The Wrong Side of the Tracks

<p>Christchurch was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on the 22 February 2011. The quake devastated the city, taking lives and causing widespread damage to the inner city and suburban homes. The central city lost over half its buildings and over 7000 homes were condemned throughout Christchurch. The loss of such a great number of homes has created the requirement for new housing to replace those that were lost. Many of which were located in the eastern, less affluent, suburbs. The response to the housing shortage is the planned creation of large scale subdivisions on the outskirts of the city. Whilst this provides the required housing it creates additional sprawl to a city that does not need it. The extension of Christchurch’s existing suburban sprawl puts pressure on roading and pushes residents further out of the city, creating a disconnection between them. Christchurch’s central city had a very small residential population prior to the earthquakes with very few options for dense inner city living. The proposed rebuild of the inner city calls for a new ‘dense, vibrant and diverse central hub’. Proposing the introduction of new residential units within the central city. However the placement of the low-rise housing in a key attribute of the rebuild, the eastern green ‘Frame’, diminishes its value as open green space. The proposed housing will also be restrictive in its target market and therefore the idea of a ‘vibrant’ inner city is difficult to achieve. This thesis acts as response to the planned rebuild of inner Christchurch. Proposing the creation of a model for inner city housing which provides an alternative option to the proposed housing and existing and ongoing suburban sprawl. The design options were explored through a design-led process were the options were critiqued and developed. The ‘final’ proposal is comprises of three tall towers, aptly named the Triple Towers, which condense the proposed low-rise housing from an 11000 square metre footprint to combined footprint of 1500 square metres. The result is an expansion of the publicly available green space along the proposed eastern frame of the city. The height of the project challenges the height restrictions and is provocative in its proposal and placement. The design explores the relationships between the occupants, the building, the ‘Frame’ and the central city. The project is discussed through an exploration of the architecture of Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Oscar Niemeyer. Rather than their architecture being taken as a direct influence on which the design is based the discussion revolves around how and why each piece of comparative architecture is relevant to the designs desired outcome.</p>

The Wrong Side of the Tracks

<p>Christchurch was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on the 22 February 2011. The quake devastated the city, taking lives and causing widespread damage to the inner city and suburban homes. The central city lost over half its buildings and over 7000 homes were condemned throughout Christchurch. The loss of such a great number of homes has created the requirement for new housing to replace those that were lost. Many of which were located in the eastern, less affluent, suburbs. The response to the housing shortage is the planned creation of large scale subdivisions on the outskirts of the city. Whilst this provides the required housing it creates additional sprawl to a city that does not need it. The extension of Christchurch’s existing suburban sprawl puts pressure on roading and pushes residents further out of the city, creating a disconnection between them. Christchurch’s central city had a very small residential population prior to the earthquakes with very few options for dense inner city living. The proposed rebuild of the inner city calls for a new ‘dense, vibrant and diverse central hub’. Proposing the introduction of new residential units within the central city. However the placement of the low-rise housing in a key attribute of the rebuild, the eastern green ‘Frame’, diminishes its value as open green space. The proposed housing will also be restrictive in its target market and therefore the idea of a ‘vibrant’ inner city is difficult to achieve. This thesis acts as response to the planned rebuild of inner Christchurch. Proposing the creation of a model for inner city housing which provides an alternative option to the proposed housing and existing and ongoing suburban sprawl. The design options were explored through a design-led process were the options were critiqued and developed. The ‘final’ proposal is comprises of three tall towers, aptly named the Triple Towers, which condense the proposed low-rise housing from an 11000 square metre footprint to combined footprint of 1500 square metres. The result is an expansion of the publicly available green space along the proposed eastern frame of the city. The height of the project challenges the height restrictions and is provocative in its proposal and placement. The design explores the relationships between the occupants, the building, the ‘Frame’ and the central city. The project is discussed through an exploration of the architecture of Rem Koolhaas, Renzo Piano and Oscar Niemeyer. Rather than their architecture being taken as a direct influence on which the design is based the discussion revolves around how and why each piece of comparative architecture is relevant to the designs desired outcome.</p>

The Residential Population Generator (RPGen): Parameterization of Residential, Demographic, and Physiological Data to Model Intraindividual Exposure, Dose, and Risk

