Matching Items (61)
Description
Farmers' markets are a growing trend both in Arizona and the broader U.S., as many recognize them as desirable alternatives to the conventional food system. As icons of sustainability, farmers' markets are touted as providing many environmental, social, and economic benefits, but evidence is mounting that local food systems primarily serve the urban elite, with relatively few low-income or minority customers. However, the economic needs of the market and its vendors often conflict with those of consumers. While consumers require affordable food, farmers need to make a profit. How farmers' markets are designed and governed can significantly influence the extent to which they can meet these needs. However, very little research explores farmers' market design and governance, much less its capacity to influence financial success and participation for underprivileged consumers. The present study examined this research gap by addressing the following research question: How can farmers' markets be institutionally designed to increase the participation of underprivileged consumers while maintaining a financially viable market for local farmers? Through a comparative case study of six markets, this research explored the extent to which farmers' markets in Central Arizona currently serve the needs of farmer-vendors and underprivileged consumers. The findings suggest that while the markets serve as a substantial source of income for some vendors, participation by low-income and minority consumers remains low, and that much of this appears to be due to cultural barriers to access. Management structures, site characteristics, market layout, community programs, and staffing policies are key institutional design features, and the study explores how these can be leveraged to better meet the needs of the diverse participants while improving the markets' financial success.
ContributorsTaylor, Carissa (Author) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Thesis advisor) / York, Abigail (Committee member) / Wharton, Christopher (Christopher Mack), 1977- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
During the months from June to November 2012, the city of Bangalore was faced with a serious solid waste management (SWM) crisis. In the wake of the upheaval, the state court declared source segregation to be mandatory. Yet, while the legislation was clear, the pathway towards a course of action for the transition was not clear and hence, Bangalore was stuck in a state of limbo. The objectives for this thesis spiraled organically from this crisis. The first objective was to examine the gaps in Bangalore's transition to a more sustainable SWM system. Six particular gaps were identified, which in essence, were opportunities to re-shape the system. The gaps identified included: conflicting political agendas, the exclusion of some key actors, and lack of adequate attention to cultural aspects, provision of appropriate incentives, protection of livelihoods and promotion of innovation. Opportunities were found in better incentivization of sustainable SWM goals, protecting livelihoods that depend on waste, enhancing innovation and endorsing local, context based SWM solutions. Building on this understanding of gaps, the second objective was to explore an innovative, local, bottom-up waste-management model called the Vellore Zero Waste Model, and assess its applicability to Bangalore. The adaptability of the model depended on several factors such as, willingness of actors to redefine their roles and change functions, ability of the municipality to assure quality and oversight, willingness of citizen to source segregate, and most importantly, the political will and collective action needed to ensure and sustain the transition. The role of communication as a vital component to facilitate productive stakeholder engagement and to promote role change was evident. Therefore, the third objective of the study was to explore how interpersonal competencies and communication strategies could be used as a tool to facilitate stakeholder engagement and encourage collective action. In addressing these objectives, India was compared with Austria because Austria is often cited as having some of the best SWM practices in the world and has high recycling rates to show for its reputation.
ContributorsRengarajan, Nivedita (Author) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Thesis advisor) / Chhetri, Nalini (Committee member) / Manuel-Navarrete, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In the past three decades alone, the United States has witnessed a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity and overweight in adults and children. Efforts towards obesity mitigation and prevention have produced promising recommendations and researchers and practitioners alike acknowledge that real solutions must match the complexity of the problem. Comprehensive approaches that target environmental, economic, socio-cultural, and knowledge-based factors that influence diet and physical activity are highly recommended. However, the literature yields little in the way of what such comprehensive obesity interventions actually entail and how they ought to be developed. In particular, there are knowledge gaps in how various stakeholder groups can bridge institutional barriers to collaborate in ways that maximize resources, build upon synergies, and avoid duplication of efforts; and how specific recommendations are actually implemented. This thesis aims to contribute to an emerging body of literature that fills this gap by presenting a practical case study on how to create a playground obesity intervention in the Gateway District of Phoenix, Arizona, in collaboration with researchers, health professionals, neighborhood residents, and city officials. The objectives were two-fold: 1. To outline concrete steps that will allow an organization to create a playground linked with healthy kids education program that aims to increase physical activity, perceptions of safety, and community cohesion; 2. To outline how diverse stakeholders can collaborate effectively to create such a cohesive, complex obesity intervention. A detailed, actionable intervention manual was drafted through semi-structured interviews, literature review, a survey, a stakeholder workshop, and an extended peer-review. The manual describes the sequence of actions necessary for creating an innovative playground that reinforces learning, encourages creative play, and increases physical activity. The sequence of actions was linked with existing local assets, stakeholder roles and responsibilities, costs, and potential barriers. This manual, as well as the process itself, can serve as a transferable model for helping organizations come together to build the capacity required in order to tackle complex health challenges.
