Planning

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9923

This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's School of Planning.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

Waterloo faculty, students, and staff can contact us or visit the UWSpace guide to learn more about depositing their research.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 364

Understanding Rural Children's Environments and Health: Developing a novel framework for healthy rural communities and exploring children's perspectives
(University of Waterloo, 2024-09-25) Borho, Emma
Rural children experience a variety of health disparities compared to their urban counterparts. While we know that neighbourhoods can impact the health of those residing within them, there has been little research into the impacts of rural neighbourhoods on children’s health specifically. Additionally, children have been and continue to be underrepresented in both planning research and planning practice, a gap that is even more persistent for rural children. In response to these gaps, this research seeks to explore the following research questions: 1) “How can existing healthy community frameworks be adapted for application to children in rural communities?” and 2) “How do rural children perceive their neighbourhoods as contributing to or hindering their health?”. This thesis will respond to these questions through two approaches. First, a review and synthesis of healthy community frameworks will lay the foundation for the creation of a novel rural children’s healthy community framework. The second research question will be answered through go-along interviews with twenty rural children in Bruce County, Ontario, a rural municipality in the southwestern region of the province. There exists a variety of healthy community frameworks used in public health and planning, but few are specifically targeted toward children’s needs and none toward rural children’s needs. The analysis of frameworks revealed trends among frameworks that exist, and these trends were applied to the rural children’s context. Rural children’s perspectives of their neighbourhoods revealed that the components of physical environment, social environment, play, and safety had the most significant perceived impacts on their health. Future research should explore the application of healthy community frameworks to communities and focus on monitoring and evaluation. As well, research should be conducted with First Nations communities on reserves to determine similarly what aspects of their neighbourhoods contribute to or hinder their health and with older rural children to gain a better understanding of neighbourhood factors that may impact youth retention after post-secondary school.
Does initial background matter in evaluating Light Rail Transit feasibility in North America mid-size cities?
(University of Waterloo, 2024-08-30) Yu, Shangwei
A transit system may be one of the most profoundly influential investments in modern cities. In declining cities, local governments consider new transit investment as medicine to cure their problems. However, in emerging cities, transit investment is considered a booster. Considering the complexity and uncertainty, a feasibility study for Light Rail Transit systems is very challenging. Existing studies usually follow a similar assessment method. With different starting backgrounds, the transit systems could have significantly different performances. Typical assessment methods fail in every project. Many LRT projects failed to meet their design goals. Existing research and planning processes usually do not take a city’s initial condition as a meaningful factor in the assessment process. This research aims at exploring if the initial condition is an influential factor in the success of transit investment and the performance of the transit project. The City of Buffalo and Region of Waterloo are selected as two case studies to achieve this goal. They have dramatically different initial conditions and LRT performance. A series of demographic and social-economic census data are collected to complete a multi-variable analysis. This research shows that the initial condition has a critical impact on the transit investment, and the declining city cannot automatically benefit from the transit investment.
Reallocation of Space for Outdoor Dining: An Analysis of COVID-19 Pandemic Outdoor Dining Policies and Perceptions in Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2024-06-24) Koops, Claire Adeline
In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic created disruptions in the restaurant industry. Consequently, cities in Ontario developed pandemic-induced patio policy with the goal of allowing restaurants to continue operation under lockdown restrictions. Pandemic-induced patio policy was identified to have the potential to contribute to long-term changes in these areas. Despite the increase in policy development, there is a gap in literature when considering how Ontario cities developed their policies and what the dominant themes of these policies are. Through a qualitative, mixed methods approach this thesis explores the changes that were made to patio policy in Ontario during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. The first manuscript assesses the extent that pandemic-induced patio policy was developed in the 52 cities in Ontario and what the key features of these policies were. The second manuscript explores how changes to patio policy were perceived by participants in the food retail environment. The first study concludes that supporting restaurant businesses through patio policy development was heavily prioritized by cities in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic. These policies varied in terms of time frame and method of implementation. Major policy themes included financial incentives, changes to the application process, and development of city-specific policy features including road closures, as well as other programming including promotional programs. A total of 10% of cities in Ontario implemented elements of their new patio policies post-lockdowns. Additionally, these policies were exempt from public consultation requirements, however some cities chose to conduct community engagement. The second study concluded that patio policy was a prevalent topic for employers, employees, and stakeholders when discussing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes discussed in interviews varied between the interview groups. Of the different respondent groups, employers discussed patios and patio policy most frequently. They found patios policy to be supportive, and that patio dining during the pandemic contributed to profitability. For some employees, patios lead to concerns over safety and create negative workplace environments. The feasibility of patio policy was perceived to be influenced by factors including vehicle use on the street, availability of patio space, and the business’s financial situation. Recommendations based on the findings are associated with developing patio policy in a holistic manner, which considers compatibility with current streetscape functions and relevant plans.
Towards an Active Living Environment: Evaluating the Impact of Stream Daylighting on Pedestrian Networks in Zurich
(University of Waterloo, 2024-06-13) Ingram, Anya
The burial and culverting of urban streams to make way for twentieth-century urbanization has disconnected nature from the built environment and led to the loss of ecosystem services. As waterways are inherently lateral obstacles to movement that must be overcome, it can be understood that reintroducing water features into the urban landscape through daylighting may contribute to a loss in route network connectivity and a negative impact on active mobility. However, reintroducing streams through the practice of daylighting has demonstrated benefits associated with active mobility by re-establishing urban environment connections with nature and place-making for residents. To better understand if stream daylighting can support the development of an active living environment, despite urban streams being traditionally understood as barriers to movement, the City of Zurich, Switzerland is used as a case study because of its widespread stream daylighting initiatives. Specifically, this study evaluates how stream daylighting impacts active mobility by focusing on route network connectivity change at stream sites before and after daylighting. This is done using metric reach, a measure of connectivity that utilizes a configurational approach computed in a GIS platform. To facilitate such a study, waterways and route centerlines were digitized using a georeferenced historic map of Zurich from 1984 (pre-daylighting). These were compared with 2020 open-access spatial data for the City of Zürich (post-daylighting). Spatial data results are complemented using photography to better understand how urban design choices involved in daylighting projects influenced route networks. Findings reveal that in most cases daylighting streams did not negatively impact connectivity. On the contrary, this study’s finding reveals that daylighting in Zurich is commonly part of broader urban design interventions that improve or create new spaces for pedestrians while maintaining existing route connections through the incorporation of small footbridges. While stream daylighting is well established as a nature-based solution that supports infrastructure resilience and effective stormwater management, these findings help demonstrate the cultural ecosystem services the practice of urban stream daylighting can contribute.
