Browsing by Subject "Urban growth"
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Item Balance between humanity and ecology(2009) Spears, Steven Joseph, 1974-; Catterall, KateIncorporating aspects of public and environmental art practices into my professional endeavors as a landscape architect and urban designer has provided me with opportunities to work at a human scale, consider human needs, and focus on environmental issues that are closely interwoven with those needs. The public and environmental art process has presented greater opportunities to balance the sublime with the pragmatic and allows for a more overt communication between designer and audience, viewer or user. Functioning in this interstitial space allows me to communicate ideas clearly and to initiate a broader discussion on how society might find a balance between the stewardship of the natural environment in the face of the exponential growth of communities and the desire to own and develop land. My aim is to strike a balance between economic development and environmental imperatives through work bridging the practice of landscape architecture and public art. My objective is to use art and design work in the environment to persuade people to utilize all of their senses and to realize the undiscovered in their own journey, to stop and notice the world around them, and to act to protect the delicate balance between contemporary civilization and precious ecosystems. Using a method to register and then to make overt ephemeral elements in the environment, I aim to both demonstrate the ever-changing quality of nature and, more importantly, abuses of the natural environment in our society. Although my interest in the natural environment is multifaceted, water quantity and quality is a focus for my work. It is fast becoming a global issue with dire environmental and social ramifications. In the southwest United States and Australia, water is scarce. In the northwest United States and Finland, water quality remains an issue. In parts of Africa and Asia, water is being privatized and villages are left without a source of life and livelihood that has been a constant for generations. The more poetic aspect of my work focuses on natural time and revealing the abstract beauty of the environment. Shadows, sun, water and wind are all environmental systems that we can learn from and are revealed to us through natural time. It is through natural time that we may learn, respect and come into balance with the environment. In order for my work to succeed on all levels and reach the broadest possible audience, it needs to exist in the public realm. In order for it to communicate effectively it needs to be both, persuasive and poetic; while revealing possibilities for harmony between humanity and ecology. This can be achieved by communicating natures’ equilibrium surrounding environmental issues in the face of human civilization and time.Item Neoliberalism, urban growth, and structures of inequality : community-based strategies to combat gang violence in El Salvador(2007-12) Uzzell, Caitlin Whiteford; Sletto, BjørnThis thesis analyzes the infamous Mara Salvatruchas (MS-13) in Central America, an international gang that has become increasingly powerful and violent. I will examine the cycle of violence perpetuated by the urban structure in Central America, which is characterized by economic and social segregation and sometimes violent oppression, resulting in part from neoliberal economic policies. I will critically review a variety of current MS-13 interventions in El Salvador and elsewhere, and examine how policies have impacted the growth of this international threat. Successful examples of community-based gang interventions, specifically targeted to reach youth, will be examined to determine important components of effective, bottom-up gang interventions that may be applied in El Salvador.Item Sustainable quality versus quantity metropolitan area : an exploratory analysis(2011-05) Zhang, Guowei, master of science in community and regional planning; Paterson, Robert G.; Oden, MichaelIn recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding how and why cities grow and how to make this growth more economically and environmentally sustainable. This study is interested in two questions. The first question is how to trace the growth pattern among U.S metropolitan areas after 2000 based on the two types of growth strategies. The second research question is how different growth patterns affect environmental outcomes and income inequality. A quantitative study is used to measure the two faces of urban growth processes in U.S metropolitan areas. After cluster analysis, five groups are developed. Then the study moves to how these groups might impact the performances of sustainability. This thesis closes by summarizing the empirical finding and gives recommendations for future researches.Item Urban growth pattern and sustainable development: a comparative study of municipalities in the Seoul Metropolitan Region(Texas A&M University, 2006-10-30) Paek, SeunggeunThe main purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of the impact of urban growth and change on sustainability based on a comparative study of municipalities comprising Gyeonggi Province within the Seoul Metropolitan Region, Korea over the 1990-2000 period. To examine the impact of urban growth and change on sustainability, this study selected 38 sustainability indicators (population density, waste recycling rate, time spent commuting, etc.) and then measured progress towards sustainability in 31 study areas for the years 1990, 1995 and 2000. Data for this study were drawn from the 1990-2000 censuses and local government publications. Statistical methods such as t-test, analysis of variance and factor analysis were used to answer the research questions. This study led to five major findings. First, the study areas with higher densities showed the lower mean values of sustainability. This result implies that increased density does not necessarily result in improved sustainability. Second, the level of sustainability has increased over time in urban areas with green belt, but the mean differences were not statistically significant. On the contrary, the level of sustainability continued to decline in their surrounding areas over the study period. In particular, there was a significant decline between 1995 and 2000. Third, for the entire region, the overall level of sustainability has not improved over the study period. However, different trends of sustainability have emerged within different parts of the region. Fourth, there were significant differences in the mean values for the level of sustainability among three zones within the region. Overall, the level of sustainability was much higher in the nature preservation zone (where development projects are strictly controlled to protect natural resources) than in the growth management zone (where urban development consistent with the planned land use is allowed) and the over-concentration control zone (where further development is discouraged to control population growth) during the study period. Fifth, although there were some variations in elements affecting the pattern of sustainability for each year, key elements influencing the pattern of sustainability remained relatively stable over the study period.