Department of Community and Regional Planning

OrgUnit Logo
Date established
City
Country
ID
communityplanning
Description

Community and regional planning is a professional field of study aimed at assessing the ever-changing socioeconomic and physical environments of our communities and planning for their future. Planners evaluate and seize opportunities to understand and solve problems. Most planners work at the local level, but they are concerned with issues that affect the world: the preservation and enhancement of the quality of life in a community, the protection of the environment, the promotion of equitable economic opportunity; and the management of growth and change of all kinds.

History
The Department of Community and Regional Planning was established in 1978 when it was split from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Community Planning.

Dates of Existence
1978–present

Related Units

DOI
Source

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 62
No Thumbnail Available
Article

Post-9/11 U.S. Foreign Aid, the Millennium Challenge Account and Africa: How many Birds can One Stone Kill?

2007-10-01 , Owusu, Francis , Department of Community and Regional Planning

President George Bush presented one of his major post-9/11 foreign aid initiatives – the Millennium Challenge Account – as a tool for counteracting both global poverty and international terrorism. The policy is based on the view that poverty and terrorism are linked and therefore alleviating poverty would help combat terrorism. The design and the implementation of the program however suggest that the U.S. government may have other intentions for the MCA, including overhauling the foreign aid regime. This paper discusses the MCA’s effectiveness in addressing both poverty and terrorism by highlighting the complex relationships between them. It also discusses the others roles of the MCA and explores the implications of the policy for poverty alleviation efforts in Africa.

No Thumbnail Available
Article

Competing Hegemons? Chinese versus American Geo-Economic Strategies in Africa

2007-01-01 , Carmody, Padraig , Department of Community and Regional Planning

For the first time since the era of the slave trade, African trade is re-orienting from the “Global North” to the “Global East.” Chinese investment and trade with Africa is rising quickly. At the same time, the U.S has increased its strategic engagement with Africa very significantly since the terrorist attacks of 2001. As a consequence of this, the continent has moved centre stage in global oil and security politics. This paper investigates the nature of Chinese and American investment and trade in Africa; the ways in which these governments view the continent, and explores the economic and political impacts of enhanced geoeconomic competition between the West and the East there. It finds that current trends are reworking the colonial trade structure, strengthening authoritarian states, and fuelling conflict. However, there are also progressive dimensions to the current conjuncture which could be built on with more robust international coordination and action

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

An examination of contributing factors to land use/land cover change in southern Belize and the use of satellite image analysis to track changes

2007-01-01 , Moore, Marissa , Francis Owusu , Department of Community and Regional Planning

Land use and land cover change analyses are important tools for planning and development decisions. Tropical deforestation has both local and global implications. One main reason for deforestation is the conversion of forest to agricultural land. This study explores influences and potential causes for agricultural expansion and deforestation within the Toledo District in southern Belize, Central America. Many factors play into the deforestation and degradation of tropical forests in this district, including social, cultural, political and economic issues, all of which need serious consideration if planners and politicians are to combat the problem. Understanding the reasons for deforestation goes hand in hand with knowing where the deforestation is occurring. Knowing where and why will aid in knowing how to focus policies to prevent or control the deforestation. Conversely, looking at historical deforestation trends can aid in discerning what socio-cultural, economic, and/or political influences may have occurred at the time changes in trends occurred. One way to determine where it occurs is through the use of remotely sensed data. Remote sensing provides a viable source of data from which LULC changes can be gathered efficiently and inexpensively in order to track these changes. Using Landsat satellite images from 1994 and 1999 to perform an analysis of the land cover change in the Toledo District, this study expands on a previous study of the same area by Emch, Quinn, Peterson, and Alexander (2005). This study explores the question, "Can an unsupervised classification of the Toledo District, which is less time consuming, requires less intensive data collection, and thus is less costly, produce statistically significant data?" If this can be done using unsupervised classification, it will provide an efficient tool for planners and policy makers to focus efforts to understand where and why deforestation is occurring and thus focus policies to control and/or prevent deforestation, whether that be through the creation of new policies and development plans, implementing policies that have worked in the past, or detecting unforeseen or unwanted outcomes and changing policies to change the course of current trends. This study used the same 1999 Landsat satellite image also used in the Emch, et al. (2005) study, which served as a control for the current study. The 1999 image results from the Emch, et al. study with the results found in the current study. The images used in the current study were analyzed using unsupervised classification, whereas the images used in the Emch, et al. study used supervised classification. It was difficult to discern if an area was "agriculture" or "cleared" or "deforested/regrowth". There are great differences between the 1999 image data results from the current study and those found by Emch, et al. The most drastic difference is seen in the difference between forest data, which differed by 59 percent. While the results of this analysis are determined to be insignificant, the implications relating to the method of performing this analysis will impact future studies.

