Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Environmental policy – Australia – Victoria'
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1
Morris, Mary Lou. "Environmental impact assessment : current problems in Australia and prospects for improvement." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1991. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envm877.pdf.
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Spivak, Gary, and gspivak@portphillip vic gov au. "Sharing the responsibility : the role of developer contributions in the provision of lower income housing in California and its implications for Victoria." Swinburne University of Technology. Department of Sociology, 1999. http://adt.lib.swin.edu.au./public/adt-VSWT20051205.091306.
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This thesis investigates the relevance and transferability of developer contributed affordable housing in the USA as an alternative method of funding and delivering affordable housing in Australia.
Local Government, the vehicle for the delivery, is explored because of its central role in co-ordinating developer contributed affordable housing in the USA; and because its role in both counties as both the planning authority and a potential provider or facilitator of community housing.
Additionally, the nature and role of community based housing providers in the USA is considered important in maintaining the purpose of developer contributed affordable housing and also expanding the size of the community housing sector.
The thesis investigated developer contribution policies and programs in four Californian municipalities: San Francisco, Santa Monica, Los Angeles and San Diego. This State and these cities have established some of the most well developed programs of this type in the USA.
The investigation included controls and incentives, both mutually reinforcing, used in these Californian programs as well as operational program factors which led to their success. These were contrasted with Australian conditions to determine the relevance and transferability of the US experience.
A central conclusion was that the US developer contribution programs had limited relevance and transferability to Australia for a number of reasons. These reasons include the divergent roles, track records and legal powers of local government in the USA and Australia in planning and housing provision or facilitation; contrasting legislative frameworks and nature of housing developers between the two countries; and the lack of an imperative in Australia to develop alternatives to centrally provided public housing systems which is in contrast to the USA.
Consequently, the value of the US experience was that their particularly successful and problematic aspects of developer contributed housing programs and community housing arrangements would develop a useful context for an Australian model.
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Mokoena, Karabo. "Decentralisation of water resource management : a comparative review of catchment management authorities in South Africa and Victoria, Australia." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19783.
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By the adoption of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), South Africa has significantly changed its water management regime and the institutions governing water in this country. These changes were first introduced by the National White Policy Paper on Water in South Africa in 1997 and subsequently the National Water Act in 1998. One of the key components of IWRM is the decentralisation of water management to a regional or catchment level and the introduction of public participation in the water management sector. With the enactment of the NWA South Africa incorporated IWRM in its legal system and a decade on, authorities are now turning to its implementation. The NWA introduces Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs) in water management and gives them authority over water management at a catchment level. Initially there were nineteen (19) and this number has since been reduced to nine (9) due to a number of factors. South African authorities are now seeking ways in which they can effectively decentralise water to a catchment level, including delegating and assigning some of the functions currently held by the Minster to CMAs. Using Victoria, Australia as a comparative study, this study investigates how water management can best be decentralised to a catchment level; it starts off by investigating the theory of decentralisation and its pros and cons; then sets off to investigate water management has been decentralised in Australia from the national level, to state level and catchment level; it then investigates the role of Rural Water Authorities in Victoria and compares them to Catchment Management Agencies in South Africa. Finally the work highlights the water management regime and the various stakeholders in water management South Africa from a national level to a catchment level and the challenges facing South Africa in term of WRM; and then makes recommendations and a conclusion based on its research findings and the South African socio-economic and political context.
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Baker, Tagen Towsley. "The Farm as Place in a Changing Climate: Capturing Women Farmers' Experiences in Idaho, United States and Victoria, Australia." DigitalCommons@USU, 2019. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7675.
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In Australia and the US, women play a vital role in the agricultural sector. However, historically farmwomen’s contributions to agriculture as well as their individual knowledge and social resilience to stressors like climate and climate change have been unrecognized and rendered invisible. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship from geography and the humanities, this dissertation explores the farm as place in a changing climate, drawing on women farmers’ experiences, under three distinct themes: identity, place, and photography. The dissertation research includes three distinct parts. First, incorporating non-fiction writing and photography, I explore my agricultural and religious heritage, as well as familial connections to the landscape of rural Idaho. Second, and in conjunction with The Invisible Farmer Project, the largest ever study of Australian women on the land, I analyze women’s photo voices, relying primarily on interview and Facebook data, as well as photographs, to understand women’s emotive connections to the farm as place, farmer identities, and roles in the agricultural sector. Analysis of the Facebook posts revealed how women are establishing a new dialog about what it means to be a woman farmer and how emotion is the foundation for establishing community and connection. Women's posted photo voices allow us to gain new insights into the women farmers' connections to the farm as place as well as their diversified perspectives and identities. Third, using integrative methods, I study women farmers and ranchers in Idaho, United States and Victoria, Australia through an environmental history lens. Examining the history of water in each region, and how the layering of social and environmental factors shapes the farm as place, resilience, and women’s work, I study how the identities of the women farmers and the farm as place cannot be separated. In both the second and third parts, I seek to redefine "farmer" by revealing experiences that have been invisible in the traditional agricultural sector. Rural women farmers have diverse identities and experiences, and their contributions to the agricultural sector are significant. They perceive and adapt to climate impacts and they are resilient. Their experiences with the farm as place is at the center of their identities, resilience, day-to-day work, and shapes their adaptation strategies and emotional well-being.
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Johnson, Wendi Leigh. "Policy innovation and policy transfer in Australia : a retirement village case study." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1998.
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O'Meara, Peter Francis Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "Models of ambulance service delivery for rural Victoria." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. Public Health and Community Medicine, 2002. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/18771.
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The primary aim of the research project was to develop conceptual models of rural ambulance service delivery based on different worldviews or philosophical positions, and then to compare and contrast these new and emerging models with existing organisational policy and practice. Four research aims were explored: community expectations of pre-hospital care, the existing organization of rural ambulance services, the measurement of ambulance service performance, and the comparative suitability of different pre-hospital models of service delivery. A unique feature was the use of soft systems methodology to develop the models of service delivery. It is one of the major non-traditional systems approaches to organisational research and lends itself to problem solving in the real world. The classic literature-hypothesis-experiment-results-conclusion model of research was not followed. Instead, policy and political analysis techniques were used as counter-points to the systems approach. The program of research employed a triangulation technique to adduce evidence from various sources in order to analyse ambulance services in rural Victoria. In particular, information from questionnaires, a focus group, interviews and performance data from the ambulance services themselves were used. These formed a rich dataset that provided new insight into rural ambulance services. Five service delivery models based on different worldviews were developed, each with its own characteristics, transformation processes and performance criteria. The models developed are titled: competitive; sufficing; community; expert; and practitioner. These conceptual models are presented as metaphors and in the form of holons and rich pictures, and then transformed into patient pathways for operational implementation. All five conceptual models meet the criteria for systemic desirability and were assessed for their political and cultural feasibility in a range of different rural communities. They provide a solid foundation for future discourse, debate and discussion about possible changes to the way pre-hospital services are delivered in rural Victoria.
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Peel, Samantha. "Indicators for sustainability : Local Agenda 21 in Adelaide." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envp374.pdf.
