Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urban planning risk'
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1
Schmidt, Mary Richardson. "Planning for the management of technological risk." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/77331.
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Dowiatt, Matthew. "Urban Adaptation Planning in Response to Climate Change Risk." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1598284306542077.
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Wolahan, Mollye A. (Mollye Ann) 1967. "Environmental risk assessment in financial institutions." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70723.
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Thesis (M.C.P. and S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-54).
Have the environmental risk assessment policies and procedures instituted by banks been successful in promoting the welfare of the environment? Have these policies and procedures succeeded in protecting banks from environment related liability? This thesis examines the impact of environmental risk management processes on the lending practices of banks. It also evaluates the success of these processes in achieving the goals for which they were implemented. In underwriting environmental risk, financial institutions are primarily concerned with the degree to which they are exposed to liability for the cleanup of a collateralized property. Through this thesis research, it was found that bank lending practices do not address issues of environmental sustainability, such as product and building design, and air and land quality. These issues of environmental sustainability are indirect factors that are not given much weight by the banks since banks are concerned about the direct risk factor of liability. There are three reasons why the lending policies of banks are narrowly focused on direct liability risks: (1) the creation of unlimited liability for banks by federal legislation (2) the focus of banking regulations on this liability and (3) the short time frame that banks use in their credit models. The findings of this research show that banks still have significant sources of direct environmental risk. The regulatory system that has defined the environmental risk factors for banks has proven itself inefficient. Based on the cases presented in this thesis, banks have not decreased the contamination of the properties held in the portfolios. The banks have responded to this regulatory environment by insulating themselves against liability risk. The regulatory environment has created a dead-weight loss to the banking system, where the banks incur costs for addressing environmental liability risk, yet there is little increased benefit to society. A question that arises in reviewing these findings is: if banks are afraid to lend to environmentally contaminated properties because of liability concerns, why haven't other players stepped in fill this void by charging more to the borrowers of these potentially contaminated sites? Other areas of the economy have segmented in reaction to this type of market failure. For example, there is a lending market that targets homeowners who need credit but who have poor credit histories. Why does the market for high-risk environmental loans remain undifferentiated? While the limits of this study preclude offering a comprehensive answer to this question, the initial findings of this study do provide insight and guidelines for further research.
by Mollye A. Wolahan.
M.C.P.and S.M.
4
Wolff, Victoria H. "Storm smart planning for adaptation to sea level rise : addressing coastal flood risk in East Boston." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/50122.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (p. 67-69).
Regardless of how well we implement sustainability plans, now and in the future, the weight of scientific evidence indicates that mean sea level will continue to rise at an increasing rate over the next century. Thus, coastal lands and development lie in a precarious position, increasingly vulnerable to flood damage brought by storm surges and extreme weather events. In order to avoid disastrous losses of property, life, ecological health and social wellbeing, our cities and regions must quickly implement adaptation plans that consider plausible climate models. Coastal risk can be managed through rigid protections, soft landscape solutions, and land use decisions and regulations. In developing and implementing adaptation plans, it is important to understand the options and their applicability to different site contexts. Experts warn that today's once-in-a century flood will likely occur every two or three years by 2050!' However, Boston, like many other U.S. coastal cities, is in the early stages of devising adaptation plans that seek to reduce coastal flood risk from sea level rise. As implementation of adaptation plans may take several years or decades, Boston should act quickly to strategically consider its options. This thesis examines the effectiveness of different planning approaches to hazard mitigation in urban coastal areas and applies them to at-risk sites in East Boston under coastal flood scenarios for the years 2050 and 2100. Two sites in East Boston, one with a soft edge and one with a hard edge, create two distinct urban landscapes for design solutions.
(cont.) A menu of planning solutions that has been collected from a review of the literature and best practices is then used to inform design solutions to these problems. By applying contemporary predictions for sea level rise and the problem-specific expertise of coastal management to the site-specific realm of land use planning, I hope to provide a precedent and method for planners, particularly in the Boston area, to seriously incorporate sea level rise predictions into community discussions, regulations, and comprehensive plan making.
by Victoria H. Wolff.
M.C.P.
5
Norton, Vincent G. 1969. "Understanding risk sharing mechanisms for brownfields redevelopment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69388.
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Tang, Wing-yun Donna, and 鄧詠茵. "Environmental risk in Hong Kong and its implications for urban planning." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3126038X.
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Tang, Wing-yun Donna. "Environmental risk in Hong Kong and its implications for urban planning /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2000. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B2228462X.
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Sonmez, Saner Tugce. "Seismic Vulnerabilities And Risks For Urban Mitigation Planning In Turkey." Phd thesis, METU, 2013. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615641/index.pdf.
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Chronic seismic hazards and resulting secondary impacts as natural conditions of the country, and loss of robust building and prudent settlement practices as aggravated by rapid population growth make cities the most vulnerable geographical and social entities in Turkey. In contrast, Turkish disaster policy is solely focused on post-disaster issues and no incentives or provision exist to encourage risk analysis or risk mitigation approaches, despite current international efforts.
For the development of risk reduction policies an essential step is to prioritize settlements according to their vulnerability levels. This could be determined by hazard probabilities and attributes of the building stock of each settlement. Measurement of vulnerability levels allows the ordering of settlements into risk categories.
Vulnerability levels of settlements are then assumed to depend on a number of attributes of cities to explore if vulnerability could be related to a set of urban properties. Results of statistical analyses indicate that total building loss is related to the ratio of population over the total number of buildings in mid-range settlements, and directly related to population in metropolitan cities. Relative loss on the other hand is related with rate of agglomeration and development index in almost every size category of settlements.
Observations provide guiding principles for effective mitigation practices in Turkey by ordering settlements and offer means of differential implementation. These could contribute to improved safety measures in urban standards, building codes, building supervision procedures, insurance systems, investment priorities, and Law (6306) on Redevelopment of Areas under Disaster Risk.
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Tight, Miles Richard. "Accident involvement and exposure to risk for children as pedestrians on urban roads." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1987. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317615/.
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A detailed literature review reveals the need for further study of several aspects of road accidents to child pedestrians in urban areas. Some of these aspects are explored using data for selected residential parts of five urban areas in Britain. Road accidents in the five study areas are examined using Local Authority accident data, police accident reports, local knowledge, and data from the 1981 census of population. Variations in occurrence of these accidents are analysed using variables such as age and sex of the child, type of location, distance from home, severity, and time of occurrence. Collection and analysis of data concerning exposure on journeys to and from school and during some other uses of the roads are described. Data on journeys to or from school was collected by questionnaire from most of the schools in each of the study areas. Analysis examines several features of exposure including mode of travel, accompaniment, time spent outside, distance travelled, and the number of roads crossed. These features are analysed for different groups of people, at different times, and in different sorts of area. Where possible results are related to accidents to produce measures of risk. Data on journeys other than those to and from school, with particular emphasis on play, was collected in two of the study areas by direct observation of children on the streets. These observations were carried out to a preset schedule, using routes predefined on the basis of accident and other local information. Analysis examines the variety of children using the roads in different areas and time periods. Where possible, accident data and traffic flow information are related to the results to produce measures of accident risk. Suggestions for preventative measures, and for additional research, both within these study areas and more widely, are given.
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Flores, Ballesteros Luis. "Vulnerability and social risk management in India and Mexico." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45372.
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Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-116).
