2023-2024 Thesis and Dissertations

DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING

THESIS/DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS

DUSP GRADUATES

2023/2024

SBs:

Kwesi Afrifa

Anushree Chaudhuri

Lai Wa Chu

Nadine Eichenlaub

Kelly Fang

SMCTS:

Devin Wilkins

Yen-Chu Wu

MCPs:

Surbhi Agrawal

Sammi Aibinder

Asya Aizman

Trace Allen

Natasha Ansari

Gabriel Barrett

Kimberly Becerril

David Beron

Raul Manuel Briceno Brignole

Bennett Capozzi

Yu Jing Chen

Annabel Consilvio

Austin Davis

Fabio Marcel de Castro Filho

Lia Downing

Eli Epperson

Emily Fang

Emilie Flamme

Lakshmi Gangamreddypalli

Patricia Garcia Iruegas

Juanita Halim

Journee Harris

Emma Heneine

Marco Herndon

Melissa Hill

PhDs:

Aleksandra Durova

Carmelo Ignaccolo

Aarthi Janakiraman

Kevin Lujan Lee

Ayan Meer

Ellie Han

Amanda Huang

Rebecca Lizarde

Kabir Mohan

Val Shum

David Hong

Rebecca Houston-Read

McKenzie Humann

Dyanna Jaye

Yabework Abebe Kifetew

MinJi Kim

Joseph Landis

Ana Letelier

Pancho Mackin-Plankey

Soad Mana

Katelyn McVay

Anisha Nakagawa

Mariama Ndiaye

Jason Ng

Nineveh O’Connell

Hazel O’Neil

Sung Eun Oh

Elyse Oliver

Oussama Ouadani

Muhammad Rizki Ramadani

Tiandra Ray

Eduardo Rosario

Ann Ponpat Sahacharoenwat

Victoria Santiago Araiza

Leonard Schrage

Benjamin Preis

Sebastian Sandoval Olascoaga

Sol Andrew Stokols

Anna Waldman-Brown

Binzhe Wang

Cindy Xie

Nolen Scruggs

Daud Shad

Anushka Shahdadpuri

Misha Shahid

Hannah Shumway

Sarah Simon

Melissa Teng

Beth Tesfaye

Eva Then

Diamond Thompson

Yuvika Tolani

Linh Trinh

Keili Tucker

Nwakaego Uzoh

Sanne Wright

Keiko Yabe

Elisha Zhao

Calvin Zhong

Elizabeth Yarina

Sammi Aibinder

Thesis Advisor: Lawrence Vale

Seeding Trust, Sustaining Equity: Funding and Financing Relationships in

the Greater

Boston Community Land Trust Network

Interest in community land trusts (CLTs) as one tool for stable, affordable housing and local autonomy over urban planning processes is growing rapidly—particularly in the past decade, in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis and the destruction of wealth and housing security that foreclosure waves wreaked across the United States. This increasing energy for community ownership and stewardship of land and housing spans grassroots organizing networks; local, state, and federal government authorities; and philanthropic and conventional capital.

Though such a broad base of interest in CLTs at both local and national levels is encouraging, CLT organizers continue to struggle within dominant affordable housing policies and practices to sustain their work. As CLTs and their advocates push to reshape public budgets and capture private capital in innovative ways, how do funders and lenders relate to their own role in ceding control over land and housing—and the financial wealth they generate—in ways that share power with the residents and organizers at the heart of these housing justice movements?

Drawing on interviews with housing and community development finance professionals, ongoing conversations with CLT practitioners and advocates, and policy research, this thesis explores the funding and financing ecosystem surrounding the Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network (GBCLTN) as a descriptive case study.

Asya Aizman

Thesis Advisor: Jason Jackson

A Fifty Million Dollar Piece of Dirt: Somerville as a Case Study in Development

With little fanfare, a press release appeared on the city’s website in 2023: “Somerville Achieves AAA Bond Rating.” The referenced S&P credit rating report, citing one gentrifying neighborhood as a “notable contributor to increased market value,” signaled the city’s “attractiveness” to potential investors by promising low interest rates on real estate development projects in Somerville. But while the city increasingly appeared to be a sure bet for investors, life became more strenuous for residents, with steep and climbing rents, failing infrastructure, and fewer reasons to stay in a changing city that they no longer recognized.

This is a case study of a twenty-year period of Somerville’s real estate development, spanning from 2004 to 2024. Through interviews with residents, activists, and senior city officials, I present a telling of a city attempting to rectify its progressive values with the harsh realities of neoliberalism, which it seems unable—and unwilling—to stop.

Natasha Ansari

Thesis Advisor: Delia Wendel

Planning for the Margins:

Mapping Conceptual Implications of Profound Intellectual Disability and Informality through Slovo Park, Johannesburg

Disability remains one of the most marginalized considerations within urban planning and social justice research and practice. Disability affords planning the critical conceptual lens of interdependence, moving beyond ideas of individualized independence. Interdependence is an especially salient provocation for how we live in today’s world, shaped by COVID-19 and global crises brought on by climate change, meaningful work and livable wages, generative AI, and future pandemics. This thesis focuses on the challenges of urban planning for and with people with profound and intellectual disabilities in informal and impoverished Global South contexts as an acute, but nonetheless pervasive, example of the need and precarity of interdependence.

Drawing primarily from fieldwork in the informal settlement of Slovo Park, Johannesburg, this thesis aims to calibrate what it means to “plan for the margins” in situations of compounded vulnerability and resource scarcity. In doing so, it documents vitally important kin and care networks existentially challenged by neoliberal market forces. It argues that profound disability ought to be a central planning concern, informing how we transform social relations and build infrastructures of care that center deep vulnerability.

Gabriel Barrett

Thesis Advisor: Jim Aloisi

Boston

Night

Owl: A Framework

for Introducing Overnight Bus Service That Can Close Significant Spatiotemporal Gaps in Greater Boston’s Transit System

There are people traveling at every hour of the day. Cities by their nature function throughout the 24hour day, however the same is not always true of their transit systems. Just as in the day time, overnight public transportation exists to provide mobility access to the people who need or choose to travel at night.

This thesis explores the first steps in developing an overnight transit service in a region where it does not currently exist, using the Boston area as a case study. This is done through a two-step process: first identifying where and when the service should be run, and then learning from existing overnight systems around the world to understand how the service should operate. As part of the method, the thesis proposes a novel approach to identifying areas with acute disparity between transit supply and demand, colloquially known as “transit deserts,” that involves taking into account how these factors change both spatially and temporally. The end result of this thesis is a framework that planners in cities and transit agencies can use when creating a system that can close these gaps. This is an approach that planners will find useful not just in planning night time service, but for planning service at all times of the day.

David Beron

Thesis Advisors: Lawrence Susskind, Jason Jackson

On Power: How Colombia’s Oil Company Can Support the Country’s Energy Transition

This thesis is organized in two parts. Part I argues that national oil companies, which now own and produce most of the world’s oil, will be protagonists in the transition to low-carbon energy sources. The pathways that these companies take will be distinct from country to country and will define how the transition plays out globally. Part II sites my analysis in Colombia. It is an exercise in memory, reflection, and imagination based on a series of conversations with current and former decisionmakers in the country’s energy sector.

I show how the power supply crisis of 1992 revealed inseparable links between climate, energy, capital, and policy. I argue that growing and greening the power sector will require stronger central planning and favoring power purchase agreements over spot transactions. And I envision a country in which Colombia’s state-owned Ecopetrol is no longer an oil company. It contributes to a sovereign wealth fund for the country’s transition, leads R&D efforts, and has become an important player in power transmission and generation. Ecopetrol sells green hydrogen — instead of fossil fuels — to Europe and Asia. It has shifted from geology to geography, from offshore drilling to offshore wind. Is this country inherently different from twenty-first century Colombia?

Bennett Capozzi

Thesis Advisor: Eran Ben-Joseph

Evolution of a Useful Place: The Gas Station in America

The accelerating transition to EVs in the United States raises questions about the economic viability of fuel retailing in the coming decades; therefore it is necessary to think more deeply about the future of the 150,000 gas stations in the United States, most of which are polluted petroleum brownfields. This thesis uses three research methods to understand the past and present state of gas stations in America and the impact they have had on the built environment: historical research, site visits, and the case study method.

First, the thesis explores the way that gas stations in America have adapted their form and program to changes in their political, economic, and technological environments throughout the twentieth century. Then, turning to existing sites, the thesis generates four gas station typologies based on location. These types differ based on key formal and programmatic characteristics, and they are likely to have different reuse futures in a post-gas station world. Photography and site visits capture the way that this process of reuse has already begun; the thesis documents how many former gas stations in the contemporary landscape have been redeveloped, converted to new uses, or abandoned over the past several decades. These adaptations reveal the way that context influences these sites beyond the lifespan of fuel retailing. With the understanding that the transition away from combustion-engine vehicles is likely to continue, the thesis presents a policy framework focused on three scenarios: continued fuel retailing, conversion to EV charging, and industry exit. The framework is designed to help policymakers and planners make informed decisions about how to adapt these sites as the number of gas stations in the United States steadily decreases, leaving a trail of polluted brownfields in its wake.

Fabio Castro

Thesis Advisor: Fabio Duarte

Jaywalking Index: Visual and Socio-demographic Patterns in London

This quantitative research delves into the intricate dynamics of pedestrian safety, urban design, and behavioral analysis within the overarching framework of Vision Zero principles in London, UK. With a specific emphasis on comprehending jaywalking behavior, this study investigates the sociodemographic characteristics of jaywalkers and examines the correlation between urban design features surrounding jaywalking crashes. Employing GIS, the research analyzes 25,732 pedestrian crashes and utilizes Visual Artificial Intelligence to segment 280,000 images obtained from Google Street View. Key findings encompass the sociodemographic profiles of jaywalkers and the formulation of a jaywalking index, which serves as an initial tool for identifying areas warranting further investigation in urban design. This index aids in pinpointing regions with a heightened probability of pedestrian crashes, offering valuable insights for proactive urban planning and safety enhancement measures.

