Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

The Eastern Goochland Greenway: Connecting Goochland's Past, Present, And Future, Scott A. Newhart

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The Eastern Goochland Greenway Plan proposes a shared-use trail that is nested within the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s (DCR) conceptualization of a statewide trail system called the James River Heritage Trail (JRHT). The JRHT includes shared use bicycle and pedestrian facilities as well as water trail access points that would connect pre-existing trail systems to new proposed trails that are parallel with and in close proximity to Virginia’s James River corridor and all of the natural, cultural, and historic resource opportunities that the surrounding areas offer. Specifically, the Eastern Goochland Greenway aims to serve two major purposes; to …

Rehouse Richmond: Plan To Address The Eviction Crisis, Lark Washington

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Rehouse Richmond aims to recommend specific best practices and start-to-finish development of successful organizing strategies for anti-eviction work. The client for this plan, RISC, is an interfaith coalition of congregations across the Richmond region. Richmond has a compounding history of redlining, urban renewal, foreclosure crisis, and now evictions that has drained the wealth of its Black residents for generations. There is a wealth of academic literature indicating the prevalence of eviction as well as the people who are most vulnerable: rent-burdened tenants, and Black women especially with children. There are a lot of responses to the eviction crisis ranging from …

Infra-Sutures: New Perspectives In Responsive Design And Community Engagement, Shekinah Mitchell

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Whether considering the construction of highways, urban renewal, or concentrated poverty, many low-wealth communities of color bear the scars of inequity. These scars are symbols of racial and socioeconomic trauma with deep physical, cultural and economic impact; however, this plan asserts that if the built environment has the power to entrench and reinforce hierarchies, it also has the power to participate in dismantling oppressive ideologies and advancing racial and socioeconomic equity. With Richmond, Virginia serving as the case example, this plan proposes a community engagement process and culturally responsive design principles to activate public space redevelopment projects as infra-sutures. Developed …

Sustainability, Urban Planning And Development: Sustainable And Self-Reliant Urban Development In Post- Pandemic Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

COVID-19 pandemic is affecting many aspects of the society, economy and the way people live. The pandemic is also disrupting the process of physical planning and development in the cities. It will perhaps permanently change the way planners and policy makers think about the city and plan for its development. The residents and visitors will also find the city to be different from the pre-COVID-19 era. The emerging situation would likely require new ways of moving, working and living in the city, and building the different physical components of the city.

Cities around the world are experiencing varieties of unexpected …

Issues And Perspective On The Covid-19 And Nepal: An Introduction, Ambika P. Adhikari, Basu Sharma

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Even though Nepal has relatively fewer Covid-19 cases as of 24 September 2020 (about 70,000 cases and more than 450 deaths), the numbers are on the rise. If this trend continues for a while, the likely consequences of the Pandemic would be no less severe than elsewhere. Further, Nepal’s next-door neighbor India is now experiencing a rapid rise in the virus infection rate and virus-related death toll. In fact, as of 24 September, 2020, India is seeing some about six million total Covid-19 cases, and more than 92,000 deaths. As India and Nepal have open borders, and as India is …

Urban Development In Nepal And The Impacts Of Covid-19, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has created a public health crisis worldwide and is impacting the way we plan and design cities. While much is still being learned about Covid-19, we have seen that the virus spreads quickly and its fatality rate is also significant. The virus has already seriously impacted the global economies and most urban activities.

During pandemics, regular public interactions in the city can be the cause for spread of communicable diseases. In this context, urban planning should include approached to help mitigate the spread of virus. Designs of facilities should help the residents to physically distance themselves …

Westwood Multimodal Transportation Plan, Ashley N. Austin

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Westwood is experiencing an industrial regeneration that will change the way the area is utilized by the surrounding communities. To be proactive, Henrico County is planning for the future by creating an overlay zoning district and striving for a multimodal environment to ensure the area grows in a sustainable manner.

This plan evaluates the study area, retrieves community engagement, and makes recommendations on streetscape design and public transit improvements to create a multimodal Westwood. Study area observations provided evidence that the streets in Westwood need to be redesigned to accommodate more for pedestrians and cyclists. Community outreach in the form …

A Framework For Forming Resident-Controlled Manufactured Housing Communities In Richmond, Linwood Rogers

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Despite manufactured housing representing one of the most affordable, unsubsidized housing options for families in the United States, the nature of ownership in many manufactured housing communities places families at constant risk of displacement. In mobile home parks, where a household owns their manufactured home but rents the land underneath it from a park owner, residents have few protections from eviction. Richmond contains 58 mobile home parks housing nearly 6,000 households, but poor park conditions and neglect from park owners has threatened the viability of many communities. In other parts of the country, residents have gained control of their communities …

Parks & Equity: A Framework For Equitable Access In Richmond, Va Parks, Kendra Norrell

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Increasingly, cities are investing in their green spaces, such as open spaces and parks, as a strategy to improve the livability of the city, but also to improve the health of its residents. Research finds that access and proximity to green spaces provides a host of benefits to humans, including mental and physical health improvements. However, not all residents have equal access to these green public amenities.