ContributorsXiong, Angela (Author) / Wiek, Arnim (Thesis advisor) / Golub, Aaron (Committee member) / Otu, Essen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Childhood obesity has been on the rise for the past decade, and it has been hypothesized that students' food choices may be influenced by easy access to food outlets near their schools that provide unhealthful options. But the results of recent studies on the relationship between the food environment around schools and student weight status are mixed and often contradictory. Most studies have used measures of weight and height that were self-reported by students, or have relied on data from a relatively small sample of students. I examine the association between weight status among school students and the food environment surrounding their schools using professionally-measured, student-level data across the full school-age spectrum. De-identified data were obtained for over 30,000 K-12 students in 79 public schools located in four New Jersey cities. Locations of alternative food-outlets (specifically, supermarkets, convenience stores, small grocery stores, and limited-service restaurants) were obtained from commercial sources and geocoded to develop proximity measures. A simplified social-ecological framework was used to conceptualize the multi-level the association between students' BMI and school proximity to food outlets and multivariate analyses were used to estimate this relationship controlling for student- and school-level factors. Over twenty percent of the students were obese, compared to the national average at 17% (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). On average, students had 2.6 convenience stores, 2.9 limited-service restaurants, and 0.1 supermarkets within a quarter mile of their school. This study suggests that easy access to small grocery stores (which this study uniquely examines as a separate food outlet category) that offer healthy choices including five types of fresh vegetable, five types of fresh fruits, low-fat dairy, and lean meats is associated with lower BMI z score and lower probability of being obese for middle and high school students. This suggests that improving access to such small food outlets may be a promising area for future investigation in obesity mitigation research. Also, this study separates students of pre-schools, kindergartens and elementary schools (neighborhood schools) from that of the middle and high schools (non-neighborhood) schools because the two groups of schools have different neighborhood characteristics, as well as open-school and bussing policies that result in different levels of exposure that students have to the food outlets around the schools. The result of this study suggests that the relationship between students' weight outcomes and food environment around schools is different in the two groups of schools.
ContributorsTang, Xuyang (Author) / Abbott, Joshua K (Thesis advisor) / Ohri-Vachaspati, Punam (Thesis advisor) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Energy is a central concern of sustainability because how we produce and consume energy affects society, economy, and the environment. Sustainability scientists are interested in energy transitions away from fossil fuels because they are nonrenewable, increasingly expensive, have adverse health effects, and may be the main driver of climate change. They see an opportunity for developing countries to avoid the negative consequences fossil-fuel-based energy systems, and also to increase resilience, by leap-frogging-over the centralized energy grid systems that dominate the developed world. Energy transitions pose both challenges and opportunities. Obstacles to transitions include 1) an existing, centralized, complex energy-grid system, whose function is invisible to most users, 2) coordination and collective-action problems that are path dependent, and 3) difficulty in scaling up RE technologies. Because energy transitions rely on technological and social innovations, I am interested in how institutional factors can be leveraged to surmount these obstacles. The overarching question that underlies my research is: What constellation of institutional, biophysical, and social factors are essential for an energy transition? My objective is to derive a set of "design principles," that I term institutional drivers, for energy transitions analogous to Ostrom's institutional design principles. My dissertation research will analyze energy transitions using two approaches: applying the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework and a comparative case study analysis comprised of both primary and secondary sources. This dissertation includes: 1) an analysis of the world's energy portfolio; 2) a case study analysis of five countries; 3) a description of the institutional factors likely to promote a transition to renewable-energy use; and 4) an in-depth case study of Thailand's progress in replacing nonrenewable energy sources with renewable energy sources. My research will contribute to our understanding of how energy transitions at different scales can be accomplished in developing countries and what it takes for innovation to spread in a society.
