Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Place and Ecology as Infrastructure'
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Karlson, Mårten. "Ecology, Transport Infrastructure and Environmental Assessment." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Miljöbedömning och -förvaltning, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-123562.
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Transport infrastructure has a wide array of effects on ecological processes. These effects benefit certain species and might enhance or accelerate ecological processes such as colonization and dispersal, but as well extinction. The overall impact on biodiversity is however negative and several authors conclude transport infrastructure to have detrimental effects on terrestrial and aquatic communities. Planning and construction of transport infrastructure is in the EU to be preceded by an environmental assessment process, with the overall aim to prevent rather than repair potential unintended negative effects. This thesis presents two studies on transport infrastructure effects on biodiversity in the context of environmental assessment. The first study reviewed how and how sufficiently biodiversity aspects were accounted for in environmental assessment of transport infrastructure projects and plans, and identified opportunities to improve concurrent practice. The first study concluded that the treatment of biodiversity aspects has improved over the years, but that the low use of quantitative impact assessment methods, the treatment of fragmentation and spatial and temporal delimitation of the impact assessment study area remain problematic. The second study assessed the impact of the Swedish road network on biodiversity by use of existing landscape ecological metrics and GIS. The second study reconnects to the shortcomings in environmental assessment practice identified in the first study, by discussing the utility of the method in terms of applicability in environmental assessment processes. The second study identified nature types and species adversely exposed to transport infrastructure effects, and concluded that sound methodologies for biodiversity assessment can be developed using existing tools and techniques. In sum, transport infrastructure influence vast areas of the surrounding landscape, and this is not accounted for in planning and design of new transport infrastructure due to shortcomings in current environmental assessment practice. Existing tools and techniques could be used to address several of these shortcomings, and an increased use of quantitative analysis of transport infrastructure effects on biodiversity would add significantly to the quality of impact predictions and evaluations.QC 20130612
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Uemura, Tetsuji. "Population decline, infrastructure and sustainability." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2014. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1038/.
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Japan has experienced population decline since 2010 and the situation is expected to become more severe after 2030 with forecasts indicating an expected 30% decline from 2005 to 2055. Many other developed countries such as Germany and Korea are also experiencing depopulation. These demographic changes are expected to affect society at many levels such as labour markets decline, increased tax burden to sustain pension systems, and economic stagnation. Little is known however about the impacts of population decline on man-made physical infrastructure, such as possible deterioration of current infrastructure or increased financial burden of sustaining it. Infrastructure can be classified into 3 categories: point-type (e.g. buildings), point-network type (e.g. water supply) and network type (e.g. road). The impact of depopulation may vary according to the type of infrastructure. Previous research in this area has been limited in scope (e.g. case studies conducted in a single city focusing on a single type of infrastructure) and method (e.g. most research in the topic has been qualitative). This thesis presents a new comprehensive study on the impacts of population decline on infrastructure in Japan, taking into account all types of infrastructure and using a quantitative approach. Data collection methods include interviews and two large scale questionnaire surveys, the first conducted with municipalities and the second, a stated preference survey, conducted with members of the public. The goal of sustainable development is relevant even in a depopulated society, and hence a sustainable development framework is applied to the analysis where social, economic, environmental and engineering impacts are investigated. The main findings indicate that some infrastructure impacts observed and reported in depopulated areas do not seem to be related to any population decline; moreover, the preferences of citizens for infrastructure development is very similar between depopulated areas and non-depopulated areas. The results also suggest that the premises of Barro’s overlapping generations model, very relevant to a discussion of intergenerational decision making and related sustainability, appear to be rejected in this context.
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WHITLEY, CHRISTOPHER R. "Accentuating Place Through Industrial Regionalism." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1212169011.
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Lewis, Joshua. "Deltaic Dilemmas : Ecologies of Infrastructure in New Orleans." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-119390.
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This thesis explores the relationship between water infrastructure, ecological change, and the politics of planning in New Orleans and the Mississippi River Delta, USA. Complex assemblages of water control infrastructure have been embedded in the delta over the last several centuries in an effort to keep its cities protected from floodwaters and maintain its waterways as standardized conduits for maritime transportation. This thesis investigates the historical development of these infrastructural interventions in the delta’s dynamics, and shows how the region’s eco-hydrology is ensnared in the politics and materiality of pipes, pumps, canals, locks, and levees. These historical entanglements complicate contemporary efforts to enact large-scale ecosystem restoration, even while the delta’s landscape is rapidly eroding into the sea. This historical approach is extended into the present through an examination of how waterway standards established at so-called chokepoints in the global maritime transportation system (the Panama Canal, for example) become embedded and contested in coastal landscapes and port cities worldwide. Turning towards urban ecology, the thesis examines socioecological responses to the flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with a special focus on how infrastructure failures, flooding intensity, and land abandonment are driving changing vegetation patterns in New Orleans over the past decade. The thesis contributes new conceptual language for grappling with the systemic relations bound up in water infrastructure, and develops one of the first studies describing urban ecosystem responses to prolonged flooding and post-disaster land management. This provides insights into the impending planning challenges facing New Orleans and coastal cities globally, where rising sea levels are bringing about renewed attention to how infrastructure is implicated in patterns of ecological change, hazard exposure, resilience, and social inequality.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Accepted. Paper 5: Manuscript.
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Mayes, John. "Modeling Complex Forest Ecology in a Parallel Computing Infrastructure." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2003. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4305/.
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Effective stewardship of forest ecosystems make it imperative to measure, monitor, and predict the dynamic changes of forest ecology. Measuring and monitoring provides us a picture of a forest's current state and the necessary data to formulate models for prediction. However, societal and natural events alter the course of a forest's development. A simulation environment that takes into account these events will facilitate forest management. In this thesis, we describe an efficient parallel implementation of a land cover use model, Mosaic, and discuss the development efforts to incorporate spatial interaction and succession dynamics into the model. To evaluate the performance of our implementation, an extensive set of simulation experiments was carried out using a dataset representing the H.J. Andrews Forest in the Oregon Cascades. Results indicate that a significant reduction in the simulation execution time of our parallel model can be achieved as compared to uni-processor simulations.
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Wallin, Jonathan Scott. "An ecology of place in composition studies." Thesis, Purdue University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10251919.
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My dissertation, An Ecology of Place in Composition Studies, proposes a place-based approach to teaching writing in community engagement. My project addresses contemporary criticisms of ecocomposition by uniting the ecological foundations of the movement with pedagogical strategies used in philosophy and geography to teach students about place. Why is this needed? Students going to college resituate themselves, and often find themselves needing to adjust their compasses to find their place at the university. This contributes to a longstanding question that has been answered via rhetorical situation in rhetoric. It offers a practice of inquiry that serves to engage our students not solely with community partners, but also with the places inhabited by both the students and the partners they work with. In undertaking an immersive reflection of these places, students stand to move beyond a superficial consideration of situation and context, gaining an understanding of the nuance and details that encompass these ecological relationships.
But it also has a practical origin in that students who are leaving their families and going to college must renegotiate their understanding of place in order to be successful in both the writing classroom, and as students and people.
I contend that infusing writing instruction with a study of place is a step towards helping our students establish an ecological mindset, a mindset which recognizes how our actions interact with the actions and reactions of others, ultimately leading to outcomes that we cannot easily foresee. An ecological mindset favors empathy, understanding, and an acceptance of our role as constructive members of the communities in which we live. My dissertation reflects on the importance of an understanding of place in developing these attitudes as a writer, as a student, and as a citizen.
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Wänstedt, Ida. "The Invisible Infrastructure: Parking as Place-Maker in a Motorised Urbanity." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Arkitekthögskolan vid Umeå universitet, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-108608.
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Parking, a seemingly mundane topic, have a huge impact on peoples right to the city. This thesis aims to explore the effects of the regulatory space created by parking norms and policies within the urban landscape. Parking is in this thesis identified as an active form, drawing from the work of Keller Easterling. Being controlled and regulated at the municipal level, parking is a question of local politics. This opens up possibilities for reorganizing parking as a tool for planning and place-making. By rewiring the organization of parking, from an individual property into a cooperative infrastructure, parking becomes a platform for generating local communities in the mid-sized Swedish city.
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Burlij, Larissa. "Infrastructure as Landscape: Imagining an Operative Ecology along the Cuyahoga River." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1337101681.
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Bormpoudakis, Dimitrios. "Green infrastructure and landscape connectivity in England : a political ecology approach." Thesis, University of Kent, 2016. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/56639/.
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'Conservation is about people, not just animals' argued Prince William in a letter to The Financial Times , written to gather support for ending ivory poaching and trading. This truism is often repeated by conservationists; we are frequently reminded that what we do - as humans - influences nature 'out there'. Nevertheless, conservation science often hesitates to interrogate what we do as organised human societies. Time and again, that leads to somewhat simplifying analyses of humanity's enormous power in shaping the whole Earth System -currently argued to surpass the power of geological forces. A case in point could be the isolation of corruption in Africa as the main driver for ivory market explosion in the last decade. Without considering the political-economy not just of ivory, but of the global-to-local societal organisation that allows for thousands of elephants and rhinos to be killed - for something of so low use-value such as ivory - little understanding can be shed on this alarming trend. I argue, and hope I have shown in this thesis, that we should aim towards enriching what conservation understands as its field of vision and allow the latter to encompass not just human and nonhuman nature and societies, as Prince William rightfully argues, but also the political and societal. I would be satisfied if by going through this thesis the reader would be convinced of just this argument. I am not claiming to be the first to identify this contradiction within conservation, but contra a sizeable number of scientists who work on similar subjects, I am normatively for conservation. A wealth of research has been published on conservation-society relationships that interrogates wider political, societal and economic constrains and opportunities as they relate to conservation. Usually though, research on what could be called critical conservation studies is (a) published in journals that conservationists do not read, and (b) is conducted by non-conservationists, often critical of conservation as a science and praxis per se. Thus all this wealth has little import to wider discussions about the future of conservation science and practice, and is even considered by conservationists as hostile to their agenda. I hope it is obvious from the above that I place this piece of research within the wide field of conservation science - despite drawing from a variety of disciplines. In essence, this piece of work looks at the relation between political-economic transformations and the way societies think about, manage and regulate nature. Geographically, my focus is on England, but with a sideways glance to developments at the EU level. Historically, the scope is circumscribed by two years: 1981, the year of the Toxteth riots in Liverpool, and 2015, the year I submitted. Naturally, in this country-wide, 24 year study I have not even attempted to include 'everything'. I focused on what after examination of empirical data I considered to be key moments and places in the evolution of English conservation. I begin with a section that introduces the reader into the area of study , followed and a brief literature-based summary of conservation in England from the beginning of the 20th century. The next three chapters should be read as a small trilogy that discusses the general trends in conservation policy and governance in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis (Chapter 3), followed by two smaller chapters (vignettes) that study post-financial crisis landscape scale conservation from: (a) a policy and governance perspective (Chapter 4); a use of science and scientific metaphors perspective (Chapter 5). The following two chapters try to reconstruct the where and when (geography and history are important) specific conservation policies and practices emerge, always in relation to economic and political changes. Chapter 6 is a genealogy of green infrastructure, from its emergence in the post-riot Liverpool landscape of 1981, to its current amalgamation with ecosystem services and monetary-valuation-of-nature milieu. Chapter 7 looks at biodiversity offsetting and argues that changing economic and transport geographies are crucial in understanding why biodiversity offsetting emerged as a solution to wildlife-development conflict in this instance and in the South East of England in particular. I conclude with a proposal for a new conservation that places utopia at the centre of its methodology (Chapter 8).
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Mahlangu, Siyabonga Lunga. "A sense of place and belonging : creating good neighbourhoods through productive social infrastructure." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60185.
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The township in the South African context is a unique consequence
of Apartheid spatial planning. Envisaged as settlements for black labourers
on the outskirts of the city, they have become home to many
South Africans. Mamelodi was established as an effectively designed
township for labourers working in Pretoria, and grew at an exponential
rate, leading to a sizeable demand for housing. A mass provision
of housing was implemented then and, post 1994 to meet this
demand. The same strategy of housing is still continuing through the
Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). This provision of
housing has not been complimented by a provision of public amenities
and has led to monotonous neighbourhoods filled with housing
and no public space.
The ever growing community of Lusaka, in the east of Mamelodi, is
a community with a landscape of housing without public amenities
and public spaces. This neighbourhood has large amounts of people
moving in and out, with some people seeing it as a place of permanence
and some as a temporary detour. This influx of people and
the duality of temporality and permanence creates a very dynamic
society, one that the current architecture cannot respond to. The new
architecture has to address the above mentioned issues, providing
the community with access to public amenities and public spaces
that add value to their environment. The solutions derived can be
discussed and used to address similar problems plaguing townships
around South Africa.Informele nedersettings in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks is 'n unieke gevolg van Apartheid se ruimtelike beplanning. Oorspronklik in die vooruitsig gestel as nedersettings vir swart arbeiders het hulle 'n tuiste vir baie Suid-Afrikaners geword. Mamelodi was gestig as 'n effektief ontwerpde informele nedersetting vir arbeiders wat werk in Pretoria en het teen 'n eksponensi?le koers gegroei wat gelei het tot 'n groot aanvraag vir behuising. 'n Massa voorsiening van behuising was toe en n? 1994 ge?mplementeer om hierdie aanvraag te voorsien. Dieselfde strategie van behuising word steeds voortgesit deur die Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). Hierdie behuisingsvoorsiening was nog nie aangevul deur 'n voorsiening van openbare geriewe nie en het gelei tot eentonige woonbuurte wat gevul is met behuising en geen openbare ruimte. Die steeds groeiende gemeenskap van Lusaka, in die ooste van Mamelodi, is 'n gemeenskap met 'n landskap van behuising sonder openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes. Hierdie woonbuurt het groot getalle mense wat in en uit beweeg, met sommige mense wat dit sien as 'n plek van blywendheid en ander as 'n tydelike ompad. Hierdie instroming van mense en die dualiteit van tydelikheid en blywendheid skep 'n baie dinamiese samelewing, een wat die huidiglike argitektuur nie op kan reageer nie. Die nuwe argitektuur moet die bogenoemde kwessies aanspreek om die gemeenskap toegang te bied tot openbare geriewe en openbare ruimtes wat waarde toevoeg tot hulle omgewing . Deur dit te doen kan die oplossings wat afgelei is bespreek en gebruik word om soortgelyke kwessies aan te spreek wat informele nedersettings regoor Suid-Afrika teister. Argitektuur is vir die mense
Mini Dissertation (MArch (Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Architecture
MArch (Prof)
Unrestricted
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Costa, Ana Luísa Arrais Falcão Beja da. "Mangroves of Maputo. Towards urban resilience through green infrastructure." Doctoral thesis, ISA, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/21196.
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Doutoramento em Arquitetura Paisagista e Ecologia Urbana - Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de Lisboa / Faculdade de Ciências. Universidade do Porto / Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia. Universidade de CoimbraCities in Africa, where the most remarkable forthcoming developments in the global pattern of urbanization are expected, and quite notably in Sub-Saharan cities such as Maputo, are experiencing accelerating population increases. As a consequence of this growth urban infrastructures are being stressed beyond capacity and there is increased pressure on the existent valuable ecosystems. In recent times, and mostly due to foreign intervention, investments have been welcomed into Maputo’s grey urban infrastructure network whereas little attention has been given to green infrastructure. In the city’s coastal plains, the recently constructed Maputo ring road and the Katembe bridge are drawing urban development towards the last stretch of vacant land of the Municipality, compromising the mangrove ecosystems and flood plains of this territory. Based on the hypothesis that mangroves have the potential to become a structuring element for the improvement of resilience in self-produced neighbourhoods on the coastal plains, the aim of this research is to contribute towards the outline of an urban green infrastructure for the coastal areas of Maputo, as a strategy to accommodate current and future urban development challenges, not only as biophysical networks that can create urban socio-ecological networks that improve urban resilience through a stewardship of ecosystems, but also as an ecosystem-based approach for adaptation to climate change. Considering the specific dynamics of Sub-Southern African cities, where research and planning around environmental issues is in very early stages, it is urgent to promote research and design strategies to tackle the problematics of urban development in ecologically sensitive and landscape valuable areas. This research thus expects to anticipate the sustainable development of Maputo, exploring the potential of its coastal landscape for the establishment of an urban green infrastructure
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Pastor, Jonathan. "Contributions à la mise en place d'une infrastructure de Cloud Computing à large échelle." Thesis, Nantes, Ecole des Mines, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016EMNA0240/document.
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La croissance continue des besoins en puissance de calcul a conduit au triomphe du modèle de Cloud Computing. Des clients demandeurs en puissance de calcul vont s’approvisionner auprès de fournisseurs d’infrastructures de Cloud Computing, mises à disposition via Internet. Pour réaliser des économies d’échelles, ces infrastructures sont toujours plus grandes et concentrées en quelques endroits, conduisant à des problèmes tels que l’approvisionnement en énergie, la tolérance aux pannes et l’éloignement des utilisateurs. Cette thèse s’est intéressée à la mise en place d’un système d’IaaS massivement distribué et décentralisé exploitant un réseau de micros centres de données déployés sur la dorsale Internet, utilisant une version d’OpenStack revisitée pendant cette thèse autour du support non intrusif de bases de données non relationnelles. Des expériences sur Grid’5000 ont montré des résultats intéressants sur le plan des performances, toutefois limités par le fait qu’OpenStack ne tirait pas avantage nativement d’un fonctionnement géographiquement réparti. Nous avons étudié la prise en compte de la localité réseau pour améliorer les performances des services distribués en favorisant les collaborations proches. Un prototype de l’algorithme de placement de machines virtuelles DVMS, fonctionnant sur une topologie non structurée basée sur l’algorithme Vivaldi, a été validé sur Grid’5000. Ce prototype a fait l’objet d’un prix scientifique lors de l’école de printemps Grid’50002014. Enfin, ces travaux nous ont amenés à participer au développement du simulateur VMPlaceSThe continuous increase of computing power needs has favored the triumph of the Cloud Computing model. Customers asking for computing power will receive supplies via Internet resources hosted by providers of Cloud Computing infrastructures. To make economies of scale, Cloud Computing that are increasingly large and concentrated in few attractive places, leading to problems such energy supply, fault tolerance and the fact that these infrastructures are far from most of their end users. During this thesis we studied the implementation of an fully distributed and decentralized IaaS system operating a network of micros data-centers deployed in the Internet backbone, using a modified version of OpenStack that leverages non relational databases. A prototype has been experimentally validated onGrid’5000, showing interesting results, however limited by the fact that OpenStack doesn’t take advantage of a geographically distributed functioning. Thus, we focused on adding the support of network locality to improve performance of Cloud Computing services by favoring collaborations between close nodes. A prototype of the DVMS algorithm, working with an unstructured topology based on the Vivaldi algorithm, has been validated on Grid’5000. This prototype got the first prize at the large scale challenge of the Grid’5000 spring school in 2014. Finally, the work made with DVMS enabled us to participate at the development of the VMPlaceS simulator
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Erskine, Kathryn. ""Finding a 'place' through dwelling in travel" : intersections between mobility, place and identity in lifestyle travel." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/47374/.
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The world is increasingly mobile (Adey 2006). Flows of good, services and cultures are changing the relations between people and place, leading scholars to questions existing notions of home, travel, and belonging. This thesis explores these issues by focusing on one group who epitomise the twenty-first century world of mobility: lifestyle travellers. The thesis considers the experiences of lifestyle travellers across numerous world-wide locations, drawing on primary data collected over two years. It adopts an explicitly geographical approach to studying lifestyle travel, focusing attention on the significance of place and movement for these highly mobile beings, in order to examine what this mobility means for ideas of identity and home. Complementing research in the tourism field, the research highlights how lifestyle travel is a heterogeneous and difficult to classify activity, involving a myriad of different ideas, practices, behaviours and motivations. However, by adopting Cresswell’s ‘constellations of mobility’ (2010) as an organising rather than classifying device, the thesis is able to unpack this diversity and illuminate the embroilment of ‘mobilities’ and ‘moorings’ in the practices of lifestyle travellers. It goes on to demonstrate how place immersion is crucial to lifestyle travel, illustrating how practices of mobility extend past corporeal movement between places, exploring the unique and diverse practices within places. This pursuit of integration within places by lifestyle travellers shows how place and mobility can be complementary rather than exclusionary, with different immersion techniques outlined to demonstrate the different depths of place experience desired by participants (ranging from ‘spectating’ at the peripheries to becoming ‘community members’ within places). From these findings, the research emphasises how place itself is mobile, as well as lifestyle travellers. By illustrating the relational ways in which lifestyle travellers continually take and make place, the thesis uncovers new ways of conceptualising ‘home’ that are formed through the co-constituent relationship between place and mobility. The thesis therefore demonstrates these factors to be significant and mutually enabling components to the identities of lifestyle travellers in the twenty first century.
