Infrastructure Commons^™

Interdependent Infrastructure As Linked Social, Ecological, And Technological Systems (Setss) To Address Lock-In And Enhance Resilience, Samuel A. Markolf, Mikhail Chester, Daniel A. Eisenberg, David Iwaniec, Cliff I. Davidson, Rae Zimmerman, Thaddeus R. Miller, Benjamin Ruddell, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Traditional infrastructure adaptation to extreme weather events (and now climate change) has typically been techno-centric and heavily grounded in robustness—the capacity to prevent or minimize disruptions via a risk-based approach that emphasizes control, armoring, and strengthening (e.g., raising the height of levees). However, climate and nonclimate challenges facing infrastructure are not purely technological. Ecological and social systems also warrant consideration to manage issues of overconfidence, inflexibility, interdependence, and resource utilization—among others. As a result, techno-centric adaptation strategies can result in unwanted tradeoffs, unintended consequences, and underaddressed vulnerabilities. Techno-centric strategies that lock-in today’s infrastructure systems to vulnerable future design, management, and …

Point/Counterpoint: Is There A Case For Subsidizing Sports Stadiums?, Victor Matheson

Economics Department Working Papers

In recent decades, governments have committed enormous public resources to subsidize construction of new stadiums, and the dollar value of taxpayer contributions for these subsidies continues to climb. Spending of taxpayer dollars includes both direct subsidies from state and local governments, as well as indirect subsidies from the use of tax-exempt bonds to finance construction. In granting stadium subsidies, governments claim that the stadiums are a public good that attracts tourists and businesses, thereby generating increased spending and job creation—benefits that flow to the community rather than to team owners. But do such benefits exist, and are they large enough …

Risk-Based Performance Metrics For Critical Infrastructure Protection? A Framework For Research And Analysis, Eric F. Taquechel, Marina Saitgalina

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Measuring things that do not occur, such as “deterred” or “prevented” terrorist attacks, can be difficult. Efforts to establish meaningful risk-based performance metrics and performance evaluation frameworks based on such metrics, for government agencies with counterterrorism missions, are arguably in a nascent state. However, by studying program theory, logic models, and performance evaluation theory, as well as studying how risk, deterrence, and resilience concepts may be leveraged to support antiterrorism efforts, one may propose a framework for a logic model or other performance evaluation approach. Such a framework may integrate these concepts to help proxy performance measurement for agencies with …

Producing The Self-Regulating Subject: Liberal Protection In Indonesia’S Migration Infrastructure, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Labour protection has become a dominant agenda in global migration governance, particularly for sending countries whose diasporic citizens are denied political rights in host states. Despite having limited authority to arbitrate extraterritorial disputes, sending countries like Indonesia have deployed novel techniques of statecraft to improve migrant protection. Through the prism of the professional competence exam and pre-departure orientation seminar, this article investigates the Indonesian state's regulatory practices that focus on migrant conduct. Although outbound domestic workers are subject to a prolonged process of skill formation, other Indonesian contract workers pursue emigration upon acquiring basic legal knowledge without undergoing accreditation. While …

The Intentional City: Shaping London’S Urban Future, Zack Taylor

Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance – Publications

Summary of remarks made at a public roundtable celebrating the launch of the Centre of Urban Policy and Local Governance held at Western University on November 23, 2018. Participants included Pierre Filion, Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo and an expert in mid-sized cities; Arielle Kayabaga, Councillor-Elect for City of London’s downtown Ward 13; Michelle Baldwin, Executive Director of London’s Pillar Nonprofit Network and Co-Founder of Innovation Works; John Fleming, Managing Director of Planning and City Planner for the City of London; and Neil Bradford, Professor and Chair of the …

The Intentional City: Shaping London’S Urban Future (Event Transcript), Zack Taylor

Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance – Publications

Edited transcript of remarks made at a public roundtable celebrating the launch of the Centre of Urban Policy and Local Governance held at Western University on November 23, 2018. Participants included Pierre Filion, Professor in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo and an expert in mid-sized cities; Arielle Kayabaga, Councillor-Elect for City of London’s downtown Ward 13; Michelle Baldwin, Executive Director of London’s Pillar Nonprofit Network and Co-Founder of Innovation Works; John Fleming, Managing Director of Planning and City Planner for the City of London; and Neil Bradford, Professor and Chair of …

