85th Texas Legislature, which severely limits annexation authority.

Texas municipalities …

Electronic Wayfinding For Visually Impaired Travelers: Limitations And Opportunities, Martin Swobodzinski, Amy T. Parker

TREC Project Briefs

In this project, we distilled an inventory of smartphone-based electronic travel aid technology for the wayfinding of visually impaired travelers in an urban environment based on a thorough review of software marketplaces and the academic literature. Subsequently, we solicited structured input from domain experts and visually impaired individuals on their experiences and evaluations pertaining to personal telecommunication technology for safe and efficient wayfinding. The insights gained from this project are instrumental for the conceptualization and development of integrated route planning and guidance application that address the distinct information needs and expectations of individuals with a vision-related functional impairment. The very …

Lidar-Based Sinkhole Detection And Mapping In Knox County, Tennessee, J Clint Shannon, David Moore, Yingkui Li, Cathy Olsen

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sinkholes are one of the major causes of damage to roads, buildings, and other infrastructure throughout the US. Sinkholes near or on roads are especially costly and occasionally deadly. Knox County and much of East Tennessee are located within karst areas (comprised of porous and soluble limestone and dolomite), deeming it at risk for sinkholes. Currently, Knox County uses contour maps to manually identify sinkholes. Supported by a geographic information system (GIS), we developed a streamlined model to identify the locations and extents of potential sinkholes using 1.3-ft resolution LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and applied it to the …

Enhanced Transit Corridors In Portland's Central City, Gabe Graff, Kelly Betteridge

PSU Transportation Seminars

Over the past two years, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and TriMet have joined forces to identify, design and build capital and operational treatments to help buses move more quickly and reliably through Portland’s increasingly congested Central City. Already the densest concentration of people and jobs in Oregon, Portland’s Central City is growing fast and increasing the speed and reliability of transit is key to achieving our City and region’s transportation, climate and livability goals. Working in partnership on PBOT’s Central City in Motion plan and TriMet and Metro’s Enhanced Transit Corridor program, the two agencies have identified a series …

Webinar: Aging In Place: Improving Mobility For Older Adults, Alan Kenneth Delatorre, Ivis Garcia Zambrana, Ja Young Kim

TREC Webinar Series

Aging in place can simply be defined as staying in your home as you age; aging in place concerns include mobility, social activities, safety, accessibility, and long term supports and services in one’s neighborhood and society. In order to facilitate aging in place, organizations in Salt Lake County, Utah and the City of Portland, Oregon, provided home modifications to income-qualified older adults that intended to enable aging in place. Such modifications alter individuals’ life-space mobility – a concept recently used by gerontologists and that we introduced to planners – from within one’s home to the broader community. A unique methodological …

The Future Is Now: Akron’S Dynamic And Inclusive Economy, Iryna Lendel, Iryna Demko, Merissa Piazza, Matthew Ellerbrock

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

• The economic trends in Northeast Ohio (NEO) over the last 20 years are typical of the Midwest region, with a positive increase in output outpaced by the state of Ohio, and the United States
  
  
• The double recessions of 2001 and 2007-2009 show a deeper output decline in NEO than in comparable Midwest regions and the United States
  
  
• Traditionally, industries with high regional specialization that have a competitive advantage and drive regional economies are called economic base industries
  
  
• Groups of Regional Industry Drivers (GRIDs) are part of the economic base of a region 2

Indicators Of Urban Heritage Teaching In The Public Universities In Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Toman

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The study reviewed the academic programs in the universities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to measure their attention to teaching the urban heritage through the analysis of curse description and apply the definition of urban heritage to this description, and then determine whether this article takes care of the teaching of urban heritage. In order to conduct the evaluation, a digital scale designed to evaluate the universities in terms of urban heritage teaching at four levels.

The study reached the following results:

• The number of universities that teach the urban heritage 12 out of 29 public universities, which …

Minimodal: Dimensional Domain Of Miniature Shipping Containers For Intermodal Freight Transportation, Lee Stapley

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

This study explores the feasibility of miniature shipping container usage within existing intermodal transportation (IT) supply chains. Smaller intermodal container shipments may help realign freight shipments with the most efficient transportation mode, rail. These containers embolden the dimensional domain (DD) of shipping. The shipping container dimensional domain (container size variation and modal fluidity) is widespread and results in shipments that are often larger or more infrequent than needed. The DD impacts transport mode, shipping frequency, shipment velocity, intermodal supply chain accessibility, and regional shipping networks. This study suggests that container size impacts the DD and, therefore, mode choice. As miniature …

Factors In Refugee Resilience Building During Humanitarian Response, Rachel Starner

Capstone Collection

If countries hosting refugees want to build resiliency and reduce dependency on foreign relief, humanitarian response and local development need to be addressed simultaneously, and collaboration at all levels of stakeholders needs to take place in planning and decision making. Additionally, innovation and strong leadership are strong factors in creating and leading new ideas as funding and world leadership dynamics change, especially with traditional leaders such as the US and the UN losing influence. Observations made at the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda as well as existing document analysis reflect these traits by active efforts of camp administrators and humanitarian …

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 …

Making A Case For Equity Planning In Transportation Development: Identifying Indicators And Building A Framework For Hillsborough County, Fl, Dayna J. Lazarus

