University of Iowa students in Urban and Regional Planning recently took first, second and third place in the Iowa Chapter of the American Planning Association student poster contest. The contest was open to students in Iowa and awards were given in the amounts of $500, $300, and $200 respectively. There were a total of 14 posters submitted and four of them were from students in our school.

First place went to Huyen Le and Qing Xu whose poster was titled, “Bus Quality of Service: A Case Study in Iowa City Metropolitan Area.” They were interested in analyzing the operation of the transit service in Iowa City, Coralville, and University Heights from economic and social standpoints. Huyen and Qing sought to answer whether the bus service meets the needs of the low-income population and older adults, and how the operation can be improved to attract additional riders who typically have more than one choice when it comes to selecting a method of transportation. They additionally researched how to reduce the operation costs and emissions of city buses.

Kelly Davila and David Sweeney took second place with their poster, “Urban and Regional Land Cover Change in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor: Applications and Implications for Policy Analysis." They used National Land Cover Database (NLCD) datasets to look at development trends in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City metropolitan areas. Then they analyzed land cover data in conjunction with these two cities' planning documents to discern the extent to which stated goals were being met. Kelly and David additionally analyzed impervious surface changes over 10 years to project future impacts to regional watersheds. The project demonstrates how a single data source and a simple analytic method can be applied to answer multiple planning questions.

Liza Minor received third place for her poster, “Adapting Permaculture Food Systems Planning to Iowa's Changing Climate.” It is based on a research project she is currently working on with Dr. Scott Spak. She says, “We aim to reduce the risks associated with climate change for permaculture, urban agriculture, and urban forestry by providing new projections for how future ranges of street tree and specialty crop species may migrate as extreme temperatures change, first modeled for Iowa and later for the rest of the U.S. Previous climate planning research has emphasized the effect of changes in precipitation patterns on annual crops. Here we focus on extreme temperature events, a factor far more significant than rainfall for perennials and thus far underrepresented in urban climate adaptation plans and research.”

They employ projected daily temperature across the continental U.S. and three emissions scenarios for 2046-2065. These projections are combined with American Horticulture Society Heat Zone and USDA Plant Hardiness Zone classifications to map how changes in decadal extreme temperatures may affect the range and yield of more than 100 tree species and specialty crops, and the composition of symbiotic plant communities employed in permaculture gardens. Liza and Dr. Spak conclude that most U.S. cities should focus on heat tolerance when making decisions about new street trees, urban food forests, and specialty crops, with an overall increase in options for new plantings.

While Liza’s poster applies their research only to Iowa, she and Dr. Spak plan on expanding their research to the national level and writing a paper for publication by the end of the year.

Pictured (above) from left to right are Huyen Le, David Sweeney, Qing Xu, Kelly Davila and Liza Minor.

Congratulations to our outstanding students!