Graduation Semester and Year
2020
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Public Policy
Department
Urban and Public Affairs
First Advisor
Maria Martinez-Cosio
Abstract
An increasingly globalized world and mounting threats to our economy, environment, and social structures have brought the concepts of sustainability and resilience into sharp focus. These threats include climate change, rapid urbanization, and loss of biodiversity in an increasing volatile, uncertain, ambiguous, and complex world. Sustainability and resilience have emerged as key concepts in understanding and addressing urban dynamics toward a livable urban future. These concepts are important because resilience typically deals with the short-term issues surrounding predicting and responding to immediate threats, while sustainability looks at the long-term, steady state of the built and natural environment. Focusing on resilience without considering sustainability runs the risk of meeting short-term goals at the expense of desired long-term outcomes, especially on military installations. Military installations, like cities, suffer the consequences of these planning decisions. Current literature documents the interdependent relationship between sustainability and resilience, yet military master planning tools do not reflect this relationship. Rather, sustainability and resilience are compartmentalized. This dissertation uses a case study approach to examine sustainability and resilience evolution in military master planning, using the Installation Energy and Water Plan (IEWP) as it is being developed and implemented for two major military bases, Joint Base San Antonio, Texas (JBSA) and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska (JBER). The study seeks to understand the role of planners as they navigate changing mandates, definitions, and executive orders that shift from a focus on sustainability to a focus on resilience in military master planning. The study finds military master planning experienced a paradigm shift with the 2012 Unified Facilities Criteria and continues to evolve, with the current IEWP leaning toward resilience and away from sustainability. Additionally, social equity as a key component in sustainability, is only considered peripherally. Other findings include that, in order to achieve the desired long-term outcomes of development on military installations, sustainability and resilience must be integrated into the overall master plan, with federal government policy in place to ensure it happens. This research also suggests planners play an instrumental role in determining if these concepts and strategies are included in military master plans.
Keywords
Sustainability, Resilience, Military master planning, Climate change, VUCA, Urban planning
Disciplines
Public Affairs | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Social and Behavioral Sciences
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Fields, Rhonda E., "EVOLUTION OF SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE IN MILITARY MASTER PLANNING: EXAMINING PLANNERS' PERCEPTIONS" (2020). Public Affairs Dissertations. 208.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/publicaffairs_dissertations/208
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington