Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

No.08: Improving The Profitability Of Wet Market Food Vendors In China, Xinxian Qi, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Xianjin Huang

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ The characteristics of individual vendors and their business operations have a more significant impact on business profits than more general socioeconomic factors. Policy interventions need to prioritize the former.

■ The profits of wet market vendors vary spatially in Nanjing, China. The average profit level in central urban districts is higher than in peri-urban districts.

■ Almost all determinants have more significant impacts on vendor profitability in peri-urban than urban areas. Measures should therefore be taken to improve the profitability of wet market vendors in peri-urban areas.

No.09: Enhancing Food Security Through Urban Agriculture In Kingston, Jamaica, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope, Robert Kinlocke, Therese Ferguson

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Much focus has been accorded rural agriculture, both in the literature and in practice. Yet urban agriculture is both a viable and necessary area of focus as it pertains to food security in Jamaica.

■ An education and communication strategy is required to ensure that attitudes towards nutrition and poor food choices are changed (within the range of affordability) in efforts to achieve food security.

■ Given the threats posed by climate change, the development of urban agriculture should incorporate not only previously designated sites through zoning for small-scale livestock and produce rearing; it also should incorporate backyard farming/gardening, …

No.06: Gender Inequality And Food Security Policy Responses, Mary Caesar

Hungry Cities Partnership

■ Gender inequality and the legacy of racial discrimination operate alongside poverty and economic inequality to shape the household food security experience in low-income areas in South African cities.

■ In Cape Town, male-headed households are more likely to be food secure than female-headed households, although both experience high levels of severe food insecurity.

■ National food security policy and local government do not recognize the systemic nature of gender inequality and food insecurity; a gap that needs to be addressed.

Visualizing Statewide Trips: Tools To Leverage Gps Data In Transportation Planning, Nikola Markovic

TREC Project Briefs

The University of Utah has a new data visualization service to offer to state DOTs and other agencies. Using Small Starts funding from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), researcher Nikola Markovic and his team have developed a suite of visual analysis tools to demonstrate how GPS trajectory data can help accurately model and analyze mobility trends. These data are typically purchased from vendors, which means that transportation agencies must first understand the benefits before they decide to invest in data acquisition.

The Suitability Of Disabled Friendly Holiday Accommodation In Turkey: The Case Of Kastamonu Hotels, Aydogan Aydogdu, Emrah Yasarsoy, Huseyin Pamukcu

Journal of Global Business Insights

The purpose of this study is to understand the extent to which the hotels under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in the center of the Turkish city Kastamonu are fit for the accommodation of the disabled. The author investigated six accommodation facilities located in the center of Kastamonu by utilizing various tools for data collection, including the Survey Method, face-to-face interviews with business managers, and the Drop-off and Pick-up (DOPU) method. Descriptive statistics were utilized to analyze the data. The results indicated that accommodation in these places is far from satisfying the special requirements for the …

Oregon City School District Enrollment Forecasts 2020-21 To 2029-30, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Joshua Ollinger

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents a range of three scenarios of district-wide enrollment forecasts by grade level for the Oregon City School District (OCSD) for the 10 year period between 2020-21 and 2029-30. Each enrollment forecast scenario is related to population forecasts that incorporate different assumptions about growth within the District, with the primary differences being the contribution of net migration to the District’s population and age distribution. Individual school forecasts consistent with the middle series are also presented for the 10 year period.

Traffic Congestion In F.C.T: Demand And Supply Approach, Ibrahim Abdul, Salihu Habibu Mohammed Gani, Ibrahim G. Umaru

Bullion

This study examined traffic congestion in Abuja metropolis, F.C.T.- Nigeria using demand and supply approach. The study adopted survey research design. Primary data was collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics was used to analysed the data with the aid of tables and graphs. It was discovered that as a road reaches its capacity, each additional vehicle imposes more total delay on others than they bear, resulting in excessive traffic volumes. Congestion is mainly due to the intensive use of automobiles, whose ownership has spread massively in the F.C.T. in recent decades. The study revealed that traffic congestion causes serious consequences in …

Shale Investment Dashboard In Ohio Q1 And Q2 2019, Andrew R. Thomas, Mark Henning

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents findings from an investigation into shale-related investment in Ohio. The investment estimates are cumulative from January through June of 2019. Prior investments have previously been reported and are available from Cleveland State University. Subsequent reports will estimate additional investment since the date of this report.

