published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

Comprehensive plan, Humboldt, Kansas. [Topeka], 1974.

This case study of the administration planning in the city of Pensacola provides an example from which lessons can be drawn for urban planners. Unlike many other cities, Pensacola had a plan as early as 1827, but like most cities no provisions were made for the future development of the city. The study includes a section on the background to planning in Pensacola, dealing with the factors which seemed to demand planning and ideas that provoked planning. The second and third parts deal with the master plan and its implementation. The final chapter presents a discussion of the lessons to be drawn from this planning experience and suggests theoretical arrangements to meet actual needs. / Typescript. / "1951." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: James A. Norton, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31).

The US Forest Service has embarked on new approaches to collaboration that surpass the traditional requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of review and comment on public documents. Decades of litigation, adversarial relationships, and legal gridlock from layers of policies, procedures and regulations represent a rigidity trap that has stalled several attempts to revise the 1982 planning rule. In 2009 the Forest Service initiated an open and collaborative process for developing a new Forest Planning Rule that would engage a wide range of stakeholders in the process. The planning rule team adopted an attitude of listening that allowed them to be open to new knowledge, creating opportunities to learn during collaboration. The planning rule team had a mindset of “walking the talk” on collaboration that allowed the process to reflect the principles of effective participation and collaboration in the literature, such as the DIAD model of collaborative rationality. This research explores the agency’s willingness to try a new approach to developing a rule in order to solve the longstanding challenge of updating the rule. Examining the collaborative rule development process provides insights about how double loop learning, manifested in the collaborative process to develop the rule, allowed the agency to break free of a rigidity trap dominated by rational planning processes. This study indicates adaptive capacity is enhanced by a posture of listening which can lead to the type of double loop learning that brings about new understanding, new knowledge, and new solutions by constructing that knowledge along with stakeholders in a collaborative process. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2016. / November 7, 2016. / Collaborating, double-loop learning, Forest Management, rigidity trap / Includes bibliographical references. / William H. Butler, Professor Directing Dissertation; Ralph S. Brower, University Representative; Petra L. Doan, Committee Member; Robert E. Deyle, Committee Member.

The world is experiencing a rapid urbanization process since decades ago, and more than half of the world’s population now are living in urban areas. United Nations has projected that the population growth in urban areas will continue and result in more than 66% of the population living in cities by the year of 2050. Although cities are bringing economic growth and development across the world, especially in high-income countries, this rapid pace of urbanization has also led to resource depletion and environmental degradation over the past decades, as well as other urban problems, such as urban poverty and social inequality, local climate change, non-renewable energy consumption, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission and biodiversity decline, most of which are argued to be associated with fast urbanization and urban sprawling development. Modern societies have adopted sustainable development as the strategic plan and development model to response to the growing economic, social and environmental issues in global environment. An increasing number of research have been done on the topic of sustainable development since the Brundtland Commission Report proposed the definition of sustainable development in 1987. Since then, a limited but growing literature is emerging that looks into the relationship between urban form and urban sustainability, proposing the question of whether there is a sustainable urban form, and if so, how to achieve it. It is now generally accepted that there are correlations between urban form and urban sustainability in a variety of ways, but no consensus has been made. Moreover, potential research gaps exist in terms of the definitions and measurements of both urban form and urban sustainability concepts, as well as there is a lack of systematic and comprehensive theoretical framework on the relationship between urban form and urban sustainability, neither there are enough empirical studies in U.S. context with up-to-date data. By asking the central research question “how and to what extent does urban form influence urban sustainability?”, this dissertation aims at exploring the relationship between urban form and urban sustainability; explaining the mechanisms of the potential correlations by systematically reviewing theoretical underpinnings and synthesizing a comprehensive theoretical framework; empirically examining the relationship between multiple urban form elements with a wide range of urban sustainability outcomes with secondary data; identifying the trade-offs among different dimensions and aspects of urban sustainability under different urban form scenarios; and addressing an identified gap in the literature of a dearth of U.S. empirical studies by conducting an empirical study in a U.S. study area. To fulfill the research objectives, I first conducted a systematic and comprehensive literature review on the research topic, which not only summaries the existing theories, findings and conclusions in the field, but also identifies the potential research gaps in the literature. A theoretical framework on the relationship between urban form and urban sustainability was created to illustrate and visualize the theoretical correlations between a selected group of urban form elements and a wide range of urban sustainability outcomes. Empirical analysis is employed to test the theoretical framework and the hypothesized correlations between urban form elements and urban sustainability outcomes, using the secondary data in Florida at Census Place scale. Multiple regression analyses are conducted for a total of 204 models in economic, social and environmental dimensions of urban sustainability, in three time periods: 2007 and 2012 cross-sectional, and 2007-2012 panel estimation. The results and findings of this dissertation indicate that overall, the central research question of this Dissertation appears to have been answered in the affirmative: urban form is shown in this study to have a statistically significant effect on urban sustainability outcomes. Specifically, the four selected urban form elements: density, concentration, land use mix and connectivity all have significant associations with one or more urban sustainability outcomes in a variety of models. Moreover, this dissertation posits the hypothesis that there are potential interaction effects between urban form elements in terms of their effects on urban sustainability, and the empirical findings support my hypothesis with multiple significant results from models with interaction effects, which contributes to the theoretical understandings on the relationship between urban form and urban sustainability. Besides, there are some expected correlations between urban form and urban sustainability from the theoretical framework that are either show non-significant results, or even with results against the theoretical expectations. These results call for research outside Florida and at different geographic scales to further explore the relationships between such urban form elements and urban sustainability outcomes. Furthermore, the evidences from the empirical analysis in Florida imply that there are some correlations between urban form and urban sustainability, especially between land use mix and a wide range of social and environmental sustainability outcomes, have not been widely discussed in the literature, but showing significant results in Florida places, which also calls for more extensive research. Finally, the research finds that there is no urban form element that is benefiting all urban sustainability outcomes, which indicates the existence of the trade-offs among different aspects and dimensions of urban sustainability. Therefore, there is no straight-forward solution from urban form to improve urban sustainable development, and it has to consider the specific situation in each place, and also promoted with other urban sustainability policies. The completion of the dissertation is able to contribute to theory through the establishment of a comprehensive theoretical framework, the identification of unexpected and under-explored correlations between urban form and urban sustainability, the proposition of the interaction effects between urban form elements and the definition and measurement of urban form. This study is also contributing to practice and U.S. cities by collecting and integrating enormous secondary data at Census Place scale in Florida, the provision of significant evidence on the correlations between urban form and urban sustainability, as well as the discussion on the potential interaction effects between urban form elements, and the trade-offs among different aspects and dimensions of urban sustainability. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / March 5, 2018. / urban form, urban sustainability / Includes bibliographical references. / Timothy Chapin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Richard Feiock, University Representative; John Felkner, Committee Member; Michael Duncan, Committee Member.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The dissertation is an international comparative project examining metropolitan regional economic development. Focused on the connection between economic geography and economic learning, the study examines the locus of regional innovation in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in each region (Dublin and Beijing) through small sample survey methodologies. An applied theory project, this dissertation relies on transaction cost and evolutionary economic theory to examine the micro-foundations of how regions are being touted for their "collective learning systems" and how this is an important aspect of understanding how rapid economic change occurs. Among some of the most influential arguments in this area are those often made by regional planners, industrial geographers, and economic sociologists which perceive of such dynamic regions as constituting a "nexus of un-traded interdependencies." Based on a small sample of twenty indigenous firms ICT firms in each region, the project takes aim at the often unspecified ways firm-specific capability development is argued to result from the interplay between industrial knowledge and issues of spatial clustering. Goal-seeing behavior of firms is seen through the lens of evolutionary notions of search, while transaction cost principles are regarded as fundamental to structuring pool effects, especially in labor supply and local knowledge pool issues linked to agglomerated industrial forms. Three inter-related propositions guide the analysis of the survey work. The first is that an assessment of how knowledge-based assets are developed through territorialized concepts of learning must focus on evolutionary properties of firm search strategies and differentiate between more and less advanced firms since they are likely to draw upon regional assets in different ways. The second is to examine the process of innovation itself in its traded and un-traded aspects by analyzing patterns in R&D decision-making, strategic networking, and contracting behavior. The third is how some seemingly similar development outcomes in each region are based in differentiated processes and modes of social regulation, and stresses the underlying conventions in social, political, and historical motivations of strategy and political economy constraints linking firm and industry developments to their broader institutional systems. This latter is centered on science and technology policy, on one hand, and urban redevelopment and governance of the property markets, on the other, and underscores the international comparative scope of the project.

