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Established low-density land use development patterns are characterized by expansive urbanization of the landscape. Concurrent effects associated with this present development pattern are declining existing urbanized areas, increasing conversion of open space, and high public service and infrastructure costs. Maryland's adoption of the Smart Growth legislative initiatives marks a potential advancement in the continuing evolution of government policies and programs designed to reduce inefficiencies by planning and managing growth at the state level. The Smart Growth programs are designed to augment, and work in concert with, previously implemented state growth management strategies, including local water and sewer and comprehensive planning. Maryland's ability to effectively direct and control growth in a desirable manner depends on the integrity and support of each of these planning program elements. This thesis recognizes the considerable influence that the provision of water and sewer services exerts on developing urban growth patterns and the increased relevance of water and sewer planning with respect to Smart Growth legislation. Evaluative research, designed to measure water and sewer plan regulatory conformance, demonstrates that locally adopted water and sewer plans exhibit widespread deficiencies in terms of state agency regulatory requirements. The revealed extent and prevalence of water and sewer plan inadequacies indicate that these documents are incapable of providing state administrators the information necessary to accurately determine existing and planned municipal sewer service, as anticipated by the legislation. The fact that legislation requires state agency approval of water and sewer plans prior to their adoption and that adopted plans exhibit deficiencies suggests problems associated with the current plan approval process. This thesis reviews the institutional procedures by which water and sewer plans are developed and approved in order to illustrate formal and informal organizational processes operable to water and sewer plan development. In addition, this thesis offers recommendations designed to enhance the current approval process, so as to lead to the development of effective water and sewer plans and facilitate successful implementation of related Smart Growth programs. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Housing shortages have plagued many large North American cities and urban areas over the last several decades. In many such regions, less affluent areas are rapidly redeveloped and densified to keep up with housing demand. This frenetic development displaces lower income residents and tears apart community networks. Meanwhile, affluent areas resist development, maintaining low densities despite their relative proximities to jobs, schools, transportation networks, and other resources. Consequently, patterns of inequality which have persisted in American Cities for decades, if not centuries, remain in-tact. Furthermore, these low-density areas contribute to sprawl, car culture, habitat destruction, and other harmful social and environmental phenomena. Additionally, many of the low density urban and suburban residential neighborhoods which were developed en masse over the last century–so-called 'cookie-cutter' neighborhoods–fail to readily accommodate the diverse and ever-changing needs and circumstances of the people who currently inhabit them, having been built with outdated and inflexible notions of the 20th century ideal family in mind. This thesis explores the redevelopment of a single family residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C. By exploring the densification of the neighborhood and the addition of new programs to the suburban landscape, the thesis seeks to identify strategies by which we might one day convert massive and sprawling cookie-cutter suburbs into denser, more sustainable, and more diverse neighborhoods which serve a wider array of residents better while contributing additional housing and other resources to the broader population. / Master of Architecture / The American obsession with single-family homeownership in the name of the 'American Dream' has led to the development of an unsustainable landscape characterized by the extreme stratification of land uses, widespread overdependence on the personal vehicle, and the continued issue of equal access to community assets and services, among many other issues. Furthermore, many extant suburban landscapes were designed with outdated and inflexible notions of the ideal family in mind, and thus they fail to meet the needs of families and individuals who don't conform to the typical family model of the 20th century. The thesis takes the stance that the 'American Dream' is an outdated ideal, and that the American suburb is, by extension, an outdated model of living in the 21st century. The thesis investigates the reprogramming of an affluent single family residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C, proposing the densification of the housing stock and exploring new urban forms which aim to build density, diversity, sustainability, and community in an existing suburban-type neighborhood.

