20 pp. / Arizona Firewise Communities / This publication is an update and adaptation of the widely distributed Living with Fire publication created by the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension and Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators in 1998. It is an interagency collaboration of the Arizona Firewise subcommittee of the Arizona Interagency Coordinating Group. It involved the combined efforts of the Arizona State Land Department, USDI Bureau of Indian Affairs, USDI Bureau of Land Management, USDI National Park Service, USDA Forest Service, USDI Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and Arizona Fire Chiefs Association. The need to revise the over seven-year old publication emerged from the subcommittees vision of building in concepts such as Firewise Zone Landscaping and Survivable Space, as well as to update the documents appearance and organization. Its purpose to provide a quality outreach tool to increase public aware concerning Firewise concepts and to encourage and facilitate the implementation of Firewise practices by communities, neighborhoods and property owners. Living with Wildfire is a twelve-page color tabloid that addresses the following topic areas important to homeowners: current situation; fire behavior and the human environment, and in various Arizona vegetation types; detailed recommendations for creating survivable space, including a checklist and landscape management zones; frequently asked questions; and emergency and evacuation guidelines. The tabloid is to be printed in bulk by federal partners and made widely available throughout the state over the next several years.

Adaptation to climate change is becoming an pertinent issue, as climate change mitigation options have not been implemented to asufficient degree.  The impacts of climate change will have to be dealt with by various stakeholders including the insurance industry and homeowners.  These stakeholders, also including the scientific community, need to work together in order to distribute climate change information in a manner that enables homeowners to become part of the climate change discussion.  This study discusses the use of web-based climate visualization platforms and the perception of the users of these platforms through focus group studies.    By analyzing six web-based climate visualizations through content analysis and then having five focus groups analyze two web-based climate visualization platforms, Caladapt and Plan2Adapt, the study aims to determine how users of web-based climate visualization platforms perceive the platforms, tools and visual representations presented to them and what additional information and components should be included.   The overall analysis determined that adaptation information is not adequately communicated within any of the examined platforms. Rather than vulnerability or adaptation, the effects of climate change were represented as 2D maps and graph visual representations.  Participants found this information to be secondary information since it did not interest or seem relevant to the users.  As homeowners, participants did not want to have to analyze or interpret data rather they wanted usable information that they could apply if they felt it was valid and applied to their situation.  The study presents many aspects that could be applied to future web-based visualization platforms.

Heat pumps are a key technology for decarbonising residential buildings, yet their current market share in Canada remains very low at approximately 5%. To promote heat pump adoption, governments in Canada have introduced supportive policies such as purchase subsidies, and it is often assumed that increasing consumer awareness of such policies increases heat pump adoption. Using a survey of Canadian homeowners who do not own heat pumps (n=3,138), this study assesses: (1) levels of willingness to adopt air source and ground source heat pumps across Canada; (2) the effect of information provision on willingness to adopt heat pumps, (3) levels of heat pump policy awareness across Canada; (4) whether perceived technical characteristics of heat pumps can be categorized as functional or symbolic, and as private or societal, and (5) the role of policy awareness and other drivers in explaining willingness to adopt heat pumps. The study finds that a third of Canadian homeowners are willing to adopt heat pumps. These homeowners are found predominantly within the Atlantic region and show higher levels of adoption willingness for air source rather than ground source heat pumps. Awareness of existing heat pump supportive policy is low, with only 5% of respondents able to name any policies from memory. Awareness tends to be higher in British Columbia, and for heat pump subsidies and carbon taxes. Policy awareness without cues is a predictor of willingness to adopt air source heat pumps only. When provided with a list of policies to aid reporting, policy awareness is not associated with heat pump adoption. Other significant predictors include perceptions of heat pumps’ functionality and their environmental benefits, having a technology-oriented lifestyle, being a younger homeowner, and the financial and inconvenience costs during installation. Based on findings, insights into targeted policy designs to accelerate residential building decarbonisation are provided. / Graduate

