Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Highlands region'

This thesis is about the native architecture of the highlands of the Asir region in the south-western corner of Saudi Arabia. The thesis is made up of three parts. The first part introduces the region and its architecture. It has three chapters. The first chapter discusses significant cultural and social aspects of the people, and their impact on the architecture. The second chapter introduces the native architecture of the highlands, and classifies this architecture into towers and villages. It provides ground plans for the most important types of towers, and assigns them to their geographic and tribal context. The chapter also describes the basic features of these towers and villages. The third chapter describes the natural features of the highlands and their influence on selected stone-built villages. The second part is devoted to the study of one type of tower built in the central and south sections of the highlands: the duct tower. Twelve duct towers are under close focus in this part. This part has five chapters. The fourth chapter classifies the duct types of these towers and explores the purpose of the duct. Chapter five describes and argues the purpose of three duct grain towers built in different physical contexts. The first tower is an isolated tower. The second tower is built inside a compact stone village. The third tower and its companions overlook a stone village. Chapter six describes three duct defensive towers. The first tower is built inside a defended stone village. The second tower is built outside a compact village. The third tower is built within a fortress. Chapter seven describes three watch and retreat towers. The first tower is a simple duct tower. The second tower is of the platform-duct type. These two towers are built overlooking stone villages. The third tower is a round duct tower built beside grain fields. Other round towers are also discussed in this chapter.

With the Scottish Government's commitment to sourcing 100% of the national electricity demand from renewable sources by 2020, within the global framework of climate change mitigation, the potential of the marine environment around the Highlands and Islands Region of Scotland to add to Scotland's renewables portfolio has led to the expansion of the wave and tidal industries in recent years. Nevertheless, to date, there has been limited research conducted on the social systems around marine renewable energy development, excluding offshore wind. In answer to this deficit, this study explores a well-established concept within the academic arenas of business, health, and rural development, among others, of agents for change (AFCs), within the context of the rapidly emerging wave energy sector. Two case studies, Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, and Orkney, were chosen based on their localities and the interest that they have garnered from wave energy developers due to their high energy marine environments. A grounded approach was taken to data collection and a social power analysis was conducted in order to find AFCs working within or closely with the wave energy industry that were not part of structured or hierarchical organisations. One emergent theme was that there was a noteworthy barrier to wave energy development in the case studies and to the work that the agents for change were doing in the form of a complex dynamic between financial investments in the sector, national grid, national energy policy, and the technology itself. The agents for change were found to act as catalysts for the wave energy industry through their perseverance and visionary approach to development. The motivations of the AFCs is discussed and the shifting roles that they took as a project progresses is described and compared to other change process models, namely Lewin (1958) and Kotter (1995).

Thesis advisor: John Michalczyk
Why do we eat the foods that we do? This question is one that is not often considered by individuals as they go about their daily lives, but can have large implications on public health – for, there is a strong, physiological connection between food consumption and one’s health and wellbeing. Accordingly, when reflecting upon the health of a nation it is often important to consider its nutritional status. Ultimately, many determinants can contribute to how and why an individual eats certain foods, as can be seen in Ecuador. In this Latin American country, for instance, historical, socioeconomic, cultural, behavioral, socioeconomic, and environmental factors (among others) can be seen to influence the different diets – and by extension, the nutritional statuses – of different ethnic, regional, and geographic populations. Though common across Ecuador, discrepancies among these groups are particularly noticeable in the highland region, the Sierra. Overall, this paper examines the different forms of malnutrition, their implications on one’s health, and their prevalence across Ecuador. Additionally, it considers how the Ecuadorian diet was shaped, and how different subcuisines lend themselves to varying forms of malnutrition. Specifically, this paper focuses on the Sierra, given that levels of malnutrition are noticeably higher in this region, and that this highland area is home to large rural and indigenous communities who are most significantly impacted by the region’s nutritional conditions
Thesis (BS) — Boston College, 2017
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program
Discipline:

In my thesis, I pursue the possibility of using EU funds for financing a project that is primarily focused on education and providing information. The project is submitted by a real non-profit organization and it might be eligible for EU funds support. It deals with enhancing the quality of life in countryside, which should be reached via more effective and perfect access to the up-to-date information. The purpose of this thesis is to create a successful, high-quality educational project with regard to material and financial side of things.

