This research, denoted MILOS (Multi-objective Integrated Large-scale Optimized ramp metering System) is a hierarchical structure for solution of the large-scale freeway management problem to address the key features of this problem (dynamic state changes, stochasticity, multi-dimensionality, unpredictability, partial-observability, and existence of multiple objectives). MILOS decomposes the freeway control problem into subproblems along temporal/spatial boundaries and is composed of three primary components: SPC-based anomaly detection and optimization scheduling, area-wide coordination layer, and predictive-cooperative real-time (PC-RT) optimization layer. The area-wide coordination component of the hierarchical control system considers the impact of queue growth on the adjacent interchanges in a quadratic programming optimization model with a multi-criterion objective function. The formulation of the area-wide optimization problem is augmented with overflow variables to guarantee a feasible solution. The nominal solution of the areawide coordination problem is then modified in real-time by the locally traffic-reactive, PC-RT algorithm based on a linear-program using a linearized dynamic difference equation implementation of the macroscopic FREFLO model. The PC-RT formulation pro-actively plans to utilize opportunities to disperse queues or hold back additional vehicles when freeway and ramp demand conditions are appropriate. The cost coefficients of this optimization problem is linked to the solution of the area-wide coordination problem by using information on the dual of the solution to the area-wide coordination problem. The optimization runs of the area-wide coordination problem and the PC-RT optimization problems at each ramp are scheduled by a demand/flow monitoring system based on statistical process control. A simulation experiment is executed to evaluate the MILOS hierarchical system against "no control", ADOT's current ramp metering policy, and an area-wide LP optimization problem resolved in 5-minute intervals on a small freeway network in the metropolitan Phoenix, AZ area. Three test cases are presented for a short "burst" of heavy-volume flows to all ramps, a 3-hour commuting peak, and a 3-hour commuting peak with a 30-minute incident occurring in the middle of the network. The performance results indicate that MILOS is able to reduce freeway travel time, increase freeway average speed, and improve recovery performance of the system when flow conditions become congested.

Over the past 25 years, long-term trends in population and employment change for the US have been dramatically altered. At the regional level, areas like the Rocky Mountain West (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, and WY) have seen the century-long decline in nonmetropolitan population reversed to some degree. Scholars from across the US have proposed several broad theories to explain these shifts; however, researchers based in the RMW have argued that any general theory of growth and development must be adapted to take into account the region's unique geography and history. For example, population and employment change in RMW has been more volatile and extreme due to the region's reliance on extractive industries. The purpose of this dissertation is to present preliminary findings of an investigation of population and employment change in the RMW in general, and to test the claims of regional researchers on the processes behind these changes. The ideas of these researchers are embodied in the quality-of-life model, which claims that changing residential preferences, demographic changes, and economic restructuring will benefit areas like the nonmetropolitan RMW, an area rich in amenities. Using a wide variety of tools ranging from descriptive statistics, to classification techniques, to multivariate regression models, this research measures how factors theorized to be associated with growth have increased (decreased) in importance over the 25 year span of this study. The results show that regionally-based ideas on growth have a place in helping scholars understand regional growth processes in a more reliable manner. More importantly, there is significant support for the quality-of-life model, especially the role of service industries and environmental amenities in driving regional growth. Answers to these questions will help scholars understand the extent to which national events are being restructured in regional contexts. Additionally, until these ideas are fully tested and shown to explain some of the events and underlying processes driving population and employment growth in the RMW, long-term policies designed to help plan for the continued growth of the region may be misguided and wasteful.

This dissertation uses the urban regime theory to study the influence of bi-national public-private coalitions over the land development patterns of the US/Mexico border cities. In the El Paso del Norte region, the development of the bi-national land market has been contingent on the presence of land investors with local roots and on the concentration of urban land in a few investors. In this region, local groups become dominant and influential by accumulating land properties. On the Mexican Paso del Norte, there are two types of partisan public-private coalitions influencing the process of land development. On the US Paso del Norte, the limited vacant land to promote large urban projects in Texas has consolidated the emergence of a dominant public-private coalition in Sundland Park, New Mexico. Evidences in this dissertation show that bi-national cooperation is not attainable by the majority of local public and private actors. However, the San Geronimo - Santa Teresa case study shows that public-private cooperation among the most powerful local landholders has transcended national political boundaries to promote industrial development. Bi-national urban regimes exhibit the informal integration of various scales of governments and local urban regimes to produce simultaneous outcomes from policies implemented in two different and contiguous land markets. In the El Paso del Norte region, the economic and political inter-dependency of the Mexican and American urban contexts has created the conditions to move urban regime theory into a more global scope in explaining the processes of transboundary public-private cooperation and policy elaboration.

