Maintaining a functioning road network is a challenge in today’s society due to the financial restrictions faced by all levels of government. A means of determining how to efficiently spend their limited funding must be found. In addition, the concept of sustainable development is rapidly growing in today’s world pressuring municipalities towards operating in a more socially and environmentally friendly manner. Sustainability is broken down into three aspects which are economical, social and environmental. A truly sustainable pavement satisfies its functional requirements while aiding social and economic development and minimizing negative environmental impacts In response to the growing sustainability trend, the City of Markham is committed to incorporating sustainability into their daily operations. This thesis is the result of a research project with the City of Markham which is directed at incorporating sustainable practices into pavement engineering. The objective of this project is to provide a practical framework for incorporating pavement sustainability best practices into the pavement engineering operations at the City of Markham. This practical framework is developed through the completion of four primary objectives. The first main objective involves the completion of a comprehensive literature review that identifies and reviews the state-of-the-art sustainable pavement best practices. This literature review is divided into five pavement related categories which examine: materials, design and construction techniques, maintenance and rehabilitation techniques, sustainability evaluation systems and carbon footprinting. The second objective involves the quantification of the environmental, economic and carbon footprint impacts of the reviewed pavement best practices; this evaluation is conducted using PaLATE. PaLATE is an excel based software developed at the University of California for evaluating the economical and environmental impacts of various pavement technologies. The third objective involves the utilization of GreenPave for evaluating the environmental friendliness of the analysed pavement best practices. The green discounted life cycle cost (GDLCC) is calculated to include the economic aspect of sustainability. The final objective involves the development of project and network level frameworks. These two frameworks are connected which forms the final framework for incorporating sustainability into City of Markham’s pavement engineering operations. Guidelines for the proper utilization of the developed framework are provided. Through the completion of the literature review it is concluded that there is a wide variety of sustainable pavement technologies that range from project design to pavement decommission. PaLATE analysis results indicate that warm mix asphalt and full depth reclamation are the most environmentally friendly construction and rehabilitation techniques, respectively. Including recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) within pavement mix designs reduces both costs and environmental impacts. Excluding microsurfacing, full depth reclamation was the least expensive rehabilitation technique while hot mix asphalt with RAP was the cheapest construction technique. The same initial construction and rehabilitation techniques are evaluated using the GreenPave rating system. Pervious concrete scored the highest rating under the initial construction category with warm mix asphalt a close second. Cold in place recycling, cold in place with expanded asphalt and full depth reclamation all scored the highest under the rehabilitation category. In the future, the City of Markham may wish to alter the GreenPave rating system to be more reflective of municipal practices as the current version of GreenPave is weighted more heavily on high volume roads. To include the economical aspect, the green discounted life cycle cost (GDLCC) is calculated for all techniques. Hot mix asphalt with RAP and full depth reclamation resulted with the lowest GDLCC in the construction and rehabilitation categories, respectively. Finally, the recommended project and network level frameworks for incorporating sustainability into the pavement engineering practices at the City of Markham are proposed. On the project level, GreenPave evaluation and project level GDLCC aid decision makers in determining the most sustainable project alternative. On the network level, a pavement management system (PMS) serves as the platform. The role of a PMS is to provide recommendations on when and where rehabilitation is required and which rehabilitation technique is the most sustainable. The cost effectiveness and network level GDLCC indicators also aid pavement engineers in making network level decisions. The project and network level frameworks are connected to provide a complete pavement management framework for incorporating sustainability. The framework provides economic benefits by increasing the effectiveness of budget allocation; this is accomplished by maximizing the overall condition index gained to dollar spent ratio. The environmental benefits of this framework include the minimization of harmful gas emissions, project carbon footprints and energy and water consumption. The social issues of pavement projects are unique to each case and therefore must be addressed case by case. A common starting point when addressing these issues is provided.

