This thesis reports the results of an empirical research, conducted for the displaced communities located on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia. Emphasis was given to that part of the displaced population that relocated away from the Arrow Lakes region. Ethnographic, data, including community-dynamics, culture and history, and intensive personal interviews with formerly displaced people was collected in order to assess the effects relocation had upon the displaced population. The rationale for the study stems from the fact that to date the planning process has not given due regard to the comprehensive identification of social impacts resulting from construction and operation of large scale development projects. Some impacts have been expected; however, other impacts, which were given little consideration in planning stages and which have come about in a completely unexpected manner, may be documented for virtually every large development project. Any contribution towards ensuring identification of impacts which might otherwise occur unexpectedly should serve to improve the planning process. Ideally, it would be valuable to be able to recognize previously unanticipated effects during the pre-operational planning period. In this particular research recognition of secondary effects during the preplanning period have not explicitly been studied, however, identifying impacts "after the fact" (as a follow-up) has certain validity. It can serve in a nominal way as an indicator for predicting the range of probable consequences of subsequent development projects. It is also necessary as a feed-back or checking mechanism. Often times predictions are proven wrong and secondary effects go undetected, thus a follow-up component within the process is a necessary requisite. Post relocation addresses and whereabouts have been traced for twenty-three households or approximately eighteen per cent of the total displaced population that did not relocate within the Arrow Lakes region. Thus, the following conclusion has been formulated regarding displacement from the large scale power development project in the Arrow Lakes region of British Columbia: Individuals that have commitments to a community and are displaced from communities that display a strong sense of identity and cohesion are more adversely affected than those with no commitments and from communities that lack a strong sense of identity. And finally, a step-by-step approach for relocation planning was identified and discussed. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Floodplain lakes in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) provide valuable freshwater resources for states in which they occur. Thirty lakes in portions of Mississippi and Arkansas were surveyed for chlorophyll-a fluorescence and turbidity using handheld meters to determine relationships between chlorophyll-a concentrations and suspended solids. High applicability of handheld meters in the MAV presents economic benefits for monitoring the numerous lakes in the region. Additionally, twelve lakes within Bear Creek watershed, Mississippi were studied to determine how hydrologic connectivity shapes fish communities. Isolated and permanently connected floodplain lakes exhibited characteristically lacustrine and rheophilic fish communities, respectively, diversifying fishery management opportunities. Lastly, spring diel temperature and oxygen dynamics, as well as juvenile fish communities, were assessed within three habitats in a floodplain lake – pelagic environment, margin and contiguous wetlands. Variability in temperature and oxygen across the three habitats promotes spring habitat heterogeneity while supporting distinct but overlapping juvenile fish assemblages.

Great Lakes Leviathan is a work for Piano and Large Chamber Orchestra that takes its main source of inspiration from cryptozoological reports of sea creatures; particularly those found within the midwestern region of the United States. This work develops over the course of four movements. In the opening movement and in the thalassic finale, entitled The Rising Deep and Great Lakes Leviathan respectively, the listener will experience sound worlds imitating tumultuous waters, majesty, chaos, and an encounter with the aforementioned Leviathan itself. The second movement, The Fossil Finder, explores themes of excavation, research, and course charting. The third movement, Eventide, reflects upon narratives of exploration, maiden voyage, expanding horizons, and evening twilight.

Achieving environmental standards with efficient and cost-effective economic systems is a subject whose importance is increasing in conjunction with growing technological innovation and urbanization. This project contributes to the subject's literature by empirically examining the effects of a voluntary taxation mechanism on the water quality of designated lakes in Orange County, Florida. One of two taxing district types is voluntarily formed by lakefront or near-lakefront property owners: a Municipal Service Taxing District (MSTU), wherein participants pay an ad valorem tax based on property values, or a Municipal Service Benefit Unit (MSBU), wherein participants pay an equal flat rate tax independent of property value. The taxing districts' purpose is to allocate specific funds for water management and water quality improvement, so the fixed effects econometric analyses examine the efficacy of the mechanisms using publicly available water quality data on Trophic State Index (TSI) ratings, Secchi disk depth measurements, phosphorus levels, and nitrogen levels. The empirical results show that MSTU/MSBU taxing districts are moderately effective at reducing phosphorus and nitrogen levels and that MSTU designation is weakly superior to MSBU designation. Moreover, certain taxing district characteristics are shown to be important for mechanism effectiveness.