ContributorsKoster, Auriane Magdalena (Author) / Anderies, John M (Thesis advisor) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Committee member) / Van Der Leeuw, Sander (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Cordon pricing strategies attempt to charge motorists for the marginal social costs of driving in heavily congested areas, lure them out of their vehicles and into other modes, and thereby reduce vehicle miles traveled and congestion-related externalities. These strategies are gaining policy-makers` attention worldwide. The benefits and costs of such strategies can potentially lead to a disproportionate and inequitable burden on lower income commuters, particularly those commuters with poor accessibility to alternative modes of transportation. Strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of cordon pricing for disadvantaged travelers, such as discount and exemptions, can reduce the effectiveness of the pricing strategy. Transit improvements using pricing fee revenues are another mitigation strategy, but can be wasteful and inefficient if not properly targeted toward those most disadvantaged and in need. This research examines these considerations and explores the implications for transportation planners working to balance goals of system effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. First, a theoretical conceptual model for analyzing the justice implications of cordon pricing is presented. Next, the Mobility Access and Pricing Study, a cordon pricing strategy examined by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is analyzed utilizing a neighborhood-level accessibility-based approach. The fee-payment impacts for low-income transportation-disadvantaged commuters within the San Francisco Bay area are examined, utilizing Geographic Information Systems coupled with data from the Longitudinal Employment and Household Dynamics program of the US Census Bureau. This research questions whether the recommended blanket 50% discount for low-income travelers would unnecessarily reduce the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the cordon pricing system. It is proposed that reinvestment of revenue in transportation-improvement projects targeted at those most disproportionately impacted by tolling fees, low-income automobile-dependent peak-period commuters in areas with poor access to alternative modes, would be a more suitable mitigation strategy. This would not only help maintain the efficiency and effectiveness of the cordon pricing system, but would better address income, modal and spatial equity issues. The results of this study demonstrate how the spatial distribution of the toll-payment impacts may burden low-income residents in quite different ways, thereby warranting the inclusion of such analysis in transportation planning and practice.
ContributorsKelley, Jason L (Author) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Guhathakarta, Subhrahit (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Over the last two decades programs and mandates to encourage and foster sustainable urban development have arisen throughout the world, as cities have emerged as key opportunity sites for sustainable development due to the compactness and localization of services and resources. In order to recognize this potential, scholars and practitioners have turned to the practice of visioning as a way to motivate actions and decision making toward a sustainable future. A "vision" is defined as desirable state in the future and scholars believe that the creation of a shared, motivational vision is the best starting point to catalyze positive and sustainable change. However, recent studies on city visions indicate that they do not offer substantive sustainability content, and methods or processes to evaluate the sustainability content of the resulting vision (sustainability appraisal or assessment) are often absent from the visioning process. Thus, this paper explores methods for sustainability appraisal and their potential contributions to (and in) visioning. The goal is to uncover the elements of a robust sustainability appraisal and integrate them into the visioning process. I propose an integrated sustainability appraisal procedure based on sustainability criteria, indicators, and targets as part of a visioning methodology that was developed by a team of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) of which I was a part. I demonstrate the applicability of the appraisal method in a case study of visioning in Phoenix, Arizona. The proposed method allows for early and frequent consideration and evaluation of sustainability objectives for urban development throughout the visioning process and will result in more sustainability-oriented visions. Further, it can allow for better measurement and monitoring of progress towards sustainability goals, which can make the goals more tangible and lead to more accountability for making progress towards the development of more sustainable cities in the future.
