Urban Studies & Planning

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ROLE OF THE ARTS IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN HAMPDEN, BALTMORE, MARYLAND
(2000) Polanec Graves, Monika Gabriele; Cohen, James; Urban Studies & Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
The role of the arts within economic development is increasing as many cities attempt to replicate the success of the SoHo district in New York City. The SoHo paradigm is based on utilization of artists as sanitizing agents of former industrial districts in preparation for gentrification. This study examines SoHo and other case studies in which the arts are key components in redevelopment initiatives. The case studies are compared to the economic revitalization of the Hampden community in Baltimore City. The hypothesis states that an influx of artists and art-related businesses into Hampden was a catalyst for the current economic revitalization and that this clustering of artists and arts-related businesses indicates an economy of agglomeration. Data was collected through surveys, interviews, and secondary resources. The surveys were designed to collect data that would indicate why artists and business people settled in Hampden; whether a trend was occurring ; whether the location was beneficial to art careers or businesses; and if they perceived the arts as having a significant impact on Hampden. Results of the research indicate that a significant link exists between artists and the economic activity in Hampden; an agglomeration economy is implied, but not confirmed; and that the arts and economic development models employed by the Hampden community may represent a new combination of the models previously employed.
Increasing Bus Transit Ridership: Dynamics of Density, Land Use, and Population
(California Department of Transportation, Division of Research and Innovation, 2004) Banerjee, Tridib; Myers, Dowell; Irazabal, Clara; Bahl, Deepak
The study explores the possibilities of revitalizing existing urban communities, increasing transit ridership, decreasing jobs-housing imbalance, and mitigating the impacts of sprawl from transit corridor development or TCD, a variant of the more general class of TOD or transit-oriented development. We present findings of a study that focuses on the relationship between transit ridership and density and mixed land use developments along major arterial corridors in Los Angeles. Our research focuses on Ventura Boulevard and Vermont Avenue as a comparative study of two heavily subscribed transit corridors. Our analysis suggests that the predominant land use around these corridors is low-density automobile-oriented development which remains transit –unfriendly. However, the City’s policy environment has undergone favorable changes with the introduction new zoning ordinances. In light of these changes, we develop and recommend spatial and urban design strategies that productively utilize surplus and marginal space along transit corridors to accommodate future population growth. It is our expectation that the densification of the underutilized commercial corridors will create vibrant local economies, increase opportunities for market and affordable housing, revitalize retail, and lead to a fuller use of transit lines and increased ridership, a trend that we have already observed in higher density bus station areas
The effects of waterfront development on housing prices: the case of eastern Baltimore
(2006-12-07) Oliva, Simeon; Howland, Marie; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Residential waterfront development has taken advantage of available land and water amenities in the centrally-located ports of many American cities. Its impacts on the housing market of the surrounding neighborhoods may not have been distributed evenly. This study measures how waterfront development has affected housing prices in a residential area south-east of Baltimore's downtown through time. The results indicate that development on the waterfront has had a positive impact on prices in the entire study area during the analyzed time-frame. However, this impact has been far more pronounced on the prices of properties located within a short distance from the water even decades after the initial projects on the waterfront were started. The study thus support claims that waterfront development has created uneven patterns of growth in Baltimore.
Sustainable DC
(2012) Doherty, Frances Elaine; Dawking, Casey J; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Over the past three decades, sustainability has earned a growing importance in city planning and policy decisions. Planners often champion sustainable development as the model framework for achieving social, economic and environmental objectives. However, sustainability in practice is less about striking the perfect balance between these three components than it is about building livable cities. In 2011, Washington DC launched the Sustainable DC initiative. This vision sought to identify focus areas and goals for making the District "the healthiest, greenest and most livable city in the United States" by 2030. The purpose of this thesis is to understand ways in which the city can ensure a high quality of life for residents as it works to implement the Sustainable DC initiative. This research examined relationships between the physical environment and socioeconomic characteristics of residents across DC neighborhoods to make recommendations for implementing Sustainable DC.
