Matching Items (32)
Description
This thesis explores the wide-ranging urban renovations of Paris that the Second Empire, led by Emperor Napoleon III, commissioned from 1853-1870. The complex nature of redesigning the French capital required the oversight of the prefect of the Seine under Napoleon III, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, a man who popularized not only the appearance of Paris as it is known today but also the innovative means of financing projects of such large magnitudes. Ordering for wider streets to accommodate the flow of traffic from a rapidly growing population in the nineteenth century, the city government of Paris saw an opportunity to modernize completely its urban area in a functional manner by implementing new water and sewer systems, municipal parks, street lighting, and uniform façades. The comprehensive nature of this undertaking constituted one of the first instances of modern urban planning. While the massive construction projects did displace many of the residents of the city's core, they fundamentally transformed Paris from a medieval town notorious for its malodorous stench, overcrowding, and disease to one of the world's most celebrated and visited cities.
ContributorsSifferman, Steven Tyler (Author) / Shaeffer, J. Duncan (Thesis director) / Hopkins, Richard (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The global energy demand is expected to grow significantly in the next several decades and support for energy generation with high carbon emissions is continuing to decline. Alternative methods have gained interest, and wind energy has established itself as a viable source. Standard wind farms have limited room for growth and improvement, so wind energy has started to explore different directions. The urban environment is a potential direction for wind energy due to its proximity to the bulk of energy demand. CFD analysis has demonstrated that the presence of buildings can accelerate wind speeds between buildings and on rooftops. However, buildings generate areas of increased turbulence at their surface. The turbulence thickness and intensity vary with roof shape, building height, and building orientation. The analysis has concluded that good wind resource is possible in the urban environment in specific locations. With that, turbine selection becomes very important. A comparison has concluded that vertical axis wind turbines are more useful in the urban environment than horizontal axis wind turbines. Furthermore, building-augmented wind turbines are recommended because they are architecturally integrated into a building for the specific purpose of generating more energy. The research has concluded that large-scale generation in the urban environment is unlikely to be successful, but small-scale generation is quite viable. Continued research and investigation on urban wind energy is recommended.
ContributorsKlumpers, Ryan Scott (Author) / Calhoun, Ronald (Thesis director) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
In this project we examine the geographical availability of water resources for persons experiencing homelessness in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. Persons experiencing homelessness spend a significant portion of their time outdoors and as such have a higher risk of dehydration, heat-related illness, and heat stress. Our data was collected using archival data, participant- observation, focal follows with water distributors that serve homeless populations, phone and internet surveys with social service providers, and expert interviews with 14 local service providers. We analyzed this data using methods for thematic coding and geospatial analysis. We find that the sources of water and geographic availability vary across the economic sectors of the population and that they become more unconventional and more difficult to access with further isolation. We conclude that many persons who are experience homelessness have inconsistent and unreliable access to water for hydrating, maintaining hygiene, cooking and cleaning for reasons that are largely due to geographic inaccessibility.
ContributorsWarpinski, Chloe Larue (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Whelan, Mary (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Through the months September-November of 2017 a study was conducted to determine if bees prefer the sunflower, Helianthus annuus, native to Arizona, or a cultivar Helianthus sunflower in an urban environment. The study was executed in a small, controlled urban environment on Arizona State University West campus. Seven identified bee species and forty-nine specimens were collected, of the forty-nine specimens, two bees were reported on the Helianthus cultivar supporting native floral host preferences of native species. Variables such as nectar, pollen, floral color, and floral height were not measured, however, when the floral host genus was maintained wild bees visited the native Helianthus host significantly more yielding a supportive two-tailed p-value of 2.97x10-5. Three trends were identified in correlation with the experiment: 1) Bees foraged on native Helianthus annuus over the Helianthus cultivar, 2) Generalist species were more abundant than specialists on the Helianthus annuus, 3) Honey bees (Apis mellifera) were the most abundant species present. While not considered a trend, low floral diversity and abundance may explain the low diversity of bee species observed on the Helianthus. Floral host and pollinator desynchronization may also have affected bee diversity and abundance. Analysis of bee abundance and diversity support that wild bees may prefer native floral hosts over cultivar floral hosts when the floral genus, temperature, and time was controlled for in an urban environment.