The thesis deals with identification of local actors of a residential suburbanization. The main interest of this work is suburban area of the town České Budějovice, which is in this post- socialistic period undergoing intensive residential construction and population development. The tools, which could possibly control this process (to prevent its negativ impacts and on the other hand to support its positives) are very limited. The most important tool for controlling the development of the territory (which is municipal plan) is available to particular municipalities. However it indicates now that the attitude of the municipalities towards town and country planning is rather "difficult". Councils are under a big pressure of the individual builders, landowners and also developers, who require expansion of the usable territories for more building. The councils usually comply those requirements and they are willing to change the municipal plan. From communities point of view and also from metropolitan region point of view can such steps lead to too fast and extensive building development with series of negative impacts. In the thesis there is an intention to document this inappropriate suburbanization development by a case study of the village Srubec, which is affected by so called urban sprawl impacts. The...

The main hypothesis of this thesis is that the problem of urban sprawl, as a disorder in the growth of the cities, is not a natural result of the growth of the capitalist city but a phenomenon manipulated politically. Consequently, generally a geographically problematized phenomenon / the urban sprawl is, within this work, problematized with reference to urban politics. In the searching of the politics of urban sprawl, one of the political interventions into the urban space / the master plans has utmost importance in this work. The impact of the master plans on the sprawl of the city will be analyzed. A categorization of urban sprawl is proposed in the work, on the urban geography with reference to politics of urban sprawl. After illustrating the types of urban sprawl, the politics of urban sprawl is modeled. The political interventions of State, Metropolitan Municipality, District Municipalities, Housing Development Administration, Real Estate Agents and Rural Landowners located on the periphery is included in the model and their impact on the urban geography is evaluated. Ankara will be examined as a case in the politics of urban sprawl / her unique characteristics like being the &#039 / planned&#039 / capital city controlled by master plans make her indispensable to study. The political interventions of the actors to the urban space of Ankara is highly visible especially considering urban sprawl in the geography of the city, yet another reason to work on.

As cidades vêm passando por significativas transformações, nas últimas décadas, em seus padrões de urbanização, sendo a dispersão urbana característica marcante deste processo. Surgem novas configurações, dispersas, descontínuas e de baixa densidade, distintas da tradicional cidade compacta, com evidentes implicações no desempenho urbano, embora ainda não totalmente conhecidas e estudadas. Entender os efeitos, principalmente aqueles não desejados, de certos padrões de ocupação urbana representa, hoje, grande desafio para o planejamento das cidades, sendo urgente aumentar sua compreensão a fim de melhor direcionar políticas urbanas. Diante desse cenário, desponta a necessidade de reforço na qualidade das metodologias de análise e monitoramento da expansão urbana, principalmente por meio de indicadores. Recentes estudos vêm sendo desenvolvidos no intuito de quantificar aspectos relacionados à dispersão urbana, consistindo em importantes avanços no sentido de tratar o tema com maior precisão. Apresentam, no entanto, certas limitações metodológicas, principalmente no que tange à representação de certos aspectos do sistema espacial urbano, tais como configuração da rede de ruas e distribuição das atividades. Em outras palavras, boa parte dos estudos existentes não tem levado em conta a escala intra-urbana. A presente investigação se propôs a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de metodologias para avaliação da dispersão, aprofundando questões espaciais e configuracionais relacionadas ao tema, pouco exploradas até o momento. Para tanto, buscou referências na investigação sobre indicadores urbanos, especialmente nos trabalhos que vem sendo desenvolvido pelo grupo de pesquisa Sistemas Configuracionais Urbanos da UFRGS. Dessa forma, procurou-se avançar na questão da mensuração da dispersão urbana através da introdução de sistema descritivo detalhado e indicadores sistêmicos para medir acessibilidade entre locais de residência e locais de trabalho, item chave do desempenho urbano. Os indicadores foram testados em pequenos sistemas teóricos e para o caso empírico do município de Torres. Os resultados demonstraram que o método possui potencial para utilização em estudos comparativos sobre desempenho urbano de padrões dispersos, sendo esta a principal contribuição do trabalho. / Cities have undergoing through meaningful changes in their urban development patterns, in last decades. Urban sprawl can be seen as an outstanding characteristic of this process. New urban settings can be found – scattered, discontinuous and low density – different from the compact city, with obvious implications on urban performance, although not completely understood. More detailed research on this subject is needed to enable more accurate assessments about effects of sprawl on urban environment. Knowing effects, mainly undesirable effects, of certain urban patterns is, nowadays, one of major challenges to urban planning, being urgent more understanding about it in order to better address urban policies. So, there is the urgent need