The development of effective community, regional and national risk-management strategies, especially for systemic risks, such as natural disasters, entails understanding the determinants of social vulnerability in individuals and groups, and the factors that foster the adoption of specific mechanisms of risk management and, thus, the elements that supports an efficient implementation process. This thesis contributes to this understanding in the context of communities in developing countries by using data from surveys conducted in the district of Kalahandi, state of Orissa, India, and three municipalities in Mexico, each with a different level of socioeconomic development: Villaflores, Chiapas; Ahome, Sinaloa; and Valle de Santiago, Guanajuato. Using regression modeling of binary response variables, I tested the statistical association between the adoption of formal social risk-management and a number of endogenous and exogenous household characteristics. The results indicate that the likelihood of adoption of formal risk-management strategies increases with the level of the household's association, i.e., its affiliation with local groups; in addition, proximity to roads, financial services and urban-mixed use areas (markets), is less strongly correlated with the likelihood of adoption of risk-management strategies than the level of association, particularly in less-developed environments. These findings are robust to a variety of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and environmental contexts. Keywords: risk, social risk management, social capital, vulnerability
by Luis Flores Ballesteros.
M.C.P.
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Sheth, Alpen Suresh. "Cultivating risk : weather insurance, technology and financialization in India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113802.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-309).
Climate change, technological innovation, and financialization are three of the most transformative processes shaping spatial planning and policymaking. Yet, each of these macro-structural processes and their consequences are experienced in the short-term and at geographically-specific scales. In the context of planning, financialization needs to be better understood to evaluate its actual processes and consequences through in-depth analyses of specific cases. Since 2007, India's weather insurance programs have become the largest in the world offering farmers access to new financial instruments and automated technologies to manage the increasing risks of agricultural cultivation. Insurance has come to be seen as a systematic response to the increasing impacts of drought and flooding since the green revolution and an agrarian crisis that has witnessed over 300,000 farmers commit suicide between 1995-2015. In this dissertation, I ask how and why insurance, which never played a significant role several decades ago, has come to be a central planning strategy for agricultural policymakers, outpacing all other government expenditure in the form of premium subsidies. I study the development of weather insurance programs in India and examine implementation across four major agricultural states-Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Punjab-to show how risk transfer in the agricultural sector has been increasingly financialized, with a growing dependence on new derivative instruments and the rising penetration of international reinsurance capital. The overarching research questions motivating my dissertation include: how does the introduction of new insurance policies, financial instruments, and weather technologies impact the agrarian landscape? how do these insurance programs define and measure risk? what are the spatial dimensions of insurance, its variation and its coverage? what is the importance of these developments in terms of how agricultural risk gets financialized for long-term planning as well as political contestation? and what it means to plan for weather risk and climate change in a context of the rapid churning of technologies and the financialization of risk? In my research methodology, I employ granular analysis of actors, agents, and actions, while paying attention to structural positions, systemic rationalities, and recurrent patterns. I conducted interviews with over 40 insurance professionals, underwriters and government experts as well as with 60 farmers and local officials in four states - West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. I used archival and document analyses as well as spatial analysis of insurance business data to understand and explain spatial variation in policy implementation and outcomes. Amidst the numerous scholarly debates about the role of finance and meaning of financialization, the spatial dimensions of risk and financialization are not well understood. Through my research, I explain financialization of weather risk through an analysis of underwriting methodologies for actuarial models, financial instruments, and automated weather technologies. I show how complexities and shifts in seasonal geographies and temporalities further complicate the extent to which harm, loss, risk can be correlated with financial precision and pricing. I argue that the speed of convergence towards automated and index-based systems has been followed by the disempowerment of farmers who have trouble disputing the terms and eligibility of coverage especially in the case of index insurance contracts, where disputes related to measurement errors and manipulation have had a significant negative effect on adoption, with many states and insurers reducing their offering of such policies. I further argue that the rise of the financialization of risk in the agricultural sector in particular is concurrent with the ascent of a global fast policy environment since the 1970s that facilitates iterative and experimental development of actuarial systems along transnational policy circuits. I contribute archival and empirical findings to show that Indian agricultural policy has witnessed a shift in focus away from the distribution of land, infrastructure, and productivity that were important in post-independence India and the Green Revolution, towards new forms of "riskholding" in the post-Green Revolution period, in which the government focuses on the ways in which the financial risks of agricultural producers are managed and transferred. In my comparative examination of the four states, I show that while insurance mitigates some forms of inequality through subsidies, structural inequalities as a function of inherited landholding disparities and landlessness are reinforced. My overall contention is that agricultural planning and policymaking, specifically through insurance, shifts resources away from longer-term considerations of addressing inequalities of assets such as land and capital, towards the problems of "riskholding," which constitutes a new dimension of differentiation that, in effect, magnifies the salience of short-term financial risk and risk hedging strategies instead of agricultural investment and infrastructure development. Finally, I find that financial risk in its various forms is becoming politicized in ways that are not accounted for in the current literature. I use my case studies to contribute to the literature on the financialization of agriculture (via an intervention in the ongoing debate on the "agrarian question") with a focus on the ways in which insurance subsidies, electoral politics and debt-based mobilization are a manifestation of a more broad-based politics of financialization. The politicization of financial risk ultimately upends the actuarial approach through state-specific variations in implementation through insurance subsidies and loan waivers as electoral strategies. These newly emergent systems are hierarchical and unevenly empower risk capital and new forms of actuarial automation, while risk capital markets and technologies are reshaping the context of planning and the ways weather indicators and indexes are defined and calculated. Furthermore, the uncertainty and severity of climate variability through unseasonal rainfall, drought, flooding, and disease present complex challenges for the very viability of agricultural production that are not adequately addressed through the insurance program, but may in fact, temporarily mask these processes through continued and pervasive ecological extraction and indebtedness. Ultimately, insurance is an incomplete mathematical (actuarial) technology for planning because it assumes fixed aggregate risks and non-correlation of risks. More than the mathematical possibilities and constraints of insurance, new models may show the potential for anti-neoliberal forms of decentralization in insurance and financialization through blockchain and other distributed technology for mutual, peer-to-peer risk management.
by Alpen Suresh Sheth.
Ph. D.
12
Evans, John M. (John McCall) 1969. "Risk sharing in brownfields redevelopment : a case study approach." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65987.
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Jacobson, Holly Johanna. "The values underpinning Iceland's food system risk : implications for resilience planning." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/104989.
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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2016.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
"June 2016." Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 116-129).
Some claim Iceland's food security is in grave danger. Farms fear financial failure as they compete with cheaper imports; high import reliance renders the country vulnerable to natural, political, and financial volatility; climate change threatens to exacerbate these food system weaknesses. Yet Iceland has no contingency plan, and adaptation measures are absent from national climate change reports. While this gap could be perceived as negligence, to do so assumes a universalistic framework for risk and resilience -- a trend currently seen in the global proliferation of formulaic, resiliency plans. Ecological resilience is defined as the ability of a system to absorb disturbance so as to retain essentially the same function. In a social-ecological system, what defines that function? Who decides what is at risk? This thesis seeks to understand the defining parameters behind risk and resilience within Iceland's social-ecological food system -- a dynamic and evolving set of tensions between human livelihoods, legal frameworks, biological cycling, and emotive response. Interviews, backed by risk theory and corroborated with survey data, uncover the tendency for risk to be framed in the context of particular value logics. Explored through factor analysis, the aggregate risk scale that focuses on agricultural vitality, for example, correlates with a value scale that embeds preparedness and self-sufficiency, but also cultural heritage. These findings suggest several implications: First, there is a need to go beyond economic valuations in understanding risk. Moral, sentimental, and ideational values shape risk perception, and our current tools -- such as discounting -- cannot adequately consider what a future community will value. Secondly, if a value at stake underpins how risk is defined, then, inversely, preserving that value can define resilience. In other words, value-based resilience offers a framework for defining the function resilience preserves. And yet finally, this logic highlights a powerful hazard in resilience planning -- the risk of systematically establishing preference for certain values and perpetuating a dominant set of social, political, economic ideologies. Value-based resilience is thus a call to planners to recognize the vulnerability built into the plans we make.
by Holly Johanna Jacobson.