This research project explores opportunities for sustainable design in New Zealand. Recently a new framework for sustainable design was proposed by environmental chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough who suggest that the current paradigm of cradle to grave product development is unable to provide a solution to the world’s current ecological crisis, and a “cradle to cradle” framework is more appropriate. They suggest that their approach, based on examples from nature, ensures that all human activities have a positive ecological footprint, capable of replenishing and regenerating natural systems, as well as guaranteeing that we are able to develop a world that is culturally and ecologically diverse. A group of New Zealand scientists was asked to evaluate the Cradle to Cradle design framework in an attempt to determine the potential of this, or other sustainable approaches, to design New Zealand products. The key findings from these interviews are described and were utilised to propose a new sustainable design framework – “design for ecosystem function”. In design for ecosystem function, biodiversity is placed central to the design decision-making process, alongside human user needs. This framework was then used to help explore the relationship between science and design, while developing three new, innovative and ecologically beneficial products. The three products, or ecological interventions, represent a design response to a range of ecological problems. They include a toy to help children reconnect with nature in urban ecosystems, a trap to assist lizard monitoring and conservation, and a shelter designed to enhance tree survival, and the colonisation of biodiversity in native forest restoration plantings.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate the barriers to, and the driver of, the adoption of organic agriculture, especially from the point of view of agricultural professionals (scientists, researchers, academics and extension officers). The thesis also summarises the economics of organic agriculture, and provides a unique case study on organic viticulture in Foster's Clare Valley Estare from the 1980s to mid 2000. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003.

In this thesis, I explore the implications of integral theory for sustainable development and climate change response. Integral theory seeks to integrate objective and subjective perspectives using a developmental orientation. It addresses issues of subjectivity that have received inadequate attention in mainstream approaches to sustainable development, while also providing theoretical grounding for the developmental aspect of sustainable development. According to integral theory, there are four main epistemological approaches to any problem: behavioural, systemic, psychological and cultural. The first is objective and individual, the second objective and collective, the third subjective and individual and the fourth subjective and collective. Development occurs within each of these realms. To test the value and implications of integral theory for sustainable development, I adopt a case study on climate change response in Australia. I begin the case study by using the four perspectives of integral theory to guide a review of the energy and climate change literature. I follow the literature review with a critical review of Australian energy and greenhouse policy, providing the starting point for development of an integral climate change response. While there is attention to subjectivity in the literature, it is not reflected in Australian policy practices. An objective perspective and an instrumental form of rationality dominate policy. In the literature review, I identify two gaps in the literature that deserve attention. The first is the role of public subsidies in creating the observed cost differential between renewable energy sources and fossil fuel energy. I examine the relative magnitude of subsidies to fossil fuels and renewable energy in the Australian energy and transport sectors and conclude that the distribution of these subsidies distorts the market in favour of fossil fuels, particularly in the transport sector. The second is the application of a developmental perspective to cultural theories of climate policy discourse. I introduce a method called meta-discourse analysis to identify consistencies and relationships across discourse descriptions by different authors and demonstrate that aspects of each discourse can be related developmentally. Drawing on the literature review, policy review and other work, I propose an integral policy response to climate change that could be applied in Australia. The policy response combines participatory integrated assessment, normative futures work, a modified version of the cooperative discourse model for public participation, an evolutionary policy orientation and several methods to promote subjective development. The proposed policy approach should be equally applicable to other sustainable development issues.

This thesis explored the limitations and challenges to a grassroots engineering non¬government organisation for the use of the sustainable livelihoods approach in a community development scenario. The sustainable livelihoods approach is a relatively new approach developed to address the failure of previous approaches to community development. Its key focuses are holistic, people-centred, dynamic and sustainable development, working with people's strengths and establishing macro-micro links. The role of engineering activities in community development is vital in the provision of technology and is visible across water, sanitation, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors. Again, however, community development activities in technology have not proven successful, thus the move towards the increasingly promoted approach of sustainable livelihoods. The major proponents of the sustainable livelihoods approach have developed many case studies and guidelines to address the contrasts in practice between sustainable livelihoods and current practice, common across many sectors including health, education and agriculture, to name a few. Such research into the contrasts and likeness of engineering practice in particular in community development through the sustainable livelihoods approach has not been explored. This research aims to address this gap. A case study of a Nepali engineering non-government organisation was used to explore these limitations and challenges to practice. Participatory methodologies were used to ensure that results and opportunities were identified from within the organisation itself. Data was collected through workshops, focus groups, interviews, surveys and overt observation. Cycles of systemic analyses were used to explore the problem situations for sustainable livelihoods practice as identified by the case study, and to develop systemically feasible and culturally desirable changes. Two approaches to these analyses, one based on logic, and the other based on culture, addressed the complexities characteristic of the community development and engineering sectors. Data was also collected from external stakeholders directly associated with the engineering activities of the case-study organisation to define the context for the research and verify that collected from the primary case-study organisation. The key findings of the data collection phase were seven problem areas for the organisation in the case study: providing community infrastructure and improving livelihoods; adopting a sustainable livelihoods approach; meeting the need for community participation; monitoring and evaluation; developing partnerships; learning about sustainable livelihoods; and addressing the role of community technology. Conceptual