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Bibliography: leaves 99-105. Examines the ways in which local governments in the Adelaide region have used the Local Agenda 21 program, with particular focus on public participation and the development of indicators. Argues that sustainability requires the support and involvement of the widest possible community, a necessity that will not be realised until public participation, particularly involving those groups with a reduced 'social voice' (such as women, youth and minority cultural/ethnic groups), becomes an integral part of the local government's modernisation agenda. Concludes with a summary of the main issues and a set of recommendations for future research and action.
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Staib, Robert. "Solving major pollution problems a new process model /." Thesis, Electronic version, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/588.
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Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Graduate School of the Environment, 1997.Bibliography: p. 179-190.
1. Summary -- 2. Introduction -- 3. Current process models -- 4. Proposed pollution process model -- 5. Brown haze air pollution in Sydney -- 6. Ozone air pollution in Sydney -- 7. Ozone air pollution in Melbourne -- 8. Beach pollution in Sydney -- 9. Water pollution in the Parramatta River -- 10. Comparison of case study indicators and results -- 11. Summary of research -- 12. Conclusion.
Existing process models describe the general social and institutional processes involved in the solution of environmental problems and in the solution of public policy problems. These existing models do not include many processes specific to pollution problems and in most cases they do not included a quantitative assessment of the likely duration and strength of the processes involved. In this work I have proposed a process model with nine specific processes involved in the solution of major regional pollution problems. I have named the nine processes: affected party, harbinger, public concern, political action, inquiry, body of knowledge, legislation, allocation of funds, and organisational change. The processes were selected to be consistent with general processes of the literature models and to reflect actual processes that have been involved in the solution of pollution problems in Sydney since European settlement. I have used five case studies of regional air and water pollution problems from the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney. The nine proposed processes were identified in each of the case study problems and were quantified by the use of indicators that measured the strength and duration of the individual process.
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Economou, Nicholas. "Greening the Commonwealth : the Australian Labor Party government's management of national environmental politics, 1983-1996 /." Connect to thesis, 1998. http://eprints.unimelb.edu.au/archive/00000333.
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Beveridge, Meghan. "Proposing A Water Ethic: A Comparative Analysis of Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability." Thesis, University of Waterloo, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10012/2907.
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Because water is basic to life, an ethical dimension persists in every decision related to water. By explicitly revealing the ethical ideas underlying water-related decisions, human society's relationship with water, and with natural systems of which water is part, can be contested and shifted or be accepted with conscious intention. Water management over the last century has privileged immediate human needs over those of future generations, other living beings, and ecosystems. In recent decades, improved understanding of water's importance for ecosystem functioning and ecological services for human survival is moving us beyond this growth-driven, supply-focused management paradigm. Environmental ethics challenge this paradigm by extending the ethical sphere to the environment. This research in water ethics considers expanding the conception of whom or what is morally considerable in water policy and management. First, the research proposes a water ethic to balance among intragenerational equity, intergenerational equity, and equity for the environment. Second, the proposed ethic acts as an assessment tool with which to analyse water policy. Water for Life: Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability is the focal policy document for this analysis. This document is an example of new Canadian policy; it represents the Government of Alberta's current and future approach to water issues; and it implicitly embodies the ethical ideas that guided the document's production. To assess Water for Life's success in achieving the principles of the proposed water ethic, this case study used discourse analysis, key informant interviews, and comparison to a progressive international policy document, Securing Our Water Future Together, the 2004 White Paper of Victoria, Australia.
Key conclusions show that Water for Life is progressive by embracing full public participation, a watershed approach, knowledge-generation initiatives, a new planning model, and water rights security. However, barriers exist that can disrupt the strategy's success, including the first-in-time first-in-right water allocation system, the strategy's lack of detail, inadequate protection of aquatic ecosystems, ambiguity of jurisdiction over water in First Nations communities, and under-developed connections between substantive issues. The thesis also outlines recommendations for Alberta and implications for other jurisdictions. Additionally this research offers guidelines and an assessment tool grounded in broad ethical concepts to water policy development; and it encourages making ethical ideas explicit in assessment and formation of equitable and sustainable water policy.
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Ockwell, David G. "Knowledge claims and environmental policy : an interdisciplinary analysis of fire management in Cape York, Australia." Thesis, University of York, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.440982.
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Sundström, Linn. "Investigating the impact of the Millennium Drought on catchment water balance : A study of four catchments in Victoria, Australia." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-231134.
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Southeast Australia have between 1997-2009 experienced a severe drought, referred to as the Millennium Drought. During these years the region experienced a 11.4% decline in mean annual rainfall, an unprecedented decrease in runoff and a decline in soil moisture and groundwater storage. The drought officially ended in 2010 when one of the strongest La Nina-events on record occurred. However, it is still unknown how the behaviour of the catchments changed during the drought and if this change persists in the years following the drought. Changes in catchment behaviour and fluxes are commonly determined using a catchment water balance, where the change in groundwater storage is assumed to be neglectable when studying longer periods of time. However, studies have showed that this assumption might be inaccurate for catchments that experience a climatic disturbance such as a severe drought. This study investigates if including the change in groundwater storage by using spatial groundwater head data can improve the catchment water balance. This was done by assuming that specific yields are unknown and to be determined in a calibration. An unknown scalar applied to the evapotranspiration was used to try to account for the uncertainties in the known fluxes and was also to be determined in the calibration. Two different calibration schemes were considered: one assuming no delay in groundwater head response to climate and one accounting for the delay. The fluxes were determined for the period before, during and after the drought. The results were analysed to determine if the catchments showed a change in behaviour during and after the drought. The results showed that when not accounting for the delayed response of the groundwater head, at least one of the specific yields in the catchments became infinitely small. Including the delayed groundwater head response did improve one of the catchments significantly by producing plausible specific yields for all geological units. A conclusion of this is that including the change in groundwater storage could improve the water balance. However, for it to do so a thorough analysis of the groundwater and subsurface needs to be conducted. Further, the water balance error was the third biggest flux after rainfall and actual evapotranspiration suggesting that the evapotranspiration scalar reduced the actual evapotranspiration too much. All fluxes did decrease during the drought, by how much differed between the catchments and the water balance components. Two of the catchments showed a change in behaviour during the drought that persisted in the years following the drought. The most likely fluxes to have caused this were the change in runoff and groundwater storage. The other two catchments showed a smaller change in behaviour during the drought and an indication that it was on its way back to the same state as before the drought. The likely fluxes to have caused the small change in behaviour was runoff and actual evapotranspiration.Under åren 1997–2009 minskade den genomsnittliga årliga nederbörden över sydöstra Australien med 11.4% och den genomsnittliga årliga avrinningen var lägre än någonsin tidigare samtidigt som grundvattennivåerna sjönk. Denna torka brukar