Reclaiming the Urban Public Realm as a Site for Children’s Play
(University of Waterloo, 2024-05-10) Shadkam, Anahita
Since the earliest waves of Modernist planning and the application of systematic zoning, parks and playgrounds have served as exclusive domains for children's recreational activities within the rational city. However, with the prevalence of car-dependent lifestyles, free outdoor play has nearly vanished from urban public realms. The increasing rates of childhood obesity worldwide, along with alarming risks to mental and physical health, underscore the urgent need to reevaluate the childless urban landscape. This dissertation challenges this phenomenon by recognizing the developmental significance of children's engagement in urban life, aiming to reassert the urban public realm as a vital site for children's play and agency. Despite numerous studies advocating for the promotion of outdoor free play and exploring opportunities for children’s independent mobility, a persistent gap remains between research and practical urban policies. Grounded in the UN's Child-Friendly Cities Initiative, this research aims to bridge this divide by drawing on empirical data grounded in the lived experiences of children and emphasizing the reactivation of public spaces for play while promoting intergenerational coexistence. Informed by relativist ontology, constructivist epistemology, and the communicative turn in planning theory, three key objectives underpin the investigation: to examine how urban configurations impact children's active play; to identify the types of play happening on pathways connecting residential areas to schools and play spaces; and, to explore the linkages between neighbourhood configurations, children's sense of belonging, and perceptions of safety. This research employs critical ethnography and draws on empirical data grounded in the lived experiences of children to address these objectives. The findings advocate for urban planners to pay equal attention to the quality and configuration of urban pathways alongside parks and playgrounds, emphasizing the urban public realm as a play network and leveraging local knowledge and children's lived experiences to create inclusive, playful, and vibrant urban environments. Moreover, it holds added relevance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, offering insights into the impact of crises on public space usage. This research contributes to the broader planning discourse by opening new possibilities for reuniting families with children in the urban metropolitan core and achieving greater social and environmental sustainability goals.
Greenspace Planning in Ontario’s High-rise Environments: The greenspace planning context and experiences of families with children in high-rises
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-31) Tigchelaar, Joy
Despite a growing number of families with children living in urban settings, cities remain largely unequipped to support families, particularly in high-rise settings that are marketed and designed towards singletons, young professionals, and the elderly. However, children remain a largely underrepresented population in municipal planning and very few researchers have investigated the experiences of families living in high-rises, including how they access and use greenspace. While a few studies from Australia have investigated families’ experiences in high-rises, there is no known published Canadian research that seeks to understand the experiences of high-rise families within Canadian communities. In response to these gaps, this thesis seeks to understand “how municipal planning in Ontario facilitates the creation of child-friendly outdoor greenspaces surrounding high-rise developments?” and “How do families with children living in high rises experience using and accessing their neighbourhood greenspace?” Respectively this thesis will respond to these questions through a policy analysis of Ontario municipal planning documents for a diverse set of communities and interviews with families living in high-rises within the Cities of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, three urbanizing cities in Ontario. While few municipalities within this study considered the needs of children and families living in high-rises in their high-level planning documents, guidelines such as the Growing Up guidelines from the City of Toronto should inspire growing municipalities to begin considering the diverse populations that live in high-rise settings. Furthermore, based on the experiences of high-rise families, the ability to access and use their neighbourhood greenspaces is vital for play and socialization due to the spatial limitations of their dwelling, which is particularly constraining during winter months. Future municipal policy should consider these needs and future research should investigate the experiences of families in high-rises further through various methods and within different geographies to tailor planning approaches to local contexts.
Curbing Enthusiasm: Examining Canadian Cities’ Proactive Responses to Evolving Curbside Pressures
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-26) Attema, David
Transportation planning is increasingly concerned with the role the curb plays in urban environments. As the primary boundary separating mobility, accessibility, and amenity activities along a street, it is a highly contested interface between all three. In recent years the number and diversity of curb uses has exploded, placing even greater pressure on this facility. Traditional activities such as on-street parking are being squeezed by new mobility services, e-commerce deliveries, infrastructure supporting shifting transportation modes, and outdoor dining and amenity spaces, to name a few. New innovations such as autonomous transportation will likely further disrupt this mix of uses. As municipal policymakers struggle to keep pace with rapid changes at the curb, some are turning to a new, proactive approach: curbside management. By streamlining curb governance, establishing curb user priorities, incorporating flexibility of uses, and monitoring curb performance using new technologies, curbside management promises to improve outcomes for a greater number of street users. Research of curbside management often focuses on specific policy aspects or technologies, but very few studies to date have helped municipalities assess their current practices or understand where a holistic approach could enhance their existing curb-related governance activities. These are important aspects to understand because many competing private curb interests do not necessarily align with the public interest for this equally public resource. This thesis examines academic literature and practitioner guides related to curbside management to develop a best practice-based evaluation framework. This framework enables cities to examine their curb-related dimensions of governance, policy, organizational structure, and performance monitoring. Its primary intent is to help cities better understand how they presently manage their curb and determine where their greatest potential for improvements lie. The framework is applied to five case study cities in Canada—a context examined very little in curbside management research to date. Findings from these case studies reveal that organizational and policy integration, cost-effective curb utilization data collection, and streamlined by-law environments are areas with the greatest potential to improve management of the curb in Canada’s urban areas.
