Organizational Unit:

School of City and Regional Planning

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https://hdl.handle.net/1853/70772

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Organizational Unit

College of Design

Includes Organization(s)

Organizational Unit

Eco Urban Lab

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https://finding-aids.library.gatech.edu/agents/corporate_entities/1122

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 682

A methodological assessment of extreme heat mortality modeling and heat vulnerability mapping in Atlanta, Detroit, and Phoenix

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-11-12) Mallen, Evan Sheppard

Extreme temperatures pose an increasingly high risk to human health and are projected to worsen in a warming climate with increased intensity, duration and frequency of heat waves, further amplified by the urban heat island, in the coming decades. To mitigate heat exposure and protect sensitive populations, urban planners are increasingly using decision support tools like heat vulnerability indices (HVIs) to identify high priority areas for intervention and investment. However, HVIs often capture only proxy heat exposure indicators at the land surface level, not air temperatures that humans experience, and are highly subjective in their construction methodology. This gap can be filled using regional climate models like the Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate air temperatures comprehensively over a city, coupled with a heat exposure-response function to objectively estimate mortality attributable to heat. But this method is often beyond the capabilities of local planning departments due to limitations in funding or technical expertise to run the model. Careful consideration of decision support tool selection will be an important factor in determining the future resilience of urban populations in a changing climate. Through a comparative analysis, this study investigates the relationship and utility of HVIs and spatial statistical attribution models with a focus on 1) the extent to which HVI methods can replicate spatial prioritization from a WRF-driven mortality model; 2) the relative significance of place-based vulnerabilities used in the HVI; and 3) the potential to reliably replicate a WRF-driven mortality model using publicly available datasets. This information can help urban planners and public health officials improve their emergency response plans and communication strategies for heat mitigation by specifically targeting short and long-term responses where there is greatest need. These techniques equip planners with a useful and accessible tool to protect vulnerable populations effectively and efficiently with minimal public funds and could advance the policies we use to adapt to a changing climate.
Building Equity: Lessons in Sustainability from Community to College Campuses

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-11-08) Hernández, Diana

Buildings represent a middle ground between high-level and small-scale infrastructure. For this reason, they embody specific factors at the intersection of equity and opportunity. For example, recent studies show a correlation between energy efficiency upgrades, usually of interest only to the landlord; and the likelihood of tenant financial burdens and disconnection notices for energy bills. Correlations such as these at the building scale can help reveal otherwise unseen implications of transitions to less environmentally impactful energy technologies. The idea of “just transitions” will be explored in this context, as will comparative approaches from different segments of the US population from college campuses to community settings.
Analyzing the difference between bike share trips made on regular and electric bicycles

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-09-11) Borsch, Adam

In 2017, JUMP Bicycle Company introduced dockless electric bicycles in several cities in the United States. Two of these cities were Austin, TX, and Atlanta, GA, both of which already had bikeshare companies operating with traditional non-electric bicycle fleets. This makeup of two unique sources of data for non-electric and electric bikeshare in these two cities presents a unique opportunity to study the difference between trips made on a pedal-assist bicycle and a standard bicycle that are a part of an urban bikeshare network. To conduct this work, the researchers collected three months of data in each of the cities and analyzed the data by comparing trip counts, mapping the origins and destinations and the routes of the trips, and finally analyzing the distance and other characteristics of the trips. The results of the study found an increase in the number of bikeshare trips taken in both cities, however, many of these new electric bicycle trips come at the expense of existing bikeshare trips. The geographic area covered by the trips increase greatly when electric bicycles trips are compared to regular bike trips in both cities, however, the average trip lengths stayed constant. Results suggest the introduction of electric bikeshares is a promising prospect to increase mobility and will need to be incorporated into transportation plans for cities moving forward.
Economic and social sustainability of sidewalk infrastructure