Conservation partnerships are working throughout the United States to address natural resource problems in watersheds. These projects have levels of complexity that challenge successful accomplishments. This study investigates what constitutes success in watershed partnerships and what measures may define success. Characteristics are identified from a literature search to create a success model. Characteristics of three partnerships led by the U. S. D. A. Natural Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Districts, and Resource Conservation and Development councils are compared to the model. Analyses address frequencies of occurrence of characteristics and differences between public and private responses. The results do not support the success model. Eight common characteristics of success are found in the case studies. Six of these characteristics are of a qualitative nature indicating a need to include qualitative measures with quantitative measures of success. The development of an effective guide for successful conservation partnerships is based on the eight characteristics.

This thesis reviews the case of Plan 6 cost-sharing to explore the nature of policy reform and the political factors which can hinder or coax change. Plan 6 comprises regulatory storage components of the Central Arizona Project and dam safety components of the Salt River Project in Arizona. Arizona entities responded to the cost-sharing reform movement by developing an agreement reflecting increased an "up-front" local contributions to Plan 6 and CAP construction. The Plan 6 case is analyzed by linking observed political responses to proposed reform with operative policy arenas. Shifts within or between arenas indicate a degree of policy incrementalism or innovation, respectively. The analysis found a coincidence of moderate levels of innovation and strong incrementalism. The strength of a traditional water development network and the absence of direct in put from reformers at critical points in the agreement development were primary factors hindering full reform.

In some cases, preservation priorities and recommendations are based on specific vegetation communities. One example is Fremont Cottonwood-Goodding Willow forests within Pima County, Arizona, which are regarded as critical habitat and protected by the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. However, a prioritized system based on conditions within Fremont Cottonwood-Goodding Willow patches may afford greater flexibility to land managers, including selective or incremental preservation, which could accommodate funding challenges. This investigation assessed patches in three watercourses within Tucson, Arizona, and addressed the following questions: Are Fremont Cottonwood-Goodding Willow patches exhibiting characteristics related to vigor or decline? Are there significant relationships between patch vigor and channel variables? On-site assessment addressed Fremont Cottonwood-Goodding Willow patch characteristics and channel variables. Significant relationships were found between vigor and proximity of primary flow, channel width, and bank treatment. Vigor results were employed to develop recommendations designed to facilitate preservation decisions.

<p> This study seeks to understand the larger cultural context that gave rise to what is referred to as "non-design," a term designated to denote a particular aesthetic that is characterized by a suspicion of, and/or rejection of, "conscious" design, while embracing various phenomenon that emerge without "intention" or "deliberate human design." The study traces the phenomenon of "non-design" in British and American design culture of the postwar period. The author argues that following Friedrich von Hayek's theories of the "undesigned" nature of social institutions and his concept of a "spontaneous order" of the 1940s, non-design first emerged in design discourse and practice in the early 1950s in England, particularly in the work of certain members of the Independent Group, and by the mid-1960s it gained currency in the United States in the architectural and urban theories of Charles Moore, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, and particularly in Reyner Banham's writing on American urbanism. While rarely made explicit, this dissertation argues that the concept of non-design played an important role in design and urban debates of the postwar period.</p>

