Increasing consumption and transportation gears the use of transport utilities which cause environmental effects over the globe. Environmental performance of three different types of pallets such as Re-load, plastic and corrugated fibreboard pallets are evaluated in this project. LCA tool is used to assess and compare their environmental performance in all phase of their life cycle but more focusing on end of life phase.   This study gives more emphasis to waste treatment options such as incineration, landfilling and recycling. Three different end of life scenarios have been used in this study such as 100% incineration, 100% landfilling and 100% recycling.   This study includes results of all the phases of all three types of pallets which are analysed in this report. More detailed results could be seen in excel sheets. Results of impact analysis tells that landfilling contributes to 14793 Kg CO2 of global warming potential in case of corrugated pallets. Incineration contributes to 12148.6 Kg CO2 of global warming potential. Recycling contributes to 7136 Kg CO2 of global warming. Re-load pallets show the major contribution of global warming is from landfilling approx 813.2 Kg CO2 of global warming potential. Recycling and incineration contribute to 438 Kg CO2 and 726.7 Kg CO2 of global warming potential respectively. In plastic case incineration contributes the most to global warming approximate 1183.8 Kg CO2 of global warming potential. Landfilling and recycling contribute almost the same approximate 932.6 Kg CO2 of global warming potential and 924.5 Kg CO2 of global warming potential respectively. Acidification impact show corrugated pallets cause high emissions when they are treat with landfilling and give negative values of incineration. In Eutriphication impact corrugated pallets are considered better in a sence they are inbetween 150 and 100 kg of PO-4. Re-load pallets give the least values when they are applied to different end of life scenarios.   According to the results recycling could be replace other waste treatment options because of less impact through out the end of life. Secondly, Reload pallets represent a environmental friendly product which can be improved more after this study. Lack of LCI data is the major problem in this study because it is not easily accessible and it is very time consuming part of this study. Results might be different if more data is available.   This study can be helpful for further study, for instance more replaceable scenarios will show different results for all three types of pallets. Moreover, it helps to compare more pallet types which are already in the market or propose to come in the market.

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This study integrated and applied effective communication concepts to highlight landscape as both medium and method to improve land use decisions, in the face of uncertainty, such as that posed by global climate change. Grounded theory guided the emergence of a communication model to illustrate impacts of land use scenarios in a study area. Scenarios incorporated socioeconomic trends and biophysical data, including localized climate projections and relevant audience traits assumed from prior assessments. Scenario implications were analyzed by comparing their ecological service values; the communication model’s effectiveness was evaluated against principles derived from the literature. Results suggest that a communication framework grounded in landscape can improve comprehension of environmental and human needs; however, further testing is needed. This framework can help enable broader landscape understanding through shared experience and engagement. Enhancing communication channels in this way is required as increasingly complex environmental problems demand more collaborative and communal solutions. / Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation

We derive no-arbitrage bounds for expected excess returns to generate scenarios used in financial applications. The bounds allow to distinguish three regions: one where arbitrage opportunities will never exist, a second where arbitrage may be present, and a third, where arbitrage opportunities will always exist. No-arbitrage bounds are derived in closed form for a given covariance matrix using the least possible number of scenarios. Empirical examples illustrate the practical potential of knowing these bounds. (authors' abstract)

No description available.

No description available.

Because water is not equitably distributed in time and place, in the right quantity with the adequate quality, water planning and management is used to redistribute the resource in such a way that tries to satisfy the necessities of water users, including the environment. Policies are proposed to improve the water management, however, selecting the best alternative can be difficult when tradeoffs among alternatives improve certain aspects of the planning and management and worsen others. This research establishes a methodology to evaluate water management policies in order to clearly and systematically identify policies that improve the water management. First, each water user, system or environmental requirement are evaluated using performance criteria. Second, performance criteria are summarized using the Sustainability Index. Finally, individual Sustainability Indices are grouped using the Sustainability by Group Index. The Sustainability by Group Index makes it possible to compare groups of water users and regions at a glance. This methodology has been successfully applied in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin, a transboundary basin between the United States and Mexico. A set of scenarios was defined by water users, authorities and environmental organizations of the basin from both countries. A water resources planning model was constructed to represent the water management of the basin. The model was used to evaluate several scenarios and the benefits or damages that each policy provides. Two winning scenarios (called Meta-scenarios) that improve the management for water users, the environment and international treaty obligations were identified. Meta-scenario A is an immediate action scenario that includes: buyback of water rights, improvement in irrigation infrastructure, water demand reduction for irrigation districts in Mexico and the US, groundwater banking and the inclusion of environmental flows. Meta-scenario B is a short term scenario that includes the policies of Meta-scenario A plus expanded buyback of water rights, additional improvements in infrastructure and sharing of water savings between farmers in the US and Mexico. Results have been presented to decision makers and water users in both countries who will ultimately decide if they should implement the suggested policies. Most importantly, some alternative policies are now known that can help to improve the water management in the basin, for whom and where. / text

The United Kingdom has committed itself to ambitious and legally-binding Greenhouse Gas emission reduction, and renewable energy contribution targets. Energy production from biomass is expected to play a significant role in achieving these targets. The PhD Research Project as presented in this Thesis provides an analysis of the UK’s indigenous biomass resources, and the potential they offer in servicing domestic bioenergy requirements. The biomass resource supply chain dynamics within the UK, govern the availability of these indigenous resources. By modelling these supply chain dynamics, an assessment has been undertaken; the principle aim of which was to evaluate the potential contribution that indigenous biomass resources can make towards the UK’s future energy mix. This Research finds that the United Kingdom has considerable indigenous biomass resources that could potentially be made available, if the UK were able to develop its supply chains to appropriately mobilise these resources. However, the specific demands and the direction of development of the UK’s future bioenergy sector, as driven by the UK Government’s current strategies and policies; demonstrate degrees of incompatibility with the forecast potential of biomass resource availability. The consequence of this disparity is likely to result in rising biomass resource imports to balance the UK’s future energy demands. Further analysis highlights the potential impacts, inherent uncertainties, and risks to the United Kingdom’s bioenergy sector; associated with trade within future global biomass resource markets. The concluding themes are based on analyses and discussions that indicate that the UK should implement strategies to develop its indigenous resources, and develop its supply chains to optimise these resources; rather than become heavily reliant on imports from the global markets.

