The purpose of this graduate planning studio was to inform the ongoing regional discussion of possible land use futures for the Atlanta region. This project is intended to help citizens and decision-makers understand the scope and type of land use changes needed to accommodate likely future growth. This project is designed to reinforce other similar efforts that are looking at regional land use issues, such as the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority’s Northern Subarea Study and the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Land Use Vision. Hopefully, the Atlanta Regional Commission will be able to draw from all of these efforts as it prepares the 2030 Regional Development Plan and Regional Transportation Plan. 

This study estimates the concentration levels of pollutants emitted by freight movement. Specifically, the study focuses on two criteria pollutants monitored under national air quality standards -- nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particle pollution (PM2.5).

These emissions are often evaluated at the county level, without differentiation between urban and rural areas. While many areas affected by freight traffic are urban areas, little attention has been paid to the small urban and rural areas. Georgia’s rural and small urban areas are home to more than 1 million and 1.5 million residents, respectively. Rural and small urban populations tend to be proportionally older, less racially diverse, and less wealthy than urban areas. Nearly a quarter of residents in small urban areas are below the poverty line, making them vulnerable to health impacts of freight emissions.

This study explores the implementation of crowdsourced traffic management by Georgia DOT (GDOT) and the challenges specific to them. The reliability of data and filtering high volumes of information were found to be the two primary concerns. The team proposed a system that can potentially tackle those challenges. The system consists of a mobile application and a text mining application that together leverage the existing Twitter technology stack. Based on interviews with traffic management professionals and a visit to GDOT, the report contains recommendations that would improve the workflow at the TMC. Computer vision, data management and social media analytics would be particularly beneficial to decrease operator burden. A system with multiple sources of information integrated into one would be particularly beneficial. We are on the cusp of a revolution with respect to big data and crowdsourcing. This is the ideal time for GDOT to invest in crowdsourcing technologies to reap the benefits in the future.

Plan 2040, the long-term regional comprehensive plan being prepared for the Atlanta metropolitan region by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), may affect as many as 8 million residents and countless visitors to the Atlanta region over the next 30 years. Additionally, this plan is the region’s opportunity to prepare for increasing challenges and growing diversities in the 20-county region. These include diversity of urban form and function present in the built environment – ranging from dense urban settlements to successive rings of suburbs to sparsely populated rural and ex-urban areas and demographic diversity by race/ethnicity, age, income, and health status, to name a few. The long term health, sustainability, and prosperity of the region will likely be influenced by Plan 2040.