kallas the Millennium Drought och är den svåraste torkan i Australien i modern tid. Torkan tog officiellt slut 2010 då ett av de mest kraftfulla La Niña-fenomenen inträffade vilket bidrog till att april 2010 till mars 2012 var de blötaste två åren i australiensk historia. Trots att flera studier har gjorts kring torkan så är det ännu inte klarlagts hur avrinningsområdena i området påverkades och om de fortfarande är påverkade när torkan officiellt är över. Flödena inom ett avrinningsområde bestäms vanligtvis genom en vattenbalans. Då vattenbalansen över ett avrinningsområde studeras under en längre tid antas ofta att förändringarna i grundvattenmagasinen går att bortse från då grundvattennivån ofta återgår till samma stadie efter ett antal år. Nyare studier har dock visat att detta inte alltid är fallet vid exempelvis en svår torka och att det vid dessa fall inte är korrekt att anta att förändringen i grundvattenmagasinen är försumbar. I denna studie har en vattenbalans gjorts för fyra avrinningsområden i delstaten Victoria i Australien. Syftet har varit att avgöra om vattenbalansen kan förbättras om förändringen i grundvattenmagasinen inkluderas. Detta har gjorts genom att använda nyligen framtagen data för grundvattennivån i delstaten och antagit att den dränerbara porositeten är en okänd variabel. För att justera för osäkerheterna kring the kända flödena har en okänd faktor för evapotranspirationen inkluderats. De okända variablerna bestämdes i en kalibrering. Kalibreringen genomfördes för två olika kalibreringsscheman och för tre olika tidsperioder. Det ena kalibreringsschemat antog att grundvattnet direkt reagerade på effektiv nederbörd minus avrinning, medan den andra kalibreringsschemat tog hänsyn till en försenad reaktion. Kalibreringen gjordes för tidsperioderna innan, under och efter torkan. Resultaten visade att när ingen hänsyn togs till en eventuellt försenad reaktion av grundvatten så går värdet för dränerbar porositet i minst en geologisk enhet mot noll medan det andra värdet är rimligt. När hänsyn togs till en försenad reaktion av grundvattnet, fick fler avrinningsområde rimliga värden för dränerbar porositet för hela området. Slutsatsen som kan dras kring detta är att vattenbalansen kan förbättras om förändringen i grundvattenmagasinen inkluderas. Detta kräver dock en djupgående analys av grundvattnet och geologin i avrinningsområdet. Hur mycket flödena förändrades under och efter torkan varierar mellan avrinningsområdena och flödena, gemensamt var dock att alla flöden minskade under torkan. Två av avrinningsområdena påvisade en förändring i beteendet under torkan och de år som följde. Det är mest troligt att förändringarna i avrinning och grundvattenmagasinen har påverkat detta. De övriga två avrinningsområdena påvisade även de en förändring under torkan, om än mindre än för de föregående. Denna förändring ser även ut att vara på tillbakagående och att avrinningsområdet inom en snar framtid skulle kunna ha samma tillstånd som innan torkan. De mest troliga flödena som har påverkat dessa avrinningsområden är förändringar i avrinning och den faktisk evapotranspirationen.
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Frederick, John (John William) 1952. ""The help I need is more than the help they can give me" : a study of the life circumstances of emergency relief clients." Monash University, Dept. of Social Work, 2004. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/5151.
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Syarif, Laode Muhamad. "The implementation of international responsibilities for atmospheric pollution : comparison between Indonesia and Australia." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 1999.
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Risely, Melissa. "The politics of precaution : an eco-political investigation of agricultural gene technology policy in Australia, 1992-2000." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phr5953.pdf.
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Oliver, Clive P. "Analysis and determinants of sustainability policy choice of local councils in Australia : a test of stakeholder theory." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/700.
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Since the early 1990’s, issues of sustainability involving community, government and industry have gained momentum, and the environment has become the focus of numerous studies, such as those undertaken by Young and Hayes (2002); Yuan (2001); Staley (2006); Mellahi and Wood (2004); Hezri and Hasan (2006); Dowse 2006; Wilmhurst and Frost (2000); and Qian, Burritt and Monroe (2010). Cotter and Hannan (1999, p.11) also discussed the impetus of a United Nations summit in 1992, known as the Earth Summit, which resulted in Local Agenda 21, a blueprint for action to achieve sustainable development.
Global sustainability is currently a major focus for policies in both the public and private sectors. Local government in Australia is currently undergoing historic changes as a result of a major thrust to restructure through amalgamation, in order to improve efficiencies and effectiveness in local government. Amalgamations are considered necessary for the financial survival of local government, as there is growing evidence to suggest that too many small councils will not be financially viable in the future. Moreover, local government worldwide is now more accountable than ever before for sustainable policy choices and the impact of those policy choices on their communities.
Sustainable policy choices of local councils worldwide will have an enormous economic and environmental impact on the planet. Previous studies into the effects of sustainability issues and their relationship to local councils have been carried out by Kloot and Martin (2001); O’Brien (2002); Reid (1999); Bulkeley (2000); and Tebbatt (2006).
This empirical quantitative study examines the sustainability policy choices of local government Australia-wide, and looks specifically at the determinants of such choices in local government. It also investigates the influence of stakeholders on the sustainability policy choices of each local government, the results of which have the potential to affect society’s quality of life. Identifying stakeholders who influence sustainability policy choices is therefore of great importance for the future.
All five hundred and fifty eight local Australian government entities listed by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) were invited to participate in this study. Data were gathered through the use of a structured questionnaire, and an analysis was undertaken to identify those stakeholders who influence the sustainability policies of Australian local government.
This is the first research to examine all Australian local government entities to find out why they make the sustainability choices they do. To date, most studies relating to local government have been in areas of disclosure, such as those carried out by Royston (2001); Priest, Ng and Dolley (1999); and Piaseka (2006).
The findings of this study support the assertion of Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997), that stakeholder salience is positively related to the cumulative number of the three variable attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. In addition, this study ranked stakeholders from one to eight according to the perceptions of local government CEOs. It is interesting to note that, of the listed stakeholders, government did not rank as number one. The results indicated that stakeholder influence on local government sustainability policy choices varied depending on local government size, location, and whether they were urban or rural according to their government classification. The researcher was surprised to learn that many councils did not know their own government classification. The study also revealed that local government took sustainability seriously in all its forms and applications. As in previous research, the CEO of each council was selected as the respondent for the questionnaire. It was discovered that many of the larger councils had specialist positions dealing with these issues.
This study is significant because it contributes original research in the area of stakeholder influence on sustainability policy choices of local government in Australia. It is important for future sustainability studies to have an understanding of which stakeholders influence local government in making their sustainability policy choices. This study also clarifies the perceived salience of local government stakeholders from the perspective of Australian local government CEOs. Moreover, the study proves quite clearly that local government is not homogenous, and the potential exists for future studies to investigate the importance and consequence of heterogeneous local government in Australia and around the world.
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Purnama, Dadang. "The evaluation of transboundary environmental impact assessment : a case study of the Timor Gap." xi, 103 leaves : ill., map, 1999. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envp9849.pdf.
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Bibiography: leaves 91-96. The Timor Gap area is managed jointly by Australia and Indonesia through the Treaty of Timor Gap (1989). The Zone of Cooperation area A 's main activity is oil exploration and exploitation. The main concern of the research is the provisions for environmental protection and the procedure of environmental impact assessment in the Treaty.
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Graham, Tennille. "Economics of protecting road infrastructure from dryland salinity in Western Australia." University of Western Australia. School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2009.0207.
