Multi-use Trails in Santa Fe: Accessibility and Social Networking

This Interactive Qualifying Project worked to assess the multi-use trails within Santa Fe and facilitate the accessibility and use of these trails. The team evaluated and assessed five trails within the city\u27s trail system. Four interactive maps were developed to display data. These maps depict bollard inventory, bikeways and trails, a segmented analysis of the trails and amenities. The maps were developed to assist the city and trail users in knowing the current trail conditions, while promoting trail use. A website was created as an access source for all the assets developed. Concurrently, we developed a mockup of a Smartphone application that has the potential to help both Santa Fe citizens and tourists navigate the city\u27s multi-use trail system

Espanola Walkability Workshop

The City of Española, University of New Mexico’s Prevention Research Center, National Park Service, and New Mexico Department of Health led a walkability workshop at Española’s Beatrice V.Q. Martinez Senior Center on June 27, 2018. More than fifty people came together to evaluate and discuss pedestrian safety and accessibility within the City. The three and a half hour workshop began with a presentation on pedestrian planning, signage, and economic development by Marcy DeMillion of the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance program. The Department of Health’s Rachel Wexler discussed some of the health and social benefits of walking. Jeff DeBellis and Alison Gillette, with the University of New Mexico’s Prevention Research Center and the City of Española’s Planning Department, respectively, gave an overview of the walkability audit that the participants would complete

Issue No. 73: October 2007

1 Dr. Bertha Dutton and Her Dirty Diggers3 2007 New Mexico Most Endangered Places5 Books, Ernest Knee in New Mexico: Photographs, 1930s-1940s5 In Memoriam5 Books, Bernard Plossu\u27s New Mexico6 2007 Santa Fe Trail Endurance Horse Rac

The construction of a unit and workbook of exercises for the slow learner to develop comprehension and increase study skills for use in the teaching of an American history unit on the westward movement in the United States on a sixth grade level.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.:pages missing: 170, 171, 173 from original cop

Volunteer river monitoring plan for the urban reach of the Santa Fe River Watershed

In designing a monitoring plan, it is important to first look at the overview of the watershed, issues and uses. In our case, we are looking at the Santa Fe River Watershed. It is 241 square miles and approximately 37 miles in river length. The headwaters are in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains at Santa Fe Lake east of the City of Santa Fe. The watershed is split into three reaches: forested, urban and rural. In the forested reach, the river is perennial and flow is captured by a sequence of dams. The water is used for drinking supply. The urban reach is ephemeral, attaining most of its flow during storm events. The rural reach is mainly perennial with flow coming from the waste water treatment plant located at the top of the rural reach with flow augmented by springs. The urban reach is the area of interest since it contains the City and heavy urbanization. The urban reach contains a population of approximately 50,000. The City is too small for a sophisticated storm water runoff system, hence storm water runoff is directed into the Santa Fe River. The urban reach of the river is in poor condition, dewatered and eroded in some areas. It is listed as a category 1 in need of restoration watershed (NMEO). The urban reach is currently not routinely monitored. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring a storm water management plan by 2002. The storm water management plan requires the City to comply with 6 minimum measures , three of which may be fulfilled with this monitoring plan: public participation, public education and outreach on storm water impacts, and illicit charge detection. Monitoring Plan Approach: After reviewing the background of the watershed, one gains a better idea of what the issues are and what area is in need of focus. In our situation, the urban reach is the focus and the issues are lack of routine water quality monitoring, public participation and education, and storm water pollution. The approach to devise appropriate parameters is to research water quality standards and existing monitoring programs. These sources act as a guide only, due to the fact that the urban reach of the river is ephemeral and heavily urbanized. There were no other existing monitoring programs that seemed to fit our situation. Monitoring Plan Implementation: Implementation briefly consists of the following: • Writing of the handbook. • Recruiting volunteers. • Gathering and purchasing monitoring equipment and materals. • Training. • Collection and organization of results. A few concepts to remember when designing a monitoring plan are to think about who will conduct the monitoring, scientists or non-scientists. For a monitoring plan such as this, the plan must be simple enough to keep the interest for those who are volunteers, non-scientists. The other important consideration is to understand the watershed, issues surrounding the watershed, and the area of which monitoring is of interest before deciding on the parameters to be measured

The Red River Trails: Oxcart Routes Between St. Paul and the Selkirk Settlement, 1820-1870

Review of: The Red River Trails: Oxcart Routes Between St. Paul and the Selkirk Settlement, 1820-1870. Gilman, Rhoda; Gilman, Carolyn; and Stultz, Deborah

Integrated Framework for Wildfire Risk Mitigation Planning at the Wildland/Urban Interface

