Existing research continues to debate the existence and strength of the land use-transportation relationship. Research efforts have tested this relationship in numerous residential settings; however, non-residential venues like workplaces, shopping centers etc. have received less attention. This study examines this relationship at an under-researched setting--the workplace. It sheds light on the effect that certain components of the built environment at the workplace, namely density, diversity and design, have on travel behavior in a three-county region of Southeast Florida. The study is cross-sectional in nature and uses logistic regression to evaluate the probability of driving alone (DA) to work as a function of the built environment of the workplace while controlling for (a) regional accessibility; (b) density at the home setting; (c) employee's household and personal characteristics; and (d) job characteristics. The study did not find the built environment at the workplace to significantly influence commute mode choice. Although it found that directions of association for density, diversity and design were as expected, none were significant. Only one design dimension measuring the proportion of high speed roads within a one-mile radial area from the workplace was significant. Control variables related to employees' household, personal and job characteristics such as age, income, being a government employee and using a vehicle as part of the job also had a significant influence on driving alone to work. The results of this analysis do not match results of previous studies that found the built environment to be influential on commute mode choice. This may be partly due to differences in history, geography and urban form and structure between this study's region and those of previous studies. With an intensely autocentric regional fabric, a culture of fast urbanism seems to prevail in Southeast Florida. Hence, any change in travel behavior away from solo driving toward more environmentally friendly commute modes such as carpooling, transit riding, walking or cycling would require sizable changes in the existing built environment. Since these changes may be difficult to achieve in the near future, in order to influence commute mode choice in this region, policy makers may have to strongly rely on travel demand management strategies that complement smart-growth and transit oriented policies designed to alter the built environment, particularly in and around employment centers. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2009. / October 9, 2009. / Built Environment, Commute Mode Choice, Drive Alone, Land Use, Travel Behavior, Southeast Florida / Includes bibliographical references. / Jeffrey Brown, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Ivonne Audirac, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Mark Horner, University Representative; Gregory Thompson, Committee Member.

Imagine a Florida without fresh Florida oranges or fresh Florida orange juice. Now imagine that same Florida with even more massive cities spreading up the southeast coast into central Florida, across to the west coast up into the Big Bend, and along the Panhandle hugging the Gulf. And worse, imagine thousands of Florida's agricultural farmers and workers unemployed, the leftovers of an industry that cannot compete with a global oligopoly. A reduction in an import tariff of Brazilian citrus could produce this horrendous scenario. Land use planning would be crucial under a very dramatic shift in the production of citrus within the state. This paper seeks to inform the research community of a highly possible threat to Florida's citrus industry, and eventually to land planning. This paper will discuss the current goal of the Free Trade Area of the America's trade union between the countries of the Western Hemisphere. The paper describes how that agreement could adversely impact land values. By inferring the effect that trade liberalization would have on land values, a scenario of land use change is depicted. By representing the citrus industry spatially as it is today, utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) combined with observed data, a description of how citrus might look in the future is discussed. This analysis is completed for the thirty-two citrus producing counties. The analysis uses data from 1992 and 2002 to construct a temporal analysis of the citrus industry. Land use planning in the State of Florida is a powerful tool for growth management Land planning for a local government is often solely based on characteristics of a community and its neighboring communities. There is generally little discourse on international economics/politics when local land planning occurs. This paper pushes land-use planners to dig deeper when assembling information about the characteristics of a community and to explore, holistically, possible factors that could produce sweeping changes to the entire state. / A Thesis submitted to the Program in International Affairs, Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science. / Summer Semester, 2005. / April 29, 2005. / GIS, Citriculture, FTAA, Land-use, Florida / Includes bibliographical references. / Tim Chapin, Professor Directing Thesis; John Thomas, Committee Member; Burton Atkins, Committee Member.