No description available.

Why do refugees in Africa's Great Lakes Region refuse to repatriate? This thesis offers a detailed examination of this question through a comparative study of Rwandan and Congolese refugee communities across three countries: Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The policies of international agencies and local governments are assessed against the lived experiences, responses, and perceptions of refugees through first-hand research, undertaken in eighteen sites across the region during extensive fieldwork conducted between 2009 and 2013. The pervasiveness and intensity of reactions amongst refugees against repatriation is forceful and striking. Conversely, it is aggressively promoted and implemented by international actors, home, and host states. The thesis examines the interactions that occur as refugees seek to remain 'in exile', whilst international actors and regional states seek to coerce them to repatriate, and investigates the mechanisms that underpin this stalemate. The principal chapters of this thesis address the themes of (i) acculturation, de facto integration, and de jure segregation; (ii) conceptualisations of rights secured through refugee status; (iii) information concerning homelands and its diffusion in exile; and (iv) experiences of return. It is shown that refugee communities are adept at articulating past and present grievances, and are critically aware of their human rights in the context of their exile. The international protection of exile is perceived as a pseudo-citizenship that secures more rights than those accorded citizens in their states of origin. These communities maintain a wealth of information concerning their homelands, the diffusion of this knowledge being determined by connections between sites of exile, shaping it into accepted and collective communal narratives. This collective consciousness of status selectively reinforces refugees' resolve against repatriation. When repatriation is forced or frustrated, its experience is integrated into communal narratives of persecution, generating further grievance and reifying resistance to return.

Ground water is a critical element of the ecosystem in the Great Lakes Basin. It is an integral component of a dynamic hydrological system that is the lifeblood for this region's remarkable natural diversity. It is also an important human resource. Unfortunately, intensive ground water withdrawals are resulting in negative consequences that are often hidden from view but which are causing social conflicts and environmental degradation. This thesis considers the failure of courts and governments to implement laws for allocating ground water rights according to hydrological reality and the collective interests of affected communities. Legal mechanisms are rooted in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite rapid growth and the considerable pressure now exerted on ground water resources, courts and governments continue to allow, and even encourage unrestricted ground water withdrawals. The underlying ideology of state institutions within the Basin is contributing to the systematic undervaluation of environmental and long term interests of present and future generations. A reinvigorated concept of sustainability, one that is based on the ideals of deliberative democracy, would better represent these interests in decisions concerning the allocation of ground water. Through the process of ground water allocation planning, decision-making can be guided into a preventative and community-oriented approach that more accurately reflects the long term interests of the Basin. / Law, Peter A. Allard School of / Graduate

Surface waters receive large amounts of dissolved organic matter (DOM) via runoff from land. The DOM is rich in organic carbon that serves as an energy source for the aquatic biota. During uptake of this energy, aquatic organisms mineralize organic carbon. The resulting inorganic carbon is partially released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane that are greenhouse gases, and which are of concern for the ongoing global warming. The rate at which organic carbon is mineralized depends strongly on DOM quantity and quality that vary with respect to both time and space. In this thesis, DOM quantity and quality were addressed using spectroscopic methods that build on the absorptive and fluorescent properties of chromophoric DOM (CDOM). New techniques to measure CDOM absorption and fluorescence were applied and further developed that allowed us to present novel CDOM variability patterns. Addressing the lake-rich Scandinavian landscape, strong focus was placed on water retention by lakes that tightly links to lake DOM quantity and quality. An analysis of 24,742 lakes from seven large Swedish river systems indicated that the majority of lakes in Sweden exchange their water within one year. From headwaters to the Sea, summed lake volumes in the catchments of lakes were found to increase at rates comparable to discharge, which indicated effective water renewal along flow. A strong relationship between lake water retention and CDOM was apparent and further investigated based on samples from a lake district to a regional scale. Results from in situ high-frequency monitoring of CDOM absorption in a eutrophic humic lake showed intra-annual variability patterns known from oligotrophic lake systems. The patterns for CDOM absorption contrasted results obtained for synchronously measured partial pressures of carbon dioxide that showed diurnal signals. Measurements of CDOM fluorescence and DOC concentrations indicated lake-internal DOM production. A comparison of these results with results from addressing 560 lakes distributed across Sweden, showed that a well-calibrated CDOM fluorescence measurement captures signals from lake-internal DOM production. I conclude that improved CDOM fluorescence measurements are promising to address lake-internally produced DOM.