Physical versus behavioural emissions reductions: Quantifying and comparing emissions reduced by behaviour and emissions reduced by technology of net-zero communities
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-04) Hu, PersonGuy
Modern climate change research calls for more diverse and creative solutions past simply improving technology; there is not one solution to climate change. A multidisciplinary field like planning can affect both physical changes in a city or behaviour changes in people to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite these considerations, behavioural emissions reductions remain an underexplored topic of literature, especially in terms of emission quantification. Without this information, planners cannot make the most informed and resource efficient policy decisions to combat climate change. This thesis fills this literature gap by quantifying behavioural emissions reductions and comparing them to the best-case scenario for physical emissions, net-zero communities, in the context of Ontario’s first, recently completed, net-zero community located in London, Ontario. This thesis also begins to explore relationships and patterns between sources of behavioural emissions reductions and how they can compound into greater reductions. Within the study area, net-zero homes produced 6.89 fewer tonnes of CO2e/year compared to the average home, 67.5% of which were physical emissions reductions and 32.5% of were behavioural. Residents here generally improved few behaviours to a large magnitude rather than improving many/all behaviours to a small magnitude. While no specific behaviour patterns were identified, the there was evidence in favour of patterns existing, which could by identified with a larger sample. Overall, while behavioural emissions reductions were less effective than physical, they can be implemented both concurrently and instead of physical when necessary. There is also potential for behavioural emissions reductions to be more effective than physical given the right context and if behavioural patterns are used to their fullest.
Landscape Connectivity Analysis for Conservation Planning in Southern Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-02) Marshall, Sarah
The strategic planning of land conservation is a critical undertaking in urban/peri-urban areas. Natural areas in cities and their surroundings exist in an environment of competitive land use pressures, where the allocation of available land may be complex and politically charged. Organizations pursuing land conservation in these areas must balance biodiversity aims with fiscal and resource limitations, a competitive market, and the need for decision-making accountability. To support the prioritization of conservation lands for protection, analysts may incorporate landscape connectivity analysis. By quantifying how the configuration of habitat facilitates species movement, connectivity analysis provides a rationale for conservation planning that supports the dispersal of species across the urban/peri-urban matrix. While connectivity analysis is useful for conservation planners, several factors have created a confusing environment for those interested in employing it. These include the rapid proliferation of connectivity research, the inconsistent use of methods and terminology, and an absence of updated selection guidelines for practitioners. Thus, my research evaluates how conservation organizations may best use landscape connectivity analysis to support conservation planning in urban/peri-urban areas. In this thesis, a systematic review of urban/peri-urban connectivity literature is followed by application of review results to a conservation planning case study in Southern Ontario. Reflections on these two research phases support a proposed framework that outlines the pivotal decisions, organizational limitations, and best practices for using landscape connectivity analysis for conservation planning. This provides tangible benefit for organizations protecting and stewarding natural lands, particularly in areas like the urban/peri-urban matrix of Southern Ontario.
The Liminality of everyday life - Creatives in the context of the Islands Trust
(University of Waterloo, 2023-12-11) Yuzwa, Jill
The Liminality of everyday life – Creatives in the context of the Islands Trust Creative communities excite and invigorate individuals and may also provide opportunity for some local economies. Although desired, this creative community profile is not to be taken for granted and may not be the right pursuit for all settlement areas. Soon after the millennium certain urban theorists describing the shift of western economies from industrial to knowledge based, prescribed the use of culture-led initiatives focusing on artistic presence as an economic development strategy to attract knowledge-based workers. But such a strategy, using artists as an economic development tool, has proven to be more suitable to large urban regions than smaller, remote communities. In smaller settlements artists have a substantive role, making significant community contributions as opposed to just being part of an attraction strategy. This research investigates the social, cultural and environmental planning context of Gabriola Island, a successful rural creative community, with special attention to the Islands Trust regional planning framework. The co-methodologies involved three years of ethnographic embeddedness relying on phenomenological hermeneutics. These embedded and interpretive methodologies yield very different results from previous studies and assisted in determining if any urban creative community traits shifted to the rural context. Overall findings were captured in three analysis discussions. The Gabriola creative economy depends on a concept I introduce as community vernacular - which encourages creative communities to be built from within. This inquiry also suggests the presence and role of ‘distinct place’, a concept which captures the spirit of the community. The findings in relation to local governance point to a disjunction between the Islands Trust and the lack of planning instruments required to adhere to their ‘preserve and protect’ mandate. The Trust has failed to foster a planning and governance model for its rural communities, where the arts and creative industries can continue to thrive. The Islands Trust planning toolkit, service, scope and approach must be updated with ecological and environmental best practices to fulfill its mandate thereby preserving and protecting distinct place and retaining the creative population. This important relationship between inhabitants and the region’s natural features explains why islanders become islanders. In summary, the embedded and interpretive methodologies contributed to the research by facilitating relationships with creatives in the community and allowing personal observation to experience the liminal nature of the planning and governance system. The theoretical concepts of community vernacular and distinct place will be developed further and ultimately contribute to rural cultural sustainability.
