Biometrics and the Public Realm: Urban Sustainability During the COVID Pandemic

Prof. Hollander will speak about the ways that sustainability scholars and professionals need to approach the design of the public realm differently today. These new requirements are due to social distancing requirements of the pandemic and in light of recent advances in psychology and neuroscience that help us understand better how people experience urban space. Professor Hollander will discuss some of the key findings from his forthcoming book on these topics, co-edited with Ann Sussman: Urban Experience and Design: Contemporary Perspectives on Improving the Public Realm (Routledge, 2021)

Shrinking Suburbs in a Time of Crisis

The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs provides one of the most comprehensive examinations available to date of the suburbs around the world. International in scope and interdisciplinary in nature, this volume will serve as the definitive reference for scholars and students of the suburbs. This volume brings together the leading scholars of the suburbs researching in different parts of the world to better understand how and why suburbs and their communities grow, decline, and regenerate. The volume sets out four goals: 1) to provide a synthesis and critical appraisal of the historical and current state of understanding about the development of suburbs in the world; 2) to provide a forum for a comprehensive examination into the conceptual, theoretical, spatial, and empirical discontents of suburbanization; 3) to engage in a scholarly conversation about the transformation of suburbs that is interdisciplinary in nature and bridges the divide between the Global North and the Global South; and 4) to reflect on the implications of the socioeconomic, cultural, and political transformations of the suburbs for policymakers and planners. The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs is composed of original, scholarly contributions from the leading scholars of the study of how and why suburbs grow, decline, and transform. Special attention is paid to the global nature of suburbanization and its regional variations, with a focus on comparative analysis of suburbs through regions across the world in the Global North and the Global South. Articulated in a common voice, the volume is integrated by the very nature of the concept of a suburb as the unit of analysis, offering multidisciplinary perspectives from the fields of economics, geography, planning, political science, sociology, and urban studies.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1069/thumbnail.jp

Heat flow in chains driven by thermal noise

We consider the large deviation function for a classical harmonic chain composed of N particles driven at the end points by heat reservoirs, first derived in the quantum regime by Saito and Dhar and in the classical regime by Saito and Dhar and Kundu et al. Within a Langevin description we perform this calculation on the basis of a standard path integral calculation in Fourier space. The cumulant generating function yielding the large deviation function is given in terms of a transmission Green's function and is consistent with the fluctuation theorem. We find a simple expression for the tails of the heat distribution which turn out to decay exponentially. We, moreover, consider an extension of a single particle model suggested by Derrida and Brunet and discuss the two-particle case. We also discuss the limit for large N and present a closed expression for the cumulant generating function. Finally, we present a derivation of the fluctuation theorem on the basis of a Fokker-Planck description. This result is not restricted to the harmonic case but is valid for a general interaction potential between the particles.Comment: Latex: 26 pages and 9 figures, appeared in J. Stat. Mech. P04005 (2012

Analyzing the effectiveness of the eco-industrial park to promote sustainability

Society\u27s need for industry has been at odds with maintaining a sound and healthy natural environment. The concept of sustainability has arisen to bridge the gap between the competing forces of industry and environment. Through sustainability, industry is promoted, natural resources are protected, and both the economy and the environment gains. One example of sustainability in action is the eco-industrial park. This park differs from conventional industrial parks in how it embraces the principles of sustainability in construction, operation, and production. This thesis will examine the development of the eco-industrial park concept from the broader concepts of sustainability and industrial ecology. Sustainability will be further conceptualized and operationalized through the use of indicators. Then, those indicators will be in a case study of the former Fort Devens Army Base to evaluate, qualitatively and quantitatively, which better achieves the goals of sustainability: an eco-industrial park or a conventional industrial park

Justin B. Hollander

Justin B. Hollanderhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sust-seminar-headshots/1091/thumbnail.jp

Supporting Shrinkage: Applying Community-based Operations Research in U.S. Cities

Many older cities confront the problem of long-term declines in population and economic activity in certain neighborhoods which have resulted in blighted conditions that make conventional revitalization initiatives based on increased residential and commercial development unlikely to succeed. Planning scholars have developed a theory of smart shrinkage in which emphasis is placed on non-residential land uses that can maintain and improve quality of life while positioning some land for future growth-oriented activities (Hollander and Németh 2011). Smart shrinkage research and practice involves application of methods from information technology and decision science to identify vacant and abandoned parcels for acquisition and redevelopment for alternative uses in such a way as to meet multiple social and economic goals while respecting myriad resource constraints (Johnson, Hollander and Hallulli 2013; Johnson 2011). This presentation addresses the following questions: How do planning practitioners conceptualize the problem of smart shrinkage? In what ways do the decision processes they apply in practice diverge from the theory of decision modeling? How can planners make most appropriate use of information and decision sciences to develop sustainable and politically-feasible strategies for smart decline? In this presentation, we will describe a new approach to citizen-engaged, community-focused planning methods and technologies for cities and regions facing decline, disinvestment, shrinkage, and social and physical distress. The presentation will discuss our research into the benefits and costs of a wide range of analytic approaches for designing policy and planning interventions for shrinking cities and distressed communities. These include collaborative planning, social media, civic technology, game design, analytics, decision modeling and decision support, and spatial analysis. We will present case studies of three US cities addressing shrinkage and decline, with a focus on issues of social justice, democratization of knowledge, and local empowerment. Proposed as a solution is an approach that puts community engagement and empowerment at the center, combined with data and technology innovations. We argue that decisions informed by qualitative and quantitative data and analytic methods, implemented through accessible and affordable technologies, and based on notions of social impact and social justice, can enable residents to play a leading role in the positive transformation of shrinking cities and distressed communities

Exploring eye-tracking technology: assessing how the design of densified built environments can promote inhabitants' well-being

The accelerated densification of Western European cities driven by economic growth has major spatial implications for their overall livability. Often, new homes must be built within an existing urban fabric, creating higher density environments. However, the impact on the experience of these high-density environments at eye level remains unstudied and unknown. This chapter reviews two experiments that sought to understand the unconscious reception of streetscapes using eye-tracking technology to investigate the sequence of users’ (visual) experience, their behavior and perception. The research project seeks to establish more ‘evidence-based’ design guidelines for streetscapes in high-rise urban settings. This chapter reviews two experiments that sought to understand the unconscious reception of streetscapes using eye-tracking technology to investigate the sequence of users’ experience, their behavior and perception. Eye-tracking results of Experiment 1 show that the movement of pedestrians, cyclists and cars crossing the street created the most eye fixation for most participants. In general, the eye-tracking results from Experiment 2 show that participants’ eyes followed the length of the facades toward the end of the street and the horizon. The preliminary results suggest that the assessed design principles ‘Active ground floor’ and ‘Ornate facades’ might be important factors in predicting dominant eye patterns. The chapter explores the application of eye-tracking technology in urban design to gain a deeper understanding of the physical-behavioral interrelationship of streetscapes in European high-density built environments. The accelerated densification of Western European cities driven by economic growth has major spatial implications for their overall livability