Master's Portfolio: Qurat-ul-ain Haider Zaidi

Hi there,

As an urban planner and lawyer, my mission is to integrate ethics, social justice, environmental justice, equity, and sustainability into my professional endeavors. As a Fulbright Scholar, I strongly believe in the responsibility of giving back to the community. To me, achieving these principles requires deep engagement with the community before proposing any plans, considering both qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Prior to pursuing my master's degree at the College of Urban Planning and Policy Affairs, I gained invaluable experience working with Pakistan Railways, a Federal department responsible for ensuring efficient and safe rail travel across the country. This role provided me with a comprehensive understanding of rail connectivity on a national scale. Subsequently, I transitioned to the Divisional Department of Pakistan Railways, where I focused on managing the transportation department in a prominent city and its surrounding suburbs.

Furthermore, my master's degree with a specialization in Urban Transportation, along with my studies in Environmental Planning and Policy, and my certification in Public Transit Planning and Management (PTPM), have equipped me with a profound understanding of the significance of accessible and livable public spaces. These experiences have also emphasized the crucial priority of environmental considerations in all planning efforts.

Resume

EDUCATION

MUPP, Masters in Urban Planning and Policy

University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), 2023

Urban Transportation Specialization

Community Profile of Naperville, IL

Community Area Plan of Bronzeville neighborhood, Chicago

Case Study of PlaNYC (Comprehensive Sustainability Plan)

Environment Data Report of West Loop neighborhood, Chicago

LLB Hons, Bachelor of Law

University of the Punjab, Lahore, 2014

Recipient of the prestigious Higher Education Commission (HEC) Scholarship for five consecutive years of the LLB (Hons ) degree

Graduated with distinction (CGPA 3 78)

Won Law Moot court competitions for consecutive last three years of the LLB (Hons ) degree

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

Fulbright Scholarship (September, 2021-Present)

By the US Department of State and the Institute of International Education (IIE)

Higher Education Commission Scholarship (September, 2009- July, 2014)

Scholarship awarded to the students getting a distinction in every semester by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan

CERTIFICATE

Public Transit Planning & Management (PTMT) Certificate

Issued by the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC)

SKILLS

Urban intelligence software (e g , Urban Footprint, ArcGIS)

Data management and analysis software (e g , Excel, STATA, SPSS)

Designing tools and software (Adobe creative cloud: Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop)

EXPERIENCE

Data & Visualization Intern (May, 2022-August, 2022)

Connections for Homeless, Evanston, 2022

Federal Ministry of Railways, Pakistan (March, 2020-September, 2021)

ATO/ACO, Assistant Transportation & Commercial Officer, Pakistan Railways

Responsible for safe train operation within the designated division

Responsible for ensuring smooth and fast transportation of freight and passengers in the Operation Wing

Responsible for the sales, pricing, service, and marketing aspects of the passenger and freight business, in the Commercial Wing

Responsible for supervision and management of staff working under the designated division

Civil Servant/Officer under Training, Government of Pakistan (September 2018-August, 2020)

Syndicated Research Report on the Use of urban land and housing markets in Punjab

Syndicated Research Report on the Tax Amnesty Schemes: Impact on the Promotion of tax culture in Pakistan

Field attachment with Divisional Superintendent of Railways, Karachi, Pakistan on Karachi Circular Railway (KCR)

Field attachment with the City Planners of Lahore, Pakistan

Research Associate and Associate Attorney (August, 2014-September, 2016)

Hyat & Meerjees Law Firm, Lahore, Pakistan

Assisted the firm in the arbitration between Shearman & Sterling (Independent Power Producers) and National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC)

Co-authored chapters in the commentary of the Companies Act, 2017, Pakistan

Represented the law firm in courts pertaining to banking and civil matters

Visiting Faculty (December, 2016-December, 2017)

Pakistan College of Law, Lahore, Pakistan

Taught International Law and Political Science

Developed the curriculum of the undergrad law school

Bronzeville Community Area Plan

Under the administration of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot INVEST South/West project was initiated in 2019, thereby focusing on the ten neighborhoods of Chicago that need the immediate attention of policymakers. As a part of a semester, we worked as external planning consultants to examine the current conditions and provide recommendations based on sustainability and equity.

As a project leader of the Economic Group, I helped my team by researching the available retail units, homeownership patterns, and employment and income data of the residents of Bronzeville. On the other hand, I worked with the other team leaders and made sure that group leaders and team members are fully informed about the direction in which the project is going. I was also one of the members of a Speaking team and presented the Plan along with other members. The median household income in Bronzeville was $36,829, compared to the City of Chicago’s median household income of $56,433. 7,105 of Bronzeville’s residents live below the federal poverty line, with a total poverty rate of 29 percent and an extreme poverty rate of 14 percent.

Our findings helped us identify the issue of vacant lots in Bronzeville which showed years of disinvestment in this community. Keeping in view this, we selected a site at 4249 South Calumet Street which was laying vacant. We came up with the idea of the Pop! Court Community Plaza where community members can gather. The said community plaza can have positive social, environmental and economic impact. The Commercial Corridor Group came up with the amazing renderings which allowed us to see our ideas digitally.

