There is a growing recognition of the importance of the built environment in mediating people’s health related decisions, such as whether to walk rather than drive, or what types of food to purchase. The built environment has been identified as a significant determinant of health by the World Health Organization and many other organizations across the globe. This has spurred research on how and to what extent community design impacts health. Most research in Canada has been focused on major urban centres. Research in rural contexts on the connection between planning and health is limited. Despite much research on land-use and design to support healthy communities, how planners interpret the application of this research within the social, political, and jurisdictional confines of their planning practice is largely unexamined. Through an online survey and 10 semi-structured interviews with planners in Nova Scotia, the question of whether and how rural planners should address health issues is explored. The intention of this research is to better understand the connection rural planners see between their planning practice and health issues in their communities. This research found that planners indicated that health is important to address in planning practice, which confirms recent national level research. However, each respondent’s interpretation of health and how it related to planning practice was slightly different. Working with public health workers and agencies was supported as a way to improve community health, but most participants saw themselves as consultants to public health staff concerning projects and initiatives to support healthy communities rather than as collaborators. Provincial government “silos” were cited as the biggest barrier to implementation of planning practices to address health issues like physical inactivity. Results confirm what has been identified in the literature as barriers to rural planners addressing community health issues.

An estimation method for predicting the saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) of the soil was developed for common Nova Scotia soil types by examination of historical Ksat records. Detailed statistical analysis was performed to develop useful predictive models for Ksat based on soil physical properties and to determine the confidence limits for specific horizon-soil type combinations. Sensitivity analysis of the Hooghoudt equation was then performed to establish Ksat classes to which the confidence limits could be assigned to complete the development of the estimation method. / Model development processes proved unsuccessful due to the influence of factors not considered by the model due to their qualitative nature. Independent field testing of the estimation method with respect to core and Guelph permeameter measurement techniques produced measured values within the same class as the estimated value 34% of the time for both techniques and values within one estimated class or less 70 and 76% of the time for core and permeameter techniques respectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-222). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 214-222). Also available on the Internet.

The most surprising outcome from the Victoria School of Art and Design's first half century is that it survived into its second. How it survived, and how it almost failed to, is the subject of this thesis. The main argument is that community support for the VSAD, or lack of it, was based more on pragmatic concerns, rather than on whether people liked the art being produced. Among those concerns, the most talked about was art training for employable skills. Led by Anna Leonowens, who later became the subject of the musical The King and I, well-to-do citizens in Halifax, Nova Scotia founded the VSAD in 1887. In 1925 the school changed its name to the Nova Scotia College of Art. Its current name, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, came in 1969, the year that the College became what was then the only autonomous degree granting art institution in Canada. As part of an international movement, the VSAD shared its late nineteenth century origins with similar art schools throughout North America, Europe, Britain and its colonies. Many of these schools also shared common purposes: to sharpen the graphic skills of industrial designers, to provide instruction in the fine and decorative arts, and to train drawing teachers for public and private schools. Of the different groups supporting the Halifax school, women and their organizations were the most consistent and consequential, especially Halifax's Local Council of Women. A properly funded art school, they argued, could generate jobs, stimulate economic gains, and foster higher standards of civic culture within the community. This study looks at the VSAD's supporters, teachers, and administrators during its first half century. It describes how the school, with its inadequate enrolment, budget, and space, played a limited role in generating art-related employment before the Great War. It is only with the principalship of Elizabeth Styring Nutt from 1919 to 1943, with her strong community connections and decades-long commitment to training artist-workers, that the school finally gained relative security and success. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

efforts to initiate and sustain broad-based development activity. The study showed that though a variety of studies were conducted, they were initiated by and conducted with the intimate involvement of Pictou County residents who had been and would continue to be affected by the decisions arrived at. The study further showed that Pictou County residents were fast learning through their involvement that so much of what would likely happen in Pictou County depended on the initiatives they would take. What was happening in Pictou County by virtue of the Development Opportunities Project was found to embrace quite closely the concepts which form the theory of social learning. The study concluded by saying that while great care was necessary to rule out cause and effect relationships that may be spurious, the previous federal and provincial regional development planning efforts seemed to have had marginal influence on the economic well-being of residents in Nova Scotia regions and may have even hindered social and political development. On the other hand, evidence appeared to exist to suggest that social and political development was taking place as a result of the Development Opportunities Project. No hard data existed on the economic effects of the Project. Generally, however, this study suggested that regional development planning that strengthens the process of social learning within the region will have more fundamental and worthwhile effects than the more traditional approaches. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

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