Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs, Cleveland State University, 2018, Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

The land bank is a government entity that focuses on the conversion of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties into productive use. The object of the land bank is to gain control over the city's problem properties to make possible their timely and productive reuse. The land bank has become a popular policy measure to control the distressed properties in the neighborhood following the foreclosure crisis across in the United States. The objective of this study is to evaluate the spillover effect of the land bank on nearby properties. The primary research question is as follows: has the land bank public intervention created a positive spillover effect on nearby home sales in the respective neighborhood in the City of Cleveland, Ohio? This is a case study for one city. This study utilized the spatial hedonic model to measure the impact of a two-year land bank acquisition period on nearby property values within two buffers: 500 feet and 1,000 feet. This study also utilized the Geographically Weighted Regression to evaluate the local variation of the effect over the space. The study period is 24 months from September 2012 to August 2014. This study identifies that two years of land bank acquisitions have had a positive effect within the 500 feet buffer from the sale location. The pure effect of two years of land bank acquisitions results in a positive 1.82% impact by OLS estimation and a positive 1.81% impact by ML, 2SLS, and 2SLS-robust estimations. The mean value of the implicit marginal price is $897 over 24 months of sale data from September 2012 to August 2014. This estimated benefit may not have existed if the land bank did not acquire the abandoned properties. The result of this study will support policymakers and practitioners in their decision to expand land bank programs.

Master of Science, Miami University, 2024, Sport Leadership and Management

Social media use, including fitness tracking sites such as Strava, is related to psychological well-being. In addition, these platforms are a prime context for social comparison. Use of Strava may be linked to well-being depending on one's social comparison tendencies. This study investigated (a) the relationships between the use of Strava and well-being, athlete burnout, and sport enjoyment and (b) if social comparison moderated this relationship. Participants included 213 non-elite runners aged 18 to 30 years (M = 21.55, SD = 3.38). Participants completed an online Qualtrics survey at one time point. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that interacting on Strava did not significantly associate with study outcomes. Social comparison of ability positively associated with reduced accomplishment (β = .19, p = .006) and negatively associated with eudaimonic well-being (β = -.17, p = .016), hedonic well-being (β = -.28, p < .001), and enjoyment (β = -.15, p = .028). The interaction term for social comparison of ability and Strava interaction behaviors negatively predicted sport enjoyment (β = -.17, p = .014). Results suggested that markers of well-being are directly associated with social comparison of ability and indirectly by interactions on Strava.

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Community Planning

Proposed improvements to the US Environmental Protection Agency's Lead and Copper Rule would require all cities to remove their lead service lines (LSLs) in the next ten years. A persistent challenge that water system managers face is that homeowners refuse to have their LSL replaced despite the health consequences. Cincinnati, OH faces similar challenges, but Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) has removed over 5,000 LSLs since 2016 by offering various incentives to homeowners. This study focuses on a byproduct of GCWW's LSL replacement program: the positive effect of the LSL replacement on property values. Through a difference-in-differences approach, which compared the GCWW customers who replaced their LSL from 2016 to 2021 versus those customers without an LSL replacement, it was determined that the LSL replacement causes a 4.6 percent increase in home sale price in the three years after the replacement. This study is the first to look at how the Flint crisis affected the value of LSL replacement in another city and is an opportunity for water system managers to convey another “incentive” for LSL replacement.

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2023, Economics

This study follows previous work (Roberts et al., 2019) eliciting a premium for a meadow view on the assessed value of houses in the Village of Ottawa Hills, OH, to find if, along with the premium for the view, there is also an aversion to flooding risks. This estimation was done in previous literature using hedonic regression models, but few studies consider both water-related amenities and risks. Using Georeferenced information, we classified parcels intersecting the designated flood hazard area and collected the elevation of each property. We estimate the models with the Flood hazard area classification and interact the meadow view attribute with the house elevation. We also control for the condition of each house. Given the studied area's socio-economic homogeneity and unique geography, few controls for neighborhood heterogeneity were required. We found that for houses with a view, an additional foot of elevation brings a statistically significant 0.5% premium, which means 1633.3 dollars for each foot higher the house is located, confirming the previous finding of a premium for the view, now favored by higher elevations. Despite data showing increasing episodes of intense rain in the region, the classification as flood risk area brings a non-statistically significant discount of 2.3% and, given the overlap between the houses with a view and those classified as flood hazard areas, adding up the effects would still bring a premium. Addressing the spatial dependence with a Spatial Error Model specification brought no significant differences to our main findings.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2021, Spatially Integrated Social Science