Research focuses on best practices for identifying minimum basic standards for DPR parks and the importance and limitations of green spaces in urban design. Basic standards include: setting the minimum limit for amenities …

Centering Social Equity In The Climate Action Planning Process: Lessons For Richmond, Virginia, Melissa M. Marquette

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The client of this plan is the City of Richmond's Office of Sustainability. The purpose is to assist RVAgreen 2050's in its equity-centered climate action planning and to reach the City of Richmond's frontline communities (those impacted first and worst to climate impacts of intense heat, low-lying flooding, and severe storm events). The method and approach include the content analysis of ten cities' climate action, sustainability, or resiliency plans. It makes suggestions of best practices and recommendations for the City of Richmond to reach those historically left out of the planning process and to shift power from the local government …

Transit Feasibility Study For Chesterfield County, Va, Taylor D. Jenkins

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This capstone presents a transit feasibility study for Chesterfield County, VA in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Urban and Regional Planning in the VCU Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. GRTC Transit System (GRTC) is the primary public transportation operator for the Richmond region. In 2016, the Greater Richmond Transit Vision Plan created a regional transit network that would guide cohesive future transit development in the region. This plan intends to support building the bridge between the existing state of transit in Chesterfield County and implementation of the transit vision plan. Through the completion of …

3014 Meadowbridge Rd: A Community-Engaged Opportunity-Based Re-Investment Action Plan, Antwan L. Hoy

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan is an asset-based community response for 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church CDC as a way to revitalize and uplift the Six Points neighborhood of Highland Park. This plan was designed to provide a template for community engagement that would reintroduce a legacy of service to the community while partnering with other community assets to reinvest into the community. The primary action that makes this a prime engagement opportunity is the restoration of 7^th Street Memorial Baptist Church location at 3014 Meadowbridge Rd. Treating the building as an asset for the community and not only the church …

The Integration Between Strategy Formulation And Implementationin Construction Contracting Firms In Ireland, Ahmed Hassan

Doctoral

The role of the construction sector in Ireland is critical in terms of the economic and social development however the economic, competitive, and regulatory business environment present a myriad of complexities to firms operating within the sector. The importance of strategic planning for business survival and prosperity has been well documented over several decades of research but there remains a paucity of empirical evidence to determine the in strategic decision-making process under these volatile environmental conditions.This study addresses the perceptible gap in existing knowledge by investigating the characteristics of the strategy strategic decision-making process, strategic choices, and implementation process in …

Theoretical Perspectives Of The Baltimore Ecosystem Study: Conceptual Evolution In A Social–Ecological Research Project, Steward T. A . Pickett, Mary L. Cadenasso, Matthew E. Baker, Lawrence E. Band, Christopher G. Boone, Geoffrey L. Buckley, Peter M. Groffman, J. Morgan Grove, Elena G. Irwin, Sujay S. Kaushal, Shannon L. Ladeau, Charles H. Nilon, Michele Romolini, Emma J. Rosi, Christopher M. Swan, Katalin Szlavecz

Advanced Science Research Center

The Earth's population will become more than 80% urban during this century. This threshold is often regarded as sufficient justification for pursuing urban ecology. However, pursuit has primarily focused on building empirical richness, and urban ecology theory is rarely discussed. The Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) has been grounded in theory since its inception and its two decades of data collection have stimulated progress toward comprehensive urban theory. Emerging urban ecology theory integrates biology, physical sciences, social sciences, and urban design, probes interdisciplinary frontiers while being founded on textbook disciplinary theories, and accommodates surprising empirical results. Theoretical growth in urban ecology …

The Racist Impact Of Redistributive Public Policies: Handout Versus Hand-Up, Mittie Davis Jones

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Federal government policies, while benefitting some urban areas, have historically been detrimental to African-American people. Years of welfare and housing policies have placed central city residents, especially African-Americans, at a disadvantage which they have not overcome. Policies that once denied benefits to Black people, such as public welfare and federally-insured mortgages, morphed into stigmatized policies which, when available to Blacks, became obstacles to their advancement. These same policies enabled the majority White population to do what they were initially designed to do – provide a toehold during a period of temporary economic decline after which personal advancement was possible.

