Master's Projects

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Master's Projects

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 364

Planning for a Climate Driven Implementation of Mobility Hubs on Georgia Tech’s Campus

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-12) Murali, Malavika

Mobility hubs are an efficient and effective transportation solution that promotes connectivity and provides last-mile modal options for commuters and residents through integrating multi-modal transportation infrastructure in one convenient transitional space. In addition to encouraging place-making efforts and transforming cities with innovative technologies, mobility hubs are foundationally a strategy for addressing the climate change crisis, which is substantially driven by transportation related carbon and carbon-equivalent emissions. Therefore, a focus on a climate driven implementation of mobility hubs is pertinent to accomplishing the goal of reducing carbon emissions and creating resilient transportation infrastructure. This paper provides a case study analysis of best practice strategies for implementing mobility hubs from three institutions across the United States, which informs a review of Georgia Tech's plans for improving mobility on campus as outlined by the 2023 Comprehensive Campus Plan (CCP). This analysis is used to determine what elements are critical to creating resilient, sustainable, and accessible mobility hubs and to propose a climate driven approach to implementing the mobility plans of the institution. Through this analysis, 14 locations are identified for potential mobility hubs throughout campus that incorporate 11 sustainability and accessibility elements which are detailed in the paper.
Towards a Safer Atlanta: Identifying High-Priority Intersections for Leading Pedestrian Intervals

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-12) Mase, Heather

This study addresses the critical issue of pedestrian safety and the need to prioritize safety interventions in the City of Atlanta. It specifically focuses on leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs), which adjust signal timing to give pedestrians a head start when crossing the street at intersections. While traditional safety analyses rely primarily on historical collision data, this analysis takes a systemic and proactive approach to safety by incorporating risk factors such as roadway characteristics, the surrounding built environment, and socioeconomic characteristics of nearby residents. The primary objective of this research is to determine where LPIs should be implemented in the City of Atlanta by ranking and identifying high-risk intersections. The methods comprise of six major steps: (1) factor selection; (2) data collection; (3) database construction; (4) calculation of factor weights, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP); (5) factor normalization and aggregation, involving scaled scores and weighting; and (6) determination of the final signalized intersection ranking for LPI implementation, based on a rank-order prioritization process. Results from this analysis reveal that many of the highest risk intersections are primarily concentrated around Downtown Atlanta and West Atlanta. The proposed data-driven framework provides a comprehensive and systematic approach to guide decision-makers and safety advocates in directing resources and support to intersections with the greatest need for pedestrian safety intervention. Overall, this research contributes to the advancement of safety, sustainability, and equity in the City of Atlanta.
America’s Gayborhoods: A Study in the Cultural Preservation of LGBTQ+ Communities

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-12) Brennan, Laurence

In recent years, Atlanta, GA has seen a boon in development, catapulting housing demand and prices, particularly in its densest and most desirable neighborhoods. The Midtown neighborhood’s Garden District, commonly referred to as the ‘Gayborhood’ is one such place where long-time residents are being pushed out. The exodus of queer trailblazers combined with an influx of new, heteronormative populations in dense new high rises, dilutes the proportion of LGBTQ+ anchor residents who patronized the shops and cafes that served as the backbone of this community. This exploratory effort reviews literature and research from other studies and governmental entities and conducts a comparative analyses of planning interventions that other U.S. cities have used as tools toward cultural preservation. This analysis, identifies policies, ordinances, or other successful practices of stewarding the heritage of identity-based places, to prevent further erasure of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ enclaves.
Site Suitability Analysis of Mobility Hubs: Determining Suitable Locations for Transit Center Enhancement in Metro Atlanta

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-08) Murali, Malavika

Mobility hubs are an efficient and effective transportation solution that promotes connectivity and last-mile modal options for commuters and residents that integrate multi-modal transportation infrastructure. In addition to encouraging place-making efforts, mobility hubs transform cities with innovative approaches to seamless modal transitions and integrating smart technologies for wayfinding, safety, and accessibility. This study identified three existing transit stations within Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties in Georgia that can be turned into regional shared mobility hubs through analyzing origin-destination data of these stations, the surrounding land uses, and the population demographics of these areas. These three counties were selected as they make up the existing Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transportation Authority (MARTA) passenger rail network. Based on research on the benefits of mobility hubs, the factors of close distance, added connectivity, and proximity to activity centers are proven to improve the implementation of mobility hubs. Thus, the purpose of this study is to determine the potential for the tri-county area to implement mobility hubs at regional scales to expand the reach of alternative modes of transportation, and to address the issues of inaccessible transportation networks. After analyzing the transit stations using demographic data of the study area and a multi-criteria analysis (MCA), three locations were found to be ideal sites for developing into mobility hubs: the Midtown, Decatur, and Dome/GWCC/Philips/CNN MARTA stations.
Commercial property undervaluation in Fulton County, Georgia: Determinants of appraisal error using ANOVA testing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05) Knight-Scott, Ethan

