Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item 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.Item The Resilient Island - Revitalizing a Broken Home(2022) Peña, Alexander Bradley; Hu, Ming; Tilghman, James; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Disaster struck Puerto Rico on September 6th, 2017, when Hurricane Irma, a category 5 hurricane, breached the islands. Communities had no time to recover as Hurricane Maria, an even bigger threat, reached land not more than two weeks later. These two disasters happening in quick succession led to a devastating death toll of 2,975 people and caused a total of $90 billion in damages. This had been the most devastating disaster to hit in over 100 years. The people of Puerto Rico are still recovering to this day and are trying to find solutions to creating community resiliency. This thesis will focus primarily on what makes a community resilient and how to apply this to other Caribbean nations. Not all Caribbean islands face the same challenges and each one has its own identity. To assume that all islands are the same would be irrational. Additionally, this thesis will look at how a community can shift from being unconventional to very functional. Throughout the recent years, there has been a shift in design and function toward creating communities that are more sustainable, durable, and resilient. While this shift can occur easily in more modern societies, those that lack the resources to do so will continue to struggle unless proper support can be given.Item CONTAINER TECHNOLOGIES AS LOGISTICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: HOW MARIE KONDO, THE CONTAINER STORE, HOLLINGER BOXES, AND DOCKER SHAPE OUR WORLD(2021) Bickoff, Kyle; Kirschenbaum, Matthew; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation is situated at the intersection of digital studies, critical information studies, and cultural studies—I argue that containers undergird the logistical infrastructures of modern capitalism and social life, and they shape the way we think. By understanding our world through this framework, we can apply the perspective to understand problems we face in memory institutions, cloud computing, the retail sector, the culture industry, and even in the ongoing global pandemic, COVID-19. The first chapter considers physical containers, with a focus on the ‘Hollinger box’ (an omnipresent cardboard storage box at memory institutions), which has a design history rooted in World War II and the US’s fight against fascism. The second chapter focuses on Docker, a digital container system, which accelerates containers in cloud computing—I present a protohistory of digital containerization in computing history and look to the role of speed to accelerate information and global capital. The third chapter locates its discussion at a retail site, The Container Store, which facilitates consumerism and the commodification of containment. The fourth chapter looks to Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method. Kondo’s ‘joy’ is rooted in consumer culture, individualism, and storage in containers; her ‘tidying festivals’ are celebrations of capitalism. By tracing the interconnected histories behind these container systems, the dissertation demonstrates how the logic of containerization becomes embedded in our memory institutions, digital technologies, retail systems, and consumer culture. Containers in our society are subsumed by preexisting systems in capitalism: logistics and consumerism, in particular. Container technologies play a central role in our logistical infrastructures: wielded properly, containers hold the power to help us resolve many of our most pressing problems, and they can help us to improve the way we allocate resources equitably, rather than the reverse. But containers do not afford us a quick fix—rather, they offer us insight and a framework to understand the world we live in. Containers, when understood as key to the logistical infrastructure that undergird modern life, offer us the tools to reorganize our world and build it into something better.Item ENHANCING RESILIENCE OF COMPLEX NETWORKS: WASHINGTON D.C. URBAN RAIL TRANSIT AS A CASE STUDY(2020) Saadat, Yalda; Ayyub, Bilal BA; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)According to the United Nation’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 66% of the world’s population will reside in urban areas by 2050; a boost from 30 % in 1950. Urbanization has indeed triumphed and its speed has brought innovation and economic growth. Its synergies within infrastructure systems are undeniable and have increased the demand for such systems. However, urbanization is one reason infrastructure systems are knocked out of equilibrium and show complex dynamical behavior. Most infrastructure systems have been designed without planning for this magnitude of potential demographic changes; thus redesigns are long overdue. Also, climate change looms. Resource scarcity and host of other factors leave their impacts; all pose some incidence of perturbation in the state of the infrastructure system. These perturbations can affect the system’s resilience, which is a defining property of each system for remaining functional in the midst of disruption from an adverse event. Therefore, it is essential to develop appropriate metrics and methods to enhance the resilience of infrastructures at the network level. Such enhancements are critical for sustainable infrastructure development that is capable of performing satisfactorily through intentional and/or stochastic disruptions. A resilience evaluation of a network typically entails assessing vulnerability and robustness as well as identifying strategies to increasing network efficiency and performance and offering recovery strategies ideally taken in a cost-effective manner. This dissertation uses complex