Matching Items (203)
Description
Adopting smart city tactics is important because it allows cities to develop sustainable communities through efficient policy initiatives. This study exemplifies how data analytics enables planners within smart cities to gain a better understanding of their population, and can make more informed choices based on these consumer choices. As a rising share of the millennial generation enters the workforce, cities across the world are developing policy initiatives in the hopes of attracting these highly educated individuals. Due to this generation's strength in driving regional economic vitality directly and indirectly, it is in the best interests of city planners to understand the preferences of millennials so this information can be used to improve the attractiveness of communities for this high-purchasing power, productive segment of the population. Past research has revealed a tendency within this demographic to make location decisions based on the degree of ‘livability’ in an area. This degree represents a holistic approach at defining quality of life through the interconnectedness of both the built and social environments in cities.
Due to the importance of millennials to cities around the globe, this study uses 2010 ZIP code area data and the Phoenix metropolitan area as a case study to test the relationships between thirteen parameters of livability and the presence of millennials after controlling for other correlates of millennial preference.
The results of a multiple regression model indicated a positive linear association between livability parameters within smart cities and the presence of millennials. Therefore, the selected parameters of livability within smart cities are significant measures in influencing location decisions made by millennials. Urban planners can consequently increase the likelihood in which millennials will choose to live in a given area by improving livability across the parameters exemplified in this study. This mutually beneficial relationship provides added support to the notion that planners should develop solutions to improve livability within smart cities.
Due to the importance of millennials to cities around the globe, this study uses 2010 ZIP code area data and the Phoenix metropolitan area as a case study to test the relationships between thirteen parameters of livability and the presence of millennials after controlling for other correlates of millennial preference.
The results of a multiple regression model indicated a positive linear association between livability parameters within smart cities and the presence of millennials. Therefore, the selected parameters of livability within smart cities are significant measures in influencing location decisions made by millennials. Urban planners can consequently increase the likelihood in which millennials will choose to live in a given area by improving livability across the parameters exemplified in this study. This mutually beneficial relationship provides added support to the notion that planners should develop solutions to improve livability within smart cities.
ContributorsBobman, Mitchell Cole (Author) / Mack, Elizabeth (Thesis director) / Koschinsky, Julia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
As urban areas continue to grow with an increasing amount of population growth and influx, prudent planning for developed and developing cities has never been as important as it is today. Currently, about 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas while that number is expected to increase to 66% by 2050 (United Nations 2014). This being said, planners, politicians, and policymakers among others need to be able to anticipate the ideal urban infrastructure needed with the most effective layout and design for creating and maintaining a high quality of life. The purpose of this research is to identify a potential link between neighborhood-scale urban form criteria that are believed to improve quality of life and the perceived quality of life of people who live in neighborhoods that display these specific urban form criteria. This study looked at three neighborhoods that each exhibited differences in neighborhood urban form such as: community-oriented design, high walkability, and close proximity to nature. A non-scientific preliminary survey was conducted in each of these three neighborhoods to identify potential differences in urban form preference targeting different demographics. The scope of this study is a preliminary assessment to gain an idea of which neighborhood-scale urban form factors, if any, are important for improving quality of life from the point of view of the resident. These results may lead to future study that could determine the relationship between availability of infrastructure and residential preference for certain infrastructure. This could also lead to a guide for planners on important criteria to consider for future neighborhood development in an urban setting as well as areas to focus on in the urban retrofitting process.
