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Abstract Peri-urban areas experience many land related problems and disputes because of rural-urban migration and increasing demand in land. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and describe the land problems and their related disputes that exist in two peri-urban areas surrounding the capital of Botswana, Gaborone. Two land boards administering these areas are studied in order to draw conclusions if there are any improvements that can be made to make the administration of land more effective.   The methods used in this thesis include: a literature review on previous made research to gain sufficient background and knowledge in the subject and a multiple case study to identify the most occurring land problems and how these are handled in the villages of Mogoditshane and Tlokweng. The case study included qualitative interviews with land board officers and experts within the studied subject.   The result from the literature review and the case studies shows similar result when it comes to land problems faced in Mogoditshane and Tlokweng. Common problems such as illegal occupations and multiple transfers lead to disputes over the right to land. The administration of handling these problems differ between the studied land boards as well as the approaches to resolving disputes that arises. For instance in Tlokweng they patrol the village in order to reveal illegal occupations. In the same land board they have also adopted the approach with alternative dispute resolution to reduce number of disputes entering the legal process.   It seems that one of the main causes for the land problems that occur in these areas is poor record keeping. Besides the improvements regarding record keeping, that is already in progress, this study has reached the conclusion that there are several measures that can be taken to make the management of land problems and related disputes more effective. The problem with shortage of land, which is another cause for land problems, could be reduced by an effective and unanimous land allocation process. Further we believe that by training both officers and board members in alternative dispute resolution methods and adopting an approach to try to resolve disputes before becoming a legal matter, will reduce costs as well as save time in the land administration.

Within the last decade, the United States Forest Service (USFS) has initiated a nation-wide project of Sustainable Recreation as a response to the decreasing amount of resources available to maintain the current recreation infrastructure, including trails, campgrounds, etc. These unmaintained trails and facilities pose a potential safety threat to users and the landscape in which they reside. This smaller pilot project, as part of the Southeast Arizona Sustainable Recreation Strategy, is the second pilot project in the Southwest Region of the USFS aimed at growing the Sustainable Recreation initiative. The main goal of this project is to create the framework for an inter-agency web application of recreation opportunities in Southeast Arizona, with an aim to increase communication between land management agencies, and to increase public participation and conservation of public lands. To achieve this, recreation data were gathered from multiple participating agencies and merged into a new schema in order to provide useful attribute information. This schema was then uploaded to ArcGIS Online and saved as a web map for internal, agency use. In addition, a public-facing web application and corresponding Story Map were also created. The result better portrays the Sustainable Recreation initiative and provides a one-stop-shop of useful recreation information and links for users who wish to become more involved. This project provides the groundwork for which more data from additional agencies and areas can be added and the participation of both land management agencies and the general public can grow.

Poverty reduction and conservation can seem contradictory as integrated goals. Despite mixed results over the past several decades, both goals are increasingly being sought out together in practice. Using a case study of an integrated conservation and development project in the Azua province of the Dominican Republic, this thesis examines the definitions and measurement of poverty and wellbeing within integrated conservation and development initiatives. It asks whether the inclusion of subjective ideas and participatory approaches may present new opportunities to better integrate poverty measurements within natural resource initiatives. Four focus groups and 250 questionnaires formed the core methods for data collection. The study reveals wellbeing as a concept was better able to capture the multi-faceted nature of capabilities poverty. Wellbeing often engages with the themes of vulnerability and inequity and includes politically-sensitive considerations instead of concepts that are about assets or consumption, ideas based in the outdated income-poverty perspective. Locally developed indicators were best able to reveal nuances related to context that universal poverty indicators would miss or misrepresent. The results also found that the way poverty, wellbeing, problems and solutions are conceptually framed and defined can be highly relevant. Using asset-based concepts and metrics would lead to economic development goals whereas rights-based ideas would promote very different objectives and methods. The comprehensive identification and targeting of stakeholders was found to be a necessary focus in determining the priorities. Participatory processes, especially with a commitment to power devolution, can help ensure that an array of local ideas are accounted for, and contribute to, a nuanced understanding of complex phenomena. Overall, subscribing to a rights-based approach that targets the means (opportunities) of development and not the ends (assets) can facilitate the needed shift towards the new poverty paradigm, in both concept and practice. A more successful integration between poverty reduction and conservation will require such a shift.