The …

Spatiotemporal Partitioning Of Mammalian Mesopredators In Response To Drought And Urbanization In California's Central Valley, Chad W. Moura

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mammalian mesopredators commonly associated with human dominated landscapes often exhibit generalist diets, behavioral plasticity, and relatively high reproductive rates. Because of this wide range of adaptive traits, ecologists have been speculative of what conditions may drive species to change their activity and behavior to avoid or mitigate against resource competition, intraguild predation, and human disturbance. I investigated a community of common mesopredators within the Sacramento Metropolitan Area of California’s Central Valley to address whether species are spatially and/or temporally partitioning due to a defacto apex predator, coyotes (Canis latrans), and humans alongside large landscape altering disturbances: urbanization and drought. I …

Utilization Of A Community-Based Participatory Approach To Design And Implement A Peer-Led Parenting Pilot Intervention To Influence Child Nutritional And Physical Activity Behaviors, Tabia K. Henry Akintobi, Phd, Mph, David Satcher, Victor Ede, Mbbs, Glenda Wrenn, Md, Cassandra Bolar, Phd, Aneeqah Ferguson, Evonne Perdue, Martha Okafor, Kisha Holden, Leroy Reese, Phd

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Parents and primary child guardians within the household play critical roles in shaping their children’s nutritional and physical activity behaviors, which are among the individual-level determinants of childhood obesity and other chronic conditions. There are well-established correlations between race, socioeconomic status and the risk for obesity calling for both contextually- and individual-centered interventions that are community-driven. The Using Quality Parenting (UQP) pilot intervention was a peer-led, parenting education intervention developed in collaboration with community residents in Atlanta, Georgia to influence child nutritional and physical activity behaviors in African American low socioeconomic status communities. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework was …

Low-Income Household Adults Sustaining Affordable Housing In Affluent Neighborhoods, Edward Brian Flournoy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public housing policy continues to exacerbate the concentration of poverty for low

income household adults (LIHA), preventing their mobility to achieve or sustain

affordable housing in low-poverty affluent neighborhoods. Successful design and

implementation of public housing policy for LIHA has been elusive for policymakers

seeking to address socioeconomic self-sufficiency problems in the United States.

Wilson’s spatial mismatch theory on social transformation of the inner city was the

theoretical framework for this study. This qualitative study utilized policy analysis and

key interviews to explore the importance of public policy design and implementation in

how the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) program influenced …

Localization Economies And Firm Productivity: Evidence From Football Teams In Sao Paulo, Brazil, Brad Humphreys, Amir B. Neto

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Agglomeration economies affect urban economic outcomes. We analyze variation in sports team productivity and localization of teams across divisions and cities in Campeonato Paulista an annual football competition in São Paulo state, Brazil, exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in localization generated by a promotion and relegation system in this league. Results show that both urbanization, proxied by population, and localization affects short and long run team productivity. These results provide new evidence on the importance of localization economies in the urban economy in developing countries and shed light on why sports teams in larger cities enjoy more success than those in …

Public Perception Of Different Planting Techniques Using Augmented Reality, Sultana Quader Tania

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to measure public perception of the different planting techniques (block and matrix), which are used at visitor information centers (VICs) and other rights of way (ROW) areas. The main factors that affect public perception of planting techniques were identified through an extensive literature review and qualitative survey from four welcome centers in the state of Georgia. The ranking of those indicators, based on public preferences, was discovered through a quantitative survey. During the first phase of the quantitative survey, images of block and matrix were used. An iOS-based user-friendly and cost-effective augmented reality (AR) …

Texas Landfills: The Need For Administrative Reform Of The Texas Commission On Environmental Quality’S Permitting Process, William Todd Keller Jr.

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

The Persistence Of Mixed Income Neighborhoods: A Case Study Of Neighborhood Change In Chicago, Ian Warren

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study examines neighborhood change among mixed income neighborhoods in Chicago, IL between 2010 and 2017. Previous literature has focused extensively on the process of gentrification in transitioning homogenous low income neighborhoods to homogenous high income neighborhoods. However, few studies have tested empirically if mixed income neighborhoods are a persistent neighborhood type or if they are inherently a neighborhood undergoing transition. This methodology uses data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey to utilize a logit regression which tests the likelihood that a 2010 mixed income neighborhood will transition upwards to a 2017 homogenous high income neighborhood. Additionally, ArcGIS maps …

The Politics Of Annexation: Oligarchic Power In A Southern City, John V. Moeser, Rutledge M. Dennis

The Politics of Annexation

This Open Access Edition of The Politics of Annexation presents a newly formatted version of the original 1982 edition. The text itself has been edited only for non-substantive style changes and corrections. The Preface, the new Introduction (“Fifty Years Later”), and the index were prepared especially for this edition. The original edition was published by Schenkman Publishing Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is available online through the UR Scholarship Repository at https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/307/

