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Activities in and connected to cities are responsible for around 70 % of the global CO2 emissions and as the urbanization to cities are likely to increase in forthcoming future, actions to handle this situation are of vital importance. Through the integration of sustainable development in cities’ urban development, this have large potential to improve social, economic and ecological aspects in the cities. Besides being the places where most of the global consumption and emissions come from, it’s in these specific places where essential effects can be reached. There’re, however, difficulties with this, due to that it requires participation and responsibility from all stakeholders in the city. Different cities have different capabilities and conditions to work with sustainable development, which is why this study examine the two cities of Linköping and Norrköping. The study is based on interviews with actors that are closely connected to the urban development in the both cities. The results shows that the cities have different historical background and city structure, causing them to work a bit differently. Furthermore, the result also indicate that the largest challenges are how to handle the transportation issue, conflicts of interests as well as cooperation between different stakeholders.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the impact of a Title I Comprehensive Plan on factors that affect the learning and the success of a Title I school, such as administrative support, student discipline, parental engagement, professional development, class size, and attendance. Annual District Parent and Teacher Surveys, INow attendance reports, INOW discipline reports, ACT Aspire Testing data, and Ident-A-Kit school signature documents were analyzed and observations were made in order to acquire information concerning the success of the Title One Comprehensive Plan in a Title I school. This type of research involves emerging questions and procedures, data analysis inductively building from particulars to general themes, and the researcher interpreting the data (Creswell, 2008). The results of this study aims to influence and assist school leaders and teachers’ efforts to promote students’ academic success within Title I environments. The findings from this research will provide teachers, students and educational leaders with an opportunity for understanding how students in Title I identified school succeed. One elementary school in the eastern region of the United States was used in the study. This school is pre-kindergarten through fifth school that has been a Title I for several years. The school serves over 750 students. The time frame for this research project was two months. The findings of this study add supporting evidence to the influence of the independent variables. The results of this study show that the researcher identified four dominant themes that appeared during the study. Professional development, student attendance, class size, and high expectation on student achievement were the common themes that support the importance of the independent variables on factors that have an impact on the success of the Title I Comprehensive Plan on a Title I school.

This study aimed to examine what role and how the agriculture will be affected in a periurban environment as by the comprehensive plan that the municipal has established for the Röbäck area. The study tried to value the importance and role for the agriculture today and in the future. The methods of this study were interviews with farmers, inhabitants and workers of Röbäck, businesses and a sports club based on two types of interviews one survey-based with fixed questions and one in-depth interview with farmers. The municipal comprehensive plan and accompanying environmental impact assessment along relevant literature and the statistical database from Jordbruksverket were used to extract and compile data. The results show that the fields in and surrounding Röbäck contained good agricultural values and the ability to maintain of self-sufficiency in Västerbottens county is low. In the interviews with farmers the fear of not being able to use the farmland as before as a result of complaints on dust, noises, smells and rules on spreading fertilizers and pesticides raised a concern. The interviews showed that people living in Röbäck liked the combination of being close to Umeå city centrum as well as living close to the nature and the open landscapes, but few saw the link between the agriculture in Röbäck and these. The report concludes that the issue is complex and depends on whose interest should go first. There were both positive and negative outcomes of the plan in all the three pillars of sustainability

This study examined the quality of Florida county government conservation planning. To assess conservation planning quality, a theoretical model of conservation planning as prescribed by the conservation science literature was first developed. A plan evaluation coding protocol was applied to local comprehensive plan Conservation Elements to determine the extent to which county-level conservation planning met the theoretical model. A high degree of variability in conservation planning quality was found. Highest quality conservation planning occurred in the Gulf coast counties of southwest Florida. Lowest conservation planning quality occurred in the Florida Panhandle counties. The quality of conservation planning of coastal counties was significantly higher than that of inland counties. Significant regional differences were also found, where conservation planning quality in South Florida counties was significantly higher than conservation planning quality in Panhandle counties. Geographic differences in conservation planning quality were likely attributable to significant differences in socioeconomic variables among counties, including differences in education, wealth, and urbanization. Multiple regression analysis using an information theoretic approach was employed to develop a predictive model of conservation planning quality of Florida local governments. The two most plausible predictors in the model were education level of the public and total resources. Local and global spatial autocorrelation analysis were next applied to county conservation planning scores to investigate spatial patterns of conservation planning quality, which were found to be related to the policy process of diffusion. Lastly, current local government conservation planning policy was analyzed for effectiveness and policy recommendations were made. Improving the iii effectiveness of local conservation planning will require changes in statutory provisions of the state Florida Forever and Growth Management statutes. It will also require a greater commitment on the part of the state of Florida to protect the state’s biological resources over the long term