abstract: Increasingly, wildfires are threatening communities, forcing evacuations, damaging property, and causing loss of life. This is in part due to a century of wildfire policy and an influx of people moving to the wildland urban interface (WUI). National programs have identified and promoted effective wildfire mitigation actions to reduce wildfire risk; yet, many homeowners do not perform these actions. Based on previous literature and using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study proposes an integrated wildfire mitigation behavioral model to assess and identify the factors that influence homeowners’ wildfire mitigation behaviors. Specifically, the study tests the validity of the theory of planned behavior as a foundational model in exploring wildfire mitigation behaviors, develops and empirically tests a wildfire mitigation behavioral model, and explores the role of homeowner associations (HOA) on wildfire mitigation behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used on data collected from homeowners with property in the WUI in Prescott, Arizona. Results suggest TPB provides an acceptable model in describing homeowner wildfire mitigation behavior. For HOA residents, attitudes toward wildfire mitigation behaviors play an important role in predicting intentions to perform these behaviors. Additionally, perceived constraints directly influenced actual mitigation actions. For non-HOA residents, subjective norms influenced intentions to mitigate. Implications for research and local wildfire mitigation programs and policy are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2016

No description available.

One of the key determinants of the “quality” of a neighbourhood is the extent to which owners maintain their properties. Much has been written about the impact of neighbourhood blight or the physically rejuvenating impact of gentrification. To better understand why some neighbourhoods are thriving, and others not, a critical variable that has seen little exploration is the type of tenure. This thesis, focused mostly on data from the City of Rochester NY, comparing absentee landlords, resident landlords and owner-occupiers, looking for differences in the level of maintenance of residential properties. Using a procedure developed by the author, every house in Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse containing 1-6 units was assessed, creating a quantitative analysis that is both more current, and on a much larger scale than previous work. Findings mostly confirmed observations and theories in the literature, but there were a number of significant differences. The key observation within Rochester was that, regardless of geographic scale, absentee owners consistently took the worst care of their properties, followed by resident landlords and then owner-occupiers. Further, size and type of absentee landlord mattered. Tenure was found to be the driving force in predicting maintenance outcomes, compounded by variables such as property values and race. Evidence from Buffalo and Syracuse indicated that findings may be generalizable, at least for declining industrial cities. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

