PhD Oral Exam - Nasim Rabiei, Building Engineering

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is a compact, mixed-use, and pedestrian-friendly form of sustainable development centered around transit stations, which mitigates the problems associated with auto-oriented development (AOD), including traffic congestion, air pollution, and uncontrolled low-density sprawl. In river cities like Montreal, fragmented urban development and disaster planning strategies exacerbate these problems as the city expands into vulnerable areas, such as the floodplain.

In addressing these issues, researchers have employed various assessment methods, each intended to achieve one of the TOD goals. These include achieving a balance in land use and transportation development, enhancing urban sustainability, and promoting sustainable accessibility. However, the existing literature lacks a comprehensive approach that addresses all the aforementioned goals while mitigating the risks associated with compacting people and activities around stations. The objective of this research is to develop a novel assessment methodology that integrates TOD assessment and disaster mitigation, improves existing methodologies, and addresses TOD goals through the sub-objectives of the following sequential steps.

The first stage of the TOD assessment proposes an enhanced node-place model for station area typology based on the supply and demand of access to public transit service. To achieve balanced land use and transportation development, the proposed node, place, and tie model utilizes weighted indicators and canonical scores to define viable station areas for increasing density and diversity. The second stage aims to achieve sustainable development by using the TOD index to evaluate station areas in line with sustainable land use criteria. The improved TOD index is the result of comparing different weighting and aggregation methods, as well as modifications to the calculation of selected criteria and indicators, and assessing the efficiency of station areas for compactness using data envelopment analysis. To achieve the goal of sustainable accessibility, the third stage of TOD assessment uses linear programming to maximize local and network public transport accessibility through land use development.

The second section presents a comprehensive approach to disaster mitigation, encompassing the reduction of vulnerability to meteorological hazards and the enhancement of urban resilience. In the first stage, a novel vulnerability assessment methodology is developed using the ArcGIS fuzzy overlay tool to integrate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indices. This is followed by proposing a conceptual resilience model to mitigate the impact of disasters in densely populated TOD areas in the second stage. Applying this method in the Montreal Metro case study aims to draw the attention of policymakers and urban planners toward adopting more coordinated land use, transport, and disaster mitigation planning strategies.