Karst topography is the result of a specific combination of geological conditions, precipitation, biota, and temperature, and is characterized by the gradual solution of the underlying bedrock and the development of underground drainage routes for surficial runoff. Many of these karst landscapes are found in urbanized areas, where the potential for anthropogenic impact is quite high. In many instances, municipalities on karst terrains choose to mitigate these impacts by implementing ordinances that place restrictions on permissible land uses near karst landforms. This dissertation asks the question: are the impacts of karst-related land use regulation on human / social systems significant enough to merit consideration during the regulation writing and implementation process? In the process of answering this question, it is hoped that a broader understanding will be developed of how land use regulations are used to control and regulate human activity on karst lands, particularly (but not exclusively) in the United States; and that the conclusions drawn from that overview might serve as the beginnings of a generally applicable framework for the development of karst regulation.

Connectivity is a major contributor to the overall dynamics of marine populations. However, it still remains challenging to describe connectivity on ecologically meaningful scales of time and space. This is a major impediment to evaluating the impacts of marine protected area with respect to fisheries management objectives. This dissertation brings together a wide array of spatial and connectivity information in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) with the goal of 1) understanding the spatial distribution of fish populations and source-sink dynamics and 2) evaluating whether this information can be integrated, through a modeling framework, to identify closed areas that could be beneficial to fisheries management in the Gulf of Mexico. First, a generalized additive modelling (GAM) approach is used to describe the distribution of a large number of species groups (i.e. functional groups) across the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) using a large fisheries independent data set (SEAMAP) and climate scale (decades) oceanographic conditions. Next a numerical Lagrangian particle transport model was developed that incorporates two major connectivity processes; site specific larval production and oceanographic transport for an entire large marine ecosystem and over multiple years. The two components are then combined to develop larval dispersal patterns for the entire GOM and identify areas operating as larval sources and sinks. Last, this information is integrated into an end-to-end ecosystem model to evaluate effectiveness of closing source and sink areas for the management of reef fish fisheries. Closed area managemeny simlautions for reef fish indicated closing reef fish source areas, as opposed to sinks, in the GOM is most efficient method of increasing total biomass and yield. However, the impacts across individual functional groups were site specific. Ultimately, these simulations demonstrate the inclusion of connectivity information could improve fishery management objectives in an ecosystem context.

This thesis has endeavoured to enhance the knowledge and effectiveness of integrated conservation and development projects (ICDPs) as a model for the management of conservation areas and the buffer zones to national parks and reserves in Nepal. ICDPs evolved as it was recognised that the Western model of protected natural area management imposed costs on poor rural communities in developing countries and often failed to achieve nature conservation objectives. The ICDP concept was questioned when, after many years of mostly development effort in several developing countries, ICDPs did not provide an appropriate contribution to nature conservation. An ICDP in Nepal that provided considerable benefit to local people and greatly enhanced nature conservation is provided to establish that the ICDP concept is valid. The question that initiated this research was why some ICDPs fail to contribute to nature conservation while others are successful. The ICDP process is based on the assumption that the welfare of people who rely on resources from within protected natural areas is central to the pursuit of nature conservation and has priority in that nature conservation objectives can only be achieved where the wellbeing of local people and their access to the resources they require has been assured. The establishment of a nature conservation estate in developing countries is both an ecological problem and a social problem. The social problem is one of poverty. ICDPs in Nepal’s protected natural areas have been studied using qualitative research methods and a contextual constructionist approach that is central to the study of social problems. The evidence suggests that ICDP agencies have accepted assumptions that sustainable development and poverty alleviation will lead to the conservation of biodiversity. This thesis argues that sustainable resource use can not ensure the conservation of biodiversity yet paradoxically the sustainable use of resources in one place may lead to biodiversity conservation in more remote places where human impact is minimal. The variables associated with different settings are such that the outcomes of interventions designed to achieve ICDP objectives are not always predictable. The research suggests that assumptions about the outcomes of interventions should be treated with caution. Monitoring interventions can help ensure the desired outcomes are achieved but ICDP intervention monitoring in Nepal has been neglected. Numerous reports and evaluations detail input and effort rather than outcomes. The results include a recommendation to apply the principles of action research and adoption of a structured process for monitoring and evaluation of progress towards clearly stated objectives for the project and for individual interventions. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Virtually all marine conservation planning and management models in place or proposed have in common the need for improved scientific rigour in identifying and characterising the marine habitats encompassed. An emerging central theme in the last few years has been the concept of representativeness, or representative systems of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The habitat classification and mapping needed to incorporate considerations of representativeness into MPA planning must logically be carried out at the same scale at which management occurs. Management of highly protected areas occurs almost exclusively at local scales or finer, independent of the reservation model or philosophy employed. Moreton Bay, on Australia’s east coast, was selected for studies at the local scale to map and classify macrobenthic habitats. In a site scale (1 km) trial for the major habitat classification study, remote underwater videography was used to map and characterise an unusual assemblage of epibenthic invertebrates on soft sediments. The assemblage included congregations of the comatulid crinoid Zygometra cf. Z. microdiscus (Bell) at densities up to 0.88 individuals.m-2, comparable to those found in coral reef habitats. There was no correlation between the distribution of this species and commonly used abiotic surrogates depth (6 – 18 m), sediment composition and residual current. This site scale trial is the first quantitative assessment of crinoid density and distribution in shallow water soft-sediment environments. The high densities found are significant in terms of the generally accepted picture of shallow-water crinoids as essentially reefal fauna. The findings highlight the conservation benefits of an inclusive approach to marine habitat survey and mapping. Assemblages such as the one described, although they may be of scientific and ecological significance, would have been overlooked by common approaches to marine conservation planning which emphasise highly productive or aesthetically appealing habitats. Most habitat mapping studies rely solely or in part on abiotic surrogates for patterns of biodiversity. The utility of abiotic variables in predicting biological distributions at the local scale (10 km) was tested. Habitat classifications of the same set of 41 sites based on 6 abiotic variables and abundances of 89 taxa and bioturbation indicators were compared using correlation, regression and ordination analyses. The concepts of false homogeneity and false heterogeneity were defined to describe types of errors associated with using abiotic surrogates to construct habitat maps. The best prediction by abiotic surrogates explained less than 30% of the pattern of biological similarity. Errors of false homogeneity were between 20 and 62%, depending on the methods of estimation. Predictive capability of abiotic surrogates at the taxon level was poor, with only 6% of taxon / surrogate correlations significant. These results have implications for the widespread use of abiotic surrogates in marine habitat mapping to plan for, or assess, representation in Marine Protected Areas. Abiotic factors did not discriminate sufficiently between different soft bottom communities to be a reliable basis for mapping. Habitat mapping for the design of Marine Protected Areas is critically affected by the scale of the source information. The relationship between biological similarity of macrobenthos and the distance between sites was investigated at both site and local scales, and for separate biotic groups. There was a significant negative correlation between similarity and distance, in that sites further apart were less similar than sites close together. The relationship, although significant, was quite weak at the site scale. Rank correlograms showed that similarity was high at scales of 10 km or less, and declined markedly with increasing distance. There was evidence of patchiness in the distributions of some biotic groups, especially seagrass and anthozoans, at scales less than 16 km. In other biotic groups there was an essentially monotonic decline in similarity with distance. The spatial agglomeration approach to habitat mapping was valid in the study area. Site spacing of less than 10 km was necessary to capture important components of biological similarity. Site spacing of less than 2.5 km did not appear to be warranted. Macrobenthic habitat types were classified and mapped at 78 sites spaced 5 km apart. The area mapped was about 2,400 km2 and extended from estuarine shallow subtidal waters to offshore areas to the 50 m isobath. Nine habitat types were recognised, with only one on hard substrate. The habitat mapping characterised several habitat types not previously described in the area and located deepwater algal and soft coral reefs not previously reported. Seagrass beds were encountered in several locations where their occurrence was either unknown or had not previously been quantified. The representation of the derived habitat types within an existing marine protected area was assessed. Only two habitat types were represented in highly protected zones, with less than 3% of each included The study represents the most spatially comprehensive survey of epibenthos undertaken in Moreton Bay, with over 40,000 m2 surveyed. Derived habitat maps provide a robust basis for inclusion of representative examples of all habitat types in marine protected area planning in and adjacent to Moreton Bay. The utility of video data to conduct a low-cost habitat survey over a comparatively large area was also demonstrated. The method used has potentially wide application for the survey and design of marine protected areas.

