This paper examines the implementation of biodiversity in local policy in the cities of Melbourne and Stockholm. Using process tracing as methodology, the study examines the process from the time the process to develop a policy on climate adaptation is initiated, to the time it is adopted. The process is examined in order to determine if and how biodiversity is included in local climate adaptation policies. Particular attention is paid to citizen participation in local governance in the process examined in the light of the research and theories developed by Elinor Ostrom. The paper finds biodiversity to be included in the policy outlined in the policy document in Melbourne, and citizen participation in local governance may have been conducive to this result. In contrast, biodiversity is included but in a less pronounced manner in the climate adaptation policy in Stockholm, and there seems to be no citizen participation in the policy process examined. These results indicate that citizen participation in local governance could be a contributing factor to biodiversity being included in local climate adaptation policy. It is however not unequivocally determined that it is in fact a causal mechanism.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissMF.pdf: 2025508 bytes, checksum: f2e422deb152e992fd87b135fec6cd65 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-08-21 / The last decade was scenery of big transformations, among them the social revolution caused by Internet stand out, changing the way that people find information, communicate and buy products and services. Moreover, the convergence of telephony, informatics and consume electronic, supplies more and more mobile devices equipped with Internet access through wireless network. This changing caused a big problem to the Internet content available at Web: how the same content should be adjusted to different kinds of users witch have particular preferences, and be presented in mobile devices featured with a big diversity of functionalities? To solve this problem, many research proposals are been developed at content adaptation area. One challenge of this area is define, from a user request, witch adaptation services are necessary and these execute sequence. In order to have the best decision, delivery context and the available services have to be acknowledged. This information are described at profiles and rules, considering that nowadays the majority of proposed solutions are based in proprietary models and not compatibles among each other. As well, the discovery of services generally is strongly based on syntactic matching, what weak the discovery and composition of services. Intending to contribute with content adaptation area, this dissertation defines an ontology-based set of profiles and reused. Furthermore, shows how the rules have to be integrated with services profiles, providing a rules and profiles independent solution. Also are presented the benefits use of semantics at match and composition of services in an open environment such as the Web. The implementation and the case study of this proposition were based at a component-based content adaptation framework. With the purpose of extend its functionality, in order to support ontology, and others necessary functions, components were reused, adapted or created. This extensions made possible achieve the case study and the validation of proposed solution. / Esta última década foi cenário de grandes transformações, dentre estas destaca-se a revolução social que a Internet está promovendo, alterando a forma como as pessoas encontram informações, comunicam-se e compram produtos e serviços. Além disso, a convergência da telefonia, computação e eletrônica de consumo, está disponibilizando cada vez mais dispositivos móveis de acesso a Internet que se comunicam via redes sem fio. Essas mudanças causaram um grande problema para o conteúdo disponível na Web: como um mesmo conteúdo pode se adequar a diferentes tipos de usuário, que possuem suas próprias preferências, e ser apresentado em dispositivos móveis compostos por uma grande diversidade de características funcionais? Para resolver este problema, muitas pesquisas estão sendo realizadas no campo da adaptação de conteúdo. Um dos desafios nesse campo é definir, a partir de uma requisição do usuário, quais serviços de adaptação serão necessários e em que ordem estes serão executados. Para que essa decisão seja tomada corretamente são necessárias informações sobre o contexto de entrega e os serviços de adaptação disponíveis. Essas informações são descritas por meio de perfis e regras, sendo que no momento a maioria das soluções propostas se baseia em modelos proprietários e incompatíveis entre si. Além disso, a descoberta de serviços geralmente é amplamente baseada em comparações sintáticas, o que compromete a descoberta e composição de serviços. Com o objetivo de contribuir para a área de adaptação de conteúdo, esta dissertação define um conjunto de perfis e regras baseado em ontologias. Além disso, demonstra como as regras devem ser integradas aos perfis de serviços, proporcionando uma solução que seja independente de novos tipos de serviços e regras. Também são apresentados os benefícios que a descoberta e composição de serviços obtêm com o uso de semântica em um ambiente aberto como a Web. A implementação e o estudo de caso dessas propostas foi baseado num framework para adaptação de conteúdo baseado em componentes. Para estender a sua funcionalidade com o propósito de suportar ontologias, e outras funções necessárias, componentes foram reusados, adaptados e criados. Essa extensão viabilizou a realização do estudo de caso e a validar a solução proposta.

Cette thèse étudie les mécanismes économiques concernant la transition vers des technologies propres et examine les approches politiques pour atteindre le sentier de transition socialement optimale. Elle examine les politiques économiques visant à faire face au changement climatique, telles que l'adaptation et la taxation des ressources non-renouvelables. En outre, elle examine les politiques économiques visant à accroître l'utilisation de technologies efficaces et identifie les cas pour lesquels la politique atteint ses objectifs ou non. Elle analyse également l'impact des inégalités de richesse sur le soutien politique aux taxes environnementales. Le premier chapitre étudie la transition énergétique en utilisant un modèle de croissance optimale dans lequel les ressources non-renouvelables et renouvelables sont des substituts imparfaits. Le deuxième chapitre étudie le rôle de la politique d'adaptation sur la transition vers une économie propre. Il intègre la politique d'adaptation dans le problème de l'extraction optimale des ressources non-renouvelables avec des externalités de pollution, en mettant l'accent sur la politique d'adaptation en étant une variable de stock. Le troisième chapitre se concentre sur le problème de l'adoption des nouvelles technologies dans un cadre micro-économique. Il regarde le comportement des entreprises qui font face à une décision d'investir : soit dans une capacité de production bon marché mais inefficace, soit dans une capacité plus chère mais efficace, lorsqu'on prend en compte la présence d'une contrainte financière. Le quatrième et dernier chapitre examine les effets distributifs d'une taxe sur la pollution en considérant une société dans laquelle la richesse est répartie de manière hétérogène entre les ménages. / This dissertation investigates the economic mechanisms underlying the transition to clean technologies and examines policy approaches to achieve the socially optimal path. It studies various policy measures aiming to deal with climate change, such as adaptation and taxation of non-renewable resources. Furthermore, it examines the policy instruments that target increasing the use of efficient technologies and identifies cases in which the policy reaches its objectives or not. It also analyzes the role of heterogeneity in society on agents' willingness to support a pollution tax. The first chapter studies the energy transition by using an optimal growth model in which non-renewable and renewable natural resources are imperfect substitutes in providing energy services necessary for production. The second chapter studies the role of adaptation policy on the transition to a low­ carbon economy. lt incorporates adaptation policy into the problem of optimal non-renewable resource extraction with pollution externalities, by focusing on the capital nature of adaptation measures. The third chapter focuses on the problem of adopting new technologies in a micro-economic framework. lt studies the behavior of firms when they face a decision to invest either in a cheap but inefficient production capacity or in an expensive but efficient one, by taking into account the presence of a financial constraint. The fourth and last chapter investigates the distributional impacts of a pollution tax by considering a society in which wealth is distributed heterogeneously among households.