Anushree Chaudhuri

Thesis Advisor: Lawrence Susskind

Historical Siting Patterns of Large-scale Renewable Energy Projects and the Energy Justice Implications of Future Siting Policies

This thesis explores the historical siting patterns of utility-scale solar and wind energy projects in the United States and analyzes implications for energy justice outcomes. In Section 1, I explain how solar and wind generation potential is more land-intensive and geographically dispersed compared to fossil fuels. Section 2 reviews fragmented policy frameworks governing renewable siting, outlining and cataloging states utilizing local, dual/hybrid, or state control approaches. I hypothesize that local regulations play an outsized role in siting patterns. In Section 3, I statistically model technoeconomic, demographic, and regulatory drivers of solar and wind siting to date. Access to strong renewable resources and undeveloped land are primary drivers, channeling projects into rural areas. I discuss ambiguities, interpreting possible benefits and burdens to communities. In Section 4, I analyze emerging state policy trends to consolidate renewable siting authority through preemption of local control, aiming to accelerate approvals

but raising concerns about equity and participation. Finally, Section 5 offers preliminary recommendations to improve energy justice outcomes, emphasizing needs for greater local capacity-building and more democratic financing. This integrated analysis of historical siting patterns and new trends in state siting laws reveals the challenges and opportunities of equitably siting renewable energy. Technoeconomic constraints make equitable siting difficult through location alone. Thus, policy reforms beyond market-based siting patterns are vital, ensuring that clean energy transitions center justice. Renewables could perpetuate old inequities but also provide new opportunities for inclusion. These empirical foundations and framings can inform progress towards a just transition.

Austin Cole

Thesis Advisors: Karilyn Crockett, J. Phillip Thompson, Darien A. Williams

Message From The Grassroots: Exploring Black liberation in

grassroots economic practice and planning in the Americas

Building from theories of underdevelopment and economic warfare on Black peoples (Africans and Afrodescendants) globally, this study brings into the fields of urban planning and local community & economic development the analytic and urgency of the Black Radical Peace Tradition. This involves an exploration of alternatives to traditional paradigms of economic development and planning that might help reclaim and reconstitute “the economy” towards practices and efforts that serve human life and dignity, popular sovereignty, connection to the Earth, and self-determinative capacities of African peoples throughout the Americas.

Intent on contributing toward an anti-colonial praxis in this field, the following study is in part an application of the lens of Black political economy to geographic and urban challenges. It is also an exploration of grassroots people-centered efforts, both operating within the spatial-political confines of empire and those revolutionary programs outside of its physical bounds. And finally, it is a reflection on the possible purposes and roles of the “intellectual” and “planner” in supporting the liberation of Black peoples in the Americas, as part of the program of the liberation of all peoples globally.

Annabel Consilvio

Thesis Advisors: Eric Robsky Huntley, Ginevra D’Agostino

Encouraging reuse in rural Italy: A case study implementing new frameworks to collect local data and understand feasible reprogramming strategies in Guadagnolo

This thesis presents a new survey methodology for collecting data on occupancy, building typologies, and building conditions in small, depopulating towns in rural Italy. The survey methodology is split into two phases: one in which granular data is gathered through a series of visual surveys and a second in which this data is analyzed through a series of assessments aimed at identifying the most strategic buildings for reuse to support economic development. With one in three Italian municipalities losing population since 1951, this new framework aims to equip municipalities with critical data that can inform strategic reprogramming efforts and strengthen funding applications (Serico Gruppo Cresme, 2008). The research is built on the prior efforts and knowledge of Liminal, the thesis client and an organization in Italy working to build capacity within these rural communities. By providing

tools like this framework, Liminal empowers residents to envision new futures and supports municipalities to realize these visions.

This approach was tested in Guadagnolo, a rapidly depopulating town in the Monti Prenestini region of Lazio, which witnessed a 50% population decline in just two decades (Progetto- Campo Base Guadagnolo, 2022). Through this methodology, a robust and granular spatial database model of Guadagnolo’s built fabric was constructed, permitting analysis of possible sites of reuse to support a university satellite campus and develop a long-term tourism destination. The assessment methodology provided several key buildings for the town to consider adapting to support these two reuse scenarios, while also generating extensive data that the town can utilize in a variety of future initiatives and funding applications. Ultimately, this thesis endeavors to support rural Italian communities by providing a data-driven framework that can unlock funding opportunities and initiate strategic planning efforts, providing a path forward that protects the cultural and ecological richness of these small towns.

Lia Downing

Thesis Advisor: Janelle Knox-Hayes

Building Blocks of a Just Transition: Green Banks and Residential Building Decarbonization in New York

The existential threat of climate change has given rise to financial solutions aimed at transitioning global systems away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy. Green banks are one such solution as a specialty finance vehicle aimed at using public funds to induce private investment in climate energy projects such as residential building decarbonization. Given the recent increased investment and policy attention on green banks, we should assess whether the green bank model delivers their professed goals of socially equitable outcomes, market creation, and greenhouse gas emission reductions in line with Net Zero national policy.

This thesis seeks to understand the political and organizational dynamics of green bank models in the context of the Inflation Reduction Act and identify the existing project deployment gaps remaining for residential building decarbonization projects. Through a case study approach of New York Green Bank and New York Energy Efficiency Corporation, this study investigates green bank 1) additionality; 2) organizational structure; 3) scale; and 4) demand as considerations for green bank formulation to drive building decarbonization investments. These case studies combined with expert interviews provide strategy and programmatic recommendations for policymakers considering whether to create or expand a green bank in the wake of massive federal investment through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Nadine Eichenlaub

Thesis Advisor: Karilyn Crockett

Improving Food Access in Boston: A

Community-Based Approach

Urban planning and public health are closely connected, as the physical environment can promote equitable (or inequitable) access to social, economic, and environmental amenities. Access to food and healthy options may be a factor in disparate health outcomes. Building relationships between community gardens, local farms, hunger relief organizations, and other community organizations and governmental actors can increase access to produce. Using case studies of Eastie Farm and The Food Project in Boston, this thesis will examine the connections between local food production, retailing, and consumption.

I will begin with a literature review of several aspects relating to food systems and security including social determinants of health, environmental justice disparities, global food systems, food gentrification and food mirages, and current national- and state-level assistance programs. To build these cases, I used a combination of primary and secondary sources to situate each project in their respective neighborhoods’ history and current environments. Eastie Farm and The Food Project are both working to increase access to healthy food in the neighborhoods of East Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester by building stronger, community-based food systems. While increasing the affordability of produce is a crucial part of access, creating long-term health goes beyond purchasing power. Eastie Farm and The Food Project build increased food access into their communities through systems work.

Eli Zachary Epperson

Thesis Advisor: Sarah Williams

Planning for the Growth of the Life Sciences in Philadelphia: Workforce

and the Bellwether District

This thesis investigates the sustainability of innovation districts, emphasizing the critical role of workforce acquisition, often facilitated by proximity to academic and research institutions. Using the Bellwether District in Philadelphia, PA as a focal point, the study explores strategies for attracting talent. Framed within the broader literature on innovation districts, the research commences with a comparative analysis of various typologies of innovation hubs, ranging from urban-integrated districts like Kendall Square in Cambridge, MA, to Research Triangle Park, which spans Durham and Wake Counties, NC. Interviews with entry-level life science professionals and experts in industry, workforce, and economic development shed light on talent acquisition strategies within Philadelphia. The findings highlight the region’s successful partnerships in enhancing workforce training, while identifying ongoing challenges in meeting workforce demands. This analysis serves as a valuable guide for the Bellwether District and other innovation districts seeking to cultivate sustainable workforces.

Emily Fang

Thesis Advisor: Gabriella Carolini

Retrofitting Affordable Multifamily Housing: A Survey of Landlords in Cincinnati, Ohio

Building energy efficiency retrofits are a crucial part of decarbonizing the building sector and decreasing residential energy burden—low-income households, renters, and residents of multifamily buildings disproportionately bear this burden. This study serves as a case study on WarmUp Cincy (2020-2022), a local government-led pilot program that provided grants to landlords of affordable multifamily housing to help implement energy efficiency retrofits.

In partnership with the City of Cincinnati Office of Environment & Sustainability, I assess results from the pilot program, develop and analyze a survey of affordable housing landlords in Cincinnati, and conduct interviews with key energy stakeholders in the region to answer: 1) what are landlords’ current priorities and understandings of the cost and energy savings of specific upgrades, and 2) what energy efficiency program elements will be most effective in serving these buildings? As the City transitions towards a second phase of WarmUp Cincy to better address its climate and energy equity goals, this study seeks to provide insight on how to approach key program design questions, such as selecting a program administrator and determining a list of eligible technologies. In addition, this study explores WarmUp Cincy’s synergies with other federal and state funding programs, WarmUp Cincy’s continuing role in addressing local planning challenges of outreach and workforce development, and the importance of program evaluation as building technologies, funding opportunities, and community education change over time.

Emilie Flamme

Thesis Advisor: Anne Whiston Spirn

Navigating Shared Vulnerabilities: Climate

Adaptation on the Split Island of Saint Martin

The island of Saint Martin on the windward side of the Caribbean Sea is a volcanic island whose low-lying areas are at high risk for flooding and storm surges as a result of exposure to increasing severe hurricanes that is compounded by sea level rise. Saint Martin’s mountainous landscape is split by two governments. The first is the Collectivity of Saint-Martin, a semi-autonomous region of France. The second is the Government of Sint Maarten, an independent island government within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This thesis examines how both governments on the island of Saint Martin are working to develop climate adaptation strategies within a context of already existing chronic exposure to extreme climate risks. Given the administrative split and the severity of climate change, how can an island with two governments and two different approaches to climate change adapt to common future climate changes?

