Environmental concerns comprising pollution and global warming are among the key parameters that steer policy making actions regarding sustainability. Energy industry that comprises energy generation, distribution, and transmission phases of energy loop is at the core of these concerns and faces challenges. Due to handling capabilities, present electricity grid is not robust enough to utilize desired level of renewable energy sources due to their intermittent nature. On the other hand, emerging policies are targeting the increased utilization of renewable energy sources. In the light of environmental policies and increased stability requirements of the electricity grids, a new concept called “smart grid” emerges. Smart grids are intended to eliminate the limitations of present electricity grids such as offering increased handling capacity for renewable energy, increased interaction of the consumers with the utilities, and increased supply and demand management. It is not easy to express a solid smart grid definition as each party (energy generation, distribution, and demand side management) has its own approach in line with the desires. Due to the potential environmental benefits of smart grids, some governments engage smart grid projects to their agenda. As solid smart grid definition does not exist, there is no available solid strategy for smart grid implementations. On the other hand, it is well understood that failure in deployment of smart grids (regardless of the technology) will have undesirable impacts on growth of renewable energy generation, and failure in meeting EU carbon targets consequently. This research seeks to develop a model that seeks optimization of smart grid implementations, and it assists decision makers with deciding on the priory areas for smart grid applicability. Stated areas in this case are neighbourhoods comprising of residential buildings where considerable amount of energy is consumed. A set of criteria regarding to residential energy use and renewable energy technologies, are defined in the study. Proposed model is embedded in a GIS platform, and the main process carried out is a prioritization mechanism that comprises Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and geospatial computations like clustering and regression analysis in order to evaluate the alternative neighbourhoods. Proposed model optimizes smart grid projects by ranking of alternatives in terms of smart grid applicability. Such an aid in optimizing smart grid projects has the potential to maintain progress of smart grids in a timely manner.

Domestic energy consumption has increasingly become a cause for concern for governments, energy suppliers, and individual householders. Issues surrounding gas and electricity used in the home relate to the increasing cost of fuel, the rise in the incidence of fuel poverty, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels contributing to climate change, security of supply due to geo-political disagreement and the age and condition of the existing energy infrastructure. While buildings and appliances have become more energy-efficient, usually driven by legislation, the energy-consuming behaviour of individuals is very difficult to change. Domestic energy monitoring has so far only been carried out at a household level, while the behaviour of individuals within households has remained ambiguous. There is a gap in current knowledge about how people use energy at home, mainly because it is very difficult to capture everyday behaviour without influencing the behaviour being observed. Initiatives and campaigns targeting domestic energy-consuming behaviour have been based on assumptions of how people use energy in their homes, and have been found to be ineffective. There is a need for an unobtrusive method of capturing domestic energy behaviour. This research presents a technique to deliver this requirement by enabling the tracking of people in their homes with a small number of cost-effective RFID (Radio Frequency ID) devices. Using this technique the location of multiple individuals wearing RFID tags can be determined, thereby creating an unobtrusive RTLS (Real Time Location System). This technique has been extensively evaluated through a series of tests within a typical 1940’s semi-detached house in North West England, and has been found to be able to successfully locate individuals to room level. If this RTLS data is matched with appliance level energy data, energy-consumption can be attributed to the individuals responsible, and personalised everyday energy-consuming behaviour can be established.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington, Jr. / Clearly, the character of the relationship between humans and their environment has changed over time. Scholars have developed a geologic timeline and a timeline for life, but there is not a human-environment timeline. The proposed new geologic epoch of the Anthropocene is inadequate for encapsulating the diversity of the human-environment relationship throughout history and prehistory. This dissertation initiates conversation about developing an official human-environment timeline. Oriented from the perspective of a geographer, this exploratory research involved the qualitative analysis of human-environment events and ideas from a series of four geographic encyclopedias. A human-environment timeline emerged from this research, as well as a hierarchical typology of time periods: durations, duration revolutions, scenes, scene transitions, and intervals. The timeline was then interpreted according to four “ways of knowing”: normal science, cultural ecology, political ecology, and humanistic geography. This research supports inquiry into how time periods can be employed to better understand and communicate the human-environment relationship through time.

This action research study investigated the feasibility of building evaluation capacity into the design process of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) community initiatives. GMFRS runs over 400 community initiatives every year and an appropriate evaluation framework is needed to provide evidence of their impact and effectiveness. Information that previous evaluation processes had failed to provide. The feasibility of establishing an evaluation framework for use by non-specialists users was explored, the development of a new evaluation system for GMFRS was examined critically, and the processes and challenges involved in embedding evaluation within a large public sector emergency service investigated. Mixed research methods -- document analyses, qualitative interviews, observations and focus groups -- were used in the three action research cycles conducted between April 2008 and April 2010. In cycle one, existing evaluation materials and key characteristics of the initiatives were assessed. GMFRS’s community initiatives were found to lack direction, and the existing evaluation tool lacked the detail required for use by personnel with no previous evaluation experience. Hence, new evaluation materials were developed and, in the second cycle, their use was observed, and interviews conducted to ascertain the barriers to evaluation practices. Lack of resources, organisational guidance, and support with evaluation activities were identified as barriers. In the third cycle focus groups were used to gain feedback on the usability of the new evaluation material and processes. The principal conclusions of the research are that there were no theoretical models and/or guidance to assist Emergency Services to develop internal evaluation capacity. Insufficient attention has been paid to organisational support processes to nurture individuals’ evaluation skills and abilities, and to assist complex organisations utilise evaluations. For evaluation to become an embedded and systematic activity, it has to be supported by a project management methodology that underpins evaluation processes.

