This thesis is an interdisciplinary study based on the interplay between science, technology and society in order to inform the design of knowledge exploration systems. It provides a rationale for the integration of science knowledge, geographic information, with digital libraries to build knowledge and awareness about sustainability. A theoretical reconceptualization of knowledge building is provided that favours interactive engagement with information and argues against a traditional model of science production and communication that is linear and unidirectional. The elements of contextualization, classification and communication form the core of the reconceptualization. Since many information systems entrench the traditional model of science production, the three elements are considered in light of library and information science and geographic information science. The use of geographic information systems is examined to identify how they can be used as part of a social learning model for scientific, social, cultural, and environmental issues to further assist people in connecting to place and sustainability. Empirical data was collected from four case studies. One case study centred on the design and development of a web-based digital library called the Georgia Basin Digital Library, another two case studies focused on the use of part of this digital library with youth, senior and environmental groups in south-western British Columbia. The remaining case study observed a community deliberation to consider how knowledge exploration systems might support deliberation in future processes. The case study research confirms that collaborative research with communities is a fruitful way to engage with sustainability issues. Such collaborations require consideration of institutional arrangements, information collections, relationship building, technology transfer and capacity building.

1st Topographical Survey Squadron, Royal Australian Engineers, provides deployable geospatial support to the Australian Defence Force. Part of this role is the production of products for use by commanders. These products provide commanders at all levels with mission specific and up to date knowledge of the terrain that he will encounter on the battlespace. Currently 1st Topographical Survey Squadron provides products that contain manmade features, hydrography, slope, surface configuration and vegetation as displayed on current mapping products. They do not provide an accurate portrayal of the effect that vegetation characteristics have on the battlespace. Introducing these types of features will give the commander a greater knowledge of the terrain and environment that he will encounter, and will greatly improve the planning and success of the campaign. This research explored to what extent the accuracy of the terrain analysis products currently produced by 1st Topographical Survey Squadron would increase by adding a more detailed portrayal of vegetation extracted from remote sensing data.

There is an increasing pressure on planners to address rapid urbanisation and its impacts on the aesthetic qualities of urban landscape. This is mainly due to the increased sensitivity of the public towards the environment and its greater role, legislatively mandated, in the decision making process. One of the major challenges in land use planning is balancing spatial equity with economic efficiency, where the aspirations and expectations of stakeholders and those of the broader community, in terms of use of the land and its potential, are evaluated and met in a fair manner. The Hills Face Zone (HFZ) of the Adelaide Metropolis in South Australia, currently extending across nine Local Government jurisdictions, is one such example. The HFZ, which provides an important landscape backdrop to the Adelaide Metropolis, has been identified as critically important in the South Australian Planning Strategy and various Development Plans. It is recognised as providing a distinctive visual character to the city and other significant benefits including biodiversity, tourism and recreation. / The HFZ, first introduced in the Adelaide Metropolitan Development Plan in 1962 was endorsed by the South Australian Parliament in 1967 and codified through legislative changes to the Planning Act in 1971 to accommodate the importance of this landscape feature of Adelaide illustrating the strategic intentions of the government. However, despite the best intentions of all the governments since then, the HFZ stil seems to be clouded by confusion and uncertainty four decades on. There are two types of confusion and uncertainty associated with the HFZ landscape. The first, being the clarity of the statutory policy for the HFZ itself, which is the cause of different interpretations of the regulation by the planners, often, leading to lengthy and costly court cases. The second largely ignored so far, is the boundary (spatial) extent of the zone. Within Geographical Information Science these could be termed as the thematic uncertainty and the spatial uncertainty. / Assessment and quantification of the landscape???s thematic and spatial attributes underpinned by a scientific methodology is essential to provide a clear, accountable and sustainable strategic land use plan. This is more important in an urban planning context where planning zone boundaries can have substantial economic impacts, especially if most of the land parcels happen to be under private ownership. / This thesis examined an alternative approach to address the strategic land use planning issues pertaining to delineation of landscape boundaries within the framework of GIS by interpreting the planning policy in a Fuzzy Logic domain. A model for addressing the spatial uncertainty in Landscape Extent Estimation and Mapping (LEEM) using GIS and Fuzzy Logic is discussed and a methodology to establish categorical zone boundaries using fuzzy terms like good view, moderate slope, elevated areas etc. is demonstrated. Boundaries of the HFZ with Adelaide???s Mitcham Local Government Area (LGA) as a case study have been redrawn using various interpretations of visibility, land cover, greenness, slope and elevation of the landscape as a natural backdrop of Adelaide. / Three empirical models, adopting the Modelling View of knowledge engineering to represent a pro-conservation perspective, a pro-development perspective and a planner???s perspective were developed to illustrate the future of the HFZ as aspired to by each group. It was observed that a small difference in linguistic approximation values for the process variables, which translates to slightly differing perceptions in planning terminology, could lead to substantial difference in the outcomes. Thus, in planning terms, this would mean that although both the pro development and the pro conservation lobby are united in their aspirations for a sustainable HFZ, small difference in opinions for the process variables could lead to a substantial difference in the extent of the HFZ zone. / A successful marriage between computer modelling using Fuzzy Logic within Geographic Information Systems and expert opinion is demonstrated and, as such, suggests the suitability of these tools in planning decision making in the future. / Thesis ([PhDPlanning])--University of South Australia, 2005.

