1. Lizarralde, Gonzalo, et al. “A Systems Approach To Resilience In The Built Environment: The Case Of Cuba.” Disasters 39.(2015): s76-s95. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

In the article “A Systems Approach To Resilience In The Built Environment: The Case Of Cuba.” a team of researchers examined the  systematic theory to resilience of the Cuban National approach to natural disasters within the built environment. Researchers conducted a study to investigate the Cuban National approach theory through the elements of risk reduction, efficient reconstruction strategies, and the adaption to a changing environment. The results of the case study indicated that the Cuban National approach theory successfully decreased the number of deaths during a natural disaster by efficient health- care services, high levels of preparation and training, a warning program trusted by the population, and critical trust between government officials and the civil society. Cuba’s model highlights the contradiction to the stereotypical theory that large amounts of funds are what prepare countries/cities for natural disaster. The Atlanta built environment can reflect upon the Cuban model to better understand the critical framework to execute a systematic plan long before a natural disaster ever approaches.

2. Beer, Chris. “The Contingent Public Value Of ‘Good Design’: Regulating The Aesthetics Of The Australian Urban Built Environment.” Australian Journal Of Public Administration 73.2 (2014): 282-292. Business Source Complete. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

Chris Beer, An Economic Development Directorate at ACT Government and University of Canberra conducts an evaluation on Australian architect on the premise of what public value recognizes as beautiful or “Good Design” within the built environment. Beer explains the origin of architectural beauty originates as far back as the ancient geeks similarly, like the western “Beautiful City” movement in the late 1800s – rapid growth in population placed significant opinion to the appearance of the sprouting built environment. Today’s modern building design can be determined by the economic area associated with the structure.  Beer examines Australian jurisdiction, through placement of regulations within certain areas for the attractiveness of specific built environments. Also regulation utilized moderately can benefit the aesthetic look of the built environment. Atlanta’s built environment is steadily growing the attributes of the city’s continue to become more appealing. Moderate regulation and wise building planning will allow Atlanta to have a greatly designed built environment.

3. Hirsch, Jana A, et al. “Built Environment Change And Change In BMI And Waist Circumference: Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis.” Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 22.11 (2014): 2450-2457. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 5 Feb. 2016.

In this article, the authors discuss how the built environment affects BMI, waist Circumference, and the difference in these factors in diverse groups of adults. The study conducted researched to display that Americans are less likely to create built environments where critical elements like grocery stores and other shops located within 10-15 minutes walking distance. By American built environments recreating spaces that encourage more walking the obesity would decrease. Furthermore, the article examines that built environment cultures that promote active ways of living experience an overall healthier population in the built environment. Atlanta’s built environment can create establishments that promote health and navigate individual citizens to an enhance state of living.

4. In Aydin Turkey at the university of Adnan Menderes researches conducted a study on the affects of green spaces and its effects the mental health of high school students. The experimenters create a restorative environment which is a space that “promotes, and not merely permits, restoration.” (Hartig 2004). The experimenters prepared the campus green space with the ideal nature elements such as a bushes, shrubs, and other natural features. A total of 265 students were introduced to the green space. The results rendered that when many of students were introduced the newly built green space, they felt this new place a physical and mental retreat when doing work or studying. The study and implementation of this green space at a primary educational level displays how stress alleviations are viable at all stages of life. This green space study conducted on Turkish high school applies to the built environment through further magnifying the growing need to balance natural learning spaces in an urban environment centered around learning.

“How Is High School Greenness Related to Students’ Restoration and Health? – 1-s2.0-S1618866716000078-Main.pdf.” Accessed February 24, 2016. http://ac.els-cdn.com.ezproxy.gsu.edu/S1618866716000078/1-s2.0-S1618866716000078-main.pdf?_tid=35bb44c4-da8a-11e5-8acd-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1456272464_e724bbf5527bc4810f2a3a7873f18341.

5. In this article the topic of discussion is the revitalization of urban area so that the social and economic elements of the community can prosper. At the beginning of the article researches identify that many urban communities are now experiencing a social shift stemming from the changing demographic elements such as race, job growth and the introduction of more businesses. This shifting urban built environment is now a “network society” (Kelly, 1). During their research experimenters establish the concept that these now revitalized networking society are no longer cities built on singular industrial jobs that dictate the communities progress. The network communities provide a space for various job opportunities that can benefit the community as a whole.  The researcher also noted that spatial placement of vital places in the community are what help create the sense of wholeness. This article apply to the built environment project by demonstrating that area in urban environments can be revitalized as well as provide a sense of safety within an urban area.

“Collaborative Digital Techniques and Urban Neighborhood Revitalization.” Social Work 56, no. 2 (April 2011): 185–88 4p. doi:sw/56.2.185.

6. In this article researchers Hillsdon, Panter, Foster, Jones examine how accessible green spaces are in urban environments. The researchers explore how undistributed amount of green space allocated in cities. The experiment was conducted in Norwich, UK. The method in which the experiment was carry out was through the calculating the distance of the green spaces to people of various economic background status. In addition to testing how much of the green space is accessible, the researcher also learned that that a reduction in greens space affects the amount of recreational physical activity in these areas. Once the experimenters conducted the experiment the results render, that green spaces could not be full conclusive that economic status is associated with the amount of green spaces in an urban environment. The lack of green spaces in urban areas inspire a lower level of physical activity than those who live in an area with access to more green spaces. The absence of green spaces in urban areas heavily impact the lives of those who live the area in negative ways residents may not notice. This study proves the built environment has an impact on recreational physical activities.

