Puerto Penasco is a small Mexican town (pop. 26,141) located on the Sonora coast 65 miles from the U.S. border at Lukeville, Arizona. In recent years, over-fishing in the Gulf of California has resulted in a sharp decline in Puerto Penasco's fishing industry. Tourism is an economic alternative which holds potential for revitalizing the local economy, if planning and design for tourism is carefully conceived and executed. Review of international tourism and examination of economic, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts of tourism indicate that traditional forms of large-scale mass tourism may not be appropriate for Puerto Penasco. An alternative, integrated form of tourism is proposed for Puerto Penasco that respects local landscapes as well as local culture and heritage. Revitalization of the historic Old Town and the Harbor areas is proposed to attract tourists to existing urban areas while preserving natural open space along the coast.

The public has a legislated right to access government data. Unfortunately, government data is often hard to acquire and difficult to analyze. Many governmental institutions have implemented geographic information systems (GIS) to solve these problems. Neighborhood associations serve as a conduit between local residents and public decision makers and are a primary public user of government data. These groups can benefit from access to spatial and tabular data maintained within publicly funded government GISs. Unfortunately, little direct public access to data maintained in these GISs is available and virtually no neighborhood association has the financial or technical capabilities to purchase GIS software and acquire the data themselves. This study analyzed the spatial data needs of four neighborhood associations in the Tucson community (Balboa Heights, Corbett, Flecha Caida, and Keeling), developed a public access system prototype, and tested it with members of the neighborhood associations.

The Eastern Cape of South Africa has throughout the colonial and apartheid period been a geographic zone of contestation and resistance. The struggle for freedom in this country emanated from this region with perhaps the most famous of its sons being Nelson Mandela. The Xhosa people have a rich tradition and culture, whose existence has for centuries been nurtured in the rural regions of the Eastern Cape. With the advent of modernisation and more specifically urbanisation, two distinct systems of land use management and land delivery have evolved. One based on the prescripts of modernism and the other on the prescripts of traditional Xhosa culture. The two are very distinct and opposite. The South African Constitution, (1996) mandates especially those officials in government to pursue policy and courses of action that will promote unity, respect and embrace diversity and transform South African society into one that fosters equality and social justice. This too is a Constitution that is not only built on rights and freedoms, but is also one built on human integrity and dignity. It embraces the concept of âUbuntuâ: âI am because you areâ. This ethos has an important role to play in the transformation agenda of which spatial planning as an activity of governance is a fundamental part. The modern counterpart, largely inherited from the Eurocentric north has enjoyed a measure of dominance and at this current point in time looks set to overshadow the rural Afrocentric domain which is the home of Xhosa culture and its people. This intersection of the two different systems and the inherent values that support each is creating a new space for contestation, or is it? This zone of contestation could also be regarded as a zone of eclecticism in which it is possible to construct a new approach to land use management by embracing not only culture, but also complexity theory and the current status of the evolution of planning theory, which focusses on the concept of collaboration. Such collaboration embraces the concepts of facilitation, negotiation, conflict management and learning. The complexity however deepens in that the Eastern Cape Provincial Spatial Development Plan (2010) has identified climate change and the sustainable agenda as being critical issues demanding attention going forward. Since the communal rural areas cover almost half of this Province it becomes absolutely critical that any new system must add value to the aims and objects of the sustainable agenda. It is also under this banner that the provision (quality and quantity) of certain natural services e.g. water and air become focal issues. Without these, existence ceases. The rural zone is the source of much of these. Here to success will depend on nurturing an ability to learn. In the light of the above the rural areas take on significant importance and hence new meaning. Not only are these rural zones inhabited by a specific culture, they are also zones upon which the urban zone depends. This interdependency must grow and as this happens there is an ever increasing need to integrate. Within the context of the above it becomes critical to engage in the collaborative and learning agendas in order to realise a land use and resource management system that respects diversity and its role in the sustainable paradigm. Spatial planning needs to embrace the dominant ethos of the rural zone and hence refrain from using a position of imposition i.e. creating conflict. It needs to embrace its own transformation and develop a more sensitive regulatory system that is born out of Africa, using African realities and a vision that has been developed by Africans for Africans. The rural zone must on an equal footing inform the urban. âI am because you areâ.

