Browsing by Subject "Planning"

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A case study of ongoing planning and decision-making leadership strategies employed by principals of high performing schools
(2021-06-14) Hooper, Torrye; Olivárez, Rubén; DeMatthews, David; Cantu, Norma; Simieou, Felix
There are research studies that focus on principal leadership and the direct and positive impact it has on student performance, but few examine the effects of principal strategies in the areas of ongoing planning and decision making in high-performing poverty schools in urban school districts. Strategies implemented by school leaders as they relate to ongoing school reform, specifically in the areas of planning and decision-making in successful urban high-needs schools, were investigated. Research questions include: 1) What is the role of the principal in the ongoing process of planning and decision-making? 2) How do principals effectuate meaningful involvement of teachers in the ongoing planning and decision-making process? 3) What school-based support-structures and systems are created by principals to facilitate the involvement of other school personnel and community stakeholders in the ongoing planning and decision-making process? 4) What principal leadership actions and strategies are utilized to attain sustainability of high levels of student achievement? A qualitative case study methodology is used to understand the strategies of school leaders in successful high poverty urban schools, specifically with planning and decision-making. Elementary principals and teachers are asked open-ended questions in which they describe their experiences with leadership strategies that directly impact student achievement. The most prevalent theme that emerged was the availability of resources – offering a positive impact on teachers’ instructional performances. The findings suggest that as leaders utilize ongoing planning and decision-making strategies, as they relate to the new accountability system, they will become invaluable resources to support and retain teachers.
Advanced Work Packaging from project definition through site execution : driving successful implementation of WorkFace Planning
(2013-08) Hamdi, Olfa; Leite, Fernanda L.; O'Brien, William J.
Capital projects use work packaging to divide their projects' scope into manageable portions of work for planning and execution, all to achieve improved productivity and increased predictability. However, currently, no common industry standard for work packaging is widely and uniformly implemented within the North American capital projects industry. As documented by CII RT 272 Phase I (2009-2011), companies have been implementing a number of varied work packaging practices at different stages of the project lifecycle with emphasis on the construction phase. Due to the varied implementation, there is currently little evidence of the benefits of extending work packaging to the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and the Detailed Engineering (DE) phases. To provide the best current evidence, this thesis describes new findings on Advanced Work Packaging (AWP) as an execution practice, with special emphasis on design activities. This research combines data collection methods such as interviews, observations and document review, as well as surveys. The reader will understand the current industry status on Advanced Work Packaging in terms of levels of implementation as well as evidence of benefits and implementation challenges across the project lifecycle. Documented benefits include productivity improvements on the order of 25% in the field, with corresponding reductions of 10% of total installed cost. Other significant benefits include improved safety, improved productivity, less rework, significant reduction in RFIs and increased stakeholder alignment. Documented AWP implementation challenges include lack of process formulization, persons’ resistance to change and lack of buy-in, stakeholders’ conflict of interest and working culture, incompatibility with some contractual scenarios as well as traditional change management practices.
