City and regional planning software in context : a rating framework for Planning Support Systems

textThe difficulty of projecting ecological impacts, as well as the increasing familiarity of planners with Geographical Information Systems and other software technology has led to an increase in the use of Planning Support Systems (PSS) by city and regional planners. Due to their newness and rapid development, there is, of yet, a lack of a comprehensive peer-reviewed literature on the design and implementation of these systems. This thesis proposes and applies a rating framework for PSS in order to facilitate accessibility to and critical investigation of PSS. The rating framework’s criteria are based on the “seven sins” of comprehensive land use models identified by Douglass Lee’s 1973 article “Requiem for Large-Scale Models."Community and Regional PlanningArchitectur

Technocracy and Democracy: Conflicts between Models and Participation in Environmental Law and Planning

Our environmental laws create an unfortunate paradox. They mandate science-based planning, and that mandate often translates into a practical or legal requirement to use complex simulation models. These laws also contain provisions for public participation. When agencies engage in technical decisionmaking, however, and particularly when they use complex yet uncertain models, the reasoning and risks underpinning decisions becomes difficult for public participants to understand and critique. As a result, legal mandates for science-based and participatory planning come into conflict. This conflict is inherent in many environmental statutes, and is acute in the State Implementation Plan (SIP) process required by the Clean Air Act to codify states\u27 plans for meeting federal air quality goals. The Article explores the tension between public participation and modeling by focusing on the SIP development process and the limitations and resultant risks associated with decisions based on modeling. Drawing upon literature from the fields of air quality science and modeling, risk assessment and management, planning, law, and science and technology studies, augmented by interviews, the Article discusses the roots of the problem, exploring the origins of legal requirements for both public participation and modeling, and then considers how the use of models fits within planning processes. The Article highlights the ways in which planning depends upon models and how model use impedes the public role due to limitations inherent in modeling. The Article provides a retrospective case study of a particular SIP planning process-the development of the San Joaquin Valley ozone plan for California\u27s 1994 SIP-to illustrate tensions between model-based planning and public participation. The Article closes with recommendations for risk-based decisionmaking and other ideas for ameliorating this paradox without excluding public concerns or compromising the sophistication and integrity of science-led planning

Recommendations concerning energy information model documentation, public access, and evaluation

In this study we provide an analysis of the factors underlying Congressional concern regarding model documentation, policies for public access, and evaluation procedures of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and its predecessor agencies; we also develop and present recommendations designed to improve current practice. This study reviews the history of Congressional concern; surveys current EIA organization and policies; provides an analysis of the model evaluation process; and presents recommendations to improve organizational efficiency and responsiveness, the model documentation process, public access policies, and model evaluation

Evaluating Network Analysis and Agent Based Modeling for Investigating the Stability of Commercial Air Carrier Schedules

For a number of years, the United States Federal Government has been formulating the Next Generation Air Transportation System plans for National Airspace System improvement. These improvements attempt to address air transportation holistically, but often address individual improvements in one arena such as ground or in-flight equipment. In fact, air transportation system designers have had only limited success using traditional Operations Research and parametric modeling approaches in their analyses of innovative operations. They need a systemic methodology for modeling of safety-critical infrastructure that is comprehensive, objective, and sufficiently concrete, yet simple enough to be deployed with reasonable investment. The methodology must also be amenable to quantitative analysis so issues of system safety and stability can be rigorously addressed

Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices among Kentucky Farmers and Their Perception about Farm Sustainability

The purpose of this research was to identify commonly adopted SAPs and their adoption among Kentucky farmers. The specific objectives were to explore farmers' Perceptions about farm and farming practice sustainability, to identify predictors of SAPs adoption using farm attributes, farmers' attitudes and behaviors, socioeconomic and demographic factors, and knowledge, and to evaluate adoption barriers of SAPs among Kentucky Farmers. Farmers generally perceive that their farm and farming activities attain the objectives of sustainable agriculture. Inadequate knowledge, perceived difficulty of implementation, lack of market, negative attitude about technologies, and lack of technologies were major adoption barriers of SAPs in Kentucky.Comment: 125 Pages, MS thesi

A collaborative framework for feasibility analysis in automotive product development with global supply chain

In the competitive world, time to market, new technology and innovation are the measures of the performance of New Product Development (NPD). Companies tend to use a conventional approach to NPD by assigning representatives from their own support functions to review and recommend changes as projects evolve. In recent years, this approach has been questioned since it is a costly and time-consuming approach due to its iterative nature. Researchers argue that the time to market process and the cost of NPD can be reduced considerably by involving the support functions of the supply chain to a greater extent and also earlier in the NPD process. There is a potential industrial requirement for a collaborative framework that facilitates the linkage between Supply Chain Management (SCM) and New Product Development (NPD). This research project focuses on the early stages of the collaborative product development process in the extended enterprise. The research output includes the functional requirements of a framework and a developed prototype methodology with tools and technologies that are tested from case studies within industry. The research also introduces the development and analysis of the framework that allows the integration of the flow of product development related activities within original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and suppliers providing future business benefits. An industrial investigation of an OEM in the automotive industry within the research identified that there are different decision making points in product development and manufacturing. The proposed methodology and framework use key drives to predict and quantify its impact on four main criteria namely: feasibility, time, cost and capability that support or advise on key decision making of OEM’s product development and management process

Summer Research Fellowship Project Descriptions 2022

A summary of research done by Smith College’s 2021 Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Program participants. Ever since its 1967 start, SURF has been a cornerstone of Smith’s science education. Supervised by faculty mentor-advisors drawn from the Clark Science Center and connected to its eighteen science, mathematics, and engineering departments and programs and associated centers and units. At summer’s end, SURF participants were asked to summarize their research experiences for this publication.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/clark_womeninscience/1012/thumbnail.jp