Large-scale climate modes such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the Asian monsoon, and the Arctic Oscillation are responsible for much of the Earth’s climate variability. Despite the importance of these modes, we have limited understanding of how they vary on long (multidecadal to millennial) timescales due to the short length of instrumental climate records. Fortunately, climate information stored in natural archives can provide us with information on how these modes varied in the more distant past. Lake sediments are an ideal climate archive since they are continuous, have high temporal resolution, and contain many potential climate proxies. In the present study, I use lake sediment records to assess past climate and environmental changes associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the Asian monsoon, and the Arctic Oscillation. Exploring modern precipitation variability across the Asian monsoon region, I found that precipitation within this broad area is not coherent, which holds implications for paleorecords that are hypothesized to represent monsoon variability, including many lake sediment records on the Tibetan Plateau. Monsoon precipitation in the Arabian Sea is distinct from precipitation in India and China, and increased precipitation in the Arabian Sea coincides with decreased precipitation in the western North Pacific. Furthermore, only precipitation in southwestern Tibet responds to the Southwest monsoon, whereas precipitation in southeastern Tibet responds to the western North Pacific monsoon. In southwestern Tibet, I have reconstructed dust variability over the last millennium using the lake sediment record from Kiang Co. The sediment record shows a trend toward increasing dust over the 20th century, and our hypothesized dust proxy is positively correlated with the June-November Arctic Oscillation Index. A trend toward more positive Arctic Oscillation Index values as well as higher temperatures over the 20th century likely drove increased dustiness in southwestern Tibet, due the influence of temperature on glaciofluvial sediment availability in the Himalayas. Sediment trap, sediment core data, and modern measurements of local climate and lake water variables at Genovesa Crater Lake, Galápagos, indicate the lake and its sediments respond to local climate variability, with carbonate-rich sediments forming during prolonged dry periods (La Niña events), and organic-rich sediment forming during the warm season and El Niño events. The ratios of silica to calcium and strontium to calcium also reflect cool season SST. Thus, this lake sediment record has potential to provide a record of both seasonal and ENSO variability spanning the Holocene.

Forestry is an important industry in Sweden, with clear-cut as the most commonly used method for harvesting. Here the long-term impact of clear-cut on lake water quality (dissolved organic carbon (DOC), nitrogen, phosphorus and pH) has been investigated, based on 23 lakes sampled during autumn. Data for additional 15 lakes sampled for the Swedish monitoring program were also used. Lakes were classified as 5, 25, 40 and 60 year based on data of the forest age in the catchment, gathered from the Swedish national forest inventory. Clear-cut lakes were classified as 5 years (>20% of the catchment clear-cut during the last 10 years). The results showed that DOC and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations decreased with increasing age of the forests. In clear-cut lakes (5 year) average DOC- (20.5 mg/L) and TN concentrations (477 µg/L) were higher than the average concentration in lakes with older forests (25, 40 and 60 year) (i.e. DOC 13.5 mg/L and TN 351 µg/L). Also the quality of DOC were changing (measured as changes in absorbance at 254) with forest age, with more bioavailable (low molecular weight) DOC in clear-cut lakes. A greater clear-cut area compared to the catchment area did not significantly result in higher concentrations of DOC and TN in clear-cut lakes. In conclusion, the concentration of TN, and the concentration and quality of DOC, in small boreal lakes are affected by clear-cutting and are changing with the age of the forest stand. Thus, highest concentrations and more bioavailable carbon compounds are found in clear-cut lakes where forests recently has been removed (<10 year).