of strengthening the quality of analysis methodologies and monitoring of urban development, especially by means of indicators. Recent efforts have been made in order to develop methodologies for measuring sprawl, which have enabled more accurate assessments about the subject. However, they present some limitations, especially about the way certain aspects of urban systems has been described, such as configuration of streets and spatial distribution of urban activities. In other words, most of current methodologies for measuring sprawl do not consider intra urban level. The current research aimed to contribute to development of methodologies for assessment of urban sprawl, deepening spatial and configuration issues, little explored by urban sprawl researchers. The proposal consisted of using urban indicators of urban performance, especially those developed by Configurational Urban Systems research group from UFRGS. A more detailed descriptive method and systemic indicators were used in order to grasp accessibility between dwelling and job location, a key element of urban performance evaluation. The indicators were applied to small theoretical systems and also to the town of Torres case study. The results indicates that the proposed method has potential for being used in comparative studies about urban sprawl and its urban performance, and that is the main contribution of this research.

As cidades vêm passando por significativas transformações, nas últimas décadas, em seus padrões de urbanização, sendo a dispersão urbana característica marcante deste processo. Surgem novas configurações, dispersas, descontínuas e de baixa densidade, distintas da tradicional cidade compacta, com evidentes implicações no desempenho urbano, embora ainda não totalmente conhecidas e estudadas. Entender os efeitos, principalmente aqueles não desejados, de certos padrões de ocupação urbana representa, hoje, grande desafio para o planejamento das cidades, sendo urgente aumentar sua compreensão a fim de melhor direcionar políticas urbanas. Diante desse cenário, desponta a necessidade de reforço na qualidade das metodologias de análise e monitoramento da expansão urbana, principalmente por meio de indicadores. Recentes estudos vêm sendo desenvolvidos no intuito de quantificar aspectos relacionados à dispersão urbana, consistindo em importantes avanços no sentido de tratar o tema com maior precisão. Apresentam, no entanto, certas limitações metodológicas, principalmente no que tange à representação de certos aspectos do sistema espacial urbano, tais como configuração da rede de ruas e distribuição das atividades. Em outras palavras, boa parte dos estudos existentes não tem levado em conta a escala intra-urbana. A presente investigação se propôs a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de metodologias para avaliação da dispersão, aprofundando questões espaciais e configuracionais relacionadas ao tema, pouco exploradas até o momento. Para tanto, buscou referências na investigação sobre indicadores urbanos, especialmente nos trabalhos que vem sendo desenvolvido pelo grupo de pesquisa Sistemas Configuracionais Urbanos da UFRGS. Dessa forma, procurou-se avançar na questão da mensuração da dispersão urbana através da introdução de sistema descritivo detalhado e indicadores sistêmicos para medir acessibilidade entre locais de residência e locais de trabalho, item chave do desempenho urbano. Os indicadores foram testados em pequenos sistemas teóricos e para o caso empírico do município de Torres. Os resultados demonstraram que o método possui potencial para utilização em estudos comparativos sobre desempenho urbano de padrões dispersos, sendo esta a principal contribuição do trabalho. / Cities have undergoing through meaningful changes in their urban development patterns, in last decades. Urban sprawl can be seen as an outstanding characteristic of this process. New urban settings can be found – scattered, discontinuous and low density – different from the compact city, with obvious implications on urban performance, although not completely understood. More detailed research on this subject is needed to enable more accurate assessments about effects of sprawl on urban environment. Knowing effects, mainly undesirable effects, of certain urban patterns is, nowadays, one of major challenges to urban planning, being urgent more understanding about it in order to better address urban policies. So, there is the urgent need of strengthening the quality of analysis methodologies and monitoring of urban development, especially by means of indicators. Recent efforts have been made in order to develop methodologies for measuring sprawl, which have enabled more accurate assessments about the subject. However, they present some limitations, especially about the way certain aspects of urban systems has been described, such as configuration of streets and spatial distribution of urban activities. In other words, most of current methodologies for measuring sprawl do not consider intra urban level. The current research aimed to contribute to development of methodologies for assessment of urban sprawl, deepening spatial and configuration issues, little explored by urban sprawl researchers. The proposal consisted of using urban indicators of urban performance, especially those developed by Configurational Urban Systems research group from UFRGS. A more detailed descriptive method and systemic indicators were used in order to grasp accessibility between dwelling and job location, a key element of urban performance evaluation. The indicators were applied to small theoretical systems and also to the town of Torres case study. The results indicates that the proposed method has potential for being used in comparative studies about urban sprawl and its urban performance, and that is the main contribution of this research.