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-08-27) Patel, Deep

The presence of sidewalks and quality of sidewalk infrastructure are important indicators of perceived pedestrian safety and the walkability of neighborhoods. However, a wide gap exists between the accessibility and quality of infrastructure provided for pedestrians compared to the infrastructure provided for motorized vehicles. While there may be numerous reasons for poor quality of pedestrian infrastructure across cities and neighborhoods, one of the main reasons is the lack of sustained operation and maintenance programs among these local government agencies. This study outlines an approach to quantify sidewalk infrastructure costs over an 80-year life cycle period. Equivalent annual costs for three different scenarios are allocated in part directly to property owners, with the remaining costs in each scenario recovered over time through an equivalent increase in property tax millage rates. The four sidewalk management scenarios are then examined in more detail to assess how implementation may differentially impact Atlanta’s 244 neighborhoods and their residents across income and ethnicity groups. The two somewhat surprising findings of the study are: 1) even though sidewalk infrastructure may have a lifespan of more than 40-years, the costs of owning and operating this infrastructure over an 80-year period with replacement are high; and 2) low income neighborhoods are negatively impacted when portions of sidewalk infrastructure management costs are allocated directly to property owners, rather than handling sustainable management through traditional property tax assessment methods.
Estimating managed lanes door-to-door travel timesavings using shortest path algorithms

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-08-27) Chang, Chia-Huai

Implementing managed lanes, such as high-occupancy toll lanes, within existing urban highway corridors has become increasingly common in cities that want to provide a reliable transportation option but lack sufficient right-of-way to construct new corridors. This study develops a framework that utilizes a shortest path algorithm to compare before and after commute routes and estimate the change in door-to-door travel time offered by managed lane facilities. Using this modeling approach, a case study is explored for the Northwest Corridor (NWC) managed lane facility located in the Atlanta, Georgia, region. The shortest path routines predict that the facility provides a 21.0% - 27.1% decrease in door-to-door travel time for the NWC managed lane users, and a 5.8% – 12.0% travel time decrease for non-NWC general-purpose lane users, for corridor travelers departing home between 6:30 and 8:30 A.M. (traversing the corridor between 6:30 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.). This framework can be easily customized and applied to any other commute route/time change assessment for major managed lane projects.
Estimating demand for an electric vertical landing and takeoff (eVTOL) air taxi service using discrete choice modeling

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-07-30) Boddupalli, Sreekar-Shashank

Urban Air Mobility (UAM), often referred to in the press as “flying cars,” is slated to be the next big thing in transportation. As congestion continues to increase on our roads and transit systems are in dire need of maintenance, commuters are looking out for other alternatives that can save time, and be cost-efficient, safe, and comfortable. With numerous companies vying to launch their service in the early part of the next decade, it is essential to analyze the effectiveness of UAM solutions and model how UAM could compete against the other, more established modes of transportation. A travel demand modeling study, on the basis of the utility maximization theory, has been conducted based on a stated preference survey of 2,500 commuters living and working in the Atlanta, Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Francisco, and Los Angeles areas. The study provides estimates of market share for the new air taxi service assuming current market conditions (i.e., no autonomous ground vehicles).
It takes green to go green: An Atlanta-based evaluation of employer-provided commuting incentives as a method to overcome work site car-dependency

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-07-30) Greenwald, Jeremy Adams

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) is the concept of applying travel options and incentives to mitigate the effects of congestion through human travel behavior change. While traditionally applied in a municipal context, TDM has recently penetrated the corporate landscape, where employers utilize financial incentives and work place perks to achieve a commuter mode shift in their employee population that often results in financial benefits and increased employee well-being and productivity. A limitation in current employer-based TDM and within existing relevant literature is the arbitrary nature in which transportation alternatives and incentives are applied. This thesis, and the incorporated Atlanta, GA employer case study, aims to further define the influence of travel-related behaviors within employee populations and the targeted methods of incentivization that could be applied to overcome alternative mode barriers. This research specifically evaluates the viability of carpooling and transit as alternative modes within the corporate commuting landscape, distinguishing between carpool driver and carpool passenger. A mixed-method survey approach is utilized to inform a multinomial logistic regression analysis that produces utility measures for socio-demographic and TDM-related variables. This work offers value to the field of corporate TDM by providing a contemporary reference point for TDM practitioners that can help them effectively target incentives to achieve their workplace commuting-related objectives.
Evaluation of Implementation Strategies of On-site Water Conserving Technologies in Three Urban Neighborhoods

