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Scholarly Works (5 results)

  • Thesis
  • Peer Reviewed
UC Davis Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2021)

The recent diffusion of urban sustainability concepts has pushed new developer-driven master-planned models of sustainable neighborhoods to emerge around the world. Once built, project assessments usually reported higher-than-expected resource consumption and various operational challenges, which kept these neighborhoods from fully meeting their sustainability goals. Many experts have attributed such challenges to wrong design decisions and lack of accountability post-operation, while social scientists criticized developers for greenwashing their projects. I draw from communication studies, actor-network theory, and urban studies to frame these new projects as an eco-system of dynamic cultural iterative processes rather than a linear design, construction, and delivery process. I recognize sustainable neighborhoods as spaces with multiple identities and actor interrelations. They are spaces produced through various overlapping stories. Hence, the assessments and indicators used to evaluate these neighborhoods must be based on different actors' expectations and use-values. This dissertation is comprised of three standalone articles that make independent scientific contributions to the same problem. In the first article I conducted textual analysis on popular press articles portraying new master-planned sustainable neighborhood projects in three countries. In the second and third articles, I carried in-depth go-along interviews with 46 residents, developers, designers, and various professionals involved in developing and managing a sustainable neighborhood. I developed an actor-indicator matrix map, connecting preferred evaluation indicators with different actor groups. In addition, I mapped the fundamental controversies that might affect the performance of market model of sustainable neighborhoods according to different actors. The results in the first article indicate that the press often represents such projects as utopians ignoring issues related to performance and management, which might create unrealistic expectations. Findings from the second article suggest that users and diverse local actors will prioritize different metrics than expert-based models when allowed to express their opinions. In the third article I mapped five main controversies fundamentally associated with the performance of privately developed sustainable neighborhoods: branding, innovation, behavior, governance, and market dynamics. I develop recommendations that can limit the rise of similar controversies in future developments. Recommendations include tax deductions for residents who choose to live in a sustainable neighborhood, a code of conduct to regulate behavior in sustainable neighborhoods, and resident representative committees to enhance the civic agency of the residents. Taken together, these 3 articles suggest a need for new analytical lenses to address the practical challenges that face market driven sustainable neighborhoods post operation. It is evident that operational success is not only limited to executing optimal designs and technologies; factors such as communication, expectations, choice of indicators, and competing priorities within the ecology of actors all interfere with the success of a market-driven sustainable neighborhood.

    Cover page: The Controversies of Market-Driven Sustainable Neighborhoods: On communication, indicators, and the ecology of actors
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Davis Previously Published Works (2020)
    Ratepayer-funded programs spend millions of dollars on home energy retrofits each year in the United States. Measuring the impacts of such retrofits is critically important to determining whether the benefits justify the costs, and if the program should be expanded, shuttered, or adjusted. Current efforts to measure the impacts of energy retrofits - when carried out at all - are typically limited in their scope. Most focus on energy benefits alone, and in particular, the monetary value of energy savings. While some take a broader perspective, inclusive of non-energy impacts (NEIs), many of those efforts focus exclusively on positive impacts and neglect the potential for negative ones. This research describes the limitations of common methods used to evaluate occupant NEIs of energy retrofit projects and introduces a framework for better understanding and evaluating occupants’ NEIs. We reviewed evaluation studies that measured occupant NEIs associated with energy retrofit projects. Based on this review, we developed a comprehensive typology of NEIs. We triangulated our NEI typology with an inventory of building retrofit measures from the National Residential Efficiency Measures Database to articulate the possible NEIs of specific retrofit measures, providing a framework to guide NEI assessments. The framework is a valuable resource because it can guide the assessment of NEIs generally as well as measure-specific NEIs, while capturing both positive and negative impacts. We also consider how our framework can be the foundation of a new assessment tool that addresses the limitations of common NEI evaluation methods. 
      Cover page: Towards a Better Understanding of Non-Energy Impacts Associated with Residential Energy Retrofit Projects
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Davis Previously Published Works (2023)
      Purpose: Existing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools such as “Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design - Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) and “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM Communities) are widely criticized for a lack of transparency in the selection of indicators and an unbalanced focus on specific sustainability dimensions. Design/methodology/approach: This paper asks how the expectations and use values of the professionals and residents involved in developing, designing, managing and living in a sustainable neighborhood can shape sustainability indicators that affect progress towards project goals. Taking as its focus The Sustainable City (TSC), a neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper develops data from in-depth, go-along interviews with 46 different actors. Findings: Findings indicate that when given the opportunity to express their opinion, many actors will prioritize metrics different than the metrics dictated to the by sustainability experts and international rating systems. The findings suggest that NSA tools should place greater emphasis on local factors, public engagement and operational concerns. Practical implications: The paper provides a method that any community can replicate to better understand the different use values of local actors and establish its own NSA tool. This can help experts learn how design, management and operational decisions interact to impact different dimensions of performance. Originality/value: This paper recognizes sustainable neighborhoods as spaces with multiple identities. Hence, the indicators used to evaluate these neighborhoods need to be based on the expectations and use values of different actors. This paper proposes using the priorities of different local actors to reshape how these neighborhoods are assessed.
        Cover page: Including local actors' perspective in neighborhood sustainability assessment: evidence from Dubai's sustainable cityCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        UC Davis Previously Published Works (2023)
        The increased involvement of the private sector in building sustainable communities is often met with skepticism from sustainability experts and academics. Although environmental experts and engineers may wish to focus on the technical design features and green rating of such projects to validate their sustainability, data are sometimes lacking, and social scientists may criticize projects’ social impacts and portray them as greenwashing sustainability. More holistic and evidence-based attempts are needed to understand post-occupancy performance in a way that targets the core obstacles to sustainability. This paper investigates the fundamental challenges of the market model of sustainable neighborhoods by using a qualitative post-occupancy evaluation method. We map core controversies through the lenses of different actors and ask how such challenges can be addressed in future developments. We interviewed 46 actors in The Sustainable City—a 590-unit residential development in Dubai. Through inductive analysis, we mapped five central controversies: The Branding Controversy; The Innovation Controversy; The Behavior Controversy; The Governance Controversy, and The Market Controversy. Such controversies appear fundamentally associated with the performance of privately developed sustainable neighborhoods. We present recommendations to resolve such controversies in future developments, including the clearer communication of goals and behavior expectations to residents, the ongoing education of residents, careful testing of technologies, the necessary steps by developers and local municipalities to promote affordability and equity, and resident representative committees in order to enhance civic agency.
          Cover page: The Five Controversies of Market-Driven Sustainable Neighborhoods: An Alternative Approach to Post-Occupancy EvaluationCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
          • Article
          Research Reports (2018)

          The main objective of the research project was to identify the key factors that promote a culture of sustainability in The Sustainable City and other planned communities with a sustainability focus in the Middle East region and the rest of the world. Research questions were addressed to four areas relating to promoting a culture of sustainability within planned communities:

          1. The social and cultural factors, including demographic factors that significantly influence sustainability behavior and practices in planned communities,

          2. The motivating factors that facilitate sustainability practices among various groups of stakeholders and support a shared culture of sustainability.

          3. The facilitation roles played by community identity, cohesion, social activities, and governance in fostering a culture of sustainability and community participation in achieving sustainability goals.

          4. The replication potential of the TSC vision and model in terms of promoting sustainability as a social practice beyond its community.

            Cover page: Promoting a Culture Of Sustainability in The Sustainable City: Identifying and Adapting Best Practices
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