A conceptual model of the regional hydrogeology of the White Peak, considered fundamental to the understanding of the local (Wye) catchment has been presented. Specific to the local catchment, an investigation of the karst hydrogeology has been carried out in the context of its geological setting using results from: tracer experiments, chemical analyses of spring water, and hydrograph analyses; alongside detailed consideration of speleogenetic processes and terrain evaluation. Derived from these studies, a conceptual model has been developed, which represents the catchment hydrogeology in a number of hydrogeological units. Their attribution reflects the lithological differences and material responses to both stress and mineralization that have exerted significant influence on speleogenetic processes in the catchment. The units exhibit different recharge, through-flow and resurgence characteristics. Speleogenetic processes in some of the bedrock units support the inception horizon hypothesis. Flow paths typically pass through more than one hydrogeological unit. Lead-zinc-fluorite-baryte mineralization is associated with the dominant hydrogeological unit on the eastern side of the catchment. The mineral deposits were subject to several phases of exploitation facilitated by dewatering via drainage adits (soughs). Records pertaining to the soughs have been used to contribute to an understanding of the changes in groundwater levels as a consequence of mineral exploitation. A case study focused on Lathkill Dale has been used to test the catchment model and further explore human impacts on the hydrogeology. The major contribution of this work is in furthering the understanding of the hydrogeology and speleogenetic processes operating in the catchment. This is supplemented by additional contributions to the understanding of the distribution of superficial deposits within the catchment. Speculation regarding mineralizing processes; geomorphology; functioning of karst aquifers; seasonality of the groundwater chemistry; climate change, and the engineering properties of the bedrock may encourage further research in these areas.

This study investigates a Devensian glacial conundrum, the provenance of the Norber erratics in North Yorkshire, and the origins of a post-Devensian-deglaciation landform, pedestal rocks with Carboniferous limestone pedestals in England, Ireland and Wales. Investigations to determine the provenance of the Norber erratics were undertaken in a study area of about 2000ha. Mapping erratic dispersal and measuring striae strike revealed that the provenance is Crummackdale, and that Devensian ice crossed over only the Crummack, Sowerthwaite and Austwick formations en route to Norber. Petrographical and physical surveys further revealed that the erratics are derived from the Austwick Formation only, and that provenance is a glacially-plucked ‘amphitheatre’ in the vicinity of the Old Limekiln (SD 770707). Investigations to determine the formation of post-Devensian-deglaciation pedestal rocks with Carboniferous limestone pedestals were undertaken at 19 sites in England, Ireland and Wales, where 162 pedestal rocks and a pedestal rock field were examined. The study was divided into two, the formation of perched and mushroom pedestal rocks. An examination of weathering and erosion processes at Norber, where only perched pedestal rocks with vertical sidewalls are found, revealed that lowering of the inter-pedestal limestone surface has taken place primarily in a sub-regolith karstic environment, and that little or no pedestal formation occurred prior to ca.10000BP. In contrast, the lowering of the inter-pedestal limestone surface about perched pedestal rocks with sloping sidewalls, such as at Scales Moor (North Yorkshire) and the Burren (County Clare), has taken place primarily in a subaerial environment. Moreover, pedestal formation commenced in ca.14500BP in England and Wales, and ca.13700BP in Ireland. The pedestals of mushroom pedestal rocks have formed due to lateral dissolution under regolith that has largely been eroded, probably following deforestation in ca.3000BP.

Ethiopia's forest resource base, which is mostly found in the southwestern highlands, supports a multitude of agricultural production systems. However, similar to the trend in other parts of the developing world, deforestation has taken a heavy toll in this part of Ethiopia. Cognisant of this, recently policies and strategies have been devised that emphasise the need for citizens' participation in natural forest management. Yet, in Ethiopia there is little field-based analytical literature that throws light on the stake that villagers have in forest resources and the workings of local level forest access channels. Against this backdrop, the research examines state-community and intra-community relationships in the course of accessing forest resources under governments of widely differing political persuasions, and investigates the current importance of forests to the local household economy. This is achieved through a case study of six forest communities in a rural district of highland Kafa, southwest Ethiopia. The study employs a time line approach to trace the evolution of state-community interactions in the provision and administration of forest tenure at the local level. To this end, the research has examined the political history of Kafa and the land management policies of successive Ethiopian governments that had a bearing on local forest access and use. The broader themes of the research are informed by the literature on natural resource tenure establishment and household level forest use in agrarian systems and the discourse on management regimes in common pool resources. The research has established that throughout much of Kafa's history forests were accessed through customary tenure principles. However, following Kafa's incorporation into the Ethiopian State the central government became an important organ of forest allocation, and this situation favoured outsiders and local notables in acquiring private forest rights. The 1975 Land Reform decree extinguished all such claims, bestowed the State with exclusive land ownership rights, and created grassroots Peasant Associations (PAs) with a wide range of land administration roles. The PAs in some localities allocated village forests to rural households. Crucially, though, the State used its land ownership prerogatives to impose a range of measures that went contrary to the forest access interests of the local people. Formal state tenure notwithstanding, traditional principles and channels of forest access such as territoriality, patrilineal descent, and share cropping continue to play critical roles in the local tenure scene. These locally tailored mechanisms also command the protection and enforcement to which other formally recognised forest access channels have been accorded. The factors that permitted the co-existence of formal and informal means of access have also called for the involvement of traditional community-based organisations (CBOs) alongside state sponsored ones in the mediation of local access provision and dispute settlement. The empirical analysis underscores that local people stake forest resources with the view to producing forest goods, which are found to be important livelihood resources. Forest dependency, however, reflects the socio-economic differentiation existing in the study communities. The operational implications which the research draws are based primarily on the observed high degree of dependence of local people on the forest for their livelihoods and the communal ethos that characterise forest access provision and tenure enforcement. Finally, the influence of past patterns of access principles on the current situation; the divergent outcomes of the forest use process; and the local importance of forest goods has enabled the research to identify issues that would enrich the discourse on common property theory. These centre on the relevance of 'stewardship' in the study of resource access; the utility of examining inter-CBO interactions in the analysis of CPR access and management; the need to look beyond the 'tragedyTcomedy' dichotomy in the conceptualisation of resource management outcomes; and the desirability of re-orienting the discourse on CPR analysis towards development ideals contained in the notion of'the sustainable community'.

