Religion is a part of man and his culture. We cannot understand the totality of man if we do not understand his religion. The church structure is the visible expression of man's religion. The purpose of this study is to describe the distribution of churches in Warren County, Kentucky, and to examine the factors that contribute to this areal pattern. In an attempt to further clarify this human-religious expression the following points will be considered: (1) the reasons for denominational change through time; (2) the association of church location and population with corresponding rural -urban shifts; and (3) the style of church architecture as a response to local community need. A familiar pattern of settlement in the United States is the rural to urban migration of population that has been in effect since the beginning of the twentieth century. This migration has brought a change in the rural landscape. The further one goes from an urban center the less dense the population. Homes have been deserted and left to fall down; villages contain vacant stores and buildings. One would expect a corresponding pattern within the rural churches. However, there has not been a reduction of rural churches, while at the same time there has been a dynamic growth in the urban center. The reasons for this phenomena will be examined and discussed.

Public health is an increasingly important issue addressed from both environmental and public health sectors for the future development of urban environments. From a planning perspective, one possible solution is to increase walkability throughout the cities. Many assessment methods are being developed and administered to evaluate the quality of existing urban environments to promote walkable cities/communities. The results from using these methods provide policymakers and stakeholders with valuable information regarding the existing physical conditions of the environment. Although several US cities started to develop and refocus plans toward pedestrian-oriented policies approaches, results from this particular study determined that the quality of pedestrian environments cannot solely be determined by using available assessment tools and recommend additional analytical methods used in conjunction with source data to provide a complete perspective to successfully increase the quality of life. The condition of the physical environment – high, average, and low quality – was important contributing factors to increase walkability, yet, it is equally important to understand and consider the needs, preferences and perceptions of end users when public officials are charged with the task of developing plan proposals for pedestrian neighborhoods. This study addresses these issues through a case study examining the quality of pedestrian environment and how people perceive those surroundings of downtown San Luis Obispo.

Commercial corridors in neighborhoods experiencing change have been relegated to a footnote in research on residential phenomena. It is taken for granted that the process of change experience by businesses within these neighborhoods mirrors that of the residential change. This assumption is often predicated on the underlying model of invasion succession, suggesting that inmovers displace native populations, whether they are residents or businesses. Analyzing time series data on neighborhood commercial corridor change, research attempted to first test data against the invasion succession model to see if it is an effective framework for analysis. Second, through comparison of case study areas and data along the aggregated corridor, insights are advanced to spur development of a valid model for examining neighborhood commercial corridor change as a unique process with regular spatio-temporal patterns. This framework, it is suggested, is the first step towards understanding the impact of external forces, including social actors, on the neighborhood commercial landscape.

In 1990 many in Colquitt, Georgia considered themselves to be a dying town due to the loss of jobs and outmigration that occurred when labor intensive farming transitioned to the machine. In response citizens brought in a theater director from Chicago who helped them launch a performance series of inclusive stories that were acted by local volunteers. The resulting series called Swamp Gravy has run from 1992 to present (2012), and has led to purported claims of community revitalization. The purpose of this study was to discover what this ongoing narrative community engagement meant to the people of Colquitt in regards to: community experiences that produced new relationships (including those between Blacks and Whites); personal empowerment; the coproduction of an emerging and diverse community identity; and institutional and economic development. Methods for this case study included narrative interviews of participants, attendees and local citizens, as well as observation of the town and the performances, and document analysis. Many participant volunteers and attendees became Swamp Gravy enthusiasts, and describe their experiences as coming out into a meaningful experience of community, which included forming relationships with diverse others (including those of a different race). The enthusiasts speak of growing into larger community responsibilities with others for the common good, and feel that ongoing and inclusive storytelling is very important to coproducing a diverse heritage that informs the future of their city. Other attendees (predominantly the business community) describe the benefits of Swamp Gravy as instrumental to having given the town recognition (identity) as an entertaining tourist attraction that exposed individual talent, boosted individual confidence, and enhanced social connectivity. Others in Colquitt were indifferent or resistive to the coming out that the performances invite. Most everyone recognizes that Swamp Gravy has attracted outside tourists which has boosted economic development, occasioned the renovation of downtown Colquitt square and the formation of institutions to continue to attract and accommodate visitors from afar. This case is theorized in terms of the emerging communicative turn in planning that juxtaposes the planner as mediator or facilitator, and stakeholders as co-producers. The findings in this case study support that the Swamp Gravy form of narrative process has some potential for guiding stakeholders to a just diversity in cities, neighborhoods and towns, and as such should be studied further. Urban planning in situations of urban renewal may be one place where utilizing this form of meaningful engagement could lead to discovery of new identities, which may both inform and motivate a just plan to be coproduced.