The purpose of this research is to explore the interactions of social, environmental, and economic aspects of green infrastructure for inclusion into an ex-ante benefit based conceptual framework that can guide the planning and valuation of multi-use trails in urban areas. GIS was used to analyze factors of the built environment including bicycle network connectivity, population density, and the density of destinations. Landscape metrics, including the division, contagion, and clumpiness indices were calculated using FRAGSTAT to determine the potential for native greenspace development surrounding multi-use trails in urban areas. Additionally, a meta-analysis of hedonic studies, focused on multi-use trails in urban areas, revealed that home values can increase anywhere from 0-27% after a trail is built. Data from the meta-analysis was used to set parameters for a Monte Carlo simulation that provided an estimate of the percent change in home values that can occur after trail implementation. Once created, the conceptual framework was applied to the Chessie Circle Trail (CCT) in Toledo, Ohio. The analysis revealed that opportunity exists for the CCT to enhance bicycle network connectivity and active transit as population and destination density are highest at the north section of the CCT. Green space analysis revealed that high and interspersed patches of developed land limit the potential to reduce habitat fragmentation. Data from the Monte Carlo simulation provides a sensitivity analysis that reveals potential changes in home values after the CCT is built. Application of the conceptual framework to the CCT illustrated that the conceptual framework can aid the planning and valuation of multi-use trails in urban areas. Moreover, ex-ante benefit-based valuation frameworks can be applied as tools that help agencies consider the competing aspects of social, environmental, and economic aspects of green infrastructure.

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Business and Entrepreneurship, Ambassador Crawford / Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship

The advent of online stores and platforms has offered fertile ground for consumers to share their purchase experiences with other consumers, with review platforms like Yelp currently hosting over 170 million reviews (Yelp, 2019). According to BrightLocal.com, up to 91% of consumers find reviews as trustworthy as personal recommendations. Businesses that invest in engaging and responding to online reviews have experienced higher sales (Kumar et al., 2018). Essay 1 examines how the characteristics of reviewers and reviews determine whether online review readers rate the review as helpful. In contrast to earlier studies in the literature that assume homogeneity within online review readers regarding the effects of cues on perceived helpfulness (utilitarian value), using finite mixture models (FMM), this research challenges that assumption. The results reveal three segments of online review readers who utilize the cues in different manners. Essay 2 posits that online review readers gain both utilitarian value and hedonic value from reading reviews and thus explores the interaction effect between the level of humor and helpfulness in a review on the likelihood to return to a review hosting website.

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2017, Psychology

Evidence to date suggests that a higher level of positive emotion is generally associated with improved psychological health (e.g., Tugade, Fredrickson, & Barrett, 2004). However, the specific features characterizing the ways in which upregulation of positive emotion is associated with good psychological functioning are less understood. I investigated how three factors may link regulation of positive emotions to greater psychological health: 1) the presence of both a large repertoire and persistent use of regulation strategies; 2) a “match” between the features of a situation and the strategy used; and 3) the use of specific categories of regulatory strategies, such as expression (capitalization), and less use of suppression. One-hundred and thirty-four undergraduates (mean age = 19.22; 73% female; 78% Caucasian) indicated the strategies they would use to maintain or improve their mood in response to eleven hypothetical positive situations. After their initial response, participants were prompted four more times to report how they would respond if their initial strategy was not working. Participants then completed a battery of self-report measures assessing psychological health variables, including measures of positive emotion and psychopathology. Coders rated the quality (effectiveness) of each strategy and assigned them to categories. Coders also rated each situation for its degree of ambiguity (how ambivalent the situation was), and whether it represented a more hedonic (i.e., short-term pleasure) or eudaimonic (i.e., long-term meaning) form of well-being. Data were analyzed with a series of correlations and regression models using the three factors above as predictors and the psychological health (PH) measures as criterion variables. Repertoire was associated with several indices of positive emotion, but was unrelated to measures of psychopathology. In contrast, persistence was unrelated to PH, except for an inverse association with intensity of positive emotion (open full item for complete abstract)

