Thesis advisor: Marilynn Johnson / This study examines widespread efforts to manage the environmental impact of suburbanization in metropolitan America since 1970. Using the Washington, DC area as a site for analysis, I demonstrate how residents, public officials, and organized interests balanced suburban development and environmental protection. Featuring cases from the Virginia and Maryland suburbs, this project considers environmental conflicts resulting from housing, commercial, and highway projects as well as efforts to preserve rural land and farming from suburban encroachment. As metropolitan Washington decentralized, the environmental impact of suburbanization worsened, producing different approaches to managing development and protecting the environment. These responses reflected new social and spatial inequalities, as well as differences in political leadership and civic activism. While communities in Maryland benefited from more progressive public concern, local leadership and strong support from the state for growth management, their counterparts in Virginia struggled to overcome strong and pervasive protections for property rights. This project rewrites our understanding of suburbanization and environmental protection in two ways. First, it urges scholars to rethink a traditional emphasis on federal policies; even in the suburbs of the nation's capital, the active participation of the public at large, as well as officials at the local and state levels, was critical to the success or failure of environmental protection. The present study thus demonstrates how and why different approaches to growth management emerged across metropolitan areas. Second, this study differs from the existing social science literature by moving away from policy analysis to focus on the broader context of decision-making in planning suburban development. Drawing on correspondence, publicity materials, and public testimony from residents, environmental groups, local officials, business organizations, and federal agencies, this study offers a more complete picture of growth management, providing a historically informed and policy relevant argument about environmental protection in metropolitan America. Ultimately, it reveals that even with an unprecedented degree of expansion of state regulation and civic engagement, the legal and cultural regimes surrounding the use of property often continued to privilege private gain over environmental protection as localities competed for economic investment. In a few cases, however, we can see how residents and public officials pursued more holistic forms of growth management in metropolitan America, laying the groundwork for a model of more meaningful public participation to enhance environmental protection in the future. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Zoning is premised upon the segregation of land uses. Rudimentary zoning ordinances originated in New York around 1916 as a means of separating the lower class fabric markets from the upscale retailers of 5th Avenue nearby, and to reduce density. The Standard Enabling Acts of the 1920s granted governments the broad authority to enact zoning ordinances to reduce population densities in cities for the purposes of health, safety, and well being. The United States Supreme Court upheld this authority as constitutional in the landmark case of Euclid v. Ambler Realty (1926). In the roughly eighty years since the Euclid decision, zoning has become the planning profession's primary tool to regulate land use. While an effective policy response to issues at that time of a rapidly industrializing America, Euclidean zoning has unintentionally shaped the US landscape into a sprawling, auto-dependent society characterized by segregated communities of isolated populations. Euclidean zoning makes it extremely difficult to mix uses. As a result, 'traditional' development patterns with high-density housing, nearby commercial, and pedestrian-friendly walkways are virtually impossible to create. Many critics suggest that zoning promulgates sprawl. In short, Euclidean zoning prevents 'good' urban design. In recent years, new trends have emerged to address these problems to varying degrees of success. Form-Based Codes are one of the most recent planning innovations. With origins in the New Urbanist school of development, Form-Based Codes elevates physical design in city planning, as opposed to the 'use-based' restrictions of Euclidean zoning. This paper examines whether or not Form-Based Codes could be a viable solution to the ills associated with Euclidean zoning. Benefits and drawbacks of both Euclidean zoning and Form-Based Codes are debated, including a case study analysis, as well as a discussion of legal ramifications and future scenarios in land use planning. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Parking and parks are both crucial to downtown economic development. Many studies have shown that downtown parks significantly contribute to increasing surrounding property values and attract residents, businesses and investment. Meanwhile, sufficient available parking promotes accessibility to downtown that also contributes to increasing tax revenue for local government. However, both downtown parks and parking raise problems. Many downtown parks have become places for drug dealing, shooting and vandalism since the decline of downtowns in the 1960s. At the same time, residents and visitors alike oftentimes complain about the lack of parking while in fact parking spaces occupy a large amount of land in downtown. Parks and parking also compete for space in downtown where land value is higher than the rest of the city. To address these issues, several cities have begun to address the relationship between parking and parks by placing them in one place: park on the ground level and parking underneath. This typology is defined as a park-above-parking project in this research. However, this phenomenon has received little scholarly attention. To justify the existing situation of park-above-parking and to contemplate future projects, this research provides a spatial-based investigation to discuss the empirical relationships between social cultural and political-economic impacts, design quality, and related policy-making processes based on four cases. A longitudinal study that traces the direct and indirect impacts of park-above-parking projects was conducted for each case through both qualitative and quantitative methods. This research provides a set of methods for the measurement of contributions of park-above-parking downtown, connections between park quality, social use and adjacent economic growth, recommendations for land use planning policy-making and guidelines for the design of park-above-parking projects.

