Matching Items (22)
Description
Sustainable development in an American context implies an ongoing shift from quantitative growth in energy, resource, and land use to the qualitative development of social-ecological systems, human capital, and dense, vibrant built environments. Sustainable urban development theory emphasizes locally and bioregionally emplaced economic development where the relationships between people, localities, products, and capital are tangible to and controllable by local stakeholders. Critical theory provides a mature understanding of the political economy of land development in capitalist economies, representing a crucial bridge between urban sustainability's infill development goals and the contemporary realities of the development industry. Since its inception, Phoenix, Arizona has exemplified the quantitative growth paradigm, and recurring instances of land speculation, non-local capital investment, and growth-based public policy have stymied local, tangible control over development from Phoenix's territorial history to modern attempts at downtown revitalization. Utilizing property ownership and sales data as well as interviews with development industry stakeholders, the political economy of infill land development in downtown Phoenix during the mid-2000s boom-and-bust cycle is analyzed. Data indicate that non-local property ownership has risen significantly over the past 20 years and rent-seeking land speculation has been a significant barrier to infill development. Many speculative strategies monopolize the publicly created value inherent in zoning entitlements, tax incentives and property assessment, indicating that political and policy reforms targeted at a variety of governance levels are crucial for achieving the sustainable development of urban land. Policy solutions include reforming the interconnected system of property sales, value assessment, and taxation to emphasize property use values; replacing existing tax incentives with tax increment financing and community development benefit agreements; regulating vacant land ownership and deed transfers; and encouraging innovative private development and tenure models like generative construction and community land trusts.
ContributorsStanley, Benjamin W (Author) / Boone, Christopher G. (Thesis advisor) / Redman, Charles (Committee member) / Bolin, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Phosphorus (P), an essential element for life, is becoming increasingly scarce, and its global management presents a serious challenge. As urban environments dominate the landscape, we need to elucidate how P cycles in urban ecosystems to better understand how cities contribute to — and provide opportunities to solve — problems of P management. The goal of my research was to increase our understanding of urban P cycling in the context of urban resource management through analysis of existing ecological and socio-economic data supplemented with expert interviews in order to facilitate a transition to sustainable P management. Study objectives were to: I) Quantify and map P stocks and flows in the Phoenix metropolitan area and analyze the drivers of spatial distribution and dynamics of P flows; II) examine changes in P-flow dynamics at the urban agricultural interface (UAI), and the drivers of those changes, between 1978 and 2008; III) compare the UAI's average annual P budget to the global agricultural P budget; and IV) explore opportunities for more sustainable P management in Phoenix. Results showed that Phoenix is a sink for P, and that agriculture played a primary role in the dynamics of P cycling. Internal P dynamics at the UAI shifted over the 30-year study period, with alfalfa replacing cotton as the main locus of agricultural P cycling. Results also suggest that the extent of P recycling in Phoenix is proportionally larger than comparable estimates available at the global scale due to the biophysical characteristics of the region and the proximity of various land uses. Uncertainty remains about the effectiveness of current recycling strategies and about best management strategies for the future because we do not have sufficient data to use as basis for evaluation and decision-making. By working in collaboration with practitioners, researchers can overcome some of these data limitations to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities of P dynamics and the range of options available to sustainably manage P. There is also a need to better connect P management with that of other resources, notably water and other nutrients, in order to sustainably manage cities.
ContributorsMetson, Genevieve (Author) / Childers, Daniel (Thesis advisor) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Thesis advisor) / Redman, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Driven by concern over environmental, economic and social problems, small, place based communities are engaging in processes of transition to become more sustainable. These communities may be viewed as innovative front runners of a transition to a more sustainable society in general, each one, an experiment in social transformation. These experiments present learning opportunities to build robust theories of community transition and to create specific, actionable knowledge to improve, replicate, and accelerate transitions in real communities. Yet to date, there is very little empirical research into the community transition phenomenon. This thesis empirically develops an analytical framework and method for the purpose of researching community transition processes, the ultimate goal of which is to arrive at a practice of evidence based transitions. A multiple case study approach was used to investigate three community transitions while simultaneously developing the framework and method in an iterative fashion. The case studies selected were Ashton Hayes, a small English village, BedZED, an urban housing complex in London, and Forres, a small Scottish town. Each community was visited and data collected by interview and document analysis. The research design brings together elements of process tracing, transformative planning and governance, sustainability assessment, transition path analysis and transition management within a multiple case study envelope. While some preliminary insights are gained into community transitions based on the three cases the main contribution of this thesis is in the creation of the research framework and method. The general framework and method developed has potential for standardizing and synthesizing research of community transition processes leading to both theoretical and practical knowledge that allows sustainability transition to be approached with confidence and not just hope.