Autonomous trading in modern electricity markets
(2015-12) Urieli, Daniel; Stone, Peter, 1971-; Mooney, Raymond; Ravikumar, Pradeep; Baldick, Ross; Kolter, Zico
The smart grid is an electricity grid augmented with digital technologies that automate the management of electricity delivery. The smart grid is envisioned to be a main enabler of sustainable, clean, efficient, reliable, and secure energy supply. One of the milestones in the smart grid vision will be programs for customers to participate in electricity markets through demand-side management and distributed generation; electricity markets will (directly or indirectly) incentivize customers to adapt their demand to supply conditions, which in turn will help to utilize intermittent energy resources such as from solar and wind, and to reduce peak-demand. Since wholesale electricity markets are not designed for individual participation, retail brokers could represent customer populations in the wholesale market, and make profit while contributing to the electricity grid’s stability and reducing customer costs. A retail broker will need to operate continually and make real-time decisions in a complex, dynamic environment. Therefore, it will benefit from employing an autonomous broker agent. With this motivation in mind, this dissertation makes five main contributions to the areas of artificial intelligence, smart grids, and electricity markets. First, this dissertation formalizes the problem of autonomous trading by a retail broker in modern electricity markets. Since the trading problem is intractable to solve exactly, this formalization provides a guideline for approximate solutions. Second, this dissertation introduces a general algorithm for autonomous trading in modern electricity markets, named LATTE (Lookahead-policy for Autonomous Time-constrained Trading of Electricity). LATTE is a general framework that can be instantiated in different ways that tailor it to specific setups. Third, this dissertation contributes fully implemented and operational autonomous broker agents, each using a different instantiation of LATTE. These agents were successful in international competitions and controlled experiments and can serve as benchmarks for future research in this domain. Detailed descriptions of the agents’ behaviors as well as their source code are included in this dissertation. Fourth, this dissertation contributes extensive empirical analysis which validates the effectiveness of LATTE in different competition levels under a variety of environmental conditions, shedding light on the main reasons for its success by examining the importance of its constituent components. Fifth, this dissertation examines the impact of Time-Of-Use (TOU) tariffs in competitive electricity markets through empirical analysis. Time-Of-Use tariffs are proposed for demand-side management both in the literature and in the real-world. The success of the different instantiations of LATTE demonstrates its generality in the context of electricity markets. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates that an autonomous broker can act effectively in modern electricity markets by executing an efficient lookahead policy that optimizes its predicted utility, and by doing so the broker can benefit itself, its customers, and the economy.
Autonomous vehicles : land use implications for Austin, Texas
(2015-08) Palmer, Rebekah Mae; Wegmann, Jake; Jiao, Junfeng
Autonomous vehicles are said to be a disruptive technology that will transform the way we live in coming decades. Drawing from the historical context of conventional vehicles and their subsequent transformation of land use development patterns, this paper seeks to understand the ancillary implications of such advances in transport. I assert the argument that Austin will be amongst the first cities to experience these shifts due to its history of economic development strategy, large populous of technology 'first-adopters,' the city's struggle to accommodate rapid growth, and Austin's context within Texas' business-friendly regulatory environment. The literature review aims to cover a broad, high-level view of the current status of autonomous vehicle development and provide context for how the academy is researching the possibilities for autonomous vehicle commercialization. A second portion of this report summarizes the views of Austin-based traffic engineers, transit researchers, attorneys, and other experts serving on various policy advisory councils in Austin, Travis County, and Central Texas.
Beyond books : interactive lessons for the college biology classroom
(2011-12) Londeore, Cynthia Fay; Jansen, Robert K., 1954-; Fischer, Janice
College level science is frequently taught as a recitation of facts in a lecture hall, and the students are expected to gain understanding and insight with their own study. Interactive learning is more effective than lecture based learning and more memorable for the students. Teaching with hands on models has been shown to specifically be beneficial in a college level molecular biology context. Included here is a guide for the instructor leading her through topic selection, activity development, and presentation to the class, as well as five complete and tested lesson plans with notes on alteration made and the reasons for them.
Business continuity planning and semiconductor manufacturing
(2010-12) Urena, Enrique C.; Lewis, Kyle, 1961-; Duvic, Robert Conrad, 1947-
In the current era of globalization in supply chain, business continuity planning should play an even more important role than previously. Business continuity planning provides company with an analysis of potential business threatening situations, everything from natural disasters to supply shortages, and ensures that actions are taken in order to mitigate the probability that those risks will become reality. Business continuity planning does not come without a cost, since companies will in some cases have to spend money in actions like redundancies (e.g. supplier). In the Semiconductor industry, supply chains might are extremely complex and globalized. These supply chains can go from having suppliers in the United States, to front-end manufacturing in Europe, to back-end manufacturing and packaging in Asia. Raw materials for semiconductor manufacturing, for example raw wafers, can be found for above $500 per wafer. It is due to not only the complexity of the supply chain in semiconductors, but also due to the high costs of raw materials and manufacturing, that it is crucial for companies in this particular industry to ensure business continuity planning is taken seriously, and adequate measures are taken to mitigate as many risks to their supply chain as possible.