PhD is about the family farm in the United Kingdom. It investigates the reasons behind their survival since the end of World War Two and the current day. The research is situated in a gap in knowledge within agricultural geography that exists due to an inadequacy to explore effectively the family farm and its continuation. This is related to two strands of research. First, analysts of the era between the mid-1940s and early-mid 1980s argued that the inability of the family farm to access funding through external connections to fund technology would result in their extinction. Second, activities such as farm diversification, which have been suggested by proponents of agricultural phases since the early-mid 1980s such as 'post-productivism', have failed to provide real options for family farmers to survive without food production. This PhD acknowledges the role of the family farm itself, technology and external connections to its persistence. It creates a theoretical framework grounded in an appreciation of the everyday and mundane, which justifies concentration on a single family farm located in Ceredigion, Wales, UK. The study implemented ethnography and multi-sited ethnography by living and working on a family farm and using the complementary methods of participant observation, focused discussions and in-the-field interviewing. The study found that family farmers utilise their own creativity, resources and abilities to engage with technology and external connections in diverse, multiple and unexpected ways. These practices were related to motivations such as maintaining a good way of life, producing food and supporting the local community. In turn, these motivations were connected to a deeply embedded emotional longing to survive and keep the name on the land.

Libya is a country with a rich heritage in terms of culture, archaeological and historical sites, and a long Mediterranean coastline of sandy beaches. However, unlike the neighbouring countries of Tunisia and Egypt, which have similar attractions and which have capitalised upon these to develop successful tourist industries, Libya has not devoted its efforts to expand in this area, and this is partly a reflection of the fact that Libya has been an oil economy for the last forty years, and there has been no real need to attempt diversification of the economy on a grand scale; and partly a result of the political isolation of Libya as a result of UN and US sanctions. However, in recent years, the overreliance on oil revenues, and the potential of tourism to contribute substantially towards the economy, have encouraged the government to look towards tourism as a way to sustain the economy in the long term, and consequently, moves have been made to launch Libya as a tourist destination, especially since the lifting of the international sanctions mentioned. This study has focused on the efforts to date by Libya to refocus its economic strategy, and after reviewing the relevant literature, the researcher constructed three research instruments for use during fieldwork in Libya with different populations, in an attempt to establish the current status of the Libyan tourism industry. A questionnaire survey to establish demographic information about international tourists, and levels of satisfaction with the Libyan tourism product overall, was carried out with 282 tourists to Libya. An interview exercise was conducted with tourism administrators, and two indepth interviews were held with the UnderSecretary of State for Tourism Affairs, and the UnderSecretary of State for Education and Training Affairs, respectively. The tourist data was analysed using SPSS and crosstabulations were performed in order to identify the background of tourists (country of origin, age, sex, tourist behaviour) and their predispositions and opinions, by sex and age, on a range of dimensions within the two broader aspects of Accommodation, and Tourism Attractions. The findings reveal that women in general are less critical of Libya’s tourism product than men, and that tourists in the older age groups, who have a greater experience of travel, are more realistic in their expectations of what a developing country can offer to tourists. However, whilst Libya has immense potential as a tourist destination, with the possibility of offering several different tourist products, thereby being of interest to various market segments, it is currently unable to pursue these opportunities because of shortcomings in tourist infrastructure, in particular its lack of accommodation, tourist information, and service quality. What is currently being delivered to tourists is a substandard product which begins and ends with bureaucratic procedures at entry/exit points to the country, and which is characterised by an experience in between that reflects the lack of planning. The thesis concludes that a proper planning framework, which includes appropriate levels of investment, is necessary for a tourism industry in Libya to thrive and contribute towards the economy to the extent that the government hopes, and envisages.