How The Midwest Can Lead The Hydrogen Economy: Matching Generation Assets To Distribution Markets In Planning Hydrogen Refueling Infrastructure For Trucking And Transit, Mark Henning, Andrew R. Thomas, Michael Triozzi, Peter Psarras

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles provide one important path to decarbonization in transportation, particularly for heavy-duty applications such as transit and trucking. Both fleet types face a common challenge in transitioning to low emission fuels: how to economically support one-to-one replacement of conventional diesel vehicles, especially with respect to range and refueling time. This study explores the regional assets along a major freight corridor from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis that could enable a hydrogen refueling infrastructure for transit agencies and long-haul trucking, the likely early adopters of low-emission hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Among the assets available along this corridor are …

The Geographical Distribution Of The Latino Population Of The New York City Metropolitan Area, 2018 - A Statistical And Map Data Base, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report investigates where all Latinos lived in the New York City Metropolitan area, including the Northern Suburbs, Long Island, and selected New Jersey counties. The six largest Latino nationalities are mapped by census tract for a very precise visualization of the data.

Methods:

This report uses one-year sample data for 2018 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and the 2014 – 2018 five-year sample data at the census-census tract level. The ACS dataset is reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota and is available at IPUMS USA (https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V10.0) and …

Good Jobs: Employment And Wages In Groups Of Regional Industrial Drivers, Iryna Lendel, Merissa Piazza, Iryna Demko, Matthew Ellerbrock, Emily Forsee

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Talent attraction and workforce development are urgent topics in Northeast Ohio, as many companies are finding it challenging to locate and attract necessary workers for open jobs. This dilemma spans across sectors: from the manufacturing industry finding appropriately skilled labor to professional services finding experienced IT staff. This research analyzes employment dynamics among Northeast Ohio (NEO) industries, so policymakers and economic development practitioners can utilize our findings and design programs to improve the economic conditions in the region. This report builds on The Center for Economic Development’s prior work, which identified NEO’s Groups of Regional Industry Drivers (GRIDs). These sectors …

Visual Exploration Of Utah Trajectory Data And Their Applications In Transportation, Seth Miller, Zachary Vander Laan, Yinhu Wang, Nikola Markovic

TREC Final Reports

Transportation agencies have an opportunity to leverage massive GPS trajectory data to support their analyses and enhance their decision making. However, these data are typically purchased from vendors, which means that transportation agencies must understand their benefits before they decide to invest in data acquisition. To help transportation agencies better understand the tremendous value of trajectory data, the PI of the project acquired Utah GPS trajectory data from one of the leading GPS data providers and conducted visual analyses demonstrating applications of trajectory data in various areas of transportation. The analyses focused on (a) evaluating the data itself by exploring …

The Spatial Optimization And Evaluation Of The Economic, Ecological, And Social Value Of Urban Green Space In Shenzhen, Yuhan Yu, Wenting Zhang, Peihong Fu, Wei Huang, Keke Li, Kai Cao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Urban green space (UGS) is important in urban systems, as it benefits economic development, ecological conservation, and living conditions. Many studies have evaluated the economic, ecological, and social value of UGS worldwide, and spatial optimization for UGS has been carried out to maximize its value. However, few studies have simultaneously examined these three values of UGS in one optimization system. To fill this gap, this study evaluated the economic value of UGS in terms of promoting housing prices, its ecological value through the relief of high land surface temperature (LST), and its social value through the provision of recreation spaces …

The Southwest Corridor Light Rail Project, Fiona Cundy, Patrick Sweeney

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Southwest Corridor Light Rail Project is an expansion of the MAX light rail system into Southwest Portland, Tigard and Tualatin. Not only will the project add 11 miles of light rail track and 13 stations to the system, it also includes new bicycle facilities, sidewalks, safer crossings, improvements to local bus service, and significant upgrades to stormwater treatment infrastructure. As a cooperative effort between regional partners, the project is seen as a catalyst to help realize broader shared goals of fostering equitable communities, ensuring healthy environments, and providing robust mobility options for all modes. Currently in the planning and …

Algorithms To Profile Driver Behavior From Zero-Permission Embedded Sensors, Bharti Goel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we design algorithms to profile driver behavior from zero-permission sensors embedded in modern smartphones and wearables. These sensors are typically the accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor and a few more than are now available in most modern smartphones and wearables. In order to profile driving behavior, we devised algorithms for detecting distraction while driving due to the use of modern-day smartphones (e.g., calling, texting and reading while driving) in real-time.