M.C.P.
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Han, Jun 1959. "The risk and return characteristics of real estate investment trusts." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/13157.
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Rosa, Angela. "Integrating cultural heritage risk management into urban planning. The Ravenna case study." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2020.
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As increasingly recognised by scholars, climate change is posing new challenges in the field of risk management and urban planning. The natural and anthropogenic risks that characterise a given territory, see their effects amplified by those of climate change. Even though cultural heritage has passed through decades and centuries, it has never experienced such unexpected and variable events as those forecasted by climate change for the foreseeable future, making it a sensitive element of the living environment. This thesis, whose general context has been defined and provided by the European H2020 SHELTER project, aims at defining guidelines to reduce the gap between disaster risk management and urban planning in the field of cultural heritage in historic areas. To this aim, the current integration of both cultural heritage and protection and prevention measures within planning policies and tools for the case study of Ravenna has been explored, reported and analysed, with a specific focus on the church and archaeological area of Santa Croce. The specific objective is to understand to what extent data risk management, climate change adaptation and heritage site management are currently treated as key interlinked elements. The results obtained have led to the definition of a protocol for integrating climate change and disaster risks management into heritage management which is articulated into six phases. As part of the protocol, an evaluation method of how urban planning tools already in force contribute to the adaptive capacity of Ravenna’ territory in terms of treating and dealing with risk management has been proposed and validated. The proposed guidelines may lead to the improvement of the heritage management plans that heritage site managers applies to cope with risks related and the effects of climate change. Lastly, three punctual design actions for increasing the resilience of the area of Santa Croce have been explored.
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Ardila, Gómez Arturo. "Transit planning in Curitiba and Bogotá : roles in interaction, risk, and change." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28791.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2004."September 2004."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 425-454).
What is the role of planners in the planning process for new transit modes? By documenting transit-planning processes in Curitiba and Bogota from 1955-95 and 1986-2001, respectively, this work demonstrates that in both cities planners had important roles in system design, the inventive adaptation of new technologies to local conditions, the integration of newly proposed systems with existing service and, above all, mediation between political leadership and strong vested interests. Both cities put planners' roles in special context, however. First, the mayors had a firm appreciation of planning services and understood that planners needed to interact with stakeholders and politicians. Second, the mayors were strong leaders who offered planners a benchmark from which to understand the implications of stakeholders' demands. Third, these cases were framed by new technologies such as Bus Rapid Transit, which competed against rail alternatives. Fourth, because of the novelty of BRT planners had difficulty producing credible forecasts. This uncertainty forced planners to interact more with stakeholders and politicians to build credibility. Fifth, BRT offered the advantage of being highly flexible, particularly when compared to rail proposals. This flexibility allowed planners to adjust the plans in response to the feedback produced by the interaction with stakeholders and politicians. Adjusting the plans often forced planners to innovate. Within this context, planners' main role was to interact with politicians and stakeholders. The interaction was above all a source of feedback for all parties involved. Planners used this feedback, first, to mediate between politicians and stakeholders by reducing power differentials. If either actor
(cont.) were too powerful the planning process could not advance. Second, planners developed incremental adaptations to the original plan in light of the political reality unveiled by the interaction. The gradual adjustments to the original plan lowered risk for all parties. The adaptations and the reduced risk helped assemble coalitions of support. Planning teams with high levels of political capacity were able to interact with politicians and stakeholders. Planning teams also needed a high level of technical capacity to prevent stakeholders from capturing/co-opting the planning team.
by Arturo Ardila-Gómez.
Ph.D.
17
Adornato, Paul E. (Paul Edward). "The real estate risk management process--integrating tools from other disciplines." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62913.
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Zamore, Wigton F. "Pier 4, South Boston : structuring the project to manage risk and reward." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78955.
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Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1986.MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH.
Bibliography: p. 93-97.
by Wigton F. Zamore.
M.S.
19
Bui, Lily 1987. "Centering peripheries : warning systems and disaster risk reduction planning on the island city." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020. https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/129892.
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Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, September, 2020Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-226).
Warning systems play a crucial role in disaster events on islands. They enable timely communication of risk, bolstering capacity and counterbalancing the negative force exerted by hazards, exposures, and vulnerabilities that threaten island communities. Disasters frequently result in the breakdown of communication due to both structural (i.e., power outages, failed telecommunications equipment, aging infrastructure) and nonstructural issues (i.e., governance, socioeconomic inequity, language barriers). Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, document review and spatial data visualization, this dissertation compares the hurricane warning systems of two U.S. island cities: San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawaii, during Hurricane Maria (2017) and Hurricane Lane (2018), respectively. The research questions are as follows: -- Under what conditions are warning systems successful or unsuccessful in island cities? --
What gaps in capacity can be observed in island city warning systems? --
How do these gaps affect disaster planning in the island context? This dissertation proposes a conceptual framework for evaluating warning systems that takes into consideration the temporal aspects of warning. The framework illustrates the ways in which warning and planning are interrelated, as well as how planning and warning processes take place over time. The dissertation argues that good planning is good warning, and good warning is shaped by good planning. It finds that short-term warning (i.e. forecasting) is usually able to achieve its goals successfully whereas long-term warning (i.e. planning around preparedness, generational knowledge and culture, myths and history, and recovery) is prone to various capacity gaps across the two cases. The most significant finding is that O'ahu and Puerto Rico's planning and warning capacity grew after Hurricanes Lane and Maria, but the gap in capacity between both islands still remains noteworthy.
Ultimately, the planning gaps between both islands point toward other possible differential capacities for planning and warning on other U.S. islands.
by Lily D. Bui.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
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Tankha, Sunil Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "The risk of reform : privatisation and liberalisation in the Brazilian electric power industry." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36287.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, February 2006.Includes bibliographical references.
In 1996, when Brazil was well-underway to privatising and liberalising its electric power industry, few would have predicted that within five years the reforms would be a shambles. Like its neighbors Argentina and Chile, Brazil based its electricity reforms on the orthodox therapies of privatisation and liberalisation. The industry was well-positioned to benefit from the reforms: it was technically sophisticated, relatively efficient, and attractive to both domestic and foreign investors. Electricity rates had been suppressed for a long time, but they were not populist and it was the residential customer who cross-subsidised industry. As such, political backlash to increasing electricity prices was unlikely and, in fact, Brazil had successfully begun to raise electricity rates as early as 1993. Despite these fortuitous circumstances, the reforms did not induce sufficient investment and Brazil suffered a massive electricity rationing in 2001. For ten months all classes of consumers had to cut consumption by 20%. By 2002, the electricity reforms were politically dead and none of the candidates in Brazil's presidential elections that year, not even the incumbent administration's nominee, favoured continuing with them.
(cont.) My dissertation explains why the reforms failed, approaching the issue from three different perspectives-the policy, the economic and the industrial. Collectively, these essays explain why sectoral neoliberal reforms had a short shelf-life.
by Sunil Tankha.
