Graduation Semester and Year

2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Public Policy

Department

Urban and Public Affairs

First Advisor

Ariadna Reyes-Sanchez

Second Advisor

Karabi Bezboruah

Abstract

Riparian lands, the interface between terrestrial and water ecologies, play a critical role in keeping urban ecosystems healthy. However, rapidly sprawling metropolitan regions in Texas continue to urbanize environmentally vulnerable riparian areas. As urban areas are growing, access to green spaces is shrinking, bringing contestation for programming, ownership, and use of lands around water bodies. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing trend of using greenbelt plans for trails, parks, preserves, and wetlands around water bodies. Although these plans mitigate some environmental impacts, their ability to address equity and justice needs to be examined to ensure that they do not further exacerbate injustices under green covers. To examine this, I study how greenbelts are transitioning in scope, from engineering infrastructure projects to interlinked socio-culturally significant greenspaces. Engaging with this broadened scope of greenbelts, I study their relationship with community planning, environmental stewardship (ES), and equitable methods of preserving urban riparian lands. I utilize a mixed-methods approach and study four plans from Houston and Dallas Metroplexes. As case studies of the most populous, rapidly urbanizing metroplexes in Texas, they also share the Trinity River estuary system. I find that some landowners are practicing strong property rights, but large sections of low-income communities of color reside in environmentally vulnerable riparian areas with minimum land rights. My analysis reveals that these greenbelt plans do not have the proper mechanism to enhance the ES of low-income communities of color because they fail to systematically address the inequitable distribution and decision-making for land use, and ownership. Also, the policies in the plans continue to yield long-term stewardship benefits to wealthy property owners or external stakeholders. Lastly, using commoning theory, I propose that rather than adopting top-down planning actions that fulfill the interests of dominant actors, planners should use greenbelt plans as a collective of community-led neighborhood plans to recognize and integrate the diversity of collective action that emerges from the community. Overall, this work contributes to the theory and practice of environmental planning by developing a typology of participation that may serve as a mechanism to engage the most vulnerable residents from low-income communities.

Keywords

Environmental stewardship, Commoning theory, Greenbelts, Green infrastructure, Social equity, Typology of participation

Disciplines

Public Affairs | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington, **Please note that the full text is embargoed until 05/16/2025**

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31272-2.zip (3572 kB)
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Available for download on Wednesday, September 17, 2025

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