The Politics of Annexation examines the process of American cities using annexation of suburban areas as a tool to increase their tax base and generate new revenue. The authors …

Associations Between Stress, Racial Discrimination, And Cytokine Levels In Black Americans, Takia Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Inflammation is a common pathophysiological pathway for a number of chronic diseases and is influenced by exposure to stress. Although there are racial disparities in health outcomes, relatively little is known about factors that may influence the inflammatory response in Black American individuals. This study examined whether racial discrimination and other forms of stress are associated with the balance of pro- and anti- inflammatory cytokines in Black American adults. Data from 22 participants were drawn from a larger study of Black American children (ages 5-12) and their primary caregivers drawn from low income neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia. Caregivers reported demographics, …

Cultural Placemaking In Washington’S U Street Corridor: A Catch 22, Maya Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

Placemaking is a tool largely employed in gentrifying cities to create social and cultural character in space. However, the informal placemaking that naturally occurs in communities and public space is often left out of the placemaking planning process. Informal placemaking that existed in space before and after gentrification, often by the working class, may find itself the target of policing from class and racial power structures that new residents now making up the majority bring. Alongside gentrification is its use of placemaking as branding for space, which Black American culture is increasingly being operationalized. Using Washington D.C.’s U Street Corridor …

A Case Study: The Role Of Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, And Un Sustainable Development Goals In City Leadership And Planning, Lisa A. Berkley

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This research is a case study examining the relevance of three holistic city frameworks—Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, and UN Sustainable Development Goals—to the intentional or tacit thinking of city leaders, community leaders, and activists of Marina, California. Beginning with a discussion of the origin and development of the three frameworks, the study occurred in three phases: Phase I involved interviewing the five elected leaders, city manager, community development leaders, and two planners; Phase II consisted of a survey of appointed city leaders and community organizers and activists; and Phase III was an analysis of relevant public discourse, drawing from local …

Comparing Diaries And Waste Compositional Analysis For Measuring Food Waste In The Home, Tom E. Quested, Griff Palmer, Laura Moreno, Christa Mcdermott, Kelsea A. Schumacher

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Diaries have been used to obtain national and subnational estimates of household food waste (HHFW) in several countries. Furthermore, diaries have been proposed as a method for tracking progress towards goals that include HHFW reduction. However, multiple studies have suggested diaries substantially underestimate HHFW. This paper collates and analyses data from five studies in which diary estimates of HHFW can be directly compared to other, more accurate estimates from waste compositional analysis (WCA). This analysis finds that all diary estimates for HHFW were lower than the corresponding WCA estimates, with the degree of underestimation ranging from 7% to 40%. Four …

Collective Effect Of Landfills And Landscape Composition On Bird–Aircraft Collisions, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Travis L. Devault

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Ninety-three percent of all reported bird strikes occur below 1,067 m, which based on the typical approach and departure angles of aircraft is within 8–13 km of an airport. Concomitantly, the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization recommend that any feature that would attract hazardous wildlife to the approach and departure airspace be restricted. Thus, preventing the establishment of wildlife attractants, such as municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLFs) within 8 km or 13 km extents (U.S. and international recommendations, respectively) of airports, has been recommended to mitigate the risk of bird–aircraft collisions (strikes). However, robust evidence linking …

From Garden City To Sponge City: Urban Green Infrastructure Policy Development, Hongmei Lu

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

With rapid urbanization, environmental problems like green space shortage and urban flooding become prevalent. Identifying effective policymaking and implementation is critical in order to solve these problems. This dissertation addresses four theoretical topics in the context of urban green infrastructure: policy entrepreneur, institutional response to club goods, quasi-public-private partnership, and policy goal ambiguity. Each is exemplified by a causal case study. Data were collected through participant observation, field trips, semi-structured interviews, and crowdsourcing.

Chapter 1 takes a longitudinal perspective and examines the dual role of policy entrepreneur and policy implementer in reaching the final policy goal of mandating vertical greening …

Exploring The Relationship Between Gender, Race, And Space, And Toronto Community Housing Policy, Anita Rachel Ewan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation presents the racial-gendered lived experiences of Black women living in Toronto Community Housing (TCH; subsidized housing). This research found that Black women and their families are disproportionately faced with challenges due to barriers caused by housing policy and procedures that also affect the overall development and wellbeing of their children. It also highlights the ways in which Black women continue to thrive and survive in the face of detrimental and derelict living conditions; accomplished through community development and support initiatives, and fostering strong communities.

This is a qualitative research project that includes an art-based method. Utilizing a feminist …