Current research indicates that the potential risks associated with human-induced climate change are likely to increase in frequency and intensity. Although there have been several attempts, no effective international treaty or policy has been enacted by the United States with the purpose of combating this global issue. In the past decade, local climate action plans (CAPs) have emerged as a planning solution designed to reduce greenhouse emissions (GHGs). Previous studies have examined CAP attributes, but no research has focused solely on climate planning in politically conservative jurisdictions. This research finds that of 245 CAPs completed to date nationally, approximately 90 percent are located in communities identified as politically Democratic based on county level 2012 Presidential Election data. In order to expand climate planning in politically conservative communities, it is important evaluate the characteristics of CAPs in these communities. This thesis aims to fill the current research gap by analyzing CAPs and conducting stakeholder interviews in seven conservative communities. The central hypothesis is: Climate action plans adopted in conservative communities differ in motivations, type, and political backing, when compared to climate action plans in general. The findings of this case study indicate that CAPs created in conservative communities do not differ substantially from CAPs in general. However, the findings suggest political opposition is heightened in these communities. In addition, the evidence shows that in conservative communities: economic co-benefits are stressed, cost-saving measures are over emphasized, CAP terminology is altered, business community involvement is crucial, and state mandates motivate CAP creation. The results of this research are distilled into 12 lessons and best practices for planning practitioners, and establish a basis for future research focusing on the political nature of climate action planning.

The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s (MTC) Freeway Service Patrol’s highway motorist response service is reporting a reduction in their service levels. We analyze the relationship between the reduction in the Bay Area Freeway Service Patrol’s (FSP) motorist assists and changes in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported incidents, and cover research on the impact of new and old vehicle fleet turnover. VMT and CHP incidents have differential effects on FSP assists. Although incidents occurring on freeways with high traffic flows tend to cause more congestion, the trend in local VMT along Bay Area freeway corridors does not share a strong correlation with FSP assists. Through a chi-square test, bivariate correlation and cross tabulation, we can see a relationship and pattern between FSP assists, incidents and VMT. Further analysis into the dispersion of assists, incidents and VMT show that the distribution of the FSP assists over CHP reported incidents is not perfectly equal. By analyzing VMT, CHP reported incidents and research around new vehicle fleet turnover affecting FSP assisted-incidents, Metropolitan Transportation Commission staff can systematically improve the FSP operational model; strategize ways to improve service on needier freeway corridors, while reducing unnecessary service in other regions.

Bicycling is a method of tourism transportation that is healthy, non-invasive, environmentally responsible, and economically sustainable. It allows freedom, mobility, and sightseeing potential that is not made possible by other modes of transit. Thousands of bicycle tourists travel from all over the globe annually to explore California on touring bikes via established cycling routes and robust determination. Thousands of additional domestic and international visitors take weekend trips, plan family vacations, travel for business, or tour California from abroad, many of whom are excellent candidates for local and regional bicycle touring at a more gentle intensity level. The increasing popularity and prominence of bicycle tourism, among both domestic and international travelers, carries great potential for economic benefit to local communities. Rural and agricultural communities can particularly benefit from bicycle tourism, as these communities do not normally experience the benefits of tourism as significantly as their urban, coastal or mountainous neighbors. Tourism that is developed in accordance with the size, scale, constraints and character of a particular community can have a beneficial effect on the economics and industry of the area. Infrastructure projects to this effect, such as development of a town or regional trail system, wayfinding features, or other resources come with benefits for visitors and locals in the form of recreation, public health, mobility, and access to food, drink, amenities, scenic areas, jobs and commerce. Trails may further improve the economy of the local housing market, as proximity to trails has a positive effect on housing values. Incorporation of agricultural destinations into local tourism planning creates a draw for visitors and can become a mutually beneficial relationship – contributing to the economic stability of the agriculture industry, preserving local farm lands, increasing tourism revenue and educating the public on the importance of local farming. Through careful planning of the touristic components of the destination, rural communities can achieve multifaceted economic benefits of diverse and versatile tourism amenities.

