This research focuses on the spatial analysis of the habitat of two vulnerable species, the one-horn rhinoceros in the grasslands of southern Nepal, and the red-cockaded woodpecker in the Piney woods of southeast Texas, in the USA. A study sites relevant for biodiversity conservation was selected in each country: Chitwan National Park in Nepal, and areas near the Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas. Land-use differs in the two study areas: the first is still undergoing agrarian development while the second is in a technological phase and undergoing urbanization processes. Satellite remote sensing images were used to derive land-cover maps by supervised classification. These maps were then processed by Geographic Information Systems methods to apply habitat models based on basic resources (food and cover) and obtain habitat suitability maps. Several landscape metrics were computed to quantify the habitat characteristics especially the composition and configuration of suitable habitat patches. Sensitivity analyses were performed as the nominal values of some of the model parameters were arbitrary. Development potential probability models were used to hypothesize changes in land-use of the second study site. Various scenarios were employed to examine the impact of development on the habitat of red-cockaded woodpecker. The method derived in this study would prove beneficial to guide management and conservation of wildlife habitats.

The diploma thesis describes theoretical issues of land-use planning with applicable legislation, analyzes the current state of land-use planning documentation, evaluates development goals of village and proposes practical solution to their inclusion to the land-use plan.

An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information is best observed in the field, agencies require methods of collecting this data that will ensure data precision, accuracy, and consistency, while minimizing data collection and processing time. Electronic data collection tools that are compatible with Geographic Information Systems provide a potential solution that can facilitate these desired data collection parameters. This research illustrates the development of an electronic data collection tool that planning agencies may utilize within various planning efforts, and compares the efficiency of the tool to traditional ‘pen-and-paper’ data collection methods in terms of time savings. It is recommended that planning agencies widely adopt and implement electronic tools for land use data collection, for the demonstrated benefits related to data consistency and reduced data collection time in the field.

This thesis analyses the key developments in foreign trade for Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Moldova on a comparative basis between 1996 and 2006. It examines trade developments and restructuring with the region’s two major trade blocs: the European Union (EU) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Using dependable trade models pioneered by Béla Belassa and Herbert Grubel and Peter J. Lloyd, the analyses involve revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and intra-industry trade (IIT) to determine the extent to which structural changes have or have not occurred, which domestic industries are becoming more competitive and the degree of differentiation present. The reason for choosing the aforementioned measurement indices is straightforward. On one hand, RCA identifies those industries that have become relatively more competitive, and attempts to assess whether a given industry enjoys a comparative advantage in production by means of measuring exports. On the other hand, IIT supposes the opposite of comparative advantage theory, and affirms that differences between countries are not the only rationale for trade, because of the presence of increasing returns in scale economies. Thus, it examines the simultaneous import and export of identical, similar or differentiated products in the same industry often between similar countries. Although both indices are usually considered alternatives to each other, there is good reason to see them as complementary. The results of both indices, therefore, provide critical information from which to assess the degree of trade restructuring.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jason Brody / As global development trends continue, planners and social scientists of the future will have an increasingly pressing responsibility to effectively and sensitively address and interact with informal development. This report seeks to provide theoretical research to expand the knowledge base of planners and social scientists with respect to informal development. It aims to begin to explore and explain how informal development and living conditions interact, and to understand what the role of the planner and social scientist should be in interfacing with informal development in the future. Through case study this report considers two distinct typologies of informal settlements in order to compare and contrast factors in each settlement‘s history and development, living conditions, and overarching administrative relationships to identify trends in the development and manifestation of informal settlements.

Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / John W. Keller / The aging demographic of the United States is growing at an alarming rate. Each day, there are more than 10,000 people turning 65 years old. The majority of these individuals prefer to live in their home, called aging in place. Aging in place requires the resident to be relatively independent and capable of accessing necessary services. The emergent demographic shift will compel every community across the country to focus community planning efforts toward older adults. The amenities and structures in a community are, most of the time, not favorable for the older demographic. People in their later years develop various medical and physical conditions and subsequently, find difficulty when adapting to the environment. These individuals definitely need extra care and consideration from all sectors of the community. Creating an environment that promotes aging in place for older adults is confronted with multiple barriers that a community must work past.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries

Search and matching models such as those of Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) and Pissarides (2000) have come under criticism in recent years. Analysis of the model by Shimer (2005) and others has focussed in particular on the models’ inability to generate sufficient volatility in variables such as the unemployment and vacancies rates, and the vacancyunemployment ratio. Newer models have sought to ameliorate these empirical issues by changing the model – for example by adding wage rigidity or by amending the specification of the costs of search. In Chapters 3 and 4 of this thesis, we re-address some of these issues using the method of indirect inference. The method allows us to formally test the hypothesis that data was generated by a particular model under a given set of parameter values. It therefore offers a statistically founded replacement for the somewhat arbitrary moment-by-moment comparisons found in much of the existing literature. We apply the method to Shimer’s analysis of the Mortensen Pissarides model, and concur with his analysis that, under his chosen parameters, the model fails to fit the data. We also apply the method to the model used in Yashiv’s (2006) paper, which argues using moment comparisons that the standard model can be improved by adding convex search costs. In contrast, we find that the augmented model is rejected under formal indirect-inference tests. The aggregate search and matching literature has also generated an empirical debate about the relative importance of labour market flows, expressed in terms of the hazard rates of labour market transition faced by workers. Many studies decompose changes in steady-state unemployment in terms of the contributions of various hazard rates. This thesis also extends this literature so as to model the contributions of hazards for two distinct and contiguous geographical areas – those of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom, using Labour-Force-Survey panel data. We find some evidence that in this regard, the UK hazards are weighted towards the hazards “out of” unemployment, whereas for Wales the hazards “into” and “out of” unemployment are of approximately equal importance. We also find however that the results are sensitive to whether or not the data are smoothed, and whether a steady-state is imposed.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of forecasting on supply chain via a system dynamics perspective. Method/approach: Techniques from Control Theory (such as block diagram, z-transforms, Fourier transforms, Jury’s Inners approach, and frequency response analysis) and Time Series Analysis are used to investigate the performance of supply chains analytically. Simulation is also used to verify the results. Findings: This thesis provides a new and complete proof to the knowledge that Naïve, simple exponential smoothing, and Holt’s forecasting when used in the Order-Up-To (OUT) policy always produce the bullwhip effect for any demand pattern and for all lead-times. In terms of the bullwhip performance when Damped Trend (DT) forecasts are used in the OUT policy, the bullwhip effect is always generated for traditional parameter suggestions. However, the bullwhip avoidance behaviour occurs for some unconventional parameter values. Using these unconventional parameter values, the DT / OUT system acts like a low-pass filter that can eliminate the bullwhip effect and maintain good inventory performance at the same time. The thesis also proves that the Proportional Order-Up-To (POUT) policy is able to reduce system nervousness at the manufacturer. Moreover, the proportional future guidance (PFG) mechanism proposed may reduce system nervousness and inventory costs at the manufacturer and reduce the bullwhip effect in the supply chain simultaneously. Implications: This thesis shows that the bullwhip and net stock variance reduction behaviours exist when unconventional parameter values are used in the DT forecasting procedure. It is the first evidence that it is possible to design a system with good financial performance but without directly looking into the performance of forecasting. The thesis is also the first to consider the MRP nervousness problem and the bullwhip effect at the same time. The PFG method proposed is easy to understand, and since it does not require sophisticated integrated IT systems, or demand / inventory information sharing, it should be easy to implement.