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[Truncated abstract] The salinisation of agricultural land, urban infrastructure and natural habitat is a serious and increasing problem in southern Australia. Government funding has been allocated to the problem to attempt to reduce substantial costs associated with degradation of agricultural and non-agricultural assets. Nevertheless, Government funding has been small relative to the size of the problem and therefore expenditure needs to be carefully targeted to interventions that will achieve the greatest net benefits. For intervention to be justified, the level of salinity resulting from private landholder decisions must exceed the level that is optimal from the point of view of society as a whole, and the costs of government intervention must be less than the benefits gained by society. This study aims to identify situations when government intervention is justified to manage dryland salinity that threatens to affect road infrastructure (a public asset). A key gap in the environmental economics literature is research that considers dryland salinity as a pollution that has off-site impacts on public assets. This research developed two hydrological/economic models to achieve this objective. The first was a simple economic model representing external costs from dryland salinity. This model was used to identify those variables that have the biggest impact on the net-benefits possible from government intervention. The second model was a combined hydro/economic model that represents the external costs from dryland salinity on road infrastructure. The hydrological component of the model applied the method of metamodelling to simplify a complex, simulation model to equations that could be easily included in the economic model. The key variables that have the biggest impact on net-benefits of dryland salinity mitigation were the value of the off-site asset and the time lag before the onset of dryland salinity in the absence of intervention. ... In the case study of dryland salinity management in the Date Creek subcatchment of Western Australia, the economics of vegetation-based and engineering strategies were investigated for road infrastructure. In general, the engineering strategies were more economically beneficial than vegetation-based strategies. In the case-study catchment, the cost of dryland salinity affecting roads was low relative to the cost to agricultural land. Nevertheless, some additional change in land management to reduce impacts on roads (beyond the changes justified by agricultural land alone) was found to be optimal in some cases. Reinforcing the results from the simple model, a key factor influencing the economics of dryland salinity management was the urgency of the problem. If costs from dryland salinity were not expected to occur until 30 years or more, the optimal response in the short-term was to do nothing. Overall, the study highlights the need for governments to undertake comprehensive and case-specific analysis before committing resources to the management of dryland salinity affecting roads. There were many scenarios in the modelling analysis where the benefits of interventions would not be sufficient to justify action.
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Paton, Kathryn Louise. "At home or abroad : Tuvaluans shaping a Tuvaluan future : a thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Development Studies /." ResearchArchive @Victoria e-thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10063/957.
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Brueckner, Martin. "The role of management in the movement towards sustainability: Perceived responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 1998. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/120.
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The aim of this thesis was to explore the role of management in the movement towards ecologically sustainable development (ESD), investigating perceived responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities facing business management today. The point of departure for this study was the acknowledgement of the present paucity of references to ESD within the management literature, widespread amoral business conduct, and the dominance of economic rationalism within business science. This research provided an analytical review of ESD related literature, concentrating on the history and rise of the ESD paradigm, its ethical underpinnings, and economic implications to management practice. The paper highlighted the importance of ESD to management theory and practice, urging for a re-conceptualisation of business core values and a redirection of economic systems onto a development path that is economically, socially, and ecologically sustainable in the long-term.
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Siddique, Sharif Rayhan. "Development of policies to ameliorate the environmental impact of cars in Perth City, using the results of a stated preference survey and air pollution modelling." University of Western Australia. Faculty of Business, 2007. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2007.0165.
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[Truncated abstract] Air pollution is increasingly perceived to be a serious intangible threat to humanity, with air quality continuing to deteriorate in most urban areas. The main sources of inner city pollution are motor vehicles, which generate emissions from the tail pipe as well as by evaporation. These contain toxic gaseous components which have adverse health effects. The major components are carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitric oxide (NO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulates (PM10), and volatile organic compounds (VOC). CO and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are major emissions from cars. This study focuses on pollutant concentration in Perth city and has sought to develop measures to improve air quality. To estimate concentrations, the study develops air pollution models for CO and NOx; on the basis of the model estimates, effective policy is devised to improve the air quality by managing travel to the city. Two peaks, due to traffic, are observed in hourly CO and NOx concentrations. Unlike traffic, however, the morning peak does not reach the level of the afternoon peak. The reasons for this divergence are assessed and quantified. Separate causal models of hourly concentrations of CO and NOx explain their fluctuations accurately. They take account of the complex effects of the urban street canyon and winds in the city. The angle of incidence of the wind has significant impact on pollution level; a wind flow from the south-west increases pollution and wind from the north-east decreases it. The models have been shown to be equivalent to engineering and scientific models in estimating emission rate in the context of street canyons. However the study models are much more precise in the Perth context. ... The models are used to calculate the marginal effects for all attributes and elasticity for fuel price. In almost all attributes the non-work group is more responsive than the work group. Finally, the SP model results are integrated into an econometric model for the purpose of prediction. The travel behaviour prediction is used to estimate the policy impact on air quality. The benefit from the air quality improvement is reported in terms of life saved. The estimated relationships between probability of death and air pollution determines the number of lives that could be saved under various policy scenarios. A ratio of benefits to the financial and perceived sacrifices by drivers is calculated to compare the effectiveness of the suggested policies. A car size charge policy was found to be the most cost effective measure to ameliorate the environmental impact of cars in Perth, with a morning peak entry time charge being almost as cost effective. The study demonstrates the need for appropriate modelling of air pollution and travel behaviour. It brings together analytical methods at three levels of causality, vehicle to air pollution, charge to travel response, and air pollution to health.
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Quinn, Jason Matthew. "The adequacy of project based EIA for a complex coastal development : the Glenelg/West beach study." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2001. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ENV/09envq44.pdf.
Full text
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Kinrade, Peter. "Sustainable energy in Australia : an analysis of performance and drivers relative to other OECD countries /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/3613.
Full text
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McGrath, Christopher James. "How to evaluate the effectiveness of an environmental legal system." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2007. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/16661/1/Christopher_James_Mcgrath_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.
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McGrath, Christopher James. "How to evaluate the effectiveness of an environmental legal system." Queensland University of Technology, 2007. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16661/.
Full textAbstract:
The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.
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Chapman, Kelly. "Complexity and creative capacity : reformulating the problem of knowledge transfer in environmental management." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/696.
Full textAbstract:
The Ningaloo Reef is Australia’s largest fringing coral reef and an iconic tourist destination; however tourism development in Ningaloo has been ad hoc and the area is challenged by human pressure on numerous fronts. In response to these challenges a number of research agencies brought together a range of scientists to study the effects of human interaction on the reef. Moving from research to practice has been understood to depend on the adaptive capacity of the institutions responsible for governing human activities, in this case in the Ningaloo area. Knowledge transfer describes the suite of strategies used to try to bridge the gap between research and management. Knowledge transfer efforts, however, seldom have the desired impact of seeing research applied to decision-making. The ubiquity of knowledge transfer difficulties across disciplines suggests a common root to the problem, based in our shared cultural assumptions. This study pairs a multidisciplinary theoretical investigation with action research to shed light on why knowledge transfer efforts so often fall short in terms of seeing research applied to practice.