Relating Cyanobacteria And Physicochemical Water-Quality Properties In Willow Creek Lake, Nebraska, 2012–14, David L. Rus, Brent M. Hall, Steven A. Thomas

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Document abstract

Cyanobacteria (also referred to as blue-green algae) are naturally present members of phytoplankton assemblages that may detract from beneficial uses of water because some strains produce cyanotoxins that pose health hazards to people and animals. Cyanobacteria populations observed in Willow Creek Lake during 2012 through 2014 were compared to external nutrient loading from the Willow Creek drainage basin and several other physicochemical properties within the lake, including internal nutrient loading. This report is part of a cooperative study between the United States Geological Survey, the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, the Nebraska …

Flag State Performance And The Implementation Of Port State Control In The European Union - A Mixed Methods Approach, Armando Graziano

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

The implementation and enforcement of international maritime safety standards by Member States has always represented a key objective for both the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the European Commission (EC). In spite of a strong global legal framework for safety at sea, harmonisation has always been a challenge. Two points are relevant here: firstly, the level of implementation and enforcement with international regulations varies significantly among countries; secondly, it is a challenge to determine and/or quantify this level of compliance.

Several attempts have been made by the maritime industry, academic studies and policy-makers to develop an appropriate set of criteria …

Building A National Maritime Security Policy, Adriana Avila-Zúñiga Nordfjeld

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

The issue of port security raised concerns at the highest levels after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 against the United States. Security threats against ports and vessels acquired a new perspective and in 2002 the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted amendments to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), 1974, introducing Chapter XI-2 - Special measures to enhance maritime security. This set of regulations enshrines the International Ship and Port Facilities Security Code (ISPS Code), which entered into force on 1 July 2004.

This Code establishes a set of measures to enhance the security …

Tls Newsletter, September 2018, Unf Transportation And Logistics Society

Transportation & Logistics Society Newsletter

Inside the Newsletter: UNF Transportation and Logistics Society Fall 2018. Join the TLS Task Force. Upcoming Events. TLS is Going Digital! TLS Voted UNF Club of the Year 2017-2018. Career Day, Friday October 26, 2018.

The Economic Impact Of Olympic Games: Effects Of Host Country Announcements On Stock Market Returns, Bryan Engelhardt, Victor Matheson, Alex Yen, Max Chisholm

Economics Department Working Papers

Roughly seven years before an Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepts bids from countries to host an Olympics. Subsequently, the IOC determines and announces to the world who has won (and lost) the right to host. Contrary to prior evidence, we find the announcements do not affect the bidding countries’ stock markets. We complement prior studies by including additional, more recent, years of announcements, by investigating whether there are effects prior to the announcement, and by testing for an effect both parametrically and non-parametrically.

Restoring Housing Security And Stability In New York City Neighborhoods: Recommendations To Stop The Displacement Of Dominicans And Other Working-Class Groups In Washington Heights And Inwood, Ramona Hernandez, Yana Kucheva, Sarah Marrara, Utku Sezgin

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

"Waste Is Not Just Waste Anymore": Deconstructing The Relationship Between Sustainable Waste Prevention And Individual Socio-Demographic Characteristics (The Juxtaposition Of Ushongo Mtoni Village And Moshi Urban, Tanzania), Mahalia Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

I am going to tell you a story about humans — their lives, livelihoods, environments, and their individual relationships to sustainable waste prevention. As developing countries, such as Tanzania experience economic growth, waste overflow and proper waste disposal become even more arduous challenges. Thus, it is becoming increasingly important to explore sustainable solutions such as waste prevention. Through conducting semi-structured interviews in two distinctly unique locations, Moshi Urban of the Kilimanjaro Region and Ushongo Village on the coast of Tanga Region, Tanzania, I explored how levels of awareness and involvement in sustainable waste prevention practices, specifically reducing, reusing, and recycling, …