Commercial corridor improvements on Mays Street in Round Rock, Texas
(2020-05-09) Haggerty, Nicole Capri; Oden, Michael
Suburban cities across the United States are continuing to redevelop and revitalize neighborhoods and commercial areas to meet the changing needs of their communities. Commercial corridors, which can be characterized by retail strip centers, curb cuts and driveways, commercial signs, and sparse pedestrian infrastructure, have become a focus of revitalization efforts. In Round Rock, Texas, one of the fastest-growing cities in the country with a population of approximately 120,000, the City Council has recently become interested in improvements to one of the city’s busiest commercial corridors. This report focuses on a one-mile segment of Mays Street, a north-south commercial corridor in Round Rock, Texas. A qualitative analysis of existing conditions provides an understanding of the physical conditions, regulatory structure, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the corridor. A study of current literature presents best practices for community engagement, as well as ideas from Complete Streets, Smart Growth, and Tactical Urbanism approaches as they relate to commercial corridors. Case studies from San Antonio, McAllen, and Pearland, Texas and Shoreline, Washington demonstrate best practices and lessons learned that could be applied to the Mays Street Corridor. Key findings show that there are both physical planning interventions and regulatory changes that cities can use to address commercial corridor concerns. Recommendations for the Mays Street Corridor are provided based on the existing conditions, literature review, and case studies. If improvements are successful along the Mays Street Corridor are considered to be successful, the same strategies can be applied to other commercial corridors in Round Rock. The report concludes with a summary lessons learned and next steps.
Community-based agriculture and the implications for Central Texas
(2012-05) Witter, Claire Elise; Dooling, Sarah; Almy, Dean
Due to health and climate change concerns, there is growing interest in a shift away from large-scale agricultural production towards a more localized, organic methodology. These practices help to preserve local ecosystems and require less energy than conventional farming. With this trend, a new form of community development is emerging. Developments that incorporate agriculture are a form of conservation development and have been in existence in their latest form in the United States for the past ten years. Most of the examples are located in the northern, eastern and western United States, including Vermont, Virginia, Illinois, Utah and Georgia. Why has this type of development not yet appeared in Texas? The purpose of this research is to identify the motivations behind creating these developments and to describe how they function, to identify the challenges in the development review process and how they were negotiated, to present a set of issues and lessons learned from the case studies about what matters to the development of a successful case and determine how this applies to potential Texas development. Is this a more sustainable model for development, as opposed to the traditional method for greenfield development? The research is aimed ultimately at exploring this newer type of development, determining whether it is more sustainable than traditional greenfield development and to present a set of issues and lessons drawn from the cases about what matters to the development of a successful case.
Contextualizing impermanence : reevaluating the planning paradigms of Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh
(2020-05-06) Bashar, Samira Binte; Sletto, Bjørn
The current planning paradigms of Rohingya refugee camps lie at the intersection of impermanence and adhocracy. This study seeks to explore the extent to which adhocracy has contributed to a strategy of impermanence in the Rohingya refugee camp, and how adhocracy has limited recognition of the human rights of Rohingya refugees and served to discount the spirit of the Rohingya community as reflected in their everyday practices. The study underscores the fact that refugees are seen as subjects of exclusion, blurring the line between permanence and impermanence in the planning domain. Also, by pursuing strategies of negotiation and appropriation of space as part of everyday practices, Rohingya refugees do not accept their status as refugees nor do they wish to be incorporated into the host community.