models were developed for analysis of the key problem situations. Systemic analyses of the key stakeholders, limitations, and the political and social contexts and the conceptual models identified the disparities between the ideal practice and the reality of practice for each problem situation. Whilst the research aimed to explore practice specifically for engineering, the majority of the results from the case study focused on changes for the early establishment of an organisation in the field of sustainable livelihoods. Key challenges for the grassroots organisation in the case study included limitations to the learning capacity of the organisation, imbalances of power with higher level partners, and, importantly, issues of risk and survival. Real and practical changes to the practice of community development organisations based on the case study included using more participatory methodologies, addressing scheduling issues, developing bottom-up activities and more effective partnerships with donors. These were limitations general to non-sector-specific organisations. The research subsequently explored the challenges specific to engineering organisations in adopting the sustainable livelihoods approach. These focused on ensuring that engineering in community development incorporates not only the natural and non¬natural elements of intended community users but also the human elements. Five areas of practice were identified as being affected by the sustainable livelihoods approach, including the nature of technology, the processes for its development, the supporting role of national and international policies and standards, and the culture of engineering, specifically the role of engineering expertise and education. The opportunities in these areas of practice for sustainable livelihoods focused on ensuring a people-centred approach to engineering for community development. The research had implications for the practices of a variety of engineering organisations in the community development sector, including NGOs, standards organisations, legislative and regulatory bodies and educators. Again, these implications focused on ensuring that engineering in community development directly reflected the priorities, skills and dynamics of the intended community users.

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute of Sustainable Futures. / This thesis investigates the implications that urban motorway development has for the sustainability of cities. It does this by focusing on the sudden increase in road traffic that follows after the opening of additional motorway capacity, known as induced traffic growth, and asking whether induced traffic growth affects the ability of an urban system to sustain its essential economic functions. The investigation also addresses how urban systems impact on the biosphere. Induced traffic growth, and the urban motorway development responsible for it, are often cited as a threat to sustainability because they are seen to increase fuel consumption and air pollution without necessarily improving accessibility within a city. Opponents to urban motorway construction claim that it merely represents a reshuffling of system elements, such that the spatial relationships between transport and land-use are changed, but the amount of time spent travelling, and the number of economic exchanges made by people, remain much the same. Motorway development advocates refute these claims, arguing that motorway construction reduces travel times, cuts emissions and fuel consumption and increases economic activity, thereby enhancing sustainability. While it should be possible to resolve these issues through a program of empirical analysis, the phenomenon remains contested, raising questions about why and how its contested status affects transport decision-making and transport science. These questions are answered in this thesis by first investigating the social and political context in which debate over induced traffic growth has taken place. To do this, Soft Systems Methodology is used to investigate the way in which conflicts over urban motorway development have been resolved in London, Sydney and Zürich. The comparative analysis highlights differences between the rules of the political decision-making systems in each of the cities, and how these distribute power to different groups within society. While the history of conflicts is similar in each of the cities, more power is given to special interest groups from industry in London and Sydney. By contrast, the system in Zürich gives more power to resident populations through its system of direct democracy. Consequently, urban motorway development, the induced traffic growth it gives rise to and the impacts they have on city operations are acted upon in Zürich to the extent that transport policy has focused more on the development of comprehensive public transport systems. This leads to the conclusion that the contested status of induced traffic growth is more a product of the socio-economic goals of particular interest groups within society than it is of shortcomings in the empirical record or essentially unresolved theoretical issues. With the political context as background, the thesis then reviews the empirical analyses and theoretical explanations for the phenomenon. First, a review of past empirical analyses is undertaken to identify the grounds that have been cited to refute the induced traffic growth hypothesis. Two key areas are identified. The first involves difficulties with distinguishing the sources of induced traffic growth from traffic reassignment. The second concerns the absence of traffic data for routes that are potential alternatives to a new motorway from which traffic reassignment may have taken place. A case study of the M4 Motorway in Sydney is presented with data for all arterial through-routes that cross relevant screenlines, thereby overcoming several of the shortcomings identified in the review. This case study adds to the general literature of case studies that corroborate the induced traffic growth hypothesis, but provides the first substantial documented case for an Australian city. A review of the theoretical explanations for the phenomenon finds that while both microeconomic evaluation and standard modelling procedures provide accounts for the phenomenon that meet institutional expectations of technical veracity, neither constitutes a substantial description of the causal mechanism for the phenomenon, leaving unanswered questions about some findings in the empirical record. This conclusion prompts the development of a systems-based explanation for induced traffic growth that defines it as a form of multiple system feedback processes controlled by a travel budget time constant. By accounting for the phenomenon and its effects in this way, an explanation is provided for changes to travel behaviour and patterns of land-use development that reveals how urban motorway development affects urban systems in an holistic way. The final section of the thesis combines the insights gained by examination of the politics of the transport decision-making system with empirical analyses and theoretical explanations for induced traffic growth, to produce a general systems view of cities and their place within the earth’s biosphere. This treatment considers the problems of oil depletion and global climate change, and the effects that urban motorway development has on the ability of urban systems to adapt to changes in the system environment brought about by these problems. The thesis concludes that urban motorway development and the processes that it triggers, which are embodied in the phenomenon of induced traffic growth, can undermine a city’s comparative ability to sustain the accessibility needs of its residents.

