Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating beach ridge sediments is one method for resolving barrier island growth at intermediate scales (decades-centuries), information that is lacking for Louisiana. This research combines OSL, GPR, aerial imagery, and cores to document temporal and spatial evolution of a Louisiana barrier island. Grand Isle is composed of beach ridges organized in distinct, unconformable sets that began forming 0.75 ka until 0.575 ka when deposition ceased, the ridges were partially eroded, and deposition resumed in a more eastward direction. The central ridges formed between 370±30 and 170±10 years ago at a rate of one ridge every 11.6 years with sand from the eroding Caminada headland that, with flanking barriers, forms the Bayou Lafourche transgressive depositional system. Grand Isle’s lithosome (92,600,000 cubic meters) requires an annual longshore transport of 128,625 cubic meters. The lithosome thickness (10 meters) and steady sediment supply stabilize the island relative to other Louisiana barriers.

A class of migrant workers in China that have left their official rural residence in search of work and wealth in the more developed coastal cities have created a new process of urbanization. The ‘floating population’ numbering 150 million has created immense demand for low-cost housing. Village enterprises within the city region of expanding metropolises have self-organized to supply affordable housing. However, economic incentives and ownership constraints on rural land deter long-term considerations and favour rapid development. The building (and destruction) of a country cannot be recklessly left to coincidental solutions of profit opportunities in remnant policies. An understanding of the systemic political, economic and social properties that generate the built fabric of today and of traditional villages can allow us to manipulate the current process of development. The village of Zhangpeng in Dongguan city of the Pearl River Delta region is on the brink of explosive growth. Major infrastructural developments have been constructed and planned on its expropriated lands. Without proper guidance, the status quo process of urbanization will destroy the village overnight. The proposed alternative is to manipulate market-demand through village-led investment in its public space network in order to spur private development of village properties. The method is through strategic and incremental investment on village public space and property and monitoring the catalytic effect of these changes on private redevelopment. Adjustments in land development is made to steer the built fabric into a form between what the village wants it to become and what it has the propensity to be. The aim is to create a system of land development that will preserve, adapt and extend traditional village fabric and its way of life.

Ecosystem services and goods are non-market values that are increasingly being accounted through contingent valuation methods and more specifically by studying people’s willingness-to-pay for them. Large ecosystem restoration is an area that benefits from economic valuation because placing a monetary value proves that restoration efforts are justified to preserve resources for future generations, wanted by a community, and even a profitable investment of public funds. However, what determines that a community supports and understands restoration efforts is linked to their social, economic, cultural, and geographic reality. In this study I adopted the idea of willingness-to-pay to examine people’s attitudes towards river flow restoration efforts in the Colorado River Delta. The Colorado River Delta is a resilient ecosystem that has endured severe river flow depravation for more than 70 years now; yet, this ecosystem still provides many environmental services and goods and its restoration is well justified for that. This research mainly reveals that the Colorado River Delta is still an undervalued ecosystem despite its resiliency and the many regional benefits it still provides. This study has two research questions. Fist, I determined what factors influence Mexicali’s willingness-to-pay. Second, I compared willingness-to-pay attitudes between the cities of Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado (SLRC); two neighboring Mexican cities of different size and economic structure but of similar social, ecologic and geographical conditions. The instrument to collect field data was a survey that posed a realistic river flow restoration scenario at a range of prices from 10 to 90 pesos in order to test people’s willingness-to-pay; a total of 564 surveys were delivered face to face in Mexicali. Subsequently, I compared Mexicali survey results with a previous SLRC survey. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric analysis, and qualitative analysis were the main instruments to arrive to my conclusions. Within Mexicali, I found that parenthood and the perception of received benefits from the river were the most significant factors that determined people’s willingness-to-pay. Migration was also a salient socio-demographic factor that probably has an influence on people’s attitudes towards river flow restoration. When making comparisons between cities I found that SLRC is more willing to pay than Mexicali, which confirmed my hypothesis that environmental awareness influences willingness-to-pay in each city given that SLRC is a true river city while Mexicali is 64 km away from the river. Pricing was also influential in both cities. People’s exposure to the river varied from one city to the other –SLRC people have more interactions with the river than people from Mexicali do, thus matching again the difference in willingness-to-pay attitudes of each city. Although income, education, frequency of visits, and awareness of dry river conditions were expected to have a clear connection to willingness-to-pay within Mexicali, I found only a marginal statistical relationship that was very close to be significant. This was due to the fact that I analyzed the dependency of those variables for all prices and not at a specific price range where the actual average willingness-to-pay resides. Finding that average and then analyzing the relationships again should clarify this issue. What motivates people to pay was related to resource conservation and the recognition of the river’s ecological importance. What motivates people to not pay relates to negative attitudes such as incredulity and lack of trust in Mexican institutions. My main recommendations are to raise local environmental awareness of river issues with environmental education, to address local negative attitudes towards river restoration, and to explore the analysis of these data with other approaches such as socio-psychological models.

Ecosystem services and goods are non-market values that are increasingly being accounted through contingent valuation methods and more specifically by studying people’s willingness-to-pay for them. Large ecosystem restoration is