How can communities enhance social-ecological resilience within complex urban systems? Drawing on a new urbanist proposal in Orange County, California, it is suggested that planning that ignores diverse ways of knowing undermines the experience and shared meaning of those living in a city. The...

Project included three major parts: 1) field measurements of particulate matter in five urban areas, 2) laboratory modeling of flow and dispersion within model urban areas, and 3) numerical modeling. Project website and database are located at http://emissions.engr.ucr.edu/.

The nature of environmental risk is often determined by the location patterns of industrial firms in a locale. We develop a methodology for analyzing the capacity of toxics-generating industries to leave toxic residuals on the landscape, in the context of long-term master planning. To understand...

In 2002, a team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine collaborated with the community of Pacoima, California around a co-ordinated effort to analyze soil around the neighborhood for lead. The team found both total and bioavailable lead to be markedly higher in areas close to...

The policy literature has long recognized the inherent need for a program to fit the unique conditions found in a certain context. We present a theory of institutional contextualism that focuses on the mechanisms by which actors adapt a policy design to fit a situation. We conceptualize...

As communities evolve greater capacities for mobilisation and political action, local issues are finding new entry-points into development and land use planning. In this regard, two strong discourses emerge: that of economic development and community. What are the synergies, antagonisms, or...

Since Hardin first formulated the tragedy of the commons, researchers have described various ways that commons problems are solved, all based on the model of individual rationality. Invariably, these institutional solutions involve creating some system of property rights. We formulate an...