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-06-27) Leigh, Nancey Green ; Lee, Heonyeong

This paper addresses a knowledge gap that exists for city- or neighborhood-wide applications of on-site water-conserving technologies, such as rainwater and gray-water systems. We develop a framework for evaluating policies requiring on-site rainwater and gray-water systems in residential units. Our framework incorporates housing stock dynamics, fixture retrofitting, and water demand models. It assesses costs and benefits of policy implementation strategies for three urban neighborhoods selected according to their built environment and socio-economic characteristics. Evaluation results identify a potential 5.4 to 37.2 percent reduction in future neighborhoods’ water demand. With the most cost-efficient water-conserving technologies, a household is expected to save $160 – $393 from their annual water bills. The cost-benefit analyses indicate substantial variation in water-saving potential and the cost-efficiency of on-site water-conserving technologies across neighborhoods. Our findings present that to maximize effectiveness, the specific choice of water conserving technology and implementation strategy needs to account for local conditions of land-use characteristics, household structure, and water fixture conditions.
Does green infrastructure promote equitable development? The mediating role of social capital in shaping impacts

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05-17) Fisch, Jessica Ann

Planners, policymakers, and elected officials increasingly view investments in green infrastructure, parks and other green development as opportunities for spurring economic growth, increasing environmental quality, and providing social and recreational amenities in urban areas. However, research has indicated that these projects do not adequately address equity concerns, such as access for low-income and marginalized groups, housing affordability, and displacement of existing residents. Consequently, green infrastructure projects can lead to ‘environmental gentrification. While several works have argued that social capital—the building of relationships, trust, and networks of stakeholders—has the potential to promote more equitable development, the conditions under which more equitable outcomes for green infrastructure projects might be supported and the role of social capital in addressing these concerns has not been adequately examined. This study seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which green infrastructure planning might advance the development of social capital and in turn how social capital influences the housing affordability, gentrification, and community benefits aspects of green infrastructure planning and policy development. The research examines these interrelationships in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., cities with a prominent focus on planning for green infrastructure, high levels of segregation by race and income, and distinct city-wide approaches to coping with gentrification. In clarifying interactions between social capital and green infrastructure planning processes and outcomes, the research enhances our understanding of how social capital might support an increased focus on equity in green infrastructure planning. In particular, the study finds that green infrastructure planning may reinforce social capital, which in turn shapes green infrastructure projects and planning processes with regard to addressing housing affordability and community benefits concerns. It further finds that social capital has served as a catalyst for advocacy and the development of organizations, policies, and programs focused on housing affordability and workforce development. Finally, state and city-level political contexts concerning the goals and tools for promoting housing affordability and community benefits shape the ability of municipal and neighborhood-level actors to address equity concerns associated with green development. These findings support several recommendations for policy and planning to promote more equitable development surrounding green infrastructure projects and planning processes.
A Flood Resilience Policy Analysis: New York City

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2019-05) Sherman, Jonathan

The urgency of flood resilience in coastal regions has amplified over the past decade as several high cost storms have hit significant metropolitan regions. New data has indicated that major hydrological events have doubled since 2004 and quadrupled since 1984 (EASAC 2018). The Mid-Atlantic United States is particularly vulnerable to coastal flooding as the statistics approximate above average sea level rise for the region (EPA, 16). Sea levels are expected to rise globally between eight inches and six and a half feet by the end of the century (NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency 2013). The Mid-Atlantic region SLR rates are three to four times the global average, indicating a much faster rate of increase than other parts of the globe. This region encompasses several densely populated areas including New York City. Strategies to mitigate climate change impacts or adapt to changing environmental conditions have become frontline topics in planning and urban design.