The work first traces how the construction of climate adaptation expertise is shaped by perceptual biases which originate from outside the Caribbean region, often in countries like the Netherlands and France. From this engagement on the construction of expertise, the Chapter 1 traces how hurricanes have shaped how climate and weather events are understood and confronted by islanders and argues that future hurricanes models articulate changes to everyday climate conditions that stand to challenge longstanding practices of resilience in the face of extreme climate events. Chapter 2 examines current climate adaptation strategies implemented in the Collectivity of Saint-Martin, and underscores the relationship between risk perception, policy formulation, and historical context by highlighting the need for locally-adapted strategies. Chapter 3 examines how the Government of Sint Maarten is able to address climate change and climate adaptation and includes promising avenues for community-centered risk assessment and adaptation planning. Chapter 4 engages the limitations of both strategies in Saint-Martin and Sint Maarten, and proposes an alternative vision for climate adaptation given the shared vulnerabilities that exist for both sides of Saint Martin.

Patricia M. Garcia Iruegas

Thesis Advisor: Eric Robsky Huntley

How Can Cities Effectively Address Gun Violence?

Exploring

Political Leadership and Organizational Management

This client-based thesis explores the impact of political governance and operational management on community violence intervention strategies, focusing on the Key Capacities Framework developed by the California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC). Through a detailed examination of Political Governance and Public Leadership and Effective Operational Management capacities, I analyze how these influence the effectiveness of urban violence reduction strategies.

Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates a multi-disciplinary literature review with a quantitative analysis using a newly developed scoring system, adapted into the Key Capacities Framework. Findings from previous research conducted by the CPSC suggest a significant correlation between a robust political governance and strong operational management with successful violence reduction outcomes. Cities with coherent leadership and

accountable management frameworks showed more sustainable decreases in violence, suggesting these capacities are critical in the broader context of urban planning and policy development.

The thesis also includes case studies of Philadelphia and Chicago, providing insights into how the framework applies in different urban contexts. The Philadelphia case study involves a secondary analysis of the key capacities using the new scoring tool, while the Chicago study explores the role of grassroots organizations and other non-governmental stakeholders in community violence intervention strategies.

This research contributes to the urban studies field by providing evidence on the mechanisms through which governance and management capacities impact community violence interventions. It also offers practical insights for policymakers and urban planners striving to enhance the effectiveness of violence reduction strategies in cities. The thesis highlights the importance of adaptive, collaborative approaches that address systemic racism and engage communities as partners in creating safer urban environments.

Journee Harris

Thesis Advisor: Holly Harriel

Redignifying LaVilla: Visualizing and Recentering Black Epistemologies in the Revitalization of LaVilla, Jacksonville, Florida

There is a need and desire for planners and designers to atone for racism and white supremacy in the field, and Reparative Planning as a theory and practice is a start. This thesis looks at recent revitalization efforts in LaVilla, a historic African-American neighborhood situated in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida as an example of reparative planning, with specific interest around the upcoming Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park. The creation of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park signals a pivotal moment for Black Landscapes in the US South in which the City of Jacksonville is looking to use public space to acknowledge and preserve local Black history. As the downtown area transforms, there is a need for grounding revitalization in a reparative process that is informed by lived experience and local expertise.

Drawing upon methods such as unstructured interviews, archival research, and visual inquiry, this thesis proposes scrapbooking as an innovative approach to activating archives and visualizing Black Epistemologies within the urban planning context. At the core of this project lies the argument that Black Epistemologies represent a legitimate expertise that is missing from revitalization efforts. Planners and other practitioners engaged in anti-racist, reparative work should embrace these epistemologies as a valuable resource to inform their understanding of the built environment from distinct cultural and historical perspectives.

Emma Heneine

Thesis Advisor: David Gamble

Cooking Together: Form & Function of Community Kitchens as Urban Third Places Promoting

Community Wellbeing

Global food insecurity has surged in recent years, with nearly one-third of the world population experiencing food insecurity between 2020-2022. Malnutrition remains a leading cause of death globally, making food access a major determinant of health. Cities are increasingly grappling with challenges as urban populations expand and urban food systems are affected by various systemic factors including geopolitical conflicts, economic crises, environmental anomalies, and epidemics. Urban planning and physical characteristics of the urban built environment also affect food access; single-use zoning, suburbanization, rising food costs, proliferation of processed foods, and food-deserts contribute to urban food insecurity, disproportionately affecting low-income communities. As a result, urban populations have seen a rise in the prevalence of both undernourishment and obesity. Dating back centuries and found globally, community kitchens are places where food is prepared en masse by community

members to address local food insecurity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, community kitchens (re) gained prominence, offering essential nourishment as well as solace and community amidst widespread hardship and isolation. Research indicates the success of community kitchens in improving nutrition, as well as a number of other benefits including improving mental health, individual and collective empowerment, environmental sustainability, and social cohesion. Despite their effectiveness, reliance on community kitchens to address food insecurity reveals a tension of whether such responsibility should fall on communities, rather than being addressed structurally. Nonetheless, community kitchens represent vital interventions in the absence of adequate public services, showcasing the collective power of communities to address food insecurity and broader social challenges. Drawing from a sample of nine contemporary community kitchens around the world, this thesis explores how community kitchens’ form and function can evolve into critical urban infrastructures, offering benefits beyond food relief to promote community wellbeing in the aftermath of a community shock. In so doing, community kitchens represent urban ‘third places’ – becoming essential informal gathering spaces for communities through their promotion of the arts and culture, education and skills building, economic development, ecological stewardship, and community development.

Melissa Hill

Thesis Advisor: Jeff Levine

The Imperfect Question of Stadium Development: A Typology of Contemporary Developments and Strategies for a Sustainable Future

This thesis explores the paths forward at the intersection of economic development, public space, and parking. Using OpenStreetMap data and American Community Survey estimates, this project uses GIS analysis to develop a typology of contemporary NFL stadium developments. Using illustrative case studies informed by this analysis, site visits, and pre-existing literature, the thesis evaluates the tradeoffs presented by various approaches to stadium development. Rather than recommend a single path forward, this thesis provides suggestions for working within the constraints of local landscapes to develop strategies to best support the public good in each context.

Rebecca Houston-Read

Thesis Advisor: Jeff Levine

Sustainable Homes for All: Designing a Clean Energy Incentive for Boston’s Section 8 HCV Landlords to Improve Tenant Quality of

Life

There is an urgent need for decarbonization in the residential sector given housing’s significant contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. Low-income housing is particularly energy inefficient, contributing to harmful environmental outcomes and health and financial challenges for tenants. The Boston Housing Authority (BHA) can play a central role in residential decarbonization for low-income residents because it owns and controls a substantial portion of the housing stock. While there are significant efforts underway to decarbonize Boston’s public housing stock, there are currently no initiatives aimed at decarbonization in the Section 8 Program. Thus, the BHA can broaden its influence beyond the public sector and incentivize residential decarbonization in the private sector through its relationships with over 15,000 landlords in the Section 8 HCV Program.

This thesis develops the BHA Retrofit Rewards (BRR) Program: a Program that uses monthly ‘rent boost’ to financially incentivize Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) landlords to implement clean energy upgrades in their units. This BRR Program was created through a two-step process. First, a comparative analysis of similar US programs identified the Atlanta Housing Authority’s Energy Efficiency Rent Boost Program (EERB) as viable for replication in Boston. Second, a feasibility analysis was conducted to determine how the BHA’s adaptation of the EERB Program would be financed, administered, and redesigned to fit the Boston context. The results of this analysis outline a framework for a BRR Program financed by leveraging regulatory flexibility that enables higher payments to landlords within federal limits. This thesis contributes to ongoing equity-focused decarbonization initiatives at the BHA and offers a roadmap for public housing authorities and cities more broadly seeking to address the dual challenges of climate change and housing inequity.

Amanda Huang

Thesis Advisor: Janelle Knox-Hayes

Towards a Greener Future: Understanding Sovereign Green Bond Allocation

Trends and Yield

Spreads

By the end of 2022, the total sovereign green bond market exceeded $2.6 trillion with 28 issuing countries globally. Sovereign green bonds are a type of debt instrument, which are fixed-income assets that require debtors to pay lenders interest and principal payments. Sovereign green bonds, in particular, are used to raise necessary capital for infrastructure projects, combining financing and private markets with a country’s national climate and sustainability targets. Put differently, green bonds finance projects in the energy, transport, water, buildings, land use and marine resources, industry, and waste sectors, which may help a country reach a particular environmental goal. However, the relative nascence of green bonds creates a need to investigate how green bond issuances are allocated, and if investors have a preference towards “greenness” over other fixed income instruments.

This thesis finds that countries are partial to one to three priority sectors, or tend to invest across the board. Interestingly, in both instances, most of the funds are allocated towards transportation projects. Using yield data, this thesis finds that the average yield spread within the sovereign green bond market is ~2 bps larger than that in the vanilla (i.e., standard) bond market. When more closely examining individual yields, data reveals a potential green investor preference. Ultimately, it will be important to understand how sovereign green bond allocations can meaningfully fund large-scale projects, and if they can be used to secure a more sustainable future.

McKenzie Humann

Thesis Advisor: Siqi Zheng, Fabio Duarte

From Pilots to Stable Services: Documenting the Rise and Diversity of Microtransit in the U.S.

In 2014, the emergence of public on-demand, ride-sharing services, known as microtransit, (re) captured the attention of techno-positive urbanists. Echoing the same arguments for demand-response transit in the 1970s, new transit technology startups like Via, Chariot, and Bridj touted microtransit as a more affordable alternative to private ride-hailing services, while promising greater efficiency and improved customer experiences compared to traditional bus services. Proponents believed this “disruptive transportation innovation” could alleviate traffic congestion and reduce vehicle emissions if scaled successfully.

