abstract / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

<p> This dissertation is an exploration of the role of informality in the housing market in southeast Los Angeles County. While informality has long been the subject of scholarship in cases from the Global South, and increasingly in the United States, examinations of <i>housing</i> informality in the US thus far have largely been situated in rural and peri-urban areas. This work seeks to interrogate informality in housing processes unfolding within the very heart of northern North America's leading industrial metropolis. </p><p> After a brief preface, the dissertation's second chapter reviews literature on various aspects of informality and on <i>Accessory Dwelling Units, </i> or additions or conversions of living quarters on residential properties. Chapter 3 introduces the work's methodological pillars, and describes the four major, mixed methods relied upon. These are a survey of code enforcement officers; interviews and direct observation; and analyses of rental and property sales markets. Two other, minor, methods employed are an analysis of building footprints and the analysis of secondary data. </p><p> Chapter 4 introduces the single case used in the dissertation. This is a group of 14 communities, with a total population of 700,000, that are collectively referred to via the neologism <i>City of Gateway.</i> Next follows a historical overview of the area. Following a discussion of the 1965 Watts riots as a historical watershed, trends in the City of Gateway's economy and population that have driven a dramatic <i>informalization</i> of the housing stock since that time are examined. </p><p> Chapter 5 describes the physical expression of the informal housing market in the City of Gateway, in seven extralegal modes that involve either the <i> conversion</i> of existing space or the <i>addition</i> of new space, and the tactics used to effect them. Chapter 5 closes with a quantification and discussion of the consequences of the characteristic urban form produced by the informal housing market, <i>horizontal density,</i> which is the addition of density by more intensively covering lots with buildings rather than building upwards. </p><p> Chapter 6 describes the "nuts and bolts" of the informal housing market. It presents evidence that extralegal rentals are, on balance, generally (though not always) cheaper for their occupants than formal market alternatives. It examines <i>presale ordinances</i> that some cities have passed to try to disrupt the informal housing market by intervening in the sale of residential property. It discusses the important role of appraisers in providing or denying mortgage credit to current or would-be homeowners with extralegal space. An analysis of property sales transactions provides evidence that extralegal space does not appear to be capitalized in property values. Finally, the chapter discusses barriers imposed by the current US mortgage system to financing the construction of rentable space on residential properties. </p><p> Chapter 7 is an examination of the role played by <i>code enforcement </i> in shaping the informal housing market in the City of Gateway. Specifically, it examines how code enforcement departments allocate their time and effort given that there are far more potential enforcement actions than their capacity allows. The chapter presents arguments that code enforcement reshapes the informal housing market while failing to suppress it; that it is applied unevenly; and that it paradoxically helps maintain the informal order of the informal housing market. </p><p> Chapter 8 begins by arguing that issues related to informal housing, when they are discussed at all in the local political sphere, tend to be filtered through the reductive frame of <i>law and order.</i> The chapter presents reasons for this state of affairs, both ones specific to the City of Gateway and others that are more general and potentially applicable to other places in the US. Chapter 8 closes with a summary of high-profile local debates in which informal housing's influence is considerable but rarely acknowledged: fair share housing, water and sewer utility capacity, parking, and school crowding. </p><p> The conclusion, Chapter 9, begins by assessing the positive and negative attributes of the informal housing system. A normative judgment is made that the former outweigh the latter, although the drawbacks are considerable and in need of urgent attention. A multiscalar palette of policy interventions intended to usefully and justly intervene in the informal housing system is put forth. Many of these are within the ambit of local government, but action in other spheres&mdash;in state and even federal government, and within the housing NGO sector&mdash;is needed. Next, lessons for advocates, policymakers, and researchers drawn from the broader implications of this dissertation are presented. After that follows a speculative discussion about the role of culture in comparison with economic necessity in driving the informal housing market in the City of Gateway. Next, informed speculation about the future of the City of Gateway's housing market is presented. The dissertation closes with a discussion of these trends' implications for the City of Gateway's continued existence as that increasingly rare of type of place, a working class enclave in the heart of a vast global metropolis.</p>

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore, through a social ecological framework, the multifaceted effects of the neighborhood environment by investigating how dimensions of both the built environment and the neighborhood social context may interact to influence walking. Aesthetics, land use mix, crime, and pedestrian infrastructure were considered with respect to built environment walkability, and the neighborhood social context was conceptualized using measures of both social cohesion and social interaction with neighbors. This research used data from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-funded study of 748 adults (18 years of age and older) residing in the Lents neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. Through a series of both multiple linear and logistic regression models, the analyses examined the specific pathways by which social interaction with neighbors, social cohesion, and age influenced the relationship between the built environment and walking behavior. Results suggest that both social interaction and social cohesion but not age moderate the effects of the built environment on walking. There was evidence of mediation, as well, for both social interaction and social cohesion. The implications of these findings for future research and policy are discussed.

This thesis is an analysis of voluntary associations as studied by sociologists. One aspect of the study is to determine theoretical implications and major structural-functional characteristics of associations as they have developed during the last five decades. The data were obtained from a content analysis of articles in four major sociological journals from 1920 to 1968.

This thesis examines military performance in both urban and traditional non-urban environments. Cases used in this study are German operations on the Russian front, Israeli operations during the Yom Kippur War, and U.S. Marine operations in South Vietnam. This thesis establishes a framework for analysis consisting of six factors. These include environment, time, informational aspects of military operations, application of existing technology, intangible human factors, and the decisionmaking of both political and military leaders. Analysis of the three cases points to a number of common trends including, shortcomings when units enter in the urban environment. We note a lack of urban operations training, an increase in time to accomplish tasks, a resistance to operate at night, difficulty processing and communicating information, and micromanagement of city fighting by political and military leaders who typically refrain from such management during non-urban combat. Results of this study suggest a need to incorporate consideration of our six factors into current doctrine. / US Army (USA) author.

