Transit trips include four parts: the trip from the front door to the transit stop; the wait at the transit stop for the transit vehicle; the transit ride; and the trip from the transit drop off point to the final destination. This thesis explores methods of improving the pedestrian trips to and from the transit stop and the waiting period at the transit stop. People are not satisfied with their transit trips. People want better quality waiting areas, increased safety, comfortable surroundings, transit information, and convenience during the transit trip. This thesis explores the positive relationship between the quality of public streets and transit facilities, and ridership satisfaction. The thesis proposes that the transit trip can be improved by improving transit waiting areas, and the paths people take arriving at and departing from transit stops. BC Transit's Vancouver Regional Transit System's transit facilities are the focus of the study. Transit facilities include: bus stops, bus loops, bus exchanges, SkyTrain stations, and SeaBus terminals. The study reviews people's attitudes towards transit facilities and discusses the items that people consider important to a transit trip. This review includes a survey conducted by the author and a review of surveys conducted for BC Transit. A review of the literature provides further evidence on the basic requirements for transit facilities and a comparison is made with the local situation. The thesis explores the potential for land use planning, urban design and on-site design to improve the safety, comfort, and convenience of transit facilities. The role of BC Transit, in providing adequate transit facilities, is discussed along with the roles and responsibilities of other associated organizations including: the Province, the Greater Vancouver Regional District, municipal governments located within the Vancouver Region, private enterprise, and business improvement districts. The study concludes BC Transit should give more thought to the transit customer in the design and location of transit facilities. And that municipal governments must take action to improve the quality of streets and transit facilities in their own communities. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

The purpose of this research is twofold - the first objective being to develop Markovian models that can be used to analyze the performance of the various medium access control protocols of slotted ring type local area networks.

