Mass transit can play a critical role in making communities more livable. To be effective public transit must be a positive element in a community. The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) encourages design excellence, including the use of public art in public transit facilities. While public art may be a viable strategy to creating pleasant and interesting places, public opinions and attitudes towards public art--as a design element--are relatively unknown. This research documents the effectiveness of public art in public transit improvement projects. Surveys addressing transit agencies nationwide and three transit-supportive areas in metropolitan Tucson were evaluated. Four public transit facility projects in Tucson are documented for future research on the effects of public art in public transit facilities. The project resulted in significantly different approaches by transit agencies nationwide, as well as a range of opinions on the functional and aesthetic attributes of public transit facility designs.

Managing natural and cultural resources on a department of Defense (DoD) facility presents a difficult challenge. Many DoD facilities contain sensitive resources that are protected by a myriad of state and federal laws. Resource protection is complicated further since, while an important endeavor, it often is subjugated to the fulfillment of the military mission. The ability for resource managers to compare, analyze, and integrate complex resource data determines the speed and efficiency in which planning decisions are made. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help resource managers make informed accurate resource management decisions in an expedient manner. This project expanded a GIS database for San Nicolas Island (SNI), part of the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station CA, and created prototype computer application to assist in resource management. This application, the Point Mugu Computerized Activity Planning System (PM-CAPS), assists managers in selecting locations on SNI for military activities to occur while minimizing the negative impacts on sensitive cultural and natural resources.

There are some issues that have to be addressed for further understanding and improving scenic beauty management. First, the conventional model, preference rating based on fixed scene and direction, may not sufficiently reflect the reality of visual experience. Rather, visual and scenic preference is construed of a spatial experience. Second, the predictors are chosen based on measuring the composition of landscape features shown in the image. The measurement may not necessarily represent the contents of the physical environment. Third, judgements of scenic preference are complicated tasks. Simple linear regression analysis, with limited degree of freedom and some statistical constraints, may not represent the complexity of human judgments. An integrated model was developed by integrating the Scenic Beauty Estimation (SBE) model (Terry, 1976), the geographic information system (GIS) and, the artificial neural network (ANN). The results suggested the integrated model might be utilized as an automatic scenic preference mechanism for policy making. Implications for future research are also suggested.

The COPAC-driven constitution-making process in Zimbabwe was largely focused on revamping local governance and ensuring a return to democracy. The attempts were mainly focused on checking the power of the executive in a bid to institutionalise separation of powers by empowering the legislative and judicial arms of the state. However the most critical power-sharing objective was the reform of intergovernmental balance of power between the central government and subnational government structures; the provincial, urban and rural local authorities. This was captured in the ideology of devolution of power, which was set as fundamental principle of good governance repealing the erstwhile centralised system of government. The hope was that this shift of preference will be enshrined in the 2013 Constitution. However this study notes that this public optimism has not been sufficiently met in the new constitution, which is officially dubbed ‘Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Act, 2013’. The study argues that the provisions for devolution in the 2013 Constitution are inconsequential and betray a lack of political will by the central government to devolve authority and resources to local governments. The extensive reliance on impending Acts of Parliament to clarify and give effect to devolution, such as the administrative, political and fiscal competencies of different tiers of government, creates a weak framework for decentralisation which is tantamount to the continuation of the existing status quo, in which subnational governments are de facto deconcentrated appendages of central government. Notwithstanding this major setback in the aspirations of devolution in Zimbabwe, this study recommends that extensive civil society engagement with the central government which has been evidenced over the last couple of years can still reclaim the reforms initially agreed to by the ruling elite during the negotiations thereby ensuring the institutionalisation of devolution in Zimbabwe. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