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Ingelström, Filip, and Karin Frändberg. "Branding Nyköping : A Qualitative Study on the Integration of Place Branding, Multiple Stakeholders and Infrastructure." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-76700.
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Place branding has in previous research been studied mostly from the perspective of an individual stakeholder, for example the tourism sector or the state authority. Furthermore, there is a limited amount of prior studies concerning the potential effect infrastructure improvements have on place branding. This thesis aims to address these research gaps and make a theoretical contribution to research on place branding. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a deeper understanding about how different stakeholders perceive the place brand identity of Nyköping as well as how they collaborate within the place branding process. This understanding will be viewed in the context of future improvements of infrastructure, more specifically the construction of Ostlänken. The findings of this thesis are based upon a theoretical framework consisting of four foundations, place branding and its conceptualisations, place brand identity, multiple stakeholders, and place brand management and infrastructure. The theoretical framework includes general theories as well as more elaborate models specific to research on place branding. In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis, organisations belonging to different stakeholder groups with interests within a specific place have been interviewed. By adopting an inductive approach of the study, the interviews have been held using a semi-structured interview technique with the intention to gain elaborated data. A thematic network analysis has been applied for analysing the collected data. The data have been coded resulting in four global themes: place brand identity, multiple stakeholders, infrastructure and place brand management. By applying these themes to the empirical data and previous research, the findings of the study have been developed.
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Measham, Thomas George. "Learning and change in rural regions : understanding influences on sense of place /." View thesis entry in Australian Digital Theses Program, 2003. http://thesis.anu.edu.au/public/adt-ANU20050421.162409/index.html.
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Lucarelli, Andrea. "The Political Dimension of Place Branding." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Företagsekonomiska institutionen, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-123689.
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Place branding is commonly understood as the application of marketing and commercial ideas, strategies, measurements and logic to the realm of places such as cities, regions and nations. Nevertheless, place branding is also understood as the locus where political activities – imbued with political impact and political effects – appear and affect the soft and hard infrastructures of urban agglomeration and other spatial environments. In this regard, by performing an analysis that helps unpack the multiple characters and impacts of political structures and processes in relation to place branding activities, the present dissertation aims to offer a conceptualization of the political dimension of place branding. By drawing on the critical assessment of the academic literature on place branding and on a series of studies about the branding processes in the region of Romagna and in the Greater Stockholm, the present dissertation further specifies an alternative conceptual framework (i.e. ecological politics) that suggests how place branding should be seen an empirical and theoretical political apparatus that acts, in praxis, based on an emerging, multifaceted and spatio-temporal enfolding of politics. More specifically, the ecological politics of place branding is characterized by four main aspects: the unfolding of a biopolitical ecology around place-branding practices; the ideological appropriation of place-branding processes; the positioning through politicized actions between the interest groups; and finally place-branding as a process of policy-intervention. Finally, on more general level, the present dissertation, by recognizing the political activities and efforts of place branding as crucial elements to be analyzed, makes the case for a more explicit, complex and manifold political analysis of the political dimension of place branding, which allows attention to be given to the impact that branding processes, practices and activities have on cities, regions and nationsAt the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.
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Bitter, Lauren M. "Decolonizing Ecology Through Rerooting Epistemologies." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/41.
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My project is centered around a community garden in Upland, California called the People and Their Plants garden. This garden represents a five hundred year living history designed to show the changes in the ecological landscape of Southern California caused by colonization. This autoethnographic thesis works towards personal, interpersonal, and community-wide decolonization through building reciprocal relationships with Indigenous Elders. I explore, critique and problematize research and ethnography by examining the politics of knowledge, language, history, and ecology. I interrogate my own learned knowledge systems as well as colonial/capitalist food systems—and recognize how those systems/relations have worked to render Indigenous ways of knowing as invisible. Furthermore, I examine the connection between colonialism, gender, and capitalist food systems. I explain how the People and Their Plants garden is an act of resistance to colonial/capitalist food systems as it creates space for alternative economic practices and decolonial food practices. As part of this project, I co-authored a brochure about the garden with a Tongva Elder.
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Seltz, Jennifer. "Embodying nature : health, place, and identity in nineteenth-century America /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10433.
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Eagleston, Holly Ann. "Integrating Geospatial Technology and Ecological Research in the Analysis of Sustainable Recreation Infrastructure." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71311.
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This dissertation is an inquiry into two disciplines: recreation ecology and geospatial analysis. The dissertation consists of three journal article manuscripts focusing on the sustainability of recreational infrastructure components in backcountry and wilderness settings. Two articles focus on campsite conditions, nodal areas of visitor use and impact. The third article focuses on trail conditions, linear corridors of visitor use and impact. Campsites and trails comprise the most visited and impacted components of recreation infrastructure; locations where protected natural area visitors spend the majority of their time and where the majority of resource impacts occur. Resource conditions at these locations affect the quality of recreational experiences and are the focus of management and scientific efforts to measure and manage visitation-related resource impacts. The articles provide a strong scientific background to understanding ecological processes and better preparing recreation planners and managers for sustainable infrastructure management decision-making.
The first article assesses the sustainability of campsites over thirty-two years of use in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota. Differences in vegetation composition, tree cover and groundcover from 1982 to 2014 were measured. Paired t-tests analyzed significant ecological differences on campsites and paired controls over time. Best management practices for managing campsites for the long-term are suggested.
The second article analyzes the extent of non-native plants on campsites over thirty-two years. Paired t-tests were used to look at cover and abundance on campsites and control areas between 1982 and 2014. This paper explores ecological benefits and degradation incurred by non-native plants on campsites over time and discusses implications for wilderness character at BWCAW.
The third article is interdisciplinary, incorporating ground-based recreation ecology measurements with technical spatial analyses and modeling to improve understanding of erosional processes on trails. Fine resolution terrain data was used to examine terrain metrics as they relate to amount of soil loss. Multiple Linear Regression was used to test a number of variables taken from the field and derived from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software using a 1m Digital Elevation Model. This paper explores relationships between different terrain variables and soil loss observed on the Appalachian Trail. It provides insights on which terrain features influence erosion and provides recommendations to trail managers to design more sustainable trails.Ph. D.
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Porter, Kelly Allison. "Developing Ecological Identities in High School Students through a Place-Based Science Elective." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10839975.
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With the increasing human population, it is critical to develop informed citizens with ecological perspectives and motivation to make positive contributions to the biosphere. This study investigates the impact of a place-based science elective on the development of students’ ecological identities, motivation for environmental action, and ecojustice self-efficacy. Targeted curriculum was implemented, including a campus habitat design project. Pre and post tests for three instruments were used to assess 25 high school freshmen, half of whom are members of a STEM program. There was an increase in nature relatedness, motivation and self-efficacy for STEM students but not for non-STEM students. The research study demonstrated the effectivity of using place-based curriculum within classes to encourage student connection, empowerment and involvement. Support for teachers to develop targeted mentoring of students’ abilities and interests are needed and can help develop informed, involved global citizens.
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Mathieu, Susan L. "Waste in place: Facilitator's training handbook." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1993. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/664.
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Jacka, Jerry K. "God, gold, and the ground : place-based political ecology in a New Guinea borderlands /." view abstract or download file of text, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p3095254.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003.Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 367-396). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.
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Pandit, Arka. "Resilience of urban water systems: an 'infrastructure ecology' approach to sustainable and resilient (SuRe) planning and design." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/53443.
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Increasing urbanization is a dominant global trend of the past few decades. For cities to become more sustainable, however, the infrastructure on which they rely must also become more efficient and resilient. Urban infrastructure systems are analogous to ecological systems because they are interconnected, complex and adaptive, are comprised of interconnected components, and exhibit characteristic scaling properties. Analyzing them together as a whole, as one would do for an ecological system, provides a better understanding about their dynamics and interactions, and enables system-level optimization. The adoption of this “infrastructure ecology” approach will result in urban development that costs less to build and maintain, is more sustainable (e.g. uses less materials and energy) and resilient, and enables a greater and more equitable creation of wealth and comfort. Resilience, or the capacity of a system to absorb shocks and perform under perturbations, can serve as an appropriate indicator of functional sustainability for dynamic adaptive systems like Urban Water Systems. This research developed an index of resilience (R-Index) to quantify the “full-spectrum” resilience of urban water systems. It developed five separate indices, namely (i) Index of Water Scarcity (IWS), (ii) Relative Dependency Index (RDI), (iii) Water Quality Index (WQI), (iv) Index of Network Resilience (INR), and (v) Relative Criticality Index (RCI), to address the criticalities inherent to urban water systems and then combines them to develop the R-Index through a multi-criteria decision analysis method. The research further developed a theoretical construct to quantify the temporal aspect of resilience, i.e. how quickly the system can return back to its original performance level. While there is a growing impetus of incorporating sustainability in decision making, frequently it comes at the cost of resilience. This is attributable to the fact that the decision-makers often lack a life-cycle perspective and a proven, consistent and robust approach to understand the tradeoff between increased resilience and its impact on sustainability. This research developed an approach to identify the sustainable and resilient (SuRe) zone of urban infrastructure planning and design where both sustainability and resilience can be pursued together.
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Korach, Jill Karen. "The Primacy of Place: The Importance of Personal-Nature Connections for Conservation and Communities." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1574245855547205.
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Fettig, Jake Alan. "Nothing is Perfect, But Something is Just Right: Redevelopment of Inner-Ring Suburbs - Integrating Ecological Systems into Modern Urban Villages." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/96792.