A tornado is a violent rotating column of air hanging from the cloud base of a thunderstorm. They occur most frequently in the United States, about 1000 tornadoes every year, but they can also take place in other parts of the world. For a tornado to arise the atmosphere has to be in a specific state. The state includes a steep lapse rate, a significant difference in wind speed between the ground and at 1 km altitude and moisture represented by a low cloud base level. With these three parameters present there is a good chance that a tornado will form. A tornado alone is not possible to predict with the technology that is available today, but the parameters that were just mentioned are. With climate models and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP-scenarios) the future climate can be investigated based on greenhouse gas emissions among other things. In this research occurrence of the three parameters in the area of the United States with most tornado activity during a period of 30 years in present time was compared to a period of 30 years in the future for two different RCP-scenarios. The result was calculated to see how many times and days the three parameters occurred both at the same time and individually. It was seen that the amount of times they occurred corresponded to what was expected from the theory, about 1000 every year for both time periods. Thereby no difference was seen in the frequency of tornadoes today compared to any of the future scenarios. A difference that could be determined however was the amount of days in which they occurred. The criteria for a tornado was met in 623 days for present time, compared to RCP 8.5, which is the RCP-scenario with the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions, where the criteria was met 655 days. RCP 2.6 that is the least devastating scenario with the smallest amount of greenhouse gas emissions had the lowest amount of 604 possible tornado days. / En tromb är ett väderfenomen som består av en intensivt roterande luftpelare mellan ett åskmoln och jordytan. De förekommer över hela världen men är vanligast i USA där det bryter ut ungefär 1000 stycken varje år. För att en tromb ska uppstå krävs det att atmosfären i området har några speciella egenskaper. Den ska vara instabilt skiktad, vilket kan förknippas med ett kraftigt temperaturavtagande med höjd, ha stor skillnad i vindhastighet mellan marken och 1 km upp, samt ha hög relativ luftfuktighet vilket indikeras av en låg molnbas. Är dessa tre kriterier uppfyllda samtidigt finns en möjlighet för en tromb att bildas. Enskilda trombers existens kan inte förutspås med dagens teknik eftersom de är kortlivade väderfenomen och inte en del av ett större vädersammanhang. Med dagens klimatmodeller och Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP-scenarier) kan däremot olika väderparametrars förekomst i framtiden undersökas bl.a. med avseende på mängden utsläpp av växthusgaser.      I den här studien har de tre ovan nämnda parametrarnas förekomst analyserats för det mest trombdrabbade området i USA och jämförts under en 30-årsperiod i nutid med en 30-årsperiod i framtiden för två olika RCP-scenarier. Resultatet togs fram utifrån hur många tillfällen och dagar som de tre parametrarna uppfylldes både enskilt och samtidigt. Antalet tillfällen de uppfylldes samtidigt motsvarade statistiken över trombförekomst relativt bra med ungefär 1000 gånger per år i båda tidsperioderna. Det var därmed ingen större skillnad mellan antalet potentiella tromber idag jämfört med något av RCP-scenarierna i framtiden. Däremot var det en viss skillnad på hur många dagar det finns en chans att det bildas tromber. Kriterierna uppfylldes under 623 dagar i nutid jämfört med 655 dagar i RCP-8.5, vilket är scenariot med störst andel utsläpp av växthusgaser. Under RCP-2.6, det mildaste scenariot med minst utsläpp, uppfylldes kriterierna under 604 dagar, färre än både nutid och RCP 8.5.

This PhD thesis provides an analysis of how an adaptive governance approach can be applied to address existing and emerging challenges in global governance with a focus on marine, wild-capture fisheries. All the papers share a coupled social-ecological framing while providing diverse but complementary perspectives. Paper I provides a lens through which it is possible understand the types of interactions that link social and ecological components of fisheries systems at the global scale. The key result of this paper was the development of a marine social-ecological framework to guide future modelling and scenario analysis. Paper II describes the process of emergence and spread of new ideas in marine governance using Marine Spatial Planning as an illustrative case study. The study shows how governance innovations may contribute to resolving the mismatches between the scale of ecological processes and the scale of governance of ecosystems. A key finding of the paper is the identification and explanation of the mechanisms by which informal networks of actors are able to influence the emergence and spread of new governance forms from the local to the global scale. Paper III focuses on governance of ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. The key finding from this paper is the urgent need for existing and emerging governance institutions to build capacity for responding to the challenges facing governance of marine fisheries. These challenges arise from unexpected shifts in markets, technology and society. Paper IV develops a set of four imaginative but plausible ‘radical’ futures for global fisheries drawing on trends compiled from a diverse evidence base. The four resulting narratives aim to act as lenses for engaging debate and deeper reflection on how non-linear changes in technology and society might radically shift the operating context and core assumptions of fisheries governance in the future. These papers make a novel contribution to Sustainability Science through their focus on 1) the conditions for, and mechanisms of emergence of diverse and divergent governance forms, 2) the role of agency in complex actor settings, 3) the need for governance institutions to not only deal with, but also be able to anticipate surprise, and 4) the development of scenarios of marine social-ecological futures using a creative and rigorous narrative approach. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>