A significant problem for small cities is a lack of a sense of community. In some multicultural cities, land use in such categories as residential, commercial, industrial and educational forms separate uses or locations. Such segregation leads ultimately to a city stagnation which eliminates the essential life of vibrant and healthy cities. People commute from zone to zone only when necessary. Each territory is connected by automobile. Therefore, there is no interrelation which can cause discontinuity and fragmentation. The business zones are vacant at night because nobody lives there. People in the residential zones have few public facilities and places for diverse activities outside their houses within an intimate distance. Nevertheless, to eliminate segregation is not an answer. Each function improves when segregated at a certain level, but it also requires a close interaction with the other functions in order to maintain its vibrancy. / Department of Architecture

This dissertation seeks to explore the association between natural disasters and neighborhood change and further to examine the differential impact of natural disasters on neighborhood change according to the disaster itself, the rehabilitation efforts of local jurisdictions, and the characteristics of the affected neighborhoods. Using the longitudinal model, it examines the shifts in neighborhood change trajectory before and after natural disaster for three indicators (home values, poverty rate and racial diversity). The results find that natural disasters have a significant impact on the trend of neighborhood change, reducing variation in the indicators within neighborhood. Home values and racial diversity of neighborhoods are likely to immediately decrease after natural disasters but not to shift in subsequent rate of change,while poverty rates are likely to instantly increase in the aftermath of the disasters and to annually decline over time. This dissertation also explores the differential effects on neighborhood change according to intensity of natural disaster, neighborhoods? average income and the location. The results of the analyses are like the following: 1) the neighborhoods which the more intense disasters hit are more likely to experience the rapid decline in home values and an instant increase in their poverty rates than those which the less intense disaster hit. On the other hand, the more intense natural disasters are more likely to increase neighborhoods? racial diversity than the less intense natural disasters, while natural disasters themselves are likely to decrease it. 2) natural disasters might have the more adverse impacts on low- and high-income neighborhoods than moderate-income neighborhoods and that the impacts on low-income neighborhoods are most severe. More importantly, the adverse impacts in low-income neighborhoods might be long lasting. 3)neighborhoods in suburban areas, compared to neighborhoods in the central cities, are likely to decrease in their home values after natural disasters and to increase in their poverty rates. Finally, the findings of this dissertation confirms its main arguments that a natural disaster affects the trend of neighborhood change and intervenes in the path of change over time and that natural disasters differentially shift neighborhoods according to their characteristics. Further it suggests that these neighborhood changes, once accelerated by a natural disaster, further polarize residential populations on a metropolitan neighborhood scale.

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 92-94). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-185).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 1, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-97).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Criminal Justice, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 23, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 171-183). Also issued in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Ian R. Manners. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Joel Sherzer and Elizabeth Keating. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisors: Joel Sherzer and Elizabeth Keating. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-115).