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The inner-ring suburbs of major metropolitan areas such as Washington, DC are either being redeveloped already or are poised to be redeveloped over the next several decades. The engineered 'gray' infrastructure networks in these areas, largely put in place between 100 and 75 years ago, are aging and reaching the end of their useful life. New developments are being funded by real estate investment trusts and developers and are being welcomed by municipalities and a public that are often genuinely inspired to create the more livable places of the future. Such redevelopments provide a unique opportunity not to just import new 'green' features, but to reimagine the fundamental connections between ecological, human, and non-human systems within the fabric of the larger community in a way that profoundly improves the cognitive experience of a place for the people and wildlife that reside there.
The project begins by recognizing this opportunity and posing a question. Through thoughtful design, how can we bring people back into balance with their environment and back into touch with each other? By working with the cultural and built fabric of a place, the project proposes to reintroduce ecological systems and create places that might not be a perfect clean slate but are somehow just right for the people that live there. The project proceeds first by developing an understanding of the overall ecological context for each of four primary development corridors in Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. across the Potomac River. Then, key intersections between stream systems and the development corridors are identified and assessed to determine (a) whether any existing landscape framework surrounding the stream feature is in place and (b) whether the amenities necessary to support a walkable Urban Village center are present within a half mile in each direction along the route.
The project proposes a design for revealing a continuous flow stream channel currently piped underground and creating integrated stormwater detention basins along the historic stream channel path at the headwaters of Spout Run in northern Arlington County Virginia. Stormwater mains downstream from the headwaters have already been deemed below capacity for the unprecedentedly intense storms that have become an annual occurrence. Here, the major transportation and development corridor, Route 29 (Lee Highway), just across the Potomac River west of Washington D.C, crosses Glebe Road and a unique geological formation, dubbed for this thesis as the 'Headwaters Plateau'. It is an intersection between historically significant transportation routes as well as a unique intersection between landscape and the built environment. Around the Headwaters Plateau, not just Spout Run but the waters of four other streams begin their path to the Potomac River, flowing through numerous Arlington County neighborhoods along the way. As redevelopment plans take shape for the Lee Highway corridor through northern Arlington County, this thesis proposes the unique intersection between the Headwaters Plateau at Spout Run Gap along Route 29 as the site for the core of a modern Urban Village, with the Plateau and the Spout Run Headwaters Channel as the landscape framework around which the redeveloping Village should be built.Master of Landscape Architecture
This thesis proposes a design for revealing a continuous flow stream channel currently piped underground and creating integrated stormwater detention basins along the historic stream channel path at the headwaters of Spout Run in northern Arlington County, Virginia. Stormwater mains downstream from the headwaters have already been deemed below capacity for the unprecedentedly intense storms that have become an annual occurrence. Here, the major transportation and development corridor, Route 29 (Lee Highway), just across the Potomac River west of Washington D.C, crosses Glebe Road and a unique geological formation, dubbed for the purpose of this thesis as the 'Headwaters Plateau'. It is an intersection between historically significant transportation routes as well as a unique intersection between landscape and the built environment. Around the Headwaters Plateau, not just Spout Run but the waters of four other streams begin their path to the Potomac River, flowing through numerous Arlington County neighborhoods along the way. As redevelopment plans take shape for the Lee Highway corridor through northern Arlington County, this thesis proposes the unique intersection between the Headwaters Plateau at Spout Run Gap along Route 29 as the site for the core of a modern Urban Village, with the Plateau and the Spout Run Headwaters Channel as the landscape framework around which the redeveloping Village should be built. Through design, this thesis is an investigation of the potential integration of ecological systems such as stream hydrology into the design of modern 'Urban Villages' with the intent to create impactful individual experiences that provide a shared sense of connection within the community to its surrounding landscape. Throughout the country, redevelopment plans are focused on creating increased-density 'mixed-use' communities within existing urban and suburban areas - often called Urban Villages in the lexicon of the New Urbanism planning theory. This represents a move away from the predominant approach of separation of land use zoning practices. Such redevelopments provide a unique opportunity to not only import new 'green' features, but to reimagine the fundamental connections between ecological, human, and non-human systems within the fabric of the larger community in a way that profoundly improves the cognitive experience of a place for the people and wildlife that reside there.
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Duyser, Mitchell S. "Hybrid Landscapes: Territories of Shared Ecological and Infrastructural Value." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1277139665.
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Bliss-Ketchum, Leslie Lynne. "The Impact of Infrastructure on Habitat Connectivity for Wildlife." PDXScholar, 2019. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4832.
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While roads can present weak to complete barriers to wildlife, depending on the animal and traffic volume, mitigations such as under-crossings and green bridges on highways at least partially increase the permeability of the landscape to some of these species. The few studies evaluating the effectiveness of these structures for at least three years typically focused on a single species. Here, we monitored the crossing structure under Boeckman Road, in Wilsonville Oregon, for wildlife activity across summer seasons for ten years, since construction of the road and subsequent opening to traffic. This long-term multi-species dataset, which includes monitoring when the road was closed to traffic has provided a unique opportunity. Wildlife activity was collected using sand track pads monitored during summer seasons from 2009 to 2018. Wildlife activity showed a significant community level response from year to year and species-specific responses to year, vegetation change, disturbance, detection area, and previous experimental additions of artificial light.
Roads create barriers to animal movement through collisions and habitat fragmentation. Investigators have attempted to use traffic volume, the number of vehicles passing a point on a road segment, to predict effects to wildlife populations approximately linearly and along taxonomic lines; however, taxonomic groupings cannot provide sound predictions because closely related species often respond differently. We assess the role of wildlife behavioral responses to traffic volume as a tool to predict barrier effects from vehicle-caused mortality and avoidance, to provide an early warning system that recognizes traffic volume as a trigger for mitigation, and to better interpret roadkill data. We propose four categories of behavioral response based on the perceived danger to traffic: Nonresponders, Pausers, Speeders, and Avoiders. By considering a species' risk-avoidance response to traffic, managers can make more appropriate and timely decisions to mitigate effects before populations decline or become locally extinct.
Barriers to animal movement can isolate populations, impacting their genetic diversity, susceptibility to disease, and access to resources. Barriers to movement may be caused by artificial light, but few studies have experimentally investigated the effects of artificial light on movement for a suite of terrestrial vertebrates. Therefore, we studied the effect of ecological light pollution on animal usage of a bridge under-road passage structure. On a weekly basis, sections of the structure were subjected to different light treatments including no light added, followed by a Reference period when lights were off in all the structure sections. Findings suggest that artificial light may be reducing habitat connectivity for some species though not providing a strong barrier for others.
Through the work conducted herein we provide contributions to the understanding of how elements of the built environment impact wildlife communities ability to move across the landscape. Additionally, we provide new tools to support resource managers in barrier mitigation and connectivity planning. Habitat fragmentation effects are a complex set of issues that require resources and collaboration to reach meaningful solutions. The work presented here can also support decision-making, communication, and collaborative efforts that will ultimately result in on-the-ground impacts to reduce fragmentation effects and mitigate existing barriers effectively to promote the long-term viability of wildlife and the systems they depend on.
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Cairns, Maryann R. "Environment, Rights, and Waste in Bolivia: Addressing Water and Sanitation Processes for Improved Infrastructure." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5197.
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Water and sanitation (WatSan) development projects impact both natural systems and societal structures where they are placed. A complex process of development, including inter-governmental policies, aid agencies, personal relationships, and community politics enhance and constrain the efficacy of these projects. This study presents the many ways in which the WatSan development process has unintended and unexpected returns for certain community groups. Using a political ecology framework, I look at power structures, perceived and projected environmental impacts, multiple stakeholders, and individual discourses to critique how the right to water and sanitation is implemented in a specific community context. This project advances anthropological thought by showing a praxis-based study that links theory, on-the-ground, ethnographic experience, policy recommendations, and theoretical injections which relate to a variety of audiences, both within and outside of the academy.
The project is conducted in two main field locations--La Paz and Sapecho, Bolivia. I employ a mixed-method approach, including interviews with development professionals and community members, a survey of water and sanitation users, focus groups with particularly impacted groups (e.g. water committees, students, and women), and various mapping techniques (GPS mapping, community-led) to address the space and place within which this project was realized. I give specific focus to sewage collection and wastewater treatment, two elements of the WatSan system that are distinctive in this rural developing-country context.
WatSan development is not just infrastructure placement. It is a full process, a relationship. It comprises individual conversations, days of work, salaries, payment schedules, labor, expertise, and ongoing management practices. Individual perceptions of infrastructure efficacy, personal benefit, and best practices (both culturally and technologically) impact the long-term effectiveness of a project. Major tensions arise post-implementation: between community and aid agency, conservation and use, labor and upkeep, and sanitation and potable water. There are multiple influences and positions subsumed in this process.
The study's political ecology approach, combined with foci on human rights, critical development, and water and culture, provides critical insights into the relationship between social and resource-based (water infrastructure) change. It looks at the ways in which the benefits and risks of a WatSan system are stratified, gendered, and power-laden. It further looks at the potential positive and negative outcomes of the system--all with an enviro-social focus. I look at how social and ecological relationships are tethered together (mutually constituted), how they are influenced by several levels of governance and policy. The experience of Sapecho shows how changes to WatSan environments can provide new water and sanitation access but in some cases, further engrain and exacerbate social inequalities. Provision of fresh water, sewage collection, and wastewater treatment infrastructure is not value-free--but it is necessary. This work tries to answer one small part of the question of how the right to water and sanitation can be best implemented in real-world situations.
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Wituszynski, David Michael. "Ecological Structure and Function of Bioretention Cells." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1595534267621241.
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Erasmus, Rudolph. "[Re]claim 2013 - reconciliation of urban place & indigenous meaningfulness reintegration with ecological systems reclaiming infrastructure for a new typology." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/31642.