Following mixed results from early pilot programs over the previous five years, only the truly disruptive Covid-19 pandemic launched microtransit into an accelerated phase of adoption. Many transit agencies replaced underperforming bus routes with microtransit, while others used federal funding to launch new pilots designed to connect riders to existing transit

nodes. Yet the sparsity of public data on microtransit services prevents researchers unaffiliated with any major technology providers from establishing baseline service metrics or comprehensively evaluating the performance of these new programs in relation to each other, let alone assess any broader effect on travel patterns.

This thesis provides the first comprehensive documentation of microtransit’s growth and trends in service design in the U.S. as a first step toward assessing its current state. A newly compiled dataset reveals the diversity and variability of microtransit programs in their service goals, types, and designs. Finally, this thesis proposes a new assessment framework to help microtransit administrators balance competing tradeoffs like cost-efficiency, reliability, and flexibility based on their service goals and transit needs.

Carmelo Ignaccolo

Dissertation

Advisors: Lawrence Vale, Sarah Williams, Azra Aksamija

BEHIND THE WATERFRONT: Enduring Inequities and Illusive Renewals in the Making of Mediterranean Port Cities

This dissertation uncovers the problematic legacies of large-scale urban design gestures in Mediterranean port cities. It evaluates lasting tropes, measures socioeconomic effects, and reveals neglected histories. This research challenges waterfront-centric narratives by demonstrating how port cities often reinvent their coastal front while turning their back on adjoining neighborhoods, relegating them to languish in the shadow of new development.

This study carries out a computationally rigorous yet culturally sensitive investigation to expose overlooked legacies behind urban waterfronts. It bridges urban design scholarship with port city literature, critical heritage discourse, and inequality studies to understand what frameworks and analytical methodologies can illuminate hidden-in-plain-sight, yet structurally ingrained, injustices stemming from the physical remaking of port-adjacent neighborhoods.

From a methodological perspective, it employs historical GIS techniques on primary sources collected in more than thirty archives in Barcelona, Marseille, Rome, Naples, and Beirut. It models socioeconomic data and urban morphology features extracted from archival materials spanning a period of 150 years. Finally, it creates new data through participatory mapping initiatives and contextualizes analytical findings with interviews and field observations.

The dissertation adopts a tripartite structure, with the first paper acting as the theoretical frame for two in-depth empirical case studies on Naples (Italy) and Beirut (Lebanon). BEHIND THE WATERFRONT introduces the “behind the waterfront” framework for the study of Mediterranean port cities and proposes a longue durée analysis of governance schemes (power), technical mechanisms (progress), and socioeconomic effects (poverty) shaping water-facing development patterns.

Overall, this dissertation demonstrates how spatial injustices have persisted through physical forms, political processes, and socio-cultural milieux in the illusive renewals of Mediterranean coastal neighborhoods. Its findings and interdisciplinary methods reveal the spatial inheritance of contemporary inequities, fostering the adoption of inclusive urban narratives, acknowledging plural pasts, and envisioning reparative futures.

Aarthi Janakiraman

Dissertation

Advisors: Lawrence Vale, Delia Wendel

Repurposing Colonialism: Postcoloniality and the Politics of World Heritage

Since the turn of the 21st century, countries in the Global South have increasingly sought to inscribe their heritage sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. World Heritage listing is considered prestigious because it brings global recognition, secures political legitimacy, boosts tourism, and attracts economic investment. Within the Indian Ocean Region, many nations continue to seek World Heritage status for their colonial heritage, despite a painful history of decolonization coupled with rising nationalist sentiments, raising the question: how does highlighting colonial-era heritage as World Heritage serve postcolonial societies?

Through a transnational comparative study of colonial-era World Heritage sites in South and Southeast Asia, this dissertation examines diverging approaches to postcolonial nation-building using colonial-era heritage. While all forms of heritage are instrumentalized in furthering nation-building agendas, I argue that the production of colonial-era World Heritage serves three distinct uses for postcolonial societies:

to signal modernity, manage ethno-racial politics, and conserve elite privilege. Through this triad of uses, I demonstrate how spatial manifestations of colonial power are coopted by different actors and legitimized through global institutions to further the present-day agendas of postcolonial elites. Considering nation-building through the lens of heritage reveals the lived inequities and power structures of postcolonial societies that are preserved through urban conservation.

This dissertation probes the role of colonial-era heritage in postcolonial societies through an in-depth consideration of two comprehensive case studies – the Singapore Botanic Gardens, and the Victorian Gothic and Art Deco ensembles of Mumbai. Using a version of Mukhija’s (2010) N of one plus some approach – here an N of two plus some approach—I also examine Old Town of Galle and its fortifications in Sri Lanka, and Georgetown and Malacca Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca in Malaysia, as secondary cases to add richness and inspire ways to question the primary cases by situating them in relation to others. Drawing from 10 months of fieldwork conducted over a period of two years, I combine evidence from semi-structured interviews with field observations, critical spatial and visual methods, as well as document and media analysis. Bringing together scholarship on urban design with critical heritage studies, ethnic studies, and international development, I explore a typology of colonial-era heritage practices in constructing the postcolonial nation.

Yabework Abebe Kifetew

Thesis

Advisor: Andres Sevtsuk

Pathways to Equity: Mapping Impacts

of Nairobi’s Urban Form on Pedestrian Mobility

This thesis is a study of the urban form and its impact on how pedestrians move across the city, why they chose certain paths regardless of the danger of crashes, and the effects of these patterns on the location of crashes using various statistical and spatial analysis modeling tools. Focusing on Nairobi, Kenya, it also explores the role of the government in developing infrastructure that prioritizes cars and highways over pedestrians, and why the aim for Nairobi to be a “global” city does not necessarily make it an “equitable” one, and how these factors link to the colonial past of the city’s origins. The results of the analysis are discussed in the final section in regards to policy and design suggestions for better pedestrian infrastructure, particularly across highways as they are the most dangerous for pedestrian crashes.

The goal of this thesis is to create a framework in which the built environment can be studied to identify risk factors for pedestrian safety and to provide insights on how urban design policy could be more equitable to pedestrians and marginalized populations. Additionally, this study aims to provide a more comprehensive framework for exploring pedestrian infrastructure and mobility in the Global Majority, as those areas often face similar challenges in equitable infrastructure and data scarcity. In this sense, while this study is hyper-specific to Nairobi, the desired outcome is that this approach can be utilized and built upon and modified to serve other urban settings as well.

MinJi Kim

Thesis Advisors: Brent D. Ryan, Bish Sanyal

Shaping the Future Amid Decline: Integrative Strategies

for Aging Koreans and Migrant Workers in South Korea’s Shrinking Regions

This thesis investigates the intricate dynamics between aging Korean populations and foreign migrant workers in South Korea’s shrinking regions. By conducting an in-depth analysis of four cities, each representing a unique aspect of the nation’s projected demographic shifts, this study evaluates how urban planning and policy can foster resilient communities amidst significant societal changes. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, which includes quantitative data alongside interviews and surveys with 81 stakeholders—from local officials to migrants and elderly residents—the research uncovers complex relationships and systemic barriers that impact community cohesion and demographic stability.

The findings provide a nuanced perspective on how strategic urban design and innovative policy initiatives can drive transformative growth in these areas, turning demographic challenges into opportunities for development. The analysis highlights the untapped potential within vulnerable populations and recommends a series of interventions. These include integrating educational elements into urban infrastructure and promoting cultural inclusivity through diverse partnerships. This approach seeks to reinvigorate shrinking regions, transforming them into vibrant, sustainable communities. Ultimately, the study underscores the critical role of inclusive urban development in revitalizing areas facing demographic and economic decline.

Percentage of Foreigners and the Elderly from 2022-2042

Marco Leonardo Herndon

Thesis Advisor: Delia Wendel, Jim Aloisi

Salvemos

Barranco:

Contested city and transportation visions in Barranco, Lima, Perú

Densely populated cities like Lima, Peru, face a complex challenge: integrating mass transit into established urban fabrics. This thesis explores this tension through the case of a World Bank-funded Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system implemented in Lima in 2010. The BRT, built mostly on an exclusive highway corridor, traversed only three neighborhoods–including Barranco, a historic district. Despite promising citywide mobility improvements, the project sparked protests in Barranco due to concerns about reduced pedestrian access, historic preservation, and potential neighborhood segregation.

Through historical and spatial analysis, this thesis examines the claims of both residents and stakeholders to understand the root cause of the conflict and propose improved planning processes.The research reveals significant gaps between the planning process and resident concerns, resulting in reduced pedestrian space and unintended traffic impacts. In response, the thesis proposes a three-pronged approach for future World Bank BRT projects: 1) prioritizing local capacity building for meaningful public participation, 2) achieving a balance between city-wide accessibility and neighborhood concerns, and 3) implementing a community-based BRT evaluation framework. The study concludes by offering an opportunity for the World Bank to facilitate a reparative planning process in Barranco, centering residents as decision-makers in shaping their transportation future.

Ana Letelier

Thesis Advisor: Catherine D’Ignazio

The Story of a Towel: A Comprehensive Approach to Disaster Preparedness: Enhancing Inclusivity and Sustainability in Chile’s Emergency Disaster Kits

This thesis explores the redesign of disaster relief kits in Chile using a methodology known as the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE). Since the last update in 2017, the disaster kits in Chile are now set to be revised in 2024 due to a new agreement within the government. This presents an opportunity to redesign the kits using the CITE methodology to better meet the needs of the end-users. This thesis collaborates with the Chilean government to demonstrate how the kits should be redesigned to be more gender-inclusive and sustainable, reflecting the views of communities who participated in focus groups and surveys conducted for this study.

The thesis underscores the importance of consulting with communities to understand their real needs and challenges, which is crucial for designing kits that truly serve those most in need after a disaster. It also highlights the significance of incorporating a gender perspective into disaster management methodologies and research. Ultimately, the redesigned kits include products that are more sustainable and gender-inclusive, and recommendations are provided on how the government can enhance its inclusivity and waste management practices.