ContributorsForrest, Nigel (Author) / Wiek, Arnim (Thesis advisor) / Golub, Aaron (Thesis advisor) / Redman, Charles (Committee member) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Understanding the resilience of water management systems is critical for the continued existence and growth of communities today, in urban and rural contexts alike. In recent years, many studies have evaluated long-term human-environmental interactions related to water management across the world, highlighting both resilient systems and those that eventually succumb to their vulnerabilities. To understand the multitude of factors impacting resilience, scholars often use the concept of adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity is the ability of actors in a system to make adaptations in anticipation of and in response to change to minimize potential negative impacts.
In this three-paper dissertation, I evaluate the adaptive capacity of the water management systems of two medieval Khmer cities, located in present-day Cambodia, over the course of centuries. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire for over 600 years (9 th -15 th centuries CE), except for one brief period when the capital was relocated to Koh Ker (921 – 944 CE). These cities both have massive water management systems that provide a comparative context for studying resilience; while Angkor thrived for hundreds of years, Koh Ker was occupied as the capital of the empire for a relatively short period. In the first paper, I trace the chronological and spatial development of two types of settlement patterns (epicenters and lower-density temple-reservoir settlement units) at Angkor in relation to state-sponsored hydraulic infrastructure. In the second and third papers, I conduct a diachronic analysis using empirical data for the adaptive capacity of the water management systems at both cities. The results suggest that adaptive capacity is useful for identifying causal factors in the resilience and failures of systems over the long term. The case studies also demonstrate the importance and warn of the danger of large centralized water management features.
In this three-paper dissertation, I evaluate the adaptive capacity of the water management systems of two medieval Khmer cities, located in present-day Cambodia, over the course of centuries. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire for over 600 years (9 th -15 th centuries CE), except for one brief period when the capital was relocated to Koh Ker (921 – 944 CE). These cities both have massive water management systems that provide a comparative context for studying resilience; while Angkor thrived for hundreds of years, Koh Ker was occupied as the capital of the empire for a relatively short period. In the first paper, I trace the chronological and spatial development of two types of settlement patterns (epicenters and lower-density temple-reservoir settlement units) at Angkor in relation to state-sponsored hydraulic infrastructure. In the second and third papers, I conduct a diachronic analysis using empirical data for the adaptive capacity of the water management systems at both cities. The results suggest that adaptive capacity is useful for identifying causal factors in the resilience and failures of systems over the long term. The case studies also demonstrate the importance and warn of the danger of large centralized water management features.
ContributorsKlassen, Sarah E (Author) / Nelson, Ben (Thesis advisor) / Redman, Charles (Thesis advisor) / Evans, Damian (Committee member) / Smith, Mike E (Committee member) / Barton, Michael C (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
Motivated by the need for cities to prepare and be resilient to unpredictable future weather conditions, this dissertation advances a novel infrastructure development theory of “safe-to-fail” to increase the adaptive capacity of cities to climate change. Current infrastructure development is primarily reliant on identifying probable risks to engineered systems and making infrastructure reliable to maintain its function up to a designed system capacity. However, alterations happening in the earth system (e.g., atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice) and in human systems (e.g., greenhouse gas emission, population, land-use, technology, and natural resource use) are increasing the uncertainties in weather predictions and risk calculations and making it difficult for engineered infrastructure to maintain intended design thresholds in non-stationary future. This dissertation presents a new way to develop safe-to-fail infrastructure that departs from the current practice of risk calculation and is able to manage failure consequences when unpredicted risks overwhelm engineered systems.
This dissertation 1) defines infrastructure failure, refines existing safe-to-fail theory, and compares decision considerations for safe-to-fail vs. fail-safe infrastructure development under non-stationary climate; 2) suggests an approach to integrate the estimation of infrastructure failure impacts with extreme weather risks; 3) provides a decision tool to implement resilience strategies into safe-to-fail infrastructure development; and, 4) recognizes diverse perspectives for adopting safe-to-fail theory into practice in various decision contexts.
