This thesis aims to address two distinct areas of Earth Sciences that are linked by common processes. The first is dehydration reactions at intermediate depths that lead to seismicity, and the second is the mechanics of the deformation of porous sandstones which is important for the development of sub-surface reservoirs. The breakdown of hydrous minerals in subduction zones is often invoked as the cause of seismicity at intermediate depths (50-200 km). The release of high pressure fluid is thought to reduce effective stress allowing brittle deformation at pressures where instabilities are typically supressed. Pore fluid pressure (Pf) evolution is dependent on the feedback between reaction rate, fluid flow and deformation. Reaction generates fluid which, if unable to drain, will lead to an increase in Pf. However dehydration reactions are also typically associated with (i) solid volume reduction which produces porosity, enhancing fluid flow and allowing high Pf to dissipate, and (ii) compaction of this pore space that can restrict fluid flow enabling Pf to build up. This thesis aims to constrain the processes that control the reaction rate, and hence the fluid production rate, and also determine the deformation behaviour of the porous reaction product. This is done by investigating experimentally the reaction gypsum → bassanite + H₂O. Reaction processes are investigated by imaging a dehydrating gypsum sample using real time 4D X-ray synchrotron microtomography. The datasets acquired allow the evolving pore structure and connectivity to be analyzed during reaction. The growth of bassanite grains is tracked and the kinetics are shown to be intimately linked to the spatial evolution of porosity. New pores wrap around bassanite grains producing moat-like structures; generating diffusion pathways along which the transport of chemical constituents to the growing grains occurs. As the moats grow in width, diffusion and hence reaction rate slow down. Individual moats become interconnected early in the reaction allowing efficient drainage and dissipation of locally high Pf. Identifying the dominant chemical transport pathway is important for modelling of dehydrating systems to constrain better the feedback between reaction, fluid flow and deformation. The mechanical behaviour of the porous reaction product bassanite is investigated by mapping the yield curve evolution along different loading paths. Yield curves are typically plotted in P-Q space where P is the effective mean stress and Q is the differential stress. They are typically considered to be elliptical in shape with the low pressure side being associated with localized brittle faulting (dilation) and the high pressure side with distributed ductile deformation (compaction). A new stress-probing methodology is used to map in high resolution the yield curve and its evolution with continued deformation. This reveals that the yield curve is not perfectly elliptical with the high pressure side comprised partly of a near vertical limb. The yield curve evolution is dependent on the nature of inelastic strain, with deviatorically compacted samples having considerably larger yield curves than hydrostatically compacted samples of similar porosity. This is associated with the formation of a heterogeneous microstructure during deviatoric loading, showing sets of conjugate shear fractures. The same stress-probing methodology is applied to two high porosity sandstones to see if the yield curve evolution observed for porous bassanite is applicable. Both sandstones show a similar near vertical limb on the high pressure side of the curve as observed with bassanite. The yield curve evolution for sandstone is also more sensitive to deviatoric loading, like bassanite, although no localized deformation features are observed. The data highlight that future studies of porous rock deformation should consider the effect of the nature of inelastic strain on the mechanical and microstructural evolution of porous rock.

Over the last five years, England has seen a decline in the number of onshore wind applications gaining planning permission. This research investigates the key reasons renewable energy policy is stifled in the local planning system and the threat this poses to the country’s ability to tackle climate change. The research aims to show how Social Impact Assessment as part of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), could support the successful siting of onshore wind farms. Directed content analysis, examines the activities of wind developers, central government, local planning authorities, anti-wind campaigners and community energy cooperatives. The content analysis is supported using surveys and face-to-face interview with developers, action groups and community energy cooperatives. The research finds SIA is not a statutory obligation in England, yet many of its activities and processes employed by stakeholders. However, without recognition of the outcomes of SIA activity in EIA, benefits of onshore windfarm proposals are not considered in the weighting of the planning balance. The impact means local people participating in community energy projects are disempowered by the planning system to the disservice of local democracy.

