Urban redevelopment in Chinese cities is significant for urban growth. This study aims to investigate the dynamics of governance of urban redevelopment in Guangzhou, China from 1990 to 2015 under the Chinese authoritarian regime. The connections between such governance and the authoritarian regime are the key to understand the governance dynamics; this is the main contribution of this research. This study explores 5 research objectives to achieve research aims by qualitative methods: (1) the institutional background; (2) patterns of governance; (3) purposes of governance; (4) mechanism of governance; and (5) a Guangzhou mode of governance. The research findings of 5 research objectives are (1) institutional background can be described as a land-oriented pro-growth authoritarian regime. (2) The patterns of governance have three various phases, the Primitive Market Phase (1990–1996) as a semi-market mode of governance; the Pure Government Phase (1998–2006) as a semi-hierarchy mode; and the Multiple Players Phase (2006–2015) as a semi-network mode. (3) The purpose of governance is to pursue economic growth in various conditions. (4) The mechanisms to produce governance modes are driven by the Chinese authoritarian regime. (5) A Guangzhou mode of governance can be established based on the comparison between Guangzhou, other Chinese cities and a simplified picture of Western cities. There are three main arguments in these findings, the governance modes in Guangzhou are dramatically changeable; these changes aim to adapt changed environments to realise growth; the authoritarian regime of Guangzhou is an important reason for this adaptive capacity.

[Introductory paragraph] The present generation must confront a challenge. The challenge is to determine what it must do for the sake of future generations. This challenge is quite puzzling because the present generation, like its predecessors, will pass on to future generations a complex mix of goods, inventions, institutions and opportunities containing a range of benefits and burdens. In this thesis, I focus on one key intergenerational problem – anthropogenic climate change – considering some of the questions of intergenerational justice that it raises. While it has not always been the case, climate and climate change have recently taken on new significance as a process to which humans can, and in fact do, contribute. More specifically, while paleoclimatic data show substantial variation in the Earth’s climate (Masson- Delmotte, Schulz, Abe-Ouchi, Beer, Ganopolski, J.F. González Rouco, E. Jansen, et al., 2013: 385), an ever-growing mass of evidence shows that human activity – particularly the sustained emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) – is beginning to change the global climate, with much greater changes still to come (IPCC, 2013b: 4, 19ff). This produces what is known as anthropogenic climate change, “a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer”, and that results from human activities (IPCC, 2013a: 1448, 1450).

Phosphorus is one of the most important nutrients, which significantly influences the extraordinary growth of algae. Consequently, this leads to eutrophication of aquatic life. Eutrophication of water bodies due to phosphorus coming from wastewater is a serious problem. Therefore, additional work on many wastewater treatment plants is required in order to meet the required standards, particularly in relation to nutrient removal. Recently, continuous upflow filters CoUFs have been found to be a suitable technology for upgrading or expanding the wastewater treatment plants. On the other hand, investigation of different sorts of low-cost materials has been shown to be an attractive solution as phosphate sorbent materials PSMs, which represents a sustainable solution based on economical and environmental factors. This PhD study seeks to determine materials that are capable of removing phosphate from wastewater at tertiary treatment within a short time when they are packed in CoUFs. In order to select the suitable PSMs a comprehensive study has been conducted to describe their physical and chemical characteristics, affinity to retain orthophosphate (phosphate) and bonding time. This work was carried out through subjecting these materials to examinations such as scanning electron microscopy SEM and X-ray fluorescence analysis XRF to identify their characteristics, and conducting a batch test and constructing a lab-scale upflow filter to investigate the filter materials’ affinity to phosphate. Based on the phosphate removal efficiency and characteristics of selected materials an innovative and sustainable coating technology has been proposed to introduce a new type of filter material capable of removing phosphate effectively. Filtration materials coated with metallic oxides are presented as a good method for phosphate sorption. However, most of the researchers utilize chemicals as a source of metallic oxides and heating process to set the chemicals over the filtration materials. In this study, the method of creating new filter media involves coating a solid material via waste materials containing metallic oxides; the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was utilized as a binder for the mixture materials. Water is the factor which is responsible for activating the OPC. All factors have been subjected to an optimization process. The results revealed that the limestone particles coated by furnace bottom ash (FBA) indicated a high capacity for phosphate sorption and possibility of regenerating their efficiency. In conclusion, this study introduces a new approach regarding creating and developing the characteristics of the filter media which fit the sustainability requirements.

