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The urban woodlands in Redditch are integral elements of greenspace that are highly valued as an informal recreational resource, and for the physical and spiritual benefits that the community derives from visual and physical contact with them, on a daily basis. However, that they are cherished community assets, rather than places to be avoided, depends on contextually specific requirements being met, in regard to their siting and design. The thesis discusses these key criteria from the perspective of the Redditch urban community. It is identified that a choice of woods should be located within 300 and 700 metres of the home, to enable access by people, including those with restricted home range, mobility or with limited time to visit, and to provide a moderate walk to woods more distant, as an integral part of the 'recreational experience'. Convenient access to, and familiarity of these urban woodlands increases people's confidence to use woods more frequently and more distant from the home. Woodland size, preferably between 2 to 7 hectares and a good network of well lit, hard surfaced paths are also important factors influencing the attractiveness of woodland. Otherwise, visitors' demands regarding woodland type and facilities are modest. Plantations are as much valued and enjoyed as ancient semi-natural woodland. However even where the physical requirements for woodland are met, social and cultural factors limit many people's access to, and uses of the urban woodland. By exploring the personal, social and cultural values, and interpretations of these woods, the thesis analyses how the community reacts to change to the woodlands introduced by woodland management works, and identifies that it ascribes them a plurality of meanings and contextual relationships; as a woodland garden, a doorstep recreational area, a symbol of the pastoral idyll, a wildlife sanctuary and a gateway to the natural world. The theoretical framework of the thesis draws on multi-disciplinary perspectives including; landscape deslqn, town planning and the social and cultural perspectives of cultural geography. The evolution of the urban woodlands as elements of urban greenspace, people's recreational uses, and their attitudes and feelings towards them are explored by diverse methodological procedures, which include a longitudinal study and use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The research both builds on and adds to the existing body of knowledge by addressing the value and significance of providing urban woodlands within the urban fabric, and the key criteria which need to be observed to provide such areas close to where people live, and close to what they need.

The city of Cairo, like many other historic cities, experienced a break in the continuum of its traditional urban pattern due to the modernisation project. The break was not only limited to the physical pattern but to social and economic activities. The swing of emphasis from the historic area to the modern quarters left the city peripheral to administrative and economic activities, augmenting urban and sociocultural decay. This study analyses these changes and forwards an argument that there is a strong need to conserve the human scale, individuality, richness and diversity of the historic city of Cairo and integrate it into the modern metropolis as a living and vigorous entity. The objective is to reconcile the old with the new through the perpetuation of culture. In this study, culture is considered as a vehicle to generate the need for conservation and regeneration of the old area, while at the same time maintaining a context for both continuity and diversity in the traditional urban fabric. In doing so, the study examines the historical and cultural urban processes that shaped the traditional city, focusing on the complex interaction between social and physical entities. The study then considers the current dimension, where tourism and small-scale manufacturing have enabled the historic city to reposition itself as the most powerful secondary economic base in the metropolis, drawing on the legacy of its urban heritage. The study argues that by learning from the past that created unity in the built environment, the future of the city could be shaped: balancing the conservation of its cultural heritage and the promotion of sustainable development to suit contemporary needs.