Due to their high biological productivity, continental shelf seas are significant sinks of anthropogenic carbon. To better understand the cycling of carbon within them, an accurate prediction of their vertical density stratification is required, as this is a critical control on the carbon drawdown. While the dominant controls on density structure are boundary driven mixing and seasonal heating, internal waves have been shown to play a small but critical role in both open ocean and shelf sea physical and biogeochemical cycles. Current knowledge on the spatial and temporal variability in internal mixing is however still severely limited. The aim of the work in this thesis was to develop new insight into the seasonal variability of physical controls on the vertical density structure and examine its biogeochemical responses in a temperate shelf sea. This thesis presents and examines new results that test the impact of boundary layer and internal wave forcing on stratification and vertical density structure in continental shelves. A new series of continuous measurements of full depth density and velocity structure, meteorological and wave forcing, surface nitrate and surface chlorophyll a spanning 17 months (March’14 − July’15) provide unprecedented coverage over a full seasonal cycle at a station 120 km north-east from the continental shelf break. Work within this thesis showed that the controls on vertical density structure at the mooring site were largely analogous to that of open-ocean environments with tidal mixing only playing a minor role. This result contrasts with the well-known tidally controlled frontal systems described by Simpson and Hunter (1974). Since a large proportion of continental shelf regions are away from tidal mixing fronts this result suggest the requirement for an adjusted third regime that bridges the gap between open-ocean environments and frontal regions, to accurately predict the vertical density structure within them. The long-term observations presented in this thesis reveal a seasonality within the internal wave energy, which suggest internal mixing varying relative to the seasonal cycle of stratification, represented by N2. By investigating the representation of this seasonality by three commonly used internal wave parameterisations it was shown that each predicted a seasonality that directly contradicted that observed within the internal wave energy. It was suggested that the reason for this was most likely due to their failure to introduce the enhanced S2 that is attributable to internal waves, which have been shown in this work to have a strong seasonal cycle with maximum energy levels during the summer. In an attempt to provide realistic scaling of turbulence an adjusted iteration of the MacKinnon and Gregg (2003a) scaling of turbulence was employed using an observed close relationship between N2 and S2 to introduce a state of marginal stability in the pycnocline, thus introducing a seasonally varying level of internal mixing that follows the observed seasonality in internal wave energy. Examining the biogeochemical response to the seasonal change in vertical density struc- ture also highlighted the importance of the autumn phytoplankton bloom within the annual cycle of primary production. By putting the autumn phytoplankton bloom within the context of the seasonal cycle it was shown that it has the potential to be as productive as the well-studied spring phytoplankton bloom and the summer sub-surface chlorophyll maximum and thus has the capacity to significantly contribute to the drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The UK Coalition Government came to power in 2010 promising radical reform of the English planning system, and a key part of this programme was the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). This drastically reduced the volume of existing national-level policy, and introduced measures intended to spur economic growth, increase housing delivery, and localise some elements of decision making. However, it was the creation of the NPPF which makes it one of the most remarkable policy episodes in the recent history of English planning reform; not only did the Government deploy novel 'open' policy making strategies, but it sparked an unprecedented national campaign, led by national newspapers and some of the largest membership organisations in Europe. Despite its significance, as yet, there are no in-depth academic accounts of this important policy episode. This is partly indicative of the fact that the central state - defined here as central government departments and their agencies, the core executive, and the non-state actors who work directly with these agents to reproduce state power - very rarely comes into focus as a concrete and peopled policy making site in the critical spatial governance and planning (CSGP) literatures. Because the CSGP literatures rely on accounts of national-level policy making which rest at discursive or institutional levels of analysis, we know very little about how the actual practices, strategies, and rationalities of agents in Whitehall shape and interact with wider trajectories of spatial governance in England. In response, this thesis asks and answers the question: How did different practices, strategies, and rationalities of 'getting policy done' in the UK central state shape the development of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) from ideas initially presented in the green paper Open Source Planning, and what do they suggest about future trajectories in English spatial governance reform? I draw on Bent Flyvbjerg's 'phronetic' approach to social science to provide a fine-grained and 'practice-orientated' case narrative of the development of the NPPF. This narrative runs from the Conservative Party's development of its 2010 manifesto, through the Coalition negotiations, the NPPF's drafting process, departmental negotiations, and the national campaigns, to the production of the final version and its public reception. From this account, I trace out the links between the policy making practices of agents involved in the creation of the document, and wider trajectories in English spatial governance. In doing so this thesis also feeds into contemporary debates in the CSGP literature about the role of the central state in shifting modes of spatial governance, the concept of post-politics, and to what extent it helps explain the actual policy making strategies pursued by civil servants and ministers. The case narrative primarily draws on 27 semi-structured in-depth interviews with civil