The Urban Heat Island Effect in Nevada

This fact sheet explores the temperature difference between Nevada cities and their undeveloped surrounding areas using reports by the Urban Land Institute, Climate Central, National Public Radio (NPR), and various governmental organizations. We investigate what “urban heat islands” are, their effects, the correlation between heat and income, and factors that contribute to rising temperatures in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Reno

2001 Water Symposium: Water Pollution in Urban and Rural Settings

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute, the Federal Water Quality Association and the National Capital Chapter of the American Water Resources Association co-hosted the 2001 Water Symposium: Water Pollution In Urban And Rural Settings.The symposium examined the relative contributions of urban and rural areas to nonpoint source water pollution, and examined innovative approaches and possible synergies to improve water quality in both urban and rural portions of watersheds. Timothy L. Miller, chief of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Water Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA), outlined the major findings from 10 years of monitoring and assessing both surface and groundwater contamination in 140 rural/agricultural watersheds and more than 40 urbanized watersheds. The assessments show that water quality is affected by local land and water uses and practices, as well as population density. The urbanized study areas typically involved suburban type residential and commercial land use and low to medium population density, rather than heavily developed urban cores. Urbanized areas grew by 16 million acres between 1992 and 1995, or four to five million acres per year.For both urban and agricultural areas, nonpoint source chemical contamination is a problem. Generally such contamination was found to occur more frequently and at greater concentrations in urbanized areas, which cover less than 5 percent of the land in the continental United States, than in farming areas, which cover more than 50 percent. In both agricultural and urban settings, nutrients and pesticides were found, but the urban areas also contained volatile organics, trace metals and high insecticide concentrations. Contamination from urban areas also appeared to have a more significant detrimental influence on aquatic life. In response to a question, Miller said that arsenic exceeding the current 50 ppb (parts per billion) federal standard was found in a handful of samples, but many more exceeded the proposed 10 ppb standard

Building on Innovation: The Significance of Anchor Institutions in a New Era of City Building

Murphy, Tom. Building on Innovation: The Significance of Anchor Institutions in a New Era of City Building. Washington, D.C.: Urban Land Institute, 201

Hybrid-industrial zoning : a case study in Downtown Los Angeles

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2019Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2019Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-93).Historically, land use planning has treated industrial land uses either antagonistically or ambivalently. Traditional zoning approaches have restricted, regulated, spatially isolated, and pushed industrial land to the periphery of cities, resulting in a significant loss of urban industrial land across American cities. But as the United States experiences a manufacturing renaissance and cities begin to recognize the value of centrally located industrial land in its contribution to the regional economy, planners are grappling with the issue of how best to secure these viable but vulnerable sites of employment and production. Advanced technologies that are changing the nature of manufacturing and logistics present an exciting opportunity and potential solution: the industrial mixed-use zone. This thesis explores the emerging land use tool of industrial-mixed use zoning, using Los Angeles as a case study.The intent of the industrial mixed-use zone, which permits non-industrial uses, to varying degrees of intensities, in otherwise industrial districts, is to protect central locations for industrial operations when market forces might otherwise price them out. On the one hand, the zone can impede industrial business displacement through offering protection to compatible lighter industrial uses in transitioning neighborhoods. In doing so, it aims to create a live/work urban district in which several planning agendas are met and balanced, providing for industrial employment alongside affordable housing and public realm improvements. On the other hand, without strict use definitions, mix requirements or consistent regulation, the industrial mixed-use zone risks both accelerating the land use conversion process, operating as residential and commercial upzoning, and gentrifying industrial districts toward more artisanal and boutique industrial operations.In 2019, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning will rezone industrial land in Downtown Los Angeles under a new zoning classification: hybrid-industrial. Through an exploration of Los Angeles' industrial land use policies, a process tracing of the evolution of hybrid-industrial zoning, and a dissection of the zoning ordinance's text, this thesis demonstrates the trade-offs associated with a mixed-use district and the potential challenges and pitfalls of implementation.by Sarah Brown.M.C.P.S.M. in Real Estate DevelopmentM.C.P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and PlanningS.M.inRealEstateDevelopment Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estat