The disparities in the level of development between the richer and poorer regions of Yugoslavia are among the worst in Europe. The level of output per head of the population in 1964 in the poorest of the eight regions was less than one-fifth of its level in the richest, while in the group of the four least developed regions, comprising 40 percent of the country's land area and one-third of its population, it was only one-half of its level in the more developed group. The period 1953-and4 spans twelve years during which the promotion of the development of the backward regions has been a constitutional obligation of the Yugoslav government, and its active regional policy implemented through the uniquely Yugoslav system of decentralised planning. Following the repudiation, in the years 1950-52, of centralised directive planning on the Soviet model, the Yugoslav authorities instituted a system of economic management based on the decentralisation to the enterprise of responsibility for the organisation of current production, combined with the retention by the state organs of control over the "basic proportions of development", specifically, the level and sectoral distribution of investment and foreign trade. The control of investment was made effective through the strong centralisation in the accumulation of investment funds, from taxes on the enterprise, and their allocation in accordance with plan priorities. The authorities were thus able directly to channel a substantial volume of investment funds to the underdeveloped regions. Extensive government intervention in price formation, in addition to tax concessions and the payment of subsidies to enterprises in financial difficulties severely limited the application of profit and loss criteria to the operations of the enterprise. The system of decentralised planning thus provided a very favourable institutional framework for promoting investment and the expansion of output in the underdeveloped regions. Development policy for the backward regions, as for the country as a whole, passed through two main phases during these years. Industrialisation was consistently regarded as the centrepiece of development strategy, with the improvement of agriculture and the expansion of tertiary activities playing, for the most part, only a subsidiary role. Between 1953 and 1956 efforts were concentrated on the build-up of the "basic industries", notably the power industries and heavy metallurgy, a continuation of the policy begun under the First Five-Year Plan in the Stalinist years. From 1957, however, a new strategy was adopted, of "development on a broader front", giving much greater prominence to the expansion of manufacturing and consumer goods' industries. This reorientation gave rise to considerable dispersion in the development efforts in the backward regions, both among industrial sectors and into newly designated centres, in contrast to the narrow range of industries developed in the earlier phase and their concentration in the vicinity of the necessary raw materials. Within this broad pattern, however, the individual underdeveloped regions varied their own development strategies in accordance with their natural resources and other characteristics. In Bosnia- Hercegovenia, which contained a substantial part of Yugoslavia's reserves of coal, iron-ore and water-power, development proceeded rapidly in the earlier years with the expansion of the national priority sectors of coal, steel and electricity, but latterly the transition to a more diversified pattern of industrial development was effected only slowly. The concentration of these resource-based industries into the central parts of the region has left Bosnia-Hercegovenia itself, in spite of substantial local population migration, faced with the internal problem of disparities between its more and less developed areas. Montenegro, the smallest and most remote of the regions, separated from the rest of Yugoslavia by mountain barriers, had initially to devote major efforts and a large volume of investment to the provision of transport facilities before the expansion of production could be begun, and even in 1964 the facilities remained seriously deficient. Because of the region's small size (less than half a million inhabitants) its development strategy comprised only a few individual projects, although the level of investment there was much the highest in Yugoslavia. Macedonia, the most agricultural of the underdeveloped regions, adopted a policy of integrated agricultural and industrial development, the improvement of agriculture being complemented by the establishment of textile, leather and food-processing industries to process agricultural products for the national market. This pattern of development encouraged a high degree of urbanisation in the region, with the concentration of its industries into a number of relatively large centres, each serving its particular agricultural hinterland. For political reasons development efforts for Kosmet, much the poorest of the Yugoslav regions did not begin, on any scale, until after 1957, with the result that development there was scarcely begun. A two-pronged approach, comprising both heavy and light industry, was however being either adopted or planned. Coal, electricity and, eventually, chemical industries were being based on the region's extensive lignite deposits, while non-ferrous metallurgy and related chemicals were being expanded, to exploit local deposits of lead and zinc; complementary to these, the labour-intensive industries of textiles, footwear and food products were being promoted in order to create new industrial employment and thus begin to relieve the acute pressure of agricultural overpopulation. But, in spite of very high levels of investment in the underdeveloped regions, the disparities between the regional groups in the level of output per head tended to increase over the twelve years, as total output in the underdeveloped regions grew rather less rapidly, and population more rapidly, than in the more developed group. This occurred in spite of considerable emigration, most notably from Macedonia. Only in Montenegro, much the smallest of the regions, was a movement towards convergence with the more developed group achieved. The policy of industrialisation was itself successful, in that each of the underdeveloped regions recorded a rate of industrial expansion higher, sometimes substantially higher, than in the more developed group; but their tendency towards lower growth rates in the other economic sectors, combined with the handicap of an output structure in which industry occupied a lesser place more than offset (except in Montenegro) the successful growth of industrial production. The focussing of development efforts on industrial expansion, while in itself successful, was thus concentrated on too narrow a front to achieve a convergent movement in the growth of total output. The cost of the policy of development in the backward regions is difficult to appraise, with the artificial prices for certain items of capital equipment and the payment of subsidies in order to maintain production in unprofitable enterprises.

