Thesis (Ph.D)--City Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010. / Committee Chair: Elliott, Michael; Committee Member: Carroll, C. Ronald; Committee Member: Contant, Cheryl; Committee Member: Norton, Bryan; Committee Member: Stiftel, Bruce. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

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This dissertation examined the impacts of multiple collaborative planning and implementation processes on ecosystem management of the Everglades wetlands of South Florida. In particular, the research focused on collaboration's role in (1) reducing phosphorus pollution in runoff from the Everglades Agricultural Area in the historic northern Everglades and (2) improving the water flow regime in Shark Slough of the southern Everglades. Restoration of the greater Everglades watershed is the largest such initiative in the world, and it may also be the most collaborative, with scores of these processes used at various scales since the mid-1960s. Ecosystem management is the most advanced approach to environmental governance, and its three tenets of integrative, adaptive, and ecologically protective governance provide a framework for evaluating environmental planning processes. Proponents of collaborative processes believe they are exceptionally suited to promoting the tenets of ecosystem management. Critics of collaboration, however, are concerned with the potential for cooptation of environmental interests, among other issues. Using qualitative case study methodology, the research found that collaborative processes improved ecosystem management, but not to the degree expected by collaboration proponents. Collaborative processes were integrative of values, information, activities, and political support across the ecosystem, yet integration had biases and limits as a result of groups' strategic behaviors and processes' emphasis on reaching agreement rather than fully exploring the issues. Cooptation of environmental interests was not a significant problem. Collaborative processes promoted adaptation and social learning in specific cases, but at a macro level helped to maintain the status quo of the dominant water management agencies and technocratic paradigms. Process outcomes were protective of ecological health in that they made steady, incremental progress towards ecological restoration. Progress had significant setbacks however, because collaboratively developed policies were subject to capture by economic interests. Despite the collaborative improvements in ecosystem management, ecological health remains a distant and uncertain prospect for the Everglades.

Diss. Alnarp : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2004.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-08-22Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:56:35Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 pinton_lg_me_rcla.pdf: 2438481 bytes, checksum: 5fcc22e435ffc2831fece38dd326a248 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A Geoecologia da Paisagem proporciona a elaboração de zoneamentos geoambientais fundamentados em uma análise sistêmica, na qual os componentes antrópicos e naturais se integram a partir de uma caracterização socioeconômica e geoecológica da área estudada. Neste contexto, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo geral elaborar o zoneamento geoambiental e funcional da área urbana do município de Cubatão-SP por meio da proposta metodológica de Rodriguez; Silva e Cavalcanti (2004) na escala 1:10.000. A escolha dessa área de estudo se deu devido a complexidade desse sistema ambiental litorâneo frente as atividades antrópicas desenvolvidas ao longo dos séculos no município, as quais tem corrompido a capacidade desse em suportar impactos ambientais. A pesquisa teve como respaldo metodológico os princípios que concernem à Teoria Geral dos Sistemas, procurando compreender a área urbana do município de Cubatão-SP como um sistema aberto. Ademais, estes princípios fundamentam a proposta metodológica de Rodriguez; Silva e Cavalcanti (2004). A caracterização socioeconômica e geoecológica da área de estudo foi realizada a partir da elaboração de distintos materiais cartográficos, em que a correlação entre esses resultou em três documentos cartográficos de síntese: Carta de Unidades Geoambientais; Carta de Estado Geoambiental e Carta de Zoneamento Geoambiental e Funcional. A Carta de Unidades Geoambientais possibilitou a identificação das paisagens dos sistemas Serrano e Planície Quaternária mais susceptíveis ao desenvolvimento de processos naturais e, ainda, aquelas fragilizadas devido as intervenções antrópicas. Já a Carta de Estado Geoambiental permitiu verificar as condições de regulação das funções geoecológicas das unidades geoambientais perante as... / The Geoecology provides the development of geoenvironmental zoning based on a systemic analysis, in which the natural and anthropic components are integrated by geoecological and socioeconomic characterization of the studied area. This research aimed to establish the functional and geoenvironmental zoning of the urban area of the city of Cubatão – state of São Paulo (SP) - through the methodology proposed by Rodriguez; Silva and Cavalcanti (2004) on scale of 1:10.000. The choice of this area was due to the complexity of this coastal environmental system in view of human activities developed over the centuries in the city, which has corrupted its ability to withstand such impacts. The research was supported by the methodological principles of the General Systems Theory, seeking to understand the urban area of Cubatão-SP as an open system. Besides, these principles underlie the methodology proposed by Rodriguez; Silva and Cavalcanti (2004). The geoecological and socioeconomic characterization of the studied area was made from the development of different cartographic materials, and the correlation between them resulted in three cartographic documents of synthesis: Geoenvironmental Units Map, Geoenvironmental Conditions Map and Functional and Geoenvironmental Zoning Map. The Geoenvironmental Units Map enabled the identification of landscapes of Mountain and Quaternary Plain systems that are more susceptible to development of natural processes, and also those ones that are fragile due to human interventions. The Geoenvironmental Conditions Map allowed to verify the conditions for regulating the geoecological functions of the environmental units in the face of human interventions. Finally, the Functional and Geoenvironmental Zoning Map revealed conflicts and/or adjustments of current land... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Acompanha 10 mapas / Orientador: Cenira Maria Lupinacci da Cunha / Banca: Regina Célia de Oliveira / Banca: Iandara Alves Mendes / Resumo: A Geoecologia da Paisagem proporciona a elaboração de zoneamentos geoambientais fundamentados em uma análise sistêmica, na qual os componentes antrópicos e naturais se integram a partir de uma caracterização socioeconômica e geoecológica da área estudada. Neste contexto, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo geral elaborar o zoneamento geoambiental e funcional da área urbana do município de Cubatão-SP por meio da proposta metodológica de Rodriguez; Silva e Cavalcanti (2004) na escala 1:10.000. A escolha dessa área de estudo se deu devido a complexidade desse sistema ambiental litorâneo frente as atividades antrópicas desenvolvidas ao longo dos séculos no município, as quais tem corrompido a capacidade desse em suportar impactos ambientais. A pesquisa teve como respaldo metodológico os princípios que concernem à Teoria Geral dos Sistemas, procurando compreender a área urbana do município de Cubatão-SP como um sistema aberto. Ademais, estes princípios fundamentam a proposta metodológica de Rodriguez; Silva e Cavalcanti (2004). A caracterização socioeconômica e geoecológica da área de estudo foi realizada a partir da elaboração de distintos materiais cartográficos, em que a correlação entre esses resultou em três documentos cartográficos de síntese: Carta de Unidades Geoambientais; Carta de Estado Geoambiental e Carta de Zoneamento Geoambiental e Funcional. A Carta de Unidades Geoambientais possibilitou a identificação das paisagens dos sistemas Serrano e Planície Quaternária mais susceptíveis ao desenvolvimento de processos naturais e, ainda, aquelas fragilizadas devido as intervenções antrópicas. Já a Carta de Estado Geoambiental permitiu verificar as condições de regulação das funções geoecológicas das unidades geoambientais perante as... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The Geoecology provides the development of geoenvironmental zoning based on a systemic analysis, in which the natural and anthropic components are integrated by geoecological and socioeconomic characterization of the studied area. This research aimed to establish the functional and geoenvironmental zoning of the urban area of the city of Cubatão - state of São Paulo (SP) - through the methodology proposed by Rodriguez; Silva and Cavalcanti (2004) on scale of 1:10.000. The choice of this area was due to the complexity of this coastal environmental system in view of human activities developed over the centuries in the city, which has corrupted its ability to withstand such impacts. The research was supported by the methodological principles of the General Systems Theory, seeking to understand the urban area of Cubatão-SP as an open system. Besides, these principles underlie the methodology proposed by Rodriguez; Silva and Cavalcanti (2004). The geoecological and socioeconomic characterization of the studied area was made from the development of different cartographic materials, and the correlation between them resulted in three cartographic documents of synthesis: Geoenvironmental Units Map, Geoenvironmental Conditions Map and Functional and Geoenvironmental Zoning Map. The Geoenvironmental Units Map enabled the identification of landscapes of Mountain and Quaternary Plain systems that are more susceptible to development of natural processes, and also those ones that are fragile due to human interventions. The Geoenvironmental Conditions Map allowed to verify the conditions for regulating the geoecological functions of the environmental units in the face of human interventions. Finally, the Functional and Geoenvironmental Zoning Map revealed conflicts and/or adjustments of current land... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Environmental planning is very cumbersome work for environmentalists, government agencies like USDA and NRCS, and farmers. There are a number of conflicts and issues involved in such a decision making process. This research is based on the work to provide a common platform for environmental planning called WRESTORE (Watershed Restoration using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources). We have designed a system that can be used to provide the best management practices for environmental planning. A distributed system was designed to combine high performance computing power of clusters/supercomputers in running various environmental model simulations. The system is designed to be a multi-user system just like a multi-user operating system. A number of stakeholders can log-on and run environmental model simulations simultaneously, seamlessly collaborate, and make collective judgments by visualizing their landscapes. In the research, we identified challenges in running such a system and proposed various solutions. One challenge was the lack of fast optimization algorithm. In our research, several algorithms are utilized such as Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Learning Automaton (LA). However, the criticism is that LA has a slow rate of convergence and that both LA and GA have the problem of getting stuck in local optima. We tried to solve the multi-objective problems using LA in batch mode to make the learning faster and accurate. The problems where the evaluation of the fitness functions for optimization is a bottleneck, like running environmental model simulation, evaluation of a number of such models in parallel can give considerable speed-up. In the multi-objective LA, different weight pair solutions were evaluated independently. We created their parallel versions to make them practically faster in computation. Additionally, we extended the parallelism concept with the batch mode learning. Another challenge we faced was in User Modeling. There are a number of User Modeling techniques available. Selection of the best user modeling technique is a hard problem. In this research, we modeled user's preferences and search criteria using an ANN (Artificial Neural Network). Training an ANN with limited data is not always feasible. There are many situations where a simple modeling technique works better if the learning data set is small. We formulated ways to fine tune the ANN in case of limited data and also introduced the concept of Deep Learning in User Modeling for environmental planning system.