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Planning literature in the United States focuses heavily on urban centers. However, the 2000 Census considers one-fifth of America's population to be rural. To adequately plan for this portion of the American population requires an understanding of the strengths and barriers to planning in rural areas. Such an understanding is noticeably absent from current planning literature. Therefore, this thesis seeks to determine what factors influence the adoption of comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances in rural counties in the United States. Through an evaluation of variables pertaining to urban hierarchy, institutional factors and political processes, two independent variables stand out. For both comprehensive planning and zoning, legislation mandating adoption and higher median household incomes both encourage adoption and show statistical significance. The percentage of the county's work force that works within the county (versus commuting) also positively correlates with zoning ordinance adoption and is statistically significant. In addition to clarifying the processing of planning and zoning adoption in rural areas, this study also provides a review of state planning and zoning statutes and reports primary research on the frequency of land use planning tools in rural America. This study highlights the need for a better understanding of rural planning in general and in particular the political structures and processes in rural areas. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Cities and schools are traditionally planned in separate silos by local governments and school boards. Collaborative school facility planning (CSP) unites these two silos and integrates decision-making by city and school entities. This research addresses the relationship between urban planning and school facility planning in New Orleans, Louisiana, where CSP is particularly important in light of rebuilding efforts since Hurricane Katrina. The researcher examines the extent, challenges, and opportunities for CSP in New Orleans. Based on interviews and recent planning texts, little collaboration existed in the past; but the decommissioning of 52 New Orleans public school facilities presents an unmistakable opportunity for improved CSP in the near future. The broader implications of this thesis suggest that an alternative model for CSP is needed for low-growth, urban communities whose primary concern is not new school construction but old facility closure and reuse.

The lack of early integration with the planning and decision-making process has been a major problem in environmental assessment. Traditional project-based environmental impact assessment has inadequate incentives and capacities to incorporate critical environmental impacts at a broader temporal or spatial scale. While many applications have been geared towards implementing project-level environmental assessments, comparatively little research has been done to determine how to incorporate strategically critical environmental impacts into local planning. Although the principles of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) are not yet required in local planning in the United States, these principles create a theoretical framework for local environmental assessment. The objective of this study is to examine the ability of local plans to integrate and implement the key SEA principles. This study focuses on increasing the understanding of how and where to integrate environmental impacts into the local planning and decision-making process by converting the principles of SEA into specific planning tools, policies, and implementation strategies. This study develops a protocol with 112 indicators to measure the strengths and weaknesses of integrating strategic environmental assessment into local comprehensive land use plans. A random sample of 40 California local comprehensive land use plans and associated planning processes is evaluated based on this plan quality evaluation protocol. Statistical analysis and multiple regression models identify the factors affecting the quality of plans with respect to their ability to assess environmental impacts. The results identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the ability of local jurisdictions to integrate the SEA principles. The results show that many strategically important environmental issues and tools are rarely adopted by current local plans. The regression analysis results further identify the effects of planning capacity, environmental assessment capacity, public participation and contextual variables on environmental assessment plan quality. The findings extend established planning theory and practice by incorporating strategic environmental considerations into the existing framework of what constitutes a high quality local land use comprehensive plan and suggest ways to improve plan quality.

This paper is about the current state of gated subdivisions in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. It provides a list, map, and relevant census data of the gated subdivisions in each of the three cities in the parish in which they are found—Baton Rouge, Central, and Zachary—and the unincorporated areas of the parish. It also examines comprehensive plan elements that relate to gated subdivisions, and whether actual gated developments adhere to the plan’s principles. It is important to examine gated developments in East Baton Rouge Parish because they have an effect on the social, fiscal, and public health of their inhabitants and the surrounding communities. The population of East Baton Rouge Parish is growing, which means that new housing units will be built in the near future, many in new subdivisions. The characteristics and placement of housing are major components of an area’s quality of life, and the governments in East Baton Rouge Parish have the opportunity and the responsibility to influence future quality of life by carefully and thoroughly considering their residential developments. An understanding of gated neighborhoods in the area will add to citizens’ and governments’ ability to thoroughly consider future residential development. No comprehensive list or map of gated subdivisions exists for any part of the parish. By mapping them now, and providing a “state of the parish” report, interested citizens and planners at all levels of government can track the increase or decrease of gated communities. Showing that there is sometimes a difference between a comprehensive plan’s stated objective and the reality of gated communities may encourage closer scrutiny before future gated developments are approved. / text