The metropolitan area form has changed over time, transitioning from one central city surrounded by suburban bedroom communities to regions that possess several self-sufficient centers of activity. While these changes have occurred, metropolitan areas are commonly compared using the simple city-suburb distinction. The changing nature of the suburbs has been discussed in terms of changes in the built environment as well as changes in the residents; most recently, anecdotal media reports have suggested that preferences of the Millennial generation (now roughly 25-to-34-year-olds) may be influencing this shift. There are two main goals of this dissertation: to explore how density has changed in the context of the overall metropolitan area, as well as to explore whether the characteristics of residents in metro areas have changed. A quantitative approach is used, with an analysis that explores changes in density over time as well as a potential relationship today between density and the characteristics of the residents, including whether the Millennial generation has any relationship to changes, if they exist. Findings from the analysis indicate that the suburbs-city distinction is no longer relevant, and density is changing at a similar rate in both types of geographies. This suggests that density is a more appropriate metric to gauge metropolitan form changes. Further, characteristics of the population related to density have not changed since 1990, suggesting that changes in density do not have a relationship to an increase in influence by members of one generation. / Ph. D.

No description available.

This thesis aspires to advance understanding of how actor choices relate to embedded structures of rules in communicative planning practice, using insights from the institutional literature developed in organizational science, economics, sociology and planning. Specifically, the thesis argues that a spatial institutional perspective can help planners understand the complex patterns of interaction among actors, and between actors and rules. Actors interact in the spaces created by the interplay between actor choices and rule structures: the institutional environment. The thesis comprises five papers: two case studies, a literature review and a theoretical paper. A review of the institutional literature reveals insights from other disciplines not yet fully explored in planning, including transaction cost analysis to explain individual decisions and collective action approaches to understanding micro behaviour and macro outcomes. These insights, together with the results of the case studies, suggest that planning theory needs to better understand how individual actors make choices within rule structures and based on the expected behaviour of others. To address this, the thesis offers the concept of relational rewards, which incorporates theories of social capital and communication externalities into a rational actor approach. This may provide an explanation for why self-interested actors make choices about whether or not to participate in interactive forums designed to meet communicative goals. This approach can also explain how boundedly rational actors without communicative norms may over time develop a propensity to collaborate. In a practical sense, this thesis challenges planners to think about what selective incentives they offer actors to participate in communicative planning. It encourages planners to identify and characterize the many institutional environments for planning and decisionmaking in transaction cost terms. Planning theorists and practitioners are experienced and adept in understanding and applying a spatial perspective, and can develop a spatial-institutional approach to coordinating actors both across physical space and within institutional environments. / <p>QC 20100927</p>

Genève et Prague sont deux métropoles en construction. La métropolisation revêt des formes différentes : l’affirmation d’une capitale qui veut être une métropole et la « tête de pont » des investissements étrangers en Europe centrale pour Prague ; la construction d’une agglomération sur trois Etats pour Genève (agglomération franco-valdo-genevoise). Les trajectoires de ces deux métropoles sont également différentes et font l’objet d’une comparaison : Prague est une ville post-socialiste en rattrapage rapide vingt ans après la chute du régime communiste tandis que Genève est une métropole d’Europe occidentale, ville internationale depuis un siècle. Deux conceptions se font face et orientent les stratégies d’acteurs : d’un côté, les acteurs praguois assurent un développement rapide selon une logique multipolaire de la capitale tchèque ; de l’autre, on assiste à une certaine peur de la croissance qui freine la menée de grands projets et la concrétisation du Grand Genève, l’agglomération transfrontalière franco-valdo-genevoise. / Geneva and Prague are two metropolises under construction. However, metropolitan development is different in each city: Prague is a capital-city which wants to be a metropolis and attract and concentrate foreign investment in Central-Eastern Europe, whereas Geneva is the heart of a three States-cross-border city (France, cantons of Geneva and Vaud). Their trajectories are also different and are comparable: Prague is a post socialist city quickly catching up twenty years after the fall of the communist regime, and Geneva is an old international city in Western Europe. Two territorial visions are orienting the leaders’ strategies: on the one hand, Prague leaders are promoting a balanced and polycentric city development; on the other hand, one observes a certain « growth fear » which slows down the achievements of big projects such as the cross-border city formation called « Grand Genève ».

La croissance des bidonvilles interroge les modalités de production de la ville, notamment dans les pays en développement. Cette thèse montre le cas de Bangkok où les « communautés denses », outre la flexibilité de leur architecture, cristallisent souvent des pratiques sociales et une histoire commune propres au lieu. Rarement prises en compte dans la métropole et victimes d'une image négative, elles font preuve d'un dynamisme économique et associatif stimulant et représentent un enjeu fort face aux notions de développement durable et de droit à la ville, à l'échelle locale comme internationale. Au travers d'une analyse spatiale principalement, d'entretiens d'acteurs et d'observations de terrain, nous abordons l'habitat spontané comme une construction incrémentale issue de processus d'appropriation individuelle. Nous l'analysons autour de trois configurations ou « contextes d'émergence » de ces constructions : l'habitat spontané « ancien », « pur » et « greffé ». Cette première configuration interroge la notion de patrimoine au sujet de constructions populaires remontant aux origines de l'urbanisation à Bangkok. L'habitat spontané pur tend en parallèle à former de véritables morceaux de ville attractifs et finement reliés à leur contexte urbain. Avec les greffes spontanées observées sur les immeubles sociaux de relogement, l'habitat spontané s'affirme comme un mode de construction viable et un outil de développement urbain. L'habitat spontané entraîne progressivement le repositionnement des acteurs de l'urbain, la mise en place de processus de projet alternatifs qui renouvellent la production courante du logement vers une construction urbaine partagée. / The importance of spontaneous construction raises some questions about the modalities of urban production, especially in developing countries. This thesis presents the case of Bangkok, where the "dense communities," besides the flexibility of their architecture, often crystallize a common site specific history. Rarely taken into account in the metropolis and victims of a negative image, they show, at a local and international level, a stimulating economic and associative dynamism and represent a major challenge in light of the concepts of sustainable development and the right to the city. Through a mainly spatial analysis, interviews and field observations, we approach spontaneous settlements as an incremental construction, result of a process of individual appropriation. We then analyze three configurations or "contexts of emergence" of these constructions: “ancient”, “pure” and "grafted". The first configuration questions the notion of heritage in relation to these popular constructions, dating back to the origins of Bangkok’s urbanization. At the same time, the pure spontaneous housing settlements tend to become real attractive city districts, finely linked to their urban context. With the added spontaneous grafts, which we observed on the social re-housing buildings, informal settlements become a viable way to build the city and a tool for urban development. Spontaneous housing leads progressively to a repositioning of urban actors, the implementation of alternative design processes, renewing the current models of housing production to a shared urban construction

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Identifying spatial and temporal patterns of disease occurrence by mapping the residential locations of affected people can provide information that informs response by public health practitioners and improves understanding in epidemiological research. A common method of locating patients at the individual level is geocoding residential addresses stored in electronic medical records (EMRs) using address matching procedures in a geographic information system (GIS). While the process of geocoding is becoming more common in public health studies, few researchers take the time to examine the effects of using different address databases on match rate and positional accuracy of the geocoded results. This research examined and compared accuracy and match rate resulting from four commonly-used geocoding databases applied to sample of 59,341 subjects residing in and around Marion County/ Indianapolis, IN. The results are intended to inform researchers on the benefits and downsides to their selection of a database to geocode patient addresses in EMRs.