Agricultural Gentrification in Saskatchewan: An Exploration of Landscape Transformations within the Rural Agrarian Locale
(University of Waterloo, 2023-10-05) Grant, Richard
Due to the gradual shift from productivist-oriented activities, towards more multifunctional activities, landscape transformations are more visibly noticed within rural communities. The growing transition towards post-productive agricultural land uses raises questions about the future use of rural land in the face of sustainably developing rural communities. More importantly, it begs the question of how land use planners can fairly contextualize the nature of growth in rural communities while reacting to the different facets of gentrification. Within gentrification research, there is a heavy focus on urban gentrification. More importantly, of the gentrification research conducted in rural communities, there is little focus on gentrification within the agricultural locale. The objective of my research is to examine the role that agricultural gentrification plays in facilitating landscape transformations in rural communities in Saskatchewan. My research looked at the agricultural restructuring occurring in rural Saskatchewan communities as a precondition of agricultural gentrification. Using a case study approach, three municipalities were selected to explore the phenomena of agricultural gentrification in Saskatchewan. My research found that the province of Saskatchewan operates under an agro-industrial paradigm that utilizes a productivist-oriented form of farming as a means of determining the highest and best use of farmland. Three case studies selected to explore the relationship between landscape transformation and the emergence of agricultural gentrification utilized Neil Smith’s Rent Gap theory as a means of interpreting the gap between the farmland sale price and farmland value. The rent gap represented in the ratio studies of the three municipalities reflects the disparity between the farmland value and the corresponding farmland sale price. The value of farmland under this framework views the productive capacity as the highest and best use, which translates to its "value", and ultimately influences the sale price. The disparity between the farmland sale price and its value reflects how the “highest and best use of” farmland is determined under an agro-industrial paradigm in Saskatchewan. More importantly, the emergence of agricultural gentrification and its impact on the price of farmland has far reaching effects on land use decisions and rural community development.
Evaluating the Progress of Municipal Natural Asset Management through Monitoring & Evaluation
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-29) Sandhu, Sawroop
Contemporary environmental and land-use planning in many Canadian municipalities is challenged with two key problems that have grown with increasing urban development: 1) natural ecosystems decline and 2) grey infrastructure service failure. The 2020 Living Planet Report Canada highlighted the continuing decline of many natural ecosystems in remote areas and near to sprawling Canadian cities. These risks are heightened, with the possibility of climate change-driven extreme weather resulting in grey infrastructure failure. A possible approach for slowing or reversing these concerns is the use of ecosystem services provided in the form nature-based solutions (NBS). An emerging NBS practice is the implementation of Natural Asset Management (NAM). NAM is being applied by municipalities, insufficient monitoring is causing a lack of evidence that would be required to demonstrate NAM’s ability to counter ecosystem decline and grey infrastructure service loss. We applied a standardized evaluation framework to assess NAM progress in six case-study municipalities in Canada. Data were collected with extensive review of municipal documents (e.g., Official Plan changes, Council meeting notes, budget allocations) and interviews with key municipal decision-makers. Data analysis was performed through thematic coding. The analysis reveals that while many municipalities are increasing their awareness and capacity for NAM implementation, large barriers to progress remain including limited enabling policies and lack of effective municipal governance. Especially changes in government and administrative organization tend to undermine the required long-term efforts in support of NAM. Municipalities must overcome these barriers to allow further progress towards restoration and conservation of natural assets that would improve the state of urban natural ecosystems and urban service delivery. An increasingly engaged public might provide pressure on municipalities to enhance permanence of NAM efforts and require accountability for NAM progress.
A Speculative Exploration into the Current Planning Paradigm through Academic Planner Perspectives
(University of Waterloo, 2023-09-28) Chandy, Johan
This thesis centres on research aimed at understanding the essence of the current planning paradigm, identifying the factors that facilitate or hinder paradigm shifts, and determining the prevailing paradigm that governs contemporary scholarly pursuits within planning in an academic setting. This is achieved through an approach based on findings from interviews with planning academics. The first objective, vital to this thesis, scrutinizes whether the prevailing planning paradigm represents a novel trend, a continuation of previous paradigms, or perhaps a synergy of both. It seeks to unveil the core attributes of the existing paradigm and questions if we are operating within the thresholds of an unrecognized new approach in planning. Furthermore, recognizing the critical role of the factors that influence paradigm shifts stands as a focal point in this thesis. The research aspires to elucidate the circumstances and elements that either catalyze or restrain potential shifts in planning paradigms. It delves into understanding the intellectual environment surrounding these shifts, accentuating the critical role played by prevailing perspectives on truth and discourse. The intellectual landscape is bifurcated into two dominant paradigms: the traditional liberal paradigm, founded on the philosophies of stalwarts such as Descartes, Locke, and Mill, and the critical social theoretical paradigm, deeply influenced by diverse viewpoints including postmodernists, feminists, postcolonial theorists, and critical race theorists. This study navigates the delicate balance between these paradigms, dissecting their roles in fostering or hindering open discourse and critical examination. By spotlighting the intrinsic value each paradigm brings to the table and the challenges they pose, the research endeavors to craft a roadmap for a more balanced intellectual environment. It underscores the necessity for fostering open dialogue, critical evaluation, and respect for varying cultural contexts, thus nurturing an environment conducive to progressive shifts aligned with societal transitions, equity, and social progress. This is important as paradigm shifts have been largely corrective in nature and frequent shifts help keep planning up to date with rapidly changing societal reality. Lastly, the thesis is invested in determining the prevailing paradigm of truth within this academic sphere. It seeks to delineate the predominant assumptions, methodologies, and values that characterize this discipline. This involves an analysis of the frameworks adopted by scholars and researchers in their relentless pursuit of truth and knowledge creation, paving the way for a richer and more nuanced academic dialogue in planning theory. Regarding methodology, this study adopts a pragmatic approach to scrutinize evolving paradigms in the planning field, primarily utilizing Thomas's general inductive approach for qualitative analysis to identify trends within data collected from interviews. This methodology facilitates the transformation of extensive interview data into concise summaries, directly aligning findings with the research objectives and fostering the formulation of insightful theories. Interviews with planning academics from various Ontario institutions were conducted despite the hurdles presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. This process, albeit impacted by the pandemic, yielded rich insights from 11 academic planning experts. The interview questionnaire was crafted to delve into current trends, barriers to paradigm shifts, and the prerequisites for facilitating change in the planning field's approaches. It also probed the participants' perceptions of "truth" and the significance of viewpoint diversity in strengthening the discipline's knowledge base. This thesis is a preliminary exploration into current trends and has several weaknesses. Since an inductive approach was used to analyze data, the presence of larger trends is assumed based on interviewee opinions. Several diverse data sources should have been used to