Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Shifting Gears: Toward A New Way Of Thinking About Transportation, Susan Handy

PSU Transportation Seminars

The transportation system in the U.S. has been shaped by a core set of ideas that are embedded in professional practice. These ideas – freedom, speed, mobility, vehicles, capacity, hierarchy, separation, control, and technology – have produced a system in which most people are dependent on driving, with all the negative consequences that entails. Shifting to a system that offers people choices about their daily travel requires a shift in thinking on the part of the transportation profession. In this talk, I take a critical look at the way of thinking that, for the last century, has shaped our transportation …

Analyzing Stakeholder Feedback Using Ai, Nancy Susan Manoj

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research paper is to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing stakeholder feedback analysis in urban planning. This study aims to determine whether artificial intelligence can be used to increase stakeholder feedback analysis efficiency in urban planning projects. Additionally, the study will examine whether urban planning professionals are ready to adopt artificial intelligence into their practices. This study uses a structured quantitative research methodology, consisting of an online survey with Likert-scale questions to collect insights.

Based on the results of the survey, it appears that Boomers and older Gen X are more open to …

Webinar: Marginalized Populations’ Access To Transit, Marisa Zapata

TREC Webinar Series

How do people with intersecting marginal identities experience social exclusion as they travel via mass transit? To answer this question, PSU researchers employed a qualitative method less common in transportation studies: photovoice. Researchers asked participants to describe the factors that shape their travel behavior and provide photographic data of their experiences. Then, they conducted in-depth video interviews to gain further depth and clarity regarding the visual data. The findings from this study can help transit system designers better understand how experiences of harassment and discrimination across the entire users’ journey affects the riders’ decisions about whether and when to take …

2023 Annual Population Report Tables (April 15, 2024), Portland State University. Population Research Center

Oregon Population Estimates and Reports

The population data in the 2023 annual report tables were compiled by the Population Research Center, Portland State University, 4/15/2024.

The tables in this workbook present the 2023 population estimates produced by the Population Research Center, Portland State University. The July 1 estimates of total population for counties and cities and towns were certified December 15, 2023.

Some tables include the U.S. Census Bureau's decennial Census counts and historical population estimates produced by our Center, and other tables include calculations of change since Census 2020. Also included are population estimates for broad age groups and 5-year age groups.

Contemporary Voter Suppression: Impact On The 2020 General Election, Tiffany Henley, Samuel Brown, Norou Diawara, Md Iqbal Hossain, Gregory Rivera

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

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Health And Healthcare: Designing For The Social Determinants Of Health And Blue Zones In North Nashville, Rebecca Tonguis, Honor Thomas, Olivia Hobbs

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Owned by North Nashville’s First Community Church, a now empty site in the Osage-North Fisk neighborhood of North Nashville has been identified as a potential site for a new location of The Store, in addition to a community-centric architectural development based on the social determinants of health and informed by the principles behind Blue Zones, the locations with the highest lifespans in the world. Opened by Brad Paisley and Kimberly Williams-Paisley, The Store is a free grocery store that “allow[s] people to shop for their basic needs in a way that protects dignity and fosters hope”, for which North Nashville …

Political Values, Democracy, And The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election, George K. Kieh

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Limits Of Free Speech And Election Misinformation: A Case Study Of 2020, Scott Hofer

Ralph Bunche Journal of Public Affairs

none

Creating A Sustainabili-Tour, Lily Dubray, Caden Fisher, Allison Gross, Morgan Hrivnak, Emily Kilstrom, Sushant Mukhia, Hannah Nelin, Sam Parrish, Waverly Patterson, Bowen Rand, Caleb Swanson, Wyatt Wiebelhaus

Sustainability & Environment Projects

Executive Summary

The University of South Dakota has taken significant steps to become more sustainable in the last few years. Students, faculty, and administrators have worked together to raise awareness and advance sustainability on campus. Because of these efforts, the University of South Dakota was recently recognized by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education as a STARS Bronze Institution based on our accomplishments in campus sustainability.

