People who live in cities are far more likely to suffer the physical and psychological effects of urban environments--high noise levels, automobile emissions, toxic industrial waste, crowded living conditions, and a general scarcity of open space. Combating these issues, public parks do more than provide recreational space. They are fundamental to any efforts focusing on urban revitalization, social justice, and sustainability. In downtown Los Angeles, public parks are rare, especially in low-income communities. Several new public parks have reclaimed abandoned land, unwelcoming spaces, and the City’s brownfields. After years of intense private use and neglect, spent land has been reinvigorated as green communal space. This study focuses on Vista Hermosa Natural Park, Grand Park, and Los Angeles State Historic Park. It combines previous research with site visits and interviews that explore the degree of success these recent reclamation movements have experienced and if there are any lessons learned than can be applied elsewhere. My conclusion is that the reclamation movement in Los Angeles is largely successful, especially when parks feature multiple benefits such as ecological restoration, recreational enhancement, and cultural engagement. But the less community involvement and public accessibility any reclaimed park has, the less success a park will have in alleviating spatial injustice.

The urban landscape reflects the social, economic, and policy changes that have taken place in a community. The inner city has been previosly called a microcosm that indicates the changes that are occurring in society. The inner city can thus be studied to examine how it responds and adapts to economic change. This thesis asks in what ways are the historic and current economic transitions visible in Hamilton’s inner city landscape; and how do planning policies influence the emerging urban built form. The thesis examines select characteristics of the contemporary inner city derived from the literature (i.e. art and entertainment amenitites, recreational uses, residential revitalization, institutional uses, post-Fordist economy, decline in manufacturing activity, promotion of multi-modal transportation, sustainability policy, and statement place making) and their expected physical manifestations. The methods consist of a historical analysis and visual diagnosis that uses photographs and field notes in order to provide a bottom-up interpretation of downtown Hamilton’s changing urban landscape. There is evidence of arts-culture led rejuvenation of downtown Hamilton and the public realm. However, there is the challenge of promoting revitalization in a context of visual urban blight and the possibilities of policy-induced loss of employment lands.

This narrative inquiry uses the talking circle, a discourse process indigenous to the North American prairies, to explore the experiences of recent international migrants to rural Alberta. The immediate intention is to address questions of rural revitalization and the creation of welcoming communities. At a deeper level, it explores the role of history, cultural negotiation, and power relations in community development. It examines place as a critical element of human experience, which has been severed under modern economic regimes. Recommendations for how we might best respond to rural migration challenges include processes for listening and responding to needs, for building trustworthy relationships, and a call to recognize Aboriginal history. Findings also point to the importance of facilitating options for migrants with temporary status in a transient global context. The study advises that learning through attentive intercultural discourse could be integral to recreating democratic communities and establishing sense of place. / Adult Education

This dissertation compares and contrasts aboriginal language planning within Canada at both the national and local scale. In 2005, the Aboriginal Languages Task Force released their foundational report which entailed “a national strategy to preserve, revitalize, and promote [Aboriginal] languages and cultures” (2005:1); however, discrepancies exist between their proposed strategies and the strategies employed locally by the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, located in Atlin, British Columbia, and the Loon River Cree First Nation, located in Loon Lake, Alberta. Using data collected during ethnographic fieldwork with each First Nation between 2005 and 2008, I provide a rationale for these discrepancies and propose reasons why the national strategy has, as of 2008, been unsuccessful. Both national and local strategies have focused on the relationship between land and language and its role in language planning. National language planning rhetoric has also utilized the concept of nationhood. However, both the Taku River Tlingit and the Loon River Cree use the concept of nationhood in conjunction with assertions of sovereignty over land and, therefore, situate their language planning within land planning. Throughout my research, I have been involved in volunteer language projects for each of the communities. These have included creating a Tlingit language board game entitled “Haa shagóon ítxh yaa ntoo.aat” (Traveling Our Ancestors’ Paths) and Cree language storybooks entitled Na mokatch nika poni âchimon (I will never quit telling stories). Both of these projects connect land use and language use and can be seen as part of local language planning strategies. Finally, the Aboriginal Languages Task Force uses the concept of “language as a right” within their national language planning strategies; however, the Taku River Tlingit and the Loon River Cree have instead utilized a “language as resource” ideology (Ruiz, 1984). I argue that the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the Loon River Cree First Nation use “language as a resource” rhetoric due to their ideologies of land stewardship over Euro-Canadian models of land ownership and I argue that language planning can not stand on its own – separated from the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural considerations that a community faces.

