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Computer-based, mathematical models have significant value in describing the processes behind urban development and its inhabitants. The following research describes the theories and concepts behind modeling and offers insight into the potential future of the field. First, the research covers a brief history of applicable modeling strategies. This is followed by a summary of current popular approaches. The numerical background of geo-social engineering is developed through mathematical techniques. Geo-social engineering is the integration of modeling into the basic design human civilization. The mathematical models will be incorporated into a design of a computer program. From this, a possible geo-social model structure is presented and its architecture is described.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the economic implications of a rapid population growth on Nigeria's economic development. It was particularly interesting to study the relationship, because at the present Nigeria is making some economic progress while undergoing a demographic transition. Apparently, despite the acceptable growth of the national income, the growth of the per capita output has not been encouraging. This output growth must have been hampered by the rather rapid population growth in Nigeria. The neoclassical growth theory was basically employed to explain the growth of output in the economy in terms of both capital and labor inputs. For instance, the short-run impact of a possible fertility decline could lead to increased savings capability, possible through the curtailment of the consumption of the dependent population. The long-run impact, on the other hand, could be the opportunity to increase the rate of structural transformation needed to raise labor productivity and personal income in the economy. The model revealed that economic growth rates in Nigeria have been declining with rising affluence. It is more likely that such a slowing would arise from the population pressure and resource limitation rather than from the propensity to invest.

This thesis uses gender as a lens of analysis for understanding the motivations of internal migrants in their decision to move to the 10 kilometer buffer zone of Carara National Park in Costa Rica. The thesis is in reaction to Wittemyer et al.’s (2008) article that statistically demonstrates that population levels at the borders of study selected national parks and protected areas across Africa and Latin America are growing due to in-migration. The study is composed of 30 interviews with Costa Rican migrants who live in three communities inside Carara’s buffer zone. This study used cultural consensus analysis and semi-structured interviews to elicit responses around their motivations to migrate. This study concludes that men and women migrate for similar reasons. Both men and women are influenced to migrate by their desire to access coastal development and the lifestyle amenities associated with living an ecologically rich and tranquil area.

This study investigates the potential impacts on soils from development practices associated with new single-family residential home construction in the extra territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) of Pflugerville, Texas. My research question is: Are regulations that directly focus on soil conservation advisable within Pflugerville’s ETJ, and what areas of development ought to be primarily targeted by these regulations in order to better ensure the long-term stability of soil health and the minimization of soil loss? The rationale for this question is based on the city’s projected future population growth, the projected future demand for single-family residences, as well as the development and management practices typically associated with new single-family residential development in the ETJ of Pflugerville. I hypothesize that due to Pflugerville’s proximity to Austin and Round Rock, in addition to the relative abundance of available land to the east of the city of Pflugerville, that it is likely to continue experiencing sustained population and residential development growth, particularly in the form of new single-family residences in the ETJ. A population projection was conducted up to the year 2030, which in conjunction with average persons-per-household and single-family home permitting data, estimates potential consumer demand for single-family residences. The imperative to prevent soil loss is conceptually linked to ecosystem service benefits resulting from healthy and intact soils, such as improved water quality and the regulation of peak flow rates during storm events. Single-family residential development is evaluated in terms of conventional on-the-ground construction practices gathered from interviews with developers of single-family homes in the Pflugerville ETJ, as well as planning and regulatory specialists. These analyses are intended to inform regulatory and decision making processes regarding the importance and potential integration of soil preservation and conservation at the individual construction site level. / text