network theory (CNT) as the theoretic basis to enhance the resilience of large-scale infrastructure networks, such as urban rail transit systems. Urban rail transit infrastructures are heterogeneous, complex systems consisting of a large number of interacting nodes and links, which can imitate a network paradigm. Any adverse event leading to a disruption in the interaction and connectivity of network components would dramatically affect the safety and wellbeing of commuters, as well as the direct and indirect costs associated with performance loss. Therefore, enhancing their resilience is necessary. Using the Washington D.C. Urban rail transit as a case study, this dissertation develops a methodology to analyze network topology, compute its efficiency, vulnerability, and robustness in addition to provide a unified metric for assessing the network resilience. The steps of methodology are applied to two models of weighted and unweighted networks. For the weighted model two novel algorithms are proposed to capture the general pattern of ridership in the network, and to reflect the weights on assessing network efficiency, respectively. This dissertation then proposes an effective strategy to increase the network resilience prior to a disruptive event, e.g., a natural disaster, by adding several loop lines in the network for topological enhancement. As such, adding a loop line can create redundancy to the vulnerable components and improve network resilience. Expanding on this, the dissertation offers comparative recovery strategies and cost model in the case of disruption. An effective recovery strategy must demonstrate rapid optimal restoration of a disrupted system performance while minimizing recovery costs. In summary, the systematic methodology described above, assesses and enhances the network resilience. The initial results rank the most vulnerable and robust components of the network. The algorithms developed throughout the study advance the weighted network analysis state of art. The topological enhancement strategy offered basis to justify capital improvement. Post failure recovery analysis and the cost model serves to inform decision makers in identifying best recover strategies with special attention not only to restoring performance of a system but also on reducing associated failure and recovery costs. The use of the methodology proposed in this dissertation may lead to significant societal benefits by reducing the risk of catastrophic failures, providing references for mitigation of disruption due to adverse events, and offering resilience- based strategies, and related pursuits.Item MEADWORKS – HYDROLOGY, ECOLOGY, MEAD AND ARCHITECTURE(2019) Huck, Kyle Patrick; Noonan, Peter; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis seeks to redefine the relationship between communities and water infrastructure through a scalable and adaptable hybrid architectural solution. By focusing on the ambiguous intersection of nature and the built environment, this thesis will make an attempt at place-making in a setting typically disregarded by cities and communities. Challenging the boundaries of public infrastructure, architecture, and landscape architecture, this thesis will provide a dynamic solution to the water pollution epidemic of the Chesapeake Bay that involves subliminal community awareness and engagement. Through the program of a meadery, beekeeping, agriculture, and brewing will integrate with water treatment infrastructure to mutually benefit all processes.Item SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR VISUAL AND INTEGRATIVE ANALYSIS OF MICROBIOME DATA(2018) Wagner, Justin; Corrada Bravo, Hector; Computer Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Microbiome sequencing allows researchers to reconstruct bacterial community census profiles at resolutions greater than previous methodologies. As a result, increasingly large numbers of these taxonomic community profiles are now generated, analyzed, and published by researchers in the field. In this work, I present new methods and software infrastructure for visualization and sharing of microbiome data. The overall goal is to enable a researcher to complete cycles of exploratory and confirmatory analysis over metagenomic data. I describe Metaviz, an interactive statistical and visual analysis tool specifically designed for effective taxonomic hierarchy navigation and data analysis feature selection. I next detail the incorporation of Metaviz into the Human Microbiome Project Data Portal. I then show a novel method to visualize longitudinal data across multiple features built as an extension over Metaviz. Finally, previous work has shown that specific subjects in an experimental cohort can be identified using their microbiome data. I developed software using a secure multi-party computation library to complete comparative analyses of metagenomic data across cohorts without directly revealing feature count values for individuals.Item Integrating Infrastructure South of the Capitol(2017) Camargo de Albuquerque Sanchez, Pedro Henrique; Kelly, Brian; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis looks at the role that infrastructure plays as it relates to the city. It is about taking an area of uninhabitable and divisive infrastructure and elevating it to something civic. It focuses in an area just south and west of the U.S. Capitol Building. It aims to embrace railroad and highway infrastructure as elements that serve multiple city needs, as part of the everyday, while adding artistic and monumental attributes to Washington D.C. It accepts the premises that the presence of, and the need for, the infrastructure will remain. This thesis proposes a master plan, involving the redevelopment of portions of Interstate 395, 695, and 295 highways and the railroads, to provide better use of valuable land, re connection