This master’s report is an assessment of a theoretical process by which the concepts of sustainability can enter into the conventional system of development, primarily focusing on the physical development and growth of the urban environment. A context-specific definition of sustainability is first derived and then inserted within the classic theory of Diffusion of Innovations in an attempt to articulate the concept of sustainable innovation diffusion. The redevelopment of the Seaholm Power Plant in Austin, Texas is then used as a case study. Specifically, carrying forward previous research on a conceptual plan for adapting the power plant’s dormant condenser infrastructure into a commercial-scale rainwater harvesting system is presented as a demonstration project for promoting sustainable innovations. Applying a systemsthinking approach to resolving the challenges of implementing alternative technologies and practices into the Seaholm case study reveals both the mechanisms for encouraging and the barriers limiting the adoption of sustainable development strategies. / text

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

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

Compact cities, as opposed to the urban sprawl, are being advocated in many countries and regions. As a sustainable urban form, these have significant implications on the pursuit of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. However, despite their advantages, compact cities have negative impacts on urban development. Both positive and negative impacts are derived from developed countries. However, whether these impacts are applicable to developing countries remains uncertain. This research aims to examine the development and impacts of urban compaction in China. Guided by land use policies, compact development in Beijing is currently being promoted through the intensification of existing construction areas rather than the development of new large-scale areas. This research aims to explore the development of urban compactness from the perspective of time and spatial dimensions and examine the impact of compact development. To carry out this research, this thesis reviews the relevant theories on compact cities characterized as high-density developments and mixed-use developments of construction areas that have a well developed public transport system. These compact cities can be achieved through urban intensification. In this work, an indicator system for measuring urban compactness based on the features of compact cities (e.g., high-density development, mixed-use development, and public transport system) is proposed. The development of the urban compactness of an entire city during the period of 1992-2007 is also calculated according to the indicator system. In addition, the development of urban compactness in the different regions of inner city districts, outer city districts, and new towns in 1996, 2001, and 2006 are also studied. Given that compact cities have a significant impact on urban development, some indicators that reveal economic, social, and environmental development are utilized to test the impact of compact cities in Beijing through statistical studies and semi-structured interviews. The results of evaluating the urban compactness development from the entire city perspective indicate rapid population growth and urbanization, along with the rapid increase of urban density in Beijing. Compared with high-density development, mixed use development has not been as rapid. With the mass construction of the subways and the increase in the provision of public buses, the development of public transport has also improved significantly. Following these results, the impact of urban compaction is analyzed, and compact development appeared to be beneficial to economic, social and environmental development, although some of its benefits have not been embodied fully. This research further examines the spatial development of urban compactness. The findings reveal that land use in the central city has become increasingly compact and that the potential for urban compactness could be further enhanced in the outer city districts. In new towns where the urban sprawl is quite severe, high-density development and mixed-use development should be promoted. To increase accessibility, the public transport system should be further improved. By analyzing the development of urban compactness, this study suggests that the support facilities and services in Beijing are insufficient compared with population growth and urbanization occurring in the city; this inadequacy leads to the backward progress of mixed-use development. As a large city, the different regions in Beijing stand in different positions that require varied development strategies to achieve urban compaction. The study fills a gap in the literature on compact development in China and population growth as well as theoretically and empirically enriches the impact of urban compaction in the context of rapid urbanization and population growth. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Urban planning is not only about planning the city for people today but also planning decades of year ahead for next generations. Growing complexity and dynamics of the urban system make planning, decision-making and problem-solving to be more challenging. In order to achieve sustainable development, the notion of creative city is aroused in academic field and also advocated by many policymakers recently. Creative city notion suddenly becomes the panacea for many urban problems such as revitalizing dilapidated old urban area, enhancing the competitiveness of the city in the global economy, and boosting local employment rate, etc. However, among the polemical meditations on the creative cities notion, there is insufficient study on what vital preconditions are for creativity to be emerged in the metropolis, what creative activities are generated and how actors are interrelated with each other and with the environment regarding social, economic and physical dimensions. This dissertation proposes the “creative ecology” framework for analyzing and contextualizing the interrelationship and dynamics of stakeholders in the “creative ecology” and with the surrounding environments. An empirical study which applies the framework to a local district of Hong Kong, Yau Ma Tei, is conducted. The study tries to trace out the interrelationships of local creativity scene to the environments, and the dynamics within the ecology supported by the comprehensive study on the empirical setting from the perspective of Hong Kong to local district like Yau Ma Tei, and in-depth face-to-face interviews with key stakeholders. The analysis shows, in particular, how the “creative ecology” rooted in a local district operates and how a balanced “creative ecology” can be achieved in relation to the sustainable urban development. The recommendation is concerned passim with cultural policy and urban planning issues. The dissertation is concluded by summarizing the concept of “creative ecology” and highlighting its nature of continuous evolution, as well as addressing the main contemporary challenges while Hong Kong is in the transition process to be a more creative place. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Culture-led regeneration policy has become a global trend in many major cities worldwide (UNCHS, 2004; Miles and Paddison, 2005). While overseas governments such as the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia have directed their regeneration policies to encourage the creative class and industries; Hong Kong is again left behind. Some scholars suggest that the culture-led strategy can act as the twenty-first century driver for regeneration, able to better preserve social networks and capital, and hence bring greater benefit to the local residents (Szeto, 2007). However, the methods of promoting culture-led regeneration in the Hong Kong context are rarely discussed. In addition, to what extend urban planning could help to facilitate creative class, and its possible impact on local residents is yet to be studied. This dissertation therefore has a two-way focus; on one hand, it seeks to address the research gap on how culture-led regeneration can be implemented in Hong Kong; on the other hand, it contributes to the academic debate by exploring the mechanism of capitalising culture in a regeneration project in order to maximise the ways at which local residents can truly benefit. It is often assumed that the integration of cultural production, consumption and community art programmes bring about the greatest benefits for the local economy, and hence benefit the locals by ‘trickle down’ effect (Binns, 2005). However, this dissertation argues that the community and its institutions play an important role in distributing the wealth created by culture-led redevelopment. While gentrification as well as the displacement of local residents, is usually observed in culture-led regeneration, progressive community planning and community ownership of the ‘Common’ can help in breaking the monopoly of rent and fixed capitals, to the benefit of local residents. The case of Hoxton – with the success of its local organizations in reducing the pressures of gentrification – is studied alongside with a case of similar background, Noho, Hong Kong, to explore new research and enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. Both cases are led by artists and creative industries in the area with the aim of revitalizing poor local economies. In light of this, the two cases are compared to firstly address the research gap on the community role in a sustainable culture-led regeneration, and then to enlighten a possible new policy direction of culture-led regeneration in Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