Creating Austin : making visible the goals and norms of cultural planning
(2010-05) Ogusky, Adam ; Dooling, Sarah; Oden, Michael
The practice of cultural planning proceeds largely in the absence of discussion regarding its purpose, norms and goals, either in academic literature or among its practitioners. This paper seeks to uncover the norms and goals of cultural planning, as understood by cultural planners working in Austin, TX, through a series of interviews with these individuals. Interviews also brought to light cultural planners’ understandings of the function of art in communities. Ultimately, little connection was found between cultural planners’ understandings of the function of art in communities and the norms and goals of cultural planning. It is argued herein that these two conversations must be closely linked and that cultural planner’s understandings of what art can and should do in communities must form the basis for the goals and norms of cultural planning practice.
Creating spaces of shared citizenship and social control : redefining invisible borders through urban design interventions in Las Independencias, San Javier, Medellín
(2018-05-07) Todtz, Evan Thomas; Sletto, Bjørn
Medellín, a city once plagued by violence, has recently become a global model for more equitable urban planning and urban design practice. Initiated during the mayoral administration of Sergio Fajardo (2004-2007), a progressive planning tool known as the Integrated Urban Project (PUI) guides physical design interventions in the urban peripheries where historic state absence had led to extreme levels of violence and socio-economic inequities. Collectively denoted as social urbanism, these new institutional and mobility projects seek to disrupt the existing geographies of violence, referred to by local residents as invisible borders (fronteras invisibles), while newly created public spaces aim to promote a culture of shared citizenship (cultura ciudadanía) between neighborhood residents. Given the state’s intent to shape and exert control over the socio-spatial relationships of residents within contexts of urban informality, this thesis seeks to contextualize the planning and design of new public spaces within the everyday lived experiences of neighborhood residents by presenting a case study along the public escalator system in the neighborhood sector of Las Independencias, San Javier. Based on a “quasi” design ethnography research methodology, including researcher observations and local resident interviews, the thesis provides a detailed description of physical and social characteristics of new urban common spaces. The public escalator system was designed to disrupt existing geographies of violence by creating new spatial connections and an institutional presence in Las Independencias. However, this mobility infrastructure also erodes the social vibrancy of the stairway, a dynamic social space within contexts of urban informality. By supporting only unidirectional movement (up or down) and removing the stairway’s potential for residents to gather, the escalators generate a pass-through space by design. Furthermore, the design favors social gathering in highly controlled public platforms between escalator segments, limiting the potential uses of these spaces to what the state deems acceptable and desirable. Ultimately, the design and surveillance of the public escalator system paradoxically works to provide residents with enhanced mobility, accessibility and socio-economic opportunities while simultaneously strengthening the state’s institutional presence in the sector, limiting the potential to reflect embedded local cultural values and practices.
De llacta a Comunidad del Milenio : neo-urbanismo en la Amazonía indígena Ecuatoriana
(2017-04-25) Lamina Luguana, Alexandra Magaly; Sletto, Bjørn; Lara, Fernando
The poverty rate in the Ecuadorian Amazon is 78.4% (INEC, 2012), and even higher in indigenous territories where extensive oil production is taking place. The Ecuadorian government has responded to these extreme poverty levels in indigenous territories through a variety of planning and development strategies, including the construction of housing projects to transform what is characterized as “marginal and poor” indigenous settlements into “dignified” communities. These so-called “Millennium Communities” are celebrated for their role in poverty alleviation. However, this public housing strategy raises several important concerns regarding the top-down, rational approach to planning and development in Ecuador, particularly in indigenous territories. This thesis examines the Millennium Community Pañacocha through ethnographic methods, field assessments of housing quality, and an analysis of regional planning and policy documents. The study found that several problems emerge from these housing projects due to the poor adaptability of the design to the environment, low-quality construction, lack of maintenance, including social and territorial conflicts and unemployment and social problems among residents. Even though Ecuador is a post-neoliberal regime that pursues a so-called “New Socialism of the 21st Century,” planning continues to be dominated by official authorities while local peoples’ visions and understandings of the landscape they traditionally inhabit are not considered in state development strategies. This research demonstrates that public housing programs in indigenous territories are driven by a discourse of “social justice” supported by neoliberal and neocolonial practices. Informed by this social justice discourse, the state delegates housing planning and implementation to the private sector in order to subjugate indigenous life systems into urban structures. More broadly, this work reveals how indigenous knowledge may contribute to a new form of “indigenous planning” based on indigenous knowledge, visions, and capacities, and building on indigenous institutions. Such indigenous planning would serve as a means to contest aggressive processes of acculturation, guarantee territorial self-governance, and provide for the exercise of their collective rights.