This ethnographic study explores the ways in which a group of social actors participate in the everyday life of a woodland nature reserve, the relationships they establish with each other, the way they engage with the nonhuman materiality of the woodland and how they are affected by this engagement. An autoethnographic approach was taken which was based on the researcher’s immersion in the research setting. This made possible a deep understanding of the affective experiences of the research participants and facilitated an appreciation of the meanings of the woodland materiality for informants which were often ‘beyond words’. The study focussed on a group of staff and volunteers and the everyday practical tasks that they engaged in which were mainly coppicing the reserve’s ancient woodland and ecological surveying and monitoring of its woodland and wildlife. These activities are central to the everyday life of the reserve and take place in the context of the environment and wildlife conservation cultural fields. They are conceptualised as core activities and generate fulfilment for those who engage in them. The analytical framework used brings together the concepts of habitus (Bourdieu, 1997), dwelling (Ingold, 1993), and ‘becoming with’ (Despret, 2004; Haraway, 2008) and allows an understanding of how informants’ habitus (both general and specific) derived from the cultural fields they experienced during childhood and in employment, shape not only their participation in the everyday life of the reserve but also how this participation is experienced and their ways of being-in-the-woodland. These last are analysed as occupying a spectrum from an instrumental relationship, through becoming with and dwelling fleetingly to dwelling. Dwelling is associated with a woodland habitus. One of my key findings is that involvement in the practices of wildlife conservation immerses social actors in a nonhuman woodland world that for most transforms their way of being-in-the-world.

The transfer of low-carbon technology to developing countries is one of the key means to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and therefore a key aspect of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of international low-carbon technology transfer and how it might do justice to the interest of developed and developing countries. The empirical example is the technology transfer approach and its implementation by the Global Environmental Facility, which acts as the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC. My theoretical framework includes two sets of theories. The first includes theories of international technology transfer. This set explains how international technology transfer may lead to economic benefits on the side of the technology recipient. This theory, however, does not explain how international technology transfer will lead to significant environmental benefits. I therefore included a second set of theories in my theoretical framework. Theories of diffusion of environmental technologies explain how technology might achieve environmental benefits such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. A case study was chosen as method. In order to do justice to the research question, the empirical enquiry takes place on three interconnected levels. On the first level, the positions of developed and developing countries on the subject of technology transfer under UNFCCC were established. These serve as additional yardsticks for the discussion of the GEF approach and its outcomes. On the second level, the technology transfer approach of the GEF and the relationship to GEF and UNFCCC on the subject on technology transfer was established. On the third level, the GEF project Photovoltaic Market Transformation Initiative (PVMTI) in India, which follows the GEF approach to technology transfer, was investigated. The thesis concludes, in relation to the research question, that the current GEF approach to technology transfer is unlikely to achieve the goals of both developed and developing countries. It is able to achieve the goals of developed countries as it tends to prioritise the environmental goals through selected demand side measures that are effective in achieving emission reductions. It is less effective in achieving development goals as international technology transfer is left to the private actor.

Climate change disproportionately threatens alpine river ecosystems due to the strong connections between cryosphere, hydrology and physicochemical habitat. Our general understanding of how these systems will respond to warming is, however, based on conceptual models derived from studies undertaken at relatively small spatial scales. This research utilizes: (i) field data collected from five glacierized river basins in the French Pyrénées; (ii) field based experimentation; and (iii) climate/hydrological modelling, to improve understanding of alpine river ecosystem change. Despite a linear, harsh-begin, physicochemical habitat gradient running from high to low meltwater (snow and ice) contribution, observed benthic macroinvertebrate community level metrics were unimodal (i.e. mid-meltwater peak). Community assembly processes shifted from niche filtering/stochastic (trait convergence) at high meltwater sites, to limiting similarity/stochastic (trait divergence) at low meltwater sites. Benthic macroinvertebrate community structure, feeding interactions and body size spectra were altered when invertebrate predator range expansion was experimentally simulated. Empirical observation (space for time substitution) and statistical modelling both suggest an increase in reach scale diversity (alpha) is likely as glacier cover is lost. However, a reduction in habitat heterogeneity is likely to lead to biotic homogenization (reduced beta diversity) as a specialist high meltwater community is replaced by a more generalist community. The need to consolidate monitoring strategies is highlighted and functional trait profiles are suggested as useful bio-monitoring tools for detecting future change.

Data assimilation (DA) is an emerging research area in palaeoclimatology. Here, ensemble-based DA schemes are implemented and evaluated for the reconstruction of the climate of some of the key periods from the past millennium. The study is among the first to employ a General Circulation Model for palaeoclimate DA. An off-line and an on-line DA method are first compared, assimilating continental proxy-based temperature reconstructions and using the 17th century as testing period. Both schemes provide simulations that follow the assimilated targets on large scales better than without DA. The on-line scheme has the advantage of temporal consistency of the analysis, and is subsequently used to reconstruct the climate for 1750-1850 AD. The assimilation performs well on large-scale temperatures, but there is no agreement between the DA analysis and reconstructions for regional temperature patterns. Evidence is presented to suggest that this lack of information propagation to smaller spatial scales is likely due to the fact that the Northern Hemisphere continental mean temperatures are not the best predictors for large-scale circulation anomalies, or that the assimilated reconstructions include noise. The lack of regional skill is again found when instrumental data for 1850-1949 AD are assimilated. Based on these results, it is argued that a potential way of improving the performance of DA is the assimilation of temperature reconstructions with higher spatial resolution.

Phosphorus is an essential, irreplaceable component of the food production system. Most of the phosphorus applied in agriculture comes from phosphate rock, a finite, non-renewable resource. Therefore, there are growing concerns about global phosphorus scarcity and the sustainability of modern agriculture. The aim of this research was to determine if the UK water industry will be required to increase the amount of phosphorus that is recycled from wastewater. This research involved conducting an extensive literature review and gathering data from secondary sources, which was then analysed to address the guiding research questions. This analysis suggests that phosphorus recycling could be increased, but changes to existing legislation and infrastructure will be required. The substance flow analysis revealed that the water industry is a key stakeholder in UK phosphorus management, and the intensifying geopolitical risk to security of supply suggests that increased phosphorus recycling will be required in the near future. Finally, a Phosphorus Recycling Obligation scheme was developed as a means of optimising investments and achieving recycling targets. It is concluded that the UK water industry will be required to increase the amount of phosphorus that is recycled from wastewater in the near future in order to address national resource security.

Modern water treatment processes are necessary to create an adequate and continuous supply of water that meets regulatory standards. The presence of natural organic matter (NOM) in water courses impacts negatively upon aesthetic and chemical standards and as such requires removal during water treatment processes. Variable structural composition and sources of NOM denote that high NOM removal efficiencies are rarely achieved at conventional water treatment works (WTW). Poor removal of NOM can result in biofilm re-growth in distribution systems and the formation of potentially carcinogenic disinfectant by-products (DBP) such as trihalomethanes (THM) and haloacetic acids (HAA), formed when residual NOM reacts with disinfectants such as chlorine. NOM characterisation methods were used to investigate NOM composition at sixteen surface water sites operated by Severn Trent Water Ltd, to establish potential links between NOM character and the formation of potential carcinogeous DBP, and assess potential DOC removal using current and low pH coagulation. Comparisons were made between existing NOM characterisation methods and the identification of limitations. HPSEC and fluorescence EEM spectroscopy were found to be reliable and practical measures of NOM character and treatability. Statistical analysis techniques such as discriminant analysis and principal component analysis proved essential analysis tools for large data sets, identifying sites with similar raw characteristics and highlighted relationships with DBP precursors. The suitability of carbon isotopes analysis and environmental nanoparticles analysis as two novel NOM characterisation methods were also investigated and compared with existing methods. Carbon isotope analysis documented an input of heavier 13C signatures and a decreased percentage modern carbon 14C. Possible causes for this were the addition of GAC fines, fractionation of 12/13C through treatment processes or through microbial growth on the GAC column. Finally, a detailed assessment of current coagulation potential for increased NOM removal and the potential for a reduction in DBP formation during differing NOM composition profiles was investigated with an economic assessment for a river abstraction WTW with rapidly changing NOM character. Low pH coagulation was found to substantially increase potential DOC removal and limit THM, TTHMFP and HAAFP formation and identified the need for process optimisation on WTW before treatment alternatives need are considered.

The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) has been one of the most rapidly warming regions on this planet. This warming has been accompanied by major glaciological changes such as tidewater glacier retreat, ice-shelf retreat and collapse alongside acceleration of outlet glaciers in response to ice-shelf removal. As faster owing glaciers deliver more ice from the ice sheet's interior to the margins, the AP has been identified as an important contributor to global sea-level rise (SLR). However, comprehensible SLR projections of the AP induced by ice dynamics over the next three centuries are still lacking. In this thesis, numerical ice-sheet models are utilised to present scenario-based ice dynamic SLR projections for the AP.