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The methodologies of Modernism and Industrialization and the rigorous application thereof, in isolation, led to a condition where space and place is fragmented, segregated and disconnected by lost, decayed and left over space. It separated the spatial and experiential whole from the human user who inhabits; depends on and experience the space, and failed to contribute to a meaningful livable public realm. The loss in character; uniqueness and indigenous meaningfulness have led to a condition where humans are alienated from their original invention for community: the city. The inter-relational connection between ecological-; anthropological- and technological systems are disconnected resulting in a condition where resource consumption and availability are no longer in relational proportion to one another and where revolutionary intervention is needed to ensure the continuation of the current living standard and requirements of humanity without degrading the quality for future generations. This dissertation focuses on the reintegration of anthropological; ecological and technological systems into a holistic, co-habitational intervention on urban; building and detail scale and the establishment of a human and nature centric spatially orientated framework. Attempting to reconsolidate lost; fragmented; left over; mechanistic&decayed space and structure along the ecological corridor of Hammanskraal Industrial zone.Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Architecture
MArch(Prof)
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Wenban-Smith, Hugh B. "Economies of scale, distribution costs and density effects in urban water supply : a spatial analysis of the role of infrastructure in urban agglomeration." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2009. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/285/.
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Economies of scale in infrastructure are a recognised factor in urban agglomeration. Less recognised is the effect of distribution or access costs. Infrastructure can be classified as: (a) Area-type (e.g. utilities); or (b) Point-type (e.g. hospitals). The former involves distribution costs, the latter access costs. Taking water supply as an example of Area-type infrastructure, the interaction between production costs and distribution costs at settlement level is investigated using data from England & Wales and the USA. Plant level economies of scale in water production are confirmed, and quantified. Water distribution costs are analysed using a new measure of water distribution output (which combines volume and distance), and modelling distribution areas as monocentric settlements. Unit distribution costs are shown to be characterised by scale economies with respect to volume but diseconomies with respect to average distance to properties. It follows that higher settlement densities reduce unit distribution costs, while lower densities raise them. The interaction with production costs then means that (a) higher urban density (“Densification”) is characterised by economies of scale in both production and distribution; (b) more spread out settlement (“Dispersion”) leads to diseconomies in distribution; (c) “Suburbanisation” (expansion into lower density peripheral areas) lies in between, with roughly constant returns to scale, taking production and distribution together; and (d) “Constant density” expansion leads to small economies of scale. Keeping (per capita) water supply costs low thus appears to depend as much on density as size. Tentative generalisation suggests similar effects with other Area-type infrastructure (sewerage, electricity supply, telecommunications); and with Point-type infrastructure (such as hospitals), viewing access costs as distribution costs in reverse. It follows that the presumption in urban economics that such services are always characterised by economies of scale and therefore conducive to agglomeration may not be correct.
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Ballantyne, Brian Andrew, and n/a. "�This must be the place� : plumbing a land ethic for the built environment." University of Otago. Department of Surveying, 1995. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20070531.140040.
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A land ethic within the built enviroment was examined from the perspective of the surveying community in New Zealand. The research followed a structure of context, interpretation and application; used legal analysis; and, sampled the ideologies of iwi liason officers, consultant surveyors, and local authorities.
Context involved asking why a land ethic was being debated, by focusing on the current level of environmental thought, and on the actions of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors (NZIS). Some findings are: that terms such as sustainable management and nature are ambiguous cultural constructs; and, that the adoptation of an environmental policy by the NZIS continues to be a tortuous process.
Interpretation involved asking what constituted a New Zealand ethic, by putting such an ethic into perspective in relation to ecophilosophy, and by searching for a contemporary sense of kaitiakitanga. Some findings are: that restraint and humility are requirements in any moral theory of nature; that kaitiakitanga is not dependent on title to land; and, that iwi liason officers are divided as to how kaitiakitanga applied to the built environment.
Application involved suggesting how a land ethic could be invoked in the built environment, through the provision of green space in the form of local purpose reserves. Some findings are: that surveyors regard reserves as being significantly less vital to a community�s well-being than engineered services; and, that local authorities are not generally aware that reserve policies might have to be linked to municipal open space strategies.
The broad conclusions are: that regardless of the environment that now exists, surveyors will be required to make moral choices about the environment that is sought; that a land ethic will not necessarily provide rational prescriptions directing action towards land; and, that there is inherent tension between land tenure, land use and a land ethic. Suggested avenues for further research include a comparative analysis of other landed professions; the empowerment of women within any land ethic; and, the use of content analysis as an alternative methodology.
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Mackey, Christine. "Ecology of place : a systems view of the world and its defining role for creative practice." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.555133.
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This thesis identifies, analyzes and develops the notion of a system as a model for artistic practice and intervention. First developed within General Systems Theory and concepts associated with Cybernetics, the idea of an 'open system' is based on the premise that we should not be concerned with how parts of a system act, as isolated events, but on the multiple behaviour and responses of a system as a 'whole'. The 'open system' model therefore challenges the reduction of a system to its component parts, as in the reductive methods of science, as well as the fixed state of a 'closed systems' model. In support of a theory of 'open systems' both General Systems Theory and Cybernetics developed an expansive lexicon of key concepts and models to augment the constitutes of a system, regardless of any conceptual or material constraint. These concepts and models are explored here in particular relation to the visual modelling of the diagram, its methods of cognition and the creative and social use it might serve. The diagram as a visual tool and diagramming strategy is re-considered as an 'open system' that challenges contemporary drawing practice by providing an alternative and tactical approach to site intervention, studio practice and public interaction. The thesis argues that the concept of 'variables' within dynamic open systems, which produce change, are temperamental, scattered or unknown - can inform contemporary drawing through a recursive practice operating at the intersections of philosophical, scientific and creative methodologies in order to open a new framework for creative practice.
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Wallenborn, Grégoire. "L’efficience énergétique et les effets rebonds :déficiences théoriques et paradoxes pratiques." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/216731.
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Les mesures d’efficience énergétique sont généralement promues pour combattre le changement climatique, assurer la sécurité énergétique, augmenter la compétitivité et en raison de leur bon retour sur investissement. Toutefois, si l’efficience énergétique des différents secteurs de la société (industrie, bâtiments, transports, appareils, etc.) s’améliore, la consommation d’énergie ne cesse également d’augmenter. Ce constat contrariant peut être partiellement expliqué par ce qu’on appelle l’« effet rebond ». Cet effet est traditionnellement défini comme le changement de comportement d’un utilisateur suite à l’amélioration de l’efficience énergétique de telle sorte que sa consommation d’énergie est supérieure à ce qui est prévu par un modèle d’ingénieur. L’amplitude de cet effet, particulièrement au niveau macro-économique, est toutefois controversée. De même, il n’y a pas d’accord sur la classification des effets rebonds. Cette thèse part de l’hypothèse que les controverses sur les effets rebonds proviennent du fait qu’ils peuvent se produire à différentes échelles temporelles et spatiales, et que diverses disciplines capturent certains mécanismes car elles cadrent différemment leurs objets d’étude. Je montre que les mécanismes des effets rebonds peuvent être décrits comme la combinaison de deux efficiences. Premièrement, l’efficience énergétique mesure un rapport de production/consommation d’un individu (une machine ou un être vivant, par exemple). Deuxièmement, l’efficience temporelle mesure la vitesse à laquelle les activités de production/consommation sont menées (par une entité ou un ensemble d’entités). Lorsque les corps sont liés entre eux, notamment par des échanges de matière et d’énergie, une amélioration de l’efficience énergétique implique une augmentation de l’efficience temporelle. Cette augmentation n’est pas immédiate, mais elle est d’autant plus rapide que les corps ont à leur disposition des infrastructures qui permettent d’accéder à l’énergie. La combinaison des deux efficiences s’observe dans quatre cadres disciplinaires :écologie, technologie, économie néo-classique, sociologie des pratiques. En écologie, les deux efficiences procurent des avantages évolutifs, et sont appelés principes de la « production minimale d’entropie » et « puissance maximale ». Le développement technologique nous montre comment les deux efficiences se renforcent mutuellement via des réseaux de distribution et autres infrastructures. En économie néo-classique, l’efficience énergétique répond à la maximisation d’une fonction mal identifiée (profit ou utilité). En sociologie des pratiques, l’efficience temporelle joue un rôle majeur dans la multiplication des tâches déléguées à des machines — qui existent grâce à l’amélioration de leur efficience énergétique. En conclusion, ce n’est pas uniquement l’efficience énergétique qui est responsable des effets rebonds, mais sa combinaison avec l’efficience temporelle. Les effets rebonds dépendent de l’intensité des couplages colatéraux entre les machines et les corps. Habituellement ce couplage est estimé petit (il est totalement absent dans le cadre néo-classique). On peut pourtant contester cette hypothèse dans la mesure où ce couplage crée et multiplie les activités humaines. La part de la consommation exosomatique en comparaison à la consommation endosomatique montre l’ampleur de ce couplage. Pour limiter les effets rebonds, il convient de déconnecter les deux efficiences et les relations qui les renforcent.Doctorat en Sciences
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished
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Ward-Lambert, Missy. "Old Roots: Place-Making and Hybrid Landscapes of Refugee Urban Farmers." DigitalCommons@USU, 2014. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/3298.
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This research project was designed to analyze the relevance of place and the physical environment to the adjustment processes of refugees. This dissertation contains the results of qualitative research with a group of 30 refugee urban farmers living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Seventeen of these individuals—from Burundi, Sudan, Bhutan, the Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, and Cuba—participated in interviews and a photography project focused on their experiences with agriculture in their home countries and since their arrival in Utah. The results of the research show the connection between the refugees’ work as farmers and their sense of place since arriving in the United States. Participants reported material and emotional benefits from their farming work, as well as challenges. The research results also provide insight into the process of cultural hybridization and cross-cultural exchange experienced by the participants. A discussion of some challenges inherent in doing research with refugees is included, and policy implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.
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Plitt, Sophia. "Digital tools for urban green infrastructure: : Investigating the potential of e-tools to inform and engage stewards." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-170269.
