Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Larry L. Lawhon / Affordable housing is an important component of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) because it provides lower income households the option to live an automobile-free lifestyle. A TOD, for this research, can be defined as a development located next to a transit line which provides small-scaled amenities and pedestrian activities. It also integrates a mix of uses, such as residential, retail, and public uses. This report focuses on the residential portion of TOD by identifying the importance of affordable housing in Transit-Oriented Development. In order to explore affordable housing in TOD, a case study was conducted of an existing TOD in the Denver metropolitan region. This TOD, known as the CityCenter Englewood TOD, is specifically located in Englewood, Colorado. This report explores the policy decisions that Englewood made when deciding not to integrate affordable housing provisions into the development. The affordable housing situation in Englewood is rather complicated. A review of census data suggests that affordable housing is needed in the community, while community officials state that Englewood is contextually affordable compared to the Denver metropolitan region. The conclusion of this report identifies the characteristics of the Englewood community that portray little tangible need for additional affordable housing units in the year 2010. However, according to the “Best Practices” Study of this report, other TOD communities do show various levels of tangible need for a mixed-income environment.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy D. Keane / Many small Midwestern towns established near a river thrived on industry and the transport of goods up and down the waterway. Unfortunately, industrial riverfronts that have acted as the heart of their communities have seen tremendous flux as time has progressed. In the past half century the economic activity of industrial riverfronts declined as more goods can be shipped via interstate highways and as factories are closed and relocated. These vacant factories leave behind contaminated brownfield sites which discourage reinvestment and promote greenfield development on a city’s periphery in agricultural lands. Citizens have turned their backs on a history and heritage from which the first cornerstones of their communities were laid. A void results as industry begins to fade from the riverfront and a town loses its connection to the river. Put simply, we have lost our riverfronts. The Riverfront Found Master Plan for Quincy, Illinois integrates the different uses of the riverfront, weaving together the existing industrial, recreational, and natural fabrics that line the Mississippi River. Design concepts strive to create a dynamic atmosphere to encourage a healthy lifestyle environment and destinations with year-round interest. Enjoyable and memorable experiences of Quincy’s riverfront encourage users to return as the negative community perceptions of the Mississippi River are reversed. Planning is inwardly focused to combat sprawl of the urban fabric. Decision-making remains sensitive to floodplain ecology and mindful of flood occurrence. Conservation is an important design response concerning riverfronts and requires understanding an intricate system regionally and locally. Education ties both conservation and site experience together as users remember how their city and culture are embedded in ecology. Three case studies identify key concepts to inform the project at later stages. A site inventory and analysis spanning three scales, regional, city, and site uncovers history and processes. The programming phase addresses proposed elements to address the concepts, ideas, and problems identified in previous steps. A final master plan presents the proposed program elements within context of the site to create a functional and dynamic riverfront for the citizens of Quincy.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / David R. Seamon / This thesis presents a redesign of Kansas City’s downtown Government District, making use of the conceptual approach provided by Responsive Environments (1985), a manual for urban design written by architects Ian Bentley and Alan Alcock, urban designers Sue McGlynn and Graham Smith, and landscape architect Paul Murrain. “Responsive environments” are those urban places, the physical settings of which maximize usability and social value by offering a wide range of day-to-day user choices within close proximity. The authors of Responsive Environments identify seven hierarchical qualities—permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, and personalization—that are said to be vital in creating responsive environments within the city. Through a literature review and critique, chapters 1 and 2 of the thesis overview Responsive Environments in terms of several major theorists of urban place making, including urban theorist Bill Hillier (1984), urban critic Jane Jacobs (1961), and urban designer William Whyte (1980). In turn, chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 investigate the practicability of Responsive Environments as an urban design approach by applying its three larger-scale qualities of permeability, variety, and legibility to the Government District, an existing urban area in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, presently underdeveloped in terms of environmental responsiveness and a strong sense of urban place. As a means to identify strengths and weaknesses of Responsive Environments, the last chapter of the thesis critiques the resulting Government District design. The thesis concludes that Responsive Environments is a valuable design approach that offers much for strengthening the quality of urban life and urban sustainability.

A case study is used to illustrate and assess the applicability of participatory democracy theory to public participation in public land decision-making. In this case, public outcry against a Bureau of Land Management acquisition plan resulted in adoption of a coordinated resource management process, an application of participatory democracy theory which is purported to improve public acceptance of administrative decisions by providing improved access and representation, information exchange and learning, continuity of participation, and shared decision-making authority. The study suggests that in order to satisfy the public, a participatory democracy approach to public participation should give participants tangible evidence that their input will influence agency decisions, preferably by giving them the authority to collectively make decisions that will be binding on all participants, including agencies. Furthermore, organizational and decision-making rules, as well as legal and bureaucratic limitations on the process, must be explicit.