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

Exploring micropolitan areas as a source of population growth in Iowa

2007-01-01 , Inbody, David , Monica Haddad , Paul Coates , Dave Swenson , Department of Community and Regional Planning

As sluggish growth persists in the state of Iowa, micropolitan areas may provide a viable source for expanding development. This thesis has two primary objectives: to better understand those factors driving population growth among micropolitan areas and to explore micropolitan areas in the state of Iowa as compared to micropolitan areas in other parts of the country. The analyses show a relationship between four of the five growth factors (agglomeration, recreation, immigration, education and diversification) and effective growth rate, the difference between micropolitan population growth and statewide population growth. As the number of qualifying categories increase for a micropolitan area, effective growth rates also increase. Recreation-related factors had the strongest relationship to growth both in Iowa and nationwide. Agglomeration factors performed better in Iowa than nationally, but education factors performed worse. Many Iowa micropolitan areas can capitalize on existing resources in an effort to stimulate population growth.

No Thumbnail Available
Article

Review of Mastering ArcGIS

2007-01-01 , Haddad, Monica , Department of Community and Regional Planning

Geographic Information Systems technology is very popular among practitioners from a variety of fields. However, the GIS learning process can be complex and challenging, and there is always a need for good learning sources. Mastering ArcGIS is a high-quality contribution for this type of literature, discussing basic theoretical concepts behind the technology and providing hands-on experience using the ArcGIS software from ESRI1. Practitioners who are starting the GIS learning process and instructors for GIS introductory classes that aim to focus on the basics of the technology—comprising theory and practice—will find this book extremely useful. The book is oriented towards improving the skills of users (or future users) of ArcGIS software. Therefore, the concepts presented within the book are, most of the time, ESRIrelated. However one should only consider acquiring this book, if one has access to the software because the book does not include a limited version of ArcGIS.

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

A study of the association of the Iowa hotel and motel tax with the general property tax mill rate for Iowa communities

2007-01-01 , Faeth, Arleen , Timothy O. Borich , Department of Community and Regional Planning

The availability of tax revenue data in digital format prompted a study of Iowa communities with respect to their general property tax mill rate and the presence or absence of a hotel and motel tax. Both of these revenue sources are dispersed entirely to the local community. The revenue does not remain in the State's general fund. Alternative tax revenue sources are an important component in the decision making process of local city planners, city managers and community development administrators.;The intent of this thesis was to determine if there is an association between the general property tax mill rates of Iowa communities and presence of a hotel and motel tax. Do communities with a hotel and motel tax tend to have a higher or lower property tax mill rate? Secondary data available from the U.S. Census Bureau, Iowa Department of Revenue and Iowa Department of Management was used to examine the relationship between the mean property tax mill rate in Iowa communities with the presence of a hotel and motel tax and communities that do not assess the tax. Each community's population growth rate between 1980 and 2000 was also calculated and used as a control variable. The study years were FY 1998 to FY 2007 and study data for all communities in Iowa was compiled into a master data base.;The findings of this research study were (1) cities with the presence of a hotel and motel tax tend to have, on average, a 2.05 higher general property tax mill rate than cities without the hotel and motel tax. (2) When population growth rate was used a s a control variable, cities with a hotel and motel tax tended to have a property tax mill rate of .90 higher than cities without this alternative tax. The intent of this research study was to determine if there was an association between the general property tax mill rate for cities with and without the hotel and motel tax. The study was limited by the number of years for which digital data was available from the State of Iowa.;Planners, community development directors, policy makers and citizen action groups have access to these digital data bases. Findings in the study were not reported for individual cities in Iowa either by population, location or current property tax mill rate. The public digital data files allow individuals to investigate current rates, revenue totals and trends for specific cities. The master data base for this study is included. This data base includes a list of the 954 Iowa communities, population totals for 1980 and 2000, population growth rate for each city, the presence or absence of a hotel and motel tax and the general property tax mill rate for Fiscal Years 1998 to 2007. A second data base lists each city with a hotel and motel tax (1979-2007), the intervention date, current tax rate and revenue collected for Fiscal Years 1981-2005. Conclusions offered by this study indicate the implementation of a hotel and motel tax by a community may not reduce the general property tax mill rate. The revenue generated by the hotel and motel tax is a viable source of additional revenue to use for both the general operating expenses of a community and the improvement and maintenance of recreation, convention and entertainment facilities and for the promotion of tourism. All of the revenue generated by the hotel and motel tax is available to the local community; none of the revenue collected remains in the Iowa General Fund.