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In the context of central place theory, this study develops a hierarchical city-size distribution model and clarifies underlying mechanisms whereby two systematic forces of economic maturity and the population multiplier factor lead to different types of city-size distributions. / For this purpose, this study re-examines the structure of multi-industry equilibrium in the Loschian location model for two equilibrium market shapes: hexagons and squares. Under the assumptions of linear demand and cost functions and assuming relocation costs and sequential entry, it is demonstrated that multi-industry equilibrium can result in densest packing equilibrium configuration as well as non-densest packing equilibrium configuration. / Based on the analysis of multi-industry equilibrium, this study develops a hierarchical city-size distribution model and demonstrates that the square densest packing central place system approximates the rank-size distribution, if the population multiplier factor is very small. Also, it is shown that the non-densest packing central place system and a high value of the population multiplier factor give rise to the primate distribution. / An empirical test is conducted for 122 sample countries which include developed as well as developing countries. The empirical test for the hypotheses indicates robust results against alternative functional specifications and employment of other control variables, when economic maturity and the population multiplier factor co-exist in the regression model. / These findings lead to welfare arguments that the rank-size distribution may be an optimal city-size distribution, while the primate-distribution may be sub-optimal or optimal city-size distributions depending upon the two parameter values. / The analysis provides important policy implications that the rank-size distribution can be an organization principle of city systems planning, when the population multiplier factor of the countries is very small. Meanwhile, it is argued that attempts to develop urbanization policies based on the rank-size rule for the countries with a high value of the population multiplier factor may misallocate resources. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-07, Section: A, page: 2762. / Major Professor: Peter L. Doan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This study aims to investigate the economic and social changes that occur in rural communities in Thailand, primarily as a result of government development projects. Employing the social system approach, this research concentrates on the structural changes that occur within communities, focusing on the two interrelated processes of differentiation and integration. Differentiation is the diversification of functions and specializations in the community economic and social spheres, whereas integration is the mechanism that combines these parts of the community together. Both processes are observable through the presence of institutionalized patterns in the community. Differentiation is hypothesized to relate to population size and to the linkages of the community with the outside world, or vertical ties, which are made mainly through government intervention, commericalization, and the presence of transportation and communication systems. Nine elements comprise the vertical ties: number of trip destinations, accessibility of the village from the district and the provincial seats, benefits from irrigation projects, transportation and communication facilities, frequency of government officials' visits, sales calls, mail service, and the presence of supplementary programs. It is hypothesized that as the community becomes increasingly differentiated, informal social integration will decrease while formal social integration increases. / The research was conducted in 100 villages in two provinces--Ayudhya and Suphan Buri--in the Central Region. Scalogram analysis is employed to investigate the patterns of structural change. Crosstabulation, Pearson correlation, and partial correlation analyses are employed to test the relationships between differentiation, integration, and related factors. / The findings in the study indicate that (1) there are empirical patterns of structural changes in the rural communities; (2) the levels of differentiation in these communities are relatively low; (3) population size, number of trip destinations, and transportation and communication facilities are most likely to be accountable for these changes; (4) all the related factors tend to generate economic differentiation, rather than social differentiation; and (5) social differentiation tends to generate greater formal social integration but does not lower informal social integration. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-02, Section: A, page: 0666. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The electric utility industry has expressed some reservations about possible widespread utilization of solar technologies exacerbating the peak demand for electricity. This research has examined three decentralized solar technologies (solar water heating, solar space heating, and solar air conditioning) in terms of a potential supply of solar radiation that could be interfaced with an energy demand that can be imposed by heating and cooling requirements. Additionally, present and future load characteristics of most Florida utility companies indicate the industry, in general, will reach peak-demand capacity during the winter season. This is the period in which the solar space heating system could impose a high capacity demand, and, at the same time, require a significant reduction in kilowatt hours. Accordingly, electric utility companies could attempt to recoup the cost to serve solar customers through a rate schedule that thwarts the introduction of solar systems in Florida. However, advanced research and experiments could minimize the potential negative impact of solar systems if utility companies and the state support the development of solar systems that consider the relative demand for electric energy, the operating characteristics of the respective utility, and the regional solar radiation values. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 1250. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

A description study of three competing Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) was carried out in Rochester, New York to investigate the relationship between utilization review and hospital utilization rates. / The three HMOs were: (1) Health Watch (HW), a foundation-type plan sponsored by the Monroe County Medical Society, (2) Genesee Valley Group Health Association (GVGHA or Group Health), a centralized prepaid group practice model HMO sponsored by Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rochester, and (3) Rochester Health Network (RHN), a decentralized group model HMO which had been a series of neighborhood health centers sponsored by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). / The study design accounts for all major alternative explanations for differing hospitalization rates including: age and sex distribution of the enrollees, geographic region, hospital bed supply, physician/population ratios, income, education, availability of alternatives to hospitalization, case mix, service intensity, adverse selection, scope of package benefits, out-of-plan hospital utilization, length of time in operation and financial risk of the physician. / Utilization review was seen as consisting of the utilization review procedures (prospective, concurrent and retrospective) as well as interaction and communication factors which potentiate the effect of the procedures. Interaction factors include those factors which increase the opportunity for plan physicians to interact with one another such as the number of practice sites. Communication factors include those factors which inform the plan physicians about the impact of their utilization decisions such as the type, specificity and frequency of utilization data available to the physician. / Hospital utilization rates, are considered in the aggregate, and for medical and surgical services, by plan. Rates are also considered in their component parts--hospital admissions and average length of stay. / The major finding is that as stringency of utilization review increases, the hospital utilization rate decreases. This relationship holds for all of the years (1974, 1975, and 1976) studied. In addition it was found that the most stringent utilization review are found in group model HMOs and the least stringent in foundation or IPA model plan. / When looked at in more detail, it was found that the more stringent the prospective utilization review procedures, the lower the hospital admission rates. More specifically, the more stringent the surgical prospective utilization review procedures, the lower the surgical admission rates. It had been expected that more stringent concurrent utilization review would be related to lower average lengths of stay, however this relationship was not found. / The study concludes that peer interaction and data feedback are important components of utilization review programs. Medical leadership appears to be important to the development of peer-interaction and the cost-effective orientation of physicians. / The study is important because before the experience of existing HMOs can be generalized, there must be a clear understanding of the way the physician's utilization decision can be brought into line with the objectives of the HMO. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-06, Section: A, page: 2902. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-09, Section: A, page: 5219. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-08, Section: A, page: 5598. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.