This thesis is a critical evaluation of the methods of community engagement used by the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission during the creation and implementation of the West Tampa Economic Development Plan. Data for this research was conducted in West Tampa, a neighborhood in Tampa, Florida. In the spring of 2005, the Planning Commission began working with the residents, business and property owners in West Tampa to develop the neighborhood's economic development plan. Using the community engagement methods of surveys, mailed and posted community announcements, community meetings, focus groups and interviews, the Planning Commission created an economic development plan which reflected the needs and concerns of the residents, business and property owners and worked to limit their displacement from the redevelopment of the neighborhood. Although these methods were designed to create avenues of participation for all segments of West Tampa's population, the neighborhood's new immigrant, Spanish speaking residents and business owners were not involved in the Planning Commission's community engagement efforts. By focusing specifically in West Tampa's Latino business district, known as "Boliche Boulevard," a long-time nickname given to the area by Tampa's Cuban immigrants, data from this research identifies the reasons for this population's absence in the creation and implementation of West Tampa's economic development plan. The use of the traditional anthropological methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and archival research revealed the history of Boliche Blvd.'s relationship with West Tampa, the neighborhood's civic institutions and Tampa city government and how these relationships impacted the business owners' willingness and ability to participate in West Tampa's economic development plan. The Planning Commission's limited understanding of the social relationships which exist between Boliche Blvd., West Tampa and the larger City of Tampa impaired their ability to successfully reach this population with their existing community engagement methods. This research stresses the need for city-county planning agencies to critically evaluate their community engagement efforts when conducting economic development projects in diverse, multi-lingual urban neighborhoods. Community engagement must be tailored to target different language and culture groups in order to achieve successful participation from the entire neighborhood population.

Disinfection is an essential process in the treatment of municipal wastewater before the treated wastewater can be discharged to the environment. Hillsborough County's Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility (NWRWRF) in Tampa, Florida, currently uses ultraviolet (UV) light for disinfection. However, this method has proven expensive to implement and maintain, and may not be effective if the light transmission is poor. For these reasons, Hillsborough County is considering switching from UV light to sodium hypochlorite for disinfection. However, hypochlorite (chlorine) disinfection has disadvantages as well, such as the production of disinfection by-products (DBPs) such as trihalomethanes (THM) and haloacetic acids (HAAs), which may have adverse impacts on the quality of surface waters that receive the treated wastewater. Therefore, the objectives of this research are (1) to compare NWRWRF typical operating conditions and water quality to those of two nearby facilities (River Oaks and Dale Mabry Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plants) that currently employ chlorine disinfection, (2) to determine the chlorine demand of treated effluent from NWRWRF, (3) to quantify the DBP formation potential of treated effluent from NWRWRF, and (4) to determine the effects of temperature, reaction time, and chlorine dose on chlorine demand and THM formation. To inform laboratory experiments, the quality of final effluent was monitored at NWRWRF and at two nearby wastewater treatment plants that currently use hypochlorite for disinfection. At these two facilities, pH of 7.0-8.0, chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 12-26 mg/L, alkalinity of 200-250 mg/L as CaCO3, chlorine residual of 1.5-6.0 mg/L, and total trihalomethanes of 100-190 ix μg/L (mostly chloroform) were observed. Conditions at NWRWRF were similar to those at Dale Mabry and River Oaks AWWTP, suggesting that chlorine demand and THM formation at NWRWRF would be similar to those at the two AWWTP, if chlorination is to be used. THM experimental results agreed with this suggestion. Chlorine dose and temperature effects on the free chlorine residual and THMs production in NWRWRF filtered wastewater effluent were determined. Filtered effluent was collected and transported to USF laboratory where it was tested for 3 different chlorine doses (6 mg/L, 9 mg/L and 12 mg/L as Cl2) and 3 different temperatures (16°C, 23°C, and 30°C) at 7 different contact times (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, and 120 min) in duplicate. The total number of batches prepared was: 3 different chlorine doses × 3 different temperatures × 7 different reaction times = 126 reactors. According to Florida Administrative code 62-600.440, total chlorine residual should be at least 1 mg/L after a contact time of at least 15 min at peak hourly flow. Also, according to Florida Administrative code 62-600.440, if effluent wastewater has a concentration of fecal coliforms greater than 10,000 per 100 mL before disinfection, FDEP requires that the product of the chlorine concentration C (in mg/L as Cl2) and the contact time t (in minutes) be at least 120. Results showed that free chlorine residual was always above 1 mg/L in 15 min contact time for all chlorine doses and temperatures tested in this thesis. However, to be conservative, thesis conclusions and recommendations were based on the more stringent regulation: C*t ≥ 120 mg.min/L, assuming that the number of fecal coliform in NWRWRF wastewater effluent exceeds 10,000 per 100 mL prior to disinfection. The analysis showed that free chlorine residual for 6 mg/L was below the FDEP standard at all temperatures. At 16 °C and 23 °C, chlorine doses of 9 and 12 mg/L resulted in an appropriate free chlorine residual above the FDEP standard. However, a chlorine dose of 12 mg/L was resulting in high residual, which means high THM would be expected. Therefore, at 16 x and 23°C, 9 mg/L would be preferable. At 30 °C, only the chlorine dose of 12 mg/L met the standard at all contact times. As expected, free chlorine residual decreased with an increase in temperature