Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Agricultural Extension In An Urban Informal Settlement During Covid-19: The Effectiveness Of The “Tanimang Bayan” Initiative In Sitio San Roque, North Triangle, Quezon City, Patrice Bianca R. Yapjoco

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep inequalities in food access, particularly in urban informal settlements. This study examines the effectiveness of the “Tanimang Bayan” initiative, an urban agriculture project implemented in Sitio San Roque, Quezon City, as a form of agricultural extension during the pandemic. The research adopts a qualitative approach, drawing on data from key informant interviews, participant observation, and secondary sources. Findings indicate that the initiative provided a localized response to food insecurity by enhancing access to fresh produce and promoting community-led production. It also supported collective action and self-organization among residents, strengthening their autonomy in navigating structural limitations. …

Acceptability Of The Proposed Congestion Charging System In The Central Business District Of Baguio City, Philippines, Ericka Renee A. Lanigt, Sandra S. Samantela, Ma. Catriona E. Devanadera, Casper Boongaling Agaton

CSID Journal of Infrastructure Development

The City Government of Baguio is proposing a congestion charging system in the Central Business District (CBD) to address the ongoing issue of traffic congestion in the city. Although it is an effective tool, low public acceptability hinders its implementation. This study aims to assess Baguio City residents' acceptability regarding the CBD's congestion charging system. Specifically, it seeks to (1) identify the factors that influence residents’ acceptability of the proposed system, (2) evaluate whether there is a significant difference in acceptability across different road users (private vehicles, public transportation, cycling, and walking), and (3) provide recommendations for transportation policy planning …

Sustainable Tourism Behaviour Through Walking Tour: A Qualitative Study To Walking Tour Participants In Jakarta, Melisa Bunga Altamira, Khairunnisa Devani Aqtus Permana Putri

Journal of Indonesian Tourism and Policy Studies

As urban tourism continues to rise, walking tours have emerged as a low-impact, environmentally friendly, and culturally immersive form of tourism. This study explores the relationship between walking tours and the development of sustainable tourism behaviour among participants in Jakarta, Indonesia. Using a qualitative research approach, this study elaborates the motivations, perceptions, and behavioural changes of individuals who have participated in walking tours across Jakarta’s historical and cultural sites. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and participant observations, focusing on themes such as environmental awareness, appreciation of local culture, and reduced dependency on motorized transport. The findings suggest that walking …

Assessing The Effects Of Design Modifications On The Use Of Wildlife Exits Designed For Endangered Texas Ocelots, Rupesh Maharjan, Jamie E. Langbein, John H. Young, Kevin W. Ryer, Alejandro Fierro-Cabo, Md Saydur Rahman, Richard Kline

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Roadside exclusionary fencing is commonly used on highways to prevent wildlife-vehicle collisions. Although it can mitigate wildlife road mortality by limiting their access to the road, it can also create a barrier for wildlife stranded within the right-of-way. On State Highway 100 in Texas, the Texas Department of Transportation installed 10 wildlife exits (WEs) to allow endangered ocelots and other wildlife to escape the fenced roadway and minimize wildlife-vehicle collisions. Our study compared three types of WE designs within the same area from 2019 to 2024 to assess their effectiveness. The first design (Design A) was without a door and …

Elemental Analysis Of Sediments In Johnson County, Kansas: Applications In Fluvial Suspended Sediment Tracing, Kiena Campbell

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This exploratory study investigates whether bulk elemental analysis of sediment samples using inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) can reveal chemical signatures that identify anthropogenic contributions to sedimentation and increased fluvial suspended sediment loads, and whether these contribution sources can be identified. Human activity, urbanization, and changes in land use increase erosion, resulting in higher-than-natural suspended sediments (SS) in waterways and increasing sedimentation in reservoirs across the state of Kansas. These threats to freshwater storage capacity are especially urgent given the projected rise in freshwater demand in the Great Plains region driven by climate change. Understanding the origin of anthropogenic SS …

Urban-Rural Divide In Inequality’S Impact On Substance Abuse, Jonathan E. Flores

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis focuses on investigating the relationship between income inequality, measured through the Gini coefficient, and drug addiction, proxied through substance-related mortality. Specifically, this thesis focuses on how these dynamics vary across rural and urban counties in the United States, using population size as a proxy. County-level data from 2016 to 2020 were collected through both the CDC and the Census Bureau and subsequently analyzed using Stata, with crude death rates from drug and alcohol causes serving as a function of the Gini coefficient, labor force participation, racial composition, and other socioeconomic indicators. Through a quadratic version of the model, …

A Spatial Analysis Of Residential Photovoltaic Adoption In New Jersey: Focusing On 2020 With Trends Through 2025, Brandon Mcalister