To do so, we conduct an experiment with 16 subjects on a realistic driving simulator, where each subject, where each subject carries a smartphone and a wearable …

The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy And Inequality In Diy Urbanism, Gordon Douglas

University Scholar Series

When local governments neglect public services or community priorities, how do concerned citizens respond? In The Help-Yourself City: Legitimacy and Inequality in DIY Urbanism, Dr. Douglas looks closely at people who take urban planning into their own hands with homemade signs and benches, guerrilla bike lanes, and more. He explores the frustration, creativity, and technical expertise behind these interventions, but also the position of privilege from which they often come. Presenting a needed analysis of this growing trend from vacant lots to city planning offices, The Help-Yourself City tells a street-level story of people’s relationships to their urban surroundings …

E-Grocery Home Delivery And The Freight & Travel Demands Of Multifamily Dwellings, Katherine Keeling, Gabby Abou-Zeid

PSU Transportation Seminars

Double Feature: E-Grocery Home Delivery and the Freight & Travel Demands of Multifamily Dwellings

E-Grocery Home Delivery Impacts on Food Access and Equity

The adoption of e-grocery home delivery (HD) has the potential to change social norms of acquiring household foods and necessities. In light of recent interest in food deserts, a case study of Portland, OR reviews the new elements of inclusion, exclusion, and value created by the service of four major e-grocery businesses: Shipt, Instacart, Walmart, and Amazon Prime Now. These e-grocers are reviewed in terms of service areas, pricing, and inventory choice, as these are key factors …

Wireless Underground Communications In Sewer And Stormwater Overflow Monitoring: Radio Waves Through Soil And Asphalt Medium, Usman Raza, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Storm drains and sanitary sewers are prone to backups and overflows due to extra amount wastewater entering the pipes. To prevent that, it is imperative to efficiently monitor the urban underground infrastructure. The combination of sensors system and wireless underground communication system can be used to realize urban underground IoT applications, e.g., storm water and wastewater overflow monitoring systems. The aim of this article is to establish a feasibility of the use of wireless underground communications techniques, and wave propagation through the subsurface soil and asphalt layers, in an underground pavement system for storm water and sewer overflow monitoring application. …

Webinar: New Travel Demand Modeling For Our Evolving Mobility Landscape, Reid Ewing, Sadegh Sabouri

TREC Webinar Series

Conventional four-step travel demand models are used by nearly all metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), state departments of transportation, and local planning agencies, as the basis for long-range transportation planning in the United States. A flaw of the four-step model is its relative insensitivity to the so-called D variables. The D variables are characteristics of the built environment that are known to affect travel behavior. The Ds are development density, land use diversity, street network design, destination accessibility, and distance to transit. In this seminar, we will explain how we developed a vehicle ownership model (car shedding model), an intrazonal travel …

"Don't Count Us Out!" Who Is Likely To Be Missed In The 2020 Census?, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Targeted for April, the 2020 Census is around the corner. The Census Bureau, news media, state and local governments, and national and local non-profit organizations are all working hard to convince the public that responding to the Census is safe, confidential, and very important.

Yet we know some people will be missed. "Omissions" represent people who should have been counted but were not. In the 2010 Census the national rate of Omissions was 5.3 percent of total population, versus 3.5 in Ohio. Other national rates were: 9.3 percent for African-Americans; 7.7 percent for Hispanics; 3.8 percent for non-Hispanic whites; 8.5 …

Why Do We Still Conduct A Costly Census Of All U.S. Residents Every Ten Years?, Mark J. Salling Phd, Gisp

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Who hasn’t heard that the 2020 Census is upon us? The anticipation and anguish about missing large numbers of persons (again!) is in the news and on social media daily. The Census Bureau is posting daily news releases. Public officials and nonprofit leaders are rallying to get the word out about the importance of the decennial Census. Last year we saw widespread political opposition to the Trump administration’s attempt to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 Census form because opponents argued it would decrease participation within the Hispanic community.

The case for accurate data about all U.S. residents …

Camden Waterfront South Green Infrastructure Plan, Mahbubur Meenar, Susan Harris, Meghan Wren, Devon Moulton

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

A green infrastructure and placemaking plan for Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood. The plan was based on extensive community engagement and outreach activities for more than a year. Community partners: Heart of Camden and Camden Fireworks. Sponsor: Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority. Created and produced by Rowan University's Community Planning + Visualization Lab.

Newberg School District Enrollment Forecasts 2020-21 To 2029-30, Portland State University. Population Research Center, Charles Rynerson, Joshua Ollinger

School District Enrollment Forecast Reports

This report presents a series of three scenarios of district-wide enrollment forecasts by grade level for the Newberg School District (NSD) for the 10-year period between 2020-21 and 2029-30.