Ph.D.
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Coffey, Alison E. (Alison Elizabeth). "Negotiating neighborhood priorities : the politics of risk & development in Medellin's Comuna 8." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99073.
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Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2015.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-96).
In a time of increasing concern over the impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, urban insecurity, and rapid urbanization, risk management has come to the forefront of planning agendas in cities across the world. No longer considered solely in environmental terms, key drivers of risk include a range of socio-economic and governance factors, and as such, risk management interventions have become tightly entwined with urban development politics. With many risks distributed unequally and affecting a city's most marginalized individuals and communities most significantly, understanding how the intersection of risk management and urban development manifests in planning and policy interventions at the neighborhood level proves increasingly important for equitable city planning pursuits. Using the case study of a Comuna 8, a semi-informal district in Medellín, this thesis explores how community-based groups situated in municipally-defined areas of high environmental risk negotiate their development priorities with city government and development entities. By examining how risk is invoked, re-interpreted or contested by different stakeholders pursing planning at different scales in Medellín, it demonstrates how the political nature of risk discourse and designations allows different stakeholders to justify, challenge, or carry through different development visions for a specific territory. For planners and communities concerned with equitable outcomes in cities facing complex environmental and social risks, this thesis suggests both the need for analytic frameworks that address risk in context of disputed development and improved decision-making structures that recognize the agency of grassroots actors in local development and risk management.
by Alison E. Coffey.
M.C.P.
22
Schwartz, Deborah Peterson. "The risk considerations of commercial mortgage backed securities : a comparison of three securities." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70262.
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Lu, You 1972. "The significance of foreign exchange risk in the international real estate securities investment." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32201.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-112).
Traditionally, international real estate investments are mainly conducted through direct investments in foreign properties. Due to the recent securitization and globalization trends in the real estate capital markets, the international real estate securities investment has been growing fast and gaining more popularity than the direct real estate investment because of its absence of the portfolio management and monitoring problems. Foreign exchange risk exposure is inevitable for the international investments. To minimize the foreign exchange risk and hedge investment returns, investors have been spending a huge amount of time and money on developing and implementing currency hedging strategies without paying enough attention on studying and testing the significance of the foreign exchange risk. Since there is no doubt about the existence of the foreign exchange risk, the importance of studying foreign exchange risk is to avoid unnecessary hedging costs. By forming 6 study questions, applying the international real estate securities market indexes & U.S. financial market data, structuring Arbitrage Pricing Models, and performing hypothesis testing for 13 countries and 3 regions, the thesis studied the significance of foreign exchange risk in international real estate securities investment from different angles, including: 1. Is the foreign exchange risk significant across time? 2. Does the significance of foreign exchange risk change across time? 3. Is the foreign exchange risk significant on an equally weighted portfolio basis? 4. Does the significance of foreign exchange risk change across time on an equally weighted portfolio basis? 5. Is the foreign exchange risk significant on an optimally weighted portfolio basis? 6. Does the significance of foreign exchange risk change across time on an optimally weighted portfolio basis?
by You Lu.
S.M.
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Sonmez, Tugce. "Aspects Of Urban Seismic Risks: A Comparison Of Risk Factors In The Metropolitan Cities Of Turkey." Master's thesis, METU, 2008. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12609739/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Chronic seismic hazards and resulting secondary impacts are due to the geological
conditions of Turkey and the nature of current response mechanisms. Local know-how of
building and settlement that evolved over centuries eroded with the growth in population,
and the introduction of reinforced concrete building economics. This makes cities the most
vulnerable geographical and social entities in Turkey.
A basic formal reference of disaster management is the National Seismic Hazard Map
indicating zones of hazard probabilities which are directly related to different measures in
construction. This is hardly a sufficient disaster policy tool however, as cities may have very
different risk profiles independent from the hazard probabilities. City level risk variations are
not considered in the Seismic Hazard Map.
This study intends to establish indicators for different risk levels in urban areas other then
those implied by the National Seismic Hazard Map.
Apart from local morphological and geological conditions, attributes of building stock, rates
of unauthorized buildings and social conditions represent vulnerability indicators and could
be effective in the determination of local risk levels.
One specific description of risk levels is available in the obligatory reporting of the local
authorities about the "most likely level of disaster losses"
. This information, as an obligatory task of the governorates represents a local assessment of the most likely disaster losses and it is available from the GDDA. The city-level statistics of building stock on the other hand are available from the Turkish Statistical Institute. Correlation and Regression analyses are employed to determine what combinations of the independent variables might best denote city-level risks, and these may vary independently from their positions in the Hazard Map. The research may thus generate information for a more effective disaster policy.
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Wilson, Michael Thomas Ph D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Mapping under uncertainity : spatial politics, urban development, and the future of coastal flood risk." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120237.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-311).
Flooding is the most common and single largest source of disaster-caused property damage in the United States. The past year, 2017, was the costliest for weather and climate disasters in US history. To mitigate these losses, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and National Flood Insurance Program produce Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) that often provide the most comprehensive and authoritative flood hazard information for a community. Despite reform efforts for greater map accuracy, spatial politics may render the computationally efficient 100- year floodplain delineation of questionable effectiveness, equity, and legitimacy for long-term land use planning. Given changing coastal flooding and sea level rise, how can risk mapping inform and improve future urban development? The dissertation: (1) positions flood mapping in the larger context of urban risk computation; (2) chronicles and statistically analyzes the nationwide map adoption process; (3) uses spatial analysis, document review, semi-structured interviews, and grounded theory to identify how these updates are proxies for nonstationary flood risk in Plymouth County, MA and New York City, NY; (4) compiles a novel survey of recent large-scale development decisionmaking in Boston, and (5) pilots a probabilistic indicator that models project-level flood risk information. I observe that the differences in location, wealth, and race between counties are associated with varying FIRM adoption process durations as well as whether a county may appeal and receive revised maps. I argue that coastal communities with sociopolitical clout can bend the process of computational risk assessment, through either contestation or collaboration over risk classification. I find the planning information shock of updated maps, however, is a largely insufficient signal to change developer behavior. Therefore, I pioneer the Future Flood Resilience Indicator (FFRI) as a decision support tool for developers to understand the long-term flood risk of their proposed development projects and planners to ascertain the impact of their policies. In conclusion, the dissertation provides policy makers with: (1) new data on how map adoption is not a purely scientific and technical process, (2) further evidence that the current 100- year flood standard is inadequate, and (3) resilience-building tools for land use planning.
by Michael Thomas Wilson.
Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning
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Simmill-Binning, Cheryl. "Traffic calming : a study of contestation between lay and expert groups in the construction of risk related knowledges." Thesis, Lancaster University, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.301084.
Full text
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Abood, Meredith. "Securitizing suburbia : the financialization of single-family rental housing and the need to redefine "risk"." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111349.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Page 105 blank.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-88).