The story of transport and accessibility problems in rural Australia is very similar to other wealthy countries with low rural densities and long distances such as the US and Canada ??? little or no public transport, very high levels of car ownership, and poor service provision. During the past two decades rationalisation and privatisation of services has led to the closure of many basic services in rural Australia. The withdrawal of services has necessitated longer distance travel for many rural residents ??? a problem which has been exacerbated by the rationalisation of public transport services. As a result there have emerged severe accessibility and mobility problems in rural areas, despite the presence of high levels of car ownership in such areas. In terms of rural transportation, the situation in Australia is characterised by two different features; first, poor public transport provision (or non-existence). Second; high levels of car ownership among rural residents. However, high levels of car ownership do not reflect high levels of prosperity; this is likely to indicate a situation of &quotenforced ownership&quot in response to declining levels of public transport provision. Furthermore, many rural residents neither own a car nor have access to a reliable public transport system due to socio-economic and location-based circumstances. Previous research has shown that these residents generally belong to groups who include the elderly, teenagers, students, Indigenous residents, unemployed persons and low-income households. Such groups have been termed transport-disadvantaged. The contention of this thesis, however, is that such groups are in a state of &quottransport need&quot given their range of transport related problems. This is one dimension of the accessibility problem in rural Australia, which has yet to be investigated. This thesis is concerned with the measurement of transport need through the development of several transport need indices using available census data. The key objective of this thesis is to investigate the relevance and suitability of need indices for identifying the relative spatial distribution of transport needs in rural areas. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) is used for the development, analysis and visualisation of the transport need index. This thesis examines transportation needs in rural NSW simply by measuring &quotdemand&quot and &quotsupply&quot components of transport. To measure the demand index, some socio-economic characteristics of population are involved including: the elderly, no or low car owning households, Indigenous people, students, children, unemployed persons, low-income households, and accessibility. A weight has been assigned to each component based on its relative importance among the other components. Weighted values are then standardised based on 100. To measure the supply index, six components, which represent the availability of various kinds of transport in rural NSW are involved and have been calculated by assigning weights and standardising to 100. These are: CountryLink rail services, CountryLink coach and bus services, Regional Services, Community Transport Program, Wheelchair taxi services, and School Buses. The final transport need for rural NSW is calculated by dividing demand index by supply index. It simply quantifies transportation needs across the rural Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) of NSW. In addition, this thesis discusses the potential and limitations of GIS and our transport need indices to be used as input to decisions about improvements in provision of services, and coordination of existing services to better meet identified needs, for the transport disadvantaged in rural NSW. In essence, this thesis is an attempt to make Australian transport and social services planners aware of the value of a need based transport-planning methodology.