<p>Structured products are investment vehicles that combine basic financial instruments to provide private investors with packaged solutions to more advanced investment strategies in financial markets.</p><p>This paper investigates the pricing of 22 index-linked notes examined during their full life cycles between January 12, 2005 and January 17, 2007. The selected products constitute some 40% of the structured products issued by Swedbank in 2005, which at the time of the study is the second largest issuer of structured products to private investors in Sweden. Quoted prices on secondary markets are compared with duplication strategies using exchange traded options in order to calculate price differences.</p><p>The pricing results show that quoted prices deviate very little from their theoretical values in secondary markets. The price deviations are surprisingly low in an international comparison. Some indications have been found that the market maker is able to influence prices on secondary market by orienting the pricing towards the relative life cycle and moneyness of the structured products.</p><p>The importance of patterns in price deviations can, however, be questioned since the absolute level of pricing errors is low. There is little evidence to suspect that the issuer, Swedbank, systematically quotes prices that are not in line with their theoretical values. Sophisticated investors are thus likely to be able to judge the attractiveness of the structured product issue by comparing the transaction costs of the instruments in a duplication strategy with the transaction costs of the structured product. The author welcomes further research that includes multiple issuers to determine whether these findings apply for the Swedish market as a whole.</p>

The goal of this research was to develop statistically robust ecosystem-based approaches, while optimizing data acquisition on relatively unexploited fish species in South Florida reefs, i.e., parrotfishes, Family Scaridae, in Biscayne Bay (with seasonal roller frame beam trawl surveys, 1996-2000) and Florida Keys (with annual Reef Fish Visual Censuses, 1997-2001), by following these steps: (I) analysis of information gaps for the stocks, including systematics, biogeography, population dynamics, reproductive ecology, trophodynamics, habitat use, and fisheries dynamics of Western Atlantic parrotfishes; (II) determination of primary research objectives from prioritization in Step I; (III) determination of essential fish habitats, ontogenetic shifts, migrations, and reef-seagrass habitat, from integration of stratified sampling design for fisheries-independent surveys, habitat selection theory-based analyses, and length-based analyses; (IV) estimation of population dynamics and fisheries-specific parameters encompassing life history demographics from empirical data or comparisons to theoretical expectations adapted to local conditions; (V) simulation modeling of a realistic range of fishing scenarios and demographic characteristics to evaluate the efficacy of potential traditional fisheries and spatial management strategies; and (VI) application of sampling optimization procedures and fisheries ecology approaches. Four scarid species had an estimated combined abundance of ca. 36.8 x 106 individuals in the Florida Keys. Connectivity among seagrass beds, coral reefs and deep waters had three major patterns: seagrass dwellers, reef dwellers, with inshore-to-offshore ontogenetic , and a seagrass-reef connection, using Biscayne Bay as an important recruitment ground. Marine protected areas of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary did not show effects on abundance, size composition or spatial distribution of any parrotfish studied. Simulations suggested relatively short longevities (5-10 years), moderate body growth curvature, high instantaneous natural mortality rates (0.3-0.6 y super minus one), and low annual survival rates (27-54%). Simulated estimates of fishing mortalities ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 y super minus one, indicating low levels of exploitation, but low Spawning Potential Ratios (SPR = 23.5-26%). Proposed potential exploitation based on a legal minimum size equal to their size at first maturity and fishing rates equal or below to their natural mortality should secure SPR values at 45-48%.

Movement patterns and space use by mature fishes are critical in determining the effectiveness of marine reserves in conserving spawning stock biomass and/or providing biomass to adjacent fisheries through 'spillover'. Home range sizes, activity patterns, site fidelity and habitat preferences were determined for acoustically-tagged snappers and groupers using a rigorously-calibrated array of omnidirectional hydroacoustic receivers deployed in the diverse coral reef environments of a no-take marine reserve (NTMR) network in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. An individual-based localizing tendency model of reef fish movement was parameterized from fine-scale acoustic telemetry data and integrated into a Spatial Management Performance Assessment (SMPA) simulation model for reef fish populations developed to quantitatively evaluate performance of no-take marine reserves in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Spatially-explicit SMPA models were parameterized for three overfished stocks in the lucrative snapper-grouper fishery: red grouper (Epinephelus morio), black grouper (Mycteroperca bonaci), and mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis). SMPA models were used to evaluate the impacts of a variety of life histories, movement strategies and speeds, and management regulations upon long-term stock sustainability, as measured by annual changes in spawning potential ratio (SPR), and long-term stock productivity, as measured by annual changes in fisheries yield-in-weight per recruit (Yw/R). Under assumptions of constant regional fishing pressure, constant recruitment, and 'realistic' fish movement, SMPA simulation runs from initial conditions in 2000 suggested that by 2014, the Tortugas NTMR network should function to restore red grouper populations to 30% SPR, a Federal management benchmark for sustainability. Mutton snapper were the most mobile of the species investigated; if mutton snapper movements are ignored, their population is predicted to attain 30% SPR by 2014, but given 'realistic' mobility, they may not attain this target by 2021 without additional protections. Black grouper are currently fished at over 9 times sustainable levels. SMPA simulations suggest coupling an increase in minimum size at capture of 20 - 25 cm with NTMR implementation would result in substantial short term losses in yield, but would restore both black grouper and mutton snapper populations to 30% SPR by 2021 and lead to increased long-term yields. Although marine reserve sites are often chosen opportunistically, these findings strongly suggest that reserve designs (e.g. proper sizes and configurations) must take into account the scales and patterns of movement exhibited by the exploited stocks they are intended to protect. These modeling efforts also suggested reserves are not a panacea; in order to promote sustainability for severely depleted stocks, they must be accompanied by an overall reduction in fishing capacity. Although important questions remain concerning the movements of reef fish in response to habitat and density dependent processes, our analyses of realistic reef fish behaviors suggest that the NTMRs of the Dry Tortugas promote substantial gains in SPR, promoting long-term stock sustainability and enhanced egg production. Increased rates of movement diminish these benefits, but may also mitigate short-term losses in yield associated with NTMR establishment.