ContributorsZipperer, Michael James (Author) / Pijawka, David (Thesis director) / Talen, Emily (Committee member) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This research seeks to answer a question—is it possible to change the overall “image” of a city through changes to individual parts of the cityscape? Based on the approach of urban theorist Kevin Lynch the city of Berlin is analyzed through Lynch’s five elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Within Berlin, the Unter den Linden, Berlin Wall, Museum Island, Alexanderplatz, and Brandenburg Gate are analyzed through this lens. The time period from 1989-2015 provides a strong example of a case where a city has been able to reinvent its image. This research utilizes historical images and written accounts of the city of Berlin to track changes to the city’s overall “image.” These accounts and images are then contrasted with those of a visit conducted in June of 2015. Ultimately, much is revealed about Berlin through this analysis of its urban landscape. During the 1990s, many sites across the city were re-designed through high-profile international design competitions that show the global interest in rebuilding Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. A return to pre-20th century architecture, through rebuilding and restoration, is one significant outcome of this process. The struggle of Berlin, and Germany, to come to terms with the history of former Communist East German is another. This research finally reveals that even after almost 30 years of being a reunified city, Berlin has yet to fully understand its Communist history to the same degree it grasps its Nazi past in the cityscape.
ContributorsRogge, Andrew Winfield (Author) / Kelley, Jason (Thesis director) / Kestutis, Zygas (Committee member) / The Design School (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Since the start of U.S. hostilities against Iraq in 2003, International Relations scholars have begun to characterize the U.S. as potentially an empire. This is because the traditional notion of sovereignty under the Westphalian nation-state system is held as a constant in the prominent theories that govern how it is thought how nation-states interact with each other. The blatant violation of international laws and norms with impunity by the U.S. have led to a re-questioning of the true dynamics underlying this system. Some scholars have characterized the recent research as a popular fad, but most of the research is aimed at just attempting to show how the U.S. could be an empire. What the current research is missing is how the U.S. became an empire, with that analysis anchored in an historical comparison. A complete chronological review of each system in its entirety is required, with all of its components, to more fully understand these phenomena. This has required researchers to devise a new methodological process of qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing macro structures. We believe the implications of the insights that can be obtained with this new method could be of use to many fields and can generate many new hypotheses to test in the future.
ContributorsRoche, Joshua Nathan (Author) / Crittenden, Jack (Thesis director) / Walker, Stephen (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Hispanic neighborhoods, referred to as barrios, reveal several key characteristics unique to their ethnic neighborhood identity. The housescapes in the neighborhoods exhibit three characteristics which distinguish them as Latino housescapes: bright color exteriors, fences around the property and a display of religious iconography. In a spatial and landscape analysis of two key barrios in Arizona: Barrio Anita in Tucson and El Campito in Nuestro Barrio in Phoenix, research reveals the prevalence of the three housescape characteristics. The multiple case study explores the extent to which Hispanic housescapes exhibit bright house color exteriors, fences and religious iconography. The least prevalent of these characteristics is the display of religious symbols which indicates a growing change in the way Hispanic ethnicity is displayed in neighborhoods.
ContributorsStockham, Sarah Theresa (Author) / Pijawka, David (Thesis director) / Foster, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has become a common practice in United States oil fields for enhancing their productivity. Among the concerns regarding fracking, however, is the possibility that it could trigger shallow earthquakes. The brine that results from fracking is injected into the subsurface for disposal. This brine causes a pore pressure gradient that is commonly believed to trigger failure along critically stressed subsurface faults. In Timpson, a small city in eastern Texas, earthquakes have become much more common since two injection wells were installed in 2007. 16 events of M_W > 2 have been detected since 2008 and are believed to be associated with failure along a subsurface fault. Applying interferometric synthetic aperture radar, we analyzed 3 sets of SAR images from the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) from May 2007 to December 2010. Using these data sets, XX interferograms were generated. From these interferograms, it was possible to determine the spatial and temporal evolution of the crustal deformation in the line-of-sight of the satellite. The results show strong evidence of uplift in the region adjacent to the injection wells. While previous studies have established a strong connection between fluid injection and increased seismicity, this is to our knowledge the first observed case of crustal deformation that has been observed as a result of hydraulic fracturing fluid disposal.
