published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Assessment of water resources administration in Nigeria reveals gross inadequacies. The present decision-making framework for water resources administration is not expected to contribute much toward national development in the long run. Water institutions which should provide the means for implementing decisions can best be described as non-existent. Evaluation of water institutions found in the United States resulted in the development of three alternative institutional models of water resources administration, any one of which is recommended for adoption by Nigeria depending on the circumstances. Each of these three alternative models is characterized by significant citizen participation at all levels and at all stages of the decision-making process. One of the alternatives organizes water institutions by level of government, where the states are responsible for all aspects of water resources administration, as on the Colorado River Basin. Another alternative organizes water institutions on the basis of regional, basin-wide executive agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). A third alternative adopts a mixed strategy. Certain areas would have TVA-type executive agencies, while other areas would have no TVA-type agency, but the states would then be responsible for all aspects of water resources administration and development. This situation prevails throughout the United States. At the user level, the institutional framework of decision making for water resources administration provided by the special water districts found in the United States is recommended for adoption by Nigeria to fill a vacuum created at the interface of the water resources system and the social system. The choice of an overall institutional model for Nigeria will be determined by the final political map of the country in relation to the identified river basins. These alternative institutional models for water resources administration are also recommended for consideration by other developing countries.

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3 pp. / Phenology is defined and described in terms of how we use observations in education and research. Suggestions for implementing phenology lessons using examples from 4-H youth development and Master Gardener and citizen science training.

The Mobile phone has contributed to massive changes in the way that human beings communicate with each other and is a technology that is a part of society’s globalization. Opinions differ in the area of user interface where some feel that mobile phones exclude users such as senior citizens or users with an intellectual or a physical disability. Universal Design –‘design for all’, is a vision that intends to bring about settings, products and services that suits as many people as possible irrespective of an individual’s needs and prospects. The criteria for ‘design for all’ are among other things flexibility, user friendliness, comprehensibility and a high tolerance for mistakes. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the mobile phones graphic user-interface from the theory of a universal design. From this general purpose the study look more closely at senior citizens perspective of mobile phones graphic user-interface. A qualitative study in the form of 4 interviews was used. All of the individuals that participated in the study felt that the mobile phone is a very good and beneficial invention. Mobile phones bring about a feeling of security and safety since it is felt that is always possible to reach family and friends in the event of a crisis. It is difficult to provide a interface that is Universal, because every individual is unique. Every individual has a different opinion on what is Universal Design and what is not. People have different needs of using the mobile phone and that’s one of the reasons why it’s difficult to provide a universal design of the graphical user interface of a mobile phone.

Citizen participation includes those activities by citizens who are not public officials that are more or less intended to influence the actions taken by government (Verba & Nie, 1972). Citizen initiated contacts are one such form of participation. In 1999, the volume of complaint and service related calls received by the Department of Public Works and Engineering equaled almost 20 percent of the city's population. Via Houston's Customer Response Center, these contacts are logged in, directed to the appropriate department and incorporated into the department's infrastructure management system (IMS). The goal of the IMS is to provide a systems approach to making cost-effective decisions about the design, rehabilitation, construction, retrofitting, maintenance or abandonment of the city's infrastructure (Grigg, 1988). To date, the effectiveness of this program is perceived as less than ideal and the public is critical of the results (Graves, 2002). Residents express concerns that infrastructure projects are targeted towards business and industrial areas while neighborhood needs are being ignored. Politicians are concerned that projects are not equally distributed among the districts. Meanwhile, public works' staff are concerned because there isn't enough money to address citizen calls, business and industrial needs and political concerns in addition to the problems they have identified. The purpose of this research is twofold: to determine if citizen initiated contacts have been a significant factor in the selection of water and sewer projects and, to identify other factors that may play a role in the decision making process. This study is longitudinal in nature, covering the time period between 1992 and 1999. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis were applied to the various data sets provided by the City of Houston. The results of the analysis supports the following: - Citizen contacts have been significant in determining the allocation of water and sewer CIP projects; however, that has not been consistent through the years. - Factors such as race, class, line type, material, size, age and location also factor into the decision making process.