No description available.

No description available.

There are many accounts of slope failures on blanket bogs, but their nature and controls are poorly understood. This study investigates the mechanisms of blanket bog failure on Cuilcagh Mountain, north-west Ireland, and identifies the critical factors affecting the stability of peatland hillslopes. This is achieved by means of extensive field investigations involving hydrological monitoring, soil sampling and comprehensive laboratory analyses to determine the physical, hydrological and geotechnical properties of the blanket peat. The results from these investigations form the basis of hillslope hydrology and slope stability modelling using finite-element modelling programmes (commercial SEEP/W and SLOPE/W software). A total of 47 failures scars were identified on Cuilcagh Mountain involving an estimated 300,000 m3 of peat. Detailed field investigations revealed two main types of peatland slope failure: shallow translational peat slides associated with the failure of clay underlying the blanket peat, and bog flows in which failure occurs as a slurrytype plastic flow with the failure zone located within the peat. Peat slides were more prevalent on the steeper slopes (7.0-17.00) of Cuilcagh, whereas bog flows were found exclusively on low gradient slopes (1.5-7.50) with deep accumulations of peat (typically up to 2.5 m). Previously it had been suggested that bog failures were confined to steep slopes or peripheral areas of blanket bogs. However, on Cuilcagh Mountain they appear to be an integral part of the natural evolution of the main peatland, with the presence of many failure scars at different stages ofre-vegetation and recovery. Conventional methods of slope stability analysis (Factor of Safety using limit equilibrium methods) were found to be adequate for use on peat slide failures, but were not as suitable for analysing the slopes prone to bog flows. Sensitivity analyses indicate that cohesion of the failure material (Le. the catotelm peat for bog flows and the underlying clay for peat slides) is the most critical factor contributing to slope failure. A reduction in cohesion is thought to be related to decomposition andlor progressive failure of the peat, or weathering and creep of the underlying clay. Increased overburden pressure from continuing peat accumulation is also an important factor in reducing the overall stability of a peatland slope. The initiation of bog flows and peat slides can occur from the progressive failure of the material in question, but there is more evidence to suggest that both types of failure are more frequently initiated as a result of a specific trigger event usually associated with high intensity rainfall.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa, but there is poverty and a lack of infrastructure, skills and opportunity despite its substantial natural resources. The capital of Sudan is Khartoum City, located at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile Rivers. Unfortunately development on Nile River Front is limited due to the risk of flooding and erosion. There is a danger that rapid economic development may take place in this unique area without sustainable development planning. This research project aims to develop strategies to protect the Nile River banks by suitable stabilization methods so that development can take place safely. Data has been collected about hydrology, morphology, geotechnical factors, soil classifications, river pattern systems, driving forces, and the main problems restricting sustainable development and engineering works for the Nile River. In addition the following have been reviewed: historical background, existing land uses, current environmental situations, and the economic and social conditions of the study areas. Research identified Cairo, Egypt as a similar case study, where data collected by the author included historical background, current situations, strategic visions and development plan for Nile River Shores. Further information was collected about sustainable development from a general literature review. From these collected data a set of guidelines and indicators for sustainable development was established related to environmental, economic and social factors. Based on those guidelines and indicators, methods of stabilization of the banks for each shore were specified and a proposed development plan was established. Methods of stabilization of banks and the development plan were refined and evaluated to establish a final version of the development plan: Sustainable Development of the Nile River Front (SDNRF) at Greater Khartoum. From refinement and evaluations, barriers and constraints for implementation were specified with their suggested solutions. Finally, conclusions and recommendations related to the SDNRF Manual about development and regulations were established.

This study is concerned with the impacts of local government decentralisation on the lives of the people of Drumchapel. The dramatic changes associated with the British state and civil society in the 1980s serves as a starting point. As a decade, the 1980s witnessed major economic restructuring, and more significantly in relation to this work, upheaval in the structure and function of the welfare state. A substantial component of the welfare state is local government service provision, which has been directly challenged by central government initiated change, and indirectly challenged by the changing conditions of civil society. At the close of the 1980s, the once universally accepted pattern of provision had radically altered, and in some instances a mixed economy of welfare had become established. Restructuring is of significance to this work for two related reasons. Firstly, some of the explanations for decentralisation are related to restructuring, and the nature of developments in Drumchapel are intimately connected with such changes. Secondly, a marginalisation of some sections of British society has taken place, and arguably an underclass of people who are largely excluded from mainstream society has come into being. As a concept, the underclass is of direct relevance to Drumchapel (see below).Decentralisation is the core concept of this work. It has been welcomed as: "a new managerial paradigm bringing with it increased efficiency, flexibility and customer responsiveness, and also as a new political paradigm, bringing gains in terms of increased accountability and citizen participation" (Loundes 1991, p. 19). During the 1980s, decentralisation was broadly seen as a solution to many of the problems local government faced, including being part of the solution to financial constraints and to the problems associated with local government, in particular, excessive bureaucracy and remoteness from the public.