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

Asset Mapping utilizes the concepts of physical capital, human capital, and social capital, as a holistic way of evaluation for revitalization and economic development. Challenges exist within most communities and focusing on only one aspect of development and/or revitalization separate from the others is not beneficial in the long run for sustainable planning and more often than not causes a disconnection between residents, organizations, and local/regional institutions. Asset Mapping encourages cooperation between the components of a community that make it work, or not, and examines the structures of process. A capacity building initiative, Asset Mapping focuses on positive resources instead of needs and problems, encouraging momentum towards networking that can build a strong foundation connecting social and institutional dichotomy. Asset Mapping makes it easier to deal with community negatives by identifying and accentuating the positive resources which can be utilized efficiently and directly to resolve challenges and issues.

Committee: Mahyar Arefi Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Rainer Vom Hofe Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Jan Hillard Ph.D. (Committee Member); Joyce Malek Ph.D. (Committee Member); David Kennedy (Advisor) Subjects: Area planning & Business Community; Social Research; Urban Planning; development

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

Today's world requires urban planners and researchers to explore terrorism possibilities as a new paradigm of disaster planning. Natural disaster planning can serve as a starting point for developing theories and models for understanding planning for man-made disasters, however, new practices are needed to encompass new unique characteristics. A review of existing literature suggests that community level planning is not as savvy in anticipating man-made disasters and their resulting evacuations as it could be. There is a gap in the literature, where on the one hand, planning for terror is discussed at the federal level, and on the other hand discussed at a site-specific level. There is little research at the urban community level. This thesis attempts to fill the gap that exists at the community level. For a planning department that is charged with identifying likely community terror targets, shelters, and evacuation routes, there is little research. After having identified these components, the question remains unanswered: “What are the traditional planning tools to use in also mitigating man-made disaster risks?” A planning support system framework is proposed that suggests data requirements, vulnerability criteria, input specifications, important indicating quantifications, and analysis methods of output, using ArcGIS software with CommunityViz and Network Analyst. The main finding is that planners can use this framework to anticipate likely terrorism targets, and detect shortcomings in the city's building assets by analyzing indicators such as evacuee miles traveled, percent of evacuees traveling an unacceptable evacuation distance, and vulnerability of suspected targets. These indicating values can act as an additional consideration of the planning process, particularly of land use decisions. This framework can also provide important response information, such as evacuation routes and shelter assignment for each suspected target.

Committee: Xinhao Wang PhD (Committee Chair); Heng Wei PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Area planning & Engineering; Geography; Information Systems; Transportation; Urban Planning; development

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

Urban transportation in third world countries has always been a political and economic issue. Not only because of the strong necessity it represents but because of the tendency of these places to copy first world projects regardless of the required National capital or the population attitude change that such investments require. For these countries it is important to understand that these solutions are not always the most adequate; not only because of the investment of capital but because of the environmental and social impacts have these approaches implies. Several countries around the world have attempted to solve the transportation problem, some of them have succeeded and some others have discovered flaws in their approaches. This research project considers two cities that are considered successful by using the same system, a Bus Rapid Transit System (articulated buses). One of them, Curitiba, has been using the solution for more than twenty years and the other one, Bogota, is almost ten years old. If this is true, the application of the same system into a similar situation will be just as effective, in other words, if the traffic situation in Santiago de Chile is just as inadequate as Curitiba and Bogota where, the solution will be just as good. The primary objective is to answer the question: what would have happened if the BRT system was never implemented in these two cities? The proposed methodology is to compare the congestion levels with and without the BRT systems, measured as number of private vehicles per capita and number of buses per capita in both cities. The WITH situation is determined by demographic data, but the WITHOUT situation requires development of a regression model to project historic measurements to the point where the transportation system was implemented in each one of the cities. Both models were developed with correlation factors higher than 95%, which means that they represent reality in a very close manner. (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: David Edelman J. (Committee Chair); Christopher Auffrey (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Area planning & Civil Engineering; Demographics; Engineering; Transportation; Urban Planning; development