ContributorsMinowitz, Amy (Author) / Wiek, Arnim (Thesis advisor) / Golub, Aaron (Committee member) / Pfeiffer, Deirdre (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
A methodology is developed that integrates institutional analysis with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to identify and overcome barriers to sustainability transitions and to bridge the gap between environmental practitioners and decisionmakers. LCA results are rarely joined with analyses of the social systems that control or influence decisionmaking and policies. As a result, LCA conclusions generally lack information about who or what controls different parts of the system, where and when the processes' environmental decisionmaking happens, and what aspects of the system (i.e. a policy or regulatory requirement) would have to change to enable lower environmental impact futures. The value of the combined institutional analysis and LCA (the IA-LCA) is demonstrated using a case study of passenger transportation in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. A retrospective LCA is developed to estimate how roadway investment has enabled personal vehicle travel and its associated energy, environmental, and economic effects. Using regional travel forecasts, a prospective life cycle inventory is developed. Alternative trajectories are modeled to reveal future "savings" from reduced roadway construction and vehicle travel. An institutional analysis matches the LCA results with the specific institutions, players, and policies that should be targeted to enable transitions to these alternative futures. The results show that energy, economic, and environmental benefits from changes in passenger transportation systems are possible, but vary significantly depending on the timing of the interventions. Transition strategies aimed at the most optimistic benefits should include 1) significant land-use planning initiatives at the local and regional level to incentivize transit-oriented development infill and urban densification, 2) changes to state or federal gasoline taxes, 3) enacting a price on carbon, and 4) nearly doubling vehicle fuel efficiency together with greater market penetration of alternative fuel vehicles. This aggressive trajectory could decrease the 2050 energy consumption to 1995 levels, greenhouse gas emissions to 1995, particulate emissions to 2006, and smog-forming emissions to 1972. The potential benefits and costs are both private and public, and the results vary when transition strategies are applied in different spatial and temporal patterns.
ContributorsKimball, Mindy (Author) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Golub, Aaron (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Planners are often involved in the development of 'visions' for specific projects or larger plans. These visions often serve as guideposts for more specific plans or projects and the visioning process is important for involving community members into the planning process. This paper provides a review of the recent literature published about visioning and is intended to provide guidance for visioning activities in planning projects. I use the general term "vision" in reference to a desirable state in the future. The body of academic literature on visioning in planning has been growing over the last decade. However, the planning literature on visioning is diverse and dispersed, posing various challenges to researchers and planners seeking guidance for their own planning (research) activities. For one, relevant articles on visioning are scattered over different strands of literature ranging from traditional planning literature (Journal of the American Planning Association, Planning Practice and Research, etc.) to less traditional and intuitive sources (Futures, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology). Further, some of them not easily identifiable and may not be openly accessible via the Internet. Thus, our review intends to help collect and synthesize this literature and begin to provide guidance for the future of visioning in the field of planning. I do this by compiling visioning literature from different strands of the planning literature, synthesizing key insights into visioning in (urban) planning, undertaking exemplary appraisals of visioning approaches in planning against quality criteria, and deriving conclusions for visioning research and practice. From this review, I highlight areas of opportunity and ways forward in order to make visioning more effective and more influential for the future of communities throughout the world.
ContributorsMinowitz, Amy (Author) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Wiek, Arnim (Committee member) / Pfeiffer, Deirdre (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
It has been identified in the literature that there exists a "spatial mismatch" between geographical concentrations of lower-income or minority people who have relatively lower rates of car ownership, lower skills or educational attainment and who mainly rely on public transit for their travel, and low-skilled jobs for which they more easily qualify. Given this situation, various types of transportation projects have been constructed to improve public transit services and, alongside other goals, improve the connection between low-skilled workers and jobs. As indicators of performance, measures of job accessibility are commonly used in to gauge how such improvements have facilitated job access. Following this approach, this study investigates the impact of the Phoenix Metro Light Rail on job accessibility for the transit users, by calculating job accessibility before and after the opening of the system. Moreover, it also investigates the demographic profile of those who have benefited from improvements in job accessibility----both by income and by ethnicity. Job accessibility is measured using the cumulative opportunity approach which quantifies the job accessibility within different travel time limits, such as 30 and 45 minutes. ArcGIS is used for data processing and results visualization. Results show that the Phoenix light rail has improved job accessibility of the traffic analysis zones that are along the light rail line and Hispanic and lower-income groups have benefited more than their counterparts.
ContributorsLiu, Liyuan (Author) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Wentz, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Kuby, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014