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

This thesis had four main objectives: 1) to examine older people's walking experiences in the context of their daily lives; 2) to investigate how key informants, at both neighbourhood and municipal levels, describe the socio-political process of creating walkable neighbourhoods; 3) to examine how neighbourhood SES and urban form may inter-relate to affect older people's walking experiences and; 4) to examine differences among neighbourhood key informant perspectives on the socio-political processes that shape the walkability of neighbourhood environments. Objectives were addressed using a comparative embedded case study design. Four neighbourhoods were purposefully selected to vary on SES and urban form. The study was conducted in three phases. During phase one, interviews and focus groups were conducted with older people in order to describe their walking experiences in these four neighbourhoods. In the second phase, these results provided a platform for interviewing key informants about the municipal and neighbourhood-level socio-political processes of creating walkable neighbourhoods. In the third phase, qualitative data from phases one and two, in combination with publicly available quantitative indicators were compared across neighbourhoods using a matrix strategy consisting of SES and urban form axes. Analysis of phase one qualitative data revealed four themes common to older people's walking experiences: 1) multidimensional personal meanings; 2) navigating hostile walking environments; 3) experiencing ambiguity; and 4) getting around. Five dimensions of the socio-political process of creating walkable neighbourhoods were identified in phase two: 1) political context; 2) access channels; 3) resources; 4) actors and; 5) opportunities. These dimensions and their inter-relationships elucidated insights on how neighbourhoods and municipalities interact on walkability issues. Examining the inter-relationship of neighbourhood SES and urban form characteristics on older people's walking experiences in phase three indicated that urban form differences were accentuated positively in higher SES neighbourhoods and negatively in lower SES neighbourhoods. Key informant descriptions of the socio-political processes indicated that differences in these processes can affect neighbourhood capacity to influence decisions at a municipal level. Together, both sets of findings along with quantitative indicator comparisons provided evidence of inequitable walking environments. This research provides new insights on older people's walking experiences by revealing multi-layered meanings affected by intersecting dimensions of the physical and social environment. The experiences are further understood within a socio-ecologic context. An integration of the study data is presented in a theoretical model, which conceptualizes how dynamic community socio-political structures and processes at the individual, neighbourhood and municipal levels inter-relate to affect the production of neighbourhood walkability. The model also depicts four sets of influences operating at various stages in the cycle of local production, which create different conditions for neighbourhood action and which can lead to inequitable walking conditions. This study signals the need for a fundamental shift in thinking about walkability. It calls upon us to re-examine the notion of walkability as an array of historically-determined built environment characteristics and to consider how walkability is shaped by dynamic socio-political processes that can be challenged and influenced. This research highlights the need for municipal policies that promote walking as a legitimate form of transportation and that guarantee equitable access for older people. Municipal governments must monitor and address differences in walkability that exist between socially advantaged and disadvantaged neighbourhoods, ensuring that walking improvements in one neighbourhood do not exacerbate walking problems in another. These approaches may help to support independent living, particularly among older people who rely on walking for transportation. Future population health interventions must aim to reduce inequitable walking conditions among socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups, and must do so in a way that harnesses the dynamic properties of municipal systems. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Kinskuch Lake area covers a fifty-square mile portion of the Portland Canal district of western British Columbia. Kinskuch Lake lies near the eastern border of the Coast Mountains, approximately twelve miles north of the port of Alice Arm. Reconnaissance mapping of the area on a scale of 1" = 1000’ was done during part of the summer of 1956. Rock specimens collected in the field were examined microscopically and the results of the latter investigation form the greater part of this thesis. The interbedded volcanic and sedimentary rocks of Kinskuch Lake area were deposited during the period of Mesozoic volcanism and sedimentation which was widespread throughout western British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Near Kinskuch Lake, the earliest products of Mesozoic volcanism are represented by augite porphyry volcanic breccias, crystal tuffs, flows and flow breccias outcropping along the western margin of the map area. Augitic volcanics are overlain to the east by interfingering felsitic breccias and tuffs, sedimentary rocks and greenstone. East of Kinskuch Lake, the latter rocks pass gradationally into a thick overlying sequence of felsitic volcanic breccia, crystal tuffs and feldspar porphyry flows. The youngest rocks outcrop near the eastern margin of the map area. Here, argillites and conglomerates overlie felsitic volcanic breccia and interbedded tuff. The Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks were folded, faulted and intruded by keratophyric and lamprophyric dykes. As a last stage in the geological sequence of events, volcanic rocks at the southeast corner of Kinskuch Lake were altered and mineralized. Highly fractured or sheared greenstone and felsitic volcanics were altered to chlorite, pyrite, epidote, sericite quartz and calcite. Minor chalcopyrite mineralization accompanied rock alteration and many small quartz-carbonate veins cut the altered rocks. Some of the latter veins carry pyrite, chalcopyrite and traces of sphalerite and galena. Albitization of some of the igneous rocks outside the altered zone accompanied the widespread carbonate alteration. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

An area coverage control law in cooperation with reinforcement learning techniques is proposed for deploying multiple autonomous agents in a two-dimensional planar area. A scalar field characterizes the risk density in the area to be covered yielding nonuniform distribution of agents while providing optimal coverage. This problem has traditionally been addressed in the literature to date using locational optimization and gradient descent techniques, as well as proportional and proportional-derivative controllers. In most cases, agents' actuator energy required to drive them in optimal configurations in the workspace is not considered. Here the maximum coverage is achieved with minimum actuator energy required by each agent. Similar to existing coverage control techniques, the proposed algorithm takes into consideration time-varying risk density. These density functions represent the probability of an event occurring (e.g., the presence of an intruding target) at a certain location or point in the workspace indicating where the agents should be located. To this end, a coverage control algorithm using reinforcement learning that moves the team of mobile agents so as to provide optimal coverage given the density functions as they evolve over time is being proposed. Area coverage is modeled using Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) governed by agents. Based on [1,2] and [3], the application of Centroidal Voronoi tessellation is extended to a dynamic changing harbour-like environment. The proposed multi-agent area coverage control law in conjunction with reinforcement learning techniques is implemented in a distributed manner whereby the multi-agent team only need to access information from adjacent agents while simultaneously providing dynamic target surveillance for single and multiple targets and feedback control of the environment. This distributed approach describes how automatic flocking behaviour of a team of mobile agents can be achieved by leveraging the geometrical properties of centroidal Voronoi tessellation in area coverage control while enabling multiple targets tracking without the need of consensus between individual agents. Agent deployment using a time-varying density model is being introduced which is a function of the position of some unknown targets in the environment. A nonlinear derivative of the error coverage function is formulated based on the single-integrator agent dynamics. The agent, aware of its local coverage control condition, learns a value function online while leveraging the same from its neighbours. Moreover, a novel computational adaptive optimal control methodology based on work by [4] is proposed that employs the approximate dynamic programming technique online to iteratively solve the algebraic Riccati equation with completely unknown system dynamics as a solution to linear quadratic regulator problem. Furthermore, an online tuning adaptive optimal control algorithm is implemented using an actor-critic neural network recursive least-squares solution framework. The work in this thesis illustrates that reinforcement learning-based techniques can be successfully applied to non-uniform coverage control. Research combining non-uniform coverage control with reinforcement learning techniques is still at an embryonic stage and several limitations exist. Theoretical results are benchmarked and validated with related works in area coverage control through a set of computer simulations where multiple agents are able to deploy themselves, thus paving the way for efficient distributed Voronoi coverage control problems.