Every year, Dr. Meghann Jarchow teaches the Sustainability Capstone course, leading a class of seniors on a semester-long project aimed at furthering community sustainability by synthesizing student expertise. Throughout …

Global Producer Responsibility For Plastic Pollution, Win Cowger, Kathryn A. Willis, Sybil Bullock, Jorge Emmanuel, Katie M. Erdle, Marcus Eriksen, Katie Conlon, Multiple Additional Authors

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the environment. We used data from a 5-year (2018–2022) worldwide (84 countries) program to identify brands found on plastic items in the environment through 1576 audit events. We found that 50% of items were unbranded, calling for mandated producer reporting. The top five brands globally were The Coca-Cola Company (11%), PepsiCo (5%), Nestlé (3%), Danone (3%), and Altria (2%), accounting for 24% of the total branded count, and 56 companies accounted for more than 50%. There was a clear and strong log-log linear relationship production …

Review Of The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music And Sound On The Brooklyn Waterfront, By Cisco Bradley, Theodore B. Gordon

Publications and Research

Book Review of The Williamsburg Avant-Garde: Experimental Music and Sound on the Brooklyn Waterfront, by Cisco Bradley

Reinforcing The Educational Glass Ceiling: For-Profit Institution’S Cost Of Attending For Women, Kristen A. Blazek

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Ward 4 Asset Mapping Report, Molly Schnoke, Jack Yochum, Erika Shinn, Izzy Esler

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Center for Economic Development at the Levin College of Public Affairs and Education, Cleveland State University was contracted by Cleveland City Councilperson Deborah Gray to provide an accounting of assets and strengths in Cleveland’s Ward 4. The research team conducted interviews with stakeholders throughout the Ward, spoke to residents at community meetings, and conducted a survey of residents to better understand what challenges and opportunities residents and stakeholders felt were important for consideration in the planning of new projects and programs, support for existing services, and to provide guidance to the Councilperson for resource and funding considerations.

This work …

死亡的生态政治：新加坡丧葬改革中的 土地与情感矛盾 [Political Ecology Of Death: Funeral Reforms And The Conflicts Of Land And Emotion In Singapore], Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong, Yan Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the political ecology of death and emotion through the secularized funeral rituals reform in Singapore. Although scholars have recently acknowledged the roles of emotion in shaping environmental politics, religion and death as socio-affective forces have not been substantively engaged with by political ecologists. In this paper, we argue that death is inherently both a spiritual and ecological phenomenon, as it addresses not only the spiritual landscape of how people see the natural world, but also the affective tensions and struggles over what counts as a "proper" form of burial in relation to religion and nature. We first …

Density In The Coastal High Hazard Area: How Florida Local Governments Regulate New Residential Development In Flood Zones, Abdul Samad Agha

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines Florida local government policies that address residential development in the places where people, property, and infrastructure are most at risk from both coastal as well as inland storm surges with a purpose of identifying policy norms and variations. In Florida, these at-risk areas are categorized as Coastal High Hazard Areas (CHHA). Under Florida Statutes, the CHHA is defined as the area below the elevation of a Category 1 storm surge line and are those places most likely to be significantly damaged or submerged by sea water. Florida requires that local governments designate CHHA areas within the local …

Webinar: Assessing Cool Corridor Heat Resilience Strategies For Human-Scale Transportation, Ladd Keith, Kristina Currans

TREC Webinar Series

Heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States, and the implications of heat impacts range from individual transportation users, to emergency management services, and entire transportation networks and systems. In this presentation, we'll cover key concepts for urban planning and heat resilience, including heat mitigation and management strategies. Additionally, we will discuss the original NITC-sponsored data collection evaluating one such cool corridor strategy--PlusTI cool pavement rejuvenator--and the associated challenges of researching impacts of strategies on human-comfort in natural and built environments.