Decision-making for autonomous agents in adversarial or information-scarce settings
(2023-08) Karabag, Mustafa O.; Topcu, Ufuk; Ornik, Melkior; Shakkottai, Sanjay; Tanaka, Takashi; Mokhtari, Aryan
Autonomous agents often operate in adversarial or information-scarce settings. These settings exist due to various factors, such as the coexistence of non-cooperative agents, computation limitations, communication losses, and imperfect sensors. To ensure high performance in the presence of such factors, decision-making algorithms for autonomous agents must limit the amount of sensitive information leaked to adversaries and rely on minimal information about their environment. We consider a variety of problems where an autonomous agent operates in an adversarial or information-scarce setting, and present novel theory and decision-making algorithms for these problems. First, we focus on an adversarial setting where a malicious agent aims to deceive its supervisor in probabilistic supervisory control setting. We formulate the deception problem as an expected cost minimization problem in a Markov decision process (MDP) where the cost function is motivated by the results from hypothesis testing. We show the existence of an optimal stationary deceptive policy and provide algorithms for the synthesis of optimal deceptive policies. From the perspective of the supervisor, we prove the NP-hardness of synthesizing optimal reference policies that prevent deception. We also show that synthesizing optimal deceptive policies under partial observations is NP-hard and provide synthesis algorithms by considering special classes of policies and MDPs. Second, as a part of decision-making in information-scarce settings, we consider a multiagent decision-making problem where a group of agents cooperates under communication losses. We model this problem with a multiagent MDP, quantify the intrinsic dependencies between the agents induced by their joint policy, and develop a decentralized policy execution algorithm for communication losses. For a variety of communication loss models, we provide performance lower bounds that are functions of the dependencies between the agents. We develop an algorithm for the synthesis of minimally dependent policies that optimize these lower bounds and thereby remain performant under communication losses. Finally, we consider the problem of optimization under limited information since autonomous agents often perform optimization as a part of their operation. We develop optimization algorithms for smooth convex optimization using sub-zeroth-order oracles that provide less information than zeroth and first-order oracles. For the directional preference oracle that outputs the sign of the directional derivative at the query point and direction, we show a 𝒪̃(𝑛⁴) sample complexity upper bound where 𝑛 is the number of dimensions. For the comparator oracle that compares the function value at two query points and outputs a binary comparison value, we show a 𝒪̃(𝑛⁴) sample complexity upper bound. For the noisy value oracle, we develop an algorithm with 𝒪̃(𝑛 [superscript 3.75] 𝒯 [superscript 0.75]) high probability regret bound where 𝒯 is the number of queries.
Determining existing, possible, and preferable urban tree canopy for Austin, Texas
(2013-05) Halter, Alan Dale; Lee, Ming-Chun
This report analyzes urban tree canopy cover (UTC) in Austin, Texas in 2006 using a Geographic Information System (GIS) geoprocessing method developed by the U.S. Forest Service. Findings reveal where UTC exists, could exist, and where it could be prioritized (physically speaking) throughout the Austin region. Results are explained through the context of natural regions and land use to further characterize the urban forest distribution with the purpose of gaining valuable big-picture insights as to where environmental benefits have resulted from local land use planning decisions, development tendencies, and forestry management practices in Austin.
Digital flood insurance rate maps and their influence on Cameron Parish, Louisiana, post-Hurricane Rita
(2009-12) Pryll, Jaclyn Marie; Butler, Kent S.