Recent environmental management perspectives on knowledge transfer illustrate the shift towards stakeholder participation as a means of improving knowledge transfer success. As such, the action research study involved the researcher embedding herself in the Ningaloo community for 18 months, adopting the role of a knowledge broker and engaging and collaborating with modelling researchers and local stakeholders on knowledge transfer efforts. However, despite intensive stakeholder engagement, evaluation interviews at the end of the process indicated that although the knowledge transfer process had the effect of catalysing relationships between stakeholder groups in the region, and between regional stakeholders and scientists, it appeared to have relatively little effect on the representational knowledge of local stakeholders or the actual application of research in practice. This led to the question of whether knowledge transfer is itself is part of the research uptake problem, as per the principles of problem formulation, which specify that resolving seemingly intractable problems requires examining the assumptions that underpin our thinking about the problem situation.
On this basis, the theoretical component of this study explored the Newtonian assumptions that inform our understanding of knowledge transfer. An alternative complexity-based ontology is proposed, unifying the metaphysics of materialism and idealism, based on a synthesis of process philosophy, mathematical logic, quantum theory, general systems theory and the complexity sciences. The phenomena of cognition, learning, knowledge and organising are compared in relation to how they’ve been understood within the Newtonian paradigm, and how they are now being explained from the perspective of a complexity-based paradigm. By reframing the action research results from a complexity perspective, the Ningaloo knowledge transfer process does not constitute a failure in terms of enhancing the capacity of the Ningaloo system to make more sustainable decisions. Rather, the increased connectivity between stakeholder groups and scientists can be viewed as more importantly enhancing the creative capacity of Ningaloo’s governance system. It is posited that the research uptake problem should be reformulated from the basis of complexity paradigm, and the notions of knowledge transfer and adaptive capacity reconceptualised accordingly. Instead of devising rational objective arguments for someone else to improve the ‘adaptive capacity’ of human systems, scientists should focus instead on improving their own creative capacity in their local interactions.
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Heck, Deborah Anne, and n/a. "Discovering Discourses of Citizenship Education: In the Environment Related Sections of Australia's 'Discovering Democracy School Materials' Project." Griffith University. Australian School of Environmental Studies, 2003. http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/public/adt-QGU20030905.115718.
Full textAbstract:
This study explores the impact of neoliberal education policies on the discourses of citizenship and citizenship education in an Australian citizenship education project entitled 'Discovering Democracy School Materials.' This project is the largest national curriculum development project in Australia and represents the official discourses of citizenship in Australia. The materials were developed in response to concern about the poor understanding of civics and citizenship in Australia and the lack of quality citizenship education materials and background information for teachers. The scope of the study was managed by focusing on a corpus of twelve text groups, selected from the materials because they related to the environment - an area of citizenship of interest to young people and which allows consideration of recent trends in the practice of citizenship. An approach to critical discourse analysis recommended by Fairclough (1992) was used. This involved a three-step process of identifying and analysing: (i) the discourse evident in the words in the text, (ii) the processes of production, dissemination and consumption of the texts, and (iii) the contextual social and cultural practices that influenced the development of the text. There were six steps in the discourse analysis. The first involved identifying the corpus related to the environment. The second was to identify and describe the discourses of citizenship and citizenship education evident in the text. The third involved interviewing key participants in the processes of text production, dissemination and consumption to ascertain their perceptions of the discourses evident in the texts. The fourth was an analysis of these interviews to interpret the discourses participants acknowledged as being within the text and the discursive practices that operated to establish those discourses. The sixth was an explanation of the impact of neoliberalism on the development of the materials. The results indicate that two discourses of citizenship and citizenship education were dominant within the materials - Legal Status and Public Practice. The same two discourses were evident in the interviews with key participants in the processes of text production, dissemination and consumption. In all cases, the materials lacked any evidence of the citizenship or citizenship education discourses of Democratic Identity, World Citizenship and Democratic Participation, although Democratic Identity was a minor aspect of one of the twelve text groups. A range of discursive practices related to neoliberalism was identified as influential on this pattern of discourses. Perceptions of teacher deficiency were influential in the process of text production as was the power of key individuals and groups such as the national education minister and his department, a government-appointed Civics Education Group, the Curriculum Corporation and, to a much lesser extent, teacher professional associations. Two discursive practices were influenced in text dissemination: the materials were provided free of charge to all schools and extensive professional development was provided. These provided significant inducements to teachers to use the materials. Discursive practices operating in the process of text consumption provided added inducement by showing teachers how to select key components of the materials for local use. However, this concern for local context was undermined by the extreme strength of the presentation of what counts as legitimate citizenship and the lack of opportunity for alternative or resistant readings of the texts. Three aspects of neoliberalism were seen as especially influential in these discursive practices - the strong focus on the development of legitimate knowledge, marketisation, and an emphasis on the need for evaluation. The study concludes with an examination of the implications of the findings to identify recommendations for teachers, teacher educators, materials developers and opportunities for further research.
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Couper, Amy. "Understanding perceptions of human-wildlife conflict and policy responses: An examination of the Western Australia shark hazard mitigation drum line program 2013-2014." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2020. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/204256/1/Amy_Couper_Thesis.pdf.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines stakeholder perceptions of shark bite events and policy responses by using a Western Australian shark hazard mitigation policy as a case study. It determined that stakeholder groups use different techniques to create social problems that can influence policy outcomes and that there is a disconnect between policy and scientific evidence regarding cases of human-wildlife conflict.
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Rayl, Johanna M. "Water Markets and Climate Change Adaptation: Assessing the Water Trading Experiences of Chile, Australia, and the U.S. with Respect to Climate Pressures on Water Resources." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/150.
Full textAbstract:
Water trading and water markets have been listed by leading climate change organizations as a possible tool for climate change adaptation. Experience with water trading exists in many places in the world, and three of the most well-known and widely-studied markets for water rights are found in the Western United States, Chile, and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin. While the body of literature on the performance of these markets is extensive, few papers relate the experiences of these three countries to adaptation as of yet. This thesis seeks to report on the outcomes of water markets in three cases with special attention to the following adaptation questions: Can water markets be a tool to address increasing variability in water supply; and what are the necessary environmental, political, and historic conditions for a market to be successful in allocating water resources under situations of scarcity? The experiences of these three cases yield the following conclusions about the use of water markets in climate change adaptation: the degree of existing infrastructure for water storage and transportation must be considered in the implementation of markets; water markets must be continually revised to internalize local third party effects; transaction costs must be minimized if markets are to serve increased short-term variability in water supply; sustainable outcomes are most readily met when markets approximate “cap-and-trade” programs; and the involvement of local institutions in market design will support market activity and the achievement of localized adaptation goals.
30
Martinson, Martti. "What is the enabling environment for local level youth participation? A comparative study of youth councils in the Australian state of Victoria and Estonia." Thesis, 2020. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/40988/.
Full textAbstract:
At a time of rapid change in the political involvement of young people, the creation of structures to facilitate the participation of young people in decision-making processes has been on the rise globally (Badham & Wade 2010; Farrow 2015). Youth councils are often created with the aim of representing the interests of young people in the community through advocacy, lobbying and provision of advice to decision-making bodies. At the same time the landscape of youth councils, particularly at a local government level, is varied and often lacking the evidence of best practice, an enabling environment and coordination.
This mixed-methods comparative case study research analysed the current environment and context in which youth councils are operating, and the experiences of former and current members of youth councils and the professionals that support their work, in the Australian state of Victoria and in Estonia. Semi-structured interviews and an online survey across the two countries and in two languages were employed from 2016 until 2017 to map the experiences and identify youth councils’ successes, gaps and potential for improvement. Qualtrics software was used to collect, analyse and code the survey data; data from semi- structured interviews was coded manually. The coding process identified key nodes and sub- nodes.
