Browsing by Author "Newburn, David"
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Item Development Capacity and the Impact of Septic Law (SB 236) in the Baltimore Metro Region(2013-05) Newburn, DavidThis presentation included an overview of the Sustainability Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act (“septic law") passed by State of Maryland in 2012, looking at Baltimore County, MD, as a case study. Slides include information about land-use trends, zoning trends, septic and groundwater wells, and local watersheds.Item Maryland’s Forest Conservation Act and the Impact on Residential Development and Forest Cover Change(2015) Ferris, Jeffrey; Newburn, DavidWe analyze the effects of a unique forest conservation regulation on residential development and assess the additionality in forest cover due to this regulation. We combine panel data on forest cover change from satellite imagery and parcel-level modeling on residential development, including residential subdivisions occurring before and after regulation adoption. Our results indicate that after introducing the regulation, there was a 22% increase in forest cover within subdivisions relative to the amount without the regulation. The heterogeneous effects of this regulation suggest that forest cover increased on average for parcels with lower levels of existing forest cover. However, parcels with the highest levels of forest cover continue to have significant decreases in forest cover, despite the regulation, thereby resulting in fragmentation in regions with the most intact forest cover.Item Wireless Alerts for Flash Flood Warnings and the Impact on Car Accidents(2016) Ferris, Jeffrey; Newburn, DavidWireless alerts delivered through mobile phones are a recent innovation in regulatory efforts toward preparation for extreme weather events including flash floods. In this article, we use difference-in-differences models of the number of car accidents from days with government issued alerts for flash flood events in Virginia. We find that wireless alert messages for flash flood warnings reduced car accidents by 15.9% relative to the counterfactual with non-wireless alert protocols. We also use a regression discontinuity model to analyze hourly traffic volume data immediately before and after a flash flood warning message is issued. We find that traffic volume is reduced by 3.1% immediately following the issuance of a wireless alert relative to before the alert. These results imply that wireless alert messages effectively reduce exposure to hazards associated with extreme weather.