Throughout human history man has utilized the environment to varying degrees, depending on technology and population. These ¨ecosystem services¨ have suffered sustained degradation over the centuries, resulting in large investments having to be made to prevent and reverse further changes to the environment. Few studies have attempted to quantitatively compare how these changes, occurring long before modern environmental monitoring programs started, affected important ecosystem services such as species diversity, water quality, carbon burial and soil stability. The aims of this study were to i) assess whether human impact on ecosystem services have varied over time in perspective of relative change, and ii) to assess the individual (per capita) contributions. I used multiple sediment proxies from a 6 m C¹⁴-dated core collected from lake Ekoln, South-Central Sweden, to reconstruct environmental changes while tracking the population growth in the city of Uppsala during the last ten centuries. Through the use of pollen and diatom assemblages I reconstructed the changing terrestrial and aquatic diversities over time, while sediment accumulation rates and the X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of the sediment was used to reconstruct soil stability, carbon burial and water quality, respectively. In the latter case, sediment phosphorus concentrations were used as a proxy for freshwater eutrophication while metals (mercury and lead) were used to infer inputs of toxic pollutants. Finally, I normalized (z) all data to create meta-data. The z-values and reconstructed population for Uppsala made it possible to differentiate 5 unique time periods based on anthropogenic induced change, which were not previously visible in the data, and all of which have been linked to the most likely historical causes, including the Black Death. The results show that the most significant anthropogenic impacts in terms of pollution volume occurred in the 1960s, while the period from 1200-1500 AD saw the most significant environmental change in terms per head of capita, most likely caused by the shift from woodland to open landscape through twiddening, a process of burning forest to create agricultural land, prior to 1500 AD. Moreover, rapid recovery is visible after the implementation of environmental policies from the 1970s onwards. / <p>Full surname: Kilpatrick van Houte</p>

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, urbanization has been present on the global scene. The phenomenon urbanization causes people to move from agricultural areas to cities which contain a higher population density. This has an influence on a municipality level in several ways. Sweden is a decentralized unitary nation and therefore the responsibility for different sorts of welfare services are provided by the municipalities. However, population decline in rural municipalities has led to some difficulties. These rural municipalities are facing challenges when trying to provide and afford their citizens with a satisfactory public service. This paper aims to examine this particular social development and reveal which factors have an impact on population growth in Swedish municipalities 2006-2016. It also studies the correlation and level of explanation of these factors by a bivariate correlation analysis and a multivariate regression analysis. The results suggest that agglomeration effects, job opportunities and commuting are the main factors that impact population growth, and which have had a significance during the chosen time period. In conclusion, this study shows that there are several variables that need to be considered regarding social development in rural municipalities in Sweden to ensure the standard of welfare services.