The results revealed that local level youth councils in Victoria and Estonia share many similarities, particularly in their aims, commonly undertaken activities and aspirations; however, there are also noticeable differences which can largely be attributed to the relevant legislative framework, policies, coordination mechanisms and resourcing for youth councils that exist in Estonia but not in Victoria. Through the results of this study, a framework for an enabling environment for youth councils was identified and conceptualised, using the Enabling Environment Index developed by CIVICUS (2013), the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, as a guide. The findings of this research also sought to provide an understanding of how the work of local level youth councils can be better supported and organised by policy, organisational and legislative measures to increase the effectiveness and benefits of these structures for young people and the community.
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Hotchin, K. L. "Environmental and cultural change in the Gippsland Lakes Region, Victoria, Australia." Phd thesis, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/10849.
Full textAbstract:
The subject matter of this thesis spans the disciplines of Geography, Prehistory and
Anthropology in attempting to examine the interaction of environmental and socio-cultural
systems. The thesis is not meant to be primarily be an in-depth study of the evolution of the
Gippsland Lakes system but is concerned with the question of the nature of the interaction
of a small-scale society with its environment and how this is reflected in the cultural forms
of the society.
That is, rather than being the focus of the study, reconstruction of changes in the
environmental parameters of the field area over time is undertaken to support the primary
inquiry into the nature of environmental-cultural interaction. The goal of the study is
therefore to examine cultural process rather than sedimentary processes.
This empirical approach tests the correlation between the evolving landscape and the
archaeological and ethnographic cultures of the Quaternary barrier systems of the
Gippsland Lakes-Ninety Mile Beach region. This involves environmental reconstruction
largely using published geomorphological and palynological information, and extensive
archaeological site survey and analysis to develop an outline of the prehistory of the study
area. Ethnographic and ethnohistoric reconstruction of aspects of the historical sociocultural
organisation of the area are undertaken in order to provide a comparative base for
archaeologically reconstructed culture. The study identifies a number of problems with the
use of the rich ethnography of the area.
Use of information hinges upon its validity and reliability. For these reasons sources of
bias, particularly natural factors working upon the archaeological record, are investigated.
These have considerable implications for the design and execution of survey, and for
interpretation and analysis of results. It appeared that in the study area at least statistical
description of site location data could not be carried out validly. It was also concluded that
ethnographic accounts of the study area must be used with caution.
Shifts in the natural environment and cultural change in the area seemed to show a poor
correlation. This gave rise to the conclusion that much of what is seen in the reconstructed culture history is attributable to wider scale movements of cultural information in
prehistory rather than to the details of the evolution of the local environment. Upon closer
examination it can be seen that this picture alters according to the scale at which it is
viewed.
There have been major spreads of information, including technological information,
which lead to economic and therefore ecological changes through the Holocene. This
expansion of ideas involved the proliferation of microlithic technologies in the mid-
Holocene, and in the later Holocene a wide-spread expansion of such technologies as fishing
hooks and tied-end canoes. As these phenonema also occurred beyond the study area it is
invalid to attribute them to local adaptive processes.
It is argued that the later Holocene developments, facilitated by technological innovation,
could have been induced by landscape evolution including estuary and wetland
sedimentation and evolution of other, rocky, coasts. At a closer scale, it can be seen that
within these trends local aspects of Holocene Aboriginal culture were closely adjusted to
local environmental conditions. Thus while gross configurations of local culture owe much
to broad scale historic processes, allowed or induced by large scale environmental
evolution, details of local culture may be explicable in terms of local conditions. At either
scale conscious perception and culturally informed response are indicated, and changes
must be seen as significantly induced rather than as the outcomes of random evolutionary
processes.
The concept of adaptation to environment is also examined from a theoretical perspective,
and the use of models of adaptation derived from neo-Darwinian theory in examination of
culture process is scrutinised. It is concluded that the application of an evolutionary model
based on natural selection to cultural process cannot be supported. A process of cultural
selection is suggested as a more valid model in the evolution and reproduction of sociocultural
systems.
32
Young, Liz 1967. "Environmental conflict in Australia / by Liz Young." 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21581.
Full textAbstract:
Bibliography : leaves 312-339.iv, 339 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Politics, 1995
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Stephens, Michael Leslie. "The economics of multiple-use forestry with reference to wood production and conservation of the Leadbeater's possum in the central highlands of Victoria." Thesis, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/145163.
Full text
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Carr, Anna. "Grass-roots and green-tape : community-based environmental management in Australia." Phd thesis, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/114568.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the role of community groups in environmental management.
It is recognised that governments have a responsibility to intervene at the local scale
to ensure sustainable management of the environment. Increasingly, there are also
community groups wishing to manage local environments. This study argues that
neither approach — top-down or bottom-up — is sufficient, but that they must
combine to create middle-ground approaches which encourage a plurality of
stakeholders to take environmental responsibility.
In Australia there is widespread agreement on the serious nature of environmental
degradation. Rural Australia now comprehends the damage done to the land by
erosion, vegetation decline, salinity and invasion by exotic species. Now that the
effects of these problems on biophysical and socioeconomic systems are at least
partially understood, people want action. This call for action has led to the
formation of local community organisations to act on water quality, weed control,
vertebrate pest management, dryland salinity, heritage conservation, forest protection
and many other environmental issues.
Proponents of community-based environmental management believe that bottom-up
approaches will change the face of Australian environments through participatory
processes and bioregional principles. On the other hand, critics of this approach
believe that community-based environmental management is a naive tool of the state.
This study concludes that community-based environmental management can occur
along any point of the community-government continuum and is presented as an
heuristic model. While the extremes are useful, there is an emerging consensus that
middle-ground approaches require cooperative environmental management.
Substantive findings of this research support both ends and the middle of the
continuum. Principles underlying government involvement in community-based
environmental management include a range of policy options, such as providing
seeding finance or in kind resources; providing opportunities for group facilitation or human resources; establishing the basis for local consultation and participation;
furnishing advice and information; and establishing the political, regulatory and
institutional arrangements within which local group action can flourish. Principles
behind community-based environmental management include a strong sense of
community; an attachment to place; extensive local knowledge; empowerment
through building relationships within the locality; and the strengthening of extracommunity
relations with government agencies and resource management
institutions.
This study uses a case-study approach to investigate three rural community groups
— Water Watchers in Western Australia, the Downside Landcare Group in New
South Wales and the Mitchell River Watershed Management Working Group in
Queensland. The research is exploratory, collaborative, reflective, experiential and
pragmatic. It borrows methodological procedures from a variety of research
paradigms in order to establish the profile of community-based environmental
management, the process by which it works and the principles underlying both group
and government approaches to local environmental management. The three case
studies reflect the diversity of community groups, but were not chosen using
statistical sampling techniques. Rather, the research design was replicated in three
case studies to make the findings generated more robust. The study uses grounded
theory to explore the principles of community-based environmental management and
links these with a range of disciplinary perspectives to generalise these findings in
the literature, not to other populations of community groups.