bolster the veracity of these identified trends. Due to time and monetary constraints, this thesis focused solely on interviewing planning professors. Other potential data sources could have included students, administrative staff, planners within the private sector, planners within the public sector, and recent studies published by academic planning institutions, among others. This could be a focus for future research. Only Ontario institutions were considered as the original intent was to conduct interviews face to face and driving distances were considered, as such other planning institutions outside of Ontario were excluded from the study. Another weakness is that only 11 experts were interviewed, increasing this sample size would improve confidence in the veracity of the claims made within this thesis. Due to all of these limitations, the conclusions of this thesis should be considered weakly justified, and additional research will be required in the future to verify the accuracy of the claims made. This study provides a dive into the shifting currents of academic planning, uncovering a distinct move towards a social justice paradigm. Emphasizing equity, diversity, and inclusivity, the research underscores the planning profession's expansion beyond mere technical urban design into the realm of balancing economic, environmental, and social imperatives. The dialogues captured shed light on the profession's adaptability, revealing its commitment to creating communities that mirror the diverse needs and contributions of their members. A major finding is the notable convergence towards a critical social justice perspective, which values interpretive truths and has a heightened awareness of power dynamics. However, the journey towards this shift is intricate, with potential differences in its application and understanding, indicating the need for continuous reflection and examination. The transition from traditional liberal paradigms to a more context-dependent, power-conscious paradigm poses both opportunities and challenges. The research suggests that while this shift promises a more inclusive urban planning outlook, it may also face challenges, including potential epistemic closure and possible conflicts due to diverse interpretations. In essence, the findings spotlight the evolving landscape of academic planning, highlighting the rise of a social justice paradigm and the complexities accompanying such a paradigm shift. The research concludes with a call for persistent discourse, exploration, and critical assessment to ensure a balanced, sustainable, and inclusive urban future.
Rural-to-urban resettlement and resettled villagers’ post-resettlement adaptation in Hangzhou, China
(University of Waterloo, 2023-08-28) Yang, Chen
In recent years, rural-to-urban resettlement as a specific form of urbanization and its long-lasting impact on landless villagers have garnered increasing scholarly and policy attention in China. Urbanization through resettlement has thus become a potent tool for the Chinese government to embrace the new-type urbanization, which highlights the integrated urban-rural development and the citizenization of the rural population in urban areas. During this process, resettled villagers were physically relocated into concentrated resettlement communities and underwent an arduous adaptation process to the host city. This dissertation adopts an integrated conceptual framework to analyze decade-long resettlement practices in Hangzhou, China. Through an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach design, this dissertation sheds light on how urbanization through resettlement unfolds and how resettled villagers adapt to urban society. More specifically, it explores the following questions. What are the spatial characteristics of resettlement communities regarding material deprivation? How is space socially produced in resettlement communities? How has China’s property rights system influenced resettlement practices and resettled villagers’ post-resettlement adaptation? This dissertation follows the article-based format, and the three articles together offer a step-wise approach to untangling the complexities of rural-to-urban resettlement in China. The first article investigates what dimension of resettlement communities by focusing on their spatial characteristics. It invokes the concept of deprivation and aims to establish indices of multiple deprivations (IMDs) for resettlement communities. In doing so, the article uses accessibility as a proxy and integrates the space syntax approach with multi-criteria decision analysis to construct the IMDs of concentrated resettlement communities in Hangzhou, China. The utilized data consists of street networks obtained from OpenStreetMap, Point of Interest (POI) gathered through Amap API, and interviews conducted within the local communities. The findings suggest that material deprivation may not be the primary rationale for residential segregation of resettlement communities in urban areas. In addition, the accessibility to different services reflects diverse material deprivation patterns of resettlement communities. Moreover, the perceived deprivation of various stakeholders, such as resettled villagers, planners, and local government officials, may lead to different results of the IMDs. The diverse criteria or domains of deprivation contribute differently to the deprivation, which requires a tailored treatment strategy when constructing IMDs, such as the sensitivity analysis used in this research. It is recommended to incorporate perceived deprivation measurement as the essential component of pre-resettlement assessment. The second article further explores how space is produced in resettlement communities. The production of concentrated resettlement communities (CRCs) to accommodate resettled villagers and facilitate their post-resettlement adaptation creates a unique urban phenomenon in China. However, existing research has insufficiently unpacked the evolution of the production process. Building on the theory of space production, this article proposes a dynamic spatial-temporal conceptual framework to examine the process of space production. Drawing on interviews with residents, local planners, policy makers, and academics, as well as large sample questionnaire surveys, the article offers an empirical lens on how CRCs have evolved and how landless farmers have adapted to the host city. It first finds that CRCs in Hangzhou have three typologies in terms of spatial layout and built form. Secondly, resettled villagers in early CRCs are confronted with economic challenges but maintain well social relations. Their shared collectivism is conducive to their spatial adaptation. In recent CRCs, strict planning and community management have further limited resettled villagers' spontaneous attempts to reshape space to support their adaptation. The third article delves into why it is challenging to achieve inclusive rural-to-urban resettlement by focusing on the property rights regime in China. While the Chinese government intends to use resettlement to address the ambiguous property rights in rural areas, resettlement projects may deviate from the presupposed ideal path of achieving equitable property rights through property rights rearrangements. This article aims to unpack the complexity of property rights embedded in rural-to-urban resettlement based on the empirical case of Hangzhou. Based on documentary analysis, field observation, in-depth interviews, and questionnaire surveys, the article argues that the ambiguous property rights system of rural land cannot be fully addressed through rural-to-urban transition, and the coexistence of private, collective, formal and informal property rights systems is inevitable in urban areas without targeted policy remedies. The findings identify some main obstacles to the ideal transition of property rights systems. First, the resettled villagers are excluded from market participation by inadequate compensation through planning mechanisms. Second, resettlement communities suffer from the remaining rurality that challenges the enforcement of formal institutions and the governance of communal resources in the urban system. Third, the collective-retained land is an innovative but compromised institution devised by the local government to achieve a fair property rights rearrangement through resettlement, but its effectiveness is weakened by the politics at the village level. In summary, this dissertation provides a detailed reading of rural-to-urban resettlement practices and a nuanced understanding of resettled villagers’ post-resettlement adaptation in contemporary China. More importantly, the findings can have important policy implications for sustainable urban-rural development in China regarding offering better locational choices for resettlement communities, accommodating the spatial demands of resettled villagers, and achieving equitable property rights for the affected.
