Evan Iacobucci and co-author Daniel Baldwin Hess have co-authored “Exclusivity in the street railway era: neighbourhood entry gateways in streetcar suburbs,” in Town Planning Review.
Abstract: In early twentieth-century streetcar neighbourhoods, entryway markers or gateways were used as distinct neighbourhood design features. These markers typically took the form of a set of stone or brick towers, placed at the entrance to a residential street from an arterial roadway. We explore the nature, form and placement of these markers, and the role they play in neighbourhood identity. Using literature, field data and spatial analysis, we find that, in concert with other neighbourhood components, these structures serve to isolate neighbourhoods from undesirable urban influences, insulate and ensure privacy, and maintain the integrity of the neighbourhood’s intended design.
Sicheng Wang and Robert Noland and co-authors Scott Kulp and Benjamin H. Strauss have co-authored “Employment accessibility and rising seas,” in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment.
Abstract; Recent projections suggest worst-case scenarios of more than six ft (1.8 m) of global mean sea-level rise by end of century, progressively making coastal flood events more frequent and more severe. The impact on transportation systems along coastal regions is likely to be substantial. An analysis of impacts for Atlantic and Cape May counties in southern New Jersey is conducted. The impact on accessibility to employment is analyzed using a dataset of sea-level increases merged with road network (TIGER) data and Census data on population and employment. Using measures of accessibility, it is shown how access will be reduced at the block-group level. An additional analysis of low and high income quartiles suggest that lower-income block groups will have greater reductions in accessibility. The implication is that increasing sea levels will have large impacts on people and the economy, and large populations will have access to employment disrupted well before their own properties or places of employment may begin to flood (assuming no adaptation).
Holly Berman with co-authors Rachel Shwom and Cara Cuite “Becoming FEW Conscious: A Conceptual Typology of Household Behavior Change Interventions Targeting the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus,” in Sustainability.
Abstract: The food-energy-water (FEW) nexus presents an opportunity to rethink predominant approaches to household behavior change science. We linked emerging FEW nexus research with existing literature examining household consumption and pro-environmental behaviors. While a large body of work examines the environmental impacts of household life and explores pathways to behavior change for sustainability, the literature lacks studies that test interventions in multiple FEW resource categories, leaving researchers unable to identify tensions and tradeoffs in the household system. To guide this developing field and accumulate findings on household behavior across disciplines, we proposed a conceptual typology that synthesizes interdisciplinary analytic traditions to classify behavioral interventions targeting the household FEW nexus. The typology synthesizes behavioral interventions as active, passive, or structural, and household-specific or non-specific, illustrating six distinct categories: information, tailored information, action, gamification, policy/price change, and material/technology provision. A review of 40 studies that guided the typology identifies four significant lessons for future intervention research: household non-specific information and tailored information work better together, feedback is more effective when it is persistent, price-based interventions (information or incentives) are often ineffective, and material/technology provision is very effective but utilized in few household studies. To push forward household resource consumption science, we advocated for a holistic nexus focus that is rooted in interdisciplinarity, coalition building with stakeholders, and data reporting that facilitates knowledge accumulation.