Overall, this dissertation advances safe-to-fail theory to help guide climate adaptation decisions that consider infrastructure failure and their consequences. The results of this dissertation demonstrate an emerging need for stakeholders, including policy makers, planners, engineers, and community members, to understand an impending “infrastructure trolley problem”, where the adaptive capacity of some regions is improved at the expense of others. Safe-to-fail further engages stakeholders to bring their knowledge into the prioritization of various failure costs based on their institutional, regional, financial, and social capacity to withstand failures. This approach connects to sustainability, where city practitioners deliberately think of and include the future cost of social, environmental and economic attributes in planning and decision-making.
ContributorsKim, Yeowon (Author) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis advisor) / Eakin, Hallie (Committee member) / Redman, Charles (Committee member) / Miller, Thaddeus R. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
This report analyzes the potential for accumulation of boron in direct potable reuse. Direct potable reuse treats water through desalination processes such as reverse osmosis or nanofiltration which can achieve rejection rates of salts sometimes above 90%. However, boron achieves much lower rejection rates near 40%. Because of this low rejection rate, there is potential for boron to accumulate in the system to levels that are not recommended for potable human consumption of water. To analyze this issue a code was created that runs a steady state system that tracks the internal concentration, permeate concentration, wastewater concentration and reject concentration at various rejection rates, as well as all the flows. A series of flow and mass balances were performed through five different control volumes that denoted different stages in the water use. First was mixing of clean water with permeate; second, consumptive uses; third, addition of contaminant; fourth, wastewater treatment; fifth, advanced water treatments. The system cycled through each of these a number of times until steady state was reached. Utilities or cities considering employing direct potable reuse could utilize this model by estimating their consumption levels and input of contamination, and then seeing what percent rejection or inflow of makeup water they would need to obtain to keep boron levels at a low enough concentration to be fit for consumption. This code also provides options for analyzing spikes and recovery in the system due to spills, and evaporative uses such as cooling towers and their impact on the system.
ContributorsDoidge, Sydney (Author) / Fox, Peter (Thesis director) / Perreault, Francois (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
The 8.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico City in 1985 left 10,000 people dead, and over 400 buildings collapsed. The extent of the damage left behind by this powerful quake has been extensively studied to make improvements to engineering and architectural practices in earthquake-prone areas of the world. Thirty-two years later, on the exact anniversary of the devastating earthquake, Mexico City was once again jolted by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. Although still significant, the 2017 earthquake collapsed only about a tenth of the buildings collapsed by the 1985 Earthquake, and in turn resulted in a lower death toll. Even though these earthquakes struck in the same seismic region, their effects were vastly different. This thesis completes a comparison between the two earthquakes focusing on the structural impacts including background on Mexico City's unique geology, basic concepts necessary to understand the response of structures to earthquake excitation, and structural failure modes observed in both earthquakes. The thesis will also discuss the earthquake's fundamental differences that led to the discrepancy in structural damage and ultimately in lower death tolls. Of those discussed, is the types of buildings that were targeted and collapsed. In 1985, buildings with 6 or more floors had the highest damage category. Resonance frequencies of these buildings were similar to the resonance frequencies of the subsoil, leading to amplified oscillations, and ultimately in failure. The 2017 earthquake did not have as much distance from the epicenter for the high frequency seismic waves to be absorbed. In contrast, the shorter, faster waves that reached the capital affected smaller buildings, and spared most tall buildings.