Through this work a database and an ARCVIEW tutorial based on a Senegalese local community cartographic model is developed. The Ross-Bethio rural community model was selected as an example of solving methodological problems in natural resources management at the scale of a rural local community. The tutorial developed will also support Geographic Information Systems Instruction for natural resources management in Senegal using a local known database model. The process of solving the problems identified are based mostly on natural resources management concerns of the local community council and will help users to learn and understand the use of ARCVIEW GIS for spatial analysis. A solution is provided that will help the instructors to evaluate their results with these in this study. However, the tutorial is not a self-taught one for ARCVIEW GIS, but an instructional supervised one.

Landscape perception research has attempted to explain how people see and perceive landscapes, as well as, why people tend prefer some landscapes over others. An understanding of public perceptions and preferences is important for making appropriate decisions in the planning and management of our landscapes. Landscape perception research has focused on four major paradigms--expert, psychophysical, cognitive, and experiential--and has shown a wide variety of variables related to the landscape perceptions and preferences of the public. A comprehensive review of journal literature published over the last fifteen years revealed a total of 32 variables that, through empirical study, have been found to be important predictors of people's preferences for landscape. These important predictor variables are grouped into five categories and characterized to assist planners, landscape managers, and decision-makers in selecting appropriate variables for landscape assessment and evaluation. Recommendations for selecting predictor variables are provided.

During the decade of the 1980s, the health sector of the United States underwent major political reordering. This political transformation followed on the heels of economic changes both within the health sector itself and the United States economy as a whole. The research investigates changes in the pattern of structural arrangements within the individual states during the period 1981 through 1987, within the context of national economic and political events. The central thesis is that alterations in the structural arrangements governing health care, as well as other societal sectors, emerge as a consequence of divergence of material interests within and among key elites having an economic interest in the operation of the sector. This divergence is seen to produce a fragmenting of prior political relations, the formation of new political alliances, and an opening of the public policy agenda to proposals for structural changes. The resulting policy outputs are expected to legitimate structural arrangements which more fully accommodate the interests of cohesive elites at the expense of those elites whose material interests are internally divided. / Through a combination of quantitative cross sectional analysis of all fifty states and case studies of selected states, the research demonstrates the extent to which varying conditions of political fragmentation or cohesion exhibited among health and non-health elites has led to the adoption of policies conducive to the transformation of market relations. The particular focus is upon policies affecting market relations between providers and purchasers of acute care hospital services. The three policies examined are: certificate of need regulation, hospital rate setting regulation, and mandatory hospital financial disclosure. / The results support the study's theoretic model. Where the interests of health elites appear to remain cohesive there is a strong bias toward the retention of market relations based primarily upon regulation. Conversely, where health elite interests appear to have fragmented there is a strong thrust toward market relations based primarily upon competition. Political cohesion among non health elites pushes market relations toward control over the flow of resources into the health sector either via price regulation or price negotiation depending respectively, upon whether health elite interests are cohesive or fragmented. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4297. / Major Professor: Allen W. Imershein. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