The shared memory systems should support parallelization at the computation (multi-core), communication (Network-on-Chip, NoC) and memory architecture levels to exploit the potential performance benefits. These parallel systems supporting shared memory abstraction both in the general purpose and application specific domains are confronting the critical issue of memory consistency. The memory consistency issue arises due to the unconstrained memory operations which leads to the unexpected behavior of shared memory systems. The memory consistency models enforce ordering constraints on the memory operations for the expected behavior of the shared memory systems. The intuitive Sequential Consistency (SC) model enforces strict ordering constraints on the memory operations and does not take advantage of the system optimizations both in the hardware and software. Alternatively, the relaxed memory consistency models relax the ordering constraints on the memory operations and exploit these optimizations to enhance the system performance at the reasonable cost. The purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, the novel architecture supports are provided for the different memory consistency models like: SC, Total Store Ordering (TSO), Partial Store Ordering (PSO), Weak Consistency (WC), Release Consistency (RC) and Protected Release Consistency (PRC) in the NoC-based multi-core (McNoC) systems. The PRC model is proposed as an extension of the RC model which provides additional reordering and relaxation in the memory operations. Second, the scalability analysis of these memory consistency models is performed in the McNoC systems. The architecture supports for these different memory consistency models are provided in the McNoC platforms. Each configurable McNoC platform uses a packet-switched 2-D mesh NoC with deflection routing policy, distributed shared memory (DSM), distributed locks and customized processor interface. The memory consistency models/protocols are implemented in the customized processor interfaces which are developed to integrate the processors with the rest of the system. The realization schemes for the memory consistency models are based on a transaction counter and an an an address ddress ddress ddress ddress ddress ddress stack tacktack-based based based based based based novel approaches.approaches.approaches.approaches. approaches.approaches.approaches.approaches.approaches.approaches. The transaction counter is used in each node of the network to keep track of the outstanding memory operations issued by a processor in the system. The address stack is used in each node of the network to keep track of the addresses of the outstanding memory operations issued by a processor in the system. These hardware structures are used in the processor interface to enforce the required global orders under these different memory consistency models. The realization scheme of the PRC model in addition also uses acquire counter for further classification of the data operations as unprotected and protected operations. The scalability analysis of these different memory consistency models is performed on the basis of different workloads which are developed and mapped on the various sized networks. The scalability study is conducted in the McNoC systems with 1 to 64-cores with various applications using different problem sizes and traffic patterns. The performance metrics like execution time, performance, speedup, overhead and efficiency are evaluated as a function of the network size. The experiments are conducted both with the synthetic and application workloads. The experimental results under different application workloads show that the average execution time under the relaxed memory consistency models decreases relative to the SC model. The specific numbers are highly sensitive to the application and depend on how well it matches to the architectures. This study shows the performance improvement under the relaxed memory consistency models over the SC model that is dependent on the computation-to-communication ratio, traffic patterns, data-to-synchronization ratio and the problem size. The performance improvement of the PRC and RC models over the SC model tends to be higher than 50% as observed in the experiments, when the system is further scaled up. / <p>QC 20130204</p>

Using ethnomethodology and influenced by ethnography, the purpose of this research has been to explore the meanings that elder residents in and around Hafford, SK and Val Marie, SK derive from their relationship with and confer upon their cultural landscapes. Hence, for a month and a half, I lived in Hafford and then Val Marie in order to speak with elder residents (age 60 or over) who have lived and worked in or around these areas for at least twenty years.