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The idea that planners should work toward an equitable society has been part of the profession since the 1960s, largely based on the work of planning theorists like Paul Davidoff, Sherry Arnstein and Norman Krumholz. Transportation planning, however, has been slower than other sectors of the profession, such as housing, to embrace equity planning concepts. That has begun to change as concerns about income inequality, environmental justice and climate change have become more salient. This thesis makes the case that in order to improve social equity outcomes, transportation planners must make social equity an explicit goal and add social equity …

The Public Library As Resistive Space In The Neoliberal City, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

With reduced hours, decaying infrastructure, and precariously positioned staff, local public libraries provide much needed services in cities devastated by inequality and slashed safety nets. In this article, I draw on ethnographic research of a small public library in a diverse, mostly working class neighborhood in Queens, New York. I show that in addition to providing an alternative to the capitalist market by distributing resources according to people’s needs, the library serves as a moral underground space, where middle class people bend rules to help struggling city residents. Although the library occasionally replicates hegemonic ideologies about immigrant assimilation, it provides …

Domain Analysis Of ‘Urban’ In Library Classification Schemes, B Preedip Balaji

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Urban is a complex domain, dealing with characteristics of life in cities to meet the needs of urban society. With a changing demography, spatial and socio-economic conditions, urbanization is experienced in the globalized cities, as half of the world’s population live in large cities and towns in 21st century. There are ongoing debates on positing ‘urban’ in social science, science and technology and in arts disciplines, which interpret and define the meaning of ‘urban.’ However, the existing disciplines are interdisciplinary, intersectional and diversified with various approaches, models and theories to study urbanism. Towards the goal of arriving at the subject …

Renewable Energy Access And Resilience In Urban Developing Areas: Distributed Solar Networks And Peer-To-Peer Energy Trading In Puerto Rico, Pascale Bronder

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

This senior essay under the Environmental Studies major at Yale University explores the environmental and social benefits of applying innovative technology to the energy sector. Three types of energy networks are analyzed, focusing on the use of distributed energy and peer to peer energy trading on a blockchain platform. The benefits of distributed renewable energy networks can most strongly be applied to locations in need of more reliable, resilient, and cost-effective electricity. Puerto Rico is a case study. Methods include analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration and Census Bureau data as well as personal interviews with Puerto Rican energy developers. …

Leveraging Twitter And Machine Learning For Real-Time Transit Network Evaluation, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu, Qian Zuo, Shenruoyang Na, Ran Wei, Aaron Golub, Liming Wang, Jake Davis

TREC Project Briefs

With today’s profusion of open data sources and real-time feeds, transit agencies have an unparalleled opportunity to leverage large amounts of data to improve transit service. Thanks to NITC researchers, there is now an open-source tool for that.

The new Social-Transportation Analytic Toolbox (STAT) for Transit Networks, developed by researchers at the University of Utah and Portland State University, is a dynamic platform that combines Twitter, general transit feed specification (GTFS), and census transportation planning products (CTPP)—in this case, job density data—to help agencies evaluate overall system performance and identify connectivity gaps. It can also act as a decision support …

Social-Transportation Analytic Toolbox (Stat) For Transit Networks, Xiaoyue Cathy Liu, Qian Zuo, Shenruoyang Na, Ran Wei, Aaron Golub, Liming Wang, Jake Davis

TREC Final Reports

This project builds an open-source, socio-transportation analytic (STAT) toolbox for public transit system planning in an effort to integrate social media and general transit feed specification (GTFS) data for transit agencies in evaluating and enhancing the performance of public transit systems. This toolbox is novel and essential to transit agencies in two aspects. First, it enables the integration, analysis and visualization of two major, new open transportation data, social media and GTFS data, to support transit decision-making. Second, it allows transit agencies to evaluate service network efficiency and access equity of transit systems in a cohesive manner, and identify areas …

Fuse: People With Frequent Utilization Of Public Services In Clackamas County, Oregon: Potential Service Enhancements, Karen Cellarius, Marisa Zapata, Eric Einspruch, Cameron Mulder, Thuan Duong, Aliza Tuttle

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

The goal of this study was to answer five very specific questions about individuals with high service utilization and the systems that serve them. The data for this study comes from administrative system data, informational conversations and meetings with community partners, formal interviews with service providers, and interviews with consumers with frequent service utilization.

Limitations: The rates of mental illness, addiction and homelessness are likely to be higher than they appear in this report due to the way these characteristics were gathered or recorded in system databases. Historically marginalized populations are increasingly underrepresented in datasets.

Bicycle Planning Gis Tool, Joseph Broach

TREC Final Reports

Although currently only about one percent of US trips are done by bicycle, there is significant geographic variation. Differences across communities, along with much higher cycling rates observed in other places around the world, indicates large potential bicycling demand for daily travel in the US. In response, many communities are developing and implementing bicycle master plans that include a range of bikeway infrastructure aimed at making riding more appealing, including separated paths, protected (or separated) bike lanes, striped bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, sharrows, route signage, and intersection crossing aids. Given limited resources, planners and engineers need tools to estimate the …

Characterizing The Trip Generation Profiles Of Multifamily Housing, Kelly Clifton, Kristina M. Currans

TREC Final Reports

Cities are increasingly wanting to assess the impacts new development has on all modes in the transportation system. Many communities are requiring site-level transportation impact analysis to examine travel outcomes. The historical focus on developing data and methods exclusively for the automobile, such as the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Handbook, has left planners with little guidance for these new challenges. This study aims to examine the limitations in the dominant approaches to understand how they may misguide the planning process for multifamily housing development. Specifically, we aim to examine the vehicle and person trip generation rates associated …