After using various brainstorming tools and techniques, the entire class agreed on mainly three goals namely Resiliency, Livability and Equitable Growth. We then identified strategies for each goal and devise different metrics accordingly to measure the impact of our recommended goals.

Community Profile of Naperville, IL

Socio-economic analysis

I documented the community profile of Naperville which ultimately helped me in finding out the growth patterns in the said suburb and what areas need attention of policy makers.

For the population trend, I calculated it with the help of the Trend Extrapolation method with Polynomial (order 3) as the type of regression because the trend appears to be flexible and complex. Population change in Naperville from 1990 to 2020 shows a constant increase in the population ranging from 74,832 (1990) to 149,540 (2020).

Secondly, with the help of Urban Footprint software, I could run an analysis on the income level of most residents of the community. The results showed that it is relatively high compared to the surrounding areas. Residents are of upper middle to upper classes and they mostly live in single-family houses.

Land use analysis

I used Urban Footprint software to analyze the land use in Naperville. The results showed the dominance of single-family houses scattered all around. However, multi-family houses are considerably infrequent and are distributed largely closer to retail and commercial markets. On the other hand, the retail and commercial sectors are concentrated on the North-west side, which shows that commercial activity is largely restricted to one side of the city. The schools were evenly distributed throughout the city which ultimately matched the distribution of (single family) housing. However, hospitals that should be ideally accessible to all segments of the population could be found just in the middle of the city. However, more parks can be added to utilize open space.

The close examination of bicycle and pedestrian pattern showed that the city in fact promotes healthy lifestyle because it had an efficient network of walkways which allow people to move within the city. The map shows that the city is interconnected in this regard.

ArcGIS Software

Studyofenvironmentalfactorsandgreeninfrastructureontheheat islandeffectandheatvulnerabilityindexinSouthwestofCityChicago

In order to evaluate community-level vulnerability to pollution across Chicago, I used the methodology of the CalEnviroScreen 3.0. By using different data sources including CMAP and projecting them on ArcGIS, I was able to find out following patterns:

Communities with low socioeconomic status and high rates of chronic health conditions are especially vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution

In Chicago, with its history of segregation and disinvestment in Black and Latinx communities, the differences between neighborhoods are stark

Some communities have rates of poverty, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that are ten times greater than others.

Structural racism and economic hardships contribute to this gap.

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Adobe Suite

The Geospatial Analysis and Visualization (GSAV) course helped me to develop skills in the spatial analysis and visualization of data, including development of maps and models that can communicate complex information. In this course, a project was assigned individually to develop the East Side Site Plan of UIC based on the original master plan developed by Booth Hanson. With the help of Adobe Illustrator and Google Earth Software, I was able to recreate a site plan which allowed me to visually convey the development within the built environment of UIC east campus.

With the help of Google Earth Software and Adobe Illustrator, I created a Regional Transportation Map of Chicago outlining the routes of CTA trains by specifically focusing the downtown and UIC East Campus..

In this exercise, we were split into groups and given blocks to come up with a site plan on a designated actual public space. The main idea behind this exercise was not only to come up with a two-point perspective of the site plan but also to incorporate the principles of equity and sustainability which foster the Transit-oriented Development (TOD). Each student even in the same group came up with his/her version of mixedused development.

In the sketch shown above, I came up with the kind of mixed-use development which has commercial activity on the ground floor and affordable housing on the above. Moreover, this site plan also left space for a parking lot between the dwelling units and the rail line so that people living in the buildings are not bothered by noise pollution. Another thing to counter this issue was to have plants at the boundaries of this development.

InDesign Cut Sheets Project & Poster

Design (front)

InDesign Cut Sheets Project & Poster

Design (back)

preventhomelessnessthrough financialassistanceto householdsfacingeviction

OUR GOALS

provideemergencyshelterfor peopleincrisis

securepermanenthousingfor individualsandfamilies organizeourcommunity throughadvocacyefforts.

Connections for the Homeless

I joined the advocacy team of Connections for the Homeless in the Summer 2022 as a Data and Visualization intern.

I focused the socio-demographic conditions of Evanston and all the northern suburbs of the Cook County. This helped me project and visualize how ethnicity and race intersect with homelessness. With the help of Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) data, I could visualize that household income of white residents is exponentially greater than any other race.

Using the same sources of data, I could visualize that renters in Evanston who are earning $34,999 or less are facing an extreme housing cost burden which in effect means that they are spending more than 50% of their income on the rent payment of the residential unit they are living in. Moreover, further analysis showed that as income increases the likelihood of facing a housing cost burdens decreases exponentially.

Summer internship in Connections for the Homeless

My further research helped me identify that approximately 34.9% households in Evanston are experiencing housing cost burden which includes homeowners as well as renters. The source for data was US Census Bureau and HUD data files.

I tried to analyze the phenomenon of housing cost burden by Race and Ethnicity in Evanston. The results showed that rates are higher for Black, Asian and Hispanic Households as compared to White non-Hispanic residents.

Summer internship in Connections for the Homeless

I also visualized the income distribution of cost-burdened households in North Suburban Cook County municipalities to help understand and identify the areas which need immediate attention and require affordable housing. I was able to rank the cities by percentage of such households with incomes below $34,999. While compiling the results, some values were round-off to maintain logical consistency.