The work is divided into two sections. Section I examines the process of residential growth on Tyneside in the inter-war years by concentrating attention on the factors which determined the form and extent of development in both the private and the public sector. Through detailed case studies and generalised analysis, an examination is made of housing need over the period, and the influence of architectural and planning ideals and economic conditions; in this way information is provided on the characteristics of inter-war dwellings, the conditions under which they were constructed and the processes by which they were developed. Section II makes an examination of the present condition and use of inter-war Council property, and attempts to determine its suitability for habitation in the latter half of the 20th Century, In so doing, it considers(1) the maintenance operations of Local Authorities and the levels of expenditure over the life of the property.(2) the standard of accommodation which the property provides. No attempt is made to examine the suitability of the residential environment, but attention is focussed upon the use of property and, basing evidence on housewives' judgement, the standard of amenity which it provides. Further studies of household maintenance operations and satisfaction levels reveal additional details of the social adequacy of the accommodation and the work concludes with an examination of(1) the scope for modernisation(2) the modernisation schemes of Local Authorities(3) the cost of modernisation to the Authority.

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Land use patterns were dominated, circa 1550, "by open-field systems comparable with those of the Midlands, but in which grassland" probably played a larger part. Diversity was introduced by demesne land, by several farmholds in partially enclosed townships and by land use in depopulated areas. On such farms, grass acreages were proportionally greater than in 'open' areas, but arable cultivation was not unknown. Enclosure was intensified during the seventeenth century, reaching its peek between 1620 and I67O: few open-fields survived after I70G. In the earlier eighteenth century the heavy clay soils of the vale were devoted mainly to butter production for the London market and to quality stock-breeding, especially of cattle and horses. Arable agriculture was a really restricted and conservative - improvement came very slowly. A revival of crop-farming (stimulated by rising prices) was apparent by 1790, increased in tempo during the Napoleonic Wars and, despite unfavourable economic circumstances, continued - to reach a maximum shortly before mid-century. Techniques were inadequate for the extensive arable culture of local soils: only the introduction of sown grasses, of under-draining and the growth of the markets of urban Teeside saved the area from disaster in the later nineteenth century. This sequence of changes, and the associated land use patterns, are traced from contemporary documents and illustrated by many sketch- maps. Causal factors - ecological, economic and social - are discussed at each stage in such detail as data permit. Characteristics both of change and continuity are examined, and the area's natural propensity for mixed farming established. During these three centuries, the cattle-orientated economy, which flourished circa 1720, appears to represent the optimum adjustment to the environment. Relative prosperity was greatest during this era, to which are to be dated the principal features of the modern rural landscape.

Lagos is the fastest growing mega-city in the world (UN, 2006), yet it lacks reliable, modern scientific monitoring techniques to effectively monitor and manage the unprecedented rapid land use/cover changes brought about by urbanization. The capabilities of satellite remote sensing in terms of large spatial coverage, spatial and temporal resolutions adequate for these types of studies, as well as the ability of GIS to handle spatial and non-spatial data, make in the optimal approach for this research. A post-classification approach was adopted with a maximum likelihood classifier algorithm. The Landsat Thematic Mapper (1984) and Landsat ETM (2000) were merged with SPOT-PAN (2002) to improve classification accuracies and provide more accurate maps for land use/cover change and analysis. This also made it possible to overcome the problem of spectral confusion between some urban land use classes. The land cover change map revealed that forest, low density residential and agricultural land uses are most threatened, and most land allocated for these uses has been legally or illegally converted to other land uses within and outside the metropolis. Also, the Lagos State land use map was 35% inaccurate. The research explored the underlining socio-economic and political factors which are driving the rapid land use/cover change in metropolitan Lagos, as well as the inter-relationship between population and spatial growth with the aim of using remote sensing and GIS to provide much needed intelligence to achieve sustainable urban and environmental development and planning in the study area.

This thesis explores the everyday making and thinking of the peri-urban. The condition of the peri-urban is a troubled one, caught between uneven spatial development, rapid land use changes and competing ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ logics. At the same time, its condition is central to the broader urban process as it is here that planetary urbanisation materialises in the form of ever more houses, neighbourhoods and streets. Accordingly, the peri-urban is frequently described as a ‘territorial crisis’, as a ‘lack of city’ and as a planning and administrative ‘problem’ posed to urban sustainability. Without denying the urgency of this situation, this thesis starts by observing that the perspective of the everyday tends to be absent from peri-urban accounts. Its intention is to re-think the peri-urban from the viewpoint of those living in its socio-material circumstances. It does so by attending to infrastructural practices, that is, to the inventive ways by which practitioners of space reach beyond themselves and nurture spaces of opportunity. In particular, it focuses on the physical effort these practices imply, as well as on the making of city they entail and the socio-spatial consciousness they afford. As a result, this thesis identifies four types of city-making labour and distinguishes fifteen layers of cityness by which the peri-urban is apprehended through the practising body when emplaced in concrete peri-urban situations. The findings of this thesis are the fruit of a combination of sensory and visual methods that are particularly receptive to the corporeality and materiality of practice and the space in which it occurs. Fieldwork was carried out in the northern stretch of the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, and specifically in and around an affordable housing development, a self-built settlement, the communal land of a farmers’ organisation (ejido) and the highway which ties these sites together.