Informed by the methodology utilized in Peter Williams's Houses of God: Region, Religion, and Architecture in the United States (1997), the thesis examines Mark Lemmon's Gothic Revival design for the Highland Park Presbyterian Church (1941) with special attention to the denomination and social class of the congregation and the architectural style of the church. Beginning with the notion that Lemmon's church is more complex than an expression of the Southern cultural region defined by Williams, the thesis presents the opportunity to examine the church in the context of the unique cultural region of the city of Dallas. Church archival material supports the argument that the congregation deliberately sought to identify with both the forms and ideology of the late nineteenth-century Gothic Revival in the northeastern United States, a result of the influence of Dallas's cultural region.

In late Proterozoic to early Paleozoic time, continent-derived clastic sediment and minor carbonate of the Snowshoe Group were deposited in a continental slope to shelf environment, and shallow marine elastics and carbonates of the Cariboo Group were deposited nearer to the shore of North America. The Snowshoe Group is divided into a lower sequence of micaceous quartzite, pelite, and minor amphibolite, all interlayered with quartz diorite sheets; and an upper sequence of micaceous quartzite, pelite, and carbonate with minor calc-silicate and amphibolitic rocks. Early isoclinal (F1A) and NE-verging tight folds (F1B) formed together with a metamorphic foliation. Tight to normal, cylindroidal second phase (F2) folds, characterized by SW-vergence and NW plunge, formed during the mid-Jurassic Columbian orogeny at about the same time as accretion of suspect terranes southwest of the map area. Prograde metamorphism in the Barrovian series of amphibolite facies was synkinematic to postkinematic to F2 folding, with maximum metamorphic recrystallization outlasting deformation. Garnet-biotite geothermometry indicates temperatures of 525 ± 20°C for pelites near the kyanite to sillimanite zone isograd. Garnet-aluminosilicate-ilmenite geobarometry limits P to less than 7 kb. Grossular-anorthite-aluminosi1icate geobarometry gives P = 5.5 ± 0.7 kb. Retrograde metamorphism and F3 kink-folding occurred during uplift, followed by broad warping (F4) with NE trend. The low-angle, postmetamorphic Little River Fault emplaced chlorite to biotite zone phyllite and carbonate of the Cariboo Group, in the hanging wall, against staurolite-kyanite to sillimanite schists and gneisses of the Snowshoe Group, in the footwall, with latest movement of the hanging wall in an ESE direction. A Rb-Sr model depositional age of approximately 750 Ma, assuming an initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.708, was obtained for Snowshoe Group metasedimentary rocks. Paleozoic plutonism is indicated by a Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron date of 530 ± 94 Ma with initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of 0.706, and U-Pb dates on zircon, indicating a minimum age of 335 Ma and maximum age of about 450 Ma, for quartz dioritic gneiss intrusive into the Snowshoe Group early in its deformational history, pre-F1B folding. Late- to post-metamorphic pegmatite cooled through 400-500°C at 86 ± 3 Ma. The age of the Little River Fault is bracketed between intrusion of pegmatite and a Miocene(?) erosion surface.
Science, Faculty of
Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
Graduate