Since the foreclosure crisis, a handful of private-equity backed real estate companies have purchased over 200,000 single-family rental homes throughout the nation. Originally, these companies planned to hold the properties until the real estate market improved and then sell the homes to individual buyers. However, they soon realized that they could generate higher returns for investors by operating the units as rentals, issuing debt securities backed by the rental incomes, and selling equity securities (stocks) in the global exchanges. As a result, the previously "mom and pop" industry of single-family rental housing is now, for the first time, financialized within the global market and institutionalized by an emerging oligopoly of large-scale rental companies. This research examines the rise of single-family rental housing as an asset class, with a particular focus on the construction, mitigation, and management of "risk." By analyzing investor disclosure documents, interviews with industry actors, quarterly earnings calls, and market reports, I show how the financial industry constructed a dominant discourse of financial risk focused on maximizing rental yields and home price appreciation, minimizing maintenance costs, and reducing political opposition. I argue that the ability of the financial industry to "self-regulate" access to capital through internally negotiated legal structures, disclosure requirements, and agreed upon norms of "trust", shifted the burden of risk from investors onto tenants, prospective homebuyers, and local communities. To contest the financial industry's dominant risk discourse, I use quantitative, qualitative, and geospatial analyses to propose alternative risk assessment tools and strategies that redefine whose risks should be mitigated and who should do the mitigating. Using Los Angeles County as a case study, I found that middle-income neighborhoods with higher percentages of African-American residents and lower home values are disproportionately impacted by the increasing institutionalization and financialization of single-family rental housing. Additionally, tenants renting from the largest single-family rental companies face aggressive rent increases and greater maintenance responsibilities. Reframing "risk" not only better protects tenants and prospective homebuyers, it also interrogates the intersection of financial regulation and community development, recognizes the contradictions of planning communities without attempting to plan economies, and helps advance a more proactive vision of economic justice and economic democracy.
by Meredith Abood.
M.C.P.
28
Moriarty, Mark P. (Mark Paul) 1964, and Pennock J. 1970 Yeatman. "A risk-adjusted performance history of public and private market real estate investment, 1978-1997." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68797.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-54).
Since the inception of the Real Estate Investment Trust ("REIT"), the relative efficiency of the public and private real estate markets has been the subject of debate. Consequently, a determination of the more efficient real estate investment vehicle will probably have a significant effect on the future flow of capital into all real estate assets. This thesis proposes to identify which real estate investment medium, public or private, has provided greater efficiency to its investors as measured by risk adjusted total return over the 20 year period from 1978-1997. The initial objective of this thesis was to create a publicly traded real estate equity index(the "Thesis index") for comparison to the existing National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT") equity index in an effort to replicate the returns of the latter. This equity Thesis index is an annual weighted compilation of the total returns of each existing equity REIT, as identified by a query of the Compustat database, for each given year from 1978 through 1997. Returns were calculated as of the calendar year end commencing in 1978 and continuing through calendar year end 1997. The core objective of this thesis was to ultimately compare the de-levered Thesis index to the existing National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries ("NCREIF") index in order to determine which index has provided a greater risk adjusted return over the time series in question. Given the disparities in the risk profiles of the underlying indices and the need to ensure a homogeneous comparison, adjustments to the Thesis index have been made in order to compensate for leverage in the REIT capital structure, for the presence of development risk in the current REIT asset base, and for the respective weight of each real estate asset class within the NCREIF index.
by Mark P. Moriarty and Pennock J. Yeatman, IV.
S.M.
29
Brown, Michael D. (Michael David). "Managing political risk through increased local participation : innovations in water sector PSP from Tirupur, India." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34408.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-99).
Using primary data from an innovative water project in Tirupur, India with findings from two well-documented water projects in Latin America, this thesis asks: How might greater equity participation and decision-making authority among a broad base of users insulate against key political risks that have beset water sector private sector participation (PSP) in the past? I utilize concepts from the political risk literature, which have mainly been applied to the extractive and manufacturing industries, and extend this consideration to the water sector. I present preliminary findings, based on field research in India, that suggest increased local participation in water sector PSPs can mitigate against key political risks that have created problems elsewhere. These early findings challenge the conventional wisdom about water privatization and suggest a means to improve the design of future PSPs to reduce some of the risks and controversy that have characterized the sector.
by Michael D. Brown.
M.C.P.
30
Merrigan, Peter A. (Peter Andrew). "Risk based capital regulations for the life insurance industry and their implications for real estate." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68758.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1993.Title as it appears in the Sept. 1993 MIT Graduate List: Implications of risked based capital regulations on the life insurance company for the real estate industry.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-80).
by Peter A. Merrigan.
M.S.
31
Weismann, Gretchen D. "The relative risk : parenting, poverty, and peers in the three city study of moving to opportunity." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44365.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-274).
This study shows how kin networks, parental monitoring, and housing mobility structure low-income adolescents' engagement in risky and delinquent behavior. I use ethnographic data from a mixed-method study of a randomized housing experiment: The Three City Study of Moving to Opportunity. The ethnography was conducted over 8 months in 2004-2005 with thirty-nine families, including fifty-two male and female adolescents (ages 11-23) in greater Boston, Los Angeles, and New York. Beginning in 1994, two-thirds of the families (members of the experimental complier group) relocated from public and assisted housing in high poverty neighborhoods to very low poverty neighborhoods, using a rental housing voucher and other program supports. The remaining one-third of the sample, a control group, continued to live in high poverty "project" neighborhoods. Using case-study logic, I examine how the content and location of adolescent's daily routines and social ties to friends and relatives are associated with their involvement in risky and delinquent behavior. I also examine the role of parental monitoring and housing mobility patterns in moderating exposure to risk.I find that for most adolescents in the experimental-complier group, the neighborhood of residence has not become the primary neighborhood of influence in that the former only partially structures their routines and important social relations. How parents manage their social relations, especially with kin, shapes their children's level of engagement in new residential neighborhoods, and involvement in risky and delinquent behavior.
(cont.) Socializing with kin is risky because it brings youth back to dangerous neighborhood environments and because many youth stay connected to kin who are actively engaged in risky and delinquent behavior, including gang banging, drugs, and crime. Parenting moderates this exposure, but for some families, it does not change dramatically after relocation. These findings contribute to research on low-income housing policy and neighborhood effects by demonstrating the critical role of extended family networks, ongoing housing mobility, and multiple neighborhoods of influence in shaping exposure to risk. My policy recommendations include strategies to: help very low-income families who escape high-risk neighborhoods to stay out of them over time, and to manage the risk in their lives.
Gretchen D. Weismann.
Ph.D.
32
Baker, Rachel A. "The school to work transition of at-risk youth : putting employment and training programs into context." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64519.
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Li, Nan 1972, and Steven McKay Price. "Multiple asset class investing : equilibrium asset pricing evaluation of real estate risk and return across four quadrants." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33181.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-40).
The major objective of this study is to test equilibrium asset pricing models with respect to how well they price risk across multiple asset classes; including the four quadrants of real estate. While using the Geltner (1999) paper as a springboard for our approach, this thesis both updates Professor Geltner's earlier work and extends its scope through the testing of additional models and asset classes. Using historical data to derive beta estimates, we empirically test several variations of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). These variations include the traditional, single-beta, Sharpe-Lintner CAPM, as well as the multi-beta, Fama-French CAPM. For the single-factor formula we explore the use of two different market portfolio proxies, the S&P 500 Index and the National Wealth Portfolio (NWP). We also apply the single-factor formula to a non-wealth based, consumption oriented approach. Test results show the NWP based CAPM to be the strongest model, being both robust and statistically significant in its pricing of asset volatility. When using the traditional S&P 500 index as the market proxy, the basic CAPM performs surprisingly well, though not as well as the NWP version. The multi-beta Fama-French model explains a large amount of price variation, however, only the market and size factors prove to be statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.