ContributorsDunham, Jocelen Michaela (Author) / Foltz-Sweat, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Sweat, Ken (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Due to the widely accepted trend of urbanization displacing wildlife from their natural habitats and niches, many wildlife conservation organizations have sprouted up, even in Phoenix. Liberty Wildlife Foundation is one that rehabilitates avian wildlife. Several studies have mentioned an opposing theory: that urbanization helps conserve those species that have turned urban environments into a niche of their own. Since these wildlife conservation centers are localized in cities themselves, this brings into question these organizations' definitions of the term "wildlife." This study examined injury and recovery statistics to determine just how many of the patients admitted were conventional wildlife versus urban-dwelling city birds, and whether this classification had any effect on their likeliness of recovery and release. The data showed that out of over 130 species, a few key urban species contributed to an overwhelmingly large majority of injured birds admitted to the center in 2017; urban and non-urban birds, however, had relatively equal average release frequencies, demonstrating then that their likelihood of recovery was predominantly dependent on the injury borne by them.
ContributorsVirdee, Rishika Kaur (Author) / Liebig, Juergen (Thesis director) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Haight, Kevin (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Energy use within urban building stocks is continuing to increase globally as populations expand and access to electricity improves. This projected increase in demand could require deployment of new generation capacity, but there is potential to offset some of this demand through modification of the buildings themselves. Building stocks are quasi-permanent infrastructures which have enduring influence on urban energy consumption, and research is needed to understand: 1) how development patterns constrain energy use decisions and 2) how cities can achieve energy and environmental goals given the constraints of the stock. This requires a thorough evaluation of both the growth of the stock and as well as the spatial distribution of use throughout the city. In this dissertation, a case study in Los Angeles County, California (LAC) is used to quantify urban growth, forecast future energy use under climate change, and to make recommendations for mitigating energy consumption increases. A reproducible methodological framework is included for application to other urban areas.
In LAC, residential electricity demand could increase as much as 55-68% between 2020 and 2060, and building technology lock-in has constricted the options for mitigating energy demand, as major changes to the building stock itself are not possible, as only a small portion of the stock is turned over every year. Aggressive and timely efficiency upgrades to residential appliances and building thermal shells can significantly offset the projected increases, potentially avoiding installation of new generation capacity, but regulations on new construction will likely be ineffectual due to the long residence time of the stock (60+ years and increasing). These findings can be extrapolated to other U.S. cities where the majority of urban expansion has already occurred, such as the older cities on the eastern coast. U.S. population is projected to increase 40% by 2060, with growth occurring in the warmer southern and western regions. In these growing cities, improving new construction buildings can help offset electricity demand increases before the city reaches the lock-in phase.
In LAC, residential electricity demand could increase as much as 55-68% between 2020 and 2060, and building technology lock-in has constricted the options for mitigating energy demand, as major changes to the building stock itself are not possible, as only a small portion of the stock is turned over every year. Aggressive and timely efficiency upgrades to residential appliances and building thermal shells can significantly offset the projected increases, potentially avoiding installation of new generation capacity, but regulations on new construction will likely be ineffectual due to the long residence time of the stock (60+ years and increasing). These findings can be extrapolated to other U.S. cities where the majority of urban expansion has already occurred, such as the older cities on the eastern coast. U.S. population is projected to increase 40% by 2060, with growth occurring in the warmer southern and western regions. In these growing cities, improving new construction buildings can help offset electricity demand increases before the city reaches the lock-in phase.
ContributorsReyna, Janet Lorel (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis advisor) / Gurney, Kevin (Committee member) / Reddy, T. Agami (Committee member) / Rey, Sergio (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Interrogating Rusticism utilizes concepts from postcolonial theory and studies in cosmopolitanism to examine the relationship between the country and the city in nineteenth-century Britain. The project considers the way in which rural people, places, and cultures were depicted in popular literature and introduces two new terms that help inform one’s understanding of rural and urban interaction. “Rusticism” refers to a discourse reminiscent of Orientalism that creates an “us and them” dichotomy through characterizations that essentialize rural experience and cast it as distinct from urban living. “Extrapolitanism” evokes a cultural practice similar to rooted cosmopolitanism that entails traveling back and forth between the country and the city, engaging in both urban and rural cultural practices, and not committing oneself solely to the social and political causes of either the country or the city. Because rusticist stereotypes regarding rural life, such as the notion that rural labourers possess an energy and love for their work but are also uneducated and backward, have persisted into the twenty-first century, studying the more nuanced, less-rusticist aspects of rural life in nineteenth-century Britain is an often overlooked, but still very important, endeavor. Interrogating Rusticism closely examines literature by authors known for imbuing their works with rusticist portrayals of country life, and seeks to illuminate how, in addition to perpetuating rusticist discourse, those authors also cultivate an extrapolitan type of mindset when they do depict more nuanced aspects of rural life.
