Stephanie Hurley

Nutrient Leaching from Compost: Implications for Bioretention and Other Green Stormwater Infrastructure

AbstractCompost is often used as a soil amendment in gardens, agricultural fields, and other landscaped systems to alter soil biophysical characteristics and increase availability of valuable nutri...

Monitoring Methods and Designs for Evaluating Bioretention Performance

AbstractRoadside bioretention systems, also known as green streets are becoming increasingly popular, and have widespread potential to reduce pollutant loads coming from road runoff. However, the i...

Streetscape skeleton measurement and classification

The scale and proportions of “streetscape skeletons,” the three-dimensional spaces of streets defined by the massing and arrangement of surrounding buildings, are theoretically relevant to the way human users perceive and behave. Nonetheless, the dominant ways of measuring and identifying streets emphasize vehicular service and functionality. Moreover, existing built environment-based classifications have focused on recommended forms rather than characterizing the full range of existing conditions that must be accounted for in policy and understanding of human–environment interactions. To work toward a better streetscape measurement and classification scheme, this study investigated how large numbers of streetscapes could be efficiently measured to evaluate design patterns across and between multiple cities. Using a novel GIS-based method, 12 streetscape skeleton variables were measured on more than 120,000 block-length streetscapes in three northeastern U.S. cities: Boston, MA, New York, NY, and Baltimore, MD. Logistic regression models based on these variables were unsuccessful at distinguishing between cities, confirming that the variables were similarly applicable to each city and that the cities had comparable streetscape skeleton identities. Cluster analyses were then used to identify four streetscape skeleton classes that were also consistent between cities: upright, compact, porous, and open. These classes were distinct from the widely used highway functional class system, reinforcing the distinction between streetscape design and roadway functionality and thus the importance of accounting for them separately. The streetscape skeleton classes provide a digestible yet objective system for identifying prevalent streetscape designs that are appropriate for urban policy design, advocacy, and urban systems research.

The Shape of Watershed Governance: Locating the Boundaries of Multiplex Networks

Governance networks are both nested and interconnected systems. Identifying internal boundaries within governance networks, such as those governance structures that influence and are influenced by large and diverse watersheds such as the Lake Champlain Basin, is necessary for differentiating between multiple functional subnetworks. Internal network boundaries exist between functional subnetworks when the networks have divergent structures (Weible & Sabatier, 2005). A qualitative case study of Lake Champlain Basin watershed governance networks identified several key overlapping subnetworks in which organizations interact in a variety of ways (Koliba, Reynolds, Zia, & Scheinert, 2015). An online survey of institutional actors was used to identify which actors were connected in five different functional subnetworks. Structural comparisons are made by analyzing the correlation between the subnetworks based on the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) and network macrostructure. Results show that the information sharing, technical assistance, and project collaboration subnetworks formed one grouping, while the reporting and financial resource sharing subnetworks formed another grouping. The results demonstrated that this triangulated comparison was necessary to reach valid conclusions on the structural variation between the subnetworks on a multiplex network when subnetworks were structurally similar.