Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Sheri L. Smith / The Kansas City Design Center (KCDC) Interdisciplinary Urban Design Studio is one of a myriad of design studios throughout the country, which seek to bring students of differing educational backgrounds together in an urban environment. In this setting they collaborate with each other, faculty, and outside professionals in an effort to stem many of the problems associated with urban America today. While these design studios have made their goals and objectives clear to the public and their studio participants, what are they offering in terms of a quality interdisciplinary educational experience? How interdisciplinary are these urban design studios? Are students receiving the same educational experiences? The above questions can only be answered by documenting the processes involved as well as looking to the students for their insight and feelings of their own individual educational experiences while taking part in the studio. The Kansas City Design center builds its educational endeavors around its interdisciplinary design studio. The goal of this studio is to “strengthen the educational experiences of future planning and design practitioners by engaging university faculty and students with real world issues facing Kansas City’s built environment.” Through this studio, faculty and students are able to work closely with local client groups working towards improving the built environment in Kansas City. If Kansas State University and the University of Kansas continue to send students to KCDC to study each year, it only seems appropriate that their faculty and potential students understand what is taking place at this particular studio. Therefore, the goal of this research paper is to describe the projects undertaken during the inaugural Kansas City Design Center Urban Design Studio and to analyze the interdisciplinary environment of the studio.

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this study was to describe the structures of an arid urban forest. Two distinct and adjacent residential neighborhoods in Tucson, Arizona, Winterhaven and Richland Heights, were chosen as the study site. Landcover classes were identified through aerial photointerpretation and digitized using AutoCad. A field inventory gathered vegetative measures. Through an analysis, species composition, horizontal and vertical structure were described. Results were compared between each neighborhood stand and among findings of previous structural studies. Results describe Winterhaven as an uneven-aged stand with 55% available growing space, 37% canopy stocking, a pattern of strong dominance and mostly exotic species. Richland Heights is an even-aged stand with 78% available growing space, 11% canopy stocking, a pattern of codominance and mostly native species. These and other structural analyses have provided a descriptive study of two arid urban forest stands.

Arroyo Chico Wash, an important drainage for central Tucson, Arizona, runs through numerous neighborhood and industrial areas before emptying into the Santa Cruz River. Within four suburban neighborhoods along the wash, direct observations, personal interviews, survey questions, and historical documents are used to describe design and management influences on the biological and human aspects of the wash. Plants along the wash are identified by 2-meter wide belt transects run at 100-meter intervals over the 4 kilometer length of the study area. Wild animal and bird lists are based on observation and information given by residents. Relationships between design, maintenance and neighborhood attitudes toward the wash are assessed using a survey questionnaire given to people living adjacent to the wash. Results show the wash in the Colonia Solana neighborhood has the greatest biological diversity, highest neighborhood satisfaction and highest recreational use. In neighborhoods where the wash is a "backyard easement", satisfaction and use are the lowest.

Disastrous wildland-urban interface fires are an increasing problem throughout the United States. Local government is ultimately responsible for protection of property and life threatened by these fires. This study attempts to identify the factors that influence local policy-making in this arena. Information for this study was gathered from a review of the natural hazard and public policy literature as well as three case studies. The case study areas are Orange County, California; Oakland California; and Eastern Pima County, Arizona. Eight factors which influence local government policy-making were identified from the literature and confirmed through interviews. These factors include: acknowledgement; authority; participation; timing; cost; political influences; and liability. This study concluded that natural hazard research can be applied to wildland-urban interface fire. It also concluded that while there is increasing awareness of the wildland-urban interface fire problem there appears to be a need for a change of approach.

I surveyed songbirds and lizards adjacent to dry rivers throughout metropolitan Tucson and related species richness to recreational use and habitat using stepwise multiple regression. Habitat characteristics included vegetation structure and floristics in river-edge areas, adjacent land uses, and land uses of the surrounding landscape. Bank stabilization had a negative effect on species richness of all bird groups. Total vegetation cover, mesquite (Prosopis velutina) density, and natural open space had a positive effect on species richness of most bird groups. Tall vegetation was important for species richness of lizards. River corridors could function as conservation corridors for five bird species and two lizard species. However, habitat for many other species was not continuous across the metropolitan area. Recommendations include protecting mesquite bosques without bank stabilization, protecting wide areas of upland vegetation near large protected areas, and increasing structural diversity and use of native plants in river parkways.