An Evaluation Of The Federal Transition Incentives Program On Land Access For Next-Generation Farmers, Megan Horst, Julia Valliant, Julia Freedgood

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Next-generation farmers face immense challenges in securing land. In recent years, some state- and federal-level land access policy incentives (LAPIs) have been implemented to address these chal­lenges. In this paper, we assess the Transition Incentives Program (TIP), an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Conservation Reserve Program that is funded by Congressional farm bills. TIP offers landowners two years of financial incen­tives for leasing or selling to a beginning or socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (categories of farmers defined by the U.S. Department of Agri­culture). In our study, we characterize TIP partici­pants to understand where and how TIP assists …

The Cooperation-Infrastructure Nexus: Translating The ‘China Model’ Into Laos, Tyler Harlan, Juliet Lu

Urban and Environmental Studies Faculty Works

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is frequently described as a ‘hard’ infrastructure programme of roads, railways, and ports. But a variety of ‘soft’ development cooperation activities—including trainings, dialogues, research, and development projects—have also been established under the banner of the BRI. We examine how this ‘soft’ cooperation works hand-in-hand with ‘hard’ infrastructure in what we call the cooperation-infrastructure nexus. This nexus works in two parallel ways: cooperation activities establish discursive frames of Chinese development as a model to follow, while also creating channels of exchange and support that validate and facilitate infrastructure investments. These investments, in turn, legitimize …

Measurement Of Regional Electric Vehicle Adoption Using Multiagent Deep Reinforcement Learning, Seung Jun Choi, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study explores the socioeconomic disparities observed in the early adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the United States. A multiagent deep reinforcement learning-based policy simulator was developed to address the disparities. The model, tested using data from Austin, Texas, indicates that neighborhoods with higher incomes and a predominantly White demographic are leading in EV adoption. To help low-income communities keep pace, we introduced tiered subsidies and incrementally increased their amounts. In our environment, with the reward and policy design implemented, the adoption gap began to narrow when the incentive was equivalent to an increase in promotion from 20% to …

No. 17: South-South Migration, Pandemic Precarity, And The Informal Food Sector In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The analysis of COVID-19 pandemic precarity in Africa should focus on the ways in which pre-pandemic migrant vulnerabilities were reconfigured in ways that weakened economic resiliency and reinforced disadvantage. This is the first paper to apply the concept of pandemic precarity to the impact of COVID-19 on migrants working in the informal food sector of African cities. The paper develops a new method for measuring pandemic precarity and applies this to data from a 2021 survey of migrant-owned informal food enterprises in the city of Cape Town. The Informal Pandemic Precarity Index (IPPI) and Informal Pandemic Precarity Scale (IPPS) are …

Midwest Hydrogen Center Of Excellence Detailed Comments In Response To Irs Proposed Guidance For 45v Tax Credit For Clean Hydrogen Production, Mark Henning

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Midwest Hydrogen Center of Excellence submitted detailed comments on implementing tax credits for clean hydrogen production under section 45V of the U.S. tax code as established by the Inflation Reduction Act. Clean hydrogen has the potential to play an important role in decarbonizing the U.S. economy by reducing emissions in some of the most difficult-to-decarbonize sectors. The adoption of clean hydrogen will depend on driving down not just the cost of production, but also on lowering the cost to deliver and dispense hydrogen so that the total cost per kilogram reaches an amount that end users are willing to …

No. 15: International Migration And Food Insecurity In Urban Namibia, Lawrence Kazembe, Godfrey Tawodzera, Ndeyapo Nickanor

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Food security and migration have emerged as key development challenges in Namibia. Internal migration, where people move from rural areas to urban centres such as the capital, Windhoek, has been given a great deal of research and policy attention. However, there is a dearth of research on the relationship between international migration and food security in the country. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the nexus between international migration and household food security in Windhoek. Drawing on data from a city-wide household food security survey of the city, the paper compares the food security status of international …

No. 14: Food Insecurity And Irregular Labour Migration From Northern Malawi To South Africa, Anil Dhakal

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The factors influencing migration decisions from Malawi to South Africa have changed with the end of contract migration to the mines and the new normal of irregular migration of both men and women to work in other sectors of the South African economy. Food insecurity is now one of the main drivers of migration as migrants seek to earn income to remit to family in Malawi to purchase food and to invest in agriculture. Food insecurity is normally associated with rural households, but this paper shows that it is also a driver of migration to South Africa from urban Malawi. …

Midwest Hydrogen Center Of Excellence Comments To The Proposed Ira Rulemaking For Irs Rule 45v, Andrew R. Thomas