ContributorsGonzalez, Diana Laura (Author) / Hjelmstad, Keith (Thesis director) / Ward, Kristen (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
The loading provisions were compared between the ASCE 7-10 standard and ASCE 7-16 standard. Two different structural models were considered: an office building with a flat roof located in Tempe and a community center with a gable roof located in Flagstaff. The following load types were considered: dead, live, wind, and snow loads. The only major changes between the standards were found in the wind load calculations. The winds loads were reduced by approximately 22% for the office building in Tempe and 37% for the community center in Flagstaff. A structural design was completed for the frame of the Flagstaff community building. There was a 19% reduction in cost from the design using ASCE 7-10 provisions compared to the design utilizing ASCE 7-16 provisions, leading to a saving of $7,599.17. The reduction in loading, and subsequently more cost-effective design, is attributed to the reduction in basic wind speed for the region and consideration of the ground elevation factor. The introduction of the new ASCE 7-16 standard was met with criticism, especially over the increase in specific coefficients in the wind load and seismic load chapters. Proponents of ASCE 7-16 boast that the new chapter on tsunami loads, new maps for various environmental loads, and a new electronic hazard are some of the merits of the newest standard. Others still question whether the complexity of the provisions is necessary and call for further improvements for the wind and seismic provisions. While tension exists in the desire for a simple standard, ASCE 7-16 prioritizes in having its provisions provide economical and reliable results. More consideration could be devoted to developing a more convenient standard for users. Regardless, engineering professionals should be able to adapt alongside newly developed practices and newly discovered data.
ContributorsCajegas, Cyam Joshua Dato (Author) / Rajan, Subramaniam (Thesis director) / Neithalath, Narayanan (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Consumers purchase point-of-use (POU) devices to further improve the quality of water provided by the tap. As awareness increases of harmful contaminants, an emerging market of advanced POU with claims of removing beyond what a typical activated carbon filter is capable of, such as heavy metals. This research compares four commercially available pitcher filters; two that claim to remove arsenic and hexavalent chromium and two without such claims. Arsenate (As (V)) and hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) co-occur in natural geologic formations and are known to have harmful effects on humans when ingested. Pitcher filters Epic Water Filter and Aquagear had claims of removing both As (V) and Cr (VI) up to 99% with a capacity of nearly 200 gallons. In contrast, pitcher filters Brita and Pur had no claims for removal of As(V) and Cr(VI) with a 40-gallon lifespan. A series of experiments were conducted to first determine the efficiency of each filter, then to add the ability or improve removal of As(V) and Cr(VI) in one filter for future design implementations. Experiment 1 was conducted by treating 100 gallons of spiked tap water (50 ppb for As (V) and 100 ppb for Cr (VI)) with each filter. All four pitcher filters showed low performance, resulting in Pur with the lowest removal percentage of 2% and Aquagear with the highest percentage 16% for As (V). For Cr (VI) Pur performed the worst with a removal of 5% and Brita had the best performance of 15%. The functionality of Brita was improved by embedding a selective ion exchange media, which when nanotized successfully removed Cr (VI) in previous studies. The optimal mass of resin to add to the pitcher was experimentally determined as 18.9 grams through Experiment 2. Finally, Experiment 3 compared an alternative placement of the resin material using the same 18.9 grams. The performance in Experiment 3 was significantly worse than Experiment 2. The final recommendation for future design implementation was to add 18.9 grams of SIR-700 resin below the filter media for optimum performance. Overall, the results demonstrate the limited removal of As(V) and Cr(VI) by the four commercial pitcher filters and show that by adding selective ion exchange media, the POUs can be nano-enabled to effectively remove As(V) and Cr(VI) from water.
ContributorsDietrich, Lisa Keri (Author) / Westerhoff, Paul (Thesis director) / Perreault, Francois (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Asphalt pavements deteriorate over time and are subjected to various distresses like rutting, fatigue cracking, stripping, raveling, etc. In this study, an experiment to indirectly assess aggregate stripping was completed in order to evaluate the effect of type of binder, and aging on the binder-aggregate bond under dry conditioning. The asphalts used in the study are commonly used in the state of Arizona, which included both non-polymer modified and polymer modified asphalts. The phenomenon of stripping was simulated using the Bitumen Bond Strength Test (BBS) and evaluated for Arizona binders. The BBS test is a simple test that measures the "pull-off" tensile strength of the bond between asphalt and the aggregate. Polymer modified binders were found to have lower pull-off strength in comparison to the non-modified or neat binder which were found to possess greater pull-off strength, but lower elasticity, causing the failure to become brittle and spontaneous. However, when aged binder was used, the bond strength expectedly reduced for non-polymer modified asphalts but surprisingly increased for polymer modified asphalts. Both un-aged neat and polymer modified binders were observed to have a cohesive failure whereas only the aged polymer modified binders failed in cohesion. The aged non-polymer modified binders were seen to have an adhesive failure.
ContributorsPonce, Esai Jonathon (Author) / Kaloush, Kamil (Thesis director) / Gundla, Akshay (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05