Operationalizing Sense of Place Concepts and Cultural Ecosystem Services to Explore Urban Ecosystem Rehabilitation Performance from A Socio-Cultural Lens: The Case of Wadi Hanifah—Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-22) Kashmiri, Shahad
Urban ecosystems (UE), and urban wetlands specifically, are considered coupled human-natural systems; meaning, they rely on the complex interdependencies of human and ecological components. As such, any intervention procedure (i.e., rehabilitation or restoration) and their evaluations would require an integrated socio-cultural approach to better understand their impacts and promote congruent design and development. The importance of integrating the human dimension in the rehabilitation of UE has been highlighted recurringly in the literature. There have been several calls within the ecosystem services (ES) management and socio-ecological systems (SES) scholarship to operationalize sense of place (SoP) concepts in the evaluation of rehabilitated UE performance, particularly from the socio-cultural lens. Despite that, practice has been slower to follow suite with application. The following research study presents a framework that links the socio-cultural dimension into the assessments of UE interventions. Primarily, it examines rehabilitated UE performance from a social lens and tracks the changes to their SoP, more specifically their place-image, as a result of the intervention. To achieve these aims, it operationalizes SoP components, as proposed by the literature. The framework essentially relies on the components of place triad (physical attributes, activity, and meanings and conceptions) as variables; to be examined by the visitation and popularity of the ecosystem, the uses and activities, the conditions of the physical environment, and the perceptions and associations of end-users to the rehabilitated UE (the indicators). To demonstrate the proposed framework, I examined a recently rehabilitated urban wetland in the arid context of Saudi Arabia, namely that of Wadi Hanifah. Wadi Hanifah is a historic valley wetland, teaming with heritage and natural sites that cuts through the capital City of Riyadh. This renders the valley a rarity both for its ecological (i.e., milder micro-climate, and provision of blue and green spaces) and its socio-cultural contributions (i.e., recreational and leisure activities). Seeing as the rehabilitation was never examined from a social lens, this research aimed to fill that gap and provide the first iteration of a socio-cultural study of the rehabilitation. Data for this study was gathered primarily using online social surveys and one-on-one semi-structured interviews. The results rendered several overlapping dimensions intrinsic to Wadi Hanifah’s identity: Nature and natural landscapes; activities; utility; history and heritage; personal experiences; and the rehabilitation itself. The analysis results highlight the factors responsible for the changes in Wadi Hanifah’s place-image, such as the introduction of the socio-cultural programs, including but not limited to outdoor and physical activities and the provision of picnic areas. The most noticeable trend was the transition of the perceptions of the Wadi from primarily provisional ES to one that is focused on CES. Furthermore, in terms of performance, the Wadi has reflected positively against the socio-cultural themes adapted from Bin Sulaiman and Almahmood (2022) (safety and security, sociability, accessibility, physical environment cues, attachment, and distinctiveness). It garnered a predominantly positive reception from the participants, where it was viewed as safer, more sociable, accessible, and unique, compared to before the rehabilitation. The value of this research lies in its contributions to theory, methodology, and practice. Where in theory and methodology, this framework links between the ES scholarship and urban design’s SoP. It can also be adapted for other similar UE interventions, especially ones that introduce an intentional socio-cultural agenda. Furthermore, in terms of practice this study sheds light on some of the current issues; provides a baseline for future studies of the Wadi; and provides a pragmatic approach to the improvement of its design and development guidelines.
The financialization of Transit Oriented Development in York South Weston, Toronto, Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2023-05-29) Manu, Michael
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is a form of planning that has dominated the discourse around sustainable development in cities. Where transit investment is met with higher density housing and commercial land uses, there has been little attention given to the actors who participate in this form of development. This thesis aims to explore the link between TOD and the financialization of housing, commercial land uses, and development in general. The purview of this study is based on the presence of the new Line 5 – Eglinton Crosstown, a new Light Rail Transit line in Toronto, Ontario. The line passes through a ward in the city that has various indicators suggesting various social issues, York South Weston (Ward 5). In this area, there has been material development activity to warrant discussion on who TOD really serves. This study is based on quantitative and qualitative information available pertaining to developments and properties in proximity to the new transit line. Using City of Toronto development information, information about the Landlords and property owners who have submitted development applications in and around the transit line is analyzed, with various factors considered. Additionally, information about REITs and other financialized players (Private Equity, Development companies, etc.) is analyzed to determine if there is heightened activity related to TOD in Toronto, and potentially within York South Weston. The findings from this study aim to add to the discourse on TOD and namely if financialized players view this style of development as favourable and profitable. The main research questions are centered around how TOD affects lower income people in these areas, and what can be done to curtail any intended or unintended negative externalities generated.