Urbanization and development of cities is necessary in contemporary society, however, these advancements are also causing urban problems, such as lack of open green space, density problems, traffic problems, and over population.Also, existing buildings are often lacking certain functions that are currently needed since they have been designed in the past. Thus, plaza and mixed used buildings, which are considered as a unit space, are needed to mention for 'publicity' that is a part of urban components as a wide spatial concept. In particular, mixed used buildings as multiply functioned facilities are needed a specific study for 'publicity' and 'urban plaza'. In general, the meaning of 'publicity' in a city seems to have started from 'agora', which is from ancient Greek. A plaza as an open space in a city was realized as a solution, which people have pursued in order to improve their psychological safety and deterioration of the physical environment. Furthermore, it was made by necessity that was able to gather people in a place and was an indicator space with culture, political, and social activity. Procuring a traffic space, which is increasing more in a city, is expressed based on declining plaza and maximizing land use, on the other hands, it indicatesthe importance of a way to vitalize social public space in urban life. In addition, urban and social modernization has caused proliferation and concentration of urban services and,as a result of it,it has caused population increase and architectural densification. In brief, open spaces and streets for pedestrians have decreased. Expansion of buildings, reduction of streets, and degeneration of urban plazas have started to diminish the space for public activity. This has connected to fall quality of its macro- environment and consciousness of sharing, and thus the quality of the city has fallen as a result. The urban plaza is an important component of urban open space and the space, which can improve social community. Thus, the objective of this study is to reconsider the concept 'publicity' in cities as a strategic space in order to vitalize the city. The study includes analyzing connectivity between urban plaza and architectural space and proposing design methods for a mixed use building which will improve interaction between urban context and the buildings., In conclusion, the study will be used to suggest a new solution for the urban design, which has had less connectivity by transportation and thoughtless development for the environment, in order to produce pleasant open space to enjoy public life for citizen focused on increasing practical use between people and their city's infrastructure with diverse function and psychological stability.

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available to architects, builders, and urban planners. Design decisions including the strategic placement of buildings in relation to topography, wind, vegetation type, and fuel loads has been considered. Additionally, other mechanisms for adaptation have been assessed, such as fire-retardant building materials, building form, landscaping, and the density of built form on the scale of single homes, and broader communities. The thesis identifies a typical building site, the adjacent community, the potential threats to landscape and buildings posed by wildfire, and then explores design approaches aimed at improving fire adaptability. These factors have been considered and assessed on a qualitative level and offer new recommendations for building within fire zones. These design ideas and principles can then be applied to a variety of landscapes wherein the wildfire is inevitable, thereby exploring how fire-adapted communities may be built to sustain wildfires through a myriad of methods within a range of regions.