This thesis examines the diffusion of infonnation and communication technologies (lCTs) in Wales, the Republic of Ireland and the South East of England in the computer service and electronics sectors. The study is significant as it contributes to academic and policy debates concerning the role of leTs in regional development. The European Community has invested considerable resources in the early introduction of advanced telecommunication services in the peripheral regions through the STAR (Special Telecommunications Action for Regional Development) and Telematique programmes. leTs are emphasised in the academic literature either as elements of infrastructure provision or, more significantly, as being integral to radical changes in organisations and regions. The research examines diffusion of ICTs in the three regions in order to assess the role of ICT in the regional development processes in the electronics and computer service sectors and to investigate the types of organisational and regional changes that are occurring through the applications of ICTs. The Republic of Ireland, Wales and the South East of England were chosen for study as they offered a basis for comparison of the use of ICTs by finns in core, peripheral and semi-peripheral regions. Research methods included a large scale survey in the three regions and in-depth interviews with a number of selected finns. The research focused on both indigenous finns and inward investing finns The survey results provide an indication of the degree of diffusion of particular components of ICTs in the three regions. The analysis also examines the types of finns in the electronics and computer service sector and demonstrates differences in the use of leTs between inward investing, multi-site finns and indigenous firms. The in-depth interviews provides further basis for exploration of the results from the survey but concentrate mainly on the assessment of the organisational and regional implications of the diffusion of ICTs. The main conclusions of the thesis are that leTs, in general, are of less importance in the process of organisational change and regional development than has been claimed by theories which argue that the diffusion of ICTs creates a basis for radical change in these areas. The results show that the diffusion of ICTs is unbalanced across regions and finn sizes. Furthennore, the use of computer networks by SMEs does not appear to be a central factor for their economic viability and the provision of infrastructure and services is not of central importance in Iocational decisions of large firms. The results suggest that other factors apart from the use of ICTs should be given more importance in explanations of patterns of regional development and regional policy-makers should give more weight to these matters. These factors include research on the impacts and extent of take-overs in different regions, and factors which encourage the emergence and sustained growth of indigenous firms and the increased embeddedness of inward investing finns.

In a little more than a decade regional planning has emerged as a vital component of the development planning process in Saudi Arabia. From its limi ted beginnings in physical planning its scope has rapidly widened and the latest plans attempt comprehensive regional planning within the context of a multi-level development planning effort. This experience has been rich and varied, and various innovatory approaches and techniques have been introduced. This study was conducted with a view to evaluating Saudi experience and placing it in an international perspective. With these aims in mind, a comprehensive planning model has been developed and a number of key questions posed, the answers to which reflect the acceptability and practicality of the planning system. The model is based upon a review of international experience of countries with different political, social and cultural settings, and at different stages of development. The model consists of four main components: planning activities, plan making bodies, decision making bodies and implementing bodies with a feedback from the public and private sectors. The model was tested against the planning experience of three countries with widely differing political, social and economic settings: Canada with its laissez-faire economy, the United Kingdom with its mixed economy, and Poland with its command economy. It was concluded that the model is sufficiently robust to act as a framework wi thin which to describe and analyse the Saudi experience. The context for regional planning in Saudi Arabia was analysed. The study included the political and administrative systems, the economy,the settlement structure, the sectoral planning process, the spatial planning process, and the past experience in regional planning. Then, the current regional planning experience which includes the National Settlement Strategy and the Regional Comprehensive Planning Project were discussed and analysed, taking the five comprehensive regional development plans (Hail, Qassim, Baha, Tabuk and Makkah) as case studies. This "current" experience was evaluated against the comprehensive planning model and the key questions for an acceptable planning system. It has been found that the Saudi planning system is fairly well developed at the national and local scales. However, at the regional scale, although there is political commitment there is little in the way of administrative arrangements for plan making and implementation. A set of proposals for improving the planning system has been presented for future action.

Airline schedule punctuality is a complex problem and one of the major concerns of the airline top management. Flight schedule disturbances may occur as delays and/or cancellations. There are many internal and external reasons for delays. These delays may propagate in the aircraft cycles and cause a large schedule disturbance. This may influences passenger satisfaction and airline resources. The objective of this research is to formulate a systematic approach for schedule punctuality which supports management decision making. The punctuality management system is structured to combine all schedule punctuality components, input and output variables. Five models are incorporated in this system. The first model is the disturbance model which generates random delays based on an estimated Lognormal delay distribution function. The delay analysis is carried out from a one year sample of delay statistics in which general, original , reactionary and other delay types are classified. The second model is the recovery model which incorporates the disturbance model with management strategies to determine delay propagation. A PC based simulation model (SKDMOD) is developed as a prototype which integrates disturbance and recovery models using SIMSCRIPT 11.5. 18 management strategies are simulated covering ground times (30, 40 and 50 minutes), maximum delay times to assign spare aircraft (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 hours) and spare aircraft using part of the domestic network of Saudi Arabia. The third model is the passengers' attitude model which determines the delay impact functions and the maximum passenger revenue loss based on 262 responses from a passenger interview survey. The fourth model is the revenue model which estimates the passengers' revenue loss. The fifth model is the cost model which estimates the extra cost resulting from implementation of the management strategies. All strategies are evaluated to determine the optimum based on profit and profit margin. OPTIM is the optimization program developed to find the optimum strategy(ies). This approach provides a guidelines for the management of punctuality. It integrates all the tools developed in a decision support system framework.