The Electronic Government (E-Government) is via the information network systems, connecting the government agencies, the citizen, and the information, establishing a real-time interactive system, which leads to the convenient and faster access to government information and services, making the convenient services to the citizen a reality. Based on the E-Commerce application models, there are four types of E-Government. They are Government to Citizen (G2C), Government to Business (G2B), Government to Government (G2G) and Government to Employee (G2E). The purpose of the G2G application model is to establish the information exchanges and integration application among the agencies so that the government can provide faster and convenient services to the citizen. This study uses the property management of the lands owned by the City of Kaohsiung as an example. The property management agency of Kaohsiung municipal government desperately needs the shared information provided by other agencies to resolve the complicated issues of property management. However, the municipal government does not have a standard process for the agencies to follow. If the negotiation between the information supplier and information consumer falls through, or there is no negotiation channel at all, the information cannot be shared among the agencies. Currently because of the following reasons: (1) no central mechanism in charge of the planning and management of the whole information business for the municipal government, (2) self-centered and conservative attitude of the agencies which own the information, (3) no mechanism for negotiation and assessment, (4) no sufficient budget and man power, the information integration and resources circulation is not a reality just yet. The municipal government does not take advantage of the available Internet resources and, therefore it is not able to provide the services of better quality to the people. In the continuing development stages of the E-Government, information sharing and integration application is the goal for the current important administration overhaul of the government. How to effectively execute information sharing among the government agencies is, as a matter of fact, the centerpiece of this study. The purpose of this study is through the exploration of shorter work flow due to the land information management and the current inter-agencies information sharing integration services, to provide an innovative thinking direction, hoping the execution can achieve the following: (1) Establish a standard work flow for the operation of information sharing among the municipal government agencies so that the information supplier and consumer agencies can follow. (2) Speed up the information sharing and messages circulation among the municipal agencies; simplify the internal administrative procedures of the agencies reaching the goal of efficiency and effectiveness of the services to citizen. Through the in-depth interviews, research, and analysis, there are some findings. To have information sharing among the government agencies, these need to be done: (1) set up a commission for propelling information sharing, (2) implement a standard work flow of information sharing for the City of Kaohsiung, (3) build up a mechanism for the inter-agencies negotiation. These conclusions will integrate the service flows of different agencies, making the execution of E-Government closer to a reality.

The goal of the dissertation is to carry out complex tests of biosorbents that absorb oil products and to analyse the sorbtion process using local raw materials for the elimination of the spilled oil products. Objectives of the paper: • to assess the sorption properties of materials used for the elimination of oil products; • to identify the optimal material for the production of a sorbent of local raw materials; • to carry out complex experimental tests of a sorption process; • to find out the physical parameters of sorbents of oil products; • to carry out experimental tests of water absorption; • to carry out tests of the efficiency of sorption off the water surface; • to find out the residual part of the material being sorbed; • to carry out experimental tests of the full capacity of sorption; • to carry out tests of thermal modification of biosorbents; • to find out the impact of sorbent fraction on the sorption properties; • to carry out experimental tests of cleaning of the polluted water with the help of biosorbents; • to perform a mathematical modelling of the sorption process.

After some time following the global depositions and pollution after the Chernobyl NPP accident, Lithuanian soils are most contaminated with 137Cs and 90Sr. In the work the 137Cs accumulation as well as vertical and horizontal migration in soil have been evaluated. The specific activity of the artificial origin 137Cs in tree segments has been determined, coefficients of its transfer from soil to various parts of the woody plant have been evaluated and compared with the transfer of the natural origin radionuclide 40K. The radionuclide accumulation both in soil and plants, wash–out from the environment and radioactive decay last for years, therefore it is expedient to choose proper methods and evaluate tendencies of the long–term contamination variation. Radionuclides having penetrated into the environment are accumulated in the vegetative ground cover and upper soil layer. Their accumulation in plants occurs directly from the atmosphere through their above–ground parts, while from leaves, branches and sprays as well as root surface radionuclides get into plant tissues and join the biological metabolism. These processes have not been evaluated sufficiently yet, though it is important from both biological and environmental point of view. After evaluating the radionuclide penetration into trees through their above–ground part and roots, radionuclide accumulation and distribution in a tree can be modeled and forecasted as well as a reverse task can be solved – their volume... [to full text]

General Characteristic of the Disertation The problem The development of mankind is inevitably related to the ever increasing impact on nature. During recent decades due to scientific and technical advances, human possibilities of influencing the nature began to substantially exceed our ability to understand, evaluate and forecast consequences of this activity, quite often unexpected and unacceptable. With the nuclear technology development, along with other problems there occurred the problem of the environment contamination with radioactive substances. Their consequences are felt over many years, and radionuclides having penetrated into the environment take part in the exchange processes between various natural media, migrate over long distances, get into biological objects and accumulate in them. Previously, especially after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) accident, and currently most attention both in the world and in Lithuania is paid to the investigations of specific activity of radioactive substances in the environment. However, there are a lot of problems of evaluating their biological danger, accumulation, migration and withdrawal in the environment from different environmental objects as well as of forecasting these processes. From the atmosphere radioactive substances are withdrawn with dust, they can be washed out with precipitation and decrease during radioactive decay. Radionuclides deposited to the ground surface are absorbed by soil and vegetation... [to full text]

This biological preparation is not still investigated in Lithuania. That is why the purpose is to find out the influence of the biological preparation Agricol to fir seedings taken effect and for the distance of their development. Besides, to find out that influence this preparation has for regulation of dampness regime in soil. The article analyses damps regulation of soil using biologic preparation Agricol and it's influence for simple fir's seedings naturalization in the future development of them.

Comprehensive investigation of the effect of polluting substances upon active sludge and of the opportunities for immobilisation of ferment preparations in the process of biological aerobic treatment of sewage. Refined mathematical models describing the population dynamics and identification of degradation rations based on the results of experimental investigations. The models obtained describe both the active sludge dynamics and the substrate biodegradation reasonably accurately, therefore, they can be applied to computations of sewage treatment in practice.