Cameron Parish, Louisiana, was impacted by one of the most devastating hurricane seasons in U.S. history in 2005. Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Hurricane Rita stormed over the Texas-Louisiana border delivering another debilitating blow to the Louisiana coast and creating devastation along the southwestern coastline. In March 2008, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) updated the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for Cameron Parish. These maps rezoned much of Cameron Parish by placing a majority of the parish's land in a flood zone rating of V or higher. FEMA's reluctance to provide federal disaster funds to substantially redevelop and newly construct buildings in areas classified as a flood zone rating of V or higher makes it difficult for Cameron Parish to redevelop as they desperately need federal assistance. This research analyzes Cameron Parish's resources to protect against the hurricane before it hit as well as roles of the federal, state, and local governing bodies on its future development through planning initiatives after the hurricane. Using literature review, state and local media coverage, and interviews with professionals in the field of planning and engineering, this report found that it took a massive hurricane to convey the need for planning in Cameron Parish, and that the flood maps used to provide risk do not communicate risk management as efficiently or accurately as intended.
Digital twinning of well construction operations for improved decision-making
(2020-11-17) Saini, Gurtej Singh; Oort, Eric Van; Verdin, Carlos T; Pyrcz, Michael J; Ashok, Pradeepkumar; Pournazari , Parham
Well construction is a highly technical, inherently unpredictable, and non-holonomic multi-step process with vast state and action spaces, that requires complex decision-making and action planning at every step. Action planning demands a careful evaluation of the vast action-space against the system’s long-term objective. Current human-centric decision-making introduces a degree of bias, which can result in reactive rather than proactive decisions. This can lead from minor operational inefficiencies all the way to catastrophic health, safety, and environmental issues. A system that can automatically generate an optimal action sequence from any given state to meet an operation’s objectives is therefore highly desirable. Moreover, an intelligent agent capable of self-learning can offset the computation and memory costs associated with evaluating the action space. This dissertation details the development of such intelligent planning systems for well construction operations by utilizing digital twinning, reward shaping and reinforcement learning techniques. To this effect, a methodology for structuring unbiased purpose-built sequential decision-making systems for well construction operations is proposed. This entails formulating the given operation as a Markov decision process (MDP), which demands carefully defining states and action values, defining goal states, building a digital twin to model the process, and appropriately shaping reward functions to measure feedback. An iterative method for building digital twins, which are vital components of this MDP structure, is also developed. Finally, a simulation-based search decision-time planning algorithm, the Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS), is adapted and utilized for learning and planning. The developed methodology is demonstrated by building and utilizing a finite-horizon decision-making system with discrete state- and action-space for hole cleaning advisory during well construction. A digital twin integrating hydraulics, cuttings transport, and rig-state detection models is built to simulate hole cleaning operations, and a non-sparse reward function to quantify state-action transitions is defined. Finally, the MCTS algorithm, enhanced by a well-designed heuristic function tailored for hole cleaning operations, is utilized for action planning. The plan (action sequence) output by the system, results in significant performance improvement over the original decision maker’s actions, as quantified by the long-term reward and the final system state
The effect of local planning actions on environmental injustice : Corpus Christi's refinery row neighborhoods
(2015-05) Beeler, Melissa Morgan; Mueller, Elizabeth J.; Rawlins, Rachael
Public health problems associated with industrial and hazardous waste facilities seriously and disproportionately impact some communities more than others and have been the subject of environmental justice research for decades. This report aims to 1) evaluate whether and how local planning policies have contributed to a concentration of minorities and poverty adjacent to industry in Corpus Christi's north side, and 2) examine actions that planners and city officials could take to successfully mitigate environmental justice problems. City plans, reports and zoning maps relating to the north side were reviewed to understand whether the City has contributed to the neighborhoods' proximity to industrial sites. These documents suggest that city actions have had some role in the minority neighborhoods' proximity to environmental hazards, especially in the early years of planning in Corpus Christi. Lessons learned from these planning documents are discussed, as well as recommendations for future planning efforts in the north side.