The Dellwood Seamount Area, an area of approximately 10,000 square km., about 185 km. west of the northern tip of Vancouver Island is located at or near the northernmost end of the Juan de Fuca plate. The main purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that the Dellwood Knolls mark the site of a short spreading segment connected to the Explorer Spreading Segment at one end by a transform fault trending along the southwestern slope of Paul Revere Ridge; and meeting the Queen Charlotte right lateral transform fault at the other end. An analysis of more than 950 km. of continuous seismic reflection profiles, in conjunction with other geophysical data, shows that (i) the Revere -Dellwood fault zone is a dextral transform fault zone connecting the Explorer and Dellwood spreading segments. (ii) The Queen Charlotte transform fault dies out at the southeastern end of the Scott Channel near the northeastern end of the Dellwood Spreading Segment. (iii) In the channel between the Dellwood Knolls (one of two possible locations of the Dellwood Spreading Segment), the sediments and volcanic basement are cut by normal faults, a feature which is characteristic of spreading centres with median valleys. The heat flow in this channel and in the Revere - Dellwood fault zone is high. (iv) The lower continental slope sediments west of Queen Charlotte Sound is faulted and crumpled and may be the northerly extension of the Scott Islands fault, zone and a site of slow contemporaneous or recently ceased subduction. The deformation of the thick turbidite sequence in the Winona Basin may also be due to subduction. Basalt from the area is chemically intermediate between tholeiitic and alkalic types. That from the Northwest Dellwood Knolls, however, is least differentiated and less than 1 myr. old in contrast to basalt from the sediment-draped Southeast Dellwood Knolls, the latter basalt having Mn-coating up to 50 mm. thick and is thus relatively old. This suggests that spreading may be occurring at the Northwest Dellwood Knolls and not in the channel between the knolls. The texture of basalts from the Dellwood Seamount Range vary depending on size of pillow and depth below pillow surface, but the mineralogy is essentially similar. An unusual rock probably best described as a plagio-clase-olivine basalt porphyry was also recovered from the Dellwood Seamount Range. Non-volcanic rocks recovered include glacial erratics, an authigenic sandstone comprising glacial fragments in an iron-rich cement, a laminated limonitic sediment and manganese nodules. The Dellwood Spreading Segment may have originated by left lateral transcurrent offset from the Explorer Spreading Segment, the offset caused by a change in the direction of motion of the Juan de Fuca plate. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

