This study reveals the potential for urban design where multi-modal transportation corridors intersect. An overarching challenge to urban design and planning relates to the impact mobility has on the social, environmental, and economic health of America's cities, including Indianapolis. In response to this challenge, this study explores transit-oriented development, a strategy based on the principle that transportation and land use are closely related and should therefore be planned in coordination, as a viable alternative to current practices that force transportation to follow rather than inspire and enhance development.Two primary phases constitute the study. The first introduces the principles of transit-oriented development. This phase also highlights some of the urban design opportunities that stem from this alternative strategy and examines and evaluates how effectively transit-oriented development principles work in various American cities.The second phase explores how these principles may be applied to the city of Indianapolis and demonstrates how one site within the city can serve as a model for coordinating various modes of transportation with adjacent land use. This phase consists of selecting a demonstration site within the city, researching the existing and historical make-up of the site, and developing a master plan for the site. The master plan is based on two primary goals-to create a safe and efficient transportation node and to create a unique and vibrant urban "place" that functions as both an origin and a destination. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The processes by which urban areas come to be and evolve create outdoor spaces that experience different uses and have different characteristics over a period of time. For example, a space previously used for industrial purposes may presently be used as a community park. In some cases, a significant area of land may become a kind of leftover or remnant space whose uses are unclear, undefined, or unprogrammed, but exhibits natural characteristics. The purpose of this study is to utilize one of these natural remnants, Marott Park, in the cultural arts district of Broad Ripple in Indianapolis, Indiana as the basis for a design effort that provides access to the site while retaining both its site-specific and contextual characteristics. The intent of this effort is to enhance the community/pedestrian recreational, educational, and cultural experience through a detailed design for a portion of Marott Park. A set of recommendations also addresses the potential for connections between the site and other features such as existing open space, schools, and cultural features in the Indianapolis area. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study explores relationships between temperate stream geochemistry and watershed land cover in two temperate streams, Fishback Creek and School Branch Creek, located in a rapidly urbanizing area on the northwest side of Indianapolis in Eagle Creek Watershed, Indiana. The temporal and spatial patterns of NO3-N, PO4, DOC, SiO2, Cl-, and Na+ were assessed to understand the influence of land cover on the magnitude and timing of water, chemical, and nutrient delivery to streams. Results of the study indicate that the influences of different land cover types on water delivery to streams and in-stream water quality vary seasonally and with respect to flow regime, that urbanization may result in decreased nitrate input, and that phosphate and dissolved organic carbon concentrations will likely remain constant as the watershed is developed. Results also indicate that riparian buffer downstream of intense agriculture lands dilutes high agricultural NO3-N concentrations, but not enough to return in-stream concentrations to natural levels.