The spatial planning of land use is the process of allocating different uses or activities to specific areas in a region and is the core content of land use planning systems. Land use planning is increasingly becoming complex because of the multifaceted problems it faces, such as guaranteeing economic growth, maintaining social equity, and preserving the environment. These objectives present conflicting demands from various land use groups and interest groups. The increased inclusion of objectives leads to different demands on the expected results. Moreover, the increased complexity of land use planning problems is influenced by the involvement and definition of multiple objectives. These objectives may be unstructured, nonlinear, and difficult to handle. Within this context, computer-based techniques have been developed to assist planners in decision making. Among all of the techniques, multi-objective optimization (MOO) approaches are the most well-known techniques in addressing multi-objective problems in land use planning. MOO approaches have successfully accomplished significant achievements. However, literature shows that some spatially-related environmental objectives, such as carbon emission, non-point source pollution, and soil erosion, are missing because of the difficulty in evaluating, analyzing, and measuring such complex land use objectives. / The land use planning process in China is divided into a series of land use plans at different levels. Among these plans, the municipal overall land use plan and the urban master plan are involved in managing the land use resources in a city. The municipal overall land use plan administers the urban and non-urban areas in an administrative scope, whereas the urban master plan focuses only on the development of urban areas. These two types of land use plans are conducted by two different government departments. These plans are usually inconsistent, particularly in terms of space. / Considering the spatial inconsistency between the municipal overall land use plan and urban master plan in China, a MOO-based two-level spatial planning of land use is conducted. The spatial planning aims at managing and coordinating the land use at different geographic extents and involves spatial layouts and structures of land use at different levels. In spatial planning, the geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing (RS) are used to evaluate, analyze, and measure environmental, economic, and social issues with regard to the spatial land use change. The quantitative relationships between these objectives and spatial land use allocation are then used as rules in the MOO process to simulate environmental conditions under different spatial land use allocation scenarios. / Shenzhen, a rapidly developing city in China, is selected as the case study area to validate the proposed approach. The objectives and constraints in the spatial planning of land use are defined at two different levels based on the land use principles, local and national policies in China, and characteristics of Shenzhen. At the first level, nine objectives are proposed, namely, maximizing economic benefit, maximizing ecosystem services value, minimizing soil erosion, minimizing non-point source pollution, minimizing carbon emission, maximizing compatibility, minimizing change cost, maximizing accessibility, and minimizing landslide susceptibility. The objectives of spatial planning of land use at the urban level are subsequently proposed, as follows: maximizing housing capacity, maximizing employment capacity, minimizing changing cost, minimizing pollution from industrial lands, maximizing mixed land uses, maximizing green space, maximizing accessibility, maximizing compatibility, and maximizing spatial equity. The proposed spatial-related objectives are quantified by GIS. / Results indicated that the MOO-based two-level spatial planning can create trade-offs among the conflicting objectives, and a set of Pareto solutions is provided as options for decision makers or planners. Moreover, the MOO-based two-level spatial planning can generate a consistent land use planning system for Shenzhen. / 土地利用空間規劃通過對土地的空間位置及結構的調配以達到土地資源的合理利用.一個良好的土地利用規劃需滿足各方面的要求及目標,例如確保經濟增長的同時,保證社會公平,同時也保護環境的可持續發展.但由於社會各界對土地利用有不同的利益訴求,導致規劃中出現眾多相互衝突但不矛盾的目標.此外,土地利用規劃目標常常是空間相關的,這些空間相關目標具有非結構性,非線性的特點,使得整個土地利用規劃過程更加複雜.在這種情況下,電腦支援技術成為實際規劃中不可或缺的工具之一.在所有技術中,多目標優化模型已經被廣泛的應用于解決土地利用規劃中的多目標問題.多目標優化模型已經在土地利用規劃領域取得了大量有意義的成果.然後,現有研究往往關注土地利用結構,而忽視複雜而難以定義的土地空間問題,例如城市熱島,非點源污染,土壤侵蝕. / 在中國,土地利用規劃系統由一系列不同空間層次的規劃組成.在中國土地利用規劃系統中,市(地)級土地利用總體規劃和城市總體規劃主要關注某個城市的土地資源配置佈局問題.市(地)級土地利用總體規劃管理整個市(地)行政範圍內的土地資源,包括城市用地及非城市用地;然而城市總體規劃僅關注建成區及規劃區範圍內的土地資源.同時,這兩種規劃由不同的政府部門設定並統籌實施,這導致了兩規劃在空間範圍的不一致性. / 考慮到市(地)級土地利用總體規劃和城市總體規劃在空間上的不一致性,本研究提出了一個基於多目標優化的兩層土地利用空間規劃模型,並主要關注土地資源的空間佈局.在空間規劃中,地理資訊系統及遙感技術被用來評價,分析和衡量在土地利用變化下的環境目標.不同目標與空間土地利用變化之間的量化模型將作為多目標優化模型中的規則,用以類比不同土地利用情景下的各種目標實現情況. / 深圳作為一個高速發展並經歷土地利用迅速變化的城市被選為本研究的案例研究區.深圳市土地利用空間規劃的目標和限制條件被分為兩個層次,一個市(地)級土地利用總體規劃層次和另一個城市總體規劃層次.這些目標和限制條件基於已有的土地利用規劃方法,中國土地利用相關法律法規及深圳市發展背景來確定.在市(地)級土地利用總體規劃層次,定義了九個目標,分別是經濟利益最大化,生態服務價值最大化,土壤侵蝕最小,非點源污染最小,碳排放最小,地塊之間相容性最大,土地利用變化最小,可達性最大及滑坡危害最小. 在城市總體規劃層次,定義了如下目標:住房最大化,就業最大化,綠地最大化,可達性最大,城市土地利用地塊見相容性最大,公平性最大.所有這些目標可通過統計模型,地理資訊系統技術實現其量化. / 研究結果表明,本研究所提出的兩層次土地利用規劃能夠協調各個相互衝突的目標,並且為決策者和規劃師提供一系列Pareto解.同時,基於多目標優化的兩層次空間土地利用規劃能夠為深圳提供一個保持一致性的土地利用系統. / Zhang, Wenting. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-184). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 16, November, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Zhang, Yongjun. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 215-225). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.

Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Bibliography: leaves 629-639. / by Charles J. Perry. / Ph.D.

abstract: Anthropogenic land use has irrevocably transformed the natural systems on which humankind relies. Understanding where, why, and how social and economic processes drive globally-important land-use changes, from deforestation to urbanization, has advanced substantially. Illicit and clandestine activities--behavior that is intentionally secret because it breaks formal laws or violates informal norms--are poorly understood, however, despite the recognition of their significant role in land change. This dissertation fills this lacuna by studying illicit and clandestine activity and quantifying its influence on land-use patterns through examining informal urbanization in Mexico City and deforestation Central America. The first chapter introduces the topic, presenting a framework to examine illicit transactions in land systems. The second chapter uses data from interviews with actors involved with land development in Mexico City, demonstrating how economic and political payoffs explain the persistence of four types of informal urban expansion. The third chapter examines how electoral politics influence informal urban expansion and land titling in Mexico City using panel regression. Results show land title distribution increases just before elections, and more titles are extended to loyal voters of the dominant party in power. Urban expansion increases with electoral competition in local elections for borough chiefs and legislators. The fourth chapter tests and confirms the hypothesis that narcotrafficking has a causal effect on forest loss in Central America from 2001-2016 using two proxies of narcoactivity: drug seizures and events from media reports. The fifth chapter explores the spatial signature and pattern of informal urban development. It uses a typology of urban informality identified in chapter two to hypothesize and demonstrate distinct urban expansion patterns from satellite imagery. The sixth and final chapter summarizes the role of illicit and clandestine activity in shaping deforestation and urban expansion through illegal economies, electoral politics, and other informal transactions. Measures of illicit and clandestine activity should--and could--be incorporated into land change models to account for a wider range of relevant causes. This dissertation shines a new light on the previously hidden processes behind ever-easier to detect land-use patterns as earth observing satellites increase spatial and temporal resolution. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2019

In the 1976, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) compiled their first Handbook of guidelines and methods for evaluating development-level transportation impacts, specifically vehicular impacts (Institute of Transportation Engineers 1976). Decades later, these methods--essentially the same as when they were originally conceived--are used ubiquitously across the US and Canada. Only recently, with the guidelines in its third edition of the ITE's Trip Generation Handbook (Institute of Transportation Engineers 2014) new data and approaches have been adopted--despite substantial evidence that questions the accuracy of older data, automobile bias, and lack of sensitivity to urban contexts. This dissertation contributes to this literature by focusing on the data, methods, and assumptions so commonly included in development- or site-level evaluation of transportation impacts. These methods are omnipresent in development-level review--used in transportation impact analyses or studies (TIAs/TISs) of vehicular or mode-based impacts, vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and estimates of emissions, scaling or scoping development size, and evaluating transportation system development, impact or utility fees or charges. However, few have evaluated the underlying characteristics of these foundational data--with few exceptions--this manuscript takes aim at understanding inherent issues in the collection and application of ITE's data and methods in various urban contexts. This manuscript includes a compiled dissertation, four papers written consecutively. The first, evaluates state-of-the-art methods in Chapter 2--identifying gaps in the literature. Two such gaps are explored in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. In Chapter 3, a larger implicit assumption present in ITE's methods--that the existing land-use taxonomy is an optimal and accurate way to describe land use and segment data. Results indicate a simplified taxonomy would provide substantial reductions in cost corresponding with a minor loss in the model's explanation of variance. Following, Chapter 4 explores a common assumption that requires ITE's vehicle trips be converted into person trips and applied across contexts. The results point to the need to consider demographics in site-level transportation impact analysis, particularly to estimate overall demand (person trips, transaction activity) at retail and service development. In Chapter 5, the findings from this research and previous studies are extrapolated to evaluate and quantify the potential bias when temporal, special, and social contexts are ignored. The results indicate the compounding overestimation of automobile demand may inflate estimation by more than 100% in contexts where ITE should be applicable (suburban areas with moderate incomes). In the conclusions (Chapter 6), the implications of this work are explored, followed by recommendations for practice and a discussion of the limitations of this research and future work.

