Education is an important factor in the development and growth of a country. It is essential to have school transport to facilitate the transport of male and female students to school so that the families will be persuaded to send their children to schools, and the children are encouraged to continue education. The school transport modes are of different kinds: students can walk to the schools; families may own private cars; transport may be rented or may be provided by the government, such as school buses. The focus of this research is to identify the modes which are used to transport the students to and from schools, problems associated with such modes of transport, and the modes preferred by the Saudi households. The research also concentrates on identifying the constraints preventing the selection of preferred modes, and investigates the relation between the sociocultural factors and the selection of the modes in order to develop a Modal Split Model. A review of previous studies reveals that comfortability, convenience, time, safety, and costs, are the factors that play important roles in the selection of the transport modes. In the light of these factors, the school transport modes in the city of Dammam, Saudi Arabia are evaluated. Data were collected from a sample of 1081 male and 1084 female students, as well as from their guardians. An analysis of the data shows that students use the following modes for school transport at varying rates depending on the educational level: Walking, Private Car, Carpool, Limousine/Taxi, Government School Bus, and Public Bus, while the preferred modes are: Walking, Private Car, Government School Bus, and Rented (Public) Bus. Eleven modal split models for school trips have been chosen from 161 models as the best models for predicting school trips in terms of rho-squared (P 2)" As a result of the descriptive analysis and the modal split models, market demand and market share of the school transport modes are analyzed, and applications of how to use the models are shown in the benefit of the Saudi' households and the private companies.

Forecasting long-term urban water demand is very important in water resources planning and management. In particular, faced with the threat of urban water scarcity, strategies and policies are required, and these need to be based on reliable water demand forecasts. However, there are many problems involved in forecasting long-term water demand, such as limited knowledge about the relationship between water use and the factors affecting it, uncertainties over the future and assumptions employed, the availability of water use data, etc. In China, little effort has been devoted to water demand forecasting, although water resources planning has been widely undertaken, and urban water shortage is currently a serious problem. In the light of the above, an overall approach to forecasting long-term urban water demand forecasting in China was undertaken. After reviewing the literature, the Chinese urban water demand system was analysed systematically, in terms of the four water use sectors: residential, industrial, agricultural and commercial. Based on the results revealed by the analyses, a system dynamic simulation model was built for forecasting longterm urban water demand. A case study has also been carried out to apply the model and to evaluate its performance. Compared to static models that have been developed in the literature, the system dynamic simulation model that has been developed in this study is superior in terms of the following aspects: (1) it clearly takes the time variable into account; (2) the system dynamic model allows alternative forecasts to be obtained easily and explicitly; and (3) the step-by-step procedures used in the system dynamic simulation give explicit and clear statements about the changing processes of the explanatory variables rather than simply accepting them as inputs.

This thesis is concerned with the regional dimensions of Polish EU rural development policies. Two major streams in this research, theoretical and practical, correspond to the core intertwined research questions: " What (if any) policy regionalisation is desirable for EU rural policies in Poland? " How should the rural development process be conceptualised with what implications for regionalisation of policy? This research has a direct policy linkage as under the EC legislation Poland has a possibility to implement rural development programmes at "an appropriate geographical level". This thesis explores whether the region (at NUTS 2 level) is such an appropriate level. The thesis is structured around four potential justifications for policy regionalisationin Poland: 1) regionally differentiated rural development patterns across Polish regions; 2) heterogeneityo f regionalp referencesfo r rural policiesa nd their legitimacy; 3) territorial fairness and compliance with regional cohesion objectives, safeguarded by specific regionally set policy budgets; 4) political feasibility. In conclusion, a synthetic framework is proposed, based on a complex system approach. The thesis sprang from a participant observation experience in setting Polish EU preaccession policies. It adopts a multidisciplinary perspective with elements from development economics, economic geography, political studies, regional science, sociolinguistics, and policy evaluation leading to a complex system analysis. A multiplicity of data has been mobilized: participant observation, secondary statistical data, past policy data as well as a series of semi-structured interviews. The empirical analysis suggests there is little evidence of the relevance of NUTS 2 level for rural policy making in the Polish EU context based on the propositions examined here. However, rural policy regionalisation can be more adequately conceptualized as a process, not as a policy desideratum. The forces driving policy regionalisation in Poland are weakly developed at present, but predicted to gain in force in longer term, implying that regionalised policies may become more relevant in the future. The theoretical strand of the thesis leads to a formulation of an integrated framework for rural policy analysis. The model recognizes that the policy making has a multiple rationality, namely actors perform a multiplicity of actions in economic, political and cognitive paradigms when setting and implementing policy, embedded in, and feeding back to fundamental resource capacities. It is argued that such a conceptualization has significant policy consequences, putting the multi-rational policy process rather than purely policy outputs at the centre of policy advice and analysis.

Jeddah is one of the most rapidly growing cities in Saudi Arabia. It has been transformed from a small town, enclosed by walls, into a metropolitan area in only about three decades. Housing construction has taken place everywhere in the city. This study describes the chronological development of the housing of Jeddah, the principal sea port of Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea and the gateway to the Holy City of Makkah. The study intends to identify the housing types and to analyse and illustrate the changes occurring in the residential units. It comprises four parts : The first part gives general background information about Jeddah. The second discusses the housing in its socio-physical context within the city, including the environment in which houses were built, namely the neighbourhood, housing types and their spatial concepts and construction techniques. The third deals with the main factors promoting change in housing and the physical structure of the city. The fourth is an attempt to present an overview of the architectural styles and trends in the city.