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This capstone project seeks to find the relationship between socioeconomic and demographic variables and their relationship to residential photovoltaic installations across New Jersey. The study consists of Geographic Weighted Regression Analyses to construct and socioeconomic index indicating the likelihood of photovoltaic adoption in New Jersey zip codes. Then using the index to predict future photovoltaic adoption across the state. The study found that socioeconomic and demographic variables can predict photovoltaic adoption within one year, but when placed in an index and used to predict future adoption trends, the model under predicts and extremely over predicts. While socioeconomic status is a …

Political Ecologies Of The Livestock Industry, Jecca Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States today, livestock production is dominated by an intensified, industrialized production paradigm whose growth in recent decades has utterly transformed the logistical realities and community impacts of animal agriculture. This dissertation investigates the effects of this production paradigm on livestock producers—whose decision-making is shaped by multi-scalar and often contradictory forces—as well as residents living near these large operations. To do so, I draw upon mixed-methods fieldwork, including in-depth interviews, spatial analysis, and field odor measurements in Weld and Morgan Counties in northern Colorado. I also use political ecologies of emotion, embodiment, and health to examine the complex …

Rainy Day Funds In Mountain West States, Fy2024, Anirudh Polagani, Cason Noll, Krish Sharma, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents data on rainy day funds for fiscal year 2024 in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, as originally reported in the 2025 Governing Magazine article, “Growth of State Rainy Day Funds Has Slowed Down.” These data capture the number of days each state could fund state government operations using only rainy day funds, which represent the money states set aside to maintain operations during economic downturns or fiscal stress.

Home Bound: Explaining The Neoliberalization Of Regional Public University Districts Through An Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design, Becket C. Duncan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I examined housing costs in neoliberalized consumer spaces (Cunningham, 2016; Saunders & Ramírez, 2017) in regional public university (Orphan, et al., 2022) districts. I use geographic methods (Jonas, et al., 2015; Daché-Gerbino, 2018) with an explanatory sequential mixed methods design and a complex case study approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). Results from my spatial analyses showed that residents who live within one-half mile of universities spend more on monthly housing costs ($1,331) than those who do not ($1,227) except in the case of regional public universities ($1,184). Results from a regression analysis demonstrated that eight institutional variables predicted 33.2% …

The Improvement Regime: Public Trusts, Real Estates, And India’S Urban Futurities, Anwesha Ghosh

Articles

Over the last two decades, since scholarly writing on India witnessed an “urban turn,” numerous historians have analyzed the role of the improvement trust in the redevelopment of Indian cities in the twentieth century, most specifically those of Bombay, Calcutta, and Delhi. This paper revisits and reassesses some of their key arguments to suggest that rather than studying the “failures” of the individual trusts to foster sanitary built environments, we should pay attention to the contingent workings of the city trusts that were constitutively designed for such failures. Using a comparative analysis of the Bombay and Calcutta improvement trusts, this …

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2025, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

This survey provides data on 2147 U.S. and 82 Canadian stormwater utilities. The data is intended to provide useful data to communities that wish to enact stormwater utilities. Different fee systems are examined with the goal of avoiding legal exposure. Recently, the major source of pre-disaster mitigation funds was eliminated. States should consider state-wide stormwater utilities to make up for this loss.

Pathways To Efficient And Equitable Solutions For Large-Scale Routing Problems, Abhay Sobhanan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses large-scale optimization problems in transportation emerging from hierarchical decision-making, equitable workload allocation, and innovative routing logistics. It presents three sets of contributions, each detailed in a separate chapter, and offers computational tools and insights to advance both the theory and practice of transportation systems.

The first work introduces a deep learning-enhanced genetic algorithm framework for solving the Hierarchical Vehicle Routing Problems (HVRPs). Traditional optimization approaches to such problems require extensive evaluation of multiple lower-level routing solutions and are computationally intensive. Our innovative method integrates a genetic algorithm with a pretrained graph neural network, which is trained on …

New Building Permits In The Mountain West, 2024, Taylor Volk, Mohit Pande, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on new build permits from January 2023 to January 2024 in the five Mountain West States of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.“New Home Construction Statistics,” published by This Old House, reported percent changes on new builder permits and construction manufacturing costs and statistics across all 50 states.

No. 42: Remittance Practices, Digital Technologies And The Ghana-Canada Migration Corridor, Naomi Sunu, Sujata Ramachandran

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Migrant remittances have been recognized as vital resources for the well-being of recipient households and communities, as well as for sustainable development in the Global South. However, these flows can be impeded by limitations in the infrastructure, financial systems, and regulatory environments of both sending and receiving countries, as exemplified by the high costs associated with remitting to sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, the use of less secure but more affordable informal remittance channels persists. Driven by the rapid growth of fintech technologies in recent years, including mobile money and web-based platforms, the digitalization of remittance-sending and receiving processes has the potential …

Waterfront Mapping Tool: Connecting The Development Dots, Molly Schnoke, Jack Yochum

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Center for Economic Development, in collaboration with the Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP), the City of Cleveland, Cleveland Metroparks, and Cuyahoga County, are excited to announce the launch of the “Waterfront Mapping Tool, Connecting the Development Dots”.