abstract: A right to the city is a human right that is overlooked in American cities. Cities reflect humanity in collective form, but are manipulated by the powerful at the expense of the powerless. Landscapes of cities tell the city's stories, as historical inequalities become imprinted on the city's physical and symbolic landscapes. In Detroit, Michigan, over forty square miles of the city are vacant, unemployment might be as high as fifty percent, and the city has lost about sixty percent of its population since the mid-1950s. Detroit must now solve its spatial problems in the context of depopulation; the city's planners, nonprofits, and scholars are now debating "planned shrinking" or "right-sizing." Simultaneously, a blooming arts scene is also slowly revitalizing parts of the city. This thesis will critically examine the possibilities of planned shrinking and the arts movement in Detroit, as well as suggest theoretical explanations for the city's dilemmas. Detroit has been the subject of a myopic popular narrative, one that isolates the city from modern America rather than critically examines its place in modern America. Redefining regional healing through honest discourse and developing a more appropriate narrative for Detroit are among the solutions proposed. Finally, the importance of establishing a human right for the city is discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Social Justice and Human Rights 2011

In my diploma thesis I reviewed the results of the collection of makrozoobentos and water chemistry on three streams, which are located on the right bank of the Lipno dam. This is a Bukový, Horský and Mlýnský stream. On these streams I watch a chemical properties of conductivity, pH and alkalinity. Of the biological i wathc diversity of each group of makrozoobentos and their abundance. I then compared the results with the values from the previous years, and assessed the gradual development of these aquatic communities.

Diploma thesis "Proposals of new possibilities of use of selected brownfield locality" is devided in two parts. In literature search, there are defined brownfield term and other related terms. Then there is the categorization of brownfileds, problems accompanying brownfileds, anchoring in urban planning documents, solutions of brownfields and funding possibilities. The practical part describes the selected area of military brownfiled. It analyzes its historical use, current condition and causes of creation of brownfield. There are designed variants of the new usage possibilities, funding possibilities of these variants and selection of the most suitable variant. It also includes a comparison with other realized designs.

The aim of this thesis is to prepare a design for the revitalization measures of Biřkovský stream including a design for polders "Karlovka and Niva". The designed measures should protect the village Biřkov from flash floods and enhance further increase of both water management and ecological stability of the basin. The solution is based on the assessment of hydrological, pedological, hydrogeological and vegetation docementation as well as the results of a detailed field survey of the area which is also reported in this thesis.

O trabalho dedica-se à temática da intervenção através de projetos desenvolvidos a partir de preexistências e relacionados à apropriação de espaços abandonados: vazios urbanos. Abordam-se questões relacionadas à paisagem urbana e à inserção de edifícios icônicos como estratégias de requalificação e potencialização de contextos existentes, agregando novos programas e complexidades. Aos fragmentos teóricos acerca do tema, sobrepõe-se o desafio de estudar as dinâmicas da cidade contemporânea e os confrontamentos e sobreposições entre concepções de cidade moderna e tradicional. Entre as obras relevantes ao estudo, foram selecionados três projetos do escritório paulista Brasil Arquitetura e três projetos do escritório suíço Herzog & de Meuron para compor os contextos nacionais e internacionais respectivamente. Os estudos de caso são contextualizados por um panorama de obras a fim de ressaltar a importância e a pertinência do tema. Propõe-se uma aproximação entre os projetos selecionados considerando a interação destes com a identidade histórica e a memória urbana, evidenciando-se o conceito de lugar. A pesquisa sugere o reconhecimento da arquitetura como ferramenta de intervenção no existente, sem, entretanto, analisar critérios e procedimentos intervencionistas. Assim, investiga-se as relações entre teoria e a prática projetual considerando-se a produção recente e novos conceitos propostos pela sobreposição de camadas do construído. / This study comprises the theme of intervention through projects developed based on preexistences and associated with the appropriation of abandoned spaces: urban voids. It deals with issues related to urban landscape and to the incorporation of iconic buildings as strategies of requalification and potentiality of existing contexts, adding new programs and complexities. To the theoretical fragments regarding the theme, it is added the challenge of studying contemporary city dynamics and the confrontations and overlappings between modern and traditional city concepts. Among the pertinent works to this study, three projects from the São Paulo-based office, Brasil Arquitetura, and three projects from the Swiss-based office, Herzog & de Meuron, were selected to compose the national and international contexts, respectively. The case studies are contextualized by a panorama of works in order to highlight the importance and relevance of the subject. It is proposed an approach between the projects selected taking into account their interaction with the historical identity and the urban memory, evidencing the concept of place. This study suggests the acknowledgment of architecture as a tool of intervention on the existing context without, however, analyzing interventionist criteria and procedures. Therefore, it investigates the relationship between theory and design practice considering the recent architectural production and new concepts proposed by superposition of layers of built.