Rebecca Lizarde

Thesis Advisor: Amy Glasmeier

The Legacy and Future of Urban Oil Drilling in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles metropolis is home to the world’s largest urban oil field. The region grew in economic significance mainly due to the oil industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Without proper regulation, companies extracted and continue to extract oil adjacent to homes, schools, and businesses. Further, many wells have been orphaned by financially insolvent operators or idling uncapped for years. This has created a significant public health crisis in the region. As California seeks to achieve its ambitious climate goals and phase down the oil and gas industry within its borders, the past and present landscape of Los Angeles presents various challenges. The state must protect the environment, improve public health, and maintain fossil fuel supplies statewide.

Within this thesis, I seek to understand how Los Angeles developed with the oil industry and how political and economic factors shaped the placement of wells throughout the city and the resulting public health crisis. Further, I develop an understanding of the current policy and regulatory landscape that impacts state and local efforts to improve the health and wealth of the region. I found that unsophisticated technologies, uncoordinated feverish drilling, and cycles of disinvestment shaped the placement of wells throughout Los Angeles. The challenges the government faces, the sheer scale of hazardous wells, the need for a regulatory framework to ensure operator responsibility, and established opposition movements all pose significant barriers. The state and local governments are not adequately equipped to take on these challenges. However, their interest in environmental protection and public health has shown in recent efforts to improve regulation and funding streams. Los Angeles can show its commitment to the environment and its residents over economic interests by developing robust plans to regulate and restrict urban oil extraction.

Katelyn McVay

Thesis Advisors: Siqi Zheng, Joseph Coughlin

Climate Change and Aging: analyzing the disproportionate health and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of older adults in relation to the climate crisis in the U.S.

Climate change has exacerbated the extreme highs and lows of temperature throughout the United States. While climate change-related temperature changes have impacted the entire population, certain demographic groups bear more of the burden than others. In particular, older adults (those aged 65+) may be especially at risk due to their overall increased morbidity and mortality rates. Older adults can escape the outdoor temperatures at home through home energy use. However, older adults living at or below the poverty level may not be able to manage the associated costs of home energy usage.

This research builds upon previous work on climate justice by assessing the additive components of poverty, home-living status, and energy costs on the resilience of older adults who reside in their own homes at the national level. This paper aims to identify significant locations in the United States where older adults may be most impacted by temperature extremities and which older populations experience the most energy cost burdens. Through the development of an energy cost and climate risk index, this research hopes to identify which places in the U.S. may be most vulnerable to older Americans’ health and financial stability. Significant findings for both cold waves and heat waves include strong positive relationships between overall extreme temperature risk and annual energy cost burdens, which signify a need to subsidize and assist with energy expenses in particularly vulnerable locations. This research contributes a more precise evaluation of the issue and emphasizes the need to localize and focus on specific populations and their unique risk factors since prior spatial research covers a broad range of populations and vulnerabilities, making data interpretation less specific.

Mariama N’Diaye

Thesis Advisor: Holly Harriel

The Civic Design Room: Conversations on What It Looks Like To Operationalize Design in Government?

With Community, Within Government, and Your Team

The Civic Design Room is a podcast and media thesis project that engages designers in the public sector, primarily in the US, on how they have operationalized design methodologies in the public sector. This podcast is a series of thirteen forty-five minutes to 1-hour episodes, with each episode featuring a different guest. These guests range from US current or former federal government employees to urban planners and designers working in local US government and researchers based internationally in Colombia, the United Kingdom, and Finland. Each episode covers similar topics of design, politics, and the management skills needed to foster an innovative team in government.

This thesis calls for a new mode of design - Caring Systems Design, which seeks to infuse principles of care ethics - attentiveness, responsiveness, competence, and responsibility - throughout the multiple, nested levels of government work - from the individual and team level to cross-departmental collaboration, to engaging with external communities and stakeholders. The project will live on Spotify, and the notes of each episode include supportive materials for those listening. The written thesis represents the breadth of my research, including the methods and processes used to create the podcast, the findings from each podcast, and the implications of both my findings and methods on the field of urban planning and the public sector in general.

Image credit: Brad Cuzen

Anisha Patil Nakagawa

Thesis Advisor: Mariana Arcaya

Understanding Climate Change through a Community Definition of Resilience:

Qualitative Analysis of Interviews and Implications for Practice

This thesis explores how residents in low-income, rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods conceptualize resilience to climate change and what responses are desired. As part of a Participatory Action Research study in Eastern Massachusetts, I analyzed de-identified interviews with residents and engaged in collaborative data analysis sessions with Resident Researchers. Residents in these communities experience climate change through chronic stressors, mainly through heat, high utility bills, and flooding. They connect climate resilience to other stressors in their lives like displacement, structural racism, and trauma, and they see strong community ties as a key piece of resilience. Based on this research, responses to climate change need to consider the root causes of unjust systems, respond to the co-stressors in people’s lives, and have community ownership and control in order to be most effective.

Jason Ng Thesis Advisors: David Gamble, Vinicios Sant’Anna

Claiming Identity through Space: LGBTQ+ Community Building via Commercial Development in West Hollywood

and Palm Springs

Examining the relationship between queer identity and urban space, this thesis focuses on LGBT+ commercial real estate and its role in community building. Through the cities of West Hollywood and Palm Springs in California, it explores historic, contemporary, and forward-looking narratives of LGBT+-oriented commercial development, with an emphasis on retail, hospitality, and multifamily. Key questions address how LGBT+ communities claim and shape space (socially, economically, and physically) within “gayborhoods”, as well as strategies for navigating urban change. By analyzing these narratives with qualitative and quantitative methods, this thesis offers insights for developers, planners, and other stakeholders invested in creating vibrant, inclusive communities.

This interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach includes original GIS and data analysis of historic LGBT+ establishments, demographic study, literature review, site observation, interviews with stakeholders ranging from economic development professionals to mayors, and case studies of a queer women-owned small business and LGBT+ senior living community. The findings underscore the subversive and politically charged origins of gayborhoods, characterized by authenticity, entrepreneurship, and community-centric values. The analysis also reveals challenges to gayborhood identity as West Hollywood and Palm Springs grapple with questions of gentrification vs. preservation, commercialization, and shifting demographics (aging populations, increasing affluence, mainstream audiences, etc.).

Given increased LGBT+ acceptance in the US since the mid-century (generally speaking) and the advent of social media and dating apps, some question whether the gayborhood is dying or even necessary anymore. I argue that the gayborhood as a framework, though evolving, persists in its relevance due to its core commitment to LGBT+ community building. And its resilience is reflective of the historic legacy of the LGBT+ community itself.

Nineveh O’Connell

Thesis Advisor: Mary Anne Ocampo

Wildly Inaccessible: Reaching Public Lands via Public Transit

Public transit offers a valuable method to sustainably connect people to highly sought amenities, including outdoor spaces. Outdoor recreation has grown in popularity, with a particular uptick in outdoor activity in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, a growing body of research has demonstrated the public health benefits of access to open space. Autodependency in the United States often requires visitors to arrive to outdoor spaces via personal vehicle, generating carbon emissions and limiting outdoor access for communities without reliable access to cars. Further, high demand for outdoor access has resulted in visitors parking in unauthorized spots along the shoulder of roads when trailhead parking lots reach capacity, creating congestion and unsafe road conditions as people walk between their cars and trailheads alongside moving traffic. City dwellers and the environment would benefit from public transportation services connecting densely populated areas to beloved outdoor spaces.

This paper explores how fixed-route public transit has brought urban communities closer to nearby trailheads with two examples in the American West: Trailhead Direct in King County, WA and the Muir Woods Shuttle in Marin County, CA. Both programs were implemented in the twenty-first century in response to unsafe conditions at trailhead parking lots, yet they have grown to operate under very distinct models. Sequencing the evolution of these transit to trails programs relative to stated program goals provides insight into the degree to which they have been successful, and what further work could be done to improve visitor experience, prioritize ecosystem protection, and increase equitable access to the outdoors. Adaptation to unforeseen circumstances, creative marketing and routing tailored to a clear customer group, and securing funding from relevant stakeholders have constantly influenced both programs. These case studies showcase the value of partnerships between land managers and transit agencies, and analysis of their history highlights key components to consider when designing sustainable, reliable transit to trails service.

Hazel O’Neil

Thesis Advisors: Jean-Luc Pierite, Alan Berger, Kate Brown

Pa’ashi National Park: Resiliency, Restoration, and Reparative Planning for California’s Tulare Lake Basin

In 2023, a series of atmospheric rivers reawakened California’s largest sleeping lake, Pa’ashi, in the California Tulare Lake Basin. This thesis supports the proposal of the Tachi Yokut Tribe, one of the watershed’s Indigenous communities, to preserve Pa’ashi in the form of a new National Park. I present historical and environmental context that explains how the lake was put to sleep by Manifest Destiny-era agricultural settlement and subsequent consolidation of political control over water. I argue that the Tachi Yokut Tribe’s proposal for a National Park is a pragmatic, feasible, and desirable planning response to the region’s interwoven challenges of climate change, ecological imbalance, and pervasive environmental injustice. I demonstrate how the community might develop the ideas of the park further through a sample visioning process and landscape design framework for the watershed.

This thesis advances a theory of “two-eyed seeing” (Bartlett et al 2012) planning practice by centering Indigenous values and planning scholarship to articulate how planners and designers might foster stronger connections between people, place, and nature when undertaking landscape-scale climate adaptation projects.

Keiko Okai-Yabe

Thesis Advisor: Brent D. Ryan

Reflective Planning and Design for Community Resilience: A Case Study in a Vulnerable and Shrinking Japanese Village

This study investigates resilience strategies in rural Japanese areas characterized by population decline, demographic aging, and heightened disaster risk. I particularly examine the approach of relocating communities to safer, higher ground in regions prone to tsunamis. The focus is on Omosu Village in Numazu City, Japan, which was the first community to attempt relocation through the Disaster Prevention Collective Relocation Promotion Project (DPCRPP) in preparation for the anticipated Nankai Trough earthquake and tsunami, expected to occur within the next 20 years with a high probability.