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Midwest Hydrogen Center of Excellence submitted comments in support of efforts to draft language defining what forms of clean hydrogen production will be eligible for tax credits under IRS Section 45V. The need to transition our energy economy to clean hydrogen is urgent. If we rely primarily upon electrolysis and other renewable sources for hydrogen, it will take too long to develop. Accordingly, the 45V tax credit rules should be written to encourage clean hydrogen generation from steam methane reformation. Tax credits for generation of clean hydrogen from renewable natural gas, in particular, should phase in Scope 3 emission …

The Status Of Urban System In Bethlehem Governorate: Study On Urban Geography, Yacoub Jeries Al-Qasasfeh

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

The aim of the study is to analyse the status of urban system in Bethlehem governorate, through setting the hierarchical ratings for different urban populations in it. And showing the adequacy of this rating by applying certain quantitive measurements including the grade and volume of these populations, their urban density, the law of primate city by Jefferson, and the volumetric grade according to Zipf's rule of grade and volume. Also showing the volumetric urban contrast between them, and the volume of the urban domination for the main city in the governorate according to the laws and the followed modules in …

Examining Causes And Outcomes Of Migration Patterns Out Of Southeast Michigan, Alex B. Hill, Rayman Mohamed, Allan Yang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

This report describes a survey of U-Haul patrons regarding their experiences utilizing U-Haul to move out of the Southeast Michigan region.

Executive Summary

In the latest U-Haul Growth Index, the state of Michigan moved from ranking 48 out of 50 states up to 46. This represents a relatively small change that doesn’t relate to the documented population loss in the state.

The city of Detroit and Michigan are both at critical crossroads. Population declines are pushing local officials to come up with new and unique programs to attract new residents, new business investment, and new tax revenue.

The reasons that …

Using Disaster Surveys To Model Business Interruption, Maria Watson, Yu Xiao, Jennifer Helgeson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Business interruption after disasters is an important metric for community resilience planning because has both economic and social consequences. Each additional day that a business is nonoperational further compounds lost revenue, wages, and lack of access to goods and services needed for recovery. Therefore, the use of surveys has grown in the literature as a way to capture the diverse information needed for modeling business disaster outcomes. However, variable inclusion and measurement can vary widely across studies, and there is a lack of guidance on how to structure surveys most effectively to facilitate this effort. This study fills these gaps …

Containerization Of Seafarers In The International Shipping Industry: Contemporary Seamanship, Maritime Social Infrastructures, And Mobility Politics Of Global Logistics, Liang Wu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation discusses the mobility politics of container shipping and argues that technological development, political-economic order, and social infrastructure co-produce one another. Containerization, the use of standardized containers to carry cargo across modes of transportation that is said to have revolutionized and globalized international trade since the late 1950s, has served to expand and extend the power of international coalitions of states and corporations to control the movements of commodities (shipments) and labor (seafarers). The advent and development of containerization was driven by a sociotechnical imaginary and international social contract of seamless shipping and cargo flows. In practice, this liberal, …

Staying Power: The Struggle For Space And Place In Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Erin E. Lilli

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation looks at how gentrification touches down, at the neighborhood and individual scale, in Crown Heights and reproduces experiences of racial inequality in home and place. Taking an historical materialist approach and drawing on residential oral histories, this study frames these reproductions of racial inequality as always-in-tension with ongoing acts of resistance from Black homeowners, renters, and long-term residents. Specifically, the research explores the conditions under which Black residents of a predominantly Afro-Caribbean neighborhood acquire and maintain—and in some cases lose—their housing and sense of place and belonging. These residents resist the varied tactics of anti-Blackness such as landlord …

Park Use, Urban Environmental Justice, And Place Attachment In Parks In Low-Income Neighborhoods In New York City, Javier Eduardo Otero Peña

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This three-article dissertation brings environmental psychology themes and questions to a large-scale public health research project about a subset of community parks and park renovations in low-income neighborhoods in New York City (NYC). What attributes and perceived aspects of the physical and social environment of parks and their neighborhoods are associated with higher park use? How do residents of gentrifying low-income neighborhoods feel about park renovations that took place in their communities? What can be learned from parks, park renovations and place attachment from exploring user-generated content in the Google Maps platform? Each of the articles presented in this dissertation …