University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TP, UK

University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK

University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK

Available online 25 October 2006

7. In an article written by Jon Hillkevitch, of the Chicago Times, Jon writes about as the city of Chicago’s built environment expands so does advocacy for more bike lanes. A Chicago bike advocacy group states that “by 2019 fifty miles of bike lanes will be added to Chicago’s streets and the project will be fully funded federal l grants.” As a result of this new bike lane intuitive, an alliance has been created for bike riders. The alliance’s goal is to bring forth a plan to create one-hundred and eighty miles “low-stress bike routes” that are similar to an off-road trial. These new type of trials with protected lanes will encourage more Chicagoans to ride their bicycles, while also alleviating the hesitation that most citizens have about riding bikes in busy cities. The city’s realization for the bike trials begun when the League of American Bicyclist conducted a survey in which they found that 1.7 percent of Chicago’s population commutes by Bicycles. The bike population is over twenty-one thousand people making they city’s bike commuters the second highest conduced by the group. The increase bike trials will connect to local and neighborhood stores and schools. Additionally, the trails will pass through some of Chicago’s landmark attractions like lake-shore drive and Wicker Park. This article is related to Atlanta’s built environment through being a blue print of how a growing city should look at transportation for all that occupy the space whether resident or commuter. Also with Atlanta’s constantly growing built environment but lack of transportation accommodations, an expansion of bikes lanes can encourage further outreach within the downtown and midtown areas.

Tribune, Chicago. “Build More and Better Bike Lanes, Cycling Advocates Urge Chicago.” Chicagotribune.com. Accessed March 26, 2016. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-bike-lane-network-getting-around-met-1012-20151011-column.html.

8. “Under Pressure From Uber, Taxi Medallion Prices Are Plummeting – NYTimes.com – Uber_Taxi_Medallion_Prices.pdf.” Accessed March 26, 2016. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~holgers/urban/Uber_Taxi_Medallion_Prices.pdf.

In this article written by Mark Turmoil, of the New York times, He discussed the how Uber drivers have caused taxi prices to plummet in New York City Since 2013 when the app driven car service company uber gain its popularity.  New York City tax prices fell by a whopping 17 percent. Many big cities taxi companies operate under a medallion system. The medallion system process is, Taxi drivers must own or rent a medallion to drive the taxi. The city only issues a fixed number of medallion which can range from a highpoint of 475,000 to a lower end of 350,000. This hefty prices for taxi driver to pay for the taxi car results in the higher wages for the passengers. When broken down into one a one-way taxi trip in a major city can cost close to 26 dollars; in comparison, the same Uber one-way trip is less that 12.50. Thus, the price of Medallions are being placed at prices much lower. Low medallion sales have resulted in many taxi companies and owners going bankrupt simply due not being able to compete with the extremely low fares of uber. Low Uber fares have resulted innovation from taxi drivers. Since June of 2013 “boro taxis” also known as green taxis only pick up fares boroughs that are outside of Manhattan and north of Manhattan, furthermore, boro taxis’s selective driving location allow them to competitively compete with uber fare rates.  Yellow cabs have seen this innovation and taken part and tried to reduce their fares for shorter trips. This articles is related Atlanta’s built environment through recognizing shift in transportation within technology. While also taking steps of allowing both taxi serviced to coexist.

9. Leccese, F. “Remote-Control System of High Efficiency and Intelligent Street Lighting Using a ZigBee Network of Devices and Sensors”,  Power Delivery, IEEE Transactions on,On page(s): 21 – 28 Volume: 28, Issue: 1, Jan. 2013

This article by Y Wu discusses the placement of street lamps in china’s small to medium populated cities. Many of the street lamps are controlled by optical or time-optical control methods. The lighting systems has challenges not on the lighting its self but on the precision of what lights should be synchronized to be lit at night time. Data taken from muliti-sensing survey revealed that by systems being synchronized with the rising and setting of the sun, the cities could be lit at a more seamless rate.  More innovative street light controllers were installed  by photoelectric lights and optical controlled lights to process the lighting of the streets. Additionally, the new street lamps have a “wake-up” condition. The “wake-up” component registers sunlight absorption and movement from an increased amount of pedestrians, which results in the light being able to shut off on its own. Since the implementation of the new smart lights the crime rate has gone down and energy consumption has decreased as well. The LED lighting within the street lamps have decrease the amount of money having to be spent on continuous replacement of light bulbs in theses urban environments. The cost effectiveness has also allowed for the cities to increase the number of smart lamps being installed due to the lamps technology. These innovations have also led to the street lights becoming more self-sufficient and producing a more reliable network of lighting in these cites. This articles relates to Atlanta’s built environment by investigating more sufficient lighting in the city while also creating an more eco-friendly and crime free environment.

10. In this article written by authors, William Kent, Patti Shock, and Robert Snow. They discuss how the major southern cities with major shopping complexes attract more tourist and create an overall boost in the economy. They study was designed to test this theory at Atlanta Convention center and Visitor Bureau. The process of the study was carried out through asking tourist “what they enjoyed most about they’re location during their trip?” The tourist answered 75 percent of because they located near major shopping center. Their location made their trip more pleasurable. This is relative to the built environment of Atlanta because this is a direct result of Atlanta’s shopping scene as it develops while also recognizing the shopping scene as a major economic contributor.

Kent, William E., Patti J. Shock, and Robert E. Snow. “Shopping: Tourism’s unsung hero (ine).” Journal of Travel Research 21.4 (1983): 2-4.