The methodology involved developing planning and design proposals, presenting these to officials in Numazu City for feedback, and revising the proposals accordingly, embodying a reflective practice approach. Due to the sensitivity of the subject, direct discussions with residents were not possible; instead, I analyzed recorded materials from a 2012-2013 workshop on hill relocation and responses from 106

residents to a post-workshop questionnaire to gather insights and integrate them into my planning and design.

The findings highlight a disconnect between areas supported by Japan’s Location Optimization Plan (LOP) and Small Hub Development (SHD), which complicates relocation efforts for villages like Omosu, situated in these policy gaps. This study offers policy-related recommendations for addressing the challenges faced by shrinking settlements caught in these gaps and demonstrates the potential of village design to incorporate long-term planning over the next two decades, addressing both disaster prevention and everyday livelihood sustainability. The results underscore the viability of previously considered impossible relocations to higher ground and outline the necessary steps to accomplish this. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the significance of a holistic planning and design approach that safeguards residents’ lives and invigorates community spirit in rural villages enriched with natural resources and cultural heritage.

Oussama Ouadani

Thesis

Advisors: Karilyn Crockett, Garnette Cadogan, Huma Gupta

An

Agroecological Response to the Militarized Urban in Vieques, Puerto Rico

Between 1942 and 1950, the United States Navy forcefully occupied and constructed three military facilities, known collectively as the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility, on the Puerto Rican island-municipality of Vieques. In the process, the Navy dispossessed 70% of the land and displaced 50% of the population, artificially precipitating Vieques’s shift from a rural to urban society. After an errant bomb killed a local, intense grassroots mobilizations succeeded in ousting the Navy from Vieques in 2003, but the extensive ecological and social harm it generated was devasting and enduring.

This thesis will contextualize within Vieques the production of what Palestinian urban scholar AbreekZubiedat (2023) novelly terms the militarized urbanism(s) and highlight the island’s contemporary agroecological movement in response to it. This thesis then traces how the militarized urban emerged and operated in Vieques vis-à-vis displacement-resettlement logics, the imposition of spatial prohibitions and ecocide, and the gamification of land and society. Finally, I offer possibilities for reimagining our ecological and urban spaces in Vieques and beyond. Complimenting my embodied, archival, and theoretical research methodology is an affective treatment of the island’s militarized history through Pedro Juan Soto’s novel Usmaíl, published and set in mid-20th century Vieques.

Muhammad Rizki Rayani Ramadani

Thesis

Advisors: Delia Wendel, Lawrence Vale

Navigating Vulnerability: Harmonizing Disaster Risk Reduction and Management with

Socio-spatial Construction of Risk in Post-Tsunami Aceh

How can a city that once suffered the world’s deadliest tsunami prepare for future disasters? This thesis is a collection of stories from those who have historically been considered “unwanted, powerless, and marginalized” due to multi-tiered and differentiated citizenship. It examines the case of Banda Aceh in Indonesia nearly two decades after a devastating earthquake and tsunami that wiped out a third of its population, and a peace agreement that ended three decades of violent conflict. The question posed is: Does the narrative of Build Back “Better” remain relevant in representing the context of long-term development?

This study primarily aims to deconstruct the logic of disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) and territorial planning, which is rational and techno-scientific, built upon post-colonial relation networks. Through historical comparative analysis, the case of three coastal neighborhoods, also known as

“gampong,” reveals the limitations of this approach. It does not necessarily reduce vulnerability. Instead, it intensifies it through a systemic process of “vulnerabilization” (Vale, 2024), utilizing the logic of sacrifice and necropolitics (Mbembe, 2002), and further reinforcing “quasi-citizenship,” where institutions with limited capabilities deny basic rights to marginalized communities.

This thesis emphasizes that a disaster is not merely a natural hazard—it is an interaction with vulnerability, a state that is institutionally, historically, politically, ideologically, and spatially produced (Wisner, 2004). As a result, this study encourages reevaluating disaster risk reduction and management, specifically incorporating post-colonial critiques into theory-building. It proposes shifting away from universal models favoring high modernism or progress and advocates for a balanced approach that genuinely focuses on “the people.” Thus, this thesis advocates for a new methodology for closer relations in addressing affect, lived experience, and historical analysis in planning as legitimate ways of knowing. Acknowledging trauma, collective memory, and spatial expressions of belonging as valid forms of capabilities for disaster risk reduction and management is a crucial step to actualize equitably resilient cities.

Eduardo Rosario Thesis Advisor: Albert Saiz

Balancing Purpose and Growth: Evaluating Community Land Trusts (CLTs) as an Organizational Model and the Imperative for Strategic Management

The U.S. is experiencing a severe housing affordability crisis affecting both homeownership and rental markets across income levels. Community land trusts (CLTs) have gained popularity as a promising model to help preserve long-term affordable housing. However, while CLTs have been extensively studied conceptually, relatively little research has examined the strategic management choices and internal practices which ultimately impact the CLT’s ability to scale its impact within communities.

This thesis explores pivotal strategic considerations faced by CLT leaders as their organizations evolve. Through a review of the origins and philosophies underlying the CLT model, examples of CLTs across the U.S., and in-depth case studies, the research identifies three key areas where management choices are critical: 1) Clearly defining the CLT’s vision, mission, and goals to maintain focus; 2) Navigating tradeoffs in organizational setup, housing types, scale, and speed of development; and 3) Aligning leadership capabilities with the CLT’s growth stage.

The findings highlight that while CLTs share the singular purpose of providing permanently affordable housing, their management priorities and pathways to impact can diverge significantly based on contextual factors and strategic decisions. This analysis provides a framework for CLT leaders to intentionally guide the trajectory of their organizations based on their specific missions, needs, market conditions, and aspirations for scale. The research aims to inform both emerging and established CLTs to maximize their impact on the housing affordability crisis.

Ponpat (Ann) Sahacharoenwat

Thesis Advisor: Brent D. Ryan

Understanding the Complex Dynamics of Regenerating Urban Vacancy: A Case Study of Songkhla,

Thailand

This thesis investigates the pervasive issue of urban vacancy in Songkhla City, Thailand, characterized by the prevalence of vacant, abandoned, or underutilized properties. Such urban vacancies arise from a complex interplay of factors, including economic downturns, demographic shifts due to urban depopulation or migration, speculative real estate practices, and disparities in urban development and public infrastructure. These vacancies contribute to urban decay, affecting the vitality and functionality of city centers and leading to economic and social issues.

The thesis employs causal loop analysis to illustrate the complex interactions involved in regenerating urban vacancies. The thesis begins with a comprehensive overview of the urban vacancy crises in Songkhla City. Following this, the study delves into an analysis of the dynamics involved in regenerating these urban vacancies. It particularly emphasizes the role of private investment and evaluates the impact of existing urban planning tools and policies, as illustrated through causal loop diagrams. Subsequently, the thesis proposes specific strategies and strategic actions aimed at revitalizing these vacant spaces. These proposed measures are integrated into another causal loop diagram to assess their potential impacts on the urban fabric. Finally, the thesis concludes with a discussion of broader policy implications, reflecting on how the insights gained from Songkhla City could inform and influence national-level policies aimed at revitalizing secondary cities across Thailand.

Victoria Santiago Araiza Thesis Advisor: Albert Saiz

Local Autonomy and the Value Capture Debate in Mexico City: A Land-Based Analysis Towards a Decade of Political Reform

In 2014, the president of Mexico was on the cover of TIME magazine with a powerful headline: Enrique Peña Nieto, Saving Mexico. The cover was the product of Peña Nieto’s reformist spirit to move the needle in areas pending debate for decades, not least of which was the long-awaited political reform to grant Mexico City its first constitution.

This thesis examines the debate surrounding the proposed incorporation of land value capture mechanisms in Mexico City’s 2016 Constitution proposal, and its implications for the city’s autonomy and urban development. The question guiding the thesis is: what lessons can be drawn from the land value capture debate in Mexico City’s 2016 constitutional and reform process to inform the design and implementation of land-based finance policies that promote local autonomy and equitable urban development?

Situating the analysis within the city’s quest for greater self-governance, the research draws upon theoretical frameworks of decentralization, local autonomy, and land-based finance to analyze the land value capture proposal, the factors contributing to its ultimate elimination from the final constitution, recent land-related policies, and trends of local revenue sources pre and post-reform. The thesis concludes by underscoring the limitations of political reform without corresponding fiscal empowerment —and how that empowerment could come from, what I consider to be, cities’ most valuable asset: land.

Leonard Schrage

Thesis Advisors: Andres Sevtsuk, Brent D. Ryan

Visual AI for Sustainable Urban Development: Computer Vision and Machine Learning Applications for Climate and Social Impact

The surge in interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI)— driven by recent advancements—has sparked widespread discourse across various sectors, reflecting mixed reactions of fascination and concern. This thesis focuses on Visual AI, critically analysing the technology’s potential to promote sustainable urban development. Presenting and evaluating three case studies that employ computer vision and machine learning in urban planning contexts, the research highlights the potential of Visual AI in enhancing urban complexity understanding and decision-making to mitigate the built environment’s immense carbon footprint and social shortcomings, whilst cautioning against the technology’s ability to exacerbate current urban development issues.

The projects—Urban Ingredients, City Aesthetics, and Million Neighborhoods: Reblocking—demonstrate three different approaches to using Visual AI for climate and social impact. The case studies subjects include generating global material stock data, analysing the correlation between facade geometries and urban health, and the scaling of parcel data generation for informal settlements. The thesis reflects on the limitations, impacts, and risks of the presented projects and offers a vision for future research aimed at achieving circular, regenerative, and equitable urban environments at scale.