Exposure to chemicals is influenced by associations between the individual’s location and activities as well as demographic and physiological characteristics. Currently, many exposure models simulate individuals by drawing distributions from population-level data or use exposure factors for single individuals. The Residential Population Generator (RPGen) binds US surveys of individuals and households and combines the population with physiological characteristics to create a synthetic population. In general, the model must be supported by internal consistency; i.e., values that could have come from a single individual. In addition, intraindividual variation must be representative of the variation present in the modeled population. This is performed by linking individuals and similar households across income, location, family type, and house type. Physiological data are generated by linking census data to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data with a model of interindividual variation of parameters used in toxicokinetic modeling. The final modeled population data parameters include characteristics of the individual’s community (region, state, urban or rural), residence (size of property, size of home, number of rooms), demographics (age, ethnicity, income, gender), and physiology (body weight, skin surface area, breathing rate, cardiac output, blood volume, and volumes for body compartments and organs). RPGen output is used to support user-developed chemical exposure models that estimate intraindividual exposure in a desired population. By creating profiles and characteristics that determine exposure, synthetic populations produced by RPGen increases the ability of modelers to identify subgroups potentially vulnerable to chemical exposures. To demonstrate application, RPGen is used to estimate exposure to Toluene in an exposure modeling case example.

Community-Level Urban Green Space Equity Evaluation Based on Spatial Design Network Analysis (sDNA): A Case Study of Central Wuhan, China

Urban green spaces (UGSs) provide numerous irreplaceable environmental and social benefits to humankind, but the lack of baseline information makes it difficult to propose a reasonable greening strategy so as to achieve an equitable allocation of community green spaces. This paper divides UGSs into three classes using the spatial design network analysis (sDNA) and quantifies the UGS accessibility of communities in central Wuhan. Based on these results and the Gini coefficient, we analyze the UGS equity of the spatial distribution at the community level, then propose future greening strategies both at the city and community levels. The results show that the railway station and old Wuhan city are the core areas of traffic network strength (TNS). UGSs are evenly distributed in the core areas of TNS, but the number of UGSs in non-core areas is small, and their distribution is relatively uneven, and the number of communities with medium UGS accessibility is the largest, carrying the densest residential population. Most communities perform well in terms of UGS equity, but the UGS equity of 163 communities, covering a population of more than one million, remains to be improved. The method and conclusions of this study will contribute to the future greening policy making of 965 communities in central Wuhan, thus promoting the orderly planning and high-quality construction of community living circles.

Equal Protection by Race with Stop and Frisk: a Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index for Balanced Policing

Research Question Can racial equity in crime and policing be measured with the use of a Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index of the degree to which policing across racial categories is “balanced” in its ratios of preventive police actions per 100 serious crimes committed against members of each racial category? Data Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports on crime and policing in England and Wales, and Dorset Police data on violent crime victimization and stop-search by race of suspect across the 452 Lower-Layer Super-Output Levels in Dorset. Methods We conceptualize the problem of equal protection under law as fundamentally protecting the lives and liberties of each citizen from criminal harms, as well as from disproportionately intrusive policing. We combine these dimensions into a single metric that defines proportionality of policing in relation to risk of violent crime victimization, such that whatever intrusion on liberty is applied for the aim of protection can be equalized across racial groups. Findings The use of a Risk-Adjusted Disparity (RAD) Index to measure reliably the equality of police intrusions across racial groups based on victimization rates can be illustrated by adjusting for homicide. In the past decade, the population-based disparity rate shows that Blacks are stopped by police nine times more often than whites. When that rate is adjusted for the differential risk of homicide in the two groups, the disparity estimate drops from 800% to 58%. Other changes of major magnitude result from using the RAD Index. Conclusions We conclude that an index of proactive policing using victimizations by race is more likely to lead to equal protection of law than a residential population-based metric of proactive police actions, as is commonly used in official reporting. A victim-based, Risk-Adjusted (RAD) Index for measuring racial disparity might focus police efforts on the 5% of local areas where serious violence is concentrated, and deflect stops away from the vast majority of areas that have little serious crime.