A partir de 1970, o Estado (em maior grau, a instância Federal), até então, agente central na condução do processo de desenvolvimento territorial e urbano mato-grossense, inicia a ampliação das parcerias com os agentes privados neste processo. Ao longo das décadas seguintes, estes agentes privados passaram a assumir crescente protagonismo na articulação, formulação e condução das ações de planejamento em Mato Grosso - definindo uma rede de infraestrutura regional e urbana voltada, essencialmente, a produção e exportação de commodities. Nesta época, o Estado instituiu um conjunto de políticas territoriais que intensificaram o processo de urbanização, materializado, p.ex, nas quatro cidades planejadas que constituíram objeto inicial desta pesquisa - Alta Floresta, Matupá, Sapezal e Sinop-, polos urbanos dos microterritórios da atuação inicial dos agentes privados. O estudo das políticas territoriais, públicas e privadas implantadas em Mato Grosso, ao longo de quarenta anos, evidencia as principais transformações nas dimensões sociais, econômicas e ambientais. A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada privilegiou a análise do espaço por meio da articulação das suas diferentes escalas: regional, urbana e intraurbana. Foram examinados os impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais decorrentes da organização e transformação do espaço mato-grossense voltadas ao desenvolvimento da agroindústria, que o integrou economicamente ao território brasileiro. A pesquisa também mostra que o processo de promoção do desenvolvimento pelo Estado teve como contrapartida indissociável uma atuação proeminente da parte de agentes privados que organizaram, consolidaram e expandiram seus microterritórios em Mato Grosso, ou a partir de Mato Grosso, em redes técnicas e políticas. Demonstra-se, dessa forma, a existência de uma justaposição entre políticas territoriais públicas e privadas. O trabalho conclui que as intensas transformações nas estruturas regionais e urbanas de Mato Grosso, iniciadas com o processo de intervencionismo estatal dos anos de 1970, são resultado, principalmente, da atuação dos agentes privados que promovem a agroindústria, suplantando o protagonismo tradicionalmente atribuído ao Estado desenvolvimentista. Por outro lado, a magnitude dos problemas sociais e ambientais gerados por esse processo deixa clara a necessidade de um novo patamar de eficácia da ação estatal, não na promoção direta, mas priorizando à articulação entre iniciativas públicas e privadas. / Since 1970, the State (to a greater extent, the federal level), until then the central agent in conducting the territorial and urban development process in Mato Grosso State, starts the expansion of partnerships with the private agents in this process. At that time, the State instituted a set of territorial policies that intensified the urbanization process, materialized, for example, in the four planned cities that constituted the initial object of this investigation - Alta Floresta, Matupá, Sapezal and Sinop - urban centers of microterritories where these private agents act at first. Over the following decades, these private agents have assumed growing importance in the join, formulation and conduct of planning actions in Mato Grosso State, defining a network of regional and urban infrastructure, focused mainly on the production and exportation of commodities. The study of territorial policies, both public and private, implemented in Mato Grosso State over forty years, highlights the major changes in social, economic and environmental dimensions. The research methodology privileged the analysis of space through the articulation of its different scales: regional, urban and intra-urban. The socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the organization and transformation of mato-grossense space due to the development of agribusiness, which economically integrated this State with the territory of Brazil, were examined. The survey also shows that the process of promoting development by the State had its inseparable counterpart in the outstanding performance of the private agents who organized, consolidated and expanded their microterritories in Mato Grosso State, or from Mato Grosso State, into technical and political networks. It is demonstrated, therefore, that there is an overlap between public and private territorial policies. The research implies that the profound transformations in regional and urban structures of Mato Grosso State, which began with the process of State interventionism of the 1970s, are mainly a result of the actions of private agents that promote agribusiness, supplanting the leading role traditionally assigned to the State developmental. On the other hand, the magnitude of the social and environmental problems generated by this process makes clear the need for a new level of effectiveness of State action, prioritizing a better coordination between public and private initiatives.

A partir de 1970, o Estado (em maior grau, a instância Federal), até então, agente central na condução do processo de desenvolvimento territorial e urbano mato-grossense, inicia a ampliação das parcerias com os agentes privados neste processo. Ao longo das décadas seguintes, estes agentes privados passaram a assumir crescente protagonismo na articulação, formulação e condução das ações de planejamento em Mato Grosso - definindo uma rede de infraestrutura regional e urbana voltada, essencialmente, a produção e exportação de commodities. Nesta época, o Estado instituiu um conjunto de políticas territoriais que intensificaram o processo de urbanização, materializado, p.ex, nas quatro cidades planejadas que constituíram objeto inicial desta pesquisa - Alta Floresta, Matupá, Sapezal e Sinop-, polos urbanos dos microterritórios da atuação inicial dos agentes privados. O estudo das políticas territoriais, públicas e privadas implantadas em Mato Grosso, ao longo de quarenta anos, evidencia as principais transformações nas dimensões sociais, econômicas e ambientais. A metodologia de pesquisa utilizada privilegiou a análise do espaço por meio da articulação das suas diferentes escalas: regional, urbana e intraurbana. Foram examinados os impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais decorrentes da organização e transformação do espaço mato-grossense voltadas ao desenvolvimento da agroindústria, que o integrou economicamente ao território brasileiro. A pesquisa também mostra que o processo de promoção do desenvolvimento pelo Estado teve como contrapartida indissociável uma atuação proeminente da parte de agentes privados que organizaram, consolidaram e expandiram seus microterritórios em Mato Grosso, ou a partir de Mato Grosso, em redes técnicas e políticas. Demonstra-se, dessa forma, a existência de uma justaposição entre políticas territoriais públicas e privadas. O trabalho conclui que as intensas transformações nas estruturas regionais e urbanas de Mato Grosso, iniciadas com o processo de intervencionismo estatal dos anos de 1970, são resultado, principalmente, da atuação dos agentes privados que promovem a agroindústria, suplantando o protagonismo tradicionalmente atribuído ao Estado desenvolvimentista. Por outro lado, a magnitude dos problemas sociais e ambientais gerados por esse processo deixa clara a necessidade de um novo patamar de eficácia da ação estatal, não na promoção direta, mas priorizando à articulação entre iniciativas públicas e privadas. / Since 1970, the State (to a greater extent, the federal level), until then the central agent in conducting the territorial and urban development process in Mato Grosso State, starts the expansion of partnerships with the private agents in this process. At that time, the State instituted a set of territorial policies that intensified the urbanization process, materialized, for example, in the four planned cities that constituted the initial object of this investigation - Alta Floresta, Matupá, Sapezal and Sinop - urban centers of microterritories where these private agents act at first. Over the following decades, these private agents have assumed growing importance in the join, formulation and conduct of planning actions in Mato Grosso State, defining a network of regional and urban infrastructure, focused mainly on the production and exportation of commodities. The study of territorial policies, both public and private, implemented in Mato Grosso State over forty years, highlights the major changes in social, economic and environmental dimensions. The research methodology privileged the analysis of space through the articulation of its different scales: regional, urban and intra-urban. The socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the organization and transformation of mato-grossense space due to the development of agribusiness, which economically integrated this State with the territory of Brazil, were examined. The survey also shows that the process of promoting development by the State had its inseparable counterpart in the outstanding performance of the private agents who organized, consolidated and expanded their microterritories in Mato Grosso State, or from Mato Grosso State, into technical and political networks. It is demonstrated, therefore, that there is an overlap between public and private territorial policies. The research implies that the profound transformations in regional and urban structures of Mato Grosso State, which began with the process of State interventionism of the 1970s, are mainly a result of the actions of private agents that promote agribusiness, supplanting the leading role traditionally assigned to the State developmental. On the other hand, the magnitude of the social and environmental problems generated by this process makes clear the need for a new level of effectiveness of State action, prioritizing a better coordination between public and private initiatives.