Daud Shad

Thesis Advisor: Bish Sanyal

Seeking Relief in the City: An Examination of Planning in Karachi to Support Internally Displaced People after the 2022 Floods in Pakistan

The 2022 monsoon-season floods in Pakistan caused widespread devastation, resulting in millions of internally displaced people (IDPs) facing difficult choices. Karachi, the country’s largest city and capital of Sindh province, was the destination for tens of thousands of evacuees. Many of these rural-urban migrants ended up in relief camps lacking basic facilities and services. Although the government aimed to address the acute crisis of IDPs entering the city and promote rural rehabilitation, there was minimal accounting for those seeking longer-term support such as resettlement. Still, thousands of IDP households have chosen to stay in Karachi as return has seemed neither safe nor economically feasible.

My research – based on key stakeholder interviews and site visits – examines the planning process to accommodate the short- and long-term shelter needs of IDPs who arrived in the city after the floods. It considers the impact of uncertainty on the affected population as well as the critical role of civil society in addressing the crisis. As climate change is exacerbating forced migration, how can the humanitarian response to support IDPs in a megacity like Karachi be more equitable and sustainable? This research recommends that key actors in Karachi plan for a comprehensive and flexible array of shelter and settlements programming to meet the various needs of people after disaster displacement. Additionally, IDPs in 2022 could have been better served through more accessible information on housing and coordination across relief sites. Adopting such measures may decrease the uncertainty inherent in humanitarian response and advance urban planning in assisting populations devastated by circumstances beyond their control.

Anushka Shahdadpuri

Thesis Advisor: Brent D. Ryan

Building Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action in Zanzibar, Tanzania through Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment (MHRA) with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

The Coastal City Resilience and Extreme Heat Action Project (CoCHAP) is an ongoing initiative of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center that aims to build climate resilience in urban areas, particularly addressing extreme heat and coastal threats in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and East Africa. This project is conducted in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), American Red Cross (Am. RC), Global Disaster Preparedness Center, and the National Red Cross Societies. As part of CoCHAP, this thesis investigates the spatial vulnerabilities of compound risks related to heatwaves and flooding in Zanzibar, East Africa, in partnership with the Tanzania Red Cross Society (TRCS). Recent increase in temperature and precipitation have heightened Zanzibar’s vulnerability. With one of the highest population densities in Africa, the region’s economy heavily relies on climate-sensitive

activities such as agriculture, tourism, and fishing, making it the most climate-vulnerable small island region. To understand the region’s dichotomous predicament, I analyze the location-dependent climatic, socio-economic, physiological, and environmental parameters using a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment (MHRA). The assessment evaluates three latent variables — exposure, vulnerability, and hazard — derived from remote sensing and household census survey (HCS) data. Principal component analysis and spatial analysis techniques were employed to assess the weighted vulnerability of over 100 wards (the smallest administrative zones) to both heat and flood risk. I find that while the hazard factor itself, does not pose a major risk in Zanzibar, the socio-economic conditions, coupled with inflexible planning under neoliberal frameworks, exacerbate risks, particularly in urban wards. This is evident in the distribution of flood and heat risk, which is random throughout the island city, although high land surface temperatures and precipitation are concentrated around existing built-up coastal areas. 20 wards were identified as highly vulnerable to heatwaves and coastal flooding, revealing nuanced variations in multi-risk distribution across urban, suburban, and agrarian areas, influenced by gradients from coastal low-elevation to high-elevation inland zones. Notably, tourism-dependent wards emerge as potential areas for synergistic ecological and economic gains. These findings offer crucial insights for the TRCS, informing tailored adaptation plans as part of the Zanzibar Climate Change Alliance: City Wide Risk Assessment (CWRA).

Hannah Shumway

Thesis Advisor: Catherine D’Ignazio

Databases for healing and justice: Co-design with a grassroots, Indigenous organization

This inquiry presents a grounded case study of a partnership between the Data + Feminism Lab at MIT and Waking Women Healing Institute, a grassroots, Indigenous organization. The partners co-design a case documentation and story gathering database that enables healing and justice for Indigenous women and people. The project reveals: 1) the vital role of trust-building, openness, and constant iteration in co-design practice, 2) the importance of designing for security in aligning the database with a need for Indigenous Data Sovereignty, 3) the practical tradeoffs that come with choosing to use and configure commercial off-the-shelf software as opposed to using free and open source software or building custom software, and 4) how other institutional actors, like urban planners, can learn from this collaboration by centering trust-building, by welcoming ongoing revision and feedback rather than just ‘going through the motions’ of community engagement, and by taking tangible steps to enable institutional accountability to grassroots groups.

Throughout, this thesis underscores the ways that a collaborative decision making process between institutional and grassroots partners allows the team to prioritize and operationalize grassroots needs and desires in a way that enables a useful technology solution for healing, harm reduction, and justice.

Sol Andrew Stokols

Dissertation Advisors: Brent D. Ryan, Lawrence Vale

Building Digital Cities and Digital Nations in the Age of Big Data

Despite critiques of the “smart city,” the term has found new life in many parts of the world, morphing from a corporate marketing effort to an “imaginary” of national development. In the mid 2010s, the idea of a “Fourth Industrial Revolution” predicted that the emergence of 5G connectivity and the Internet of Things (IoT) would enable an even greater extraction of data from physical environments and objects. Around this time, three countries compared in this dissertation adopted these ideas into their national development plans: Singapore’s Smart Nation (2014), Thailand 4.0 (2016), and Made in China 2025 (2015). These policies also resulted in urban pilot projects including city data platforms, IoT sensor systems, and digital twins. This dissertation draws on the perspectives of science and technology studies (STS), political science of late development, and urban theory to understand the implications of these experiments for the future of cities and more broadly, the future of data capitalism.

The dissertation draws on 10 months of fieldwork across three countries involving interviews with key stakeholders, process tracing of policy and project evolution, archival and policy analysis, site visits, and grounded theory development afforded by these different methods. In addition to serving as testbeds for the nation, pilot projects are showcases shaped by visions of national identity and political dynamics. In Singapore, digital twins and embedding of IoT sensors in biotic environments transform the city into a showroom for the “urban solutions” sector and reinforce its identity as a “city in a garden.” In Thailand, the push for digitization of city data is intertwined with questions of sovereignty in a polity long dominated by its capital city and riven by persistent political unrest. Meanwhile in China, the development of Xiong’an New Area and its digital infrastructure is promoted as demonstrating a “new development concept” driven by clean manufacturing and innovation.

In the countries I examine in this dissertation, urban data is increasingly seen as a resource for development and public infrastructure. Urban data has become a crucial yet contested domain of state infrastructural power. The dissertation offers a new understanding of the transmutation of planning ideas in diverse contexts and aims to understand the implications of global planning practices for reimagining alternatives to the dominance of platform/data capitalism in the U.S. and beyond.

Bethlehem Tesfaye

Thesis Advisor: Lawrence Vale

Beyond Rural to Urban: Examining Urbanization and Quality of Life in Hawassa, Ethiopia

This thesis examines the rapidly urbanizing, secondary city of Hawassa, Ethiopia, studying patterns of urban growth to determine how different models of planning for urban development can influence quality of life for urban residents in Ethiopia. To do so, it proposes its own operational definition for ‘quality of life’ that constitutes (1) increased commercial activity, (2) access to affordable housing, (3) general health & well-being, (4) healthy environments, (5) access to affordable transportation, and (6) community involvement & sense of belonging.

Hawassa is one of many secondary cities in Ethiopia and across Sub-Saharan Africa that are growing at a pace faster than the city can plan for, leading to unsustainable informal settlements that exacerbate inequity. While recent planning models have been put in place to avoid such settlements in Hawassa, such as the Urban Expansion Initiative, the Urban Local Government Development Project, and Special Economic Zones, the progress of these models and their effect on the newly urbanized population has yet to be evaluated. Furthermore, a successful model of urban planning that is self-sufficient, localized to its community, and accountable to the welfare of its population has yet to be defined. This project aims to determine a new standard for the evaluation of future urban development projects in secondary cities that incorporates equitable frameworks for decision-making in the formation of local planning policy and urban design by (1) quantitatively assessing the correlation between urban living and an inherited index for individual wealth, used as a proxy for ‘quality of life’, at a national level; (2) compiling and analyzing existing information and data on Hawassa’s recent urban development; (3) constructing a narrative of Hawassa’s city development through new data gathered from the affected population of Hawassa on attitudes towards urbanization in three key study areas of the city: BahilAdarash sub-city, Tabor sub-city, and the area around Hawassa Industrial Park.

Linh Trinh

Thesis Advisor: Siqi Zheng

From Factories to CLassrooms: The Influence Of Fdi-Led Industrialisation On Educational And Vocational Training Infrastructure

This thesis investigates the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)-led industrialisation on educational and vocational training infrastructure in Binh Duong Province, Vietnam. It uses a mixed-methods approach to examine how FDI has influenced education and vocational infrastructure provided by the public and private sector to align with the evolving needs of industrial sectors.

Following the Đổi Mới reforms in 1986, Vietnam shifted from an agrarian to an industrial and service-oriented economy, with Binh Duong emerging as a key industrial hub. However, this rapid industrial growth has highlighted significant gaps between the skills provided by local educational and vocational training institutions and those demanded by industries fueled by FDI. Key findings indicate that Binh Duong’s education and vocational training systems have not adequately adapted to these industrial changes, are inequitably distributed between rural and urban

areas, leading to a workforce that, while broadly educated, lacks the specific high-level skills required for higher-value industries.