Property taxation forms a pillar in the U.S. system of public spending, but policymakers in Georgia have expressed increasing concern that commercial properties are being under appraised. Underappraisal would lead to a loss of government revenue to spend on public projects and social well-being. To analyze the extent of underappraisal, I use a dataset collected by Georgia Tech’s Urban Research Group from CoStar of 2,015 properties appraised in Fulton County, Georgia between 2015 – 2020. I find that the median commercial property is appraised for nearly half – 57% – of what the property eventually sells for. After running a series of one way ANOVA tests, I conclude that property use and property value are significant potential determinants of commercial property underappraisal. Time-related variables are also significant, suggesting a need to better control for underlying economic and financial changes in a future regression model.
Exploring Urban Agroforestry as Multifunctional Green Infrastructure in Atlanta, Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05)

Flooding, increasingly less isolated to riverine or coastal cities, has become an increasingly daunting challenge for urban areas in recent years. Additionally, residents in economically distressed areas face food insecurity because of a lack of access to fresh, nutritious produce or similar groceries. While superficially unrelated, both flooding and food insecurity pose critical threats to the stability and wellbeing of urban communities. For city planners and policy makers alike, these “wicked problems” require an equally wicked, novel solution in the form of urban agroforestry (UAF). UAF has recently emerged as a unique tool for tackling these urban problems while serving as a bridge between food systems and hazard mitigation planning. Integrating “working trees” into existing green infrastructure or developing new sites with forms of edible green infrastructure can become a crucial step in creating multifunctional landscapes in urban environments. This paper explores agroforestry as a novel, multifunctional green infrastructure solution in urban environments by determining the stormwater absorption, filtering, and interception capacities of different agroforestry practices, assessing their food production potential, and then identifying suitable sites for pilot projects through Atlanta, Georgia.
The economy geography of assisted living homes: examining the locations, demographics, considerations, and trends of the assisted living home industry in Georgia

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05) Yang, Jeremy

There is a lack of literature on the location and characteristics of assisted living homes and their residents, a fact that means many local governments do not prioritize them and assisted living developers must rely on industry trends for their location. Assisted living homes provide both housing and economic impact upon communities, and allow for a needed service for elderly citizens. This paper covers the characteristics and defining factors of assisted living homes, as well as mapping the assisted living homes and analyzing their locational distribution within the state off Georgia, to gain a better glimpse of the industry and better understand prohibitive locational factors. Finally, a survey of assisted living home administrators is analyzed to provide new findings on the constituency, preferences, and town-home interactions within towns of varying sizes in Georgia.
Nihonbashi Retail Space and Shopping Activity Research: Daily and Pandemic

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05) Xie, Yan

This article explores the built environment and usage patterns of three major retail spaces in the Nihonbashi area, Tokyo Metropolitan Area, Japan. By analyzing GPS based foot traffic and venue data, the study investigates changes in people's consuming activity and preferences for department stores, convenience stores, and supermarkets in a day, a week, and draw two different retail landscape in common and pandemic periods. The results of this study provide insights into the transformation of retail spaces in response to changes in consumer behavior and preferences in the pandemic era and offer practical guidance for urban planners and designers seeking to create resilient and adaptable commercial spaces.
Environmental Influences of Quality of Life for Residents of New York City Congregate Site Supportive Housing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05) Butler, Trevor

The following text explores the question of what environmental influences impact the quality of life of supportive housing residents living in congregate sites in New York City. An extensive review of existing literature was included to provide both the history of supportive housing, which continues to inform the supportive housing model, as well as contemporary studies conducted on supportive housing. The study utilized a grounded, ethnographic method of data collection and analysis. The data used came from eight interviews conducted with both residents and staff of supportive housing programs. The results of the study were subdivided into four sections, based on the four largest influences that were observed as the data was reviewed and prepared for analysis; these four categories were Spatial Relationships, Relationships between Residents and Staff, Community and Resources, and Institutional Factors. These sections were each subdivided down further to provide greater detail about specific influences on residents’ quality of life. The data analysis process revealed that each environmental influence exerted itself independently over residents’ quality of life, and that each influence had a degree of influence on other influences as well, such as the relationship between both Spatial Relationships and Relationships between Residents and Staff. The concluding section of this study discusses the tensions between the positive influences and negative influences of supportive housing on resident quality of life and provides and invites further discussion on the existing congregate model.
Tokyo Smart City Studio at Nihonbashi – Spring 2023

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-05) Beattie, Aaron ; Brock, Cooper ; Farooq, Umar ; Khorashahi, Yasamin ; Mase, Heather ; Zhao, Yuxiang ; Xie, Yan (Lucy) ; Rawlins, Miles ; Sivakumar, Siddharth ; Aceto, Steven ; Knight-Scott, Ethan ; Dean, Emily ; Yan, Peirui ; Chen, Yining (Annie) ; Shetty, Jayita ; Lin, Yizhou ; Yang, Perry Pei-Ju ; Lejeune, Dillon

The Tokyo Smart City Studio explores a method of data-driven urban design, and how digital urban technologies enable architects and planners to comprehend cities, urban spaces and architecture from data visualization, mapping, modeling, performance evaluation to architecture and urban form making. The project aims to design a smart urban district that is carbon neutral, climate resilient and post-covid-19 conscious.