Community Resilience To Climate Change: Theory, Research And Practice, Dana E. Hellman, Vivek Shandas

PDXOpen: Open Educational Resources

This reader is an Open Educational Resource, meant to accompany a graduate or higher-level undergraduate university course in climate change resilience, adaptation, and/or planning. While the material is geared toward students in urban and regional planning, it may also be of interest to students of urban studies, public health, geography, political science, sociology, risk management, and others.

Each section of this volume includes (1) an introductory summary, (2) a reading list with full text articles, (3) student exercises meant to enhance understanding and facilitate in-class discussion, and (4) additional discussion prompts or activities for instructors to use in class. The …

Adaptive Injustice: Responsibility To Act In The Plastics Economy, Katie Conlon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

How can plastic material be reduced, reused, repurposed, or salvaged so it is kept out of rivers, oceans and ecosystems in general? Social awareness about the impacts of plastic pollution is growing, and creative, social solutions to the ‘plastic menace’ are popping up globally. Every day, one can read about the latest, innovative method for managing plastic waste at the local level: plastic PET bottles stuffed with plastic-film food wrappers to make ‘ecobricks;’ paving roads with plastic waste; making yoga-wear out of marine plastic pollution; weaving plastic into tote bags; using a 3D printer to make plastic into products for …

Google-Truthing To Assess Hot Spots Of Food Retail Change: A Repeat Cross-Sectional Street View Of Food Environments In The Bronx, New York, Nevin Cohen, Michael Chrobok, Olivia Caruso

Publications and Research

Google Street View (GSV) images can be used to “ground-truth” current and historical food retail data from approximately 2007 - when GSV was launched in a few US cities - to the present, facilitating analyses of food environments over time. A review of GSV images of all food retailers listed in a government database of licensed establishments in the Bronx, New York enabled records to be verified, businesses classified, and retail change quantified. The data revealed several trends likely to affect food access and health: increasing overall numbers of food retailers; the growth of dollar stores; and numerous openings, closings, …

Subverting The Logics Of "Smartness" In Singapore: Smart Eldercare And Parallel Regimes Of Sustainability, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper argues that the divergent logics of “smartness” and “sustainability” can lead to parallel regimes of sustainability. Whilst sustainability is often used to justify the need for smart cities, smart cities are often undermined by the neoliberal logics of digital governance. Moreover, because the intersection of digital technologies and society is a negotiated one, smart solutions often fail to provide adequate solutions to social problems. This is especially true when smart solutions are used to augment or replace hitherto human-centred processes, like caregiving.Parallel regimes of sustainability are a response to these failures. Drawing onan analysis of a trial of …

Promoting Environmental Justice Populations’ Access To Opportunities With Suburban Boomtowns: An Interdisciplinary Mixed-Methods Approach To Addressing Infrastructure Needs, Jandel Crutchfield, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun, Erin Findley, Mehrdad Arabi

TREC Final Reports

This study used a community-engaged interdisciplinary approach to assess the gaps between economic growth and transportation infrastructure development, and the impact of potential gaps on access to opportunities for environmental justice populations within North Central Texas, where population growth has increased over 100% since 2000. The interdisciplinary team, comprised of social work and civil engineering researchers, in partnership with the regional homeless coalition, measured residents’ perspectives of the economic growth in the area over the past decade, the extent to which transportation infrastructure has matched the economic growth, and the implications for access to affordable quality housing, employment, quality public …

When Growth Outpaces Infrastructure: Access To Opportunities In Suburban Boomtowns, Jandel Crutchfield, Courtney Cronley, Kate Hyun

TREC Project Briefs

In the last twenty years, the population increased over 100% in Collin County, Texas. The county is projected to have over 2.4 million residents by 2050 -- more than three times its population in 2010. When enough people flock to an area to call it a boomtown, the population tends to grow much faster than the infrastructure to support it. Where does that leave mobility options for residents? Researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington’s (UTA) School of Social Work and College of Engineering partnered with the Collin County Homeless Coalition (CCHC) to investigate gaps in transportation services and …

Harmonizing Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation In Transportation And Land-Use Planning In California Cities, Serena E. Alexander, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Ashley M. Hooper, Michael R. Boswell

Mineta Transportation Institute

Abstract: Recent extreme weather events in California—wildfires, drought, and flooding—make abundantly clear the need to plan effective responses to both the causes and the consequences of climate change. A central challenge for climate planning efforts has been identifying transportation and land-use (TLU) strategies that simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions (“mitigation”) and adapt communities so that they will be less affected by the adverse impacts of climate change (“adaptation”). Sets of policies that collectively address both mitigation and adaptation are known as “integrated actions.” This study explores municipal climate planning in California to determine whether cities incorporate integrated actions into their …