(cont.) In a dramatic departure from what was found roughly fifteen years ago, the consumption model's performance was lackluster; supporting a widespread belief that there may be empirical issues with the measurement of quarterly consumption. The most interesting finding across all models tested was the behavior of the housing asset class. Housing appears to be an outlier that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the asset classes using linear pricing models. All the models display a statistically significant intercept, suggesting that there is a component of risk, perhaps a significant component (as perceived by investors relative to treasury bills), that is not captured in any of these risk models.
by Nan Li and Steven McKay Price.
S.M.
34
Schuetz, Jenny 1975, and Laura E. 1973 Talle. "The effects of syndicators and risk management on equity pricing of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70345.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2001.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-60).
A study was carried out to examine the impacts of risk characteristics on equity pricing of tax credits issued under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC). The results indicate that credit pricing is not correlated with most traditional real estate risk factors. We hypothesize that risks are mitigated by the services of syndicators, who act as intermediaries between developers and investors, thus managing the perceived risk of the investment. We tested this theory by examining the impact of individual syndicators on credit prices. Additionally, we tested the effect of syndicator fees and other syndicator-specific fixed effects on credit prices. Findings suggest that syndicator fixed effects and fees impact pricing, as do certain tax structure characteristics of the LIHTC developments. Developers appear to be less pricesensitive than investors, reflecting perhaps different levels of negotiating power in their relationships with syndicators, as well as lack of perfect information. Investors appear to focus more on internal rate of return than on price per unit of credit in their investment decisions, thereby confusing the relationship between syndicator effects and credit prices for investors. Housing policy implications and directions for future research are also discussed.
by Jenny Schuetz and Laura E. Talle.
M.C.P.
35
Parisca-Blanco, Sonia. "Risk prevention and policy formulation : responding to the 1999 mud-floods catastrophe in El Litoral Central, Venezuela." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33060.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.Pages 91-115 consist of 8 folded col. maps printed in leaves, 28 x 43 cm., inserted in pocket on p. [3] of cover.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-116).
Fifteen days of constant and intense rainfall in Venezuela culminated on December 16 1999, in catastrophic landslides and flooding along 25 miles of the Vargas State coastal strip. This catastrophe ravaged the Caracas seaside, ripping up houses and infrastructure and literally reshaping the coastline and beaches. Historical records indicate that similar natural events leading to landslides have occurred in this region before-each fifty years on average. Moreover, the evidence of obliterated structures over hazard-prone areas in Vargas State's cities has led the assumption that land-use planning was not successfully used as a hazard- mitigating technique. Today, after the 1999 mud-flood catastrophe, Venezuela's government is implementing land-use mitigation strategies. However, their efficiency in face of future similar events is not guaranteed. Depending on the tools and instruments used to implement these strategies, these programs will perform successfully --saving lives, time, and resources and promoting the economic and social growth of the region-or fail just as they have in the past. With the aid of government, dwellers have returned slowly to reconstruct their damaged properties, forgetting the strength of nature and the footprints of the rivers, to rebuild in hazard-prone areas and thus starting the cycle again. To evaluate this cycle, this study analyzes the tools used by the Venezuelan government to implement and-use policies in this risk-prone area. This study finds that the combination of tools used in the past and the combination used in the current program are inefficient to pursue the desired goals.
(cont.) These programs are mainly owned and operated by the national government, leaving very little space for local government, the private sector and communities to participate in the reconstruction process. This predominance does not mean national government should not be present in these programs. It does mean that the national government should inform, coordinate, and provide incentives to local governments to engage proactively in the reconstruction process while incorporating mitigation measures in land-use planning. Vargas State inhabitants must be active and willing participants in this process and the government should provide whatever assistance may be needed.
by Sonia Parisca-Blanco.
S.M.
36
Gray, Ian P. "Carbon finance, tropical forests and the state : governing international climate risk in the Democratic Republic of Congo." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/73814.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-83).
This thesis examines how evolving norms of international climate change mitigation are translated into national forest governance policies and land management techniques in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The development of administrative mechanisms to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) become a cultural script through which the institutions of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program "prepare" the post-colonial state to be a rational producer of avoided forest carbon emissions. The two actions-building the state and stabilizing a commodifiable carbon-occur unconsciously as a process Sheila Jasanoff calls "co-production," a dialectic in which efforts to change the natural order depend on unquestioned ideas about the social order, and visa versa. As this thesis shows, instrumental goals of making carbon governable in a country bearing the heavy legacy of Belgian colonialism and the scars of the largest regional war in recent African history, run a high risk of reproducing embedded inequities found at the local level. The impacts of global climate change are expected to have especially adverse affects on subsistence communities dependent on forest resources for their daily existence. If REDD architecture would live up to its stated goal of also improving livelihoods in the non-Annex I countries of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it must engage in a more overtly "coproductionist" politics of carbon management. This means developing overt mechanisms that provide more continuous interactions between different epistemic communities in the domestic REDD countries (international experts, national administrators and local communities), linking local level institutions upward with higher scales of administration in setting the rules for carbon management, as well as strengthening community control of resources so that the decision to participate in the provisioning of global public goods can be made with more autonomy.
by Ian P. Gray.
M.C.P.
37
Sato, Matsumoto Miranda Akemi. "Rural risk reduction in Mexico : making national plans for post-earthquake reconstruction more effective at the local level." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118203.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-97).
In September 2017, two severe earthquakes hit Mexico, killing hundreds of people and destroying thousand of structures, including houses, schools, churches, and other buildings. As a consequence, 18,851 settlements were declared disaster areas (DOF. 2017); 96% of those settlements are rancherías -- rural settlements and smallest geo-political unit in Mexico (INEGI. 2010). Because they tend to be very poor, the Mexican federal government intervened to assist affected families by utilizing national savings to provide conditional cash transfers for self-building, with the aim of facilitating housing reconstruction. However, this federal program, like other development programs used by the Mexican government, uses a top-down approach that has been criticized as a one-size-fits-all-solution that does not address the overwhelming needs of those living in earthquake-affected rancherías. This thesis studies the Mexican post-earthquake house reconstruction program at national, state, ranchería and household levels, with the objective of (1) examining the post-earthquake housing development program implemented by the Mexican government, (2) analyzing how national reconstruction plans can be made more efficient at local level, and (3) making recommendations to increase program efficiency through the proposal of a new policy initiative. In order to understand the reconstruction process, I first studied the protocols deployed at national and state levels. I then visited families in the midst of their reconstruction process in three rancherías -- La Nopalera in Yautepec, Morelos; Acatzingo de la Piedra in Tenancingo, Estado de Mexico; and San Juan Tlacotompa in Ecatzingo, Estado de México. This fieldwork permitted discovering that reconstruction is being led by external agents that fail to understand rural needs, consequently imposing urban housing solutions on a rural setting, thereby creating financial, structural and health risks. At the same time, capacity building training is concentrated on these external, urban-oriented agents, leaving local communities with minimal involvement or training in reconstruction efforts. Based on these findings, this thesis provides recommendations on how to address the misdirection of reconstruction efforts and proposes the creation of a university network for Rural Risk Reduction, so as to decentralise the technical capacity, currently concentrated in Mexican cities, while integrating local knowledge regarding rural-specific needs.
by Akemi Sato Matsumoto Miranda.
M.C.P.
38
Barrie, John R. "A study of default risk for small commercial real estate loans and its impact and implications for securitization." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/64527.
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Denyer, Laurie Michelle. "Call me 'at-risk' : maternal health in Sao Paulo's public health clinics and the desire for cesarean technology." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55107.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2009.Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-69).