servants, politicians, and other individuals personally involved in the NPPF process, alongside documentary analysis. The findings highlight how the 'open' policy making approach deployed by Ministers rested on neoliberal critiques of state-bureaucratic power which underpinned the Coalition's wider planning reforms. Indeed, the reconfiguration of the policy making practices of, and relationships between, agents in the central state was a fundamental component of the Big Society and Localism projects. It is arguable that the key thrust of the Coalition's neoliberalising planning reforms and political strategies during this period was less about changing planning policy per se, than the ways and means by which it was 'done'. The case narrative also illustrates how important it is to conceptualise the UK central state not as a single policy actor, but as a heterogeneous collection of policy actors, each possessing different spatial governance agendas and different policy making rationalities. The institutional architecture of Whitehall systematically mediates between these different interest groups, which have different spatial governance agendas. Understanding the way these interactions are structured and restructured in practice - particularly between the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and the Treasury - is an important part of understanding the ways in which neoliberal discourses dominate English planning reform. Drawing on the core executive studies tradition in British political science literature, I argue that the dynamics of this DCLGTreasury relationship during the creation of the NPPF point to important trends in the operation of the state which may have a significant bearing upon neoliberalising trajectories of spatial governance in England. Most significantly, through a process I term the 'neoliberalisation of the Westminster Model', policy making power in the central state is becoming increasingly centralised towards the core executive, with consequences for the types of policy knowledge deployed, the ability of different non-government agents to influence policy, and the framing of planning-related policy problems. Furthermore, this centralisation of power in the central state challenges assumptions - underpinning much post-politics CSGP research - about a state-level shift from 'government' to 'governance'. Ultimately, however, this thesis' central argument is a simple and modest one; the central state represents a crucially important spatial governance policy making site, collection of actors, and target of neoliberal restructuring. As such, the CSGP stand to gain a great deal from engaging with the central state, and the day-to-day practices which comprise it.

This thesis examines the politics of anti-austerity in Liverpool, UK. Through a politically-engaged activist ethnography, interviews with anti-austerity activists and city councillors, and content analysis, the research explores how both grassroots actors and Liverpool City Council conceptualise and politicise austerity, as well as how they imagine, or begin to enact, political alternatives to austerity. In response to growing calls from geographers to interrogate the situatedness of anti-austerity politics, this thesis adopts an explicitly spatial reading of the organic evolution of anti-austerity resistance. Through so doing, it illustrates how a crisis that was initially sparked by mortgage defaults in the US has resulted, a decade later, in the contested reshaping of what a Liverpudlian political identity is, or should be. Accordingly, this thesis critiques dominant structuralist accounts that depict people and place as passive victims in the roll-out of austerity politics, which lead to politically disempowering analyses. The research considers what the potentialities and limits are to the conduct of anti-austerity politics at the municipal scale, and reveals that Liverpool City Council’s strategy of austerity-inspired urban entrepreneurialism, coupled with more nuanced strategies to pursue social justice within a competitive neoliberal environment, was dominant. The voices of grassroots activists were unheard in public political debate, and their politics was constrained by a number of structural and strategic dysfunctions. The thesis advances a ́more-than-cuts’ framework which views both institutional and grassroots actors as conscious agents in the mediation and contestation of anti-austerity politics within the locale. Liverpool City Council pursued a rhetorically antagonistic/strategically cooperative relationship with successive Conservative-led central governments, through which austerity was embraced as the transformative catalyst for institutional change. Central to this was the council’s mobilising of a vision of Liverpool’s historic entrepreneurial spirit as part of an aggressive strategy to construct new relational political identities vis-à-vis national and international politics. Likewise, resistance by grassroots activists – envisioned as an assemblage – cannot be read as merely reactive, localised or defensive, despite seemingly failing to advance credible political alternatives. Although their original demands were not realised, they were able to contest the political landscape. The spatial examination that this study undertakes demonstrates how grassroots conceptions of anti-austerity were constitutive of new political identities and solidarities, and discusses how these were produced at the intersection of different trajectories of resistance, both past and present. Conceptually, the more-than-cuts framework shows how anti-austerity politics involves the articulation of wider political imaginaries. Empirically, this thesis suggests that, although the period of research represented a relatively dormant period for radical politics in the city, struggles over austerity reshaped existing local political networks, and contributed to the elaboration of a broader (national) anti-austerity politics. The assemblage helped pave the way for the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party in September 2015. As a result, there is newfound potential for radical challenges to neoliberalism at the local and national scales. The research consequently identifies possibilities for the articulation of new forms of progressive localism through which political alternatives might flourish. Given the rise of both regional devolution and Brexit, which are set to impact upon Liverpool and elsewhere, this is a pressing task that must be addressed if the pursuit of social justice is to be realised.