How do people listen to soundscapes in the built environment? Current soundscape research within urban planning disciplines tends to focus on measuring outdoor spaces in the built environment by interviewing the people within. This thesis, by contrast, followed individual listeners, using a qualitative, Grounded Theory methodology, examining listening preferences and habits across multiple environments. This approach gave a broad range of reactions to different soundscapes, from homes to workplaces to bars, clubs, and places of worship. This thesis reviews various soundscape epistemologies, methodologies, and methods, and argues that we need a stronger theoretical understanding of all these elements. It questions what is being measured, and how people are measuring it. The thesis suggests some ways qualitative and quantitative research can work together more effectively, and move soundscapes from the current multidiciplinary research landscape to a truly interdiciplinary one. In defining the soundscape as ‘the listener's perception of their auditory surroundings’, I shift the focus from measuring people's evaluation of spaces, to evaluating people themselves. This leads to a radically new empirical approach and theoretical description of the soundscape, using social science methods to build thick description of listening habits. Twenty people were given audio recorders and log books, and asked to record their day-to-day lives for two weeks. They were then interviewed about their experiences. The main finding was that soundscapes are not noticed most of the time, with participants seeming to have a ‘noticing threshold’: affected by factors such as control, expectation, and activity. Soundscapes which were noticed fell into one of four categories: positive--loud, positive--quiet, negative--loud or negative--quiet, with different judgement criteria for each. Participants were also highly adept at using coping mechanisms, such as recorded music and TV, to counteract undesirable sound environments.

There is an investment of hand-pump technology to improve provision of safe drinking-water for the stakeholder end-users in rural sub-Saharan regions of Africa, yet there are challenges to maintain the assets. In rural drinking-water projects, end-users also assume the responsibility of hand-pump maintenance after projects are handed over to them by project sponsors. This study uses a realist philosophy to analyse the issues that hinder or facilitate effective end-user participation in a successful maintenance of drinking-water projects in Nkhoma and Bvumbwe, Lilongwe and Thyolo Districts of Malawi respectively. Data collection was done by employing secondary data (literature review) and primary data collection using documents, observation, and interviews to establish factors facilitating or inhibiting hand-pump maintenance. Interviews which were the main data collection instrument, recruited 12 Convergence Interviews (CI), followed by 39 Individual Case Interviews (ICIs) and two sets of Focus Groups (FGs) in operational and non-functional hand-pumps. CI processes developed categories related to hand-pump maintenance factors and associated challenges. The CI developed maintenance categories were further cross checked in ICIs that used semi-structured interviews and finally confirmed in FGs, documentary and observational analysis. Convergence Interviews data was analysed using a matrix while ICIs were analysed using likert-type ranking scales to identify the most occurring hand-pump maintenance factors. Focus Groups, observations and documents used content analysis to analyse the hand-pump maintenance factors. Results show that end-users maintain small- medium hand-pumps faults effectively if they pay a contribution towards maintenance costs and if local political structures are trained to repair the hand-pumps. Moreover, the study identifies lack of sponsor supports as the main factor leading to failure in the management of major faults and hand-pump rehabilitation, as this is beyond local capacity technically as well as economically. Hence, the study introduces a business approach to improving hand-pump maintenance by recommending some minimum standards on the demand-side (end-user level) as well as the supply-side (project sponsor and policy levels).

The growing recognition amongst local authorities of the potential of asset management to improve property management practice has led to its increased adoption. The growing trend has been supported by the development of asset management frameworks. However, evidence indicates that local authorities are failing to achieve the full benefits from their asset management implementation. The factors contributing to some of the property management problems such as reactive management, lack of leadership support, ineffective corporate landlord approach, remain. The available frameworks are incapable of mitigating the identified problems by failing to provide understanding of local authority differences. Therefore, this research aimed to develop an adaptable and flexible operational property asset management framework for local authorities in England and Scotland. The strategic management theory, review of existing literature findings and evaluation of available asset management frameworks especially the Total Asset Management Process model helped to identify, define and establish the causal logic of the asset management concepts underpinning the developed conceptual framework. Face to face semi-structured interviews followed by large scale questionnaire surveys were used to gather primary data. The key research findings are that the following are the key factors limiting asset management practice improvements in local authorities: ineffective leadership support, asset management capabilities and corporate landlord approach; inadequate asset management information systems and performance management arrangements. Principal components factor analysis was utilised to help establish underlying factors that account for flexible and adaptable asset management framework. The findings suggest that asset management processes associated with an adaptable and flexible asset management framework include a board level cross functional asset management structure; strong leadership support for both direct and indirect property; an enabling environment; an effective corporate landlord approach; an effective performance management arrangement; and availability of an appropriate management information system. The framework has been validated to be robust and can be utilised and flexibly adapted by different local authorities and provides the basis for improving the process and outcome of asset management practice.