from 23°C to 30°C. Surprisingly, the residual at 16°C was lower than residual at 23°C. The production of THMs increased with higher contact time in all the experiments completed. Chlorine dose didn't have an effect on THM formation at 23°C, but it did at 30°C and 16°C, where THM concentrations were generally higher with the increase of chlorine dose. Temperature effect was noticed in most of the experiments, where THM production was usually higher at higher temperatures, except some cases where formation was similar for different temperatures. Chloroform, dichlorobromomethane, dibromochloromethane production ranges were respectively: 20-127 μg/L, 18-59 μg/L, and 3-7 μg/L. Bromoform concentrations were not observed in this experiment at any temperature or chlorine dose. According to Florida Administrative code 62-302.530, Criteria for Surface Water Quality Classifications, the Florida Department for Environmental Protection (FDEP) set the following limits for THM concentrations in wastewater effluent to be as the following; 470 μg/L for chloroform, 22 μg/L for dichlorobromomethane, 34 μg/L for dibromochloromethane, and 360 μg/L for bromoform. Experimental results on NWRWRF filtered effluent showed that only dichlorobromomethane exceeded the limits set by FDEP at about 30 min contact time for all temperatures and chlorine doses tested. However, according to Florida Administrative code 62- 302-400, proposed changes to the code have set higher DCBM limit of 57 μg/L. Chlorination would be recommended at NWRWRF if the DCBM regulated limit increases to 57 μg/L. The recommended chlorine dose would be 9 mg/L for water temperatures around 16-23 °C and 12 mg/L for water temperatures around 30 °C

The idea that planners should work toward an equitable society has been part of the profession since the 1960s, largely based on the work of planning theorists like Paul Davidoff, Sherry Arnstein and Norman Krumholz. Transportation planning, however, has been slower than other sectors of the profession, such as housing, to embrace equity planning concepts. That has begun to change as concerns about income inequality, environmental justice and climate change have become more salient. This thesis makes the case that in order to improve social equity outcomes, transportation planners must make social equity an explicit goal and add social equity performance measures and targets to their plans. The study focuses on Hillsborough County, Florida as a case study and analyzes the extent that transportation planning agencies in the county consider social equity in their plans and processes. The data on plans and processes will be compared to data on social equity outcomes related to the distribution of transportation benefits and burdens, and next steps to improve social equity outcomes in the County will be identified in the form of policy recommendations.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 105 pages. / Thesis (M.S.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen has been implicated in the destruction of seagrass beds and in the decline of water quality of Tampa Bay, Florida. The objective of this research was to determine the tendency for air masses of different origins to wet-deposit nitrate and ammonium species to the bay. Precipitation chemistry data was obtained via the NADP AIRMoN Gandy Bridge monitoring site for the period of 1 August 1996 through 31 December 2000. Rainfall events were classified by using the NOAA HYSPLIT trajectory model, precipitation chemistry data, and tropical storm history data. Average nitrate and ammonium concentrations and nitrogen fluxes were calculated based upon the chosen categories. The average annual nitrogen flux for nitrate and ammonium were 2.1 kg/ha/yr and 1.4 kg/ha/yr, respectively. For trajectory-classified data, the lowest nitrate and ammonium nitrogen fluxes were observed with air masses from the west and south, over the Gulf of Mexico. / ABSTRACT: The highest ammonium nitrogen flux was seen from trajectories from the east, while local trajectories demonstrated the highest average nitrate nitrogen flux. For chemically-classified data, the highest nitrate and ammonium fluxes were associated with the local combustion classification. Rainfall from tropical weather systems deposited lower average nitrate nitrogen fluxes than non-tropical events, but ammonium nitrogen fluxes were the same between tropical and non-tropical precipitation. Even the events representing the cleanest air masses contributing precipitation to Tampa Bay had nitrate and ammonium concentrations more than two times the background concentrations associated with the northern hemisphere. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This dissertation explores how colonial administrators on each side of the Atlantic used the British Survey of North America to serve their governments’ as well as their personal objectives. Specifically, it connects the execution and oversight of the General Survey in the northern and southern theatres, along with the intelligence it provided, with the actions of key decision-makers and influencers, including the Presidents of the Board of Trade (latterly, the Secretaries of the American Department) and key provincial governors. Having abandoned their posture of ‘Salutary Neglect’ towards colonial affairs in favour of one that proactively and more centrally sought ways to develop and exploit their North American assets following the Severn Years’ War, the British needed better geographic information to guide their decision making. Thus, the General Survey of British North America, under the umbrella of the Board of Trade, was conceived. Officially sponsored from 1764-1775, the programme aimed to survey and analyse the attributes and economic potential of Britain’s newly acquired regions in North America, leading to an accurate general map of their North American empire when joined to other regional mapping programmes. The onset of the American Revolution brought an inevitable end to the General Survey before a connected map could be completed. Under the excellent leadership of Samuel Holland, the surveyor general of the Northern District, however, the British administration received surveys and reports that were of great relevance to high-level administration. In the Southern District, Holland’s counterpart, the mercurial William Gerard De Brahm, while producing reports of high quality, was less able to juggle the often conflicting priorities of provincial and London-based stakeholders. Consequently, results were less successful. De Brahm was recalled in 1771, leaving others to complete the work.