Although the research is interdisciplinary, it is largely based in the social sciences
and explores theory from community psychology, human ecology, rural sociology,
adult education, cultural geography and environmental policy. It does not examine
economic theory, but investigates emerging themes in the literature such as public
participation, cooperative management and environmental stewardship. Communitybased
environmental management is complex, uncertain and turbulent — requiring
an approach to the research which borrows from post-modernist thinking in
recognising diversity and celebrating individual difference.
35
Nolles, Karel Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications Faculty of Engineering UNSW. "Using markets to implement energy and environmental policy. Considerations of the regulatory challenges and lessons learned from the Australian experience and laboratory investigation using experimental economics." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40778.
Full textAbstract:
Government is constantly attempting to balance the competing interests within society, and is itself active in a variety of different roles. The conflict between these roles becomes particularly clear when an attempt is made to implement a "regulatory market" - that is a market that exists only because of government action- such as an electricity or environmental market - to implement some policy objective, since it is the nature of markets to candidly reveal weaknesses that in a non-market management framework may have remained hidden for some time. This thesis examines the difficulty that government has in setting market rules that implement an efficient market design for such markets. After examining the history and development of the Australian Electricity Industry market reform process, we examine more closely some of the electricity related environmental markets developed specifically to drive a policy outcome in Australia -- in particular the Australian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target Market (MRET) and the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme. By comparing these environmental markets with established financial markets, and using the techniques of experimental economics, we show that these environmental markets have significant inefficiencies in their design. We argue that these come about because lessons from the financial markets have not be learned by those implementing environmental markets, that stakeholders are lobbying for market design characteristics that are not in fact in their own best interests, and that governments struggle to manage the divergent pressure upon them. For example, in MRET we show experimentally that one of the market design characteristics most fought for by generators (the ability to create renewable energy certificates from qualifying energy without declaring the certificates to the market until a later time of the creator's choosing) in fact leads to market volatility, and ultimately inefficiently low prices. We also examine the impact on the overall MRET market of simple rule changes upon market performance. Key conclusions of this thesis are that it is more difficult than has been appreciated to successfully use a market to implement public policy and that important lessons have not yet been learned from the existing financial markets.
36
Harvey, Nicholas. "The role of the environmental impact statement under the South Australian Planning Act from 1982 - 1993." 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/37776.
Full textAbstract:
After more than a decade of environmental impact assessment ( EIA ) provisions within South Australian Planning Act, 1982 it is appropriate to examine the role of the environmental impact statement ( EIS ) as a major element of EIA and an important decision making tool for major projects over this period. The thesis first provides a review of EIA from its overseas origins to its development at the Commonwealth level in Australia. This provides the context within which to examine the system of EIA for major developments or projects in South Australia, which are dealt with largely through the EIS process. The thesis examines the type of projects which, according to the discretionary criteria in the Planning Act, have attracted EIS requirements between 1982 - 1993 and uses this to determine generic groupings of projects. It is noted that marinas represent the largest group of projects with EIS requirements, although EISs have been called for power generation related projects, electricity transmission line projects, tourist related projects, industrial projects, mining projects, water management projects, transport projects and a number of other projects. The thesis examines the number of EISs that have been completed, whether or not the projects have been approved or rejected and to what extent any patterns have emerged. The thesis then focuses on all the completed EISs in terms of their content, timing of preparation, public involvement and response, associated legislative requirements, type and role of developer, type and role of EIS consultant, the assessment of the EIS, and the decision making process. The thesis notes the high approval rate for projects with completed EISs suggesting most of the environmental problems have been resolved or are capable of being resolved. It is also noted that a number of projects are abandoned before the EIS is ever completed and that the few rejected EIS proposals are associated with high numbers of public submissions. Although each of the rejected proposals has a complex history of project development, environmental assessment and negotiations, it is noted that the decision to reject the proposals was ultimately a political decision. The thesis comments on the limited role of the South Australian Planning Commission ( SAPC ) in EIS project decision making in South Australia and the increasing use of the Governor as a decision maker. Although the SAPC is the statutory planning authority it is constrained by having to have regard to the principles in the Development Plan which is geared toward development control rather than for the extraordinary major projects which become subject to EIS requirements. The thesis then examines proposed changes to EIA in the context of early attempts to initiate EIA reform in South Australia through to the current Development Bill. These proposals are placed in context with changes to EIA procedures that have taken place at the Commonwealth level, the proposed development of a national agreement on EIA, and also the implications for EIA which are likely to flow from recent Commonwealth initiatives on ecologically sustainable development strategies. In addition the implications of recently developed environment protection agencies and associated legislation are examined at both the State and Commonwealth levels. Collectively these reviews and analyses provide the context of current thinking on EIA as it is likely to affect South Australian EIA processes in the future. Finally the thesis discusses the evolving role of the South Australian EIS in the context of its evolutionary process and the proposed legislative changes in South Australia, together with other related initiatives. This discussion touches on a number of issues such as public administration, the actual practice of the EIA process as opposed to the theory of EIA and what is written into the EIA legislation. In conclusion an overview is given of the current role of the EIS with some predictions for the future of EIA in South Australia.Thesis (M.Plan.)--Department of Architecture, 1993.
37
Perkins, Ralph A. "Greater Vancouver regional town centres policy in comparative perspective." Thesis, 1992. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3484.
Full textAbstract:
Suburban centres policies in Greater Vancouver, metropolitan Melbourne, and
Bellevue, Washington are examined to derive general lessons toward the
improvement of this type of policy. It is found that two attempts to pursue the
development of a regional system of suburban centres have been unsuccessful,
while a municipally-based policy has achieved some success in terms of the
physical design of a suburban downtown. Patterns of private sector development
are found to have been very little affected by any of the case study policies.
Further, several assumptions concerning the linkages between public transit and
land use in suburban centres are found to require further careful examination
before they should be used as a basis for future policy development.
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Proctor, Wendy Louise. "Multi-criteria analysis and environmental decision-making : a case study of Australia's forests." Phd thesis, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/148572.
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Risely, Melissa. "The politics of precaution : an eco-political investigation of agricultural gene technology policy in Australia, 1992-2000 / Melissa Risely." Thesis, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/21968.
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Saywell, David Russell. "Participation in environmental policy and decision making in Australia : a story of the politics of consensus and unholy alliances." Master's thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/147893.
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Ofei-Mensah, Albert. "Transaction costs analysis of alternative greenhouse gas policy instruments in the Australian transport energy sector." Phd thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149839.
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Carroll, Leonardo Zi{u00EA}n. "Australian water management and population change." Phd thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150596.