<p> The municipal and public officials in Beaufort/Jasper, South Carolina (SC) and Effingham/Chatham, Georgia (GA) counties in the lower Savannah River Basin (LSRB) are faced with a dilemma of supplying potable water on an equitable basis to their communities from the surface and groundwater that has been partially polluted and/or is not sustainable. State regulatory agencies have implemented strategies to protect the regional water resources from further degradation of ecosystems, but these remedies are not addressing a crucial issue. The potable water issue is more critical than simply affecting to protect the local ecosystem. Hence, the thesis question is: </p><p> <b>Can current strategies, by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) and the Georgia Environmental Division (GAEPD), secure potable water sources from the lower Savannah River Basin in the region, potentially provide effective, efficient, and equitable results? </b> </p><p> Economic development and demographic changes have equally impacted the surface and groundwater. Groundwater was the primary source of potable water in predevelopment (prior to industrial revolution) and even post development era, but gradually became unsustainable. The alternative surface water source has also been polluted by the industrial and domestic wastewater treatment plant discharges. Surface water contains natural organic compounds, and even that has been overwhelmed by the added pollutants in wastewater treatment plant effluent. This has further increased formation of potential carcinogenic disinfection and disinfection byproducts in potable water. The carcinogen removal process has become expensive, but the potential risk for contamination remains problematic. </p><p> To answer the research question, interviews and surveys were conducted. The population for this research consists of municipal and public officials and water treatment professionals. The samples were selected due to their expertise and responsibility to supply safe drinking water to their communities. Collected data analyzed using Microsfot Excel to arrange in matrixes, and explained in simple narratives. The results were summarized and recommendations were made. </p><p> Most of the subjects agreed that water resources are not sustainable at current usage rate in the region. Groundwater is not sustainable and surface water quality has deteriorated due to organic pollutants in the industrial and domestic wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. The cost of producing safe drinking water from partially or potentially polluted surface water is higher than the cost of processing groundwater. The cost of desalination of seawater or brackish well water is even higher than ground or surface water treatment. </p><p> Seawater desalination is not a cost effective option now. However, conflicting interests regarding the switch over to seawater desalination as long as surface water treatment operating cost remains lower than the seawater desalination, surface water will remain a sustainable source. </p><p> Although seawater desalination is a more sustainable strategy to produce potable water in the Low Country Region. Surface water treatment is less expensive and in turn, local professionals view it as the best option. This I believe is a limited short term viewpoint, which does not address longterm sustainability issues. Efforts regulatory agencies and utilities, to produce safe drinking water from surface water will continue in the Lower Savannah River Basin (LSRB). </p>

<p> Urban Agriculture (UA) is addressing problems associated with the degradation of human and environmental health. Organizations whose missions include offering programs and services which support local UA activities are essential for fostering community awareness and garnering participation. This study attempts to discover how the Savannah Urban Garden Alliance and the Forsyth Farmers Market are fostering awareness of UA in Savannah. Secondly, to identify obstacles which hinder these organizations from effectively carrying out their missions. Lastly to provide a tool box for planning purposes which will encourage the necessary involvement of municipal and institutional leadership. </p>

<p> With the rise of the importance of air transportation in the 21st centuries, the role of economics in airport planning and decision-making has become more important to the urban structure and land value around it. The relationship between the airport and land value in urban areas has attracted more attention from academic researchers. However, there has been little research on the factors that affect the prices of land relatively to the airport location. </p><p> Using New Bangkok International Airport (Suvarnabhumi International Airport) as a case study, this dissertation applied Alonso's bid rent model explaining the relationship between an airport and its distribution to the urban land values. In addition, it developed a hedonic pricing model to determine the influential factors that reflect on the prices of land over four time periods of airport development (before airport development, after the airport site proposed, during airport construction, and after the opening of the airport). </p><p> The statistical analysis results confirm that Alonso's model can be used to explain the impact of the new airport only for the northeast quadrant, while proximity to the airport showed the inverse relationship with the land value of all six types of land use activities through four periods of time. In addition, the empirical results of the hedonic model confirm that the presence of the airport consistently affected land value for all types of land use activities for three quadrants (northwest, northeast, and southwest). The distance to the Bangkok CBD has a strong relationship to the land values through four time periods for the northwest quadrant. Also, the distance to transportation networks, such as main streets and Bang-Na Trad highway, became important factors affecting urban land value for all four quadrants through four periods of time. </p><p> The findings of this dissertation are not only useful for an understanding the impacts of the airport on urban land value in Thailand, but also valuable to regional and urban development for real estate developers, policy makers, and the Thai government to provide an appropriate plan for future developments in the airport area. Furthermore, the analytical methods and the empirical results of this dissertation can be applied to estimate the impacts of other public projects, such as subway stations, airport-link terminal, sport stadium, and marinas, on the urban land value.</p>