Student Work

Environmental Migrants and the Future of the Willamette Valley

Though there is a wide range of opinions about everything having to do with climate change, one of the issues that has captured the attention, if not the imagination, of some is the prospect of “climate refugees,” populations displaced from their current locales due to climate-induced impacts on livability. With relatively large populations in the southeast and southwest now vulnerable to prolonged drought and consequent water shortages, the Willamette Valley may emerge as the site where population displaced by climate change may seek to relocate. 

This raises some interesting questions.  What is the prospect for climate refugees becoming an important stream of in-migrants in coming decades?  How vulnerable is our planning to an increase in migration? Where might these people come from, and what kinds of values or expectations for land use and lifestyle will they bring with them?  What kinds of concerns do climate refugees versus other kinds of migrants bring with them? Perhaps most important, what might we use as principles for accommodating unanticipated growth in the Willamette Valley, and how might those principles role into scenarios for future growth and change?

During the Fall term, 2011, students in USP 594: Planning in the Pacific Northwest, sought to address these questions by responding to three challenges:
• Challenge 1: What is the current thinking about climate refugees, about climate refugees in the western US, and how might this affect population change in the     Willamette Valley?
• Challenge 2: What are the core principles for planning in the Willamette Valley based on broadly held community values, history, and the ecology of the place?
• Challenge 3: How might unanticipated growth be accommodated in a manner that enhances livability, sense of place, and ecological sustainability and integrity? Under what, if any, circumstances could unanticipated growth be an important positive force for livability and furthering sustainability in the Valley?
       
The product of that inquiry is available here. Please send questions or comments to Ethan Seltzer.

Six students and recent graduates in the MURP program headed to China for summer internships.

The students utilized the partnerships between PSU, the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design (CAUPD), and the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS). Check out their blog about their experiences and adventures here.

International Sustainable Community Development students traveled to Nicaragua.

Students enrolled in Professor Richard White’s Summer Seminar on International Sustainable Community Development traveled to Nicaragua to learn from and share with community members there. The students provided a chronicle of their thoughts, experiences and insights in a class blog, available here.

The Portland "Badass-ness" Map

What happens when USP students try to define what it means to live in Portland?  Badassness!  Using a list of "what-makes-Portland-badass" factors, MPA student Eric Crum and USP PhD student Dillon Mahmoudi ranked Portland neighborhoods in their Badassness Map. The map was recently covered by the KATU News blog and was originally created for a GIS class at Portland State.  The map is best described by the companion video which shows Eric and Dillon attempting to do everything Portland in a single day.

Vision Plan - The South Coast Sustainability White Paper

An Exercise in Facilitating Holistic, Interdisciplinary, Cross Sectoral and Sustainable Approaches to Landscape Planning & Sustainable Development

This document reviews existing conditions in a neighborhood in the island nation of Barbados, and suggests practical methods and policy changes to bring the built environment into greater harmony with nature.  The author argues that under the rubric of "sustainability,"  relatively minor efforts can increase livability for residents and enhance tourism, one of the country's main economic drivers.

Clinton Street MAX Visioning

This project was developed by students in USP 575: Urban Design Workshop.  This course, co-taught by Don Stastny, FAICP and FAIA, and Ed Starkie, annually takes on an important urban design question in the region.  The course was developed to provide graduate students with more hands-on design training, and it also serves as the capstone for the graduate certificate in Urban Design offered through a partnership between the Toulan School and the Architecture Department at PSU.  The project this year addresses the issues associated with a station on a new light rail line.  The proposed Clinton Street Station would trigger redevelopment on surrounding properties, and would have to be planned and implemented in a manner that does not negatively impact surrounding neighborhoods and communities.  This project is becoming an important community issue, and the products of the workshop will be used by neighbors, neighborhood associations land owners, the transit agency, and city bureaus.

Metro Future Vision White Paper

This project was developed in partnership with Metro, the regional government in the Portland metropolitan area, to help to frame the core issues associated with updating the Metro "Future Vision," a long-term look at the broader region.  Metro is charged with updating the Future Vision every 15 years, with the next update due in 2010.  The papers collected here were developed by students in USP 594: Planning in the Pacific Northwest as a means for helping Metro decide what kind of update it wanted to do, and how.  These papers will be used by Metro as it develops the final workplan for updating the Future Vision.

Ecolopolis 3.0: Infrastructure and Sustainability in Cascadia

A report on infrastructure needs and opportunities in the Cascadia megaregion. This was produced via USP 549: Regional Planning and Metropolitan Growth Management, and is the third report in a series. The Cascadia Ecolopolis notion is a contribution to the America 2050 effort, a project of the Lincoln Institute and the Regional Plan Association to bring attention to emerging megaregions in the US as a framework for the next iteration of Federal urban and development policy.

The Spoke Report: Oregon Land Use Stories Project

This project was developed by MURP students Matt Berkow and George Zaninovich to provide voice to the many experiences that Oregonians have had, statewide, with land use planning. The project was prompted by the passage of Measure 37 in Oregon, and subsequently won the 2008 AICP National Student Project Award. Read more...

Sustainable Land Use Policy Options for the City of Lake Oswego 

Author: Jessica Sarver
Faculty advisors: Connie Ozawa and Barry Messer

This document reviews existing land use policy in the City of Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, and makes recommendations for how the city might alter its current land use and building codes to include policies that support environmental (as constrasted with social and economic elements of) sustainability.

Finding a Fair Balance Between Protecting Property Rights and the Public Good:

A Policy Analysis of Valuation Methods Under Property Rights Law

Author: Jeannine Rustad
Faculty advisors: Connie Ozawa and Ethan Seltzer

This document reviews four methods of assessing the effects of government land use regulations on real property values, with a particular focus on the recent history of the challenges to the Oregon state land use law.