ContributorsSedlak, Alexander Paul Woodward (Author) / Shirzaei, Manoochehr (Thesis director) / Vivoni, Enrique (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The Great Plains region of the central United States and southern Canada is a promising location for wind energy resource development. Wind energy site assessments and forecasts can benefit from better understanding the variability that may result from several teleconnections affecting North America. This thesis investigates how the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), and the Pacific/North American Pattern (PNA) impact mean monthly wind speeds at 850 hPa over the Great Plains. Using wind speeds from the NCAR/NCEP Reanalysis 1, correlations were computed between the mean monthly wind speeds and average monthly teleconnection index values. A difference of means test was used to compute the change in wind speeds between the positive and negative phases of each index. ENSO was not found to have a significant impact on wind speeds, while the NAO and PNA patterns weakly affected wind speeds. The NAO index was positively (negatively) correlated with wind speeds over the northern (southern) plains, while the PNA index was negatively correlated with wind speeds over most of the plains. Even a small change in wind speed can have a large effect on the potential power output, so the effects of these teleconnections should be considered in wind resource assessments and climatologies.
ContributorsOrdonez, Ana Cristina (Author) / Cerveny, Randall (Thesis director) / Svoma, Bohumil (Committee member) / Balling, Robert (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Barrett Freshmen 2007-2012: Source Area Analysis and Poisson Regression
Description
In order to help enhance admissions and recruiting efforts, this longitudinal study analyzed the geographic distribution of matriculated Barrett freshmen from 2007-2012 and sought to explore hot and cold spot locations of Barrett enrollment numbers using geographic information science (GIS) methods. One strategy involved   weighted mean center and standard distance analyses for each year of data for non-resident (out-of-state) freshmen home zip codes. Another strategy, a Poisson regression model, revealed recruitment "hot and cold spots" across the U.S. to project the expected counts of Barrett freshmen by zip code. This projected count served as a comparison for the actual admissions data, where zip codes with over and under predictions represented cold and hot spots, respectively. The mean center analysis revealed a westward shift from 2007 to 2012 with similar distance dispersions. The Poisson model projected zero-student zip codes with 99.2% accuracy and non-zero zip codes with 73.8% accuracy. Norwalk, CA (90650) and New York, NY (10021) represented the top out-of-state cold spot zip codes, while the model indicated that Chandler, AZ (85249) and Queen Creek, AZ (85242) had the most in-state potential for recruitment. The model indicated that more students have come from Albuquerque, NM (87122) and Aurora, CO (80015) than anticipated, while Phoenix, AZ (85048) and Tempe, AZ (85284) represent in-state locations with higher correlations between the variables included, especially regarding distance decay, and the than expected numbers of freshmen. The regression also indicated the existence of strong likelihood of attracting Barrett students.
ContributorsKostanick, Megan Elizabeth (Author) / Rey, Sergio (Thesis director) / Dorn, Ron (Committee member) / Koschinsky, Julia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Shifting to renewable energy from fossil fuels is not occurring rapidly. Determining where to locate renewable power plants could help expedite development. The project discussed here uses a GIS ranking tool to determine potential locations for solar and wind power plants in Arizona. Criteria include renewable input (irradiance/wind class), topographic slope, and distance from transmission lines. These are ranked and summed to determine areas with the most potential. The resulting outputs show that there is much more potential land for solar development than wind development. Further analysis in this paper will focus solely on solar due to wind's lower potential. Land sensitivity and ownership are used to assess the feasibility of development. There are many groupings of highly ranked land across the state, but the largest stretch of land runs from outside of Marana (south-central Arizona) northwest to about 60 miles west of Wickenburg (central-west). This regions is mainly on BLM, state, and privately owned land. Some of this land is considered sensitive, but non-sensitive areas with high potential are frequent throughout. Renewable potential in other states could be determined using this tool as well. Variables could be weighted or added depending on each area's need.
ContributorsZeck, Kevin Michael (Author) / Fraser, Matthew (Thesis director) / Pasqualetti, Martin (Committee member) / Cowger, Lane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2013-05
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