Todd K. BenDor
Assistant Professor

• Ph.D. Regional Planning
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• M.S. Environmental Science
  Washington State University
• B.S. System Dynamics
  Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Office: 307 New East
Phone: 919-962-4760
Fax: 919-962-5206
Email: bendor@unc.edu

Courses
• PLAN 721  Advanced Planning Methods
• PLAN 745  Development Impact Assessment
• PLAN 799(2)  Planning Seminar: Urban Modeling Workshop

Research and Practice
Todd BenDor’s research uses spatial and temporal analysis and modeling to better understand
human impacts on environmental systems.  His work has recently focused on the social and
economic impacts of off-site wetland mitigation and the regional simulation of future land use
change.  He has also been involved in using regional land use change modeling to assess a
broad range of environmental impacts and dynamic environmental problems.  His specializations
include system dynamics modeling, spatial analysis, and environmental planning.


Current and recent-past research projects:

Regional simulation modeling of urban growth
This project aims to create a simulation model of urban growth for the purpose of assessing
the effects of land use change on the capability of planners and governments to manage natural
hazards, including hurricanes, landslides, and flooding.  This model will also be a key tool in
assessing future issues associated with the environmental impacts of urban development,
including habitat fragmentation, wetland and stream impacts, and air and water quality issues,
among others.  This work is being done in conjunction with several organizations in North
Carolina, including the Renaissance Computing Institute (http://www.renci.org).  It is our hope
that this model will be useful not only in research, but for instructional purposes as well,
including several courses within the Department of City and Regional Planning as well
as other departments at UNC.


Developer decision-making in wetland mitigation
Under U.S. regulations, developers often have a choice regarding how and where they choose to
restore or create wetlands as compensatory mitigation.  This project aims to better understand
how these decisions are made, specifically how they are correlated with the extent of wetland
impacts (sizes), local land markets, and the structure and function of local wetland mitigation
bank markets.


Stream Restoration
This study will look at spatial patterns within stream mitigation bank markets and in-lieu fee
programs throughout the state of North Carolina.  These markets strongly resemble wetland
mitigation banking.  As a result, the spatial and social disparity implications associated with
relocation of stream restoration sites in the landscape may parallel wetland relocation.

In this study, we aim to address several major questions: (1) Are stream restoration sites being
located in any discernable pattern across space relative to impact locations?  (2) Are impacts to
private stream stretches regularly mitigated on public lands?  (3) If so, are mitigation sites still
able to enhance water quality or reduce potential flood damage in the areas experiencing
degradation?  (4) What are the potential social implications of private stream degradation,
and are restoration projects adequately compensating for localized loss of aquatic resources?


Habitat Fragmentation
This project assesses of the impacts of urban growth in Columbia, Georgia on the fragmentation
of Gopher Tortoise habitat near Fort Benning, a major military installation that contains large habitat
areas for this threatened species.  This study implements a spatial system dynamics model to
determine how new urban development alters or destroys the pathways that genetically connect
local tortoise populations in groups of small habitat patches.  The model then tracks the resulting
population dynamics to determine whether the new, local metapopulations can sustain themselves
into the future.  Original funding for this project came from the Army Corps of Engineers Construction
Engineering Research Laboratory.


Dynamic effects of wetland mitigation on no net loss
This project is aimed at understanding the aggregate effects of dynamic lags within the wetland
mitigation process.  Since 1987, U.S. wetland mitigation policy has intended to maintain a ‘no net loss’
of wetland acreage.  Regulations currently do not explicitly acknowledge that functional restoration is
delayed by lags in initiating and completing ecological community establishment.  This study
demonstrates that the compounding effects of small wetland losses can cause high levels of
persistent net loss, even in landscapes where restoration projects appear to increase the total
wetland acreage and function in the region.