BA, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Political Science

Individuals and households vote for politicians in hopes for improvements to the quality of life and quality of business environment. Such improvements are measured through the availability of amenities across locations. This paper aims to discover if politicians improve the quality of life and business environment through changes in housing costs and equilibrium wages. By using gubernatorial election results and hedonic regressions, I set up a natural experiment to determine if Democratic or Republican policy has more of an economic impact on firms and individuals. I find that Republican governors produce no statistically significant impact on either the quality of life or business environment, while Democrats have a tendency to slightly reduce the quality of life in some scenarios and moderately diminish the quality of business environment in all scenarios.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

What information is captured in home prices? Clearly prices should reflect characteristics such as square footage, build quality, and the number of bedrooms. Economists also believe that house prices reflect local characteristics, such as school and air quality, presence of open space, and crime rates. Traditionally, researchers employ hedonic models, where the marginal willingness to pay of these characteristics is obtained by running a linear regression of housing and neighborhood characteristics on the log of house price. These models have been used to study the value of a myriad of topics, from pollution and crime rates, to views of windmills and presence of nearby methamphetamine labs. As with many methods of analysis, hedonic models are subject to numerous assumptions and caveats, many of which are often ignored.This dissertation explores several complexities of and proposes new means of employing house prices in economic analysis. The first chapter asks a question that has received little study: why do buyers pay different prices for the same house? In most studies utilizing house transactions, the researcher does not know who the buyers and sellers are, and thus implicitly assumes that specific types of individuals have no effect on home prices. The chapter measures the effect of experience: the relative number of transactions the buyer and seller have taken part in over a given period of time. First, I develop a two-sided real estate search model that incorporates information costs, search costs, and Nash bargaining power. I test the implications of this model using repeat-sales housing data on 113,272 transactions from 1998-2006 in two large metropolitan regions of Ohio. The main results show that more experienced buyers purchase properties at a discount, experienced sellers sell at a premium, and that the magnitude of these differences varies depending on the relative and absolute levels of buyer and seller experience and geographic location. On average, (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

The main objective of the three essays is to explore the potential role of forest and wetland amenities in promoting sustainability by capitalization of these environmental amenities in housing markets. The first essay seeks to use extensive home sale and socioeconomic data, coupled with urban tree cover data to identify the influence of urban trees on house values, estimate the demand for urban trees and ultimately calculate the welfare loss of deforestation in California, with a two-stage hedonic price model. In the first stage model, I detect spatial dependence using the Lagrange-Multiplier Robust tests and find significant spatial correlations in house prices for each of five California counties, which render urban tree cover an endogenous variable. My identification strategy relies on flexibly controlling for unobserved spatial effects by using the Spatial Autoregressive Lag Model (SAR) to get consistent estimates of urban tree cover. The SAR model solves the problem by establishing a spatial weight matrix to incorporate neighboring house prices. In the second stage, I then use market segmentation to identify the demand parameters by collecting data from five geographic markets, assuming that residents in each market share common preference structures. Consequently, the first-stage analysis provides evidence of positive effect of tree cover on home values, which is robust with different specifications. I further find that the estimated own price elasticity of demand for tree cover within each parcel is -0.075, suggesting an inelastic demand curve. Hence, the estimated results suggest that 50% reduction of current average percentage of tree cover (4.96%) will leads to a decrease in consumer surplus of $85378 per household. The second essay provides an alternative way to estimate the impact of urban tree cover on house sale prices by considering the sample selection issue with the same dataset in California. The main hypothesis is that houses with high tre (open full item for complete abstract)

MFA, Kent State University, 2016, College of Communication and Information / School of Visual Communication Design

