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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Green Streets, a stormwater management practice that is implemented within the public right of way, can effectively treat stormwater runoff on-site by closely mimicking natural processes. By providing multiple benefits, Green Streets can, purportedly, be a more sustainable alternative compared to conventional storm systems. However, there is no empirical research that evaluates how, or to what extent, the supposed or potential benefits of Green Streets are actually realized in projects built to date. Thus, planners and designers (or the public who are concerned about their watersheds) will find the literature on the subject to be of limited assistance in assessing many aspects of Green Street projects: their cost in terms of time, money, and resources; challenges; and whether the projects actually achieve the benefits touted by their proponents. This study is conducted to address these issues through two analyses. The first analysis looks at Green Street projects that were nominated by experts as the most successful additions to their communities. This portion of the study reveals that, in current practice, for a Green Street project to be successful, not only does it have to treat stormwater runoff but it also has to offer additional benefits, particularly in relation to the social aspects. The second analysis examines Green Street implementation processes in six sample cities, and four successful Green Street projects that appear to offer additional benefits were chosen for more detailed studies. Finally, a model process was developed with emphasis on the following: site analyses on multiple scales, the formation of interdisciplinary teams, and public outreach throughout the implementation process. The case studies elucidate the given challenges and suggest best practices for ensuring more sustainable outcomes in future projects. The study sheds light on the importance of incorporating multiple benefits in the implementation process and presents eight recommendations for successful Green Street implementation regarding the need for individuals who champion the project, interdisciplinary collaboration, opportunities for the public to voice their concerns, need of expanding the design scope, securing funds as delivering benefits, consideration of the maintenance plan, documentation of knowledge, and development of a model process. / Ph. D.

No / This study aimed to enable a cohort of women to describe their personal experiences of motherhood in the context of problematic substance use and street-based prostitution. The study also aimed to describe the impact upon women of separation from their children. Findings that emerged from focus group data were organised into four over-arching themes: children and motherhood, personal accounts of drug use and street-based prostitution, risks to women and their children and supportive/unsupportive factors in the women’s lives. Each theme consisted of many categories that illustrated the impact of dependent drug use and involvement in prostitution on the lives of the women and their children. This article describes the theme of children and motherhood. Involvement in street-based prostitution is extremely risky, frequently characterised by calculated risk taking, with consequences for both the woman and her children. Parental responsibilities and lifestyle contribute to stress, which is typically compounded by problematic substance use. Risks are increased for both the woman and her children when timely and appropriate support is unavailable. Emphasis should be placed upon the proactive identification and implementation of positive supportive strategies. Ethical approval was obtained via the Local Research Ethics Committee to undertake this research study.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Laurence A. Clement / Street musicians and performers attract people to public spaces. These performers, or ‘buskers’ as they are commonly referred, typically congregate along specific streets, parks, plazas, and transit stops in a city. The term pitch describes the place buskers perform. Pedestrian flow, visibility, and acoustics are just some of the factors that street performers consider when selecting a pitch. While performers resourcefully adapt to the challenges of different pitches, public spaces often do little to accommodate performers and their audiences. William Whyte observed how street performances facilitate social interactions between strangers and give character to cities and neighborhoods. Relative Pitch explores where performances occur and how they benefit public places. Case studies of popular busking locations establish a typology of squares, streets, and transit stops. Video clip analysis of street performances demonstrates the spatial relations between performer and audience. Dimensions and observations from these case studies provided insight and information for the application of the typology to proposed sites in Wichita, Kansas. Buskers adapt pitches relative to their physical environment. Point, linear, planar, and volumetric elements define and articulate temporary stages, audience space, and circulation paths during performances. Design proposals for the typology sites in Wichita illustrate how flexible performance spaces can be incorporated in squares, streets, and transit stops. This project looks at ways to activate public spaces by encouraging street performance.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

The inhabitants of Kinshasa, who call themselves Kinois, deal with insecurity and violence on a daily basis. Cheating and thefts are commonplace, and pillaging by street gangs and robberies by armed thieves are everyday occurrences. The state infrastructure is so poorly regulated that deaths by accident or medical negligence are also common. This, and much more, contributes to a challenging social milieu within which the Kinois’ best hope is simply to ‘make do’. This thesis, based on extensive fieldwork in Kinshasa, analyses different forms of violence which affect the Kinois on a daily basis. I argue that the Kinois’ concept of violence, mobulu, differs from Western definitions, which define violence as an intrinsically negative and destructive force. Mobulu is for the Kinois a potentially constructive phenomenon, which allows them to build relationships, coping strategies and new social phenomena. Violence is perceived as a transformative force, through which people build meaningful lives in the face of the hardship of everyday life. Broadly speaking, this thesis contributes to the Anthropology of violence which has too often focused on how violence is imposed upon a population, often from a structural level of a state and its institutions. Such an approach fails to account for the nuances of alternate perspectives of what ‘violence’ is, as evidenced in this thesis through the prism of the Kinois term mobulu. The concept of mobulu highlights the creativity of those forced to ‘make do’ on the streets of Kinshasa, to negotiate not only every day physical needs, for food and shelter, but also to navigate the mystical violence of witchcraft. By exploring the coping mechanisms across all sections of society, I analyse how the Kinois not only have built their lives in the wake of the violence of the state, but they have also found means of empowerment within it, using mobulu as a springboard for the development of some social phenomena. Whereas the anthropology of violence has focused mainly on physical and material violence, this thesis also argues that mobulu in Kinshasa is a total social fact that combines state violence with everyday violence, and physical violence with the invisible violence of witchcraft. This thesis seeks to enrich discussions on witchcraft in Kinshasa and in the African context in general, by analysing in depth how the cosmology of Kinshasa has differentiated itself as a result of the politico-economic events of recent decades. As witchcraft and material insecurity go hand in hand, a detailed analysis of the mechanisms of witchcraft is necessary, if we are to grasp the complexity of the concept of mobulu and how material and invisible violence inform each other.

Nas duas últimas décadas, o graffiti se impôs como um elemento visual das metrópoles brasileiras. Passou a povoar a rotina urbana e, num embate por espaços, vem disputando a visibilidade pública com as cores dos edifícios, as placas de sinalização e outros elementos da comunicabilidade urbana. E o faz mudando a sua proposta e original essência. Este trabalho procura documentar a trajetória do graffitti de meados da década de 1960 até às vésperas da conclusão da pesquisa, em 2011, acompanhando a sua transformação \"do subversivo ao consagrado\". Através da narrativa visual pontuada por uma seleção de 400 fotografias de autoria do pesquisador, destaca-se, em especial, a cidade de São Paulo, onde o trabalho dos grafiteiros vem despertando interesse mundial e não apenas entre adeptos, simpatizantes e editoras especializadas. O graffiti tem sido um interessante campo de estudo para críticos de arte, antropólogos, semiólogos, etc., porém, é na visualidade urbana que tem o maior impacto. / In the last two decades, graffiti has established itself as a visual element of the metropolis in Brazil. It became part of the urban routine, and in a dispute for space has been struggling for public visibility with building colors, traffic signs and other elements of urban communicability. And it does so by changing its intent and original essence. This paper seeks to document the trajectory of graffiti from the mid 1960s to the conclusion of the research, in 2011, following its transformation \"from subversive to acclaimed\". By means of a visual narrative marked by a selection of 400 photographs taken by the researcher, the city of São Paulo is emphasized, where graffiti is attracting worldwide attention and not only among supporters, sympathizers and specialized publishers. Graffiti has been an interesting field of study for art critics, anthropologists, semiologists, and scholars in general, but the greatest impact of this street art is on the urban scene.