Diversos estudos realizados na área econômica têm mostrado a importância da escolaridade para a melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas. Apesar disso, o nível médio de escolaridade no Brasil é de 6,4 anos na população adulta, considerado baixo, se comparado a outros países da América Latina. Em vista disso, na década de 1990, foram instituídas diversas mudanças na forma de gestão do ensino público brasileiro, com objetivo de melhorar sua qualidade e motivar o interesse da criança pela escola. O presente trabalho inseriu-se nessa discussão ao propor uma avaliação da influência que a infra-estrutura escolar e as características familiares exercem sobre a freqüência e o atraso no ensino fundamental. Dadas as diferenças regionais existentes no Brasil, fez-se uma comparação entre os estados de São Paulo e Pernambuco. Para tanto, foram feitas análises de regressões, utilizando-se do modelo próbite, e as bases de dados foram o censo demográfico, o censo escolar e as transferências do Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Escola (FNDE), do ano 2000. Tais análises concentraram-se nas escolas públicas, da área urbana, dos dois estados. Além disso, foram realizadas interações entre variáveis das características familiares e variáveis da infra-estrutura escolar, a fim de verificar as formas mais eficientes de se colocar e manter a criança na escola, garantindo-lhe o avanço nos estudos. Questionou-se, portanto, se é mais interessante para o governo investir na melhoria da qualidade das escolas, ou em iniciativas que melhoram as condições socioeconômicas da família. Foram, também, realizadas simulações para avaliar os impactos de uma melhoria na qualidade das escolas, versus uma melhoria das condições socioeconômicas das famílias, na freqüência e no atraso escolar do estudante. Os resultados mostraram que políticas públicas voltadas para um aumento do salário, ou da escolaridade do professores, assim como para uma melhoria dos equipamentos disponíveis na escola, beneficiarão mais as crianças pertencentes a famílias com chefes pouco escolarizados e/ou com uma baixa renda familiar per capita. Além disso, percebeu-se que em Pernambuco, a política pública de maior impacto sobre a freqüência escolar foi o aumento do salário do professor e sobre o atraso escolar foi o aumento da escolaridade do chefe de família. Para São Paulo, a melhor opção seria aumentar a renda familiar per capita, tanto no caso da freqüência, quanto no caso do atraso escolar. Conclui-se, então, que a adoção de políticas públicas deve levar em consideração o lugar onde as mesmas serão adotadas, bem como os objetivos a serem atingidos na área da educação. Acredita-se, no entanto, que políticas voltadas para melhorar as características familiares geram resultados somente no longoprazo. Por isso, sugere-se que no curto-prazo sejam priorizadas as políticas capazes de melhorar a qualidade das escolas públicas que oferecem o ensino fundamental, na área urbana, dos dois estados. Sugere-se, também, que os investimentos públicos na área da educação priorizem Pernambuco, em função das diferenças socioeconômicas existentes entre os dois estados. / Many studies in the economic field have showed the importance of education to increase the wellbeing of the society. However, the adult population in Brazil has, on average, 6.4 years of education, which is considered low when compared to other Latin American countries. Trying to improve the educational indicators, in the 90’s, many changes were implemented in the Brazilian public school system. The objective of the present study is to evaluate school infrastructure and family characteristics affecting children’s decision to study or to drop out from school (frequency and school delay in primary and secondary levels). The analyses were concentrated in public schools located in the urban areas of Pernambuco and São Paulo states. Demographic census, school census and government spending data from 2000 were used to run a Probit model, whether a child was in school or not and whether a child was in lower grade for his age or not. Interactions between family’s characteristics and school infrastructure, as well as some simulations, were done to verify what would be the best possible resource allocation to improve children’s education. The results showed that public policies that increased teacher’s schooling or teacher’s salaries, and policies that improved the school’s equipments would benefit more children from low income families and/or with low educated parents. Moreover, in Pernambuco, the teacher’s salary caused the greater impact in the children’s frequency to school, while the teacher’s schooling had the larger impact in the children’s school delay. On the other hand, in São Paulo, the best option would be to increase per capita family income, either to increase frequency or decrease delay in school. It is known that policies to improve families’ characteristics will produce results more in the long run. Therefore, policies that would improve the schools’ infrastructure and consequently the quality of the schools are suggested in the short run. Moreover, the investment should focus Pernambuco due to the lower socio-economic indicators compared to São Paulo.

A wide range of research fields have studied how emotions and behavior are affected by the physical environment. This gestalt theorist approach of experimental research as well seeks to measure emotion (using the valence-arousal scale) and micro-scale community development interactions when weighted physical environment factors are adjusted. Community development (CD) interactions at the micro-scale have received but slight attention from scholars in the CD research field and this study aims partially to investigate developing objective measures from social observations. CD interactions from recordings along with self-reported emotion through surveys in four quasi-experimental groups (where the environments were constructed based on peer-reviewed literature to cause emotional reactions) and one control group made up the data collected for this experiment. While the results of this experiment displayed apparent convincing quantitative differences in both CD interactions and emotion when the physical environment was manipulated, the results of a one-way ANOVA indicated no statistical significance to either dependent variable. The conclusions suggest limiting the physical factors of the environment to produce more precise changes as a result of the manipulated quasi environments.

