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Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an innovative bus system with sophisticated vehicles and inflexible busways integrated in the cities, high capacity and high quality, high speed and frequency, distinctive image and comfort. Many in Sweden believe that is impossible to introduce BRT, even though the Swedish towns and cities can benefit from the image, speed and frequency that BRT symbolizes. The archipelago-like urbanization, urban sprawl and the uncompetitive journey times of public transportation compared with the private car are identified as main obstacles. New questions emerged: Is it possible to transform and adjust the Swedish towns and cities for BRT? What demands BRT? How is transit-oriented development (TOD) applicable in a Swedish context as a policy to integrate cities and BRT? In this licentiate thesis I investigate the interrelationship between bus transportation and neighborhoods, between BRT and urban form as well as the possibilities to introduce busways and BRT, to trigger TOD and to transform the Swedish towns and cities for BRT. Much has been written about BRT, but seldom by architects or urban planners and designers. BRT and TOD are seen though urban form and processes of urbanization within a morphological tradition established by Kevin Lynch. BRT is represented by paths and nodes that disperse distinctive attractiveness pattern of desirability cores that shape neighborhoods as districts. TOD is about synchronizing the everyday urban life with public transportation systems. BRT-TOD is defined as a policy to recognize desirability cores spread by the different infrastructures of BRT and promote development of urban form within their attractiveness pattern at urban and regional scale. BRT-TOD is discussed as a concept of BRT metropolis in context of the urbanization of Swedish towns and cities.  TOD is defined morphologically as public transport cities. A public transport city is a city that in its development adapted to specific public transportation systems. TOD is nothing new in Europe or Sweden. To find regularities of the effect of public transportation systems on cities I do a historical overview of the Swedish towns and cities. In the end the position of bus and BRT, public transport cities and TOD and possibilities of future urban transformation of the smaller and larger Swedish cities towards BRT metropolises are discussed in context of today’s “‘system’ of automobility” and widespread car society and the emerging knowledge society and its postmodern fringes of urbanization. / <p>QC 20130917</p>

This study aims to understand a swedish BID (business improvement district) partnership as a local form of urban governance in neighborhood improvement. The study explores challenges with the collaborative governance of various actors with a majority of private property owners. It highlights the need of public meta-governance and the challenges the network's public leader face in its governing of the network. As a framework for this, the study uses governance theory, which discusses the effective and democratic implications for network governance and how it can be improved by a meta-governor. It also uses various perspectives of BIDs as governance networks and its influence as urban actors. The empirical data is collected through qualitative interviews with involved network actors as well as the network leader, and focus is on their perceptions of the partnership's role and challenges with the collaborative governance. The findings of the study demonstrate the complexity of a multi-organisation partnership as well as the challenges to manage it. The results suggest that the partnership's practice of meta-governance do not live up to the definition presented by the theorists, due to a weak political accountability, and the network actors' governing are therefore left to be determined by their intentions. However, if their intentions are good, the network has the potential to create a well-functioning and committed local democracy with an effective decision-making process with less bureaucracy. Of importance for the discipline of urban studies, the identified aspects of diverging interests and the partnership's weak bond with public deliberation, BIDs as a way of managing space should be questioned in ways of who's interest is taken into consideration in the planning and development of our public spaces.

The construction industry's two main certifications are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Energy Star. To achieve the triple bottom line of sustainability for these certifications, both certifications should make a positive impact individually as well as mutually, with their impact extending to the surrounding neighborhood. This research examined the spillover effect of LEED and/or Energy Star certified office buildings on the property values of other buildings in their neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City from an economic standpoint. The spatial analysis approach using the Geographic Information System and the statistical analysis approach based on the Hedonic Price Model and the Linear Mixed Effect Model were applied to identify the geographical distribution of LEED and/or Energy Star certified office buildings and their other buildings in their neighborhoods and analyze the impact of the former on the latter. The results were as follows: 1) There was a significant correlation between a LEED and/or Energy Star certified office building and the unit market values of its adjoining buildings through the unit market values of the certified office building, the LEED and/or Energy Star certification achievement, and the major features of LEED certification; 2) There was a varying spillover effect of the certified office building on the median unit market value of buildings depending on their proximities to a LEED and/or Energy Star certified office building. This research provides a firm foundation for further efforts to quantify the spillover effect of LEED and/or Energy Star certification on a neighborhood from an economic standpoint, thus supporting and encouraging growth in the local real estate market and benefitting not only the owners, developers, and investors of the certified office building but also the owners of neighboring buildings. / Ph. D.