The term polycentricity originally emerged in the West, but with multiple meanings. More recently, the concept of polycentricity has been increasingly invoked as a policy idea, seeking balanced development within both cities, and more broadly, regions. Consequently, polycentricity has been applied to a variety of spatial plans at a number of different scales. Edge cities have become a part of the polycentric city regions used to try to create balanced development particularly at the intra-urban scale. Towards the end of 20th century, polycentricity and the edge city, were introduced as new planning concepts into China. Subsequently a number of super/mega city regions (shiyu) began to apply polycentric development spatial planning strategies designed to better facilitate more sustainable and balanced development. After more than fifteen years’ development, there is, however, little research available on how successful this application has been, and it remains unknown whether Chinese edge cities, at a local level, have been effectively planned and formed under the umbrella of upper level polycentric strategies. This research attempts to fill this gap by developing a conceptual framework for the application of polycentricity and a methodology for investigating it, at both the city regional and local scales with specific reference to the Chines context. More particularly the focus is to reveal and interpret the challenges and difficulties, from the perspective of planning and development, of Chinese edge cities. Methodologically, this research adopts an embedded case study approach. Initially eight super/mega city regions were selected across China based on when the application of polycentricity development first became evident. This macro policy analysis led to two more detailed city regions Guangzhou and Nanjing. After this, the formation of Chinese edge cities was explored at a local scale. This involved looking at the development trajectories of the selected Chinese edge cities through planned, unplanned or integrated processes, and also going beyond the subject of edge cities, and examining the dynamics behind their formation. The data were mainly drawn from documentary analyses of plans/policies and interviews with key stakeholders in China at both the city regional and local scales. The findings highlight the divergent interpretations of polycentricity in master planning practices at the city regional scale and show how plans have been adjusted to help deliver the idea of polycentric development. Although the concept of polycentricity is relatively new in China, it has also been a fuzzy and flexible term open to different interpretations as in the West. It has become a policy tool especially used in spatial planning to help promote land-centred urban policies, and to further facilitate central cities’ prosperity through spatial restructuring. At the local scale, the findings show three different development trajectories of the emerging Chinese edge cities in terms of three elements: spatial form, functional identity and governance arrangements. Major challenges in effectively delivering polycentric development strategies and in forming Chinese edge cities are recognised particularly from the perspective of key actors.

Diatoms are associated with nutrient rich waters with high biomass that are commonly found at high latitudes, in coastal waters, in upwelling zones or during seasonal blooms. They display an opportunistic growth described as a ’bloom and bust’ life cyce and a remarkable diversity. These caracteristics are considered to be responsible for their success in aquatic environments and the reason why they contribute about 20% of global primary production and allow them to quickly dominate phytoplankton communities when environmental conditions become favourable. The processes that enable this impressive plasticity of diatoms in response to environmental variability are mostly unknown. A novel conserved DNA binding protein (BIG1) was recently identified and found to differentially regulate genes involved in progression through the cell cycle in centric diatoms as well as about 30% of genes found in natural centric diatom blooms. In our study we show that the BIG1 protein is linked to the regulation of initiation of fast growth upon nutrient addition. Overexpression of BIG1 in the model centric diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana enabled fast recovery and growth after a period of nitrogen stravation and exposure to low and high temperature as well as fostered growth under suboptimal temperatures. We present evidence that BIG1 has an impact on photosynthesis and suggest its involvement in directing the photosynthetic electron flow around Photosystem I. Our results may provide insights into regulatory processes that govern diatoms’ oportunistic growth.

Malaysia’s rapid economic and demographic development has put pressures on its water supplies and consequently on the quality of its river water. The Selangor River, close to the nation’s capital, is now a major source of water and there are fears that its water quality will deteriorate. The Malaysian Government in its Vision for Water 2025 states that rivers should achieve Class II as measured by Malaysia’s Water Quality Index (WQI) (Class I is cleanest). The objectives of this thesis are to investigate the effects of flow through the 10 major tidal control gates (TCGs) which regulate run-off from the oil-palm plantations into the river, and to predict the water quality for the river in 2015, 2020 and 2030. In order to achieve these objectives it was necessary to set-up, calibrate and validate a commercial one-dimensional numerical model, InfoWorks, which includes both the hydrodynamics and water quality of the river-estuary network. It was concluded that there was insufficient hydrodynamic (stage and current) and water quality data to fully calibrate and validate the InfoWorks model but it performed well when compared with measured salinity transects. The model was found to be relatively insensitive to the choice of diffusion parameters but needed a high value for the oxygen transfer velocity, 0.3 m h-1, to get reasonable values for the dissolved oxygen (DO) along the river. The effect of run-off through the TCGs was less than expected and attributed to the high oxygen transfer velocity and needs to be addressed before the model can properly represent run-off through the TCGs. The model shows the WQI of the lower reaches of the river to be Class III in both wet and dry seasons except close to the estuary where it is Class II due to tidal flushing. The dissertation identifies several deficiencies in the model; the lack of an operational ramp function at the estuary boundary, the use of a single value of the oxygen transfer velocity throughout, and the exclusion of water extraction. Land-use changes above Rantau Panjang, the upper boundary of the InfoWorks model, and water quality data were used to estimate the water quality and its uncertainties at Rantau Panjang in 2015, 2020 and 2030 due to predicted development in the upper catchment for both wet and dry seasons. InfoWorks models of water quality along the river in 2015, 2020 and 2030, which included extraction at the Batang Berjuntai barrage, predict little change in the WQ (Class II/III boundary) below the barrage during the dry season but a rapid deterioration in the wet season (down to Class III/IV by 2030) showing the importance of water extraction to the water quality of the river. Overall, because of its relative simplicity and ease of operation, InfoWorks is considered to be a useful tool for river management in Malaysia.