This thesis investigates the relationship between planning and the construction industry. It puts forward the concept of Planning Construction Interactions (Pl.C.I) and sets out to validate this concept by the examination of three hypotheses. The production of the built environment is a complex process involving the activities of different agents. The physical evidence of the development process is found in the form of hospitals, houses, roads and physical and social infrastructure. The construction industry is one of the main actors in the development process which plays an important role in the economic development by its contribution to Value Added, Capital Formation, Gross Domestic Product and Employment Generation. The failure of development plans in many developing countries is due to many factors. There is evidence from these countries of plans having been devised on the basis of inappropriate policy agendas and technology. The source of inappropriacy is often foreign technology and expertise. In order to identify the constraints to development, the planning construction processes are examined in three countries: Iran, China and Japan. The main part of the thesis is devoted to Iran. In this context a detailed analysis of economic development and physical planning since the end of the Second World War is presented. As a result of this investigation a number of factors are identified which have a direct impact on the construction industry. It is also argued that development policies have a direct impact on the choice of construction technology and materials. Appropriate technology is commonly thought to offer a panacea. The result of a case study of the process of technology transfer is presented. The Iranian case identifies the reasons for failure of appropriate technology whilst the examination of the Chinese development demonstrates the importance of appropriate technology in national development since the 1949 revolution. A part of the thesis is devoted to the study of the planning and construction processes in Japan. This is focused on the role of the construction industry in the economic development of that country and how it is affected by government actions. Japan offers an interesting mechanism of planning and implementation processes. This developed from the introduction of a series of land use planning policies allowing for the involvement of the private construction sector in the financing and provision of infrastructure in urban areas. A series of recommendations are made in the context of post war Iran. A possible framework for the development of the construction industry is put forward which emphasises the use of appropriate technology and building materials. This is seen as part of the integrated development planning approach.

The primary objective of this thesis is to explain how a particular council estate in Stockton-on-Tees became run-down and disadvantaged. However, the pursuit of such an explanation demands a historical, social, political and economic perspective embracing the conurbation within which the estate is located. In fact, it is necessary to go beyond the confines of Teesside and take account of national and international processes and forces. With regard to national influences, these have played a crucial role in the urban growth of Stockton and in the progressive diminution of its public housing sector to create an increasingly residualised welfare tenure. Moreover, central mechanisms and decisions taken by international capital have de-industrialised the Teesside conurbation and led to high and long-term unemployment. So disadvantage has increased for this and other reasons, and the minority of the population suffering it are largely housed in council accommodation. Local characteristics and factors also play a crucial part in the way that central forces impact on a locality, mediating and modifying their consequences depending on the particular configuration of industrial, social, etc., features that impart to local areas their unique traditions and identities. Yet, significant as this interaction is between central forces and local factors in creating a poorer stock of council housing and the disadvantaged families who live in it, to explain how and why particular run-down areas arise can also demand a closer focus on individual estates to explore specific causes. A further theme of this study concerns the possibilities and mechanisms of change on disadvantaged estates. One such period of change on Ragworth is examined in the light of before-and-after survey research, as is a new regime of decentralised management which followed. Finally, the effects of current policy initiatives are measured against the immense problems posed by the shifts in the social class structure represented by the growth of disadvantage and the emergence of what has been described as an underclass.

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the dynamic behaviour of road traffic flow based on theoretical traffic models. Three traffic models are examined: the classical car-following model which describes the variations of speeds of cars and distances between the cars on a road link, the logit-based trip assignment model which describes the variations of traffic flows on road links in a road network, and the dynamic gravity trip distribution model which describes the variations of flows between O-D pairs in an O-D network. Some dynamic analyses have been made of the car-following model in the literature (Chandler et al., 1958, Herman et al., 1959, Disbro & Frame, 1990, and Kirby and Smith, 1991). The dynamic gravity model and the logit-based trip assignment model are both suggested by Dendrinos and Sonis (1990) without detailed analysis. There is virtually no previous dynamic analysis of trip distribution, although there are some dynamic considerations of trip assignment based on other assignment models (Smith, 1984 and Horowitz, 1984). In this thesis, the three traffic models are considered as dynamical systems. The variations of traffic characteristics are investigated in the context of nonlinear dynamics. Equilibria and oscillatory behaviour are found in all three traffic models; complicated behaviour including period doubling and chaos is found in the gravity model. Values of parameters for different types of behaviour in the models are given. Conditions for the stability of equilibria in the models are established. The stability analysis of the equilibrium in the car-following model is more general here than that in the literature (Chandler et al., 1958, Herman et al., 1959). Chaotic attractors found in the gravity model are characterized by Liapunov exponents and fractal dimension. The research in this thesis aims at understanding and predicting traffic behaviour under various conditions. Traffic systems may be monitored, based on these results, to achieve a stable equilibrium and to avoid instabilities and chaos.

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