Urban Studies Commons^™

Evaluating The Preparedness Of Local Zoning Regulations For Flood Risk Reduction In The Most Affected Local Jurisdictions In Nebraska, Md Asaduzzaman Noor

Community and Regional Planning Program: Theses

Flooding has profound social, economic, and environmental impacts on local communities, and zoning plays a critical role in mitigating these risks. The 2019 Nebraska floods, among the most severe in the state’s history, highlighted the urgent need to strengthen local preparedness and mitigation strategies. This study assesses the extent to which local zoning regulations in Nebraska’s most affected jurisdiction, including rural areas, address flood risk reduction. A systematic review of 117 zoning ordinances from counties, cities, towns, and villages, we applied a structured analytical framework encompassing regulatory and permitting policies, voluntary and incentive-based measures, and nature-based solutions. The results show …

Data-Driven Evaluation Of Sustainable Waste-To-Energy Pathways For Intelligent Urban Systems, Izech Brian O. Edwin, King Harold A. Recto

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

The handling of municipal solid waste (MSW) in swiftly urbanizing Philippine cities poses intricate energy and governance challenges. In Baguio City, reliance on landfills has reached critical levels due to diminishing capacity, rising transport costs, and opposition to trash transfers by nearby LGUs. Although shaped by unique topographical and governance constraints, Baguio’s situation reflects issues faced by other rapidly growing Philippine cities; therefore, analyzing it offers insights for national MSW decision-making. This study applies a triple bottom line (TBL) framework to assess three management scenarios: (1) Status Quo, where all MSW is landfilled with no energy recovery; (2) Landfill with …

Rural County International Immigrant Population Growth In Nevada, 2020-2024, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Anirudh Polagani, Mohit Pande, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet presents 2020-2024 data on international immigrant population growth across 17 Nevada counties.The Daily Yonder report, “International Immigrants Drive Rural Population Growth,” uses U.S. Census data to highlight international immigration patterns for all metropolitan and nonmetropolitan (rural) counties across the United States. This fact sheet highlights data on 13 nonmetropolitan counties in Nevada: Churchill, Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, White Pine. This fact sheet also includes data on four metropolitan counties in Nevada: Carson City, Clark, Storey, and Washoe.

Building Oregon's Statewide Multimodal Transportation Inventory With Ai And Interagency Collaboration, Ben Stabler, Theresa Conley

PSU Transportation Seminars

ODOT and 48+ local agencies are collaborating on the development of a multimodal data set for transportation planning within metropolitan areas. Revisions to Oregon's Transportation Planning Rules (TPR) set in motion the need for more multimodal data and analysis in local plans. The multimodal data inventory includes vehicle and freight facilities, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, transit facilities, and other relevant data such as key destinations and crashes. Starting from the local agency GIS systems and supplemented with real world use of AI for developing bicycle and pedestrian facilities, the team is defining and constructing a shared statewide multimodal data set. …

2025 Point In Time Count Findings -- Summary Report: Count Of People Experiencing Homelessness In Clackamas, Multnomah, And Washington Counties, Oregon, Marisa Zapata, Carolyn Niehaus, Franklin H. Spurbeck, Minji Cho

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires continuums of care (CoC) across the country to routinely count people experiencing homelessness. This count, called the Point in Time Count (PITC), enumerates the number and characteristics of people who are experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. As a result, the count provides a snapshot of homelessness within a CoC. In the Portland metropolitan region, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties administer their respective CoCs. These, referred to as the tri-counties in this report, are responsible for submitting PITC data every year.

The PITC is a survey of people …

Mobility, Dispersion And Economic Diversity In Housing Conditions For Hispanics In New York State, Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Veronica Diaz, Jorge Soldevilla-Irizarry

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

This report presents housing data in legislative districts in the state of New York and compare them to state-level data to highlight how Hispanic in legislative districts throughout the state fare relative to the district’s overall population as well as the state’s population as a whole.