Errors are inherent to all spatial datasets and give rise to a level of uncertainty in the final product of a geographic information system (GIS). There is growing recognition that the uncertainty associated with spatial information should be represented to users in a comprehensive and unambiguous way. However, the effects on decision-making of such representations have not been thoroughly investigated. Studies from the psychological literature indicate decision-making biases when information is uncertain. This study explores the effects of representing spatial uncertainty, through an examination of how decision-making may be affected by the introduction of thematic uncertainty and an investigation of the effects of different representations of positional uncertainty on decision-making. / Two case studies are presented. The first of these considers the effects on decision-making of including thematic uncertainty information within the context of an airport siting decision task. An extremely significant tendency to select a zone for which the thematic classification is known to be of high certainty was observed. The reluctance to select a zone for which the thematic classification is of low certainty was strong enough to sometimes lead to decision-making that can only be described as irrational. / The second case study investigates how decision-making may be affected by different representations of positional uncertainty within the context of maritime navigation. The same uncertainty information was presented to participants using four different display methods. Significant differences in their decisions were observed. Strong preferences for certain display methods were also exhibited, with some representations being ranked significantly higher than others. / The findings from these preliminary studies demonstrate that the inclusion of uncertainty information does influence decision-making but does not necessarily lead to better decisions. A bias against information of low certainty was observed, sometimes leading to the making of irrational decisions. In addition, the form of uncertainty representation itself may affect decision-making. Further research into the effects on decision-making of representing spatial uncertainty is needed before it can be assumed that the inclusion of such information will lead to more informed decisions being made.

There is an increasing pressure on planners to address rapid urbanisation and its impacts on the aesthetic qualities of urban landscape. This is mainly due to the increased sensitivity of the public towards the environment and its greater role, legislatively mandated, in the decision making process. One of the major challenges in land use planning is balancing spatial equity with economic efficiency, where the aspirations and expectations of stakeholders and those of the broader community, in terms of use of the land and its potential, are evaluated and met in a fair manner. The Hills Face Zone (HFZ) of the Adelaide Metropolis in South Australia, currently extending across nine Local Government jurisdictions, is one such example. The HFZ, which provides an important landscape backdrop to the Adelaide Metropolis, has been identified as critically important in the South Australian Planning Strategy and various Development Plans. It is recognised as providing a distinctive visual character to the city and other significant benefits including biodiversity, tourism and recreation. / The HFZ, first introduced in the Adelaide Metropolitan Development Plan in 1962 was endorsed by the South Australian Parliament in 1967 and codified through legislative changes to the Planning Act in 1971 to accommodate the importance of this landscape feature of Adelaide illustrating the strategic intentions of the government. However, despite the best intentions of all the governments since then, the HFZ stil seems to be clouded by confusion and uncertainty four decades on. There are two types of confusion and uncertainty associated with the HFZ landscape. The first, being the clarity of the statutory policy for the HFZ itself, which is the cause of different interpretations of the regulation by the planners, often, leading to lengthy and costly court cases. The second largely ignored so far, is the boundary (spatial) extent of the zone. Within Geographical Information Science these could be termed as the thematic uncertainty and the spatial uncertainty. / Assessment and quantification of the landscape???s thematic and spatial attributes underpinned by a scientific methodology is essential to provide a clear, accountable and sustainable strategic land use plan. This is more important in an urban planning context where planning zone boundaries can have substantial economic impacts, especially if most of the land parcels happen to be under private ownership. / This thesis examined an alternative approach to address the strategic land use planning issues pertaining to delineation of landscape boundaries within the framework of GIS by interpreting the planning policy in a Fuzzy Logic domain. A model for addressing the spatial uncertainty in Landscape Extent Estimation and Mapping (LEEM) using GIS and Fuzzy Logic is discussed and a methodology to establish categorical zone boundaries using fuzzy terms like good view, moderate slope, elevated areas etc. is demonstrated. Boundaries of the HFZ with Adelaide???s Mitcham Local Government Area (LGA) as a case study have been redrawn using various interpretations of visibility, land cover, greenness, slope and elevation of the landscape as a natural backdrop of Adelaide. / Three empirical models, adopting the Modelling View of knowledge engineering to represent a pro-conservation perspective, a pro-development perspective and a planner???s perspective were developed to illustrate the future of the HFZ as aspired to by each group. It was observed that a small difference in linguistic approximation values for the process variables, which translates to slightly differing perceptions in planning terminology, could lead to substantial difference in the outcomes. Thus, in planning terms, this would mean that although both the pro development and the pro conservation lobby are united in their aspirations for a sustainable HFZ, small difference in opinions for the process variables could lead to a substantial difference in the extent of the HFZ zone. / A successful marriage between computer modelling using Fuzzy Logic within Geographic Information Systems and expert opinion is demonstrated and, as such, suggests the suitability of these tools in planning decision making in the future. / Thesis ([PhDPlanning])--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / Vita. Appendix: leaves 139-177. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-182).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Rolla, 2007. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed March 24, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 145-155).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 86, [22] p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-63).