Globally, stream invertebrate communities have been shown to respond to habitat degradation as a result of land use hanges. The effects of land use changes on stream communities have been well documented in temperate regions, however, their effects in the tropics are relatively unknown, particularly where land use activities can differ markedly (e.g., tea, maize and Eucalyptus plantations). To understand how land use affects tropical highland Nigerian stream communities, I surveyed 55 second and third order streams across four land use categories, ranging from continuous tropical montane forest to intensive crops/pasture. Streams were sampled in the dry season (October to March) for physico-chemical parameters (i.e., temperature, pH, conductivity, turbidity, current velocity, channel morphometry and riparian characteristics) and ecological characteristics (i.e., fine particulate organic matter [FPOM], coarse particulate organic matter [CPOM], algae and benthic invertebrates). Water temperature in all streams was high (up to 25oC) while levels of dissolved oxygen were frequently low (15–79 %). Physico-chemical conditions varied across land uses with continuous forested streams being cooler, with higher dissolved oxygen, larger bed substrate and more stable channels. Similarly, benthic invertebrate communities showed a strong response with the highest taxonomic diversity in forested streams and the lowest in streams within intensive crops (e.g., cabbage crops). Several of the taxa which occurred in forested streams (e.g., the mayflies Heptageniidae and Oligoneuridae and brachyuran crabs) were rare or absent in streams with more intensive land use. In contrast, damselflies and several true bugs (e.g., Notonectidae and Corixidae) were rare in forested streams but more common in other land uses. In order to test land use impacts on stream processes leaf litter decomposition experiments were carried out in nine streams, three in forest, three in tea plantations and three in maize fields. Leaf breakdown rates were slow compared with other reports for tropical streams, however leaves in forested streams broke down significantly faster (on a degree day basis) than in other land uses. This faster break down seemed to be driven by greater shredder densities in forested streams. Significantly lower densities of invertebrates were found in leaf bags incubated in streams draining tea plantation and maize fields than in forest streams. In the same nine streams food web components were sampled and analysed using gut content and stable isotope (N and C) analyses. Stream food webs in continuous forest were more complex than plantation and maize field streams. Stable isotope analysis indicated that primary consumers assimilated a mixture of autochthonous and allochthonous carbon resources, but the proportion varied among sites. Overall, my results suggest that in Nigerian highland tropical streams more intensive land use activities strongly affect the diversity and composition of benthic stream communities and ecosystem function, in similar ways to those reported in temperate streams.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2007.
Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Department of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences, University of Glasgow, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Print copy also available.

Pikillacta, Huaro and the Greater Cuzco Region: New Interpretations of Wari Occupation in the Southern HighlandsOver the last two decades, significant advancements have been made in Wari studies, resulting primarily from investigations conducted in provincial regions that have elucidated new perspectives on Wari imperial expansion. This paper focuses on contributions made in the southern highlands Cuzco region, with particular emphasis on research carried out at the monumental sites of Pikillacta and Huaro. On the basis of their research, the authors offer a new interpretation of the Wari occupation of Cuzco, that it was earlier; more intense, and endured much longer than previously thought, and that the mechanism for its success was direct Wari imperial control.
Durante las últimas dos décadas han habido avances significativos en los estudios wari, como resultado de las investigaciones conducidas en las regiones provinciales. De esos estudios se han elucidado nuevas perspectivas sobre la expansión imperial de los wari, dándosele mayor énfasis a las investigaciones realizadas en los sitios monumentales de Pikillacta y Huaro. Basados en sus investigaciones, los autores han concluido que la ocupación wari fue más temprana, más intensa y de más larga duración que lo que previamente se impuso y plantean que su éxito se debió en gran parte al control directo del gobierno imperial de los wari.

This thesis reports an insider case study conducted by an active participant in the setting which is the UHI Millennium Institute. UHI is a federal, collegial partnership of 13 academic partner colleges. This partnership is made up of Further Education Colleges and smaller and specialised institutions. The case study focuses on one programme team, the BA Social Sciences team and at its role in the implementation of the institutional learning and teaching policy and its related strategies. The case study uses literature on policy implementation and of Further/Higher Education links. It makes use of social practice theory and the notion of the teaching and learning regime to analyse the cultural characteristics of the team and a typolgy of responses to change, to review the response of the team to policy objectives. In doing so the case study is a response to calls for more 'close-up' research at the meso-level of analysis. The study reviews the response of the team over a 10-year trajectory from the initial validation of the programme to 2009. The study takes an interpretive, participant-obervation based approach to examine the cultural characteristics and response of the programme team. The methods used to gather data include examination of comprehensive documentation relating to the programme over this time frame and semi-structured interviews with team members. The findings are that the cultural character of the team is dominated by its origins in Further Education and by the social relationships involved in a team which spans three colleges and deals with three sets of college managers and UHI. The response of the team to institutional policy is to embrace its objectives but also to reconstruct policy in ways possible within constraints. The team can make certain choices but is also constrained by policy from 'the top'. The study discusses implications for the notion of the teaching and learning regime and for the typology of responses used and proposes ways in which these might be modified. Proposals for further research in this field are made, particularly involving the implications for policy making of the relationship between college management and UHI.