Expectations of land value in rural and suburban regions

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 45).Timberland has become a new and emerging asset class among investors. Institutional investors have committed large amounts of capital through the private equity market. Timber real estate investment trusts (REITs) have also allowed smaller individual investors to participate in the ownership in timberland. Given that land supply is fixed, the demand for land is expected to increase as baby boomers near retirement. Owners of timberland are faced with making strategic decisions as to whether timberland remains the highest and best use. Given these facts, this thesis examines over 300 predominately rural counties where timberland is harvested and attempts to create a model to identify where land has the highest value as an urban use, and secondly, where this urban land value is expected to experience the most appreciation. Using house prices as a proxy for land value, models for both house price and house price appreciation were developed. The results indicated that two variables were significant factors in forecasting appreciation: 1) the percentage of developed land within a county and 2) the percentage of seasonal units. As a result, urban counties with a lower percentage of seasonal units appreciated less, whereas rural counties with a higher percentage of seasonal units appreciated more. The results are significant in that it shows how there is an option growth effect for rural land beyond the urban edge which can potentially yield higher appreciation rates for speculative landowners.by Dianna Marie Carlson.S.M

Land resources survey for the state of Michigan

The usefulness of ERTS-1 satellite imagery as an information source for a statewide inventory of Michigan's land resources is documented. The project is currently relying on photointerpretation of MSS photography and computed processed results. The first task completed was a 1:500,000 scale land use map of the state in four classes: urban, forest, water, and agriculture and other. This map was constructed from existing (pre-ERTS-1) information sources including federal, state and county maps, and aerial photography. An ERTS color IR photomosaic for the entire state will also be constructed at a scale of 1:250,000. The Institute is currently working on tape processed data that will include both recognition data as well as a UTM coordinate addressing capability so that the final tape can be inputed directly into computerized land use and transportation corridor analysis models

Three Cal Poly Teams Compete in the Ninth ULI - Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition

Every year the Urban Land Institute runs the prestigious Gerald D. Hines Urban Design Competition open to interdisciplinary teams of graduate student nationwide. In this article, faculty Hemalata Dandekar and Umut Toker, who jointly coordinated the entries of three Cal Poly student teams, describe the projects and reflect on the pedagogical effects of their efforts

Urban Containment Policies and Physical Activity A Time–Series Analysis of Metropolitan Areas, 1990–2002

Background: Urban containment policies attempt to manage the location, character, and timing of growth to support a variety of goals such as compact development, preservation of greenspace, and efficient use of infrastructure. Despite prior research evaluating the effects of urban containment policies on land use, housing, and transportation outcomes, the public health implications of these policies remain unexplored. This ecologic study examines relationships among urban containment policies, state adoption of growthmanagement legislation, and population levels of leisure and transportation-related physical activity in 63 large metropolitan statistical areas from 1990 to 2002. Methods: Multiple data sources were combined, including surveys of urban containment policies, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the U.S. Census of Population, the National Resources Inventory, and the Texas Transportation Institute Urban Mobility Study. Mixed models were used to examine whether urban containment policies and state adoption of growth-management legislation were associated with population levels of leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) and walking/bicycling to work over time. Results: Strong urban containment policies were associated with higher population levels of LTPA and walking/bicycling to work during the study period. Additionally, residents of states with legislation mandating urban growth boundaries reported significantly more minutes of LTPA/week compared to residents of states without such policies. Weak urban containment policies showed inconsistent relationships with physical activity. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that strong urban containment policies are associated with higher population levels of LTPA and active commuting. Future research should examine potential synergies among state, metropolitan, and local policy processes that may strengthen these relationship

Microsimulation of urban land use

The project ILUMASS (Integrated Land-Use Modelling and Transportation System Simulation) aims at embedding a microscopic dynamic simulation model of urban traffic flows into a comprehensive model system incorporating both changes of land use and the resulting changes in transport demand. The land-use component of ILUMASS will be based on the land-use parts of an existing urban simulation model, but is to be microscopic like the transport parts of ILUMASS. Microsimulation modules will include models of demographic development, household formation, firm lifecycles, residential and non-residential construction, labour mobility on the regional labour market and household mobility on the regional housing market. These modules will be closely linked with the models of daily activity patterns and travel and goods movements modelled in the transport parts of ILUMASS developed by other partners of the project team. The design of the land use model takes into account that the collection of individual micro data (i.e. data which because of their micro location can be associated with individual buildings or small groups of buildings) or the retrieval of individual micro data from administrative registers for planning purposes is neither possible nor, for privacy reasons, desirable. The land use model therefore works with synthetic micro data which can be retrieved from generally accessible public data. ILUMASS is a group project of institutes of the universities of Aachen, Bamberg, Dortmund, Cologne and Wuppertal under the co-ordination of the Transport Research Institute of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). Study region for tests and first applications of the model is the urban region of Dortmund. The common database will be compiled in co-operation with the City of Dortmund. After its completion the integrated model is to be used for assessing the impacts of potential transport and land use policies for the new land use plan of the city. The paper will focus on the land-use parts of the ILUMASS model. It will present the underlying behavioural theories and how they are made operational in the model design, explain how the synthetic population is generated, show first model results and demonstrate the potential usefulness of the model for the planning process.