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As the planet rapidly urbanizes and demand for locally-produced ecosystem services grows, the effective management of urban green infrastructure is increasingly important. A number of digital tools have recently been developed and released that share information and incite citizen participation in the governance, management and planning of urban green infrastructure. In this paper, I analyse six different e-tools within the context of New York City with a focus on the types of knowledge they share and the forms of participation they incite in relation to urban green infrastructure. I explore how e-tool knowledge exchange and participation relate to civic stewardship of urban green spaces, as stewards play a significant role in the local production of urban ecosystem services. The findings indicate that most e-tools are designed to share a large amount of data describing social-ecological systems. In many cases, the tool developers hope that through gaining knowledge about the system, users will develop an ethical consideration for the environmental resource and even take action as environmental stewards. Additionally, while many of the e-tools present complex, exploratory digital learning environments, many also combine virtual experiences with in-person trainings, workshops and coaching. These hybrid approaches harness the power of digital platforms to organize diverse social networks and share large amounts of data while employing more traditional on-the-ground organizing techniques and offer a way forward in an age of increasing dominance of digital data. Further research on these types of hybrid digital approaches is warranted. Future research on e-tool usership and connections to stewardship outcomes could enrich the understanding of how e-tools operate as well as their social-ecological potential and impact.
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Low, Matthew Michael. "Prairie survivance: language, narrative, and place-making in the American Midwest." Diss., University of Iowa, 2011. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2572.
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The prairie ecosystem of the American Midwest has long been depicted as a "lost landscape." Two-hundred years of Euro-American settlement has degraded the ecological prairie through systematic removal of native grasses and forbs, replacement with nonnative and invasive plant species, disruption of longstanding disturbance regimes (such as prairie fires), and the fragmentation of ecosystem connectivity. The prairie's depiction in art, literature, history, politics, and our national environmental discourse, collectively referred to in this study as the "cultural prairie," has not fared much better. Beginning in the early nineteenth-century, explorers and soldiers, writers and artists, settlers and promoters perpetuated an image of the "vanishing prairie" in travel narratives prolifically published for consumption by a burgeoning American readership. As the "vanishing prairie" emerged as the accepted image of the prairie, narratives depicting its disappearance from the landscape became self-fulfilling prophecies. Language, and narrative in particular, thus contributed to the degradation of the ecological prairie.
Narratives of the "vanishing prairie" are characterized by what Anishinaabe writer Gerald Vizenor terms "absence, nihility, and victimry." One remedy to these fatalistic narratives is Vizenor's notion of "survivance," which he defines as "an active sense of presence over absence, deracination, and oblivion; survivance is the continuance of stories" ("Aesthetics of Survivance," in Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence, ed. Gerald Vizenor [Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008], 1). Though Vizenor uses the term survivance principally to recover the stories, traditions, and identities of Native American cultures from Euro-American "simulations of dominance," his critical inquiries are more broadly applicable to the exploitation of the environment by many of the same policies, agents, strategies, and technologies that were put to use to propagate and promote state-sponsored ideologies of uniformity, homogeneity, and monoculturalism throughout the American Midwest. "Prairie survivance" is thus an attempt to make the prairie a presence, not an absence, in mainstream environmental discourse and debate, including the study of American literature and the fields of environmental criticism (or ecocriticism), place studies, and cultural geography.
My argument begins with a critique of Euro-American travel narratives popularized throughout the nineteenth-century by the likes of Washington Irving, George Catlin, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and others. These travel narratives perpetuated the trope of the "vanishing prairie" by employing stock images and narrative techniques, none more pervasive than the bison hunt. Specifically, the dramatic hunt sequences of these travel narratives reinforced the eradication of the bison from the ecological prairie. However, the consequences of these narratives are not limited to the time of their writing; instead, the "lost landscape" image of the prairie remains persistent to this day as a direct result of its misrepresentation in the travel literature of the nineteenth century. The second half of my argument entails a reading of counternarratives that envision a much different past, present, and future for the prairie. The bison's recovery in narratives by Luther Standing Bear, James Welch, N. Scott Momaday, and Mary Oliver is one example in which the fate of the prairie is not limited to its inevitable demise. Moreover, I have coined the term "aesthetics of restoration" to describe the prairie's presence in the work of Aldo Leopold, Paul Gruchow, Annie Proulx, and Linda Hogan (among others), each of whom overturns nihilistic images of the prairie as a "lost landscape" by writing about its restoration and permanent return to the landscapes of the American Midwest. Narrative's potential for healing is realized in these examples, a cornerstone of narrative ethics.
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Billing, Chloe Ashton. "Satellites, rockets and services : a place for space in geography?" Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7159/.
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Despite the importance of satellite-enabled applications to society, geographical discussions of the space sector have been dominated by accounts of the geopolitics ‘up there’, without due consideration of the industry driving the use of space ‘down here’. As a result, the geography of the space sector, and the interactions between the agents and institutions involved, have been overlooked in the academic literature. To address this ‘silence’, this thesis explores the competitiveness, organisation and governance of the UK space sector. The primary method of data collection for this thesis was eighty semi-structured interviews with representatives from the UK space sector. The conceptual framework integrated economic and geopolitical concepts on competitiveness, organisation and governance. Key findings of this thesis include: (i) orbital slots and frequency spectrum are competitive assets, which highlight the verticality of our economy; (ii) heritage is a source of competitiveness, which can cause technological lock-in; (iii) different segments within the UK space sector manage their own production projects, which are linked by buyer-supplier relationships (BSRs); (iv) BSRs are influenced by buyers, contracts, technology, time and geography; and (v) the governance of the UK space sector is multi-centric, with a dominance of regulatory forms.
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Kraemer, Daniela. "Planting roots, making place : an ethnography of young men in Port Vila, Vanuatu." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2013. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/825/.
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This thesis is about an organised group or ‘squad’ of young men in Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific Islands nation-state of Vanuatu, and their practices of place making in the rapidly developing context of ‘town’. The young men studied are second-generation migrants and thus first-generation born and raised ‘urbanites'. Based on twenty months of fieldwork, this thesis examines how these young men are transforming Freswota Community - the residential area in which they live - from a place with no shared and relevant social meaning into a place imbued with greater collective significance. First, I demonstrate how these young men experience themselves as ‘unplaced’, a condition which entails two aspects. They are displaced from the social structure and kinship systems within which their parents previously ordered their lives and from which they have drawn their social identity. Additionally, the young men experience themselves as marginalised from the formal education and employment structures of town. Following this, I show that it is through practices of place making, which they refer to as ‘planting roots’, that these young men are emplacing themselves in the Freswota area. ‘Planting roots’ includes such processes as developing their own shared history, naming roads, building topogeny and developing their own community social structure and social order. I argue that these processes are leading to the emergence of a new phenomenon: primary town emplacement. By coming into relationship with Freswota land, these young men are not only transforming it from virtual no-place into some place, they are also transforming themselves from ‘unplaced’ persons into emplaced ‘Freswota men’. I conclude that this is generating a new locative identity: it is now the Freswota community rather than their parents’ home island places that is emerging as their primary location of belonging and the source both of their sense of self and their social identification. A central aim of this thesis is to draw attention to the positive and creative ways in which unemployed young men, usually criticised and stigmatised as delinquents in newly and rapidly urbanising contexts, are actively engaged in developing their community and their relationships in order to live more viable and socially productive lives.
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Alexander, Laura A. "Meaning of place : exploring long-term resident's attachment to the physical environment in northern New Hampshire /." [Yellow Springs, Ohio] : Antioch University, 2008. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=antioch1219972881.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Antioch University New England, 2008.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 24, 2008). "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England (2008)."--The title page. Advisor: Thomas Webler, Ph. D. Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-159).
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Clarke, Joni Adamson. "A place to see: Ecological literary theory and practice." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187115.
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"A Place to See: Ecological Literary Theory and Practice" approaches "American" literature with an inclusive interdisciplinarity that necessarily complicates traditional notions of both "earliness" and canon. In order to examine how "Nature" has been socially constructed since the seventeenth century to support colonialist objectives, I set American literature into a context which includes ancient Mayan almanacs, the Popol Vuh, early seventeenth and eighteenth century American farmer's almanacs, 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu's autobiography, the 1994 Zapatista National Liberation army uprising in Mexico, and Leslie Silko's Almanac of the Dead. Drawing on the feminist, literary and cultural theories of Donna Haraway, Carolyn Merchant, and Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Edward Said, Annette Kolodny, and Joseph Meeker, I argue that contemporary Native American writers insist that readers question all previous assumptions about "Nature" as uninhabited wilderness and "nature writing" as realistic, non-fiction prose recorded in Waldenesque tranquility. Instead the work of writers such as Silko, Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, and Joy Harjo is a "nature writing" which explores the interconnections among forms and systems of domination, exploitation, and oppression across their different racial, sexual, and ecological manifestations. I posit that literary critics and teachers who wish to work for a more ecologically and socially balanced world should draw on the work of all members of our discourse community in cooperative rather than competitive ways and seek to transform literary theory and practice by bringing it back into dynamic interconnection with the worlds we all live in--inescapably social and material worlds in which issues of race, class, and gender inevitably intersect in complex and multi-faceted ways with issues of natural resource exploitation and conservation.
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Brose, Angela B. "A vision for public place in America." Virtual Press, 1998. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1116355.
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The importance of public place in the United States of America as an environment for communication, the transmission of cultural values and for the enhancement of society and community, using a comprehensive notion of entertainment as a catalyst.creative projectThis project intends to develop a catalogue of design implications for the design of a public place that successfully serves the community enhancement and the cultural transmission. This catalogue of design implications will be the result of the extensive research on the American culture, on the elements of cultural expression with emphasis on the use of entertainment as a catalyst, on the elements of urban history and the urban environment as well as on the social and commercial success of public place.contextThe context of this research is the number of issues American urban environments are facing. Most of the problems in their combination are the source of numerous urban issues. Some of the key issues that have developed on this basis are e.g. the loss of human scale or e.g. the need for a collective vision, community and cultural identity. These issues are strongly interrelated with another.issueThese are some of the deficiencies that lead to the key issue of this project: the loss of community manifested by urban isolation and fragmentation and problems relating to the humane environments and settings. Nevertheless community and cultural enhancement can help to create a greater awareness for the prerequisites for a healthy living environment. Community and cultural enhancement help to stimulate greater self-sufficiency helping to address the previously mentioned issues at their sources. The premise is that community is an essential ingredient in cohesive urban and suburban neighborhoods and is part of the positive image of a well designed and maintained city fabric.positionThe focus of this work is the community, the public place and the cultural expression with emphasis on entertainment. In the same order they represent the issue, the place and the catalyst. This work claims that entertainment can be used to design an environment enhancing community and communication. The assumption related with entertainment is that social interaction and collective well being are essential parts of community structure and therefore activities related to entertainment help to foster a collective vision.methodThe first step to prove this position is to identify the issues concerning urban settlements in the United States of America. The urban context has to be defined. The second step is to define the cultural context and to analyze the notion of entertainment as a means of cultural expression and its potential to serve as a catalyst. The third step is to identify the elements of social and commercial success of a public environment using at least two models defining those elements. Each of the three steps concludes in a set of architectural values and design elements. The fourth step is to deduce a catalogue of design implications from the information collected. This last step proposes the practical application of this research. The anticipated results of this project should be regarded as a suggestion for the practical application of this research based on the observation of and reflections on the research results, hopefully resulting in the identification of additional questions for further research.Department of Architecture
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Smith, Joseph Stephen. "The Impact of Green Infrastructure on Stormwater Quality: A Sewershed-Scale Analysis of the Effects of Blueprint Columbus on Nutrients, Sediments, and Metals." The Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1587651880895345.