This paper is based on ethnographic field research undertaken in a public health clinic in the periphery of São Paulo, as well as an examination of the "Humanisation of Childbirth Campaign". The Humanisation Campaign is a Brazilian public health initiative targeted at low-income women that aims to drastically lower country-wide caesarean rates. This paper will consider how pregnant women actively seek to be labeled 'at risk' during ante-natal care by doctors, nurses and health care technicians in order to ensure access to caesarean technology during their birthing process, in order to avoid the discrimination and physical abuse often associated with a vaginal delivery. I suggest that experiences of riscos, or riskiness, bear heavily on women's pragmatic adoption of interventionist birthing. Riscos, as it has been explained to me, is experienced both bodily and socially, as a physical threat to bodies that is experienced via physical and social violence within the clinic. In this paper, I plan to explore the phenomenology of risk, and how, for women from the periphery, risk to body and health is an embodied experience, and situated within the social and political context within which individual experience occurs. Ethnographic work suggests that women seek inclusion into 'expert' biomedical risk assessments and categories that ordinarily exclude or overlook them. This paper will be situated in an examination of the Humanisation of Birth Campaign, it will explore the conflicting meanings about what 'natural, normal and tradtional' means in Brazil, and the ongoing debate over birthing that is currently encapsulated in the narratives surrounding the Humanisation Campaign.
(cont.) This pragmatic desire to adopt risk labels offers a window into understanding a new range of questions about how public health narratives have direct implications for women's reproductive health, while at the same time reconfigure women's conceptions of, and negotiations with, bodily risk and flexibility.
by Laurie Michelle Denyer.
S.M.
40
Twersky, Fay Debra. "Stemming the tide of HIV infection : a multidimensional analysis of risk and prevention for Acquired Immuno-deficiency Virus." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78091.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1989.Title as it appeared in M.I.T. Graduate List, June 1989: Risk and prevention for Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome; a feminist analysis.
Includes bibliographical references.
by Fay Debra Twersky.
M.C.P.
41
Joshipura, Jinraj. "Economic and environmental risk-benefits and guildelines of harnessing energy from biomass and wastes : a case of Jamaica." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67424.
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Eser, Nermin. "Plannig Methods For Guiding Urban Regeneration Processes In High-risk Areas." Master's thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12610536/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Cities in Turkey are great risk pools. Underqualified building stocks are the major
components of such risk pools. For the mitigation of risks, 'engineering approach offers retrofitting of individual buildings as an ultimate method. However, this proposition has economic and legal difficulties. Instead, it is essential to develop new policies to focus on areas of high earthquake risk as comprehensive urban regeneration activities. This new policy requires new tools to monitor urban regeneration processes. It is obligatory to make comprehensive plans for high risk areas and to take low income groups into consideration in mitigation action plans. Comprehensive regeneration in existing districts could provide means and standards of safety not necessarily maintained by the retrofitting of individual buildings. Potentials of regeneration processes are readily observed and practiced in Turkey as means of regulating urban regeneration processes, even if for purposes other than safety. Analysis of a set of regeneration projects selected from world experience indicates that current regeneration practice in Turkey is far from a comprehensive approach. Municipalities are fully empowered to designate regeneration areas and carry out redevelopment activities often providing increased dentsities on compensate for the costs. This has been reinstated in the new draft law. Rather than a separate law, general regulation of regeneration could be accommodated in the Development Law 3194. A special Law concerning regeneration could instead focus only on risk reduction issues in cities throughout Turkey. The identification of priorities for such regeneration processes could be made by the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement as the central authority, clarifying the scale and timing of each project. The implementation tools of urban regeneration and issues like authorization, responsibility, funding, and auditing could be determined in this special law. A new approach for urban regeneration is needed to describe organizational, participatory, financial framework.
43
Grover, Himanshu. "Planning for mitigating climate change risk to metropolitan areas (USA)." [College Station, Tex. : Texas A&M University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1870.
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Hung, Hoang Vinh. "Integration of disaster risk management and urban planning for resilient communities : policy implications for the riverside urban areas of Hanoi." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/137091.
Full textAbstract:
Kyoto University (京都大学)0048
新制・課程博士
博士(地球環境学)
甲第13254号
地環博第20号
新制||地環||4(附属図書館)
UT51-2007-H527
京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻
(主査)教授 小林 正美, 助教授 SHAW Rajib Kumar, 教授 嘉門 雅史
学位規則第4条第1項該当
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Logg, Cristina Alene. "Crowdsourcing corporate water data : a validity test of a pilot survey instrument to map public water management related risk worldwide." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118242.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2018.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 128-130).
As water crises continue to occur globally, it would be invaluable to have easy-to-access, comparable and localized data on public water management worldwide; unfortunately such information is not available from a single public source (Koelbel et al. 2018). Information on water risk that does exist does not cover public water management at a granularity that would be useful to industrial facilities and local utilities. Even at a national or state-level, datasets on water risk are woefully incomplete. Given these gaps, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan Sustainability Initiative (MIT-SSI) are seeking to crowdsource multinational companies' information on public water management and water risk to see whether a reliable, globally comparable, and centralized geodatabase can be developed by pooling information that private actors use to map and identify local water risk and public water management efforts essential to their decision-making. WRI and MIT-SSI began an initial pilot study in 2017 with a survey of six multinational companies and 41 of their industrial processing and manufacturing facilities in 14 countries. These corporations were selected because they operate facilities globally, pursue extensive internal environmental sustainability work, and regularly collect data on water use and discharge at the site level. The initial pilot survey instrument covered (i) the availability of quantified, public information on water availability, demand, and quality; (2) the state of the relevant infrastructure including reliability of water supply and availability of wastewater treatment services; (3) existing water access regulations and consistency of regulatory enforcement; and (4) crisis response. I was asked to analyze these survey responses along with the results of follow-up interviews conducted in coordination with site visits to a selection of the survey respondents from California and India. I set out to determine whether the risk indicators used by the WRI/MIT-SSI partnership accurately portray on-the-ground public water management circumstances at the facility level for companies operating in both low and high-risk areas. I also tried to determine whether the water risk indicators developed by WRI/MIT-SSI are comparable, credible, and relevant across a range of manufacturing and industrial processing sites. In order to assess the validity of the initial survey instrument and the data it generated, I completed 27 interviews of 32 academics, public water managers, corporate facility managers, and individuals associated with non-profit organizations engaged in water and sanitation. I also visited two facilities in Southern California and Maharashtra, India while following up with six facility and environmental managers who completed the initial surveys in these regions. I found the pilot study responses generally reflected local public water risk management conditions and were trusted and found credible by all stakeholder groups interviewed. Furthermore, officials and stakeholders engaged in public water management, advocacy, and oversight thought the data generated by the survey instrument would be useful in a variety of ways as long as enough data points are provided and anonymity of corporate respondents is maintained. Unless responses can remain anonymous, there were fears that particular sites might be subject to litigation or regulatory retaliation. Facility managers said that they were able to answer all the survey questions based on what they already knew from their facilities' daily operations and from information regularly collected for internal environmental reporting and efficiency efforts. In my view, the responses appeared reasonably accurate and they were generated in a timely manner. Furthermore, collecting this information from corporate actors is not only feasible but is preferred in some contexts. My recommendations for improving the survey instrument emphasize the need to expand the scope of the survey while remaining cognizant of the need to keep the instrument brief. This includes collecting data on the availability of recycled and reclaimed water and addressing the existence of regulations that require the use and treatment of wastewater on-site. Furthermore, concerns about whether the survey respondent is qualified to answer the questions regularly arose; therefore, an additional recommendation is to provide a question to validate whether the respondent works onsite or has operating knowledge of water management in the region. WRI and the Pacific Institute, who will be superseding MIT-SSI in the project as it moves forward, should collaborate with additional institutional and corporate partners to ensure that more data points are collected globally as this will enhance the global credibility of survey findings.
by Cristina Alene Logg.