Diversos estudos realizados na área econômica têm mostrado a importância da escolaridade para a melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas. Apesar disso, o nível médio de escolaridade no Brasil é de 6,4 anos na população adulta, considerado baixo, se comparado a outros países da América Latina. Em vista disso, na década de 1990, foram instituídas diversas mudanças na forma de gestão do ensino público brasileiro, com objetivo de melhorar sua qualidade e motivar o interesse da criança pela escola. O presente trabalho inseriu-se nessa discussão ao propor uma avaliação da influência que a infra-estrutura escolar e as características familiares exercem sobre a freqüência e o atraso no ensino fundamental. Dadas as diferenças regionais existentes no Brasil, fez-se uma comparação entre os estados de São Paulo e Pernambuco. Para tanto, foram feitas análises de regressões, utilizando-se do modelo próbite, e as bases de dados foram o censo demográfico, o censo escolar e as transferências do Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Escola (FNDE), do ano 2000. Tais análises concentraram-se nas escolas públicas, da área urbana, dos dois estados. Além disso, foram realizadas interações entre variáveis das características familiares e variáveis da infra-estrutura escolar, a fim de verificar as formas mais eficientes de se colocar e manter a criança na escola, garantindo-lhe o avanço nos estudos. Questionou-se, portanto, se é mais interessante para o governo investir na melhoria da qualidade das escolas, ou em iniciativas que melhoram as condições socioeconômicas da família. Foram, também, realizadas simulações para avaliar os impactos de uma melhoria na qualidade das escolas, versus uma melhoria das condições socioeconômicas das famílias, na freqüência e no atraso escolar do estudante. Os resultados mostraram que políticas públicas voltadas para um aumento do salário, ou da escolaridade do professores, assim como para uma melhoria dos equipamentos disponíveis na escola, beneficiarão mais as crianças pertencentes a famílias com chefes pouco escolarizados e/ou com uma baixa renda familiar per capita. Além disso, percebeu-se que em Pernambuco, a política pública de maior impacto sobre a freqüência escolar foi o aumento do salário do professor e sobre o atraso escolar foi o aumento da escolaridade do chefe de família. Para São Paulo, a melhor opção seria aumentar a renda familiar per capita, tanto no caso da freqüência, quanto no caso do atraso escolar. Conclui-se, então, que a adoção de políticas públicas deve levar em consideração o lugar onde as mesmas serão adotadas, bem como os objetivos a serem atingidos na área da educação. Acredita-se, no entanto, que políticas voltadas para melhorar as características familiares geram resultados somente no longoprazo. Por isso, sugere-se que no curto-prazo sejam priorizadas as políticas capazes de melhorar a qualidade das escolas públicas que oferecem o ensino fundamental, na área urbana, dos dois estados. Sugere-se, também, que os investimentos públicos na área da educação priorizem Pernambuco, em função das diferenças socioeconômicas existentes entre os dois estados. / Many studies in the economic field have showed the importance of education to increase the wellbeing of the society. However, the adult population in Brazil has, on average, 6.4 years of education, which is considered low when compared to other Latin American countries. Trying to improve the educational indicators, in the 90’s, many changes were implemented in the Brazilian public school system. The objective of the present study is to evaluate school infrastructure and family characteristics affecting children’s decision to study or to drop out from school (frequency and school delay in primary and secondary levels). The analyses were concentrated in public schools located in the urban areas of Pernambuco and São Paulo states. Demographic census, school census and government spending data from 2000 were used to run a Probit model, whether a child was in school or not and whether a child was in lower grade for his age or not. Interactions between family’s characteristics and school infrastructure, as well as some simulations, were done to verify what would be the best possible resource allocation to improve children’s education. The results showed that public policies that increased teacher’s schooling or teacher’s salaries, and policies that improved the school’s equipments would benefit more children from low income families and/or with low educated parents. Moreover, in Pernambuco, the teacher’s salary caused the greater impact in the children’s frequency to school, while the teacher’s schooling had the larger impact in the children’s school delay. On the other hand, in São Paulo, the best option would be to increase per capita family income, either to increase frequency or decrease delay in school. It is known that policies to improve families’ characteristics will produce results more in the long run. Therefore, policies that would improve the schools’ infrastructure and consequently the quality of the schools are suggested in the short run. Moreover, the investment should focus Pernambuco due to the lower socio-economic indicators compared to São Paulo.

No description available.

The Cal Poly Pier (Pier) Master/Facility Plan (FP) document provides the vision of the future for the Pier, a marine science research facility. The Plan facilitates project development and management of the Pier while meeting university and department research goals. Specifically, the FP document establishes goals and strategies to direct long-term development of the Pier, streamlines agency approval and permit requirements, provides context for pier management, and assists the permitting process for future development as it relates to regulatory permits and programmatic growth on the Cal Poly Pier to help meet goals of the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences (CCMS). The Cal Poly Pier is the marine field station for the California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) CCMS and is one of several facilities that supports research and educational activities. The CCMS is a CSU Campus Center research organization that provides research and education activities as a part of Cal Poly’s overall mission while offering opportunities to interested parties beyond Cal Poly, such as private and public entities. The 3,057-foot long pier provides students, faculty, researchers, and other users unrivaled access to the marine environment of the Central Coast and fosters hands-on learning opportunities to progress marine research and science. The Master Plan name was changed to Facility Plan to streamline the plan approval process and to minimize the potential for errors.