Master of Science
Department of Plant Pathology
Karen A. Garrett
Ari Jumpponen
Traditional fallow periods in the Bolivian highlands are being shortened in an effort to increase short-term crop yields, with potential long-term impacts on soil communities. Using 454-pyrosequencing, we characterized fungal and bacterial community responses to (1) the length of fallow period and (2) the presence of the plants Parasthrephia sp. or Baccharis sp. (both locally known as ‘thola’). Thola is widely considered by farmers as beneficial to soil health, although it is also frequently harvested as a source of fuel by farmers. Soils in one study area, Ancoraimes, had higher levels of organic matter, nitrogen and other macronutrients compared to the other study area, Umala. In our analyses, Ancoraimes soils supported more diverse fungal communities, whereas Umala had more diverse bacterial communities. Unexpectedly, the longer fallow periods were associated with lower fungal diversity in Umala and lower bacterial diversity in Ancoraimes. Fungi assigned to genera Verticillium, Didymella, and Alternaria, and bacteria assigned to genera Paenibacillus, Segetibacter, and Bacillariophyta decreased in abundance with longer fallow period. The presence of thola did not significantly affect overall soil fungal or bacterial diversity, but did increase the frequency of some genera such as Fusarium and Bradyrhizobium. Our results suggest that fallow period has a range of effects on microbial communities, and that the removal of thola from the fields impacts the dynamics of the soil microbial communities.

Master of Arts
Department of History
David A. Graff
The central highlands of Vietnam were of vital strategic importance during the Second Indochina War (1955-1975); the collapse of South Vietnamese forces in this region in March 1975 led to the fall of Saigon just one month later. Despite this area’s importance, most central highlands historiography addresses large military campaigns, such as the 1972 Nguyen Hue “Easter Offensive” and the 1975 Ho Chi Minh Offensive. Micro-histories are of great value in examining the implementation of national programs, yet all province case studies examine events in the more heavily populated and ethnically homogeneous Saigon and Mekong Delta regions of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN). This thesis examines Lam Dong province, at the southern end of the Vietnamese central highlands. Focusing on the territorial forces initiative and RVN policy toward ethnic minority Montagnards in the highlands—two vital yet under-studied topics in Vietnam War historiography—this study demonstrates the operational success of the former and the strategic failure of the latter. The thesis is organized chronologically and concentrates on the final six years of the war, when South Vietnamese officials were increasingly promulgating and executing policy. The first part of the study details background information and outlines the war through 1967, when the National Liberation Front (NLF) held the advantage. The middle section scrutinizes the late 1960s and early 1970s and describes the factors that led to increased province security. The final section analyzes the final two years of the war following the departure of U.S. troops. In this period, South Vietnamese forces held the advantage against a weakened NLF, yet ordinary citizens’ discontent reached a climax. In-depth study of both province- and national-level documents from this period demonstrates that local officials, both American and Vietnamese, often attempted to address challenges but were hindered by the centralized nature of the Saigon bureaucracy. The inability and unwillingness of the RVN to address adequately issues such as highlands refugee policy led to the gradual dissatisfaction of many Montagnards in the highlands. This study elucidates RVN initiatives such as the territorial force, Main Living Area, and Return to Village programs—seldom-mentioned yet key facets of the Saigon government’s attempt to mollify ethnic tensions and counter the threat posed by the NLF.

This project aims to gather the experiences of patients living within the NHS Highland region who have travelled to Glasgow to receive their allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant. It examines the effects of travelling long distances and remaining away from home for treatment, on coping. The project used a qualitative design, looking retrospectively at participants’ experiences. Semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim before being analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Results of the analysis indicated ten super-ordinate themes: Impact of physical health, ward life, “there is no place like home”, social support is key, the known versus the unknown, technology, the role of thoughts, change of environment, moving along a journey and the direct consequences of the distance. The results enhance understanding of the factors and resources which can aid patients’ coping. This information will be used to help prepare future patients embarking on their own treatment journey, as well as guiding staff as to how they can best prepare patients and support them to cope during treatment.