Heat-related illnesses and deaths are significant public health problems. Extreme heat is the No.1 deadliest form of weather on average in 1990-2019 in the US according to the National Weather Service. Measurements and forecasts made at regional weather stations are a common data source of Heatwave Early Warning Systems. However, regional weather stations provide inaccurate estimates of the heat index that people experience in different microclimates. Introducing a direct measurement of heat index experienced by individuals via wearable sensors will allow more accurate exposure assessment and identification of factors associated with dangerous exposures to extreme heat. The goal of this dissertation is to characterize the individually experienced heat index exposure via wearable sensors in an urban and a rural location in summer in a southern part of the United States. In the first study, 51 outdoor workers in Birmingham, Alabama wore a small thermometer attached to their shoe. Their occupational Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures (WBGT), a comprehensive heat exposure index, was estimated from either temperature from the shoe thermometers or nearby weather stations. In the second and third studies, 88 urban participants and 89 rural participants completed a seven-day intervention where they performed normal activity on Days 1-2 and spent an additional 30 minutes outdoors daily on Days 3-7. Participants wore a small thermometer attached to the shoe and a pedometer at their waist to track steps. Neighborhood hygrometers/thermometers were deployed close to participants' homes to measure neighborhood level heat indexes. In the fourth study, we conducted a phone survey including 101 participants in the same urban and rural locations to examine how their heat-health behaviors changed due to COVID-19 and high profiles of police brutality cases in Summer 2020 compared to previous summers. The results demonstrated that (1) a wearable thermometer on the shoe was a feasible way to measure individually experienced temperatures; (2) among outdoor workers, WBGT from shoe thermometer temperatures estimated more hours in dangerous exposure categories and recommended more protective work-rest schedules compared to WBGT from weather station temperatures; (3) neighborhood level heat indexes improved the prediction of individually experienced heat indexes compared to weather station data alone; (4) rural participants experienced higher heat index exposures than urban participants, after accounting for ambient conditions; (5) spending a small amount of additional time outdoors was a feasible and effective intervention where participants walked more steps and had lower individually experienced heat indexes during the intervention days compared to baseline days; (6) a significantly lower percent of participants reported they would use public cooling centers in Summer 2020 compared to previous summers. Taken together, the results of these studies identified methods for more accurate heat exposure assessment and its application in monitoring heat-safety while promoting physical activity via time spent outdoors in the summer. Future work could incorporate physiological response monitoring linked to simultaneous individually experienced heat exposure to further characterize exposure-response relationships across different populations. Additionally, a longer intervention and more advanced wearable devices such Fitbit, Apple Watches could be used to monitor sustainability of the intervention and intervention benefits beyond short term increases in physical activity, respectively. / Doctor of Philosophy / Extreme high temperatures/humidity can bring dangerous adverse effects in people. Extreme heat is on average the deadliest form of weather in 1990-2019 in the US estimated by National Weather Service. Heatwave Early Warning Systems are introduced to closely monitor extreme heat events, estimate the magnitude of health consequences due to extreme heat, send warning messages to vulnerable populations, and trigger response plans to reduce the dangerous health effects of heat. Heatwave Early Warning Systems generally rely on the measurement and forecasts from regional weather stations. However, the temperature/humidity measurements made at weather stations can be different from the temperature/humidity people experience. People can live far away from weather stations and they move through indoor and outdoor locations, where weather station measurements will not represent temperatures experienced, particularly in climate-controlled indoor settings. Therefore, we recruited participants in an urban and a rural location and had each participant wear a small thermometer clipped to their shoe to directly measure the temperature they experienced as they went about their normal activities. In the first study, 51 outdoor workers wore this small thermometer on their shoe at work. We calculated a comprehensive heat exposure index from either the shoe thermometer temperatures or nearby weather station temperatures. In the second and third studies, 88 urban participants and 89 rural participants completed a seven-day intervention where they performed normal activities on Days 1-2 and spent an additional 30 minutes outdoors daily on Days 3-7. Participants wore the small thermometer clipped to the shoe and a pedometer at their waist to track how many steps they walked. We placed temperature/humidity sensors close to participants' homes to take measurements at a neighborhood level. In the fourth study, we conducted a phone survey including 101 participants in the same urban and rural locations to examine whether they had different cooling methods due to the COVID-19 pandemic and high profiles of police brutality cases in Summer 2020 compared to previous summers. The results demonstrated that (1) a small thermometer clipped on the shoe was a feasible way to measure temperatures at the individual level; (3) among outdoor workers, the comprehensive heat exposure index using temperatures from the shoe thermometers estimated more hours when outdoor workers were at a risk of dangerous exposure to extreme heat, and it recommended more rest time for workers to cool off compared to using weather station temperatures alone; (3) neighborhood level temperature/humidity was more representative of the temperatures recorded from thermometers on the shoe compared to nearby weather stations; (4) rural participants experienced higher temperature/humidity than urban participants, even when their nearby weather station temperature measurements were the same; (5) spending a small amount of additional time outdoors is a feasible and effective intervention where participants walked more steps and experienced lower temperature/humidity during the intervention days compared to baseline days; (6) a smaller number of participants reported they would use public cooling centers/spaces (e.g., air-conditioned library, air-conditioned churches, waterparks) to cool down due to fear of contracting COVID-19 and safety concerns brought by the high profiles of police brutality cases in Summer 2020 compared to previous summers. Taken together, the results of these studies showed that the wearable thermometers clipped on the shoe could provide more accurate assessment of temperatures experienced by participants compared to weather stations. This method could be used in future outdoor time interventions to monitor and ensure participants safely spend time outdoors while minimizing the risk of heat-related illness. In future work, more advanced sensors (e.g., Fitbit, Apple Watch) can be worn by participants to measure physiological responses across different temperatures experienced. Additionally, a longer intervention time can be used to test if participants would continue to spend additional time outdoors.