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

GIS modeling of urbanization impacts on natural resources, Dakota County, Minnesota

2007-01-01 , Wei, Lan , Paul F. Anderson , Monica A. Haddad , Department of Community and Regional Planning

This research focused on the impacts of urbanization in natural resources and land-cover changes due to urban development in Dakota County, Minnesota. An existing planning guide, the 2030 Regional Development Framework (2030 RDF) for the Twin Cities Metro Area, was analyzed and employed as a reference in this research. Geographic information systems (GIS) technology was used to help determine characteristics of urban land-cover changes, such as population change, land cover changes, and the environmental impacts on natural resources caused by urban development. Furthermore, land suitability modeling was utilized to analyze possible future development, from the perspectives of urban expansion and agricultural land protection. FRAGSTATS, a tool for ecological landscape analysis based on GIS, was also used to investigate patterns of urbanization. Integration of social and spatial data provided an effective mechanism to explore relationships between population increase and landscape change.

No Thumbnail Available
Article

Conceptualizing Livelihood Strategies in African Cities: Planning and Development Implications of Multiple Livelihood Strategies

2007-01-01 , Owusu, Francis , Department of Community and Regional Planning

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

How urban form effects sense of community: a comparative case study of a traditional neighborhood and conventional suburban development in Northern Virginia

2007-01-01 , Beske, Jason , Timothy O. Borich , Department of Community and Regional Planning

Urban form and sense of community have been explored as distinct disciplinary concepts for decades; however, often without the endorsement of a normative standard or measure. The purpose of this study was to explore the interrelationship of these concepts by comparing two Northern Virginia neighborhoods, which are in close proximity to Washington, DC. Brambleton, a traditional neighborhood development, and Stratford, a nearby conventional suburban development, were chosen as case study communities due to their physical representation of distinct urban forms and socio-demographic characteristics. Neighborhood residents were surveyed regarding the impact of their immediate built environment and their perception of physical and social neighborhood characteristics on their level of sense of community. The role of urban form in the everyday lives of neighborhood residents was found to have an impact on the social and physical sense of community exhibited by residents.

No Thumbnail Available
Thesis

The role of the city administrator and small town planning: a qualitative study of Iowa's small town managers

2007-01-01 , Bland, Ryan , Susan Bradbury , Paul Coates , Department of Community and Regional Planning

Small town city administrators have the responsibility of managing all functions for the community in which they are employed, but often lack the resources of their larger counterparts to devote to specific city functions such as planning. This includes planning and development functions.;Studies show that city administrators, in all sizes of cities, have varying roles that accompany their positions. For the purpose of this study, those roles have been separated into traditional/technical roles, and contemporary/proactive roles. This study questions whether these roles impact the quality of small town planning.;Through surveys and interviews with small town Iowa administrators, and review of documentation, this study is somewhat inconclusive on whether the administrators' perceived roles impact planning in their respective communities. Thus, this study first discusses possible conclusions that can be drawn from the research, and more importantly, outlines further research that would strengthen the study.