Estimating Recent Local Impacts Of Sea‑Level Rise On Current Real‑Estate Losses: A Housing Market Case Study In Miami‑Dade, Florida, Steven A. Mcalpine, Jeremy R. Porter

Publications and Research

Sea-Level Rise (SLR) Projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) indicate increasing, and imminent, risk to coastal communities from tidal flooding and hurricane storm surge. Building on recent research related to the potential demographic impacts of such changes (Hauer et al. 2016, in Nat Clim Chang 3:802–806, 2017; Neumann et al. 2015; Curtis and Schneider in Popul Environ 33:28–54, 2011), localized flooding projections in the Miami Beach area (Wdowinski et al. in Ocean Coast Manag 126:1–8, 2016) and projected economic losses associated with this rise in projected SLR (Fu et …

The Cost Of Jaywalking On Traffic Congestion In An Intersection In Greater Cairo: A Case Study, Hussein Gawdat

Theses and Dissertations

There have been many studies focusing on different types of traffic delays, pedestrians’ interaction at signalized intersections and economic losses as a result of these delays. However, there is a huge gap in the current literature, regionally and globally, in studying the traffic delays associated with jaywalking. In Egypt, jaywalking is considered a common phenomenon, however, population increased drastically over the past decades in Greater Cairo leading to more congested streets. This research provides a case study that investigates the economic effect of jaywalking on traffic flow in Mashaal, a sample location in Greater Cairo, due to traffic congestion. The …

The Housing Crisis In Puerto Rico And The Impact Of Hurricane Maria, Jennifer Hinojosa, Edwin Melendez

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

By all counts, Puerto Rico’s housing market is in a deep and prolonged crisis. At least 18 percent of Puerto Rico’s housing stock is vacant as a result of the island’s prolonged economic recession, which commenced in 2006, and the spike in foreclosures after Hurricane Maria suggests that vacant units are increasing at an accelerated rate. Puerto Rico’s economic recession led to depopulation and the loss of jobs, which induced a decline of home equity values and an increase in foreclosures. More recently, Puerto Rico’s housing stock has been damaged due to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island on September …

Utrecht, Bike Capital Of The World, Martijn Rietbergen

PSU Transportation Seminars

Utrecht is a bustling, bicycle-friendly city in the Netherlands. Every day, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., over 125,000 cyclists ride to their work, school, university, public transport, shops or home through the city centre.

The municipality wants to make cycling even more attractive for these and other cyclists. Consequently, the bicycle is given precedence in the mobility policy of the municipality of Utrecht. We want to be the most bike-friendly city in the world. We want to keep our growing city livable, accessible and economically strong, and we are convinced that the bicycle can and should play a major …

The Impacts Of Green Spaces On Crime In New York City, Matthew Edward Iannone Jr.

Student Theses 2015-Present

From the early 1960s through the mid-1990s, crime in New York City ran rampant. With a gradually dwindling police during this time, a high unemployment rate, and an rapidly increasing metropolitan population, crime peaked in the early 1990s, with the murder rate hitting a record-high of 2,245 in 1990. When Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office in 1994 and appoint Bill Bratton as the NYPD police commissioner, these rates immediately plunged. Numerous factors may have contributed to this sudden decline in crime: the police force grew significantly through the 1990s, more criminals were placed and held in prison, and the economic …

A Socioeconomic Valuation Of Urban Wetland Ecosystems And Policy Recommendation For College Lake, Michael Dunmyer

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Cityscapes in the United States are often viewed dichotomously in regards to natural environments. Preserved sites can be seen as an obstacle to urban development, and the concept of a functioning ecosystem within city limits is fictitious to many; we assume the two cannot coexist. Lynchburg, Virginia’s College Lake offers a unique case study for how urban ecosystems can not only subsist within cities but provide pivotal functions for them as well. With the potential for a dam-breaching storm event increasing in possibility with each passing year, concerns regarding the structural integrity of the College Lake dam in Lynchburg, Virginia …

Urban Growth Initiative For Greater Downtown Kalamazoo, Jim Robey, Randall W. Eberts, Lee Adams, Kathleen Bolter, Don Edgerly, Marie Holler, Brian Pittelko, Claudette Robey

Reports

No abstract provided.