Sustainable Development is one of the most important arguments now a day. How we can make our world more sustainable in nature is the most significant phenomena for all of us. It is very difficult to transform the old, traditional and historically significant places to a more sustainable and modern in nature without hampering their values and historic resources. Cultural significances of old historic places represent the sense of connectivity and provide a continuation of past experience to the present and future generations (ICOMOS, 1999). These are the old urban characters which shapes the modern urban culture and identity over the time. They should treat as the most important belongings of history to go forward towards more advanced future. Future is always shaped by the past. Hence if we forget our history; it would be very difficult to get proper guidelines for future development. It is necessary for us to preserve our deteriorating heritage resources to develop our own future. However, globalization, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and technological advancement make these attempt challenging. Urban heritage conservation in a very integrated way would be one of the solutions for conserving old values and ideas with their own traditional nature. Conservation with sustainable manner should be taken as the top priority in all development planning agendas. Moreover, proper urban heritage conservation can help to transform historical places as the source of history, culture and socio-economic advancement for the local community and can change unsustainable community into more sustainable in nature. Dhaka is one of the major old cities in South Asia. It has a various combination of historic places and communities which give Dhaka a unique urban character. It has long history of urbanization and this urban growth pattern has influenced mainly by the topography, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics along with inherent morphological quality. However over population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, poor infrastructure facilities and weak urban management contribute to deteriorating these urban heritages rapidly. There are several discussions about urban heritage conservation of developing countries but little discussions have found which has focused on the conservation with empowering local traditional economy to develop the sustainable community. By enhancing local economy through proper planning and policy and promote sustainable tourism can contribute to conserve heritage resources of Dhaka and support sustainable community development. Two historically significant communities are chosen for representing Dhaka‟s heritage which is unique in nature for their traditional professions, significant local arts, handmade crafts, life style, religious and social festivals, urban fabric and built heritage. These are Benarashi Palli at Mirpur and Shakhari Bazaar at old Dhaka. They had a self-sustained economy in the past which becomes declining day by day due to rapid and poor urban development management and ignorance of historical values and ideas. However, still these two communities are trying to survive with their own efforts and make them represented of the glorious past to us. The main focus of this study is to revive their past well-sustained economic conditions with proper conservation of heritage resources and community participation. At the same time explore several guidelines of comprehensive conservation for sustainable urban community in Dhaka. The research identifies that there is a severe lacking of integrated conservation policies in Dhaka. In fact, the importance of heritage conservation is still very far away from national planning policies in Bangladesh. Dhaka has several development control agencies however; they are not so well-integrated and well-organized to provide a comprehensive heritage planning policies for Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Moreover, incompetent rules and regulations with scattered organizations make this problem more severe. The study has tried to incorporate all these issues and formulate a comprehensive conservation planning for Benarashi Palli and Shakhari Bazaar as well as Dhaka. Furthermore, the study tries to accommodate sustainable tourism for providing a sustainable urban economy which has always ignored in Bangladesh context. However, tourism could be a strong way of promoting heritage conservation in Dhaka which has already followed by many developing countries in South Asia. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