of neighborhoods, and to create place, experienced through a series of civic spaces. Ultimately this thesis aims to set a new ideal that embraces infrastructure and elevates it to civic quality.Item RESILIENCE OF NETWORKED INFRASTRUCTURE WITH EVOLVING COMPONENT CONDITIONS: A PAVEMENT NETWORK APPLICATION(2016) Asadabadi, Ali; Miller-Hooks, Elise; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis deals with quantifying the resilience of a network of pavements. Calculations were carried out by modeling network performance under a set of possible damage-meteorological scenarios with known probability of occurrence. Resilience evaluation was performed a priori while accounting for optimal preparedness decisions and additional response actions that can be taken under each of the scenarios. Unlike the common assumption that the pre-event condition of all system components is uniform, fixed, and pristine, component condition evolution was incorporated herein. For this purpose, the health of the individual system components immediately prior to hazard event impact, under all considered scenarios, was associated with a serviceability rating. This rating was projected to reflect both natural deterioration and any intermittent improvements due to maintenance. The scheme was demonstrated for a hypothetical case study involving Laguardia Airport. Results show that resilience can be impacted by the condition of the infrastructure elements, their natural deterioration processes, and prevailing maintenance plans. The findings imply that, in general, upper bound values are reported in ordinary resilience work, and that including evolving component conditions is of value.Item Creating Common Ground: Architecture For Tactical Learning and Creative Convergence(2015) Sherry, Valerie Lynn; Vandergoot, Jana; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Certain environments can inhibit learning and stifle enthusiasm, while others enhance learning or stimulate curiosity. Furthermore, in a world where technological change is accelerating we could ask how might architecture connect resource abundant and resource scarce innovation environments? Innovation environments developed out of necessity within urban villages and those developed with high intention and expectation within more institutionalized settings share a framework of opportunity for addressing change through learning and education. This thesis investigates formal and informal learning environments and how architecture can stimulate curiosity, enrich learning, create common ground, and expand access to education. The reason for this thesis exploration is to better understand how architects might design inclusive environments that bring people together to build sustainable infrastructure encouraging innovation and adaptation to change for years to come. The context of this thesis is largely based on Colin McFarlane’s theory that the “city is an assemblage for learning” The socio-spatial perspective in urbanism, considers how built infrastructure and society interact. Through the urban realm, inhabitants learn to negotiate people, space, politics, and resources affecting their daily lives. The city is therefore a dynamic field of emergent possibility. This thesis uses the city as a lens through which the boundaries between informal and formal logics as well as the public and private might be blurred. Through analytical processes I have examined the environmental devices and assemblage of factors that consistently provide conditions through which learning may thrive. These parameters that make a creative space significant can help suggest the design of common ground environments through which innovation is catalyzed.Item STRUCTURED PROJECT FINANCE FOR PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN THE U.S.: AN ENHANCED APPROACH TO BETTER ACHIEVE FINANCIAL AND POLICY OBJECTIVES(2014) Farajian, Morteza; Cui, Qingbin; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As existing U.S. infrastructure ages, government entities are looking to the private sector and to alternative financing mechanisms, such as project finance, to help leverage traditional funding sources and pay for the increasing needs. As a result, the use of Public-Private Partnership (P3) delivery method in the U.S. has increased over the last two decades. The question is how the existing cases can be used to potentially enhance the current P3 model both in terms of bankability and overall procurement process maturity. This study is organized into three main parts. In the first section, project finance in general and the role of different credit enhancements in structured project finance in particular have been. In the second section, a QCA analysis has been perfumed to study and compare 18 P3 projects that have been procured in the U.S. over the last two decades. The goal is to identify logical patterns between project characteristics (i.e. capital value, term of contract, construction risk, traffic and revenue risk, and procurement competition level) and financial characteristics (i.e. equity IRR, interest rate on debt and leverage). The results are further analyzed to refine conclusions that to can provide a better understanding of how financing package of P3 projects may change based on project characteristics and policy objectives. In the third section, an enhanced P3 model has been proposed by using crowdfunding. A SWOT analysis has been conducted to explain how the proposed approach can improve current P3 model. The findings of this study can help P3 practitioners to better utilize available tools and also provides them with new tools to further enhance procurement of P3 projects. The case library provides a significant resource to practitioners as well as researchers and the proposed corwdfunding approach is a novel step toward taking P3 projects to a new maturity level.