Responding to COVID-19: Characteristics and Outcomes of Strategic Planning in Social-service Nonprofits
(University of Waterloo, 2023-03-15) Gievski-Sidorovska, Isidora
Forty years after its initial introduction in the nonprofit space (Bryson, 1988; Bryson & Roering, 1987; Nutt & Backoff, 1987), the value of formal strategic planning still remains disputed and lacking an appropriate recognition. While the implementation of formal planning in nonprofits has been related to greater rates of survival, growth and access to resources (Bielefeld, 1993; Hwang & Bromley, 2015; Stone et al., 1999), strategic planning in the sector remains far from ubiquitous, with empirical evidence suggesting that less than 50% of nonprofits engage in formal strategizing (Hwang & Bromley, 2015; Stone et al., 1999). Key concerns include the relevance of formal planning for the specific needs of the nonprofit organization, questions about whether the effectiveness and efficiency acquired by its implementation will also lead to mission drift and lessened social impact (Guo, 2006; Suykens et al., 2019), and the difficulties and challenges related to its application, especially the usefulness of formal plans for environments that constantly change (Hwang & Bromley, 2015). This dissertation takes a broad look at the value and benefits of planning processes in the sector, specifically by examining the significance, outcomes, and feasibility of formal strategic planning in the nonprofit organization. The analysis is based on three key contributions: (1) a theoretical review of the specific vulnerabilities deriving from the nonprofit character and the relevance of established strategic planning functions to address such challenges; (2) an examination of the proximal, first-order outcomes of the planning process and their contribution to the long-term resilience and growth of these organizations; and (3) a study of effective planning models in turbulence, and the rationale for their application in the nonprofit environment. This dissertation builds an argument that strategic planning holds special value for nonprofits, not despite but rather due to particularities of the nonprofit character. It draws on the strategy-as-process and complexity scholarship to point out the various ways in which strategic planning can act as a resource for the sector in an attempt to move the conversation from whether nonprofits should use strategic planning, to the kinds of planning practices and models that hold greatest potential for the management of these organizations.
Attaining climate justice through the adaptation of urban form to climate change: flood risks in Toronto
(University of Waterloo, 2023-02-24) Mohtat, Niloofar
Empirical evidence points out that entrenched cost-benefit rationales behind urban form adaptations to climate change unequally exacerbate vulnerabilities and hazard exposures, engendering risk inequalities and triggering climate injustice. Specifically, adaptive interventions for managing climate change-induced floods, whether through green and blue infrastructure (GBI), land use planning, or urban design, prioritize the protection of high-value urban assets while excluding vulnerable groups. To redress climate injustice, some have called for the consideration of the three pillars of justice: distributive justice, i.e., the just spatial distribution of adaptation responses; procedural justice, i.e., the equality of decision-making processes; and recognitional justice, i.e., the legitimization of marginalized groups. To assess the extent of these pillars’ integration in the scholarship (theoretically and empirically), this dissertation conducted a systematic review of 136 peer-reviewed papers on urban climate justice vis-à-vis adaptation. The findings reveal a lack of theoretical and empirical connections between the three-pillared justice framework and climate adaptive interventions in urban form. The dissertation’s theoretical framework overcomes these omissions by using different theories/concepts in the literature as nexuses connecting climate justice pillars with urban form. It capitalizes on interconnections distributive justice has with differential vulnerabilities, flood exposures, and the adaptive capacity of urban form to identify areas that unequally experience flood risks and need to be prioritized in adaptation. It, furthermore, combined the three-pillared justice framework with epistemic justice and local experiential knowledge concept to explore how flood-adaptive GBI planning can address the root causes of vulnerabilities, hence facilitating justice-oriented transformative adaptation. Accordingly, the research developed a multi-criteria model including indicators and variables for measuring the spatial distribution of social vulnerabilities, exposure, and the adaptive capacity of urban form, whereby it proposes pathways for justice-oriented transformative adaptation of high-risk priority areas through GBI planning. The dissertation focuses on Toronto in Ontario, Canada, to test the theoretical framework, which can be applied in any city. The study in Toronto asks: “who” is unequally at-risk of flooding events, “where” are they located, “why” they are unequally vulnerable, and “how” we can engage the high-risk community in adaptive GBI planning to promote justice-oriented transformative adaptation. The methodology started with operationalizing the spatial multi-criteria model through weighted overlay analysis using ArcGIS and an online survey of 120 Toronto-based flooding experts, which yielded the identification of four priority neighborhoods at a disproportionate risk of floods. Focusing on one of the high-risk priority neighborhoods, Thorncliffe Park, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with flooding experts and local leaders and an online survey of residents to investigate whether the local experiential knowledge of residents has been recognized in adaptive GBI planning decisions. I furthermore performed an online participatory-mapping activity in this neighborhood during which participants marked, on the neighborhood map, locations that require GBI for socio-cultural benefits. I overlaid the resulting participatory maps with land uses’ run-off coefficients to propose sites for allocating GBI for both socio-cultural benefits and run-off management. The findings show the effectiveness of the theoretical framework in identifying priority neighborhoods and developing place-based adaptation solutions inside and outside Canada. All four high-risk neighborhoods are inner-city tower communities with old infrastructure and dense low-income, racialized, and migrant populations, typical tower blocks built after the second World War in several cities across North America and Europe. The findings in Thorncliffe Park, as the priority neighborhood, unveil the exclusion of residents from flood-adaptive GBI planning despite their vulnerabilities and exposure. This exclusion, as results indicate, is rooted in technocratic processes based on technical knowledge and cost-benefit rationales. The findings show four epistemic barriers that need to be addressed to facilitate climate justice in adaptation interventions within Thorncliffe Park: lack of social networks, citizenship rights, climate awareness opportunities, and communicational tools. The results also show that the industrial uses around the railway and residential-commercial sites around Overlea Boulevard in this neighborhood are in dire need of GBI for managing run-offs and socio-cultural benefits. I propose adopting inclusive processes to allocate small-scale adaptive GBI in these locations. Building on the findings, the dissertation proposes future theoretical and empirical studies to complement this study by proposing how to design GBI and other urban form adaptive interventions by changing the layout patterns, orientation, and geometry of streets, buildings, and blocks in the high-risk disenfranchised communities to advance climate justice. At the center of this proposition are developing new theories to expand the climate justice triad and devising new forms of inclusive and collaborative design.