Neighborhood walk-friendliness has become a focus for researchers and practitioners who wish to improve the health of older adults by incentivizing and providing opportunities to walk as part of daily routines. However, most research has been carried out in larger urban areas (Leslie, et al., 2005; Bracy et al., 2014; Cole, Dunn, Hunter, Owen, & Sugiyama, 2015) with an emphasis on walking for transportation and the general population. With the rapid increase in the US older adult population, most of whom live in suburban low-density residential areas, a better understanding of walk-friendliness in such a context is needed. This study investigates the associations between objective walkability and perceived neighborhood walk-friendliness, and walking behaviors among older adults in Tallahassee, Florida and surrounding county. To better understand this relationship this dissertation uses the GIS Walkability Index (Frank et al., 2010) and the Walk Score™ as measures of objective walkability. Quantitative data from a neighborhood survey and qualitative data from walk along interviews were used to capture older adult’s perception of neighborhood walk-friendliness. This dissertation seeks to determine; i) the relationship between objective walkability and the perceptions of neighborhood walk-friendliness of older adults themselves; ii) the extent to which objective walkability and perceived neighborhood walk-friendliness influence walking behaviors, and iii) how micro-environmental factors influence older adult’s walking activities. A multiple methods approach is used in this study, where the main approach is quantitative, and the qualitative inquiry provides a deeper understanding of older adult’s perceptions of neighborhood walk-friendliness at the micro-environmental level. The findings of this dissertation show that the walkability indexes are significant predictors of walks for transportation but do not predict whether older adults engage in any brisk or leisure walking. The perceived count of destination types was found to be a strong predictor of any destination walking and played a mediating role between the GIS Index and any destination walking. However, perceived walk-friendliness did not show the same significance as the perceived count of destination types. Finally, the walk-along interviews revealed that the micro-environmental factors influence the older participants’ decision about when and where to walk rather than whether they walk at all. It also provided deeper understanding of the perceived walk-friendliness variable. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / December 10, 2018. / Older adults, Perception, Walkability, Walking / Includes bibliographical references. / Rebecca Miles, Professor Directing Dissertation; Jean Munn, University Representative; Michael Duncan, Committee Member; Christopher Coutts, Committee Member.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-132)

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-124) and index.