The purpose of this research report is to utilise appropriate statistical (both non-spatial and spatial) techniques to classify areas in the country into urban and rural. These areas, as derived by means of each statistical method, are profiled and common characteristics amongst them are summarised for classification and definition of urban and rural areas. Population data for these areas were aggregated to determine the overall urbanisation for the country. The methodology utilised was that of supervised classification. Two sample data sets of areas that are known with certainty to be urban or rural were derived and used consistently throughout the study. The importance of utilising areas of known urban and rural status was firstly to identify essential patterns or predominant characteristics from areas that are known, and thereafter to apply similar characteristics to areas that are not known or are ambiguous, in order to classify them as either urban or rural. Sample 1 comprises all areas in the country with formal and informal urban settlements, as well as formal rural areas, i.e. farms. Sample 2 is similar to sample 1, but in addition it includes areas falling under the jurisdiction of traditional authorities, known as tribal areas, which were classed as known rural. Non-spatial techniques, namely linear logistic regression, classification trees and discriminant analysis, as well as spatial techniques, namely straight-majority-rule and iterated conditional modes (ICM), were researched, applied and analysed for both samples, for each province and for South Africa as a whole, using the 2001 South African population census data. Comparisons were made with the 1996 census information. All three non-spatial statistical methods gave insight into those census variables and their combinations that best describe the subject under research, i.e. urban and rural. All three methods identified significant variables that clearly separate urban and rural areas. The results of all three non-spatial statistical methods showed similarities within each sample, but differences were noted between the two samples. All three nonspatial statistical methods applied to sample 1 classified the majority of the tribal EAs (Enumeration Areas) as urban, whilst the results from sample 2 are very similar to those obtained from both censuses, since both censuses and sample 2 predefine tribal settlements as rural.

abstract: Arizona’s population has been increasing quickly in recent decades and is expected to rise an additional 40%-80% by 2050. In response, the total annual energy demand would increase by an additional 30-60 TWh (terawatt-hours). Development of solar photovoltaic (PV) can sustainably contribute to meet this growing energy demand. This dissertation focuses on solar PV development at three different spatial planning levels: the state level (state of Arizona); the metropolitan level (Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area); and the city level. At the State level, this thesis answers how much suitable land is available for utility-scale PV development and how future land cover changes may affect the availability of this land. Less than two percent of Arizona's land is considered Excellent for PV development, most of which is private or state trust land. If this suitable land is not set-aside, Arizona would then have to depend on less suitable lands, look for multi-purpose land use options and distributed PV deployments to meet its future energy need. At the Metropolitan Level, ‘agrivoltaic’ system development is proposed within Phoenix Metropolitan Statistical Area. The study finds that private agricultural lands in the APS (Arizona Public Service) service territory can generate 3.4 times the current total energy requirements of the MSA. Most of the agricultural land lies within 1 mile of the 230 and 500 kV transmission lines. Analysis shows that about 50% of the agricultural land sales would have made up for the price of the sale within 2 years with agrivoltaic systems. At the City Level, the relationship between rooftop PV development and demographic variables is analyzed. The relationship of solar PV installation with household income and unemployment rate remain consistent in cities of Phoenix and Tucson while it varies with other demographic parameters. Household income and owner occupancy shows very strong correlations with PV installation in most cities. A consistent spatial pattern of rooftop PV development based on demographic variables is difficult to discern. Analysis of solar PV development at three different planning levels would help in proposing future policies for both large scale and rooftop solar PV in the state of Arizona. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Urban Planning 2018

This study examines the role of local churches in neighborhood change, analyzing the relationship between Christian churches and changes in household median incomes from 1990 to 2010 in the census tract in which each church is located. Based on a nationally representative sample of churches from 2006 and 2012, the study uses hierarchical linear modeling and statistical matching techniques to analyze how key church characteristics such as social service involvement, social capital generation, residential patterns of attendees, and demographic composition are related to changes in neighborhoods. Two primary research questions were addressed: 1) How have patterns of church location changed with respect to neighborhood types, and 2) How do churches impact neighborhood change? Findings indicate an overrepresentation of churches in gentrifying neighborhoods. A "back to the city" movement is occurring as church locational preferences have shifted from up-and-coming higher income neighborhoods in the 1980s to lower-income neighborhoods in the 2000s, reinforcing the overrepresentation in gentrifying neighborhoods. Churches on average are 1.6 times more segregated than our neighborhoods, with 87% of churches being less diverse than the neighborhood in which they are located, a figure that has not changed substantially from 1998 to 2012. This study finds that churches impact their neighborhoods' socioeconomic trajectory, sometimes positively, other times negatively. Highlights include: 1) a higher percentage of whites in churches in non-white neighborhoods is associated with more neighborhood gentrification, 2) on average white churches in low-income neighborhoods are responsible for about 10% of the relative income growth required for gentrification, 3) church social services do not reverse neighborhood decline but instead slow down the effects of gentrification by helping low-income residents stay in place, and 4) more geographically dispersed white congregations are associated with less white influx into neighborhoods. While commuter-style churches may not be contributing to gentrification, neither are they helping declining neighborhoods to become healthy.

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