Global climate change, rising average temperatures, rising water levels, irregularities in climate and river regimes, and increasing anthropogenic disturbances pose a significant risk to the ecosystems of protected areas. Given that past conditions are different from future conditions, managing protected areas faces serious challenges. New management approaches and strategies are needed to overcome these challenges. Planners and academicians have established methodologies for assessing the quality of climate change adaptation and resilience plans. However, a similar plan quality evaluation that considers climate change adaptation for National Park General Management Plans has not been conducted. This study adapted that methodology for national park management plans and applied it to analyze National Park General Management Plans across nine United States climate regions. Furthermore, this thesis aims to address this gap by asking and answering the following question: How do existing management plans for national parks meet the principles identified for effective planning for climate change? In this study, national park management plans are evaluated according to 112 criteria across seven principles, allowing for direct comparison and conclusions on strengths and weaknesses. The study revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the plans. Plans generally have similar weak points and strong points. While some aspects, such as public participation and coordination, perform relatively well, there are critical shortcomings in articulating a vision for climate adaptation, addressing uncertainty, and developing detailed strategies and monitoring mechanisms. The study will contribute to a better understanding of how protected areas can prepare for climate change impacts.

Public transportation is considered a solution to congestion and a tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is becoming popular even in cities with the harshest climate conditions as these cities grow rapidly and are trying to provide sustainable alternatives for their vehicle-oriented communities. A lot must be taken into consideration whendesigning transit systems to reduce riders' vulnerability to heat in cities with high temperatures averaging 40°C during the summer and humidity levels reaching 90 percent. Using transit systems in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Phoenix Metropolitan, United States, as case studies, this paper focuses on both qualitative and quantitative research methods to observe the built environment around public transit stations and measure the temperatures and humidity levels to compare with the experienced temperatures and the built environment observations. The results show that the design of transit stations and the public realm significantly impacts a rider's experience. The findings show that passive cooling, shading, and vegetation as the best practices in the two case studies. Both transit systems have certain elements that work efficiently and other elements that need improvement to provide a better rider experience. Identifying these best practices helps develop recommendations for the future of designing transit systems in desert cities worldwide.

The Phoenix area is often considered the mecca of suburban residential sprawl and for as long as the city has been growing, retail development has followed. Despite occurring alongside residential sprawl, retail development does not have the same characteristics as residential suburban sprawl and has more closely followed national retail trends. Regardless, there are still some differences, therefore the research question that will be asked here is how have the characteristics of retail development in Greater Phoenix followed the national trends of retail developments that were established in each decade since the 1950s? Characteristics were gathered from a literature review and 29 sample retail developments from various types of retail formats popularized in the various decades including commercial strips, regional shopping centers, big box centers, factory outlet malls, power centers, power parks, and lifestyle centers were surveyed. Overall, it was found that many retail developments in Phoenix are larger than the national standard. Additionally, retail formats like power parks, power towns, and big box centers included more small and medium sized inline or strip storefronts than the national standard. But, in general, many characteristics other than those already mentioned did not vary much from the national norms. In the end, retail development will continue to be important as the Phoenix area continues to grow into one of the biggest metros in the country.

Transit agencies are struggling to regain ridership lost during the pandemic. Research shows that riding transit was among the most feared activities during the pandemic due to people’s high perceived risk of infection. Transit agencies have responded by implementing a variety of pandemic-related safety measures in stations and vehicles, but there is little literature assessing how these safety measures affect passengers’ perception of safety. This study implements surveys, interviews, and observations in Berlin, Germany to assess how passengers’ demographic characteristics and experiences with safety measures are related to their perception of safety using transit. Females and older age groups were more likely to perceive transit as riskier than males and younger age groups. The results provide little evidence to suggest that safety measures have a significant impact on passengers’ perception of safety, however. If this result is supported by future research, it suggests that transit agency investments in pandemic safety measures may not help them to regain ridership.

Throughout the history of urban planning, different visionaries have attempted to promote their own utopian visions of cities, thus transforming urban planning thought regarding cities of tomorrow. By researching the utopian planned visions of Paolo Soleri, Ebenezer Howard, Le Corbusier, and Frank Lloyd Wright, different lessons can be taken from and instilled in a future city plan in the making, Telosa. Marc Lore and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have plans to start construction of this utopian desert city by 2030. Examining past utopian city visions can shed light on planning principles and forms of governance, as well as social, political, and economic processes that go together with this style of planning. Arcosanti, The Garden Cities, Letchworth, The Contemporary City, The Radiant City, Brasilia, Broadacre City and Levittown are all case studies examined to determine the value of utopian urban planning, in light of the plan of Telosa. By understanding the value of utopianism, and the inherent challenges faced, visionaries like Lore and BIG have a higher probability of bringing Telosa to fruition.

Since the mid-2000s, the domestic aviation industry has been influenced by new, rapidly growing ultra low-cost carriers (ULCCs) such as Allegiant Air, Spirit Airlines, and Frontier Airlines. These carriers augment the existing low-cost airline model by operating largely point-to-point routes with a minimum of passenger amenities. Existing literature, however, is limited for North American ULCCs, often lumping them together with mainstream low-cost carriers. The pattern of markets served by ULCCs is incongruous with the models of other airlines and requires further research to examine causal factors. This paper sought to establish conclusions about ULCCs and the relevant market factors used for airport choice decisions.The relationship between ULCC operations and airport choice factors was analyzed using three methods: a collection of 2019 flight data to establish existing conditions and statistics, two regression analyses to evaluate airport market variables, and three case studies examining distinct scenarios through qualitative interviews with airport managers. ULCC enplanement data was assembled for every domestic airport offering scheduled ULCC service in 2019. Independent variable data informed by previous research were collected for every Part 139 airport in the U.S. The first regression analysis estimated a OLS regression model to analyze the log of enplanements. The second model estimated a binary logistic equation for ULCC service as a 0-1 dependent variable. Case studies for Bellingham, Washington, Waco, Texas, and Lincoln, Nebraska were selected based on compelling airport factors and relevant ULCC experience. Results of the research methods confirm certain theories regarding ULCC airport choice, but left others unanswered. Maps of enplanements and market share revealed concentrations of ULCC operations on the East Coast. Each regression analysis showed a strong and positive relationship between population figures and the existence and quantity of ULCC operations. Tourism employment was only significantly related to enplanements. Other factors including distance and competition variables were significantly associated to ULCC service. Case studies revealed the importance of airport fees and costs in ULCC decision-making; factors that proved difficult to investigate quantitatively in this research. Further research may shed light on this complex and ever- changing subset of the domestic commercial aviation industry.

The Phoenix area, is known for suburban sprawl which did not happen in isolation but was the result of many external factors. It was not just large environmental and cultural factors that changed over time, but the actual physical characteristics of sprawl that have changed from community to community over the decades. Characteristics like physical size of houses and lot size, along with changes in the residential and commercial design and building style have changed from around the 1950s to present day, with homes being larger and covering more of each parcel. These characteristics were analyzed in 21 communities in the Phoenix area that were built from 1950 to 2019 to find how these characteristics have changed over time. While the issue of sprawl will never fully go away, by learning what the characteristics are that make up the definition of sprawl, stakeholders like cities, planners, and developers will have better knowledge for planning for tomorrow.

Following the prolific car-centric design of the twentieth century, many cities are grappling with increasing pedestrian deaths and greater vehicle congestion. To solve these problems, many of these cities are expressing a desire to create more effective and vibrant walkable places. Aside from safety, numerous benefits come from pedestrian friendly communities, including greater economic activity, better health, greater social capital, and less environmental impact. Although there are several tools already available, evaluating an area’s current walkability situation is still varied, and evaluating a pedestrian’s thoughts on safety and enjoyability is also difficult. The benefits of walkability and past and present tools are summarized in this paper. The goal of this paper was to create a walkability evaluation tool that included smaller, often overlooked aspects of the sidewalk and site design that contribute to a pedestrian’s experience and safety. The author developed a tool containing 40 different measures of the sidewalk concerning safety, connectivity, enjoyment, and accessibility, as well as created methods for visualizing the data. The tool was then utilized to gather data at six Phoenix-metro area intersections using a combination of on street data collection and GIS software and Google Street View. The paper also details suggestions on how to act upon the data and improve walkability in an area, including minor street alterations and larger policy shifts in zoning codes. Although in preliminary data collection the tool provides a good snapshot of the data, further development of the tool and assessment of its reliability are needed, as well as greater data collection to compare evaluated areas to a larger region.

Transit ridership is declining in most cities throughout America. Public transportation needs to be improved in order for cities to handle urban growth, reduce carbon footprint, and increase mobility across income groups. In order to determine what causes changes in transit ridership, I performed a descriptive analysis of five metro areas in the United States. I studied changes in transit ridership in Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Seattle from 2013 through 2017 to determine where public transportation works and where it does not work. I used employment, commute, and demographic data to determine what affects transit ridership. Each metro area was studied as a separate case because the selected cities are difficult to compare directly. The Seattle metro area was the only metro to increase transit ridership throughout the period of the study. The Minneapolis metro area experienced a slight decline in transit ridership, while Phoenix and Denver declined significantly. The Dallas metro area declined most of the five cities studied. The denser metro areas fared much better than the less dense areas. In order to increase transit ridership cities should increase the density of their city and avoid sprawl. Certain factors led to declines in ridership in certain metro areas but not all. For example, gentrification contributed to ridership decline in Denver and Minneapolis, but Seattle gentrified and increased ridership. Dallas and Phoenix experienced low-levels of gentrification but experienced declining ridership. Therefore, organizations such as the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) who attempt to find the single factor causing the decline in transit ridership, or the one factor that will increase ridership are misguided. Above all, this thesis shows that there is no single factor causing the ridership decline in each metro area, and it is wise to study each metro area as a separate case.