A functionally connected urban tree infrastructure (UTI) contributes to ecosystem function, resilience, and the provision of Ecosystem Services (ES). Variation in tree height is an important attribute influencing movement of passerines, habitat quality and landscape patterns. UTI provided ES are particularly beneficial in the most deprived areas of a city. Presented in this thesis is an exploration into the social-ecological shape of a UTI using a holistic, multi-scale and dimensional, landscape approach. The potential landscape connectivity of a UTI in the City of Salford, UK was quantified and compared using the integral index of connectivity (IIC) across vertically stratified canopies existing in 2005, 2009, and 2013. System resilience was assessed through landscape graph network analysis and by the identification of canopies critical in maintaining connectivity (dIIC). The index of multiple deprivation (IMD) was related to UTI landscape composition and configuration through a series of statistical tests. The connectivity of Salford’s vertically stratified UTI was low (IIC = <0.000001 – 0.0045), besides this the temporal change in connectivity was complex with no discernible overall pattern. The rate of connectivity increase decreased after a 90-120m gap-crossing threshold. The resilience of Salford’s UTI relies on the connectivity of canopies within 4 to 5 sub-connected regions, depending on passerine perception, increasing to 10 -16 smaller regions for canopies above 17.1m. The resilience and stability of these sub-connected regions were often reliant on a central canopy patch. UTI composition is related negatively with deprivation, UTI configuration is related positively, while structural diversity of canopy heights revealed no correlation with deprivation. The research in this thesis contributes to the debates on how to best manage the UTI for both people and nature. The findings of this thesis have a number of important implications for future urban landscape management, especially as previously unknown landscape patterns have been identified.

Social-ecological systems describe interactions between humans and nature. The ecosystem approach provides a holistic system to manage and understand these interactions, and to maintain and enhance ecosystem services - the benefits nature provides to humans. While much theoretical discourse posits various approaches to the ecosystem approach and ecosystem services, there exists a lack of practical applications examining these approaches, especially in urban and peri-urban environments. The current research used a case study to examine the efficacy of integrating environmental management and ecosystem services within an urban greenspace social-ecological system. Initially, the most pertinent ecosystem services and management options were established. This was achieved through expert opinion, a rapid assessment, and a literature search which enabled the identification of a preferred management approach. This resulted in conservation grazing cattle over a 5 hectare salt marsh, typical of the Upper Mersey Estuary in the UK and situated within an urban area. The effects of cattle grazing on four relevant ecosystem services: (i) wild species diversity, (ii) environmental settings, (iii) carbon storage, and (iv) immobilisation of pollutants, were evaluated over two years. The aim of the evaluation was to examine how the grazing intervention affected ecosystem services. Both quantitative and qualitative measures - reflecting the interdisciplinarity of the ecosystem services concept - were used in the evaluation. For the ecosystem services examined, the results add significant knowledge to the current discourse, and are used to inform new avenues for research. There was an increase in the cultural services (wild species diversity and environmental settings), regulatory services of carbon storage showed no change while differences in the immobilisation of pollutants observed were explained by local variation at the site. These findings show that by integrating ecosystem services and environmental management, larger scale benefits to humans from management options can be recognised and planned for in future natural spaces management, thereby increasing the positive rewards nature provides in abundance.

In construction many problems exist that lead to poor quality of the built environment, for example, lack of integration between service and facility design and poor requirements management. Aiming to mitigate these problems, academics and practitioners have engaged in debating ways of improving the process of designing new facilities. One of the approaches that has been investigated is the use of scientific evidence to support decision makers within the design process. This process is called evidence-based design (EBD). In this respect, a range of studies developed in healthcare sectors encourages the application of EBD in order to add value to the design of these environments and to produce better building outcomes for patients and staff. In this respect, this study was designed to address this issue and is aimed at better understanding how evidence supports design. The achievement of the aim was based on (a) revisiting the philosophical debate about the definitions of evidence and knowledge formation to propose a conceptual framework that can be used to classify evidence within the design domain; (b) investigating the proposed use of evidence within prescriptive design methods of design; (c) understanding how evidence has been used in design practice (specifically in the design of healthcare facilities) and to propose a taxonomy for different categories of evidence that support building design and their advantages and disadvantages; and (d) exploring the existence of opportunities to improve design practice with a basis on a better understanding of evidence. The focus of the research was the design process of healthcare facilities and the unit of analysis was the role of evidence within design. The findings of this research enhance our understanding of design as a knowledge formation system. In this respect, the use of this approach opens opportunities for future studies related to the interpretation and the development of tools that assist design. This research also provides insights related to analysis and synthesis as the proto-theory of design as well as distributed intelligence in design.