O sons da cidade são objeto de reflexão recente. O final da década de 70 do século XXI é o período onde são identificadas obras fundadoras do estudo dos sons no e do espaço urbano na literatura vinculada às ciências sociais puras e aplicadas. Mesmo como objeto de reflexão recente e ainda pouco divulgado, os sons da cidade estão presentes em pesquisas, se não como foco central, como aspecto central da cidade e da vida na cidade. A presente dissertação propõe-se identificar a presença dos sons da cidade como temática de pesquisa no Planejamento Urbano e Regional (PUR) brasileiro através da busca de palavras-chave nos textos da área. São dois os momentos de análise: primeiro ao demarcar o alcance espaço temporal da pesquisa é lançado um olhar amplo ao PUR através do conjunto de trabalhos apresentados nas ultimas quatro edições dos encontros da ANPUR (X, XI, XII e XIII ENANPUR, ocorridos respectivamente nos anos 2003, 2005, 2007 e 2009) e das dissertações e teses defendidas no PROPUR/UFRGS desde a fundação do programa em 1970 até 2009. Em seqüência são tratados em profundidade os trabalhos apresentados no XIII ENANPUR (2009), evento onde se identificou a maior recorrência de palavras-chave com potencial associativo a temáticas sons da cidade. Esta análise permite inferir que os sons são tema cada vez mais freqüentes na área PUR, sendo que se destacam como formas de tratar os sons a apresentação destes como elementos constitutivos da experiência urbana, como práticas cotidianas, e como aspectos enunciados por serem apreendidos como um problema. / The sounds of the city are subject of recent discussion. The 70th decade of the XXI Century is the period where the founders works in the study of sounds and of urban space are identified in literature linked to the social sciences, both pure and applied. Even being object of recent reflection and still little known, the sounds of the city takes themselves present in researches, if not as a central focus, as a constituent aspect of the town and the life in this place. This dissertation aims to identify the presence of the city sounds as theme of research in the Brazilian field of Urban and Regional Planning thru keywords searching in the studies of this area. The moments of analysis were two: former, to demarcate the temporal scope, was launched a broad look at PUR covering both dissertations and theses presented in Post-Graduation Program on Urban and Regional Planning (PROPUR/UFRGS) from the foundation of this program in 1970 until 2009, and the set of papers presented in the last four editions of the meetings of National Association of Post-Graduation in Urban and Regional Planning - ANPUR (X, XI, XII and XIII ENANPUR, that occurred respectively in the years 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009).In sequence were treated in depth the papers presented at the XIII ENANPUR (2009), because the biggest recurrence of keywords with associative potential with the research theme named sounds of the city was identified in this event. This analysis allows us to infer that the sounds are increasingly frequent topic in the PUR area, being identified as ways of dealing with the sounds the presentation of them as a constitutive part of the urban experience, as everyday practices, and as a aspect that is enounce because is apprehended as a problem.