Full textAbstract:
Australia's population is growing rapidly, and is projected to grow by 65 percent to reach over 35 million people by the middle of the century. This population growth could exacerbate stresses on Australia's already stretched water resources and environmental assets, particularly if climate change projections prove correct. At the same time, there is a possibility that water shortages and declining water quality could lead to population decline in some parts of the country. Both of these scenarios will present water managers with significant challenges. With this in mind, this thesis addresses the question: How does Australia's water management framework deal with population change. This topic has not previously been considered in a coherent fashion. While there is an extensive literature on the relationship between population change and the environment more generally, and there has been some discussion of population change and water in Australia, there is a scarcity of literature on water policy and how it deals with population change. The thesis investigates the question from two angles. Firstly, it investigates the institutional arrangements, organisations and policies which influence how population change is considered in the context of water management. Secondly, it investigates what demographic data are available and relevant to water managers, and how these data are and can be used in the context of these institutional arrangements, organisations and policies. Reflecting its focus on policies, legislation, institutions and organisations, the thesis is primarily an exploration of public policy. To a more limited extent, the thesis also draws upon a second discipline, demography. More specifically, the thesis: 1. Develops a conceptual model to help explain the linkages between water management and population in Australia. This is an important contribution to research methodology in the area of population and water management. 2. Explores how and where demographic and population issues are relevant to Australian water managers. The issue of population change, and how water managers deal with it, needs to be considered very differently in different rural and urban areas. These areas, and the ways in which population matters in them, can be identified through analyses of water policy and socio-economic data. 3. Considers in detail the water reforms flowing from the National Water Initiative (NWI) and subsequent Water Act 2007 (Cth) and 2008 Agreement on Murray-Darling Basin Reform, and how population change is dealt with in the context of these reforms. While the NWI provides a range of mechanisms for managing population change, in some cases the effectiveness of these mechanisms remains compromised while they are still being rolled out. Furthermore, the focus of the NWT is on reallocating water resources in rural areas; increases in urban water consumption, associated with urban population growth, will not necessarily be constrained by water allocation planning processes. 4. Considers how population change is dealt with in the context of broader approaches to water management, such as land use planning and urban water planning. In doing so, it draws upon an extensive study of the policy literature, and qualitative discussions with informants involved in water reform at national, State and regional levels in the Commonwealth, New South Wales, and Queensland. 5. Describes and catalogues the myriad of socio-economic data sources available to water managers. It finds that these sources are generally reliable and well-documented, and that there is an emerging body of work aimed at integrating sources of socio-economic data so that they can be more readily used by water managers. 6. Through case studies, assesses in detail how socio-economic data have been used by water allocation planners and urban water planners. To date, a pragmatic approach appears to have been taken, whereby socio-economic data are used only to the extent that is necessary. Other factors (such as land use planning) are equally important determinants of population change and how it should be managed. 7. Considers the relationship between Australian water policy and structural adjustment, and hence, how water policy may lead to population change. Overall, the thesis makes an important contribution to research in the area of water management and population change. It brings together two previously largely separate domains of intellectual inquiry. By identifying and describing many of the ways in which Australian water managers are dealing with population change, it helps build understanding of some of the strengths and shortcomings to how Australia manages its water resources, and areas for improvement. Through its methodology and findings, it also lays a foundation for future work in this area.
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Sarker, Tapan Kumar. "An empirical examination of factors influencing managers' environmental investment decisions in the Australian offshore petroleum industry." Phd thesis, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150445.
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Robinson, Alice. "Landfall: reading and writing Australia through climate change." Thesis, 2012. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/24440/.
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This creative writing thesis begins with the premise that climate change poses critical outcomes for the Australian continent, and asks what the consequences of this are as the precariousness of Australia’s future in relation to climate change continues to gather pace.
Comprising a novel (70%) and exegesis (30%), the thesis as a whole seeks to explore the connections between climate change, land and culture in Australia, and to investigate settler Australian understandings regarding ‘place’, ‘belonging’ and ‘home’ in relation to both settlement and unsettledness in contemporary times.
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Fargher, W. R. "Running on empty : can current water reforms secure Australia's water future?" Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/148270.
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Greig, Zachary. "Empowerment and engagement: case studies in Victoria, Australia of people who are homeless and volunteers who are working in services for the home-less." Thesis, 2020. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/40453/.
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By drawing on community development values and principles as well as a social constructivist theoretical perspective, this study aims to understand how people who are homeless and the volunteers who serve them perceive their roles in terms of empowerment and disempowerment. Twenty-nine individuals have participated in this study: 18 had personal experiences of homelessness and 11 volunteered in the homelessness sector.
This study collects data through informal in-depth interviews, and it thematically examines a research diary. Research outcomes suggest that volunteers feel elements of perceived and actual power in their volunteerism. The study argues that such power stems from a belief that volunteering benefits the volunteer, people experiencing homelessness and broader society. These findings are consistent with existing literature and popular discourse; however, my research discovers that volunteers also express guilt and a reluctance to self-identify as a volunteer. This reticence, which accompanies volunteers’ scrutiny of the role’s characterisation as superior, runs contrary to how scholarship and popular discourse often understand volunteers.
Participants with first-hand experiences of homelessness characterise the role of the Australian ‘homeless person’ through notions of disempowerment and empowerment. They perceive disempowerment in the various ways they experience social disconnection: family rejection, a lack of companionship through friends and low-quality or precarious relationships within the home-less community. They also connect socially expected behaviours, rights, obligations, beliefs and norms to the disempowerment of welfare users. Nevertheless, through topics of public space, safety and protection, these participants express a sense of belonging and perceived empowerment.
Crucially, this study finds that 13 of the 18 ‘homeless’ participants had volunteered in the homelessness sector. This unanticipated observation expands the study’s analytical focus beyond an oppression-privilege binary in order to explore the nuances of participants’ complex social positions. As a result, the study tracks the ways by which volunteering challenges what it means to be ‘homeless’ in Australia and how it helps some ‘homeless people’ overcome aspects of the power inequalities encountered in mainstream society and welfare contexts. Overall, the study submits that volunteering signals the personal resources, abilities, skills, knowledge and potential that home-less people possess to improve their own lives and determine their own future.
Finally, the process of research challenges the student researcher’s expectations of what it means to perform as an effective scholar. The willingness and ability to listen - to offer kindness, sympathy and compassion – reconfigures how the student understands himself, others and good social work.
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Kaplan-Myrth, Nili. "Hard Yakka : a study of the community-government relations that shape Australian Aboriginal health policy and politics /." 2003. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=765029031&Fmt=7&clientId%20=43258&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2004.Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Yale University in candidacy for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliography. Preview available online at: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=765029031&Fmt=7&clientId%20=43258&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Quinn, Michael Joseph. "Possessing the West : the public management of the Western Division of New South Wales, 1880s to 1930s." Phd thesis, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/143454.
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McCarthy, Megan Emma. "Environmental impact assessment and organisational change in Transport SA & ETSA Corporation / Megan Emma McCarthy." 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/19898.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 379-409)2 v. : ill. ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Develops a framework for evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) and organisational change, and examines the influence of the EIA system on two government organisations within South Australia, Transport SA and ETSA . Finally analyses patterns of organisational change process in South Australia in comparision with experience in the United States.
Thesis (Ph.D.(Arts))--Adelaide University, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001
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McCarthy, Megan Emma. "Environmental impact assessment and organisational change in Transport SA & ETSA Corporation / Megan Emma McCarthy." Thesis, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/19898.
Full textAbstract:
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 379-409)2 v. : ill. ; 30 cm.
Develops a framework for evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) and organisational change, and examines the influence of the EIA system on two government organisations within South Australia, Transport SA and ETSA . Finally analyses patterns of organisational change process in South Australia in comparision with experience in the United States.
Thesis (Ph.D.(Arts))--Adelaide University, Dept. of Geographical and Environmental Studies, 2001