This research examines the Villagisation Policy in the extreme post-conflict circumstances of Rwanda. The goal of this research is to investigate the implementation of the policy and to evaluate its effects on poverty reduction. The latter is estimated by comparing actual to extrapolated trend data for four indicators of poverty: GDP per capita, infant mortality rates, illiteracy rates and total household consumption. The third component of this research entailed an investigation into the potential of the current Land Law to reduce poverty; the latter contains the same fundamental goals and objectives as the Villagisation Policy. This study finds that the implementation of the Villagisation policy varied significantly across regions. The emphasis of local authorities on the implementation of the policy varied and local populations interpreted and received the policy differently across regions. Furthermore, different problems arose across regions where the policy was implemented. The findings of the analysis suggest that the Villagisation policy has not had a measurable effect on reducing poverty levels in Rwanda and that the Land Law has a greater potential to lower poverty levels because it addresses obstacles to poverty that were not addressed by the Villagisation Policy. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Planning and Masster of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2007. / October 26, 2007. / Land Reform, Imidugudu, Villagisation, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rwanda, Poverty Reduction / Includes bibliographical references. / Rebecca Miles, Professor Directing Thesis; Ivonne Audirac, Committee Member; Peter Garretson, Outside Committee Member.

This dissertation highlights the results of an investigation of the effects of uncertainty on siting decisions involving Locally Unwanted Land Uses (LULUs). Focusing specifically on the siting of natural gas-powered energy facilities in California, the analysis of data gathered from a survey of participants illustrates the effects of participants' uncertainties on siting processes and outcomes. The research focuses on four specific types of uncertainties: environmental risk uncertainty; solution uncertainty; interaction uncertainty; and commitment uncertainty. Environmental risk uncertainty is associated with perceived impacts on the environment. Solution uncertainty is tied to the process of evaluating and selecting proposed solutions or alternatives. Interaction uncertainty relates to the difficulty in determining the perceptions of others, the information that they hold, their preferences for solutions, and their likely actions. Commitment uncertainty influences participants' assessments of the credibility of commitments made by other parties in the siting process. The findings point to the presence of each of the four types of uncertainty among siting process participants. In addition, the research suggests that participants exhibited certain actions as a result of their uncertainties including questioning experts, exhibiting reduced trust, focusing on a narrow set of issues, and manipulating analyses of alternatives. Further, the findings provide insights into the influence of uncertainty on siting process outcomes such as decision optimality and conflict among participants. Overall, the research suggests the importance of understanding the underlying basis of LULU responses and the need to craft siting processes that mitigate or at least account for participants' uncertainties. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / February 27, 2004. / Public Participation, Risk Perception, Uncertainty, LULU, Energy / Includes bibliographical references. / Bruce Stiftel, Professor Directing Dissertation; Evan Ringquist, Outside Committee Member; Robert E. Deyle, Committee Member.

A 2001-2002 survey designed and implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, the Large Analysis and Review of European Housing and Health Survey (LARES), provides data on the number of households that had engaged in "do-it-yourself" home improvements within a one year period prior to December 2002 in several European cities. In this research, I use the WHO-LARES data to analyze patterns of home-related "do-it-yourself (DIY)" activities in the post-socialist housing context in 2001-2002, focusing on the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. Based on field work carried out in 2006-2007, I go on to discuss how the influence of these variables might operate, and the degree to which their influence appears to have increased or lessened over the last several years. In particular, I investigate whether DIY activities were/are occurring widely across the population, presumably because of the motivating effect of newly-acquired home ownership, or whether rates are higher in certain subgroups. In particular, I first seek to document whether or not DIY activities are more prevalent in and near the Old Town where officials are encouraging renovation through various policy instruments. I go on to investigate whether or not residents of particular housing types are more likely to engage in DIY activities or whether DIY activity is associated with the condition of buildings and open spaces between buildings, perceived quality of the local area, or the socioeconomic characteristics of residents. The extent to which residents across different parts of the city are improving their dwellings can provide an indication of whether home ownership has conferred a sense of "home pride" and/or responsibility among residents, as well as which neighborhood, building and household-level variables appear to exert an influence in this respect. In general, the findings of this research indicate that in 2001-2002 DIY activity in Vilnius appeared to be influenced by a series of physical, environmental and perceptual variables that are conceptually linked to the post-Soviet socio-political housing context. There were more commonalities across housing types than might be assumed in terms of the distribution of variables of interest, and differences were greater within housing types than across them. Within this context DIY activities were fairly prevalent across Vilnius households in 2000-2001. Of the factors included in statistical models only the resident's perception of the quality of their area was associated with a significant increase in the odds of undertaking DIY activities. Despite housing policies designed to encourage renovation of residences in the Old Town, the rate of DIY activity was no greater in and near the city center than elsewhere in the city by 2001-2002. Lastly, aspects of the physical environment surrounding residential buildings, and the presence of graffiti and the condition of open spaces in particular, appear to be related to the prevalence of DIY activities in housing units, but not necessarily to the extent, nor in the direction, that might be expected. In 2006-2007, an increase in private automobile ownership, lack of parking space in panel block housing areas and the variable quality of newly-privatized municipal management companies also appear to be influencing such housing and neighborhood conditions. I conclude by discussing whether conditions that appear to have been influencing DIY activity in 2001-2002 persist in 2006-2007 and incorporate recommendations for future housing policy directions in Vilnius into our discussion of the findings. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2008. / February 26, 2008. / Eastern Europe, Home Maintenance, Housing, Former Soviet Union / Includes bibliographical references. / Rebecca Miles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Isaac W. Eberstein, Outside Committee Member; Charles E. Connerly, Committee Member; Elwood D. Carlson, Committee Member.

Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is one of the most popular tools used by state and local governments to foster local economic development. Under this approach property tax revenue generated by development in a TIF designated area is deposited into a special fund and is used to pay for public improvements within that same TIF designated area or zone. When it comes to assessing outcomes of TIF practices, the literature has been preoccupied with the notion of effectiveness typically measured as an increase in property values. Furthermore, these evaluations of TIF have yielded consistently mixed results. There has been little evaluation of the process by which TIF outcomes are a function of a community's redevelopment needs, goals, and adopted policies and projects. First, this study explores the types of redevelopment policies, programs and projects that are being financed through the use of TIF funds in Florida. Second, this study seeks to determine if the selection of TIF supported redevelopment is a rational function of a community's redevelopment needs and goals. Both objectives are achieved through a content analysis of state-mandated TIF-related redevelopment documents for a large sample of Florida TIF districts. More specifically, this research has identified 241 TIF districts in the state of Florida. 108 Findings of Necessity or blight studies and 172 redevelopment plans have been collected as part of this research effort. This research developed a typology of TIF district development that enables a comprehensive assessment of the types of redevelopment activities that are intended to generate investment for local governments. The findings from the content analysis show that the policies, programs, and projects financed by TIF in Florida occur under eight categories: basic services infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, urban design, housing, land development, business development, neighborhood and community development, and destination development. The research findings also suggest that there are few links between the data collected to establish a TIF district and the selection of redevelopment policies, programs or projects. Taken together, the research findings indicate that a reconsideration of the legislative requirements necessary to establish a TIF district is in order. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2008. / August 7, 2008. / Economic Developmement, Tax Increment Financing, Urban Redevelopment / Includes bibliographical references. / Timothy Chapin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Richard Feiock, Outside Committee Member; Charles Connerly, Committee Member.

While city planners have not typically sought the insights of children to inform planning practice, this is beginning to change. Planning activities involving children have cropped up across the country. Such initiatives include involving school-aged children in park design, neighborhood issues, and comprehensive planning activities, among others. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has even set its sights on involving young stakeholders in certain planning processes. Specifically, HUD has begun working together with youth who reside in HOPE VI housing in order to discover their needs. After a national conference involving HUD officials and these youth constituents, efforts have been made by HUD to create planning committees made up of the residents of potential HOPE VI sites. HUD's goal has been to create planning committees which are intergenerational in nature. The primary function of these planning committees is to consider those issues arising in their communities and to make recommendations to HUD about how to appropriately respond to such issues. These intergenerational planning committees are the first of their kind. They merit study because it is imperative that we learn how such participation by youth and adults affects levels of empowerment. This study describes and explains the interworkings of an intergenerational planning committee at the McDaniel Glenn public housing community in Atlanta by employing a grounded theory case study approach. The results of this case study reveal that participation by youth and adults in this sort of intergenerational planning process which is spearheaded by an advocacy planner reduces the pre-relocation grief effects typically experienced by those who are displaced by urban renewal activities. The study further reveals the empowering effects that intergenerational participation may have on all planning process participants. These findings fill a void in planning scholarship and have both practical and ethical implications for the use of such planning strategies in practice. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2004. / October 25, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles Connerly, Professor Directing Dissertation; Isaac W. Eberstein, Outside Committee Member; Ivonne Audirac, Committee Member.

The Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP) is a program designed to motivate private corporations to contribute resources to assist community development projects performed by Community Development Organizations (CDOs). In order to stimulate private corporations' participation, state governments provide tax credit incentives to the private sector. Florida's Neighborhood Assistance Program, which is officially named 'the Community Contribution Tax Credit Program (CCTCP)', has operated since 1980. Currently, the program grants 50 percent of tax credits to private partners, who made a contribution to eligible CDOs. This research aims to review whether the decision of the tax credit depends on organizational characteristics. By comparing and contrasting CDOs who created partnerships under the CCTCP and those who did not, this study will explore how successfully the program has been implemented. The followings are the main research questions for this research. 1) What and how do organizational characteristics determine the success of NAP-initiated partnerships? 2) How does social capital influence the ability of community based organizations to attract philanthropic contributions? The main data for this study was collected by conducting a survey of CDOs, which were designated as eligible sponsors for tax credit in fiscal year 2006/2007. A total 68 out of 107 CDOs responded to a mail survey conducted from Oct. 2007 to Dec. 2007. The Executive Governor's Office of Tourism, trade and Economic Development in Florida provided tax credit data including names of projects sponsors (CDOs), names of private firms and the amount of allocated tax credits. Moreover, information on social economic status of CDOs' implemented projects was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau. The information was collected based on ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) instead of based on Census Tract information. The results of ANOVA, Chi-square, and Gamma tests illustrate that some organizational characteristics, especially financial and human resource variables, are significantly associated with the success of creating partnerships with private corporations to receive the CCTCP tax credits. Moreover, it is observed that a large number of tax credits are allocated to a small number of CDOs and to certain type of CDOs, especially Habitat for Humanity affiliated organizations. In order to find out the influence of social capital, First, I observed whether board and staff members' activity influence the success of creating partnerships under the CCTCP. Further, this study analyzed more detailed of boards members in a CDO with factor analysis. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to find out the influence of social capital. Specifically, stepwise logistic regression analysis with block entry methods was employed. Based on the findings of previous analysis, this study concludes that first, there were certain variables such as financial capabilities of CDOs and doing housing projects determine the success of partnerships under the CCTCP. However, the success of partnerships and receiving tax grants also were determined by their efforts toward the CCTCP. Board members and Staff members' activity were the key determinants to create successful partnerships. The social capital, measured from CDOs' board members, did not influence the success of creating partnerships. However, examining other proxies of social capital especially board members and staff members activities showed significant influence for the success of partnerships. Thus, this study concludes that in general social capital influence the success of creating partnerships with private corporations under the CCTCP. The implication of this study can be extended to other states to introduce flexible Public-Private Partnership programs. Moreover, finding out how successfully the NAP has been implemented along with its goals and how social capital between CDOs and private firms has affected creation of partnerships with the NAP will provide references for generating future Public-Private Partnership policy frameworks for enhancing benefits of low-income communities. For the improvement of the quality of the program, firstly, this study advocates more educational efforts from the controlling agency. The survey results showed that many CDOs do not really understand the program thoroughly. Presumably, if CDOs do not fully understand the program, it will be really hard for them to convince private corporations to donate contributions. Secondly, it is strongly recommended that there be technical assistances for CDOs, those who do not have abundant financial and human resources to access the program. Since the tax credits are granted based on first come first serve standard, CDOs without resources are disadvantageous to apply tax credits. Lastly, it is recommended that there be more public awareness of the program. Not many CDOs as well as private corporations really know about the program. There should be more efforts to advertise the program to recruit private corporations who are willing to contribute donations to CDOs. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / March 31, 2008. / Public-private Partnerships, Tax Credits, Community Development Organization, Neighborhood Assistance Program, Social Capital / Includes bibliographical references. / Charles E. Connerly, Professor Directing Dissertation; James H. Cobbe, Outside Committee Member; Petra L. Doan, Committee Member.