This is an interactive ArcGIS Online tool that tracks ongoing and completed economic, real estate and mobility projects along Cleveland's lakefront and the Cuyahoga River, providing up-to-date information on project costs, timelines, and development phases. The intended goal is for the tool to serve as a comprehensive resource for planners and stakeholders, offering a clear picture of the waterfront’s transformation.

Just Places And Paths: Equitable Transit-Oriented Development In Vancouver, Washington, Hannah Althea, Jesse Tapia, Ken Yoneda, Blessie Saoit, Hayley Still

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The Southwest Washington Equity Coalition (SWEC) has been actively engaged in multiple efforts to uplift BIPOC communities in the City of Vancouver and Clark County. SWEC has partnered with Rhododendron Planning for a project to develop a toolkit to guide future Equitable Transit-Oriented Development (ETOD) that considers the specific needs and desires of BIPOC communities, which can be used for current and future policy initiatives. This work comes at a time of escalating development, inward migration, and diversification, putting pressure on present and burgeoning BIPOC communities. Between 2010 and 2020, the population of BIPOC communities living in Vancouver, Washington, has …

Bridgeless To Better Burnside: Reclaiming Burnside, Reconnecting The West Side, Michael Azierski, Brian Bill, Eric Gasper, Alex Gill, Jackson Morrison, Michel Rojas

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This report, produced for Better Block PDX, is a resource for shaping the future of lower West Burnside Street during and after the 2028–2033 Burnside Bridge closure. It captures current conditions, community input, principles of transportation planning and placemaking, and recommended interventions to build a shared vision for transforming the corridor from a barrier into a pedestrian-friendly, vibrant street. Framed around a two-phase timeline, temporary interventions during the bridge closure and permanent improvements after the new bridge opens, it offers a snapshot of community visions and a blueprint for turning those visions into action. Recommended interventions for the new bridge …

Addressing Emergency Situations Among The Unhoused In Paterson, Nj, Fanny Lauby

Department of Political Science and Law Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Earlier this year, the Paterson City Council proposed an ordinance to criminalize homelessness. Many residents were unhappy with the proposed ordinance, feeling that it was unjust to treat the homeless in Paterson that way, and that it wouldn’t effectively address the root causes. The ordinance was withdrawn, but homelessness in Paterson still needs to be addressed. This paper proposes alternate solutions to homelessness; through increasing shelter capacity, affordable housing, modifying the ordinance, increasing in voluntary commitment, measures, and alternatives to involuntary commitment.

Building Urban Resilience, Winston T. L. Chow

Asian Management Insights

Cities can lead on services, resources, and partnerships.

East Portland Grid: Supporting Clean Industry And Residents, Allison Kirkpatrick, Andrew Azar, Diego Joao Murphy-Mendez, Evan Howington, Kate Carroll, Maura Paxton

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Supporting clean industry and residents in ways that are mutually beneficial requires a diversity of efforts. The Columbia Salmonry Group, working for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, finds that designating the Sumner-Parkrose-Argay Terrace neighborhoods as a Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) can, with the following recommendations, build on the work of community and city partners to sustain and grow clean industry in Portland. This area is well suited to be a GRID due to the close proximity of industry and residents, a history of over-planning and under-delivering of investment, and the engaged community. Focusing on the needs of …

Building Adaptive Capacity Through Community Visioning, Silas Carr, Isaiah Jackman, Brandon Huezo, Lara Opeifa

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

East Portland represents one of Oregon’s most diverse communities. This rich cultural tapestry reflects the strength and resilience of communities who have built vibrant neighborhoods despite facing systemic exclusion and displacement. This project focuses on community engagement efforts undertaken in collaboration with the Rosewood Initiative, a community-based organization operating in East Portland. However, the legacy of discriminatory policies and practices has created concentrated challenges in East Portland, which have relegated many residents to areas with inadequate infrastructure, limited access to services, and heightened exposure to environmental hazards. Climate change intensifies these challenges, with East Portland experiencing more severe urban heat …

Post Soviet Russia: Challenges To Transition And Modernization, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the beginning of a complex, often turbulent, period of transition and modernization for Russia. Unlike the anticipated linear path toward Western-style democracy and market economics, Russia’s post-Soviet experience has been defined by profound contradictions, reversals, and ongoing contestations over its political, economic, and social order (Minakov, 2016). The initial wave of reforms, particularly in the 1990s, brought about radical economic restructuring, privatization, and an attempted shift to a free-market system. Yet, these rapid changes led to significant economic dislocation, social inequality, and the rise of oligarchic power structures, which ultimately undermined …