Findings include Hispanics generally, but not always, having worse outcomes around housing conditions related to costs than other New Yorkers, evident in the data presented at the district level, the county level and the state level. But Latinos are also an increasingly diverse group, not just culturally (e.g., in terms of generational acculturation in …

A Comparison Of Comparisons: Evidence From An International Comparative Study Of 'Smart Cities', Kevin Ward, Teresa Abbruzzese, Tim Bunnell, Paolo Cardullo, I-Chun Catherine Chang, Byron Miller, Ramon Ribera-Fumaz, Haeran Shin, Zachary Spicer, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Every year the list lengthens of cities with some sort of ‘smart city’ public policy. In some, it emerges as the latest in a long line of urban digital and information communication policies. In others, the introduction of the notion of the ‘smart city’ marks a departure from past approaches to public policy. Additionally, the more studies emerge of actual smart city policies, then the less definitional agreement there seems to be. Nevertheless, that we have witnessed in the last two decades the ‘repeated instance’ of smart cities emerging in cities around the world seems incontrovertible. Like so much urban …

A Dataset Exploring Urban Comfort Through Novel Wearables And Environmental Surveys, Patrick Chwalek, Sailin Zhong, Nathan Perry, Tianqi Liu, Clayton Miller, Seiied Hamed Alavi, Denis Lalanne, A. Joseph Paradiso

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study presents a comprehensive dataset capturing indoor environmental parameters, physiological responses, and subjective perceptions across three global cities. Utilizing wearable sensors, including smart eyeglasses, and a modified Cozie app, environmental and physiological data were collected, along with pre-screening, onboarding, and recurring surveys. Peripheral cues facilitated participant engagement with micro-EMA surveys, minimizing disruption over a 5-day collection period. The dataset offers insights into urban comfort dynamics, highlighting the interplay between environmental conditions, physiological responses, and subjective perceptions. Researchers can utilize this dataset to deepen their understanding of indoor environmental quality and inform the design of healthier built environments. Access to …

Reducing Motor Vehicle – Bicycle Conflicts At Controlled Intersections, Jason C. Anderson, Sirisha Kothuri

PSU Transportation Seminars

One of the most common locations for fatal motor vehicle-bicyclist crashes is at intersections, which inherently have a large number of turning conflicts. Reducing these conflicts is a key objective in improving intersection safety across all modes. Of particular concern for bicyclists’ safety at intersections are the conflicts between straight-through bicyclists and motor vehicle right-turns and opposing left-turns. The objective of this research was to develop guidance and tools for transportation practitioners to use to reduce turning conflicts between motor vehicles and bicycles at controlled intersections and improve the safety and comfort of intersections for bicyclists.

Local Journalist Equivalents (Ljes) In The Mountain West, 2025, Taylor Volk, Anthony Arroyo, Yiselle Olivas Ruiz, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2025 data on Local Journalist Equivalents (LJEs) for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are derived from the Muck Rack report “Local Journalist Index 2025,” which includes data on LJEs for states and counties across the U.S. This fact sheet highlights state-level LJE data among Mountain West states, as well as LJE data for the following 17 Nevada counties: Carson City, Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Pershing, Storey, Washoe, and White Pine.

Economic Growth In Mountain West Cities, 2019-2023, Anirudh Polagani, Isabelle G. Graham, Olivia K. Cheche, Kristian Thymianos, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2019-2023 data on economic growth indicators in 32 Mountain West cities across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The CoworkingCafe report, “Rising Powerhouses: The Cities Making America’s Economic Future,” includes economic growth data for 269 cities across the United States. This fact sheet highlights data from select cities in each Mountain West state, categorized by population size: five large cities, eight mid-sized cities, and 19 small cities.

Understanding Film Tax Credits In Nevada And Nationally, Michael J. Brown, David F. Damore, William E. Brown Jr.

Policy Briefs and Reports

This policy primer provides an overview of Nevada’s transferable tax credit program for film and other productions and reviews articles, reports, audits, and studies of film tax credits as a tool for economic development in the United States. This review considers a significant body of work analyzing the use of film tax credits in support of economic development. Studies and state audits often show that because film tax credits do not create the number and quality of full-time jobs necessary to merit their costs and do little to stimulate other related industries, they are a poor financial choice for state …

The Realities Of Roadkill: Challenges And Opportunities For Wildlife Transportation Mitigation, Rachel Wheat