Denna studie – Integrationens mosaik – är en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som undersöker boendesegregationen i Limhamn Sjöstad i Malmö, med fokus på stadens strategier för att skapa blandat boende. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka boendesegregation och hur blandat boende kan påverka samhällsintegrationen. Genom att tillämpa utvalda teorier som - grannskapseffekterna, social distance och white flight – strävar studien efter att belysa orsakerna till boendesegregation. Genom att analysera uttalanden från invånare i Limhamn Sjöstad kan vi se hur olika fenomen och attityder bidrar till och upprätthåller bostadssegregationen. Uttryck för otrygghet, social distans och kulturellt motstånd visar på de komplexa dynamikerna som präglar bostadsmarknaden och samhällsstrukturen. Resultaten visar att blandat boende kan ha många positiva effekter på längre sikt, inklusive minskad segregation, ökad social sammanhållning och skapande av jämlika ekonomiska förutsättningar. Komplikationer som socioekonomiska skillnader och kulturella normer förekommer, vilket kan leda till fortsatt segregation trots närvaron av blandat boende. En viktig slutsats är att Malmö stad behöver implementera åtgärder som främjar inkludering och samexistens över hela staden, inklusive investeringar i bostadsinfrastruktur och tillgång till utbildning och arbetsmöjligheter. Studien pekar på behovet av fortsatt forskning kring hur media påverkar uppfattningar om integrationsstrategier och dess inverkan på det politiska klimatet. / This study - The Mosaic of Integration - is a qualitative analysis examining residential segregation in Limhamn Sjöstad in Malmö, with a focus on the city's strategies for creating mixed housing. The purpose is to investigate residential segregation and how mixed housing can affect societal integration. By applying theories as - neighborhood effects, social distance and white flight - the study aims to illuminate the causes of residential segregation. By analyzing statements from residents in Limhamn Sjöstad, can we observe how different phenomena and attitudes contribute to housing segregation. Expressions of insecurity, social distance, and cultural resistance demonstrate the complex dynamics that characterize the housing market and social structure. The results indicate that mixed housing can have positive long-term effects, including reduced segregation, increased social cohesion, and the creation of equal economic opportunities. Complications such as socioeconomic differences and cultural norms occur, which can lead to continued segregation despite the presence of mixed housing. An important conclusion is that the Malmö needs to implement measures that promote inclusion and coexistence, including investments in housing infrastructure. The study highlights the need for research on how media influences perceptions of integration strategies and its impact on the political climate.

The purpose of this naturalistic qualitative inquiry was to develop a more complete understanding of the process of implementing community policing from the citizen participants' perspective. While an abundance of literature exists on the topic of community policing, with the exception of several survey and evaluation efforts, little examination of this topic has been conducted that devoted exclusive attention to citizen participation in this style of policing. It was citizen participant descriptions that formed the basis for this examination. The present study also examined the theoretical support for community policing by comparing the citizen descriptions of this concept to the component parts of critical social science (Fay, 1987), normative sponsorship theory (Sower, et al., 1957) and community education for development (Compton & McClusky, 1980).A purposive sample was utilized to examine this topic. This sample was composed of citizens (N = 71) from Fort Wayne, Indiana and Fort Worth, Texas who had participated with their respective municipal police departments in implementing community policing. The community policing efforts in these cities had been in existence since the early to mid 1990s. The sample was composed of citizens that came from different geographic areas of their respective cities, and who had spent at least one year working with assigned police officers and community groups. A questioning route was developed and participants were interviewed in focus group settings. Data analysis identified seven themes from the transcribed interviews. These themes were: (a) partners; (b) community education; (c) neighborhood associations; (d) involvement with government; (e) problem solving; (f) frustration with the city administration and (g) communication and managing community policing.The research found that relatively successful community policing efforts rely upon structured neighborhoods, ample community education, an emphasis on problem solving, open communication and strong support from the upper levels of municipal government. Many of these findings were supported by the literature in the field. Additionally, the theories purported to support community policing were found to confirm the citizens' experiences in these cities. / Department of Educational Leadership