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Goličnik, Barbara. "People in place : a configuration of physical form and the dynamic patterns of spatial occupancy in urban open public space." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/8201.
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This thesis is a critical inquiry about the spatial relationships between occupancy and the physical structure of squares and parks in city centres. It focuses on usability and the spatial capacity of places, from two different angles. Firstly, it discusses the actual uses mapped in places, using repeated observation on different days, times and weather conditions. This results in empirical knowledge about dimensions and spatial requirements, especially for some long-stay active uses, such as ball games in parks and skateboarding in squares, and how long-stay passive uses, such as sitting, might relate to them, as well as how transitory activities relate to both long-stay engagements. In addition, it illustrates how some activities can be contiguous, while some others require 'buffer' zones between them for effective use. Secondly, this thesis addresses uses imagined in parks and squares by urban landscape designers, using two approaches: mapping out likely uses in detailed maps of selected places, and revealing a physical structure of a particular place by knowing its behavioural patterns. On this basis, this thesis examines designers' tacit knowledge about the usage-spatial relationship and, highlights potential applicability, the role and value of empirically gained knowledge in the design of parks and squares. It shows that designers' beliefs and awareness about uses in places, in some aspects, differ from actual use. From this point of view, it reveals a need for effective design-research integration and stresses the importance of empirical knowledge and its incorporation in design. The thesis promotes GIS as a successful practical tool to build, develop and maintain a body of empirical knowledge using interactive GIS maps as its scripts. Concerning the implementation of such knowledge in urban public open space design, operationally, a visualisation of research findings and its related concerns to decision-making, evaluation and management, is of key importance.
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Niland, Joseph Michael. "Derelict to Dynamic: Examining Socioecological Productivity of Underutilized/Abandoned Industrial Infrastructure, and Application in Baltimore, Maryland." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/83763.
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With over 16,500 documented vacant commercial and residential units, roughly 20 miles of abandoned rail lines, a historic loss of approximately 330,000 residents, millions of gallons of annual surface water sewage discharges, and a decade-long failed water quality consent decree - Baltimore, Maryland lies at a crux of chronic challenges plaguing America’s formerly most economically and industrially powerful cities (Open Baltimore GIS [Vacancies Shapefile], 2017; “Harbor Water Alert” Blue Water Baltimore, 2017).
Impending environmental threats in the “Anthropocene” (Crutzen, 2004) and increased attention to societal injustices warrant heightened inclusivity of social and natural urban functions. Socioecological inequities are often highly conspicuous in declining post-industrial American cities such as Baltimore. Chronic social, economic, and environmental perturbations have rendered some of once critical American infrastructure outdated, underutilized, and/or abandoned. Rivers, forests, rail corridors, as well as residential and industrial building stock are in significantly less demand than when America’s industrial age shaped urban landscapes in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Compounded by insensitive traditional urban development, these phenomena jeopardize urban social and ecological function.
This thesis is an examination of contemporary urban ecology concepts as a systemic approach for revitalizing socially and ecologically marginalized urban areas, with an application in West Baltimore, Maryland neighborhoods. Through an examination of socioecological dilemmas and root causes, a conceptual procedure for urban blight mitigation along the Gwynns Falls corridor is proposed. Adopting an urban green infrastructure plan offers comprehensive alternative solutions for West Baltimore’s contemporary challenges.
Master plans are proposed for the Shipley Hill, Carrollton Scott, and Mill Hill neighborhoods in West Baltimore. Site scale socioecological connections are suggested for the Shipley Hill neighborhood with contextual linkages in the surrounding neighborhoods. Additionally, policy considerations are explored for revitalizing Baltimore’s most vulnerable landscapes. By transforming derelict industrial infrastructure to dynamic socioecological patches and corridors, this work aims to enhance socioecological equity and connectivity.
Negative aspects of Baltimore’s contemporary urban condition such as blight, high vacancy rates, ecological damage, population decline, and other symptoms of shrinking cities are deeply rooted in a complex evolution of social, environmental, and economic management. Current challenges facing Baltimore can be directly linked to a long history, specifically including industrialization and systematic segregation of neighborhoods. As the United States entered a period of stability following the industrial revolution, domestic manufacturing dwindled, causing a once strong workforce population to leave industrial mega-cities such as Baltimore. This population exodus left behind prior workforce housing and industrial infrastructure, much of which now nonessential to Baltimore’s contemporary urban functions.
Housing vacancies and abandoned infrastructure are most noticeable in Baltimore’s predominately minority neighborhoods. Historically marginalized by systematic segregation tactics, “redlined” neighborhoods largely continue to lack sufficient social and economic capital for adaptation to a transformative new era in Baltimore’s history. Disparities in these minority neighborhoods have shown lasting consequences and continue to suffer from financial, social, and ecological neglect.
However, progressive urban planning processes pose significant opportunity for equitable inclusion of historically marginalized urban communities through the introduction of green infrastructure. Because socioecological disparities in Baltimore are incredibly complex, an equally complex solution is necessary to adequately alleviate symptoms of declining cities. Although much research and literature has been cited in systemic solutions aiming to address the totality of these issues, practical implication of these strategies remains limited. This thesis aims to identify primary drivers of socioecological inequity as well as recommend policy and spatial solutions to alleviate symptoms of shrinking cites specific to Baltimore.Master of Urban and Regional Planning
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Baró, Francesc. "Urban Green Infrastructure: Modeling and mapping ecosystem services for sustainable planning and management in and around cities." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/399173.
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En un planeta cada vegada més urbà, moltes ciutats i els seus habitants s'enfronten a múltiples i urgents amenaces dins de les seves fronteres, incloent l'estrès per excés de calor, la contaminació i la creixent desconnexió amb la biosfera. Millorar la sostenibilitat, la resiliència i l'habitabilitat de les àrees urbanes ha de ser per tant un objectiu de importància primordial en l'agenda política, des de les autoritats locals a les globals. L'aplicació del marc de serveis dels ecosistemes, a partir dels conceptes de 'infraestructura verda' i 'solucions basades en la naturalesa', es considera per un creixent nombre de responsables polítics, professionals i científics com el camí a seguir per fer front a molts d'aquests desafiaments urbans. No obstant això, el grau en què la infraestructura verda urbana pot oferir solucions adequades a aquests reptes és rarament considerat en les avaluacions de serveis dels ecosistemes, i per tant la seva potencial contribució és sovint desconeguda per als prenedors de decisions.
Aquesta tesi examina de manera crítica el paper i la contribució de la infraestructura verda per fer front a diversos reptes urbans (amb especial atenció a la contaminació de l'aire, les emissions d'efecte hivernacle, l'estrès per excés de calor i les oportunitats per al lleure a l'aire lliure) a diferents escales territorials. Partint del model de cascada de serveis dels ecosistemes, es proposa i s'aplica un marc operacional a través de quatre capítols d'investigació originals per informar les decisions de planificació i gestió sobre la base de les relacions entre la capacitat de la infraestructura verda per proporcionar serveis dels ecosistemes, la prestació efectiva o l'ús d'aquests serveis (flux), i la quantitat de serveis que demanda la població urbana. La identificació de la demanda insatisfeta, és a dir, el desajust entre el flux de serveis dels ecosistemes i la seva demanda, és un objectiu principal de les avaluacions ja que expressa els límits de la infraestructura verda urbana en relació als reptes considerats. La tesi utilitza i refina una varietat d'enfocaments metodològics per a la modelització i la cartografia de la capacitat, el flux i la demanda de serveis dels ecosistemes urbans (per exemple, les eines ESTIMAP i i-Tree). L'àmbit territorial de la investigació duta a terme dins el marc d'avaluació de la tesi doctoral abasta principalment l'àrea urbana de Barcelona, Espanya, tenint en compte tant l'escala local o de ciutat (municipi de Barcelona) i l'escala metropolitana o regional (regió metropolitana de Barcelona).
Els resultats de la investigació indiquen que la contribució dels serveis ambientals proporcionats per la infraestructura verda urbana per fer front als problemes urbans sovint és limitada (per exemple, el seu impacte sobre la qualitat de l'aire o la mitigació del canvi climàtic és inferior al 3% tenint en compte les emissions totals de carboni i la contaminació de l'aire en tots els estudis de cas) i/o incerta a les escales de ciutat o metropolitana. A més, l'impacte positiu de la infraestructura verda en la qualitat ambiental i el benestar humà es troba generalment limitat per 'perjudicis' ambientals (per exemple, les emissions biogèniques), trade-offs (per exemple, la provisió enfront de la regulació dels serveis) o desajustos espacials entre la provisió i la demanda de serveis (per exemple, les capacitats de purificació de l'aire i de recreació a l'aire lliure de grans blocs d'infraestructura verda metropolitanes estan massa lluny dels llocs de demanda).