MONITORING SARS-COV-2 TRANSMISSION AND PREVALENCE IN POPULATIONS UNDER REPEATED TESTING

We describe a repeat SARS-CoV-2 testing model for monitoring and containing outbreaks in a residential community. The analysis is motivated by the Ohio State University (OSU) approach to monitoring disease at its Columbus, Ohio campus during the COVID-19 epidemic in autumn 2020. The model is simple, yet flexible enough to accommodate changes in be- havior over time and to eliminate bias due to a nonrandom testing scheme. Model parameters are estimated from individual results of weekly SARS- CoV-2 testing of residents. Model output serves several purposes, including estimating the effective reproduction number and monitoring prevalence to help inform isolation and quarantine bed capacity. An extended version of the model is also considered where the residential population (on-campus students) is assumed to interact with another population for whom the testing regime is more relaxed and possibly less frequent (off-campus students or in- structional faculty and staff). To illustrate the model application, we analyze both the synthetic data as well as the actual student SARS-CoV-2 testing data collected at OSU Columbus campus.

Do Mobile Phone Data Provide a Better Denominator in Crime Rates and Improve Spatiotemporal Predictions of Crime?

This article assesses whether ambient population is a more suitable population-at-risk measure for crime types with mobile targets than residential population for the purpose of intelligence-led policing applications. Specifically, the potential use of ambient population as a crime rate denominator and predictor for predictive policing models is evaluated, using mobile phone data (with a total of 9,397,473 data points) as a proxy. The results show that ambient population correlates more strongly with crime than residential population. Crime rates based on ambient population designate different problem areas than crime rates based on residential population. The prediction performance of predictive policing models can be improved by using ambient population instead of residential population. These findings support that ambient population is a more suitable population-at-risk measure, as it better reflects the underlying dynamics in spatiotemporal crime trends. Its use has therefore much as-of-yet unused potential not only for criminal research and theory testing, but also for intelligence-led policy and practice.

Conflicts in mixed use neighbourhoods : case study : King-Spadina

This research paper focuses on the phenomenon of mixed use neighbourhoods, specifically in the case of the King-Spadina neighbourhood located in the City of Toronto. This paper will examine the benefits of mixed use neighbourhoods and the issues that arise when two or more incompatible land uses are located within a given geographical area. The focus of this paper is on the case study area of the King-Spadina neighbourhood which is home to the [sic] Canada’s largest Entertainment District, an area which previously served as one of Toronto’s industrial cores. Since the elimination of traditional land use restrictions in the area the King-Spadina neighbourhood has seen an influx of redevelopment in both residential and commercial. This paper seeks to address the current conflicts associated with having a concentration of entertainment facilities located within a community with a residential population. Through a rigorous research process, this paper aims to address how enhancing the public realm can create a more enjoyable mixed use neighbourhood.

Conflicts in mixed use neighbourhoods : case study : King-Spadina

This research paper focuses on the phenomenon of mixed use neighbourhoods, specifically in the case of the King-Spadina neighbourhood located in the City of Toronto. This paper will examine the benefits of mixed use neighbourhoods and the issues that arise when two or more incompatible land uses are located within a given geographical area. The focus of this paper is on the case study area of the King-Spadina neighbourhood which is home to the [sic] Canada’s largest Entertainment District, an area which previously served as one of Toronto’s industrial cores. Since the elimination of traditional land use restrictions in the area the King-Spadina neighbourhood has seen an influx of redevelopment in both residential and commercial. This paper seeks to address the current conflicts associated with having a concentration of entertainment facilities located within a community with a residential population. Through a rigorous research process, this paper aims to address how enhancing the public realm can create a more enjoyable mixed use neighbourhood.

Social Marketing Challenges in Western Balkans: Evidence From Kosovo

In a global world, doing business in heavy industry is becoming a concern to the environment. The need for production, export, and consumption under these circumstances has come as a challenge for marketers, consumers and surrounding residential population. The Western Balkan countries include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Kosovo has witnessed a considerable economic transformation during recent years, but is has fallen short of considering and implementing a strategy for the preservation of the environment. Kosovo is relatively rich with underground and surface resources, having large quantities of minerals and coal. But despite this, Kosovo continues to be the most underdeveloped country in the region. Exploiting these resources can have a great impact on economic growth and with it, consumer needs are more satisfied. Social marketing has a major impact on the activities of businesses in these areas and ensures that these businesses operate in accordance with certain rules and laws. This would also help in matters of general health of the population. Through Pearson's correlation and case studies, recommendations and conclusions will be given on the studied topic. The results show that there are positive and negative relationships between the variables which are significant.