The ways in which people research, shop and purchase items has evolved in tandem with the evolution and expansion of e-commerce consumer purchasing. However, the reasons that people shop have essentially stayed the same. It is widely accepted that consumers are motivated by either utilitarian or hedonic goals. Utilitarian consumers are primarily concerned with purchasing products in an efficient and timely manner; whereas, hedonic consumers are primarily focused on the potential entertainment and enjoyment that arises from the shopping experience (Childers, Carr, Peck & Carson, 2001). Acknowledging these differences in shopping motives is important relative to the quickly changing retail environment. In 2012, U.S. retail e-commerce sales amounted to 225.5 billion U.S. dollars. In 2017 these sales are projected to nearly double to 434.2 billion U.S. dollars. (“U.S. Retail E-commerce,” 2015). With a significant increase in total projected online sales, it is essential for retailers to research, evaluate, and adapt current e-commerce design practices in an effort to capture this expanding market. Despite prior research confirming that the two primary motives for retail shopping — utilitarian and hedonic — also apply to the online shopping experience, (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001) e-commerce design has predominantly focused on fulfilling utilitarian goals. Designers have created simple interfaces, quick navigational tools and easily accessible merchandise to meet these practical, task-orientated needs (Nielsen, 2003). As a result, standard design has seemingly been created within the industry which treats the online presence of a company as a virtual warehouse of products. Typical e-commerce designs rarely take into consideration hedonic shopping motives. Conventional methods of e-commerce design have provided users with a functional, utilitarian method for shopping; but, enjoyable, hedonic moments are largely absent from the online retail experience. The goal of t (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

Over the past few years, U.S. agriculture has experienced a myriad of macroeconomic and environmental changes that have profound implications for the well-being of farm households and the farm sector. An expanding biofuels market and growing export demand from China have led to rising agricultural commodity prices since mid-2000s. However, during the same time period, the residential housing market collapsed in 2007-2008 could impose a downturn pressure on farmland market, and there is a growing concern for environmental problems due to excessive agricultural nutrient runoff as well as stronger calls for more effective agri-environmental policies to curb nonpoint source agricultural pollution. Economic analyses of farmer decisions in this constrained and evolving environment are critical to understand how these changes have impacted farmer welfare and trade-offs with ecosystem and other societal benefits. Using individual-level data on farmland parcels and farmers from Ohio and Lake Erie basin, my dissertation examines how the recent housing market bust, expanding ethanol production, and rising environmental concerns have impacted farmers' land use, land management, and land transaction decisions and the implications for farmer welfare. Farm real estate represents over 80% of the balance sheet of the farm sector and is the single largest item in a typical farmer's investment portfolio, and thus changes in farmland values could affect the welfare of the farmer household and farm sector in general. The first two chapters of my dissertation examine the trends and determinants of farmland values in the Midwest in the 2000s decade. In particular, the first chapter identifies the impact of the recent residential housing market bust and subsequent economic recession on farmland values, using parcel-level farmland sales data from 2001-2010 for a 50-county region under urbanization pressure in Western Ohio. My estimates from hedonic regressions reveal that farmland was no (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

This dissertation investigates the influence of policies involving environmental amenities on residential location decisions. We develop and implement unique econometric models focused on controlling for differences in spatial scale when estimating non-market values. These models are applied to evaluate existing and proposed policies that impact the environment in the Chesapeake Bay region. The first chapter provides new evidence of the capitalized value of local parks by estimating the impact associated with renovations of specific local park attributes on surrounding home prices. These results shed light on an empirical puzzle in the existing literature that single-family residential homeowners have a surprisingly low valuation associated with living in close proximity to local parks. Using property fixed effects models with time-varying renovations data, we disaggregate the bundle of amenities comprising local parks and find that the capitalization of renovations is heterogeneous and depends on the specific park attributes undergoing renovation. In the second chapter, we investigate the role of spatial scale in recovering preferences using models of residential location choice. While the existing Tiebout sorting literature has largely focused on a single spatial unit, it is expected that homeowners face different tradeoffs across the spatial spectrum. To explore these tradeoffs we develop a multi-spatial residential location choice model using a nested logit framework. Testing the model empirically, we find that including multiple spatial scales of sorting leads to significantly different estimates of willingness to pay for environmental amenities and school quality compared to single-spatial sorting and hedonic models, and that future research should explicitly consider the spatial hierarchy of decision making. The third chapter examines the implications of proposed taxes on impervious surface by using the model of residential sorting developed (open full item for complete abstract)