This thesis examines issues of affordability and gentrification in neighborhoods around the Atlanta BeltLine. The BeltLine is a Transit Oriented Development project that is an adaptive reuse of an old freight rail corridor circling the city of Atlanta. The rapid new development occurring along the BeltLine is gentrifying neighborhoods and displacing communities. This thesis examines past urban redevelopment projects in Atlanta to see what the affects were on marginalized communities, and how the BeltLine is either similar or different to past development initiatives.

New software and technology is making it easier than ever before for public transportation planners to evaluate how quickly residents can reach jobs and other destinations. Because in the past it was difficult to measure access to opportunities, these concepts remained primarily in the theoretical and academic realms of research. This thesis reviews methods that could be used to evaluate routine bus service improvements and performs a comparative analysis of different methods in the context of New Orleans. There are many different variables in how the analysis could be performed, but this thesis focuses on the role that time of day plays in analyzing service changes. The results show that accessibility can be a very useful metric to evaluate the effectiveness of transit service changes. It goes on to explore techniques that could assist transit planners and schedulers to identify service gaps and prioritize service changes.

Measured by the level of transportation safety, the Commonwealth of Virginia stands out from all the States because despite increased need for mobility, it manages to maintain its safety indices at exceptionally good levels. In many respects we can attribute this success to the comprehensive Strategic Highway Safety Plan of Virginia (SHSP), which is, as concluded from the analysis of its analogues, among the best in the US. The programs and policies described in this document embrace all aspects of transportation safety and create a harmonious system. To assess the effectiveness of the SHSP, this thesis used correlation and regression analysis based on statistical data from the years 2004 – 2011 in Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) documents. The performed calculations showed very positive trends with gradual reduction, in crash and death rates. It was also found that citizens would use private vehicles more often in the future without making conditions worse on the highways. Instead, drivers tend to be more careful and responsible. Analysis also reveals a rising level of drunken driving incidents, a finding substantiated by literature review, chiefly planning reports and economic analysis. The current transportation policy I does not adequately address this issue. The correlation between allocation of funds and performance indicators showed it would be more effective to invest in research projects on safety rather than in “safety” itself (i.e. construction of roads). Unfortunately, in difficult times, governments usually cut research projects. Finally, Virginia is on the verge of a new transportation era, when the structure of driving cohorts will change, and decisions about building new highways will have to be balanced between technical and ecological considerations.

Call number: LD2668 .P7 1975 K85

This study examines landscape regulations and their potential to improve the urban environments of developing countries. The literature on environmental problems of developing countries suggests that landscape solutions must be both economic and environmentally sound. Religion and cultural ethics are the basis for landscape values in the Muslim society. Religion governs Muslims. The religious landscape values would be readily acceptable by Islamic society when used as an implementation strategy. Model landscape guidelines are presented for Karachi, Pakistan which should be helpful in preparing actual landscape regulations. Karachi's economic constraints pose unavoidable restrictions. Setting up design standards requires a careful and realistic approach. Suggestions are made to build up a conceptual policy umbrella at the national, and provincial level, providing a basis for developing landscape regulations by local governments.