This study, with its research question ‘To what extent is housing mix related to social sustainable development of new towns and what is the influence of housing mix on social sustainability in new towns?’ sets out to develop a critical understanding of and examine the relevance and desirability of incorporating customary housing mix practice in developing Hong Kong new towns to social sustainability through providing a detailed account of relationships between social mix concept and social sustainability concept as well as the influence of housing mix to new town development in social sustainability aspect. Both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches were taken, including a questionnaire survey in a cluster sampling survey approach and a semi-structured interview, to collect data from 100 local public housing residents each at two study areas, Shatin and Tin Shui Wai, which were selected based on the assumption that one has better social sustainable development derived from a balanced housing mix, while one has lower level of social sustainability due to an imbalanced housing mix respectively. Data tabulation and content analysis were used to analyze data collected. Findings and analysis of this study suggest that the assumption of social interpersonal process brought by social mix in the same community is questionable and even not justifiable in the context of two study areas. From this perspective, there is no expectation that social mix would contribute to middle class role modeling and individual upward mobility. The interrelationship of level of mixing and the anticipated social outcomes of social mix in both towns are argued to be impractical. Thus, it further argues that social mix, in the context of both towns, does not promote social sustainability of new towns, from the fact that social cohesion is a vital aspect of social sustainability. Arising from these findings, implications are also drawn from the study that planners may have a relative weak role to plan for social development and the uncritically adoption of housing mix may shrink the production of public housings in future new town developments in view of a current huge public demand in Hong Kong. Although there are limitations in the research design and study scope and a tentative conclusion can only be reached with a selected angle of observation in this study, a more comprehensive and detailed exploration on interrelationship between social mix and sustainable development in new towns can be carried out in future is still recommended. It also proposes that forced heterogeneity should not be uncritically adopted by planners, who can study other planning tools to enhance other aspects of social sustainability of a new town. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning

This research investigates why British Columbian local governments are motivated to implement Community Amenity Contributions (CACs). Local governments that are considering adopting a CAC policy may benefit from this report. Data was obtained from developers, planners and politicians through online surveys and semi-structured interviews. The survey was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the interview data was analyzed using content analysis. All participants viewed CACs as an effective means to raise revenue to pay for growth-related costs. All participants agreed that CACs are not used as a market-based planning tool to influence urban form. Four recommendations are made: 1) obtain Canadian empirical data on the impact of Development Charges 2) improve CACs by broadening the scope of provincial DCC legislation to include amenities now funded through CACs; 3) consider the market effects of CACs, especially on affordable housing; and 4) employ economists to analyze externalized costs of development for planning departments. / October 2015

What happens to a historically African American church when its local African American community no longer exists? Can attempts to emphasize its historic heritage help it to survive? In this dissertation, I consider the racial politics of urban gentrification and the ways in which one historic Black church community utilizes cultural heritage politics as a survival strategy and resistance to city planning in the city of Dallas, Texas. This case study is part of a much broader phenomenon dating to the post-WWII era whereby U.S. local, state, and federal government officials “redeveloped” urban neighborhoods as part of urban renewal plans. Some of these government actions resulted in drastic changes to neighborhood landscapes, displacing entire “minority” communities. Affected by similar circumstances, the St. Paul Church community chose to remain in its original neighborhood and restore its historic building, rather than bend to the will of Dallas city planners. In particular, I examine two church heritage projects; a public archaeology project in which a shotgun house site was excavated on the church property and a public history project which resulted in an interpretive history exhibition on the church. I examine how this church community became involved in these two projects and whether these approaches are practical to the historic preservation of this church community. Basic contributions of this work include: 1) filling gaps in public archaeology research by examining a public archaeology project, beyond the excavation, and critiquing its viability in jeopardized urban contexts, 2) analyzing strategies of political mobilization around heritage politics; 3) determining which Black communities are more likely to engage in and benefit from this type of political mobilization; and 4) problematizing what constitutes giving the power to a community to negotiate its past in the present. This dissertation project finds that although African-American and other minority groups are often politically and economically disadvantaged when challenging eminent domain abuse, these communities are not powerless. The St. Paul community’s utilization of heritage politics as a means to avert eminent domain abuse is one case in point. / text