BA, Oberlin College, 2015, Economics

Previous hedonic pricing models have studied in depth the aesthetic value of views, as well as the recreational value of proximity to waterfronts. This study examines the same proximity and aesthetic effects in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and builds in the effect of changing water levels and beach availability on those implicit values. Results indicate that aesthetic effects of living adjacent to the waterfront, as well as proximity, are insignificant. Water levels are negatively correlated with home prices, but this effect is not magnified or dimmed for waterfront homes. Beach availability has an ambiguous effect on home prices; statistical significance was found to be positive and negative depending on the specification.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

We examine questions of land use by analyzing the underlying land market and uncovering intended and unintended outcomes of regulations. Understanding land use patterns is a fundamental component for examining the linkages between urbanization and environmental outcomes. Different types of land use are largely determined by the interactions between proximity to urban area, land prices, and public policies. In the first essay, we explore how a specific set of smart growth land use regulations impact land use patterns. Land developer's responses to regulations can be varied and unanticipated. We develop and test a model of developer behavior in response to spatially and temporarily varying development moratoria that occur as a result of the Smart Growth initiative in Maryland. We utilize a rich dataset with a nonlinear moratoria policy variable that varies temporally and spatially which enables us to identify the anticipatory decisions by developers in the time periods leading up to a moratoria. Additionally, we are able to identify a heterogeneous spatial spillover effect that results from developers choosing to build houses in the outskirts of the county when moratoria occur, while substituting away from locations that fall within designated growth areas. A localized land price index is constructed to control for temporal variation in spatially correlated unobservables. From this model we are able to offer an additional explanation for the urban sprawl observed in this region, as an outcome of development behavior responses to moratoria in overcrowded schools. In our second essay, we explore the environmental tradeoffs of land use regulations. Section 404 of the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates the “waters of the United States” to minimize degradation of wetlands. In 1985 the definition of the US waters under Section 404 was expanded in an effort to specifically reduce environmental damage caused by new residential developments. This study analyzes a suburban (open full item for complete abstract)

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2011, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Regional Development Planning

My dissertation examines the relationship between single-family homes (SFH) and surrounding conservation easement (CE) property parcels in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. The research was designed to examine whether conservation easements indeed externalize benefits to the surrounding SFH values. Externalities are those factors that are outside of SFH and contribute positive or negative effective on SFH's values. Conservation easement is a voluntary land-conservation tool and is increasingly popular in the United States. It is used widely to protect privately owned properties offering scenic views and vistas, open spaces, rural and historic character, watersheds and natural systems, habitats and endangered species, and other preservation-worthy attributes. CE-protected parcels are restricted via an agreement for any future development. With donation of the development rights, CE advances public good – forever – by protecting preservation-worthy land in perpetuity, and landowners are rewarded with tax abatement. With public tax dollars involved in CE in the form of tax abatement, municipalities may need to make the case that such conservation programs have a positive public benefit and that there is a potential economic benefit on the surrounding home values, or at least the preservation of property values. This dissertation examines the relationship between conservation-easement parcels and the values of surrounding SFH using a hedonic price modeling (HPM) framework and SFH sales data for Worcester. Using 3-D GIS, externality-capturing explanatory variables were developed that include proximity from homes to CE parcels, viewable areas of CE parcels from homes, and Conservation Easement Visibility Index (CEVI), a relative index for home samples that measures both the visibility and proximity together through a single variable. The research findings were interesting. Contrary to expectation, distance from, and visibility of, CE property parcels from SFH sampl (open full item for complete abstract)

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2010, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Regional Development Planning