Each chapter follows a similar methodological approach that involves looking at a specific rusticist notion, the binary distinctions that help construct it, the historical background that contributed to its rise, a critically overlooked work that informed the writing process of a commonly studied piece, and how the commonly studied piece challenges the rusticist notion by revealing that the binary distinctions actually inform one another. Chapter 1 focuses on the rusticist idea that rural communities are pastoral, pre-modern sites untouched by the effects of modernity, the repeal of the Corn Laws, which eventually led to rampant poverty in the countryside, George Eliot’s travel memoir “Recollections of Ilfracombe” (1856) that chronicles her visit to a rural, sea-side community, and her first novel, Adam Bede (1859). Chapter 2 turns to the comparison that was often made between rural workers and nonhuman animals, the negative connotations it carried, which became even more pronounced following the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins’s dramatized account of their 1857 walking tour of rural England, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, and Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). The final chapter examines the expectation for male rural workers to be hearty, highly masculine figures, which was emphasized by both the use of the derogatory term Hodge to refer to rural workers and the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1884, Richard Jefferies’s post-apocalyptic novel After London (1885), and Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure (1895). Interrogating Rusticism helps elucidate often overlooked aspects of rural life in nineteenth-century Britain that can and should inform rural and urban interaction today as long-held stereotypes regarding rural life still persist and the world becomes increasingly more urban.
Each chapter follows a similar methodological approach that involves looking at a specific rusticist notion, the binary distinctions that help construct it, the historical background that contributed to its rise, a critically overlooked work that informed the writing process of a commonly studied piece, and how the commonly studied piece challenges the rusticist notion by revealing that the binary distinctions actually inform one another. Chapter 1 focuses on the rusticist idea that rural communities are pastoral, pre-modern sites untouched by the effects of modernity, the repeal of the Corn Laws, which eventually led to rampant poverty in the countryside, George Eliot’s travel memoir “Recollections of Ilfracombe” (1856) that chronicles her visit to a rural, sea-side community, and her first novel, Adam Bede (1859). Chapter 2 turns to the comparison that was often made between rural workers and nonhuman animals, the negative connotations it carried, which became even more pronounced following the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins’s dramatized account of their 1857 walking tour of rural England, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices, and Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend (1864-65). The final chapter examines the expectation for male rural workers to be hearty, highly masculine figures, which was emphasized by both the use of the derogatory term Hodge to refer to rural workers and the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1884, Richard Jefferies’s post-apocalyptic novel After London (1885), and Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure (1895). Interrogating Rusticism helps elucidate often overlooked aspects of rural life in nineteenth-century Britain that can and should inform rural and urban interaction today as long-held stereotypes regarding rural life still persist and the world becomes increasingly more urban.
ContributorsHohner, Max (Author) / Bivona, Dan (Thesis advisor) / Tromp, Marlene (Committee member) / Free, Melissa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Cities can be sources of nitrate to downstream ecosystems resulting in eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, and hypoxia that can have negative impacts on economies and human health. One potential solution to this problem is to increase nitrate removal in cities by providing locations where denitrification¬— a microbial process in which nitrate is reduced to N2 gas permanently removing nitrate from systems— can occur. Accidental urban wetlands– wetlands that results from human activities, but are not designed or managed for any specific outcome¬– are one such feature in the urban landscape that could help mitigate nitrate pollution through denitrification.
The overarching question of this dissertation is: how do hydrology, soil conditions, and plant patches affect patterns of denitrification in accidental urban wetlands? To answer this question, I took a three-pronged approach using a combination of field and greenhouse studies. First, I examined drivers of broad patterns of denitrification in accidental urban wetlands. Second, I used a field study to test if plant traits influence denitrification indirectly by modifying soil resources. Finally, I examined how species richness and interactions between species influence nitrate retention and patterns of denitrification using both a field study and greenhouse experiment.
Hydroperiod of accidental urban wetlands mediated patterns of denitrification in response to monsoon floods and plant patches. Specifically, ephemeral wetlands had patterns of denitrification that were largely unexplained by monsoon floods or plant patches, which are common drivers of patterns of denitrification in non-urban wetlands. Several plant traits including belowground biomass, above- and belowground tissue chemistry and rooting depth influenced denitrification indirectly by changing soil organic matter or soil nitrate. However, several other plant traits also had significant direct relationships with denitrification, (i.e. not through the hypothesized indirect relationships through soil organic matter or soil nitrate). This means these plant traits were affecting another aspect of soil conditions not included in the analysis, highlighting the need to improve our understanding of how plant traits influence denitrification. Finally, increasing species richness did not increase nitrate retention or denitrification, but rather individual species had the greatest effects on nitrate retention and denitrification.