Past suppression-based wildfire management practices have increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires. Advocates for the re-introduction of natural wildfire regimes must also prioritize wildfire damage protection, especially for vulnerable communities located near forests. Areas where urban and forest lands interdigitate are called the Wildland Urban Interfaces (WUIs). In the United States, the area of the WUIs is increasing, making more people vulnerable to wildfires. By responding to four research objectives, this dissertation proposed and tested an integrated framework for wildfire risk mitigation decision making at WUIs. Decision makers who could benefit from the results of this dissertation include WUI homeowners, community planners, insurance companies, and agencies that provide financial resources for managing wildfire. The first objective investigated the complex relationship between wildfire and property values in a WUI community affected by a catastrophic wildfire event. The analysis focused on evaluating whether the damage from a previous wildfire, and the risk from a potential future wildfire are negatively capitalized in the housing market of a WUI community. A Hedonic Pricing Method (HPM) was applied on homes in Los Alamos County located in Northern New Mexico. Los Alamos is the home of a highly educated and high income community which experienced the Cerro Grande fire in 2000. Results showed that wildfire damage has a negative impact on the housing price, whereas future wildfire risk is a positive driver in the Los Alamos housing market. These findings support the wildfire mitigation paradox that states that WUI homeowners tend to underinvest for mitigating wildfire risk on their properties. The second objective investigated the optimal investment required for mitigating the vulnerability of residential buildings to wildfire. The optimal retrofit plan for individual homes was estimated using an integer programming method. The evaluation function for this optimization is based on a multi-attribute vulnerability assessment system that yields a wildfire vulnerability rating for all properties in the study area. A feasible solution to this optimization problem is one that decreases the vulnerability rating of the house to an acceptable rating. Additional data included: (i) vulnerability assessment cards of the properties, (ii) building and site characteristics of the properties, and (iii) unit costs of implanting appropriate retrofit measure on each element of the property. These datasets were collected for 389 properties in Santa Fe County’s WUIs. Using an integer programing model, the total cost of reducing the vulnerability ratings from “high” and “very high” to “moderate” vulnerability level was estimated for each property. To account for uncertainties in the costs of implementing a specific retrofit measure, a Monte-Carlo sampler was used to generate 2,400 cost scenarios from cost probability distributions. Using a regression analysis on the property data, a cost function for vulnerability mitigation through retrofitting was derived. The cost function allows estimation of the retrofitting cost per area of the house and considering the initial vulnerability rating of the house. The third objective was to investigate wildfire optimal mitigation investment schedules for homeowners. Two types of investments for mitigation were analyzed, namely self-insurance and market insurance. Self-insurance is represented financially as the amount homeowners spend to implement retrofit measures to reduce their property’s vulnerability to wildfires. Market insurance is the transfer of wildfire damage liability to a third party or insurance company. The investment decision of homeowners over a multi-year investment plan considering the effects of budget and market insurance policy constraints was formulated. The effectiveness of self-insurance improvements was modeled as a damage probability function. Using a mixed-integer programming model, the optimal annual investment for market and self-insurance was estimated. The case study in this chapter demonstrated the effect of various parameters on the investment schedule of honeowners. This case study considered the time value of money and insurance companies’ contingency policies and budget constraints. The results showed that in the absence of budget constraints and mandates on mitigation, the homeowner’s optimal choice would be to fully invest on insurance and to purchase the broadest wildfire hazard insurance coverage. When a minimum mitigating retrofit effort is required by insurance companies, homeowners would invest more at the beginning of the period and decrease their investment through time. In this case results showed that a homeowner would achieve a higher expected value of investment than a homeowner with whose investments increase through time. In the fourth objective, an Agent Based Model (ABM) is proposed to account for heterogeneity in homeowners’ attributes and behaviors when confronting wildfire risk hazard. The success of the community to reduce wildfire risk was evaluated by aggregating the impact of each individual agent’s behavior. The investment behavior of each homeowner for a five-year planning period was retrieved from the optimization model proposed in the third objective. A neighborhood of six homeowners was used to test the proposed ABM. When a wildfire occurs, the wildfire may or may not damage the property. Therefore, the loss accrued by each homeowner was stochastically simulated for each year in the simulation. The probability of loss was formulated as a function of the initial vulnerability rating of the property and the homeowners’ cumulative investment on mitigation. The analyzed scenarios considered different types of homeowners (i.e. mitigating or non-mitigating). The spatial impact of neighboring properties on the loss potential of a homeowner was modeled using a conceptual fire spread model based on a Cellular Automata propagation model. Results suggest that (i) the location of the property in combination with (ii) the investment behavior of the homeowner influences the neighborhood’s aggregate loss to wildfire. Policy-makers can better mitigate aggregate loss to wildfire by prioritizing certain locations over others