Infrastructure From Below: Mediasi Dan Politik Pembangunan Infrastruktur Air Di Kota Balikpapan, Muhammad Althaf Nandiati Yusfid

Antropologi Indonesia

The city of Balikpapan is experiencing a water crisis. The discrepancy between the city's water supply and Balikpapan's demography put pressure towards the city's capability of supporting its own citizens. This issue is exacerbated by the development of Indonesia's New Capital (IKN) which is located just outside Balikpapan. Therefore, the development of water infrastructure is imperative for the city. Yet, there's no recent visible development of water infrastructure in the city. However, I argue that water infrastructure development actually exists, though in a subtle form. The informal water suppliers that are prevalent in the city is tied with how the …

Assessing Equity In Heat Mitigation Ecosystem Services Of Urban Green Space In Singapore, Ronghua Xu, Perrine Hamel, Youu Ming, Aikeen Lim, Tingting He

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Urban green space provides ecosystem services such as heat mitigation, which are associated with improved resident health and welfare. While estimating the disparity in ecosystem services is essential to improve equity, little guidance is available as to which indices and indicators should be used. Here, we assess the distributional equity in heat mitigation benefits as measured by two indicators – land surface temperature reduction and wet-bulb temperature reduction – in the city-state of Singapore, and compare three inequality indices: Gini coefficient (GC), Atkinson index (AI), and Theil entropy index (TE). We include scenarios with and without migrant construction workers to …

Bridging The Gap: Exploring The Intersection Of Formal Mental Health Services And Informal Social Supports In Bipoc Communities, Patrice D. Patton-Campbell

Dissertations

Despite growing awareness of mental health disparities, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities continue to face significant barriers in accessing culturally responsive mental health care. This dissertation explores the intersection between formal mental health services and informal social supports such as family, religious institutions, and community networks to understand which systems are more trusted, accessible, and effective for BIPOC individuals. Grounded in Urban Liberation Psychology and guided by decolonial and culturally responsive care frameworks, this qualitative study draws from focus groups and interviews with 33 participants, including both community members and service providers from the Chicagoland area and …

Ecological Responsibility In The City: The Surfaces And Volumes Of Urban Mosquito Management, Orlando Woods, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper explores how ecological responsibility becomes distributed across the surfaces and volumes of the city. Our focus is urban mosquito management – specifically, the management of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector by which dengue and several other diseases are transmitted to humans – and the governance strategies deployed in Singapore to manage breeding sites and mosquito outbreaks. Whilst the governance of nature in Singapore is usually undertaken by the state, the effective management of mosquitoes requires responsibility for ecological management to become distributed throughout the city. Residents are expected to assume responsibility for surficial cleanliness and the removal …

Infrastructural Splintering Along The Bri: Catholic Political Ecologies And The Fractious Futures Of Sri Lanka’S Littoral Spaces, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article considers the ways in which the material infrastructures of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) intersect with other infrastructural formations, and how the resulting overlaps can trigger processes of what I call “infrastructural splintering”. These processes cause infrastructure to be experienced in differentiating ways, creating divisive politics where there might once have been unity. Embracing these politics as an analytical starting point undermines the techno-material stability of the BRI, and reveals its more-than-material affects. I illustrate these ideas by developing a case study of the effects of the China-backed Colombo Port City project on Catholic fishing communities that …

Terrashift, Mill Jignesh Shah, Mill Shah

Masters Theses

Keywords: Adaptive Reuse, Vernacular Craftsmanship, Food Security, Urban Agriculture, Community Revitalization, Heritage Preservation, Regenerative Design

In India’s rapidly urbanizing landscape, Tier-I cities continue to dominate as aspirational centers, leaving smaller towns to face depopulation, economic drift, and cultural amnesia. Terrashift challenges this imbalance by proposing a regenerative model that reclaims the vitality of Tier-II and Tier-III towns through the layered strategies of adaptive reuse, vernacular craftsmanship, and integrated food systems.

Centered in Sidhpur, Gujarat—a town rich with Bohra Muslim architectural heritage and centuries of Hindu-Muslim cultural synthesis—this project envisions the transformation of abandoned havelis into vibrant community anchors. These spaces, …

The Industrial Hemp Supply Chain Solution, Honovi C. Trudell Sir

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Realistically solving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals utilizing an Industrial Hemp supply chain with economy to scale to replace petroleum based plastics and permanently offset carbon emissions produced from other continuously produced hazardous waste.