Unsheltered Homelessness in Maryland: Impact and Spatial Change during the Foreclosure Crisis
(2012) Boston, David L.; Dawkins, Casey J.; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This research primarily looks at trends in unsheltered homelessness and foreclosures in Maryland between 2005 and 2011 in order to determine what kind of impact the foreclosure crisis has had on homelessness. To complement these quantitative data, qualitative information was gathered through interviews and local Continuum of Care plans. The results of this investigation do not support any direct causal relationship between new foreclosures and homelessness; however, it is possible that foreclosures have pushed higher-income renters into the rental market. Through the combined impacts of the build-up of the housing bubble and the injection of these new higher-income renters, rental costs have continued their upward trend. In this way, it is possible that foreclosures have indirectly led to an increase in homelessness by pushing rental costs upward even after the housing bubble had burst. However, this research also highlighted many shortcomings associated with the homeless point-in-time count methodology that make it difficult to identify causal relationships such as this with any high level of certainty. Several recommendations are provided at the conclusion of this research in order to help alleviate homelessness, improve the available data, and conduct additional research to further our collective knowledge on the nature of homelessness and its causes.
Urbanization and Advantages of Large Cities: Three Essays on Urban Development in China
(2016) Li, Zhi; Ding, Chengri; Urban and Regional Planning and Design; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation, consisting of three essays on the urban development in China, provides empirical evidence for three related but different topics: urban growth pattern, agglomeration effects in production (production-side benefits of cities), and agglomeration effects in consumption (consumption-side benefits of cities). The first essay examines the growth pattern of Chinese cities at prefectural level or above by applying a non-parametric analysis. The kernel regression reveals the coexistence of a divergent growth pattern for large cities and a convergent growth pattern for small cities. The analysis comparing two different kinds of population data shows that excluding migrant workers in the count of urban population would underestimate the size and growth of large cities, which implies that rural-urban migrants move to large cities disproportionately. The results suggest that policies trying to control the growth of large cities have been ineffective in the past two decades. Using plant-level data in China, the second essay finds that the mechanisms of agglomeration economies vary with industry groups, and there is strong evidence supporting that regional industrial dominance would limit localization economies and diminish the productivity of firms. However, the negative effects of regional industrial dominance seem to be mitigated by a large and diverse urban environment. The conclusion points to the productivity-enhancing effect of agglomeration, and a competitive industrial structure is crucial for the success of the on-going industrial transformation and upgrading in China. Using survey data from China, the third essay reveals a positive relationship between city size and various categories of household consumption expenditures in China. By addressing several potential econometric issues, the analysis finds strong evidence of the agglomeration effect in consumption, which points to the important role that large cities play in enhancing household consumption. Taken together, this dissertation concludes that large cities in China have been dominant during the rapid urbanization and tend to keep growing disproportionately. Large cities in China are more productive and provide higher consumption amenities than small cities. Therefore, a market-driven urbanization process would be more efficient and effective for enhancing both productivity and consumption in China.
PARTICIPATORY PLANNING PILOT CASE STUDY IN CHINA: REALITY, CHALLENGES & LESSONS LEARNED FROM US
(2016) He, Yijing; Lung-Amam, Willow; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Urban planning in China is in a period of change, where participatory planning may supplement the traditional planning system. Since the beginning of the 21st century, several pilot participatory planning projects have responded to the new challenge. The author collected eight cases from the Chinese planning institution to explore the possible models of and barriers to participatory planning. On the other hand, public participation has been a concrete component of planning and implementation process in the United States. The author will also elaborate on one practical case of the planning process in the United States to compare the two countries on planning methods and barriers.
Constraints in household relocation: Modeling land-use/transport interactions that respect time and monetary budgets
(2017) Moeckel, Rolf
Traditionally, integrated land-use/transportation models intend to represent all opportunities of travel and household location, maximize utilities and find an equilibrium in which no person or household could improve their satisfaction any further. Energy scarcity, higher transportation costs, and an increasing share of low-income households, on the other hand, demand special attention to represent constraints that households face, rather than opportunities for utility maximization. The integrated land-use model SILO explicitly represents various constraints, including the price of a dwelling, the travel time to work, and the monetary transportation budget. SILO ensures that no household makes choices that violate these constraints. Implementing such constraints helps SILO to generate more realistic results under scenarios that put current conditions under a stress test, such as a serious increase in transportation costs or severely increased congestion.