Agent-based fisheries modeling
Many fisheries around the world have experienced rapid degradation due to overfishing.  However, fish
population crashes are not only devastating to ecological systems, they can also wreak havoc on the
small, renewable resource economies often found in coastal fishing villages.  This project involves a
series of studies implementing an agent-based, dynamic game model of fisher competition.  We are
currently assembling a dataset for several Lake Michigan fisheries to extend this model in order to
better understand how fishing-centered economies can better manage fish populations and avoid
population crashes.


Spatial dynamic reference modes
The system dynamics modeling process has evolved over the last fifty years to include several major
steps in understanding and simulating complex feedback systems.  The first step in this process is the
creation of the reference mode, a conceptual model (including charts, figures, data trends, etc.) of
past system behavior.  These behavioral modes are usually constructed using systemic archetypes,
such as exponential growth, and overshoot and collapse, many of which share causal analogies such
as delays and shifts in feedback loop dominance.  This project aims to expand the reference mode
concept spatially by studying common archetypes of 2-D spatial behavior (case-focused around
urban systems), including exponential and linear growth, overshoot and collapse, and oscillation.


Biofuel introduction modeling
This study simulated the agricultural land use changes likely to occur when introducing bioenergy crops
into the Illinois landscape.  Illinois’ north-south orientation creates a heterogeneous growing environment,
changing the ability of farmers to profit off certain crops in certain areas.  This fact could potentially hinder
the successful introduction of biomass crops.  Here, we created a dynamic, spatially-explicit, agent-
based model of agricultural land use in order to better understand the process of introducing miscanthus
and switchgrass into a state currently dominated by corn and soybean agriculture.  We were particularly
interested in the demand and subsidy structure necessary to help farmers transition to the new crops.
We were also interested in determining the capacity for biomass crop growth in Illinois.


Urban Recreational open space creation
This project integrates the creation of new recreational open space into a regional land use change
model (http://leam.uiuc.edu) based on political feedback between growing populations and the
dedication of land for open space purposes.


Emerald ash borer spread
This set of studies simulated at the impacts of the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive Asian
beetle introduced into Southeastern Michigan in the late-1990s.  Many authorities have likened the
Borer’s capability of damaging the North American Ash tree population to that of Dutch elm disease.
This study implemented a spatial dynamic model to track the spread of the borer during a hypothetical
introduction into DuPage County, Illinois.  Here, we looked at both the impacts of land use change
and movement of infested firewood on the capability of the borer to spread.


Professional Activities
• Member: American Planning Association, International System Dynamics Society, and Society
  of Wetland Scientists
• Reviewer for Diversity and Distributions, Environmental Management Review, and
  System Dynamics Review


Public Service
• Modeling Facilitator. Confluence I: Seeking Common Ground for Floodplain Functionality and
  Development.  A Workshop for River Stakeholders to Collaboratively Capture Information and
  Challenge Assumptions.  Organized by: The Nature Conservancy.  National Mississippi River
  Museum and Aquarium, Dubuque, Iowa.  (August 16-18, 2005).
• Community Facilitator for Champaign County, IL “big.small.all” visioning and planning project.


Selected publications
• BenDor, Todd K., Nicholas Brozovic, and Varkki George Pallathucheril.  2007.  Assessing the
  Socioeconomic Impacts of Wetland Mitigation in the Chicago Region.  Journal of the American
  Planning Association (In Press).
• BenDor, Todd K. and Nicholas Brozovic. 2007. Determinants of Spatial and Temporal Patterns
  in Compensatory Wetland Mitigation.  Environmental Management 40:349-364.
• BenDor, Todd K., Sara S. Metcalf, Lauren E. Fontenot, and Brandi Sangunett.  2006.  Modeling
  the Emerald Ash Borer Spread: A Decision Support System for Invasive Species Eradication.
  Ecological Modelling, 197:221-236.
• BenDor, Todd K. and Sara S. Metcalf. 2006. The Spatial Dynamics of Invasive Species Spread.
  System Dynamics Review, 22(1): 27-50.
• BenDor, Todd K. and Andrew Ford.  2006.  Simulating a Combination of Feebates and Scrappage
  Incentives to Reduce Automobile Emissions.  Energy, 31: 1197-1214.