A large variety of halocarbon species are present in the atmosphere and can significantly impact stratospheric ozone depletion and/or global warming. Compound use has been phased out, reduced and replaced for some species under global control measures such as the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols. However, relatively long atmospheric lifetimes, imperfect substitutes and incomplete reductions in usage mean that global abundances of halocarbon species still require regular monitoring. This is especially true for the rapidly developing East and South-East Asian regions where widespread emissions have been repeatedly reported in recent years. To detect a variety of halocarbon mixing ratios, air samples are cryotrapped and analysed via gas chromatography couple with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Highly sensitive and precise instrumentation widens this range further and the automation of the analysis system would improve and extend sample throughput. A semi-automated inlet system for a GC-MS set-up was constructed and cryotrapping with liquid nitrogen was tested successfully. In the atmosphere, anthropogenic emissions are the main source of many halocarbons, however methyl halides also have large natural sources including from cultivated crops like rice. Using genetically mapped and altered Arabidopsis thaliana and Physcomitrella patens, methyl halide emission rates were calculated. Differences found when compared to wild type plants indicated the potential for developing ‘ozone-safe’ crops through manipulation of the HOL-gene, which may particularly benefit Asian emissions. Three short-term sampling campaigns based in Taiwan assessed abundances of mainly anthropogenically-sourced halocarbons in East Asia. Backwards trajectory modelling was used to estimate potential source regions and both enhanced and close to background mixing ratios were observed for a range of species. Pollution events and interspecies correlations were found for many halocarbons with poorly understood sources such as CFC-113a and HCFC-133a. A further short-term campaign based in Bachok, Malaysia assessed long-range transport of ozone-depleting species to South-East Asia during the cold surge phenomenon of the winter monsoon, when rapid vertical transport may occur. Short-lived species were observed at significantly high abundances suggesting their potential impact on stratospheric ozone may have been previously underestimated.

Three years of carbonate system measurements from Ryder Bay on the West Antarctic Peninsula are presented. The strong, asymmetric seasonal cycle of surface water Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) is quantitatively attributed to four processes:mixing of water masses, air-sea CO2 flux, calcium carbonate precipitation/dissolution and photosynthesis/respiration. In summer, reduced mixing with deeper water, net photosynthesis, and melting glacial ice and sea ice reduce DIC. In winter, mixing with deeper water and net heterotrophy increase DIC, resulting in aragonite saturation states close to 1. Ryder Bay is a net annual sink of atmospheric CO2 of 0.90-1.39 mol C m-2 yr-1. The observed variability demonstrates that future climatic changes may significantly affect carbon cycling in this dynamic environment. Carbonate system measurements from the Drake Passage and A23 sections are compared. Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (LCDW) becomes colder and fresher from Drake Passage to A23 due to mixing in the Scotia Sea. The coincident decrease in Total Alkalinity (TA) increases the fugacity of CO2, potentially reducing CO2 uptake in the Weddell Sea through the influence of upwelling LCDW on surface waters. Ventilation of Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) in the south of Drake Passage suggests that this region is an important source of CO2 to the atmosphere. The zonal variability of the carbonate system in deep water masses around the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is assessed. Zonal variability, caused by the inflow of North Atlantic Deep Water in the Atlantic sector and UCDW in the Indian and Pacific sectors, has implications for regional air-sea CO2 flux in the high-latitude Southern Ocean. Temporal variability in Sub-Antarctic ModeWater is investigated. Most of the observed DIC increase is attributed to rising atmospheric CO2. There is also weak evidence for increasing remineralised organic carbon, possibly relatedto changes in the strength and location of ventilation.