Sobre la base d'aquests resultats, s'identifiquen diverses implicacions per a la planificació i gestió urbana/territorial, incloent: (1) la priorització de les polítiques de reducció de la pressions que generen una demanda per determinats serveis dels ecosistemes (per exemple, la purificació de l'aire i la captura de carboni); (2) la combinació d'estratègies de diversitat d'usos en sòl urbà i agrícola per tal d'augmentar la seva resiliència i multifuncionalitat i, al mateix temps, assegurar la conservació de grans àrees periurbanes forestals multifuncionals; (3) el desenvolupament de nous espais verds en els nuclis urbans compactes utilitzant estratègies innovadores (per exemple, cobertes verdes); i (4) la consideració de perjudicis i trade-offs en la planificació i gestió dels serveis dels ecosistemes. Finalment, sostinc que la planificació i gestió de la infraestructura verda urbana requereix un enfocament holístic, tenint en compte tota la gamma de serveis dels ecosistemes potencialment proporcionats pels diferents tipus d'infraestructura verda i les interaccions entre ells, juntament amb les diferents escales espacials a les quals aquests serveis poden ser rellevants per a la resiliència, la sostenibilitat i l'habitabilitat de les zones urbanes. Això exigeix una important coordinació institucional multi-escala i multidisciplinari entre totes les autoritats amb competències en polítiques urbanes i ambientals, així com l'harmonització dels instruments de planificació i gestió en un enfocament de governança a múltiples nivells.In an increasingly urban planet, many cities and their inhabitants are facing multiple pressing threats within their borders, including heat stress, pollution and growing disconnection with the biosphere. Improving sustainability, resilience and livability in urban areas should be thus a major goal on the policy agenda, from local to global authorities. The operationalization of the ecosystem services framework, building on the concepts of ‘green infrastructure’ and ‘nature-based solutions’, is claimed by a mounting number of policy-makers, practitioners and scientists as the way forward to address many of these urban challenges. However, the extent to which urban green infrastructure can offer relevant solutions to these challenges is rarely considered in ecosystem service assessments, and therefore unknown to decision-makers. This dissertation critically examines the role and contribution of green infrastructure to cope with diverse urban challenges (with a focus on air pollution, greenhouse emissions, heat stress and opportunities for outdoor recreation) at different spatial scales. Building on the ecosystem services cascade model, an operational framework is proposed and applied across four original research chapters to inform planning and management decisions on the basis of the relationships between the green infrastructure’s capacity to deliver ecosystem services, the actual provision or use of these services (flow), and the amount of services demanded by the urban population. Identification of unsatisfied demand, i.e., the mismatch between ecosystem service flow and demand, is a main focus of the assessments since it expresses the limits of urban green infrastructure in relation to the considered challenges. The dissertation uses and refines a variety of methodological approaches for modeling and mapping the capacity, flow and demand of urban ecosystem services (e.g., i-Tree and ESTIMAP tools). The spatial scope of the research carried out within the assessment framework of this dissertation principally encompasses the urban area of Barcelona, Spain, considering both the local or city scale (Barcelona municipality) and the metropolitan or regional scale (Barcelona metropolitan region). Results from the research indicate that the contribution of ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure to cope with urban problems is often limited (e.g., its impact on air quality or carbon offsetting was lower than 3% considering total carbon emissions and air pollution in all case studies) and/or uncertain at the city and metropolitan scales. In addition, the positive impact of green infrastructure on environmental quality and human wellbeing is usually challenged by ecosystem disservices (e.g., biogenic emissions), trade-offs (e.g., provisioning versus regulating services) or spatial mismatches between service supply and demand (e.g., air purification and outdoor recreation capacities of large metropolitan green infrastructure blocks are too far from demand sites). On the basis of these findings, several implications for urban/landscape planning, management and decision-making are drawn, including: (1) the prioritization of abatement policies on the pressures generating a demand for certain ecosystem services (e.g., air purification and carbon sequestration); (2) combining land sharing strategies in urban and agricultural land in order to increase their multifunctionality and resilience and, concurrently, assure the conservation of large patches of multifunctional periurban forest areas; (3) development of new green spaces in compact urban cores using innovative strategies (e.g., rooftop gardens); and (4) consideration of ecosystem services trade-offs and disservices in planning and management. Finally, I contend that urban green infrastructure planning and management requires a holistic approach, considering the whole range of ecosystem services potentially provided by different types of green infrastructure and the interactions between them, together with the different spatial scales at which these ecosystem services can be relevant for the resilience, sustainability and livability of urban areas. This calls for a strong multi-scale and multi-disciplinary institutional coordination between all the authorities dealing with urban and environmental policy and for the harmonization of planning and management instruments in a multi-level governance approach.
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Hinds, Kris-An K. "Perceptions of Infrastructure, Flood Management, and Environmental Redevelopment in the University Area, Hillsborough County, Florida." Scholar Commons, 2019. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7810.
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The University Area (UA), a low-income, unincorporated neighborhood in Hillsborough County, Florida, is a site of sustainable redevelopment by the local government and nonprofit organizations. Throughout the past decade, the transitions in local and state political climates have significantly impacted the residents’ ability to advocate for infrastructural and environmental improvement to the site. This thesis discusses the findings of a research project dedicated to exploring resident perspectives of stormwater management, infrastructure, and the redevelopment currently occurring the University Area. Drawing from theoretical concepts in political ecology, environmental justice, and the interplay of agency and structure, this research investigates the impacts of flooding on the UA’s residents and infrastructure; specifically, the ways it affects the population’s interaction with their environment. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach including participant observation; semi structured interviews with residents, developers, and community organization employees; ground truthing the area to verify the location of the stormwater drains present in a selection of the UA; a historical review of the area’s land use; and analysis of critical environmental justice databases. Findings indicate that flooding in the University Area is related to historical oppressive housing strategies against minority and low-income populations. Results found that flooding in UA is caused by a combination of faulty infrastructure (impervious surfaces and a subpar, unmaintained stormwater system), increasing rain events (climate change), and the lack of municipality support (power dynamics). The oppressive power dynamic present in the relationship between the residents and their respective property owners and the county municipality services exacerbates problems with flooding. Redevelopment plans in the University Area must address the effects of historical marginalization and disenfranchisement of the current residents with respect to housing segregation and lack of municipality support. Without these considerations, the cycle of disenfranchisement faced by the current residents of the UA will likely continue and worsen over time.
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Neumann, Wiebke. "Moose Alces alces behaviour related to human activity." Umeå : Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2009. http://epsilon.slu.se/200964.pdf.
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Nieuwoudt, Charne. "Reinventing infrastructure : an urban arena for cultural exchange : amplifying the significance of the disenfranchised apies river island as 'other-place' between city and suburb." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/53335.
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The potential of the Apies River Corridor, and the identified site s relegation to the engineering demands of modernisation, has resulted in layers of water, built fabric, transport and energy infrastructure that presently dissect the site into rigidly controlled, isolated functions. This has consequently led to the loss of the Apies River s recreational and natural presence within the city. Its ecological potential as resource, as well as its enigmatic and symbolic existence, has been straightjacketed into a linear concrete entity. Its historical significance in the establishment and development of the city, as well as its significance as recreational identity, has been rendered anonymous. Fragmented enclaves (deadlock urban situations) have restricted the potential of underutilised, surplus public spaces.
The theoretical premise of this dissertation asserts that the great divide between nature and culture of the modern paradigm, and the consequential development of industrialisation and urbanisation, controlled our cities' natural resources in independent networks of infrastructural systems, to the control, convenience and exploitation of our cultural practices. Implemented as vehicles for political, social and economic agendas, the current isolated implementation of our urban infrastructure are spatially fragmenting the public realm.
The site chosen for the project has been identified as a collection of fragmented surplus sites adrift between the infrastructural edges of the historic Ceremonial Boulevard know as Stanza Bopape Street (formerly Church Street), and the Apies River Corridor; two significant infrastructural entities in the city of Pretoria.
A reinterpretation of our development processes is required, that acknowledges non-human natural systems as agents and acknowledges the constraints of our cultural practices.1 By reimagining existing infrastructure as part of the production of form and space, marginalised urban voids can be regained for innovative design interventions, alternative occupation, and public appropriation. The potential of such a reinvention lies in public space that capitalises on the spatial, material and socio-economic possibilities of infrastructure to increase the area's ecological contribution, and amplify its historical significance through establishing a relationship between Stan Street, the Apies River, the proposed interventions and historical remnants, towards reinstating an enigmatic and recreational experience as well as ecological awareness beyond its infrastructural use.Mini Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2015.
tm2016
Architecture
MArch(Prof)
Unrestricted
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Williams, Joseph. "Tapping the oceans : the political ecology of seawater desalination and the water-energy nexus in Southern California and Baja California." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2017. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/tapping-the-oceans-the-political-ecology-of-seawater-desalination-and-the-waterenergy-nexus-in-southern-california-and-baja-california(58750cb5-0c7c-4cfb-a3bd-8bef8ce21984).html.
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Notions of connectivity and relationality increasingly pervade theories, discourses and practices of environmental governance. Recently, the concept of the 'resource nexus' has emerged as an important new framework that emphasises the interconnections, tensions and synergies between sectors that have traditionally been managed separately. Part of a broader trend towards integrated environmental governance, nexus thinking rests on the premise that the challenges facing water, energy, food and other resources are inexorably connected and contingent. Although presenting itself as a radically new framework, the nexus discourse in current form is techno-managerial in character, profoundly de-politicising, and reinforces neoliberal approaches to environmental governance. At the same time, the 'material turn' in social science research has re-engaged ideas of social, political and material relationality to understand the complexity and heterogeneity of the socio-natural condition in the twenty-first century. Although theoretically and ontologically diverse, the fields of political ecology, assemblage thinking and infrastructure studies all critically interrogate the politics of relationality. Mobilising an urban political ecology framework, and drawing on notions of emergence and distributed agency from assemblage thinking, this research examines the politics of the water-energy nexus through a critical analysis of the extraordinary emergence of seawater desalination as a significant new urban water supply for Southern California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico. Research was conducted in the San Diego-Tijuana metropolitan region, where a large desalting facility has recently been completed to supply San Diego with purified ocean water, and a larger 'binational' facility is planned in Mexico to supply both sides of the border. The research makes three broad contributions. First, to understand desalination as emerging from the historical coproduction and urbanisation of water and energy in the American West. Second, to examine the transitioning environmental politics concomitant with calls for greater understanding of interrelationality. And third, to interrogate the efficacy of technology in reconfiguring the co-constitution of water, energy and society.