La stratégie «Adequate shelter for all and sustainable settlements development in an urbanising world» adoptée au sommet mondial Habitat II d’Istanbul de 1996, traduite dans les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement et maintenant dans les Objectifs de Développement Durable, vise à fournir un logement décent au plus grand nombre de ménages dans les villes du monde et celles d’Afrique Subsaharienne en particulier. La crise du logement caractérisée par les conditions abjectes dans lesquelles la majorité des ménages des villes d’Afrique subsaharienne se logent, devient ainsi un problème majeur auquel la littérature spécialisée promeut généralement, parmi tous les modes d’occupation du logement, l’accession à la propriété comme la panacée. En supposant que cette dimension de la crise du logement ne peut s’expliquer que par les comportements résidentiels des ménages généralement autopromoteurs de leurs logements en Afrique de l’Ouest, et à Lomé la capitale du Togo en particulier, cette thèse de doctorat vise à répondre à la question générale de recherche suivante : Les choix résidentiels à Lomé, en particulier le choix du statut d’occupation du logement, sont-ils exclusivement influencés par le profil des ménages occupants? Par une approche mixte d’écologie urbaine basée sur des analyses croisées de régression logistique multinomiale appliquées à trois sources de données (RGPH4 de 2010, QUIBB de 2011, TERRAIN 2013) étayées par l’analyse biographique relative aux stratégies résidentielles d’un échantillon de 411 ménages participants dans quatre quartiers de Lomé, choisie comme base empirique, la recherche a plus ou moins confirmé les hypothèses émises a priori par les résultats principaux suivants: En lien avec la faible mobilité résidentielle générale qui caractérise les pratiques résidentielles à Lomé, les ménages choisissent, en élaborant des stratégies «de petits pas», leur statut d’occupation du logement suivant des trajectoires résidentielles surtout ascendantes, en fonction plus de leur profil démographique (âge, genre, statut migratoire et matrimonial, type et taille) que de leur statut socioéconomique (revenu, emploi, éducation). Ces choix résidentiels sont également déterminés par les attributs des logements (typologie, localisation et accès aux services de base) constituant les parcs résidentiels existants. Les ménages propriétaires de Lomé, souvent biparentaux, sont plus âgés, plus larges que les ménages locataires et hébergés. Les natifs de la ville et les migrants de longue date sont plus enclins à être propriétaires et durablement hébergés que les nouveaux arrivants. Globalement plus fortunés que les hébergés, les propriétaires ne sont pas forcément plus nantis et plus éduqués que les locataires. L’habitat de cour, habitation multifamiliale majoritaire dans le parc résidentiel de Lomé, bien qu’il abrite des ménages de tous les statuts résidentiels, il est surtout réservé aux locataires. La thèse suggère que des programmes accrus de financement institutionnel du logement, de rénovation générale du parc résidentiel existant et de production d’une version améliorée de l’habitat de cour, avec l’assistance technique publique, contribueront à fournir un logement décent au plus grand nombre de ménages qu’ils soient propriétaires, locataires ou hébergés, à Lomé et ailleurs dans les villes d’Afrique de l’Ouest, conformément au paradigme actuel du développement durable des établissements humains. / «Adequate shelter for all and sustainable settlements development in an urbanizing world», strategy adopted in 1996 at the World Summit Habitat II of Istanbul and expressed in the Millennium Development Goals and now in Sustainable Development Goals, aims to provide a decent housing for the greatest number of households in the world and especially in sub-saharian African towns. Since then, access to adequate housing becomes an important issue for housing research in developing and sub-Saharan African countries where most of households still live in abject conditions of lack adequate water and sanitation services which, among others, typify the acute housing crisis they are facing up to. Housing policies and literature generally promote homeownership as the panacea to solve this size of the housing shortage. Assuming that this housing crisis in West Africa, especially in Lomé the capital of Togo, should be explained by the residential behavior of the households, who are self-help promoters in majority, this doctoral thesis try to answer the following general research question: Are the residential choices in Lomé, especially tenure choice, exclusively influenced by the occupier households’ characteristics? By a mixed approach of urban ecology based on multinomial logistic regression cross-study analyses applied to three data sources (RGPH4 2010, QUIBB 2011 and 2013 field survey data) supported by the life histories concerning the residential strategies of a sample of 411 households in four areas of Lomé chosen as empirical basis, the research confirms more or less the assumptions made, by the following main results: In connection with the general low residential mobility that characterizes the residential patterns in Lomé, households make their tenure choices through especially upward trajectories by developing strategies of «small steps», more according to their demographic profile (stage of life cycle, age, gender, migratory and marital status, type, size) than their socioeconomic status (income, employment, education). These residential choices are also determined by the characteristics of the existing residential parks (typology, location, access to basic services of housing). We find that owner-occupiers are often bi-parental households headed by men, older and larger than renter and free-holder households in Lomé. Native and long-term migrant households are more likely to be homeowners and long-term sharers than those who recently migrate. Homeowner households are overall well-off than free-holders, but they are not necessary wealthier and better educated than the renters. The thesis also shows that family house which mainly makes up the residential park of Lomé, is especially kept for renters, although it shelters households of all the tenures. We suggest that steady programmes of housing finance systems extended to all the sectors of the society, concentrated on the access of the current housing stock to basic services and on the supply, with the public technical support, of an improved version of family house, will largely contribute to offer a decent housing to most of the households in Lomé as elsewhere in West African cities, whether they are owner-occupiers, renters or sharers.