Orientador: Jose Sanches Mantovani / Resumo: Neste trabalho propõem-se metodologias para realizar o planejamento de sistemas de distribuição de energia elétrica de média tensão (MT), baixa tensão (BT) e o planejamento integrado de sistemas de média e baixa tensão (MT/BT). Nos modelos de funções objetivos considerados minimizam-se os custos associados à construção, expansão, operação e confiabilidade das redes de MT, BT e MT/BT, considerando a presença de geradores distribuídos e variáveis de natureza estocástica. A geração distribuída presente no planejamento de sistemas de distribuição é avaliada através de metodologias de geração de cenários e análise de risco. Como método de busca de soluções para o problema de planejamento dos sistemas de distribuição é proposta a meta-heurística de busca em vizinhança variável GVNS (General Variable Neighborhood Search). A meta-heurística GVNS trabalha com uma série de estruturas de vizinhanças que permitem explorar o espaço de busca de forma eficiente através dos critérios de diversificação e intensificação, aumentando a probabilidade de obter soluções que não sejam ótimos locais. No planejamento integrado MT/BT, as soluções obtidas são analisadas através de um fluxo de potência integrado entre as redes de MT e BT, considerando as relações de conexão dos transformadores entre estes sistemas. Os algoritmos propostos relacionados ao planejamento de sistemas MT, BT e MT/BT são implementados em linguagem de programação C++ e testado em diferentes sistemas testes de MT (54 barras e 182... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Doutor

Submitted by DIOGO RUPOLO null (rupolo.diogo@gmail.com) on 2017-09-08T14:50:14Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Final Diogo Rupolo.pdf: 4125842 bytes, checksum: 60d451cc4d13afb90cca7e443d7436b1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Monique Sasaki (sayumi_sasaki@hotmail.com) on 2017-09-11T20:51:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 rupolo_d_dr_ilha.pdf: 4125842 bytes, checksum: 60d451cc4d13afb90cca7e443d7436b1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-11T20:51:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rupolo_d_dr_ilha.pdf: 4125842 bytes, checksum: 60d451cc4d13afb90cca7e443d7436b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-18 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Neste trabalho propõem-se metodologias para realizar o planejamento de sistemas de distribuição de energia elétrica de média tensão (MT), baixa tensão (BT) e o planejamento integrado de sistemas de média e baixa tensão (MT/BT). Nos modelos de funções objetivos considerados minimizam-se os custos associados à construção, expansão, operação e confiabilidade das redes de MT, BT e MT/BT, considerando a presença de geradores distribuídos e variáveis de natureza estocástica. A geração distribuída presente no planejamento de sistemas de distribuição é avaliada através de metodologias de geração de cenários e análise de risco. Como método de busca de soluções para o problema de planejamento dos sistemas de distribuição é proposta a meta-heurística de busca em vizinhança variável GVNS (General Variable Neighborhood Search). A meta-heurística GVNS trabalha com uma série de estruturas de vizinhanças que permitem explorar o espaço de busca de forma eficiente através dos critérios de diversificação e intensificação, aumentando a probabilidade de obter soluções que não sejam ótimos locais. No planejamento integrado MT/BT, as soluções obtidas são analisadas através de um fluxo de potência integrado entre as redes de MT e BT, considerando as relações de conexão dos transformadores entre estes sistemas. Os algoritmos propostos relacionados ao planejamento de sistemas MT, BT e MT/BT são implementados em linguagem de programação C++ e testado em diferentes sistemas testes de MT (54 barras e 182 barras), BT (76 barras) e MT/BT (172 e 412 barras), sob diferentes cenários operacionais. / This work proposes methodologies for the planning of medium voltage (MV), low voltage (LV), and integrated planning of medium and low voltage (MV/LV) systems. In the objective function models are considered the costs associated with the construction, expansion, operation and reliability of MV, LV and integrated MV/LV networks. Distributed generators and stochastic variables are also considered in the models. The distributed generation present in the planning of distribution systems is evaluated through methodologies of scenario generation and risk analysis. As a method of finding solutions to the problem of distribution system planning, the GVNS metaheuristic (General Variable Neighborhood Search) is proposed. The metaheuristic GVNS works with a series of neighborhood structures that allow to explore the search space efficiently through diversification and intensification criteria, increasing the probability of obtaining solutions that are not local optimum. In integrated MV/LV planning, the solutions obtained are analyzed through an integrated power flow between the MV and LV networks, considering the connection ratios of the transformers between these systems. The proposed algorithms related to the planning of MV, LV and integrated MV/LV systems are implemented in C ++ programming language and tested in different distribution systems, MV (54 and 182 bus), LV (76 bus) and MV/LV (172 and 412 bus), under different operating scenarios.