As cidades vêm passando por significativas transformações, nas últimas décadas, em seus padrões de urbanização, sendo a dispersão urbana característica marcante deste processo. Surgem novas configurações, dispersas, descontínuas e de baixa densidade, distintas da tradicional cidade compacta, com evidentes implicações no desempenho urbano, embora ainda não totalmente conhecidas e estudadas. Entender os efeitos, principalmente aqueles não desejados, de certos padrões de ocupação urbana representa, hoje, grande desafio para o planejamento das cidades, sendo urgente aumentar sua compreensão a fim de melhor direcionar políticas urbanas. Diante desse cenário, desponta a necessidade de reforço na qualidade das metodologias de análise e monitoramento da expansão urbana, principalmente por meio de indicadores. Recentes estudos vêm sendo desenvolvidos no intuito de quantificar aspectos relacionados à dispersão urbana, consistindo em importantes avanços no sentido de tratar o tema com maior precisão. Apresentam, no entanto, certas limitações metodológicas, principalmente no que tange à representação de certos aspectos do sistema espacial urbano, tais como configuração da rede de ruas e distribuição das atividades. Em outras palavras, boa parte dos estudos existentes não tem levado em conta a escala intra-urbana. A presente investigação se propôs a contribuir para o desenvolvimento de metodologias para avaliação da dispersão, aprofundando questões espaciais e configuracionais relacionadas ao tema, pouco exploradas até o momento. Para tanto, buscou referências na investigação sobre indicadores urbanos, especialmente nos trabalhos que vem sendo desenvolvido pelo grupo de pesquisa Sistemas Configuracionais Urbanos da UFRGS. Dessa forma, procurou-se avançar na questão da mensuração da dispersão urbana através da introdução de sistema descritivo detalhado e indicadores sistêmicos para medir acessibilidade entre locais de residência e locais de trabalho, item chave do desempenho urbano. Os indicadores foram testados em pequenos sistemas teóricos e para o caso empírico do município de Torres. Os resultados demonstraram que o método possui potencial para utilização em estudos comparativos sobre desempenho urbano de padrões dispersos, sendo esta a principal contribuição do trabalho. / Cities have undergoing through meaningful changes in their urban development patterns, in last decades. Urban sprawl can be seen as an outstanding characteristic of this process. New urban settings can be found – scattered, discontinuous and low density – different from the compact city, with obvious implications on urban performance, although not completely understood. More detailed research on this subject is needed to enable more accurate assessments about effects of sprawl on urban environment. Knowing effects, mainly undesirable effects, of certain urban patterns is, nowadays, one of major challenges to urban planning, being urgent more understanding about it in order to better address urban policies. So, there is the urgent need of strengthening the quality of analysis methodologies and monitoring of urban development, especially by means of indicators. Recent efforts have been made in order to develop methodologies for measuring sprawl, which have enabled more accurate assessments about the subject. However, they present some limitations, especially about the way certain aspects of urban systems has been described, such as configuration of streets and spatial distribution of urban activities. In other words, most of current methodologies for measuring sprawl do not consider intra urban level. The current research aimed to contribute to development of methodologies for assessment of urban sprawl, deepening spatial and configuration issues, little explored by urban sprawl researchers. The proposal consisted of using urban indicators of urban performance, especially those developed by Configurational Urban Systems research group from UFRGS. A more detailed descriptive method and systemic indicators were used in order to grasp accessibility between dwelling and job location, a key element of urban performance evaluation. The indicators were applied to small theoretical systems and also to the town of Torres case study. The results indicates that the proposed method has potential for being used in comparative studies about urban sprawl and its urban performance, and that is the main contribution of this research.