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Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior-CAPES
The historical rebuilding of the organic horticulture, in the Fluminense Highland Region, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, particularly in the counties of Petr?polis and S?o Jos? do Vale do Rio Preto, aimed to bring together elements capable to explain some phenomena relating to development of the local agroecosystems, from consultation to documents and interviews with farmers and other persons chosen because of personal and professional experience in the organic movement. Most of the production units certified by the Biological Farmers Association of the State of Rio de Janeiro (ABIO) it develops the organic horticulture, about 180 producers, in properties of four hectares, on average, mainly in the counties of Petr?polis and Nova Friburgo, while to smallest amount of producers in the county of S?o Jos? do Vale do Rio Preto. The organization of the productive chain must consider that the organic horticulture is a diversified activity, small-scale, low value added, carried out by family farmers widely distributed in the territory. This requires complex logistics of production, processing, marketing, transportation and distribution. The process of management of the organic production has been presenting progresses and retreats in the search of collective solutions. In 1979, the manifest ?Food without poison' was published. In 1980, the first point of sale of organic products appears. In 1981, the Consumers Cooperative Association of Environmental Harmony ? Coonatura - it structures a nucleus for the production of ecological foods, in the county of Petr?polis. In 1984, the Letter of Petr?polis was elaborated, during the II Brazilian Encounter of Alternative Agriculture. In 1985, ABIO was founded, in the city of Nova Friburgo. In 1986, Coonatura enlarges the organic production. The associative system of conversion of the conventional production systems to organic management was based on the co-leasing of the land, manure supply, seeds, payment of daily rates, overtime and commission on production for farmers, who were advised by an own body of technical assistance. The Eco-92 was important to articulation of the organic movement. In 1993, Coonatura counted on 2800 associated consumers, central marketing and supply of home delivery service. In 1994, Coonatura and ABIO created the Ecological Fair of Gloria. In 1999, the Association of Organic Producers of Black River Valley was created, that it started to sell organic products with own mark in supermarkets. Thus, the organization of the system of production and marketing of organic vegetables grown by only a point of sale (1980), passing for a structure with several points (1993), specialized fairs (1994) and service demand through the commercialization in supermarkets (2000). The organic movement, particularly the horticulture, has been learning and taught some lessons: institutions managed by idealistic people need of technical assistance, continuous training (formal and informal) is central, new productive and institutional arrangements of solidary character must be developed and strengthened partnerships. The history of organic horticulture has roots in associationism between producers and consumers, which has enable the improvement of the family farmers' quality of life, in the Fluminense Highland Region of the Rio de Janeiro State.
A reconstitui??o hist?rica da olericultura org?nica na regi?o Serrana Fluminense, particularmente nos munic?pios de Petr?polis e S?o Jos? do Vale do Rio Preto, visou a reunir elementos capazes de explicar alguns fen?menos relativos ? evolu??o dos agroecossistemas locais, a partir da consulta de documentos e entrevistas com agricultores e outras pessoas escolhidas em virtude da experi?ncia profissional e pessoal no movimento org?nico. A maioria das unidades de produ??o certificadas pela Associa??o de Agricultores Biol?gicos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (ABIO) desenvolve a olericultura org?nica, cerca de 180 produtores, em im?veis de quatro hectares, em m?dia, principalmente nos n?cleos do Brejal (munic?pio de Petr?polis) e Nova Friburgo, enquanto que a menor quantidade de produtores encontra-se no munic?pio de S?o Jos? do Vale do Rio Preto. A organiza??o da cadeia produtiva deve considerar que a olericultura org?nica ? uma atividade diversificada, em pequena escala, de baixo valor agregado, exercida principalmente por agricultores familiares amplamente distribu?dos no territ?rio. Isto exige complexa log?stica de produ??o, processamento, comercializa??o, transporte e distribui??o. Neste sentido, o processo de gest?o da produ??o org?nica fluminense tem apresentado avan?os e retrocessos na busca de solu??es coletivas. Em 1979, foi publicado o manifesto ?Comida sem veneno?. Em 1980, surge o primeiro ponto de venda de produtos org?nicos. Em 1981, a Cooperativa de Consumidores da Associa??o Harmonia Ambiental ? Coonatura ? estrutura um n?cleo de produ??o de alimentos ecol?gicos, na localidade do Brejal, distrito de Posse, no munic?pio de Petr?polis. Em 1984, foi elaborada a Carta de Petr?polis, durante o II Encontro Brasileiro de Agricultura Alternativa. Em 1985, foi fundada a ABIO, em Nova Friburgo. Em 1986, a Coonatura amplia os n?cleos de produ??o. O sistema associativo de convers?o dos sistemas de produ??o convencionais para o manejo org?nico baseava-se no co-arrendamento, fornecimento de esterco, sementes, pagamento de di?rias, horas-extras e comiss?o por produ??o para os agricultores, que eram assessorados por um corpo pr?prio de assist?ncia t?cnica e extens?o rural. A Eco-92 foi um marco para articula??o do movimento org?nico. Em 1993, a Coonatura contava com 2800 consumidores associados, central de comercializa??o e fornecimento do servi?o de entrega domiciliar. Em 1994, a Coonatura e ABIO criaram a Feira Ecol?gica da Gl?ria. Em 1999, foi criada a Associa??o de Produtores Org?nicos do Vale do Rio Preto, que passou a comercializar produtos da marca Horta Org?nica, em supermercados. Desta forma, a organiza??o do sistema de produ??o e comercializa??o de oler?colas org?nicas evoluiu de apenas um ponto de venda (1980), passando para uma estrutura com diversos pontos (1993), feiras especializadas (1994) e atendimento da demanda por meio da comercializa??o em supermercados (2000). O movimento org?nico, particularmente a olericultura, tem aprendido e ensinado algumas li??es: institui??es gerenciadas por pessoas idealistas precisam de assessorias t?cnicas; a capacita??o continuada (formal e informal) ? fundamental; novos arranjos produtivos e institucionais de car?ter solid?rio precisam ser desenvolvidos e o associativismo fortalecido. A hist?ria da olericultura org?nica tem ra?zes no associativismo entre produtores e consumidores, o que tem possibilitado a melhoria da qualidade de vida dos agricultores familiares, na Regi?o Serrana Fluminense.