A população mundial deverá atingir a marca de 9 bilhões de habitantes até a metade do século XXI, trazendo como consequência a elevação da demanda por alimentos. Evitar o uso de culturas para fins que não a alimentação humana, é uma estratégia para elevar a oferta de alimentos. As tortas e farelos gerados como coprodutos apresentam potencial para substituir o milho e a soja, fornecendo uma alternativa favorável à segurança alimentar. Neste sentido, o objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar o potencial nutricional de alguns coprodutos e seus efeitos sobre a fermentação entérica de ruminantes. O primeiro ensaio foi realizado avaliando os farelos de, algodão (ALG), canola (CAN), girassol (GIR), e soja (CON, como tratamento controle), e as tortas de, macaúba (MAC), mamona (MAM), nabo forrageiro (NF), pinhão manso (PM), utilizando a técnica in vitro de produção de gases, assim como 3 dietas utilizando coprodutos, Dieta1 (60% feno de Tifton (FT), 30% GIR e 10% milho desintegrado (MD)), Dieta2 (60 % FT, 18% GIR, 16% MD e 6% ALG) e DietaCON (60% FT, 30% MD e 10% farelo de soja (FS)), para determinar a degradabilidade e a cinética fermentativa. Os tratamentos PM e MAM obtiveram menor performance fermentativa, diferentemente de CAN e NF, com degradabilidade similar a CON, e não foram observadas diferenças para a produção de metano entérico (CH4). A DietaCON foi superior as demais dietas; a Dieta 2 obteve melhor rendimento comparada a Dieta 1 Os resultados foram positivos e demonstraram a possibilidade de substituição do milho e da soja. O segundo ensaio teve por objetivo avaliar a digestibilidade aparente, balanço energético e proteico e emissão de CH4 em dieta utilizando coproduto na substituição a MD e FS. Duas dietas foram elaboradas na proporção 60% volumoso (Tifton 85, Cynodon ssp.) e 40% concentrado. Dieta com concentrado com coproduto (Dieta CPDT: 45% farelo GIR, 40% MD e 15% farelo ALG), e Dieta com concentrado controle (Dieta CON: 70% MD e 30% FS). Foram utilizados 7 carneiros, da raça Santa Inês, machos, com peso vivo (PV) médio de 63 ± 7,6 kg, em 2 períodos experimentais de 21 dias. As dietas (2 % PV) foram fornecidas em dois períodos, o sal mineral somente na refeição da tarde e a água fornecida ad libitum. Os animais ficaram em adaptação às dietas por 13 dias, então transferidos para gaiolas de metabolismo para o ensaio de digestibilidade (5 dias) e em câmara para troca de gases para quantificação do CH4 produzido (3 dias). Não foram encontradas diferenças para o balanço energético e proteico, e todos os parâmetros fermentativos com exceção na produção de acetato, butirato, produção total de ácidos graxos de cadeia curta, e a digestibilidade da matéria seca e orgânica, com a Dieta CON superior em todas as observações. No entanto, as emissões de CH4 não foram significativamente diferentes entre as dietas testadas. A substituição de alimentos tradicionais por coprodutos do biodiesel mostrou-se satisfatória, não sendo observados efeitos negativos sobre os parâmetros fermentativos / World population growth must reach 9 billion inhabitants until the half of XXI century, as consequence food demand is increasing. Avoiding the use of human edible food other than human feed is one of the strategies to increase food supply. Cakes and meals generated as a coproduct of biodiesel production has shown potential as replacement for corn and soybean, presenting a favorable alternative towards food security. In these sense, the aim of this work was to evaluate the nutritional potential of biodiesel coproducts and their effects on enteric fermentation by ruminants. First assay was performed assessing cottonseed (CS), rapeseed (RS), sunflower seed (SF), and soybean (CON, as control treatment) as meal, and macaw palm fruit (MP), castor bean (CB) radish seed (RD) jatropha seed (JS) as cake, all submitted to in vitro gas production technique, as well as 3 diets containing coproduct, Diet1 (60% Tifton hay (TH), 30% SF and 10% disintegrated corn (DC)), Diet2 (60% TH, 18% SF, 16% DC and 6% CS) and DietCON (60% TH, 30% DC and 10% soybean meal (SM)), for determine degradability and fermentative kinetics. JS and CB presented lower fermentative perfomence, differently to RS and RD, whosedegradability was similar to CON, and differences were not observed for enteric methane production (CH4). DietCON was superior to other ones; Diet2 had a better performance compared to Diet1. These were intersting results and showed that\'s possible to replace corn and soybean. The second assay aimed to evaluate apparent digestibility, energy and protein balance, and CH4 production in diets using coproducts as replacement for DC and SM. Two diets were formulated at the proportion 60% roughage (Tifton 85 hay, Cynodon ssp) 40% concentrate. Diet CPDT (45% of SF, 40% of DC and 15% of CS) and Diet CON (70% of DC and 30% of SM). Seven male Santa Ines sheep, with body weight (BW) average of 63 kg ± 7.6, were used in two experimental periods of 21 days. The diets were offered (2% BW) twice a day, mineral salt only in the afternoon and water ad libitum. The animals were kept for adaptation to diet for 13 days, then moved to metabolism cages for apparent digestibility assay (5 days) and then in gases exchange chamber for CH4 production quantification (3 days). No differences were observed for energetic and protein balance, and all fermentative parameters between experimental diets, except acetate, butyrate, total short fatty chain acids production and digestibility of dry and organic matter, when Diet CON showed greater values. However, CH4 emissions were not significant different. The replacement of traditional food by biodiesel coproducts was satisfying, with no negative effects observed upon ruminal fermentative parameters

Land resources are essential to the production of many goods and services, including food, fiber, housing, and recreation. Often, these alternate uses are thought to be incompatible, and the conventional wisdom holds that in a place such as Utah, where rapid population growth is occurring near farming activities, at least some agricultural land must be converted to developed uses. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strength of the relationship between population growth and change in farmland, especially cropland, in Utah. Theoretically, population growth has been assumed to affect the amount of land in agricultural use. An empirical model is formulated to explain changes in the quantity of various types of agricultural land as a function of four hypothesized explanatory variables, one of which is the percentage change in population. The conclusion reached is that population growth is not statistically related to changes in the amount of land in agriculture in Utah. Although some land at the urban fringes is converted to developed uses every year, it is replaced in other locations by new farmland . Therefore, the increase in population that resulted in some cropland conversion is not directly related to the change in cropland. Moreover, none of the other explanatory variables are consistently related. Even in a hypothetical "worst-case" scenario, in which all future development is assumed to take place on cropland, little of Utah's cropland would be lost by the year 2000. If Utah state and local planners desire to encourage retention of land in agriculture, further study should be directed towards finding the relevant explanatory variables, and policies should be based on an understanding of the significant relationships.