Engaging freight stakeholders in Texas freight planning : needs, strategies, and performance measures
(2011-05) Carrion Alers, Migdalia; Walton, C. Michael; Harrison, Robert
Efficient, reliable, and safe freight transportation is critical to the economic prosperity of any region. In the U.S., the dramatic increase in freight volumes has resulted in the growing disparity between demand and capacity. Thus, freight planning is needed to ensure a seamless and effective Texas's transportation system. A clear understanding on the performance of Texas's transportation system, as perceived by the private sector is a critical component in the development of such planning efforts. Against this background, the objective of this research study was to start engaging Texas's shippers and freight stakeholders in a dialogue to provide insight into the adequacy of Texas's transportation system in serving business needs, and any improvements deemed necessary to better serve Texas businesses. The emphases of this study were on the freight concerns and needs, freight policies and strategies, and freight performance measures as expressed by Texas freight stakeholders.
Engaging the Millennial Generation : public participation methods for Millennials in Austin’s planning processes
(2016-05) Peris, Karen Emily; Wilson, Patricia Ann; Mueller, Elizabeth
Planning processes include the necessary component of engaging the public in the process with a fair and equitable process. The difficulty with participatory planning processes is reaching all affected groups. One of these difficult to reach cohorts is the Millennial generation. It is a common misunderstanding that Millennials are unengaged and self-centered. Regardless, it is important to engaging the generation because Millennials are a large part of urban populations, especially in Austin. As Austin implements the 2012 comprehensive plan, there are many planning processes that will follow. Austin city planners have the opportunity to engage the Millennial cohort moving forward with these planning processes, starting with the activity corridors, which is the next task of the comprehensive plan. To understand how to engage the Millennials it is important to define the generation's characteristics. The literature review is research of the history of participation, generational differences, and analysis of the Millennials. Then, the report looks at case studies from four cities that have targeted the Millennial generation in engagement process to deduct important themes and understand lessons learned. Overall, the report realizes through the analysis of the characteristics and themes that Millennials engage in different ways than have been effective in the past, but they are, in fact, engaged in civic life. Millennial characteristics and motivations align with the modern landscape of public participation. Understanding the target audience will make planning processes more equitable.
An evaluation of online participatory planning spaces : a case study of the Oak Hill Parkway Virtual Open House
(2014-05) Ettelman, Benjamin Lamond; Mueller, Elizabeth J.
State planning and transportation agencies continually face the escalating problem of increasing needs coupled with limited financial resources to meet those needs. In this difficult fiscal environment, the importance of meaningfully involving the public in the decisions that shape the future of our cities and regions becomes even more amplified. Proactively working with the public to gain buy-in from the early stages of the planning process is one of the most effective strategies to reduce project costs. The classic process in which state planning and transportation agencies have engaged the public is no longer an effective or efficient model as public meeting attendance has consistently decreased. As technology continues to shape the way that the public communicates with each other and their government, the onus falls on state planning and transportation agencies not only to continue to provide the traditional methods of engagement, but to look for new and innovative ways to gain increased public participation in the planning process. The traditional methods of public engagement will always be an important part of the planning process, but discovering the effectiveness of emerging technologies in order to develop new best practices for public engagement is the charge of the future. This report will evaluate whether a) online participatory planning spaces expand participation in the planning process and b) examine how evaluative metrics gathered by using online tools can inform decision makers of the utility of virtual planning spaces. This report will then present an evaluative criteria in order to establish a baseline by which to assess the performance of public involvement processes. This report will then present a case study of the Oak Hill Parkway Virtual Open House Pilot Project, a pilot study conducted in Austin, Texas to test the effectiveness of online participatory planning spaces in the field. This report will also share the results of interviews with Oak Hill Parkway Project representatives regarding the usefulness of virtual planning spaces. The report will conclude with a discussion of lessons learned and future research needs.