M.C.P.
46
Madhavan, Jaswanth. "Unconventional wisdom from below : understanding social and technical determinants of ergonomic risk in the Indian informal textile and clothing sector." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111394.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 66-68).
In many parts of the Global South, including India, a significant number of informal workers, particularly women in the informal economy, engage in sewing, embroidery, and other forms of manufacturing work within informal segments of the textile and clothing sector. Despite substantial progress in labor rights and workplace safety regulations, the persistence of hazardous workplace conditions renders such workers vulnerable to potentially disabling forms of 'Repetitive strain injuries'. 'Repetitive strain injuries' frequently result from poor ergonomic design of workplace equipment. This thesis on India's informal textile and clothing sector studies the usage characteristics of workplace technologies at the organizational and individual levels, and their interactions with broader social and institutional arrangements that characterize informal sewing units. In partnership with Usha International Ltd. and SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association) Bharat, the thesis demonstrates how context-sensitive ergonomic interventions can be developed for and with those working within the informal textile and clothing economy. The thesis achieves this by studying ergonomic risk from the bottom-up by using focus group discussions and key informant interviews, with the goal of (1) collecting both qualitative and quantitative information and (2) facilitating the unveiling of hidden rationalities that influence workplace decision making and studying their implications for technical and policy solutions.
by Jaswanth Madhavan.
M.C.P.
47
Koc, Ersan. "Commitment Building For Earthquake Risk Management: Reconciling." Phd thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612619/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
To a large extent, natural phenomenon like earthquakes, floods, lanslides and etc
may seem &ldquonatural events&rdquo
which are out of human control. In fact, the sociopolitical structure is the main cause of earth tremors which turn into disasters. What is notable and striking is that, because of institutional and social vulnerabilities and little or misguided efforts for disaster loss mitigation, natural events may turn into disasters resulting negative and devastating consequences. Institutional vulnerabilities connote a lack of local administrations&rsquo
capacity for disaster mitigation planning, furthermore awareness for accreting local stakeholders for disaster loss reduction. Social vulnerabilities, refers to miss-knowledge and lack of awareness for disasters in the society. In Turkey, it is hard to say that there has never been efforts for disaster loss reduction, whereas
the main focus of the state agencies has been on post-disaster emergency relief, literally wound healing for decades. Generally speaking, localities which experience a disaster may encounter significant losses in development, hence a significant decrease in local capacities which takes enormous resources to restore. The housing stock and urban fabric, which inherit an historical background weaved by missguided disaster policy that only focus on post-disaster emergency relief phase, pictures the extent of the problem in Turkey. In addition, both &ldquo
institutional errors which lead to underachievement in disaster policy and practice&rdquo
and &ldquo
opportunities for building robust and resilient forms of institutions&rdquo
come into local agenda. Errors, which might have been altered by long term and comprehensive modes of local planning for disasters, may lead to underachievement by local agents. To achieve such a model, we are in need to carry out qualitative and quantitative data collecting and analyzing techniques in different phases. The two analysis techniques are in-depth interviews (IDI) and drawing Concept Maps that will be conducted in the analyses process with local respondents selected by snowball technique.
48
Blanco, Alberto E. (Alberto Enrique) 1966. "Geographical and behavioral economics of political risk for foreign direct investment location." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/69880.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003.Special Program of Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS)
Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-145).
This thesis analyzes the perception gap between political risk assessments observed at the national level, and the different realities of sub-national city regions whose risk regime is not reflected by the national indicators, and its implication on foreign direct investment (FDI) location decisions. The purpose of this research is to understand how and why the national political risk assessments of countries with internal armed conflicts override the ability of regional investment promotion agencies to attract FDI into financially sound projects of high developmental value. This thesis complements the standard political risk underlying theories with geographical and behavioral economic theories, in order to propose a sub-national political-risk-assessment approach that could show the safer regions within riskier countries. It is based on the analysis of the Colombian Metallurgical Coke and Power Plant Project COLMECO, designed to be located in the Barranquilla Metropolitan Area, within the Atlantico Department, a region that has traditionally experienced no open internal armed conflict confrontation. The conclusions of this research prove and justify the sub-national risk assessment approach proposed.
by Alberto E. Blanco.
S.M.
49
Mowery, Molly Anne. "Wildfire and development : why stronger links to land-use planning are needed to save lives, protect property, and minimize economic risk." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/44338.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-50).
Exploding growth along the Colorado Front Range has expanded the wildland-urban interface-the area where homes and vegetation mix. This area, known as the WUI, is at high risk of wildfires. Wildfire risk is based on both natural conditions, such as invasive species and climate change, and human development decisions that allow continued growth in fire-prone areas. This thesis examines the approaches to wildfire risk mitigation taken by six counties along the Front Range. I argue that these mitigation approaches are effective but do not tackle important aspects of the wildfire problem, including who pays and how risks continue to increase. Counties should minimize development in the WUI by adopting strong policies that incorporate the full costs of fire protection into local jurisdictional budgets and address growth management in the WUI. This requires a greater incorporation of the land-use planning process into decisions that put people and property at risk to wildfire.
by Molly Anne Mowery.
M.C.P.
50
Senol, Balaban Meltem. "Risk Society And Planning: The Case Of Flood Disaster Management In Turkish Cities." Phd thesis, METU, 2009. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12610533/index.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
Global warming and climate change is believed to increase the hydro-meteorological natural disasters. Floods, the most widespread of natural hazards, are expected to occur more frequently and severely in the near future. This means that urban areas of Turkey are likely to be under intensive threat of floods, the adverse impacts of which are already considered only next to that of earthquakes. The recent disaster policy of United Nations together with contemporary interpretations of risk society shifted to capacity building and risk management prior to hazards, rather than preparations for relief after disasters. This historical turn in policy demands a more comprehensive and integrated form of planning for the mitigation of risks in the riverain cities of Turkey than existing approaches.
Turkey’
s current flood protection structure seems to be based on the surveys and assessments of a central authority and on its limited powers of intervention. The local municipal administrations are under different interests and pressures for development and land-use. It seems essential to integrate flood risk mitigation efforts with the local planning system and to involve municipalities in their estimations of risks and its declaration on official duty, as contemporary international approaches indicate. This conviction is based on a sample survey of four cases of riverine cities in Turkey, and on a review of current approaches in a sample of international cases. Findings on four riverain case cities indicate that river floods turn into destructive disasters mainly due to tolerant land-use decisions. Inaccurate and discrete implementations and developments in and through the river basins are a second source of flood losses. Currently, neither urban development plans nor available flood plans are equipped with necessary measures to mitigate risks. Findings indicate that current vulnerabilities are greater in value than investments made to curb flood risks. Independent and discrete efforts of mitigation seem to generate illusory feelings of safety, which aggravates vulnerabilities. The compulsory declaration of flood vulnerabilities by municipalities themselves in their entitlement for special subsidies could raise the general level of awareness, could curb further vulnerabilities, and contribute to the articulation of planning methods in the more effective mitigation control.