This thesis investigates the effectiveness of Low Impact Development Infrastructure (LIDI) and Green Infrastructure (GI) in reducing flooding resulting from heavy rainfall events and sea-level rise, and in improving stormwater quality in the City of Miami Beach (CMB). InfoSWMM was used to simulate the 5, 10, and 100-year, 24-hour storm events, total suspended solids (TSS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) loadings, and in evaluating the potential of selected LIDI and GI solutions in North Shore neighborhood. Post-development results revealed a decrease of 48%, 46%, and 39% in runoff, a decrease of 57%, 60%, and 62% in TSS, a decrease of 82%, 82%, and 84% in BOD, and a decrease of 69%, 69%, and 70% in COD loadings. SWMM 5.1 was also used to simulate the king tide effect in a cross section in Indian Creek Drive. The proposed design simulations successfully demonstrated the potential to control flooding, showing that innovative technologies offer the city opportunities to cope with climate impacts. This study should be most helpful to the CMB to support its management of flooding under any adaptation scenarios that may possibly result from climate changes. Flooding could be again caused as a result of changes in inland flooding from precipitation patterns or from sea-level rise or both.

My goal in this thesis is to frame, through design, an existing environment in a manner that fosters the witness and embrace of the reality and beauty of decay—which acts as a marker of the passage of time. My intent is to engage in a careful renewal of a neglected, and largely forgotten, urban landscape, which does not ignore its temporal context. My hope is to explore the full potential of the life cycle of buildings and discover the lesson of mortality in modern American ruins.Things fall apart. This is a simple truth about the physical world that humanity inhabits, which surrounds, invades and defines the human condition. Because [or in spite] of this we live in a culture that values progress, newness, and speed, that proselytizes through marketing the belief that comfort can be found in surrounding oneself with new things, pushing reminders of death away. The current world of architecture and design nurtures this mentality, selling projects through the production of sleek renderings of pristine and clean objects, a state that will only last for a short time. I argue that, in spite of this mind-set, the realization of entropic inevitability is necessary to provide a healthy temporal context through which to view daily life. Its acceptance is crucial to an appropriate perspective on life and the human condition, allowing positive forward movement in the midst of the change and deterioration that define life. I hope to show how architecture can foster this acceptance through adaptive re-use which values and interacts with the marks of time and traces of past use. The question that I am positing ultimately is this: How can new architecture breathe life into neglected spaces while also preserving the found beauty of the state of its breakdown, what one might call its ‘character’? Can architecture take cues from and be molded and enlivened by the people, events and nature that it interacts with and is transformed by? Can architecture enact a resurrection that deftly navigates between outright neglect and sterile renovation? And what is the appropriate way to do this?

While environmental and economic sustainability have been driving factors in the movement towards a more resilient built environment, social sustainability is a factor that has received significantly less attention over the years. Federal support for low-income housing has fallen drastically, and the deficit of available, adequate, affordable homes continues to grow. In this thesis, I explore one way that architects can design affordable housing that is intrinsically sustainable. In the past, subsidized low-income housing has been built as if to provide a short-term solution—as if poverty and lack of affordable housing is a short-term problem. However, I argue that adaptable architecture is essential for the design of affordable housing that is environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable. Further, architects must balance affordability, durability, and adaptability to design sustainable solutions that are resistant to obsolescence. I conclude by applying principles and processes of adaptability in the design of Apto Ontario, an adaptable affordable housing development in the low-income historic downtown of Ontario, California (Greater Los Angeles). Along a new Bus Rapid Transit corridor, Apto Ontario would create a diverse, resilient, socially sustainable community in an area threatened by the rise of housing costs.

Playgrounds do not have to be static sites, but safety standards should not be the only force that guides their evolution over time. Just as the ongoing transformation of any city is a product of many interwoven factors, the collection of smaller sites that delineates one city from another should reflect the same holistic influences. This is not an argument for the abandonment of the safety standards that influence playground design. Instead, it is an argument for the adoption of and stronger adherence to community standards that influence city design. This paper argues that a park area (and more generally, any public space) that is relevant and unique to a community will be well-used by the community and, thus, a successful space; it is in a city’s best interest to create such spaces where they are lacking and protect them where they already exist. The first chapter provides a land-centric history of the growth and development of the Los Angeles region, which is especially deficient in public green space. I argue that transportation technology and infrastructure was the great shaping force of the urban environment during the 19th and 20th centuries, and discuss the Olmsted-Bartholomew “Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region” report that was presented to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce in 1930. The second chapter covers the design communication of American playgrounds since their beginnings in the late 19th century. I also analyze the parallel between Progressive Era playground supervision and the present-day safety standard obsession that has created an equally rigid playscape. The third chapter is a case study of the ongoing historical preservation treatment of La Laguna playground at Vincent Lugo Park in San Gabriel, CA and a discussion of the value of site-specificity.

