The project’s goal is to build an interactive website in the form of a Content Management System (CMS) that would engage the interest of the public and stakeholders in Ellicott City. The architecture students of UMD, under the umbrella of the Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS), came up with design proposals and illustrations […]
Case type: Project Story
Emergency Notification System Analysis
The emergency notification system enables one-way or two-way communication between emergency communication staff, first responders, and impacted individuals. Counties have suffered from various severe weather conditions from time to time, including flooding, thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, freezing conditions, fire, blizzards, and other climatic emergencies. There are also other human-caused emergencies such as hazardous conditions caused […]
Aging in Place in Howard County: A Survey of Older Adults
This report is a compilation of original research conducted by students in the course SPGL498G, Pubic Health in the City, during the spring 2016 semester at the University of Maryland College Park. (See Appendix A) Students interviewed older adults in Howard County to determine factors that could impact their ability to age in place. We […]
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Columbia Gateway Innovation District: Alternative Future Visions
The Columbia Gateway Project is a comprehensive report on future development for the Columbia Gateway site in Columbia, MD. This report charts the next steps to enhance the viability and explore the economic possibilities of the area. This report lays out key issues and goals for impending planning efforts. It is a framework that establishes […]
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Urban Forest Edge Management Through Public Engagement
Numerous pathways connect Columbia’s community-centered suburban villages. These well-traveled paths are perfect for dog walkers, runners, and any citizen desiring a connection to nature that is close to home. Columbia’s paths follow stream corridors, guarded by vegetation, which tends to struggle against the influence of invasive plant species. Creating a means to manage the presence […]
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Public Education – Information and Precedents: Effects of Deer Overabundance on Plant Communities
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are present in overwhelming numbers in urban and suburban areas. Forest fragmentation supports populations of the species, which thrives in wooded edges, and those populations drive significant changes to the local plant communities. While researchers and managers know a great deal about these interactions, the general public is not always aware […]
The Value of Planting Trees in the Urban Setting
There is currently a rapid rate of urbanization taking place across the world. It is estimated that by the year 2050, 34 percent of the world’s population will be living in rural environments and 66 percent will be living in urban environments (UN 2014). With urbanization comes an increase of industry, burning of fossil fuels, […]
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Public Education in Invasive Species Management
The mid-term report assessed three environmental education frameworks, exploring how they function and the results of their application to invasive species management or general environmental issues. These frameworks are the public-based learning method, the social learning framework and the identity-based environmental education model. The key idea of the public-based learning method, which is described in […]
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The Ecology of Urban Forest Edges
As of 2014, over half (54 percent) of the world’s population resides in urban areas, a number that is expected to increase to two-thirds of the global population by 2050 (UN 2014). Increased human flow into cities results in increased urbanization, a complex process consisting of people altering the landscape through settlement patterns and spatial […]
Tidy or Tangled: How People Perceive Landscapes
The ways we choose to modify and manage the landscapes around us have enormous local and global consequences. Single-family houses now dominate the suburban landscapes of Washington, D.C., including Columbia, MD. These planned housing developments typically have a clean, tidy appearance with mown grass and trimmed shrubs. Unfortunately, this ordered presentation does not provide the […]
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