This research project explores opportunities for sustainable design in New Zealand. Recently a new framework for sustainable design was proposed by environmental chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough who suggest that the current paradigm of cradle to grave product development is unable to provide a solution to the world’s current ecological crisis, and a “cradle to cradle” framework is more appropriate. They suggest that their approach, based on examples from nature, ensures that all human activities have a positive ecological footprint, capable of replenishing and regenerating natural systems, as well as guaranteeing that we are able to develop a world that is culturally and ecologically diverse. A group of New Zealand scientists was asked to evaluate the Cradle to Cradle design framework in an attempt to determine the potential of this, or other sustainable approaches, to design New Zealand products. The key findings from these interviews are described and were utilised to propose a new sustainable design framework – “design for ecosystem function”. In design for ecosystem function, biodiversity is placed central to the design decision-making process, alongside human user needs. This framework was then used to help explore the relationship between science and design, while developing three new, innovative and ecologically beneficial products. The three products, or ecological interventions, represent a design response to a range of ecological problems. They include a toy to help children reconnect with nature in urban ecosystems, a trap to assist lizard monitoring and conservation, and a shelter designed to enhance tree survival, and the colonisation of biodiversity in native forest restoration plantings.

Sustainable development is becoming institutionalised across culture and geography as a framework in which to address ecological and social crises that are increasingly apparent and manifesting in diverse ways across local spaces. It is however, dominated by binary thought which is uncomfortable with ambivalence and seperates self from nature and ‘the other’ of Indigenous people. Indigenous people are beginning to use the discourse of sustainable development but approach this from relational and holistic perspectives. The negotiation of representational structures and responsibility for implementating strategies towards sustainable development must account for these cultural differences and will require dialogue. This thesis explores how institutional practice and discourse frames Indigenous representation and responsibility and how this either enables or disenables dialogue with Indigenous people. A case study approach informed the research, and included two consultancy participatory projects in 2001-2004. The case study was located in the Western Desert of Western Australia and involved the Martu people in addition to people working within institutional structures. The first project required extending community development strategies and strengthening Martu representation to take responsibility for a housing development. The second project, titled Dialogue with the Pilbara: Newman Tommorrow, involved encouraging Martu representation in a process based upon deliberative democracy. Reflections from the fieldwork form a considerable part of the analysis. The research also included analysis of a number of interviews with local institutional actors in Newman. Two major themes are outlined: power and representation; and culture. The research is reflexive and involves the use of an autoethnographic story technique which enables a better understanding of the researcher’s implicit and changing perspectives. The lessons that emerged from the reflections from the case study are insightful for sustainable development. The thesis involves two layers (and is structured accordingly): the first relates to a case study and the second to the theory and practice of sustainable development. The concluding section combines these two layers and emphasises the need for greater attention to Indigenous participation and autonomy in order to achieve Indigenous sustainable development. This thesis argues that diverse and hybrid Indigenous voices require considerable amplification within the discourse of sustainable development in order to provide relational and holistic perspectives. Particular focus is required upon the negotiation of representative structures to allow for Indigenous voices to be heard, and thus permit for the negotiation of responsibility across culture (an important consideration of sustainable development). This requires ongoing dialogue, creativity and reflexivity in context.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.