The overarching question of this dissertation is: how do hydrology, soil conditions, and plant patches affect patterns of denitrification in accidental urban wetlands? To answer this question, I took a three-pronged approach using a combination of field and greenhouse studies. First, I examined drivers of broad patterns of denitrification in accidental urban wetlands. Second, I used a field study to test if plant traits influence denitrification indirectly by modifying soil resources. Finally, I examined how species richness and interactions between species influence nitrate retention and patterns of denitrification using both a field study and greenhouse experiment.
Hydroperiod of accidental urban wetlands mediated patterns of denitrification in response to monsoon floods and plant patches. Specifically, ephemeral wetlands had patterns of denitrification that were largely unexplained by monsoon floods or plant patches, which are common drivers of patterns of denitrification in non-urban wetlands. Several plant traits including belowground biomass, above- and belowground tissue chemistry and rooting depth influenced denitrification indirectly by changing soil organic matter or soil nitrate. However, several other plant traits also had significant direct relationships with denitrification, (i.e. not through the hypothesized indirect relationships through soil organic matter or soil nitrate). This means these plant traits were affecting another aspect of soil conditions not included in the analysis, highlighting the need to improve our understanding of how plant traits influence denitrification. Finally, increasing species richness did not increase nitrate retention or denitrification, but rather individual species had the greatest effects on nitrate retention and denitrification.
ContributorsSuchy, Amanda Klara (Author) / Childers, Daniel L. (Thesis advisor) / Stromberg, Juliet C. (Thesis advisor) / Grimm, Nancy (Committee member) / Hall, Sharon (Committee member) / Sabo, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
More than half of all accessible freshwater has been appropriated for human use, and a substantial portion of terrestrial ecosystems have been transformed by human action. These impacts are heaviest in urban ecosystems, where impervious surfaces increase runoff, water delivery and stormflows are managed heavily, and there are substantial anthropogenic sources of nitrogen (N). Urbanization also frequently results in creation of intentional novel ecosystems. These "designed" ecosystems are fashioned to fulfill particular needs of the residents, or ecosystem services. In the Phoenix, Arizona area, the augmentation and redistribution of water has resulted in numerous component ecosystems that are atypical for a desert environment. Because these systems combine N loading with the presence of water, they may be hot spots of biogeochemical activity. The research presented here illustrates the types of hydrological modifications typical of desert cities and documents the extent and distribution of common designed aquatic ecosystems in the Phoenix metropolitan area: artificial lakes and stormwater retention basins. While both ecosystems were designed for other purposes (recreation/aesthetics and flood abatement, respectively), they have the potential to provide the added ecosystem service of N removal via denitrification. However, denitrification in urban lakes is likely to be limited by the rate of diffusion of nitrate into the sediment. Retention basins export some nitrate to groundwater, but grassy basins have higher denitrification rates than xeriscaped ones, due to higher soil moisture and organic matter content. An economic valuation of environmental amenities demonstrates the importance of abundant vegetation, proximity to water, and lower summer temperatures throughout the region. These amenities all may be provided by designed, water-intensive ecosystems. Some ecosystems are specifically designed for multiple uses, but maximizing one ecosystem service often entails trade-offs with other services. Further investigation into the distribution, bundling, and tradeoffs among water-related ecosystem services shows that some types of services are constrained by the hydrogeomorphology of the area, while for others human engineering and the creation of designed ecosystems has enabled the delivery of hydrologic ecosystem services independent of natural constraints.
ContributorsLarson, Elisabeth Knight (Author) / Grimm, Nancy (Thesis advisor) / Hartnett, Hilairy E (Committee member) / Fisher, Stuart G. (Committee member) / Anderies, John M (Committee member) / Lohse, Kathleen A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
I begin with a brief explanation of my creative process and an exploration of the themes I attempted to include in the creative project. Then follows the slides from the Powerpoint presentation I used during my defense. Finally, I have my creative project, a 18,000 word urban fantasy story about a high school senior named Damien and his first interaction with a being named Rem.
ContributorsEngler, Veronica Anne (Author) / Cook, Paul (Thesis director) / Wells, Cornelia (Committee member) / Morgan, Kelly (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2013-05