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Described below are current research projects in which DCRP faculty and students are involved. NanoCity
In the early spring of 2007, Sabeer Bhatia teamed up with The Berkeley Group for Architecture and Planning (BgAP) to research and design NanoCity. BgAP is a consortium of professionals affiliated with the University of California at Berkeley, who collaborate on various urban policy and design challenges. A group of UC Berkeley faculty, students, and alumni made a nine-day trip to India to visit the site (some twenty miles south of the city of Chandigarh), study the topography and existing conditions of the land, and meet with Haryana government officials, as well as local villagers. Over the course of the next several months, the team used the findings from this fieldwork and subsequent research to inform every design decision. The result of their efforts is a city planned for the future, but on a foundation of innovation that will preserve landscape deeply rooted in the past. Promoting Equitable Redevelopment in Richmond, California Richmond, California, is a World War II-era inner suburb of San Francisco in trouble. Its resident jobs base is declining as poverty and crime are rising. Under the auspices of a HUD-sponsored Community Outreach Partnership Collaborative (COPC), DCRP faculty, staff, and students are working with the Richmond Regional Equity Demonstration Project (RED), an effort led by a group of nonprofits sponsored by the Ford Foundation to spur equitable development. This work is especially timely is now in the process of updating its General Plan. California Infill Study During the next few decades, California will likely grow at a rate of four to five million new residents every ten years. If this amount of population growth is to be accommodated without irretrievably harming the state’s unique ecosystems and natural resources, California must become more “friendly” to infill housing. Working for the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, DCRP faculty and students identified 500,000 potential infill parcels in California, calculated how much housing might appropriately be built on those parcels, and identified the future demand for infill housing. One result of this work was the California Infill Parcel Locator, a website for identifying potential infill parcels anywhere in California. Carsharing in San Francisco This study involving DCRP students and faculty looked at the impacts of San Francisco’s pioneering City CarShare program on travel behavior and car ownership patterns. Extensive surveys were conducted on program members and a statistical control group of non-members—on everything from their household and socioeconomic backgrounds, the makes/models and numbers of vehicles they owned or used for travel trips, and even travel choices they made throughout specific days. Social Enterprises for Learning The Center for Cities and Schools (part of the Institute of Urban and Regional Development) has been working with teachers of the San Francisco Unified School District to document their current Social Enterprises for Learning projects—civic-oriented projects that provide students with unique opportunities to learn core academic knowledge and life skills by engaging directly with the community as a context for learning. DCRP students and adjunct faculty are developing a SEfL Toolkit and Curriculum Guide to enable other teachers and community organizations to work together in productive and meaningful ways. Planning for Eco-Tourism Development in Thailand and Sustainable Redevelopment in Tianjin, China Working with local planners, government officials, and stakeholder groups, DCRP faculty and students have been active in China and southeast Asia in evaluating and rethinking future urban development patterns. A Fall 2004 college-wide studio considered options for redeveloping large industrial areas of Tianjin, China according to principles of sustainable development and energy-efficient building design and site planning. A Summer 2005 DCRP studio involved students in brainstorming, analyzing, and evaluating alternative regional development scenarios for Thailand based on principles of sustainable eco-tourism development. Built Environment and Public Health in Bogota, Colombia Cadastral data and GIS techniques were used to measure various elements of the built environment, including density, land-use diversity, design, park density, distance to transit, and bikeway provisions. Using multi-level modeling, these variables were associated with various measures of health outcomes including waist circumference, body mass index, and minutes of moderately vigorous walking and cycling per week. Street connectivity and access to bicycle paths and public spaces were found to be significant predictors of positive health outcomes. These findings are being used in assessing the health impacts of new subdivision development in the outskirts of Bogota and other large Latin American cities. Decentralization and Travel Behavior in Shanghai, China The relocation of many urban Chinese households from central-city to out-lying locations is dramatically changing travel patterns and modal choices, with significant implications for urban sustainability. Faculty and students conducted a survey, in concert with scholars from Tongji University in Shanghai, to study changes in travel behavior attendant with relocating from compact, mixed-use, cycling-friendly central-city locations to lower-density, more single-use settings. The findings are being used to examine the transportation and environmental implications of future land-use scenarios in metropolitan Shanghai, including options for transit-oriented development. |