During the past decade, the environmental issue has been an important concern of public affairs because the problems generating from the physical environment are the main focus of local development. Generally, the most effective work of community development is to encourage people to participate in environmental improvement actions. For example, the literature has indicated that individual is the most important factor for environmental improvement actions. Thus, people who highly participate in the community affairs often have better performances on community improvement actions. Base on an efficient society and the budget of government downsizing, promoting community residents to actively participate in environmental improvement actions would help the community environment management to be more sustainable and indirectly leading the local development. Concerning community environment, the responsibility for the community, knowledge of environmental action, and the ability of self-control might be correlated with the community residents¡¦ participation behavior in environmental improvement actions. The purpose of study is to explore the relationships among sense of community, the knowledge of environmental action, environmental moral obligation, and participating environmental improvement actions. Four objectives are mainly specified: first, to develop a sense of community scale of Taiwanese population; second, to integrate theories to test a community participation behavior model in environmental improvement actions; third, to understand the influential factors of community residents participation in environmental improvement actions; finally, to compare and interpret community residents participation in environmental improvement behavior model and ¡§Theory of Planned Behavior¡¨. This study surveyed community residents who ever participated in ¡§urban community landscape renaissance project¡¨ supported by Construction and Planning Agency, and ¡§rural community landscape renaissance project¡¨ founded by Soil and Water Conservation Bureau. A total of 616 community residents were administrated a self-report questionnaire. Further analysis of the data based on comparing respondent¡¦s residence, respondents were grouped into to urban planning district group and non-urban planning district group. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method was then employed to test a conceptual model. There were nine domains proposed in the conceptual model. Five of nine domains adopted from planning behavioral theory included ¡§attitude¡¨, ¡§subjective norm¡¨, ¡§perceived behavioral control¡¨, ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ and ¡§behavior¡¨. One of nine domains, ¡§self-efficacy¡¨, was chosen from social cognition theory. Two of nine domains from environmental citizen behavioral model were ¡§knowledge of environmental action¡¨, ¡§environmental moral obligation¡¨. ¡§Sense of community¡¨ was referenced to the last domain. The findings provided support for eight hypotheses and two hypotheses were partial supported. The detailed descriptions of hypothesis-testing results were as below. Eight hypotheses supported, they included: (1) After residents reflected on the ¡§subjective norm¡¨, the ¡§attitude¡¨ toward participating environmental reform behaviors was remarkably promoted. (2) Resident¡¦s ¡§attitude¡¨ significantly influenced their ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ of participating environmental improvement behaviors. (3) Resident¡¦s ¡§perceived behavioral control¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ of participate in environmental improvement behaviors. (4) Resident¡¦s ¡§sense of community¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ of participating environmental improvement behaviors. (5) Resident¡¦s ¡§knowledge of environmental action¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§self-efficacy¡¨. (6) Resident¡¦s ¡§self-efficacy¡¨ significantly effected their ¡§perceived behavioral control¡¨. (7) Resident¡¦s ¡§environmental moral obligation¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§attitude¡¨ of participating environmental improvement behaviors. (8) Resident¡¦s ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ significantly impacted their participating environmental improvement ¡§behaviors¡¨. Two hypotheses were partial supported: (1) Only in non-urban planning district resident¡¦s ¡§subjective norm¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§behavioral intention¡¨ of participating environmental improvement behaviors. (2) Only in urban planning district and all districts resident¡¦s ¡§perceived behavioral control¡¨ significantly impacted their ¡§attitude¡¨ of participating environmental improvement behaviors. Additionally, the findings confirmed that Italian Sense of Community Scale (ISCS) was an appropriate scale to measure Taiwanese population¡¦s sense of community. These findings provide researchers and practitioners for insight of resident¡¦s participation in environmental improvement, which is better than ¡§Theory of Planned Behavior¡¨.

The study explores the response of the Anglican diocese of Bujumbura to the challenge of urbanization, especially in the area of urban poverty. The introductory Chapter provides the framework within which the study will be conducted. It also includes a literature review, which is devoted to urban poverty showing how it could be addressed. In Chapter 2, the study analyses the context of urbanization in Burundi, particularly in the Bujumbura municipality, where urban poverty is reported to be high. It then highlights the Church’s missionary calling when it comes to the challenges of urbanization. Chapter 3 reports the findings of interviews and focus groups conducted with members of the nine Anglican parishes serving the Bujumbura residents. These findings are interpreted in Chapter 4 through the lens of the praxis cycle. Chapter 5 provides an effective model in the context of urban poverty. The study explored through the reasons behind urban poverty and proposes effective solutions to it. It aims at sensitizing the Church to be concerned about urban ministry and suggests an efficient model for eradicating poverty and bringing about a transformed community to be enjoyed by all the residents. This model will inspire both the Anglican Church, the other denominations, the faith-based organisations and whoever strives to serve urban residents. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D. Th. (Missiology-with specialisation in Urban Ministry)