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<p> In the early 2000s, Chicago emerged as an archetypal city in the broader movement to remake public housing. Chicago&rsquo;s Plan for Transformation committed upwards of $1.5 billion to demolish high-rise buildings, rehabilitate a portion of existing stock, and create 12 new mixed-income developments on the footprint of public housing sites. Policy incentives&mdash;such as financing for capital development, long-term rental subsidies, and public land transfers&mdash;aimed to encourage public-private partnerships. During the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath, however, the promised transformation proved financially difficult&mdash;if not impossible in certain geographic areas&mdash;to complete at the scale intended. That shift in the economic context, along with subsequent political responses, thoroughly altered the policy strategy. To date few empirical investigations have analyzed how these changes restructured the very nature of public housing reforms, and what this restructuring means for policies that require market intervention for the provision of public goods. This dissertation performs just that empirical analysis. </p><p> <i>Privatizing Chicago</i> examines the city&rsquo;s public housing reforms as an example of &ldquo;actually existing&rdquo; (Brenner &amp; Theodore, 2002) neoliberal urbanism and explains how specific political actors, processes, and institutions altered market-based policies intended to reshape urban poor neighborhoods. Viewing Chicago as a neoliberal city requires both recognizing its political landscape as one where the primary aim of municipal government is to promote an entrepreneurial agenda that positions the economic success of the city above all other interests, as well as viewing the potential for progressive movements to contest this agenda. Prior to this study, Chicago&rsquo;s reforms had not been examined across time or geographic areas using critiques of neoliberal urbanism, nor through qualitative methods. This study fills that gap and uses the case of Chicago to improve the empirical understanding of neoliberal urbanism more generally. </p><p> The study accomplishes this through a case study of Chicago&rsquo;s public housing reforms between 2000 to 2016. It shows how government officials, real estate developers, bankers, lawyers, planners, grassroots activists, and others pursued policy strategies favorable to their interests over a 16-year period&mdash;a time marked by the economic recession. My methodological approach is a theory-driven form of ethnography, and my analysis draws from 61 in-depth interviews, field observations over 22 months, archival research of over 500 documents, and the analysis of financial data. This approach brought to light the multiple and contradictory visions at work within the neoliberal framework: competing ideas of the proper partnerships between the public and private sectors, shifting authority among local and national government agencies, and struggles for community redevelopment on the land where high-rises once stood. </p><p> In probing these conflicts and contradictions, I argue that the overall effect of the reforms was to burnish Chicago&rsquo;s status as a &ldquo;global city,&rdquo; but it also contributed to land appropriation, capital accumulation, and the displacement of thousands of low-income African-American residents. The cycle of government intervention into market failure will continue as long as the role of the state remains dominated by an agenda of capital expansion, rather than of equitable urban development that ensures a place for low-income, predominately racial minority communities to live. Theoretical contributions related to neoliberal urbanism align around four themes: (a) political agency and resistance; (b) privatization and financialization; (c) local state control, federal devolution, and global processes; and (d) the relevance of race. A set of policy implications drives towards recommendations regarding affordable housing policy, democratic governance arrangements, collective action focused on social justice, and market-based policy strategies.</p>

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