This study investigates the relationship between law and space by focusing on the role of the land-use planning system in producing the space of Australian urban regions. The primary aim of the project is to demonstrate the significance of the theoretical and sociological framework of Henri Lefebvre for an emerging field of socio-legal studies concerned with the relationship between law and geography. To this point very few contributions to this field have considered the theoretical connections between law and space in any depth. This thesis demonstrates how Lefebvre's sophisticated theory of the socially produced nature of space can broaden the scope of 'law and geography' research. It does so through a detailed survey of Lefebvre's work and a deployment of his ideas in a series of inquiries into the production of space in Australia. This endeavour is pursued in two stages. Part I of the thesis begins by examining how explanatory models within the social sciences have become increasingly concerned with the spatial dimensions of social life. This 'spatial turn' is reflected in a small, but growing literature within socio-legal studies which focuses on the interdisciplinary connections between law and geography. However the theoretical foundations of this field remain underdeveloped. Through an analysis of Lefebvre's writings, this thesis identifies an anti-reductionist methodological approach to space and its social production. This is used to establish a theoretical framework for the study of the spatial dimensions of law. Part II of the thesis uses this framework to address two questions about the law-space relationship. The first of these is concerned with how law is involved in the production of space. This is considered through three linked studies of the production, planning and legal regulation of space. The starting point for this investigation is the geographical site of suburbia. Lefebvrean categories are used to redescribe Australian suburbia as a form of abstract space - simultaneously fragmented, homogeneous and hierarchically organised. The thesis then argues that the land-use planning system in the post-war decades played a significant role in the development of this form of settlement space, by adhering to a form of bureaucratic thinking that Lefebvre characterises as the rationality of habitat. This rationality embodied technocratic functionalism, a visualised formalism and a structural imposition of expert authority in planning decision-making. With the shift to a neoliberal state form in the last two decades, there have been significant changes to spatial planning. Through an analysis and critique of the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (Qld), it is demonstrated that under neoliberalism there has been a reformulation of the rationality of habitat. In particular, the Integrated Planning Act relies on two new formal strategies, the exchange form and the integrative form, in instituting its changes to planning practice. The exchange form abolishes the technique of land-use 'zoning' and increases the use of market mechanisms in the designation of spatial uses. The integrative form restructures the relationships between local and State government agencies and attempts to channel most forms of public participation into the early stages of policy formation. This thesis argues that rather than changing the spatial outcomes of land-use planning, by commodifying space and restructuring the hierarchies of state decision-making, the Integrated Planning Act will continue to reproduce the social relations of abstract space. The second question in Part II deals with how Lefebvre's ideas can contribute to critical thinking about public law in general. It is argued that while law plays a significant role as a producer of space through the planning system, processes of spatial production also shape and structure state institutions. Two areas of research which could benefit from a Lefebvrean theoretical framework are identified. The first area concerns explanations of the effects on public law of the reterritorialised state form that has emerged under neoliberalism. The second is the renewal of critical theory in public law. In particular, the thesis makes the case that the spatial contradiction between the use and exchange values that are attached to space, challenges the normative orthodoxy within public law scholarship which relies on the values of participation and accountability. This thesis contributes to socio-legal research in three important ways. Firstly, it uses Lefebvre's theoretical approach to develop a critical planning law, linking state planning to the process of the production of space. Secondly, the thesis uses Lefebvrean categories to link the study of public law to political struggles which surround spatial production. It suggests a new way for critical legal scholarship to conceptualise public law in terms of the relationship between state power and the inhabitance of space. Lastly, these inquiries demonstrate the importance and relevance of Lefebvre's social theory for the discipline of socio-legal studies. By grounding the concept of 'space' in material processes of production, a Lefebvrean approach provides an alternative to existing theoretical accounts within law and geography research and will deepen our understanding of the relationships between legal and spatial relations.