Browsing by Subject "green space"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Making Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Viable: Private Choices, Public Support, and Systems Constraints
    (Cogitato Press, 2017-09-08) Noonan, Douglas S.; Zhou, Shan; Kirkman, Robert; School of Public and Environmental Affairs
    Sustainable cities will require major infrastructure investments coupled with widespread behavioral change. Examples of smart, green technologies abound, but evidence for actual use lags. This partly owes to the tension between public support and private choices: individuals thinking as members of the public may see solutions as smart for the city, but thinking of their private interests may see those same solutions as not smart for themselves. This also owes to the disconnect between private and public choices, on the one hand, and the workings of complex systems, on the other. Even if public and private interests align, existing built environment systems may resist change. This article examines public perception and use of the Atlanta BeltLine, a pioneering sustainability initiative to transform the auto-dependent city into a greener, denser city. Analyzing a general public survey reveals widespread support for the BeltLine alongside reticence from residents to change their commute or greenspace use. The findings also show that drivers of public support and prospective use of the BeltLine differ. Public support may be insufficient if individual use decisions do not follow. Yet, private adoption decisions may not follow until and unless the systems in which they are embedded are already changing.
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    Managing contested greenspace: neighborhood commons and the rise of dog parks
    (2012-02) Matisoff, Daniel; Noonan, Douglas S.
    Dog parks present an emerging class or urban environmental amenities. In order to develop a better understanding of dog parks, this article applies existing literature regarding urban parks and common pool resource (CPR) management to off-leash recreation areas. We develop a typology dog-park management and build upon a survey of 298 dog park users of a major dog park. We test the relationship between the perception of the park as a successfully governed CPR, and behaviour which contributes to collective action, such as contributing time, money, or to the upkeep of the park and developing a sense of community. We see strong relationships between these indicators of overcoming collective action problems and the four variables corresponding to design principles. Across all models, feeling involved in rule-making positively and significantly predicts more collective action or stronger sense of community.