Attaining climate justice through the adaptation of urban form to climate change: flood risks in Toronto
(University of Waterloo, 2023-02-24) Mohtat, Niloofar
Empirical evidence points out that entrenched cost-benefit rationales behind urban form adaptations to climate change unequally exacerbate vulnerabilities and hazard exposures, engendering risk inequalities and triggering climate injustice. Specifically, adaptive interventions for managing climate change-induced floods, whether through green and blue infrastructure (GBI), land use planning, or urban design, prioritize the protection of high-value urban assets while excluding vulnerable groups. To redress climate injustice, some have called for the consideration of the three pillars of justice: distributive justice, i.e., the just spatial distribution of adaptation responses; procedural justice, i.e., the equality of decision-making processes; and recognitional justice, i.e., the legitimization of marginalized groups. To assess the extent of these pillars’ integration in the scholarship (theoretically and empirically), this dissertation conducted a systematic review of 136 peer-reviewed papers on urban climate justice vis-à-vis adaptation. The findings reveal a lack of theoretical and empirical connections between the three-pillared justice framework and climate adaptive interventions in urban form. The dissertation’s theoretical framework overcomes these omissions by using different theories/concepts in the literature as nexuses connecting climate justice pillars with urban form. It capitalizes on interconnections distributive justice has with differential vulnerabilities, flood exposures, and the adaptive capacity of urban form to identify areas that unequally experience flood risks and need to be prioritized in adaptation. It, furthermore, combined the three-pillared justice framework with epistemic justice and local experiential knowledge concept to explore how flood-adaptive GBI planning can address the root causes of vulnerabilities, hence facilitating justice-oriented transformative adaptation. Accordingly, the research developed a multi-criteria model including indicators and variables for measuring the spatial distribution of social vulnerabilities, exposure, and the adaptive capacity of urban form, whereby it proposes pathways for justice-oriented transformative adaptation of high-risk priority areas through GBI planning. The dissertation focuses on Toronto in Ontario, Canada, to test the theoretical framework, which can be applied in any city. The study in Toronto asks: “who” is unequally at-risk of flooding events, “where” are they located, “why” they are unequally vulnerable, and “how” we can engage the high-risk community in adaptive GBI planning to promote justice-oriented transformative adaptation. The methodology started with operationalizing the spatial multi-criteria model through weighted overlay analysis using ArcGIS and an online survey of 120 Toronto-based flooding experts, which yielded the identification of four priority neighborhoods at a disproportionate risk of floods. Focusing on one of the high-risk priority neighborhoods, Thorncliffe Park, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with flooding experts and local leaders and an online survey of residents to investigate whether the local experiential knowledge of residents has been recognized in adaptive GBI planning decisions. I furthermore performed an online participatory-mapping activity in this neighborhood during which participants marked, on the neighborhood map, locations that require GBI for socio-cultural benefits. I overlaid the resulting participatory maps with land uses’ run-off coefficients to propose sites for allocating GBI for both socio-cultural benefits and run-off management. The findings show the effectiveness of the theoretical framework in identifying priority neighborhoods and developing place-based adaptation solutions inside and outside Canada. All four high-risk neighborhoods are inner-city tower communities with old infrastructure and dense low-income, racialized, and migrant populations, typical tower blocks built after the second World War in several cities across North America and Europe. The findings in Thorncliffe Park, as the priority neighborhood, unveil the exclusion of residents from flood-adaptive GBI planning despite their vulnerabilities and exposure. This exclusion, as results indicate, is rooted in technocratic processes based on technical knowledge and cost-benefit rationales. The findings show four epistemic barriers that need to be addressed to facilitate climate justice in adaptation interventions within Thorncliffe Park: lack of social networks, citizenship rights, climate awareness opportunities, and communicational tools. The results also show that the industrial uses around the railway and residential-commercial sites around Overlea Boulevard in this neighborhood are in dire need of GBI for managing run-offs and socio-cultural benefits. I propose adopting inclusive processes to allocate small-scale adaptive GBI in these locations. Building on the findings, the dissertation proposes future theoretical and empirical studies to complement this study by proposing how to design GBI and other urban form adaptive interventions by changing the layout patterns, orientation, and geometry of streets, buildings, and blocks in the high-risk disenfranchised communities to advance climate justice. At the center of this proposition are developing new theories to expand the climate justice triad and devising new forms of inclusive and collaborative design.
Decommodification Now: Planning for a decommodified housing future
(University of Waterloo, 2023-01-25) Scott-Frater, Charlotte
Canada is experiencing a housing affordability crisis. Rising housing costs in cities over the last two decades have driven increasing gentrification and displacement, forcing lower-income residents into inadequate and unaffordable housing, or out of cities altogether. The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened this phenomenon, as evictions, homelessness, and number of households in core housing have risen sharply over the past year. These interlocking issues are underpinned by a single idea: that housing is a commodity. This notion holds that housing is both a store of value, and a necessity. This tension is usually resolved in favour of building housing that can generate maximal capital for its investors, as opposed to housing that serves community need. This creates the conditions leading to nationally increasing core housing need. A reorientation of housing planning and policy around the idea that housing is a necessity outside of the drive for profit is required. One promising avenue for this revisioning is decommodification. This project seeks to answer (1) how decommodified housing has existed in Canada in the past, (2) what kinds of decommodified housing exist, and are currently being produced in peer nations, and (3) what are the existing barriers and opportunities to greatly expand the stock of decommodified housing in Canada.

Browse

Recent Submissions