Within Spanish cultural studies, urban studies have become increasingly popular in the last twenty years. While this literature covers a wide range of Spanish locales and historical periods, there are still few comprehensive analyses of the production of Madrid's urban space between the Civil War and the economic boom of the 1960s. This dissertation contributes to the field through the examination of the symbolic production and use of Madrid during the first decades of the Franco dictatorship. I argue that the disciplining of Madrid's urban space was a means of organizing the capital's citizens into ordered subjects during a time of transition. This process was carried out primarily through the creation of expectations of how the spaces around the urban subject were best lived. My analytical approach is based on case studies and close readings of films, novels, and official documents such as speeches, maps, laws, and urban policies that were produced during the 1940s and 50s. It is an interdisciplinary study of the disciplining of Madrid and its inhabitants. The dissertation is organized spatially; each chapter focuses on a different aspect of Madrid's urban fabric, which extends outward in a series of concentric circles. My first chapter, "Home Life: Domestic Struggles in Comedic Film," deals with the most intimate human space, the home. Four films, Esa pareja feliz (dir. Juan Antonio Bardem and Luis García Berlanga, 1951), El inquilino (dir. José Antonio Nieves Conde, 1957), La vida por delante (dir. Fernando Fernán Gómez, 1958), and El pisito (dir. Marco Ferreri, 1959) illustrate how pressures of ownership transformed the home into a powerful tool of control and homogenization by blurring the lines between public and private space. In Chapter 2, "A Wandering Man: Fragmentation and Discipline in La colmena," I show that this tension spread to the city streets portrayed in Camilo José Cela's novel (1951), where fragmentation and separation worked to break down the threat of collective action and caused individuals to search for a productive role in society. In the 1950s, the push of hunger and the pull of industrialization drew migrants to Madrid in search of jobs and material comforts, only to find themselves displaced to the periphery of the capital, reinforcing their marginal status. This demographic transformation forms the basis for my third chapter, "No Limits! The City in Surcos and Los golfos," in which I analyze two key films from the decade, José Antonio Nieves Conde's Surcos (1951) and Carlos Saura's Los golfos (1959). Finally, Chapter Four, "'Ya se aburren de tanta capital': Leisure, Language, and Law in El Jarama" examines Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio's novel (1956) to explore how citizens looking for relief from the pressures of city life in the surrounding countryside only found that this leisure space was under the control of its own disciplinary forces. The novels and films that I include in this study demonstrate how the discipline of the Spanish capital extended to all of the city's zones to create a model of urban citizenship that blurred the lines between pubic and private space and between individual and collective subjects.

The expansion of Built Environment Education into art programs is a relatively recent phenomenon but very timely. The need to develop in students an understanding of their living environment is urgent as they inherit a world that is experiencing the depletion of its resources and erosion of its ecological balance. / There is a fundamental need for more comprehensive curriculum planning in built environment education. The goal of this research is to develop a curriculum paradigm that can be used to create curriculum plans and instructional designs for built environment education as part of the art class in secondary schools. / The built environment content of this curriculum paradigm is based on the active investigation of the students' internal world with all its different perceptions and lived experience and how this affects their understanding of the greater built environment. Through a more intense investigation of the greater built environment, the students will then analyze the effect that this environment has on their own perceptions and living habits. By developing a more conscious understanding of the built environment, the students will be better equipped to make informed decisions on how to better adapt to or change their environment. / A guiding principle for the curriculum paradigm was to ensure that the introduction of a new subject area, such as built environment education, into art education curriculum involved processes of creativity and discovery along with self-reflective and participatory action for both the teacher and students. To be effective, the content material must not only be accessible through the traditional modes of academic literature research but also made valid through observation, reflection and interaction with the particular built environment of the teacher and students themselves. / Vigilance and active participation in the process of urban change are vital. These changes can only be effective and enduring if we acknowledge the capacity of the built environment to enrich our lives as private and communal beings. / One of the essential goals of this curriculum paradigm is to capture the excitement and potential that the built environment offers as a pervasive agent for understanding and celebrating constructed past, present and future.