The thesis recommends urgent reforms in educational and vocational training programmes to better meet industrial requirements. It advocates for vocational training programmes specifically tailored to the skill needs of leading industries in the province, calls for a shift from FDI-dependent to a market-driven national-led human development strategy to provide broader, higher and more flexible skills to attract higher-value industries, as well as suggests stronger partnerships between educational institutions and industry leaders for skill training alignment. These collaborations would ensure that curricula are directly linked to real-world industrial needs and remain adaptable to future technological advancements. This realignment is crucial for boosting the province’s national and global competitiveness.

Keili Tucker

Thesis Advisor: Eran Ben-Joseph

Step By Step: Suburban Active Transportation Planning in Spring Hill, Tennessee

Suburban form produces car dependency with its circuitous routes, segregated land uses, and sprawling development. Active Transportation (AT), defined as non-motorized travel modes such as walking and cycling, has the potential to provide suburban residents with alternative mobility options. In 2015, Spring Hill, Tennessee, a city with suburban form and no dense urban core, adopted a Bicycle and Greenway Plan (BGP) to develop an AT network.

This thesis seeks to understand how AT network plans are institutionalized, maintained, and expanded through policy and other implementation tools in order to accelerate progress on the expansion of AT infrastructure in Spring Hill. The thesis begins with four case studies: Spring Hill, Tennessee; Jefferson County, Alabama; Apex, North Carolina; and Mississippi Mills, Ontario, Canada. The case studies revealed that infrastructure, policy-making, and social programs must go hand in hand for a successful network. The thesis continues with sixteen one-on-one interviews of municipal staff, elected officials, and local developers in Spring Hill. The interviews addressed perspectives on walkability, experiences with AT implementation, and ideas for improving citywide pedestrian accessibility. The interviews reinforced that separated land uses and sprawling development limit the potential for walkability. Additionally, they revealed that greenfield development has been responsible for the majority of the BGP build-out thus far. BGP implementation would benefit from more buy-in from the city through dedicated funding streams and better use of existing programs that target pedestrian infrastructure. This work contributes to Active Transportation research by investigating the unique challenges of establishing walkability in rapidly growing suburban places.

Nwakaego Uzoh

Thesis Advisor: Jim Aloisi

How Post-Pandemic Public Transit Journeys Can Inform Employers’ Return To Office Strategies

This research focuses on the changes in public transit in Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., against the backdrop of companies facing challenges in bringing employees back to the office. These challenges include rolling back official in-office dates due to resistance from remote-capable employees. The study builds on previous research on work-from-home trends among white-collar workers, leading to the central question of how employers in dense urban areas can manage a return to the office amidst fluctuating public transit service levels and changes in job accessibility.

To address this question, the research analyzes housing affordability and public transit service levels in Boston and D.C. for three design and development companies. It aims to determine the potential success rates for returning to the office for two specific job roles. The findings suggest that an income-informed approach to returning to the office, coupled with strategies to align employee preferences with best practices, can be beneficial.

Sanne Wright

Thesis Advisor: J. Phillip Thompson

Whales & Wind: A Case Study on Misinformation About Renewable Energy Development

Mis- and disinformation are being increasingly harnessed to influence public opinion and advance agendas across the globe. It has also greatly impacted renewable energy planning and development. This thesis explores misinformation in the context of offshore wind projects. Despite the clear environmental benefits and necessity of transitioning to renewable energy sources like wind, misinformation poses significant barriers to their development. Building on established research about the spread of misinformation and strategies to counteract it, this study examines the approaches adopted by pro-wind stakeholders—government entities, nonprofits/NGOs, and offshore wind developers—to address misinformation. It specifically focuses on a recent case study involving alleged correlations between offshore wind activities and whale strandings in New Jersey.

Through interviews with these stakeholders and an analysis of media representations, this thesis delineates how the misinformation spread—namely through unsound claims, emotional appeals, and the collective power of existing local and national interests against offshore wind. It also examines the effectiveness of different approaches to counter these misinformation campaigns, highlighting the challenges faced by pro-wind stakeholders in ensuring accurate public understanding of the impact of offshore wind development on marine life. The thesis concludes with recommendations for improving strategies to combat misinformation and fostering a more transparent and collaborative public discourse on renewable energy development projects. These recommendations aim to be applicable across various planning contexts.

Cindy J. Xie

Thesis Advisor: Erica Caple James

Integrating

Health, Environment, and Justice: Three Ethnographic Essays

Through three interconnected essays, this thesis examines embodied experiences of the environmental determinants of health and processes of policy and community action. The first essay describes the impacts of global environmental changes including rising temperatures and shifting ocean and water patterns on human health and livelihoods in Santiago Island, Cabo Verde. The second essay discusses the impacts of environmental racism on racialization and health for Cabo Verdean immigrants arriving in Boston in the post-1975 period. The last essay documents the legislative context of current policy advocacy efforts for racial justice and health equity in the Massachusetts State House. Across these contexts, this thesis documents the need for further collaborative policymaking and partnership efforts to address the structural determinants of health in changing local and global contexts.

Lizzie Yarina

Dissertation Advisor: Anne Whiston Spirn

Modeling The Mekong: Adaptation And Representation In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

Representations of the world are always imperfect. There is always a gap between representation and reality. In the context of planning, this gap is operative—in some cases producing catastrophic, unintended side effects. In others, savvy planners leverage this gap to navigate political or discursive issues, in order to achieve the outcomes they desire. My dissertation examines the representations—such as maps, models, and indicators—that experts use to understand and intervene in delta regions, and considers how these mechanisms contribute to socio-material transformations. Understanding representations as technical, political, and ideological, the dissertation uses as a lens five ways of ‘seeing’ and intervening upon the delta: Plans, Maps, Models, Projects, and Natures.

The dissertation focuses on recent climate adaptation planning for Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, often characterized as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to rising seas. Investigating representations and their impacts requires a study of the depicted world as well as the material one. My methods include archival research, with a focus on Dutch-authored plans for the delta spanning from 1974-2022 as well as World Bank projects for the delta over the past two decades. In addition, I draw on one year of spatial ethnographic fieldwork, primarily in Vietnam. Tracing the watersheds and expert-sheds of planning for the delta also took me to Cambodia, Thailand, and the Netherlands. My research reveals that legacies of how the Mekong Delta has been represented are linked to the environmental crises the delta currently faces. Emergent plans and projects—even those labeled nature-based—risk reproducing infrastructural side effects. In Vietnam, the space between representation and reality can appear particularly large. This creates all the more urgency for incorporating onthe-ground knowledge alongside technical expertise in planning for the delta. Critical engagement with the tools experts use to enact both adaptation and development interventions is key to finding more equitable approaches to address this gap and its ripple effects across the complex spatial and scalar interactions intrinsic to delta planning projects.

Elisha Zhao

Thesis Advisors: Karilyn Crockett, Jeff Levine

Home,

Again: Recommendations for strengthening social and financial post-buyout outcomes of the New Jersey Blue Acres Program

The buyout of homes that have undergone significant cumulative flood damage, or are poised to do so, is an increasingly relied upon tool used by government agencies, including the New Jersey Department of Environmental (NJDEP) Protection Blue Acres Program, to adapt within the arena of accelerating climate change. Buyouts act primarily as a form of climate adaptation; residents voluntarily move away from areas of high flood risk and are equipped generally with the market value of their former homes to find safer housing, while the former homes are demolished and made into open space. The post-buyout process, which is where social and financial consequences crystallize materially, forms the focus of this thesis study.

In the case of Blue Acres, much effort is made to guide participants towards eligible incentives or supplemental relocation assistance on top of their appraisal value, which requires relocating outside of a flood zone and/or within the same community. Additionally, Blue Acres has established itself within a larger network of community organizations and other state agencies that it can point participants to for disaster recovery relief and housing counseling.

Nevertheless, its post-buyout process has potential to make concrete many of the improvements that buyout scholars across the U.S. advise, further strengthening its role as a national pioneer in managed retreat. I propose five recommendations based on this literature: establishing a tracking system of outcomes, creating a low-income homeowners relocation incentive, expanding on the Smart Move pilot program, involving former and remaining residents to decide how bought-out land in their neighborhood is used, and collaborating with municipalities to bring buyouts into their long-range adaptation planning. These form the basis of my question: How can Blue Acres strengthen the post-buyout branch of its services to ensure better long-term social and financial outcomes for its participating homeowners?

Calvin Zhong

Thesis Advisors: Garnette Cadogan , Ana Miljacki

A Jail Is Not Social Housing: Making New Grounds For Chinatown

This story begins at the site of The Tombs, a jail in Chinatown that is currently being doubled in size as a part of a distributed alternative to the Rikers Island Jail. The new megajail will have capacity to house up to 886 people in detention and will include space for on-site services and programming, staff facilities, and publicly accessible commercial and community space on the ground floor. This exposes how architecture behaves as a mode of cultural production and acts in service of capitalist and carceral systems. Nowhere else is this more evident than in New York City’s Chinatown - often called the final frontier for development in Lower Manhattan. Immigrants, who’ve long come in search of land, green pastures, and single-family homes, find themselves Downtown and within ethnic enclaves, where homeownership is historically and canonically low.

At this site, generations of indigenous tribes, freed African communities, and various immigrant communities endure a cycle of settlement, disenfranchisement, and eventually, destruction. The city, rather than invest in its communities, responds each time with a new jail. Under this urban mode, architecture provides few forms of accessible inhabitation beyond the neo-feudal rental system and racialized prison industrial complex. It exists to extend exploitation by selling the dream of homeownership, yet only makes room to support a select few. This thesis is interested in the limited means of shelter that are encapsulated within the architectural imagination - it asks to reconsider new value systems beyond ownership and incarceration. If architecture were to reimagine how it produces - culturally, tectonically, morally - how could it act in service of the people of Chinatown, and in earnest support of the Dream that the profession has helped to proliferate?

Or better yet, this thesis will reject and reverse the pattern of the site to wholly reimagine Chinatown and its dreams: first, to destroy the jail, then, to facilitate reconstruction, re-enfranchisement, and resettlement of communities lost.

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139–4307

dusp.mit.edu