This thesis presents a conceptual framework within which a geography of wholesaling may be pursued and illustrates it in terms of a case study carried out in Vancouver, British Columbia. In particular the research draws attention to the significance of the locative decision, and the institutional framework within which it is made in accounting for the distribution of wholesaling activity. The essence of the wholesaling function is that, in contrast to retailing, it consists of business transactions with other than ultimate consumers. The wholesaler typically serves as a break of bulk and regrouping point to which goods are shipped in bulk, and from which they are distributed in order lots as required by the customer. The relevant body of substantive theory was examined with a view to generating explanatory hypotheses for the distribution of wholesale grocers in Metropolitan Vancouver. In essence this literature postulated that distribution centres such as wholesale grocers, ceteris paribus, tend to locate at the point of minimum cost of distribution and maximum accessibility to their markets. A reconnaissance of the case area suggested, however, that a number of "distorting" factors were important in an adequate interpretation of the pattern. A more complex research orientation seemed to be required. Accordingly the locational pattern of the wholesale grocers in Metropolitan Vancouver was considered as the net resultant of the locative decisions of its constituent entrepreneurs. The institutional framework of the industry in Metropolitan Vancouver was considered as the context of the locator's decision. The function, technology, market structure and control aspects were studied and a number of relevant locational factors isolated. It was found that entrepreneurs can, and do, evaluate and rank site factors in terms of their long run business objectives. Where their location is, in their view, inadequately serviced, especially vis-a-vis other sites, they will express dis-satisfaction. When dis-satisfaction is strong enough the locator will move to a new and, to him, more appropriate site. It was concluded that Vancouver's role as a distribution centre for wholesale grocers was secure. Within the Metropolitan area, however, the locational pattern of wholesale grocers was in flux. It was concluded that the downtown area was, and would continue to be at a disadvantage to more peripheral areas as a local for wholesale grocery establishments. Further, those firms which had maintained downtown locations were those dealing in specialised merchandise with a high value to volume ratio; those whose sales volumes did not require large sites; those which had a specific market or other over-riding locational factor (e.g. lack of capital) influencing the choice of a downtown site. Firms which had moved to more peripheral sites tended to be larger companies requiring large areas of floor space, free flowing highway conditions, or were dealing in nationally known branded goods where proximity to a downtown market was not vital. The conclusions formed in this study are valid only for the industry, the area and the time period under consideration. It remains for further studies of grocery wholesaling to be made at other times and places to test their general applicability. It is hoped, however, that the conceptual framework within which the study was conducted and the research techniques which were utilised will provide a methodological orientation universally suitable for the development of a geography of wholesaling whose empirically derived principles will form a segment of a unifying theory for economic geography. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

An area of some 400 square miles between Hope, B.C. and the 49th parallel, covering part of the northern Cascades and southern Coast Mountains, was investigated with the purpose of determining the origin and history of the plutonic rocks. Five separate plutonic complexes, which range in age from Late Cretaceous to Miocene, underlie the area. The oldest complex investigated, the Late Cretaceous Spuzzum Intrusions (103-79 M.Y.) emplaced in the catazone-Mesozone, consists of two phases: diorite and tonalite. The older of the two, the diorite, is a zoned intrusion which occupies the central part of the batholith. Sheared sills and stocks belonging to the early Tertiary Yale Intrusions (59-35 M.Y.) comprise the second oldest complex. These bodies crop out in a narrow belt that separates high grade metamorphic rocks of the Custer-Skagit Gneiss from the low grade metamorphic rocks of the Hozameen Group. The Early Oligocene Silver Creek Stock (35 M.Y.) represents the oldest of three epizonal complexes. The epizonal Chilliwack Batholith (29-26 M.Y.) is composed of seven intrusive phases which range in composition from hypersthene-augite diorite to aplitic alaskite. Each of the phases of this batholith appears to have been emplaced in a pulse from an underlying, differentiating magma that was rising through the crust. The youngest complex, the Mount Barr Batholith (21-16 M.Y.) is composed of four intrusive phases, each of which appears also to nave been emplaced in a pulse from an underlying magma. One of the phases of this batholith is in the form of a 3000-foot-thick sill-like body. These three epizonal plutons appear to be related to the north-trending Cascade volcanic-plutonic province, which overlaps the northwest-trending Coast Crystalline Complex, here represented by the Spuzzum and Yale Intrusions. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate