Senior Sequence

Sustainable City Regions Reader

The Sustainable City‐Region Reader is written by the USP Senior Sequence’s student-mentor research teams and by invited authors (faculty, researchers, and community‐based partners). The Reader is not a collection of individual student’s papers. Fifty-six students enrolled in the 2008‐ 2009 Senior Sequence. Each student produced roughly 25 pages of text amounting to a collective output of nearly 1,500 pages, far too much for a Reader. Instead, the Reader provides high level narrative summaries of each Research Teams collective findings (highlights). Each Research Team has 2-4 students and one or more mentors.

The Reader is designed to help: (1) promote excellence in undergraduate research education, (2) encourage research integration across disciplinary boundaries, (3) cultivate critical and holistic approaches to solving problems in urban and regional development, and (4) build capacity for science communication and civic‐engagement in the context of promoting sustainable development.

The Reader targets several groups: (1) undergraduate seniors as well as graduate students who need to design and carry out field research as part of their academic program, (2) faculty who teach research methods classes requiring fieldwork, (3) faculty looking for ideas and support to do their own civically‐engaged research, and (4) community leaders, NGOs, think tanks, public and private sector organizations interested in policy and planning for sustainable city-region development.

Below is a link to entries from the class of 2007-2008. These chapters can also be downloaded as one pdf file: 2008 Sustainable City-Region Reader. The 2009 Sustainable City-Region Reader will soon be posted here as well..

Architecture & Urban Design

1. Parks and open space planning for the common good

2. Smart growth and new urbanism

3. Green buildings and sustainable design

4. LEED criteria in theory and practice

5. Regional heritage in architecture and urban design

Community & Economic Development

6. Participatory methods and civic engagement in community-based development

7. Redevelopment in critical perspective: political economy and decision-making

Environment

8. River and watershed-based environmental planning

9. Alternative technologies and green innovation in theory and practice

10. Greening of UCSD

Housing

11. Housing policy, market dynamics and regulation

12. Affordable housing development strategies

Infrastructure and Public Facilities

13. Greening of energy production and policy

14. Education policy, culture and social justice

Public Health, Safety and Welfare

15. Improving public health and quality of life

Transportation Planning

16. Transportation technologies, policies and practices

Tribal Policy and Planning

17. Valuing bicycling and walking as an alternative means of transportation

18. Tribes and new institutional means of participation in regional planning and development

Urban and Regional Planning

19. Wildland-urban interface , climate change policy and planning

20. Integrated approaches to Poverty and Sustainability (Laurales Canyon, Mexico and other cases)