<p>Based on the on the assumption that the two recent Swedish poetry collections <em>mil</em> by Anna Hallberg and <em>mallamerik, mallamer, malameri, mallame, amerik, mallameka, merikka, </em>by Lars Mikael Raattamaa, are constructed with theoretical questions about identity, national identity, language hierarchy and power in mind, this study aims to investigate the ways in which these issues come to expression. Simplified, the term <em>language-poetry</em>, or <em>språkmaterialism</em>, can be used to describe a language-philosophical poetry that aims to eliminate the hierarcic structures between writer and reader in a text and invite the reader to become the co-worker of it. The study shows that by different ways of eliminating the <em>centre</em> of the text, the text is made democratical. But one question that this study asks is how can a nation's conventional and standardised written  language – the language of the centre – be used to write itself out of this centre into the margin? Stepping from a theoretical background of postcolonial theories on identity and national identity, including reflections as those given by Benedict Anderson, Madan Sarup, Timothy Brennan, Stefan Helgesson and Mia Cuoto, the analysis points out how this poetry laborates with the terms <em>bugging, repetition, national language identity, and space </em>as poetic material, in order to work in line with ─ and contrary to - conceptions of a unified and shared language. Adapting and transforming the architectural term sprawl into literature, and spreading similar phrases over the pages by, for example, thematizing names, Swedish suburbs, and the use of language referents made empty, an elimination of the textual centre is shown to take place. This study concludes that in these poems it is by pointing out markers of a Swedish identity which is transparent that identity becomes both constituted and articulated, as well as problematized; concepts of collectivity, orality, and lack of textual coherence create a dimension of  boundlessness in language.  </p><p> </p>

Based on the on the assumption that the two recent Swedish poetry collections mil by Anna Hallberg and mallamerik, mallamer, malameri, mallame, amerik, mallameka, merikka, by Lars Mikael Raattamaa, are constructed with theoretical questions about identity, national identity, language hierarchy and power in mind, this study aims to investigate the ways in which these issues come to expression. Simplified, the term language-poetry, or språkmaterialism, can be used to describe a language-philosophical poetry that aims to eliminate the hierarcic structures between writer and reader in a text and invite the reader to become the co-worker of it. The study shows that by different ways of eliminating the centre of the text, the text is made democratical. But one question that this study asks is how can a nation's conventional and standardised written  language – the language of the centre – be used to write itself out of this centre into the margin? Stepping from a theoretical background of postcolonial theories on identity and national identity, including reflections as those given by Benedict Anderson, Madan Sarup, Timothy Brennan, Stefan Helgesson and Mia Cuoto, the analysis points out how this poetry laborates with the terms bugging, repetition, national language identity, and space as poetic material, in order to work in line with ─ and contrary to - conceptions of a unified and shared language. Adapting and transforming the architectural term sprawl into literature, and spreading similar phrases over the pages by, for example, thematizing names, Swedish suburbs, and the use of language referents made empty, an elimination of the textual centre is shown to take place. This study concludes that in these poems it is by pointing out markers of a Swedish identity which is transparent that identity becomes both constituted and articulated, as well as problematized; concepts of collectivity, orality, and lack of textual coherence create a dimension of  boundlessness in language.