"Region" is nowadays one of the most frequented term in the discourse of the humanities. In the approach of the History, the region is used as a theoretical and methodological concept, whose content has wide range in other social sciences, such as Human Geography and Sociology. This thesis deals with the possibility of the utilization of this term in the historical research applicated on the particular case of the Bohemian- Moravian Highlands. Thesis describes the recent state of the research and the progress in the approach to the term of region. The main concepts which can be used in the case of the Highlands are also shown and described. This particular region was chosen because of its specificity - it's a central periphery, which formed itself into a centralized and institutionalized modern region, the Vysočina Region, during the 20th century. The basic way-out is Anssi Paasi's theory of the shaping of regions. According to it, region can be found in many dimensions in the process of its creation - not just in a physical shape, but also in a symbolic shape, in the making of its identity. Eventually, region has got variable social and economic characteristics. The meaning in which region is percepted and imagined is also changed by these processes of creation - the role of the region is changing...

Climate change and anthropogenic activities have been known to change the rate of productivity and physical characteristics of temperate lakes. This paleolimnologcial study examines the effect of recent climate change and watershed land-usage activities in nine lakes in the North Frontenac/Addington Highlands region of Ontario, and aims to predict future lake changes based on recent trends. Despite this region being identified as an area highly susceptible to the effects of climate change, no scientific studies have examined the effects of these changes on lakes of the region. Lake sediment analysis for chlorophyll-a concentration, and organic carbon and nitrogen deposition indicate that production has increased in the majority of study lakes in the approximate past century. Water column sampling for dissolved oxygen concentration, temperature, conductivity, and turbidity found the majority of lakes to be thermally stratified and hypoxic in the bottom waters during the ice-covered and ice-free seasons. Climate records also indicate mean annual air temperatures have been increasing since the early 20th century. It was concluded that climate change is increasing production in the lakes of the North Frontenac/Addington Highlands region, and that future increases may increase the zone of hypoxia within the study lakes, or cause anoxia in the lakes. Additionally, it was also found that individual watershed land-usage events (i.e. logging, road construction) affected some of the study lakes, and possibly amplified the increase in production found in some. These findings assist in developing future lake mitigation methods, and preventing future increases in productivity.
Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-26 08:41:44.182