Prior to 2008, reference to green infrastructure (GI) in Irish planning, advocacy and guidance documentation had been limited. However, by November 2011, GI was referenced in statutory guidance at national, regional and local levels, while also enjoying reference in many non-statutory planning policy and advocacy documents. This thesis seeks to examine and explain the processes which facilitated the rapid emergence, evolutionary trajectory and institutionalisation of GI planning policy in Ireland. Specifically, the investigation seeks to critically examine why and how GI was introduced, interpreted and advanced in planning policy formulation in Ireland between November 2008 and November 2011. Situated within the field of interpretive policy analysis, the thesis adopts a discourse centred approach focused on the context sensitive constitution of the ‘meaning(s)’ of GI. The potential implications of such meaning(s) are also examined. The research involves extensive documentary analysis of both Irish and international planning policy related material. The investigation also involves the analysis of semi-structured interviews with 52 interviewees from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Information obtained from participant observation at 2 planning workshops is scrutinised. The thesis provides a number of original empirical and theoretical contributions to knowledge. This is achieved by presenting a critical interpretive analysis of policy dynamics in a context where attention to ‘meaning-making’ is largely absent in academic literature regarding landuse planning. The research identifies, examines and discusses the influential roles played by planning rationalities, motivated agents, professional networks and timing in the dissemination and institutionalisation of a new policy initiative within Irish landuse governance. The thesis also provides a broader contribution to understandings of the policy process by presenting an innovative theoretical explanation of how representation and interpretation may shape the content, currency and consequences of policy.

In this thesis two existing computer science techniques are used to solve a specific problem in the field of ‘spatial planning'. The problem to be addressed is monitoring the conformance of planning decisions to urban land use policies. ‘Monitoring conformance' refers to adherence to development plans and must be distinguished from monitoring performance, which looks at whether or not the plan met its objectives. The two computing techniques applied to the problem are Information Extraction (IE) and GeoVisualisation (GV). IE is an approach to the automated processing of text. This thesis demonstrates that the restricted subset of language used in the short texts present in planning applications makes them ideally suited to IE methods. GV is an approach to the interactive analysis of geographical data. Its use was motivated by two factors. Firstly, it is necessary to avoid the assumption of a simple relationship between policy and implementation – many different policies may apply to a particular decision. These may be weighted differently and are open to interpretation. Hence, statistical conclusions, such as ‘there is 80% conformance to policy', are never drawn. Instead the visualisation leaves the interpretation of the results open to the user. It is through the details-on-demand functionality of visualisation tools that this link to the user's own background knowledge is made. Secondly, the prototype user interface developed exemplifies the use of GV to explore geo-temporal patterns in the data. This was motivated by the knowledge that policies change over time. Evaluation work is conducted which shows that policy-makers can see reflections of the conformance of decision making to urban land use policies in the GV tool. The computational techniques used have been brought together and applied to the domain in a novel way, which assists in addressing the problem identified. A number of more theoretical questions are also considered along the way.

This thesis aims to explore the socio-spatial control mechanisms, termed as Informal land controls – used by informal power intermediaries termed informal structures to produce space to claim public resources in Karachi-Pakistan. Such informal structures include but are not limited to: political parties, bonds of tribe and kinship, religious authorities, neighbourhood committees, gangs and other criminals. The concept of informal land controls is integrally embedded within the processes of informality and production of space in Karachi and is used to examine political conflicts, social divisions and the spiral of violence evident in Karachi, especially from mid-2000 onwards. The study introduces the concept of informal land controls to address the gap in the literature, both on informality and production of space, which currently remains focussed on the state, market and the poor, and thus, neglects the role of power intermediaries. Such informal processes of production of space that are neither ‘from above’ i.e. state and market driven, nor ‘from below’, but ‘from between’. The research is based on four case study areas in Karachi – North Nazimabad, Lyari, PIB Colony and Scheme 33 – which demonstrate how multiple and overlapping informal structures initiate and maintain informal land controls, and how these are linked with the failure of formal government and prevailing informality in planning decisions. A wide range of licit and illicit measures are used – including political domination; religious discourse; cultural practice; tribal identity; property control; barriers, flags and wall-chalking; harassment; extortion; violence, street control and homicides. The result is a complex network of socio-spatial divisions that form ‘no-go’ areas of varying degrees, which have exacerbated social divisions and violence in the city. The research argues that understanding such processes is essential to underpin interventions to reduce violence and extortion, and ensure more equitable access to urban resources.