PSU Transportation Seminars

Transportation infrastructure is critical for our communities and economies, but the roadways we depend on for travel have significant negative impacts on wildlife populations. Roadkill is the most visible consequence, with tens of millions of animals injured or killed on Oregon’s roadways each year. Beyond direct mortality, transportation corridors fragment habitat and can alter wildlife behavior, creating barriers that disrupt wildlife movement and access to critical resources, contributing to population declines. Despite these challenges, opportunities exist for mitigation, including the use of wildlife crossing structures, autonomous animal detection systems, and smarter project siting. This talk will explore the multifaceted challenges …

More Than Words: Using Land Use Rules To Fight Climate Destruction, Edward Sullivan

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

It is now unlikely that meaningful federal legislation on climate destruction will be advanced in a second Trump administration. If “no action” is the alternative for the federal government, it will be up to the states to develop measures to counteract this challenge. These measures — in response to a trend in Supreme Court rulings that restrict or deny federal environmental action without explicit congressional approval – could include, among other things, new air and water quality standards, fishing restrictions, and changes to water allocations in our rivers. Yet these potential changes may be themselves limited by federal actions that …

Transit-Oriented Development And Affordable Housing: Lessons From Portland, Nathan Mcneil

PSU Transportation Seminars

The seminar will cover surveys of residents at recently built Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs) focused on affordable housing sites. This study builds off of an ongoing partnership between Portland State University and the Portland Metro regional government to understand the travel choices of people who move to recently constructed Metro supported TODs. Since 2018, Metro has focused their TOD investment on affordable housing; this survey, conducted in 2024, offers a lens into how TOD works for these low-income Portlanders, how their travel differs from prior TOD residents, and what opportunities exist to improve the TOD - affordable housing combination.

Latino Or Hispanic-Owned Businesses In The Mountain West, 2017-2022, Anthony Arroyo, Cason Noll, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet examines the growth of Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses in the largest metropolitan areas in the Mountain West between 2017 and 2022. The data are derived from the Brookings Institution’s “Charting the surge in Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses in the US” report, which highlights data on Latino or Hispanic-owned businesses in metropolitan and micropolitan areas across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. This fact sheet focuses on data for the following metropolitan areas in the Mountain West: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ; Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO; Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV; Albuquerque, NM; and Salt Lake City-Murray, UT.

Urban Renewal And The Displacement Of Puerto Ricans In Lincoln Square, Jorge Soldevilla-Irizarry, Laura Colón Meléndez, Cristel Jusino Díaz, Damayra Figueroa-Lazu

CUNY Centro, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies

This report focuses an overlooked Puerto Rican community in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, called Lincoln Square, during the 1950s, where more than 3,000 Puerto Ricans had lived prior to the Lincoln Center urban renewal project. As part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts  “Legacies of San Juan Hill”  initiative, the Lincoln Center archives offered CENTRO’s Data Hub access to 2,130 digitized site occupation records pertaining to 165 distinct addresses of tenants residing within the site of what would become the city’s premier performance center. These records invite a necessary retrospective reassessment and reframing of the scripts that bolstered …

Cost Of Living For Older Adults (65+) In Mountain West Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 2024, Anirudh Polagani, Annie Vong, Mohit Pande, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet explores 2024 cost of living data for adults over the age of 65 in the largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are sourced from the “Elder Index,” a dashboard that focuses on housing, healthcare, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses that collectively reflect the monthly expenses for those over the age of 65. This fact sheet focuses on five MSAs in the Mountain West: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ; Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO; Las Vegas-Henderson- North Las Vegas, NV; Albuquerque, NM; and Salt Lake City-Murray, UT.

Urban Heat Islands In Mountain West Cities, 2024, Mia Tschan, Krish Sharma, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data on Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) in six cities across five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are derived from the 2024 Climate Central report, “Urban Heat Hot Spots in 65 Cities,” which includes data on how UHIs boost temperatures in 65 major cities across the United States. This fact sheet focuses on UHIs in six Mountain West cities: Albuquerque, NM; Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; and Tucson, AZ.

Native American Tribes And Federal Grant Funding In The Mountain West, Fy2023-2025, Isabelle G. Graham, Maisoon Faris, Dre Boyd-Weatherly, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents state-level data on the impact of a federal government-wide funding freeze affecting Native American Tribes, focusing on the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are derived from the Brookings Institution’s “A federal grant freeze could disrupt over $24 billion to Native American communities and undermine US obligations to Tribes” brief, which reports data from USAspending. The original report provides data on the federal government’s obligations, outlays, and remaining balances owed to Native American Tribes for all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.