The main objective of this research is to estimate the impact of brownfields on the surrounding property values by using a Maximum Likelihood-based hedonic price model that takes into account the phenomenon of spatial dependence among real estate property values and thus yields coefficient estimates that are unbiased and consistent. The study aims to also contribute additional relevant information to the urban and regional planning literature by determining the magnitude of the total impact traditional hedonic variables, and in particular brownfield sites, have on the value of single-family residential properties. The total impact represents the cumulated effect determined by each explanatory variable and by the spatial dependence phenomenon. The results of the Maximum Likelihood estimation procedure indicate that the negative externalities on property values determined by the presence of brownfield sites in their neighborhood are limited to the first 1,000 feet around brownfields. Based on these findings, the loss in property value for each of the properties included in the analyzed sample and the corresponding tax revenue loss for the city are calculated. Although the magnitude of the loss in property values alone may not justify the need for public support for brownfield redevelopment, it opens a new array of directions for future research, such as, to name just a couple, the need to compare the potential monetary gains from brownfield redevelopment with the actual costs of redevelopment or the need to look beyond single-family residential properties in calculating the total impact of brownfields on the surrounding property values.

MCP, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning

Across the United States, many conversions of abandoned railroad rights-of-ways into trails have faced opposition from surrounding property owners. Much of the opposition derives from the fear that developing trails would cause a decrease in property values because of loss of privacy, increase in noise, traffic, litter and crime.The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the Little Miami Scenic Trail on property values. To accomplish this task, the hedonic pricing technique was employed to measure the impact of the trail on single-family residential property values in southwest Ohio. Several of the variables used in this model were measured using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. The analysis suggests that, each foot increase in distance to the trail decreases the sale price of a sample property by $7.05. In other words, being closer to the Little Miami Scenic Trail adds value to the single family residential properties.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2012, Environmental Science

The primary purpose of this study is to determine how different aspects of wetland quality are preferred by the home buying public. This research seeks to use extensive home sale and amenity data, coupled with proximity information, to determine if there is a correlation between the value of a home and the quality of a wetland ecosystem. The Ohio Rapid Assessment Methodology is used for ascertaining wetland quality to obtain quantitative data on a number of habitats in the Franklin County, Ohio area .Real estate data is also used to produce results in the form of parameter estimates and marginal effects for each of the independent variables in the model. The research is focused on determining if there is a correlation between home prices and wetland type to address whether or not there is a preference for a given type of ecosystem. The resulting study shows that there is a positive correlation between a number of quality metrics and home prices. Also, as a home increases in its distance to a given wetland, then the home decreases in sale price. This research also examines this method of research compared with other studies that have not considered quality in their hedonic models and what the implications of these preferences mean for the permitting and impact of these isolated wetland ecosystems.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Environmental Science

Soil-based septic systems serve about one in every four households in the United States. Proper design and quality of soil play an important role in the functioning of such systems. Shallow soils in Ohio do not support traditional leach field systems that require a depth of 4 feet of soil for effective treatment of domestic wastewater. Untreated or partially treated wastewater not only affects the immediate residents, but also contaminates the groundwater aquifer and the local watershed. Wastewater management is not just a technical issue, but one that crosses several disciplines. Challenges to effective wastewater management in rural Ohio are identified in this dissertation and some novel solutions that encompass attitudinal, economic and technological approaches are proposed. Siting leach field systems in shallow soils leads to insufficient treatment of wastewater, leading to private costs for the property owner and public costs for the society. One of the private costs is a loss of property valuation. An analysis of 549 households in Licking County revealed that soil quality is a significant factor in the price of a property. Soils suited for the installation of leach fields and mound systems were shown to be significantly higher than soils that are rated ‘sub-optimal' for wastewater treatment performance. Additionally, the difference in valuation due to the varying soil quality equals the cost of installing advanced treatment systems. When soil depths range from 1 to 2 feet, a combination of onsite treatment system and disinfection, followed by irrigation of the treated wastewater is recommended. Presently, disinfection options for onsite systems are restricted to chlorination, ultraviolet radiation and ozonation. An automated disinfection device to deliver portable packets of chlorine dioxide was built and installed in the field. Water quality tests showed chlorine dioxide to be an effective disinfectant for onsite system needs. The field setup successfull (open full item for complete abstract)