<p>The meanings of elder residents hinge on their memories of growing up and making a living when younger. Their meanings also resonate with the ideas and perspectives that these individuals have formed regarding the changes in their cultural landscape. Changes include those to agriculture; service provision; and the formation of the Grasslands National Park for which Val Marie is the gateway community and Redberry Lake Biosphere Reserve in which Hafford is located. <p>The broad themes of connections, separation, and continuity that I distilled in the narratives of elder residents have guided the identification of the meanings. To this end, the cultural landscape concept has provided an ideal framework. Including the different and diverse meanings of elder residents is integral to our conception of the cultural landscape as a whole, a characteristic that assists in guiding change and development in these communities. <p>In particular, elder residents contribute to an ethical landscape infused with meanings engendered by sentiments of connections, separation, and continuity and ones that hearken to their ethics. Such meanings can have a substantive impact on the decisions influencing these areas. Furthermore, as part of intangible cultural heritage, elder residents offer the meanings they have forged as well as their ethics, the ongoing result of having lived and worked in their cultural landscape. <p>This research has helped to bring relief to the meanings of elder residents in Hafford and Val Marie. Such meanings are necessary in the overall identity of the cultural landscape. The meanings that elder residents derive from their cultural landscape are a valuable asset for communities seeking to maintain their social and economic viability and sustainability.

This dissertation comprises four chapters. The unifying theme is the evaluation of environmental programs. Specifically, each chapter examines some facet of the impacts of protected areas. The first chapter examines the heterogeneous environmental and economic impacts of protected areas in Costa Rica. Previous studies suggest that Costa Rica's protected area system induced both reduced deforestation and alleviated poverty. We demonstrate that these environmental and social impacts were spatially heterogeneous. Importantly, the characteristics associated with the most avoided deforestation are the characteristics associated with the least poverty alleviation. In other words, the same characteristics that have limited the conservation effectiveness of protected areas may have improved the social welfare impacts of these areas. These results suggest that `win-win' efforts to protect ecosystems and alleviate poverty may be possible when policymakers are satisfied with low levels of each outcome, but tradeoffs exist when more of either outcome is desired. The second chapter explores in more detail the heterogeneous impacts of protected areas in Costa Rica and Thailand. In particular we investigate the potential for protected areas to act as a mechanism for poverty traps and use semiparametric models to identify the spatial congruence of environmental and economic outcomes. We find no evidence that protected areas trap historically poorer areas in poverty. In fact, we find that poorer areas at baseline appear to have the greatest levels of poverty reduction as a result of protection. However, we do find that the spatial characteristics associated with the most poverty alleviation are not necessarily the characteristics associated with the most avoided deforestation. We demonstrate how an understanding of these spatially heterogeneous responses to protection can be used to generate suitability maps that identify locations in which both environmental and poverty alleviation goals are most likely to be achieved. In the third chapter we address the mechanisms through which protected areas affect economic outcomes. Using recently developed quasi-experimental methods and rich biophysical and demographic data, we quantify the causal post-treatment mechanism impacts of tourism, infrastructure development and ecosystem services on poverty, due to the establishment of protected areas in Costa Rica prior to 1980. We find that nearly 50% of the poverty reduction estimated in a previous study can be attributed to tourism. In addition, although the mechanism estimates for the infrastructure and ecosystem services proxies are negligible, we argue that the results provide evidence that enhanced ecosystem services from the establishment of protected areas has likely helped to reduce poverty. The results provide additional information to policy makers that wish to enhance the future establishment of protected areas with complementary policy. The final chapter studies the economic impacts of protected areas in Bolivia. We find that municipalities with at least 10% of their area occupied by a protected area between 1992 and 2000 exhibited differentially greater levels of poverty reduction between 1992 and 2001 compared to similar municipalities unaffected by protected areas. We find that the results are robust to a number of econometric specifications, spillover analyses and a placebo study. Although the overarching results that Bolivia's protected areas were associated with poverty reduction are similar to previous studies , the underlying results are subtly, but significantly, different. In previous studies it was found that controlling for key observable covariates lead to fundamentally antithetical results compared to naive estimates. Conversely, these results indicate that naive estimates lead to an over-estimation of the poverty reducing impacts of protected areas. The results expose the heterogeneity of protected area impacts across countries and, therefore, underscore the importance of country-level impact evaluations in order to build the global knowledge base regarding the socioeconomic impacts of protected areas.