A temática abordada na pesquisa trata dos problemas associados aos rios urbanos, onde a degradação ambiental ocasionada pelo desenvolvimento das cidades afeta a qualidade das águas e do espaço urbano. No Brasil, a maioria dos rios e arroios urbanos é utilizada como parte integrante da rede de coleta de esgoto sanitário e, por isso, são frequentemente canalizados. A situação se agrava nas áreas de ocupação espontânea a beira de mananciais e cursos d’água. Nesses locais a inexistência ou precariedade da infraestrutura de drenagem e saneamento básico colaboram para o aumento da frequência de inundações que causam danos ambientais e sociais a cidade. No entanto, a revitalização de rios urbanos é uma ação adotada a fim de reverter os impactos negativos gerados pelos usos indevidos dos corredores fluviais. O estudo tem como objetivo contribuir no entendimento de aspectos associados a gestão pública, infraestrutura, estrutura, uso e estética na revitalização de arroios em áreas de ocupação espontânea. A Microbacia do Arroio Riacho Doce, integrante da Bacia Hidrográfica do Arroio Dilúvio, em Porto Alegre, foi escolhida como área de estudo. A metodologia utilizada no trabalho, fundamentada na área de estudos de Ambiente-Comportamento, busca avaliar as atitudes e comportamentos diante das características físico-espaciais percebidas pelos habitantes da bacia. O uso de maquetes e simulações gráficas foi adotado a fim de facilitar o entendimento da população inquirida a respeito das avaliações propostas pela pesquisa. Os principais resultados obtidos revelam que embora os arroios da Vila Pinto apresentem uma situação grave de degradação ambiental associada a uma aparência negativa, os moradores desejam a revitalização dos corredores fluviais da Microbacia Riacho Doce. Indica-se, além da despoluição de seus arroios e a provisão de infraestrutura urbana de saneamento e drenagem: a provisão de usos de lazer diversificados em sua orla; a implantação de trilhas e ciclovias visando a priorização da circulação de pessoas e ciclistas em relação a circulação de veículos; a distribuição de vegetação na orla de forma que favoreça a criação de zonas de contato com a água, áreas sombreadas e ensolaradas, promovendo o uso sazonal e a estética da paisagem fluvial. / River environmental degradation related to water quality and urban area due to the uncontrolled city’s development is discussed in this work. In Brazil, most urban rivers and streams are piped due to the usage as a part of the sewage system. This scenario worsen when there is irregular occupations around water supply sources. Moreover, the absence of water and sewer drainage and services increases inundation numbers harming cities environmentally and socially. However, river revitalization is an action performed with the purpose to repair negative impacts of undue usage of river corridors. Thus, this study aimed to contribute in the knowledge of subjects related to public management, infrastructure, structure, usage, and aesthetics in stream revitalization of irregular occupation areas. It was chosen the Riacho Doce micro watershed as the studied area, part of Arroio Dilúvio watershed, at Porto Alegre. The methodology used in this work is based on the Environment-Behavior area of study, and it aimed to evaluate attitudes and behaviors of inhabitants from this micro watershed over physical-spatial characteristics. It was used models and draws simulations to facilitate the understanding for the enquired population around the proposed evaluations in this work. Results revealed that inhabitants desires the revitalization of river corridors even that streams from Vila Pinto has a severe environmental degradation linked to a negative appearance. Analysis of inhabitant’s environmental perception showed that stream remediation and infrastructure provision are recommended as well as other important actions. Thus, the supply of leisure spaces around the waterfront, construction of trails for pedestrians and bicycle riders apart from roads, build a contact zones with water in green area, construction of shadow areas with different degrees of sun incidence are some actions strongly recommended to promote seasonal usage and river landscape aesthetic in the studied region.