The unifying theme of this thesis is an attempt to understand the origin of several major highland units on Venus. Chapters 1 and 2 develop numerical models of mantle plumes. In Chapter 1, I discuss the numerical methods used in calculating the geoid anomalies, topographic uplifts, and heatflow associated with upwelling plumes. Because plumes are a likely cause of at least some terrestrial hotspot swells, Chapter 1 also examines how the numerical models compare with observations of terrestrial hotspots. In Chapter 2, I compare the plume model results with observations of geoid anomalies and topography from the Equatorial Highlands of Venus. Chapter 3 examines another model, in which parts of the Equatorial Highlands are interpreted as spreading centers analogous to terrestrial mid-ocean ridges. Chapter 4 develops a crustal convergence and mantle downwelling model for the Ishtar Terra region of Venus. Terrestrial hotspot swells are regions of elevated topography and high rates of volcanism. A variety of evidence suggests that at least some hotspots, such as Hawaii, are formed by quasi-cylindrical mantle plumes upwelling from deep in the mantle. I model such plumes using a finite element code in cylindrical, axisymmetric geometry with a depth-dependent Newtonian viscosity. Many previous workers have modeled plumes using a sheet-like, Cartesian geometry, but I find that cylindrical and sheet-like upwellings have significantly different geoid and topography signatures. However, Rayleigh number-Nusselt number systematics in the two geometries are quite similar. Increasing the Rayleigh number or including a low-viscosity asthenosphere decrease the geoid anomaly and the topographic uplift of a plume. For comparison with observations, the models are scaled with the assumptions of whole-mantle convection and a temperature contrast of about 300 °C between the center of a plume and normal mantle. The models are able to explain the amplitudes of the observed geoid anomalies and topographic uplifts at Cape Verde and Hawaii, provided that the Earth's mantle has a low viscosity zone in the asthenosphere and upper mantle similar to that previously inferred by Hager and colleagues on the basis of long-wavelength geoid modeling. However, for aspect ratio 1, the models predict swell widths that are about twice as wide as observed. This discrepancy may be due in part to terrestrial plumes having aspect ratios of less than 1. Alternatively, inclusion of temperature-dependent rheology may lead to narrower swells. The Equatorial Highlands of Venus consist of four main structures, Atla, Beta, Ovda, and Thetis Regiones. Each of these features has a circular to ovalshaped planform and rises 4 to 6 km above the mean planetary radius. These highland units are also long-wavelength geoid highs, with amplitudes ranging from 35 meters at Ovda to 120 meters at Atla. These features also contain topographic valleys, interpreted as extensional rift zones, and Beta is known to contain shield volcanoes. These characteristics are all consistent with the Equatorial Highlands being formed by upwelling mantle plumes. In order to compare results for Venus and Earth, I assume that the two planets have similar mantle heat flows. With this assumption, I find that in order to satisfy the observed geoid and topography for the Equatorial Highlands, the asthenosphere and upper mantle viscosity must be higher on Venus than on Earth. This conclusion is consistent with modeling of the long-wavelength admittance spectrum of Venus and with the observed differences in the slopes of the geoid spectra of the two planets. One possible explanation for the different viscosity structures of the two planets is that the mantle of Venus is drier than the Earth's mantle. An alternative model for Ovda and Thetis Regiones, proposed by Crumpler, Head, and colleagues, is that these features are terrestrial-type spreading centers. The strong positive correlation between the geoid and topography observed in Ovda and Thetis is unlike that observed for terrestrial spreading centers. The maximum elevation expected for spreading centers on Venus is 1.5 km, and a cooling plate thermal model predicts a maximum geoid anomaly of 8 meters, both much less than observed. Thus, even if a spreading center is operative in Ovda and Thetis, most of the geoid and topography must be due to other mechanisms. Crumpler et al. also proposed the existence of "cross-strike discontinuities," which they interpreted as transform fault zones, but the evidence for these structures is not conclusive. The Ishtar Terra region of Venus contains the highest topography known on the planet, over 10 km above the mean planetary radius, as well as abundant tectonic features, many of which are apparently compressional in origin. These characteristics suggest that Ishtar is a crustal convergence zone overlying a region of downwelling mantle. In order to explore quantitatively the implications of this hypothesis for Ishtar's origin, I present models of the viscous crustal flow driven by gradients in lithostatic pressure. For reasonable bounds on the mantle convective velocity, I find that if the crustal convergence hypothesis is correct, then the crustal thickness in the plains surrounding Ishtar can be no more than about 25 km thick. This result is in good agreement with several independent estimates of crustal thickness on Venus based on modeling of the spacing of tectonic features and of impact crater relaxation, but is much less than the estimated crustal thickness derived from an Airy isostasy model of Ishtar's gravity anomaly. Much of the observed gravity anomaly must be due to density anomalies in the mantle beneath Ishtar. Although I treat Ishtar as a crustal convergence zone, the crustal flow model results show that under some circumstances near-surface material may actually flow away from Ishtar, providing a possible explanation for graben-like structures in Fortuna Tessera.

Historically, development in Ethiopia, is a result of intimate highland-lowland interdependencies and complementarities. However, over the course of time, this age-old equilibrium that has harmoniously ruled the economic, social and political life of the highland and lowland communities is getting weaker. This study aimed at investigating the nature and extent of links between the highland and lowland communities of Bale administrative zone and the consequent impacts on their livelihoods. Multi-stage cluster sampling techniques were employed to select 403 sample household heads from the two agro-ecological regions. Questionnaire, interview, FGD and field observations were used as tools of primary data collection. ANOVA, multiple linear regressions ans binary logistic regression were used to analize the quantitative data. Accordingly, the findings of the study indicated that the overwhelming majority (82.2%) of the respondents witnessed the presence of interaction with the adjacent agro-ecological communities. It was identified that highlanders and lowlanders of the zone are interlinked ecologically, economically, socio-culturally and politically. However, due to diminishing of ecological resources, inadequacy of agricultural products and gradual development of resentments between various socio-cultural groups, the status of the linkage is not to the level expected in the study area. In some instances, it steered them to conflict driven by various factors of natural resources, socio-economic and political elements which in turn resulted in humanitarian, social, economic and environmental consequences. Notwithstanding its devastating impacts, both the highland and lowland communities employed the legal and indigenous conflict resolution strategies to curb the problem. Hence, as both the highlanders and lowlanders are vulnerable to some sorts of stresses, seasonality and shocks, strengthening complementarities between them would have invaluable contribution for building resilient livelihoods of both communities, particularly the highly vulnerable lowlanders.
Geography
Ph. D. (Geography)

This dissertation addresses an age-old topic, but introduces some different insights. Overall, it is a sound piece of research that satisfies the requirements of a course work masters. Her topic is interesting in the context of a large-scale infrastructure project and the research questions are carefully formulated. The research method is appropriate and adequately described. In view of the (not unexpected) difficulties encountered with respondents in the field, she has made effective use of the sources that were available. The theoretical framework appears to cover most of the relevant literature; and is written in a coherent way. The description of the case study is clear. It presents a complex and fascinating set of stakeholders and daunting challenges for Planners attempting to mediate between macro, national scale infrastructure needs on the one hand, and on the other, social justice in communities where the prevailing laws and practices militate against women and the poorly educated. The findings are reported in chapter 4. These provide a valuable insight into dynamics within and surrounding the participation process. In the course of this chapter, she unveils an interesting array of issues, many of which are about power relations. This makes the topic difficult to research fully in the context of an MTRP dissertation. However, while not achieving much analytical depth, she has produced a useful set if insights that will be of value to other researchers in this field. The conclusions and recommendations have been dealt with in a systematic, yet thoughtful manner.
Thesis (M.Arch)-University of Natal, 2001.