The Ethnic Community: Urban Form, Peace, Conflict, and Violence in Urban India
(2017) Adrianvala, Zubin; Baum, Howell S; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
What causes some cities to have higher levels of ethnic violence than others do? This research explores whether the urban form affects the level of ethnic violence in a city. Here, the term urban form refers to identifiable physical characteristics of a city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Contemporary understanding of the physical city, as a determinant of outcomes or even as a target in ethnic violence is very limited. Although ethnic conflict is a prominent global phenomenon, ethnic violence occurs in some narrow streets and crowded neighborhoods, but not others. In addition, social scientists have focused on the ethnicization of urban spaces, but its effect on levels of ethnic violence is largely unstudied. The central hypothesis is that cities where the urban form is “ethnicized” are more likely to experience violent ethnic conflict than cities where the urban form is largely shared, secular, or multi-ethnic. India is a rapidly urbanizing globalized country with much ethnic diversity, features typical of many post-colonial nations in the global Southeast. The study involved a simultaneous ethnographic, geographic, and spatial comparison of two Indian cities, Surat and Ahmedabad, and the Hindu-Muslim ethnic relations in those cities. Ahmedabad has experienced the most Hindu-Muslim violence of any Indian city (using number of violence-related deaths as a measure). In contrast, Surat has been peaceful. This disparity is especially interesting since Surat and Ahmedabad are part of the same Indian state with similar linguistic, political, and demographic features. These questions are addressed through an analysis of semi-structured interviews and cognitive mapping exercises. The study includes 66 respondents: 36 in Surat and 30 in Ahmedabad. The research concludes that the urban form is an important factor in ethnic conflict. This finding has several research and policy implications which include a shift in the way various practitioners operate in the urban context.
Should We Leave? Attitudes towards Relocation in Response to Sea Level Rise
(MDPI, 2017-12-04) Song, Jie; Peng, Binbin
The participation of individuals contributes significantly to the success of sea level rise adaptation. This study therefore addresses what influences people’s likelihood of relocating away from low-lying areas in response to rising sea levels. The analysis was based on a survey conducted in the City of Panama Beach in Florida (USA). Survey items relate to people’s risk perception, hazard experience, threat appraisal, and coping appraisal, whose theoretical background is Protection Motivation Theory. Descriptive and correlation analysis was first performed to highlight critical factors which were then examined by a multinomial Logit model. Results show that sea level rise awareness is the major explanatory variable. Coping appraisal is qualitatively viewed as a strong predictor for action, while threat appraisal is statistically significant in driving relocation intention. These factors should be integrated in current risk communication regarding sea level rise.
A Case Study of Preliminary Cost-Benefit Analysis of Building Levees to Mitigate the Joint Effects of Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge
(MDPI, 2018-02-08) Peng, Binbin; Song, Jie
Sea-level rise (SLR) will magnify the impacts of storm surge; the resulting severe flooding and inundation can cause huge damage to coastal communities. Community leaders are considering implementing adaptation strategies, typically hard engineering projects, to protect coastal assets and resources. It is important to understand the costs and benefits of the proposed project before any decision is made. To mitigate the flooding impact of joint effects of storm surge and SLR, building levee segments is chosen to be a corresponding adaptation strategy to protect the real estate assets in the study area—the City of Miami, FL, USA. This paper uses the classic Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to assess the cost efficiency and proposes corresponding improvements in the benefit estimation, by estimating the avoided damages of implementing levee projects. Results show that the city will benefit from implementing levee projects along the Miami River in both a one-time 10 year storm event with SLR and cumulative long-term damage scenarios. This study also suggests that conducting CBA is a critical process before making coastal adaptation planning investment. A more meaningful result of cost effectiveness is estimated by accounting for the appreciation and time value. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is conducted to verify how the choice of discount rate influences the result. Uncertain factors including the rate of SLR, storm intensification, land use changes, and real estate appreciation are further analyzed.
Spatiotemporal Prediction of Theft Risk with Deep Inception-Residual Networks
(MDPI, 2021-01-29) Ye, Xinyue; Duan, Lian; Peng, Qiong
Spatiotemporal prediction of crime is crucial for public safety and smart cities operation. As crime incidents are distributed sparsely across space and time, existing deep-learning methods constrained by coarse spatial scale offer only limited values in prediction of crime density. This paper proposes the use of deep inception-residual networks (DIRNet) to conduct fine-grained, theft-related crime prediction based on non-emergency service request data (311 events). Specifically, it outlines the employment of inception units comprising asymmetrical convolution layers to draw low-level spatiotemporal dependencies hidden in crime events and complaint records in the 311 dataset. Afterward, this paper details how residual units can be applied to capture high-level spatiotemporal features from low-level spatiotemporal dependencies for the final prediction. The effectiveness of the proposed DIRNet is evaluated based on theft-related crime data and 311 data in New York City from 2010 to 2015. The results confirm that the DIRNet obtains an average F1 of 71%, which is better than other prediction models.
Moving Up the Ladder in Rising Waters: Community Science in Infrastructure and Hazard Mitigation Planning as a Pathway to Community Control and Flood Disaster Resilience
(Ubiquity Press: Open Access, 2022-05-19) Hendricks, Marccus D.; Meyer, Michelle A.; Wilson, Sacoby M.
Public participation is the democratic gateway to more just, inclusive, and resilient communities. However, infrastructure and hazard mitigation planning tends toward top-down, expert-driven processes that fail to meaningfully include communities most at risk of disasters. In this article, we critically examine the potential of citizen science in infrastructure and hazard mitigation planning with a focus on stormwater infrastructure and extreme wet-weather events, as floods are the most common disaster in the US. We review literature on various citizen science approaches, from crowdsourcing to community science, and offer a framework that situates them within Sherry Arnstein’s foundational piece on public participation, a “Ladder of Citizen Participation.” We discuss the opportunities different participatory methods offer for meaningful public involvement, knowledge generation, and ultimately community control and ownership of stormwater and flood infrastructure. We provide case study examples across the US of how public works departments, emergency management, and related organizations have engaged communities around hazard risks and flooding challenges, and offer recommendations for how these programs can be improved. We conclude that in order to produce data needed to mitigate flood disasters and increase trust and public interest in infrastructure needs, civic participation should be grounded in community science, utilizing a multimedia and technological platform. The methods applied and data generated can be leveraged toward public safety, and provide voice, agency, and power particularly to disenfranchised communities most at risk from current hazards and looming climate change impacts.
Recent intra-metropolitan patterns of spatial mismatch: Implications for black suburbanization and the changing geography of mismatch
(Wiley, 2022-09-01) Eom, Hyunjoo
Kain's spatial mismatch hypothesis (SMH) (1968) highlights the segregation of Black population in the inner city as well as the decentralization of jobs, both of which played a role in the poor labor market outcomes for Black residents in the inner city. Demographic and economic changes in U.S. metropolitan areas since the late 20th century have transformed the urban spatial structure. This paper aims to revisit the SMH and investigate whether the spatial pattern of mismatch has changed as a result of geographic shifts in the Black population. This paper specifically examines how the suburbanization of the Black population has affected the geographic patterns of mismatch and whether the mismatch is disappearing in the major U.S. metropolitan areas. Using spatial measures of mismatch, this paper presents intra-metropolitan spatial mismatch patterns that capture the clustering of jobs and the Black population based on their relative distributions, showing that the overall level of spatial mismatch declined in major U.S. metropolitan areas between 2000 and 2015. However, geographical evidence reveals that the spatial mismatch has shifted to the outer suburbs, replicating city-suburb spatial inequality, implying that although mismatch may have declined in the inner city due to Black suburbanization, spatial mismatch continue to persist in U.S. metropolitan areas in Black suburbs. The findings also demonstrate that although spatial mismatch generally declined in the inner city, it increased in cities with high inner city polarization, particularly New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Bicycle Accessibility GIS Analysis for Bike Master Planning with a Consideration of Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) and Energy Consumption
(MDPI, 2022-12-20) McNally, Devin; Tillinghast, Rachel; Iseki, Hiroyuki
Measuring the impact of bicycle infrastructure and other mobility improvements has been a challenge in the practice of transportation planning. Transportation planners are increasingly required to conduct complex analyses to provide supporting evidence for proposed plans and communicate well with both decision makers and the public. Cyclists experience two important factors on roads: (a) travel stress related to the built environment along with the traffic conditions and (b) changes in physical burden due to topography. This study develops a method that integrates an energy consumption calculation and “bicycling stress” score to take into account external conditions that influence cyclists substantially. In this method, the level of traffic stress (LTS) is used to select street segments appropriate for different comfort levels among cyclists and is combined with biking energy consumption, in addition to distance, which is used as travel impedance to consider the effects of slopes and street intersections. The integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis methods are used to evaluate bicycle infrastructure improvements in the coming years in Montgomery County, MD, USA. The analysis results demonstrated that the infrastructure improvements in the county’s bike master plan are well-targeted to improve bicycling accessibility. Furthermore, the use of energy as opposed to distance to generate bikeshed areas results in smaller bikesheds compared to distance-generated bikesheds. The method presented herein allows planners to characterize and quantify the impact of bicycle infrastructure and prioritize locations for improvements.
Come hybrid or high water: Making the case for a Green–Gray approach toward resilient urban stormwater management
(Wiley, 2023-02-07) Hendricks, Marccus D.; Dowtin, Asia L.
120 years or more of unsustainable urban development has damaged the natural environment and disrupted essential ways to stabilize water body overflow and even mitigate pluvial flooding. In light of catastrophic flooding that has occurred globally, a renewed commitment to transforming built surfaces and incorporating more green infrastructures (GIs) has emerged. In fact, one could argue that an overcommitment to GI is being touted in the literature, but largely disconnected from more real-world possibilities, considering all things. In this commentary, we make the case that as cities transition from development patterns of the past and even considering climate-induced storm characteristics of the future, a hybridized solution (e.g., Green–Gray) should be considered. Smaller approaches to urban greening have been implemented in areas that need larger-scale restorations, thus proving to be insufficient. Likewise, the uncertainty surrounding rainfall and storm events has forced us to be more strategically balanced in our efforts to achieve resilience in our stormwater infrastructure. Hybridized solutions that include a diverse set of systems, anchored in local conditions, position us best for effective urban stormwater management. In the absence of such solutions, runoff volumes will continue to rise, flooding will prevail, and disenfranchised communities will remain disproportionately impacted by these impacts of urbanization.
Persisting Social Vulnerability, Stormwater Infrastructure, and Planning for Flooding and Resilience in Washington D.C.
(2024) Park, Minkyu; Hendricks, Marccus D; Urban Studies and Planning; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
While Green Infrastructure (GI) has gained prominence in addressing climate change, particularly in flood prevention and other associated benefits. Limited empirical studies have explored its spatial distribution and temporal changes in relation to the whole stormwater infrastructure. This dissertation investigates the intersection of stormwater infrastructure, social vulnerability, and urban flood management strategies in Washington, D.C. The dissertation is composed of three studies. The first study employs geospatial exploration to assess the equitable allocation of stormwater infrastructure, considering historical discriminatory sewage services. Regression models reveal significant disparities in stormwater infrastructure distribution among communities with varying levels of social vulnerability, highlighting the inequitable distribution within urban areas. The study contributes valuable insights for stormwater management planning in the context of climate-related challenges.The second quantitative study focuses on the spatial and temporal evolution of GI distribution in Washington, D.C., utilizing spatial panel data analysis. Unlike previous cross-sectional snapshots, this study captures temporal trends in GI distribution in relation to social vulnerability. The findings, with potential implications for evidence-based policies, shed light on the evolving patterns of discriminatory distribution of GI and its relation to persistent social vulnerability. The third study employs an Environmental Justice (EJ) framework to critically analyze the urban flood management initiatives in Washington, D.C., specifically examining the Flood Task Force (FTF) action plan. The study uncovers limitations and potential exacerbations of place vulnerabilities within current plans through qualitative coding. This research contributes to the ongoing discourse on achieving more equitable and resilient urban flood management in the city, emphasizing the need for environmental justice considerations. The thorough examination of stormwater infrastructure, social vulnerability, and the initiatives of the DC Flood Task Force uncovers a tripartite phenomenon: 1) uneven distribution of stormwater infrastructure is influenced by social vulnerability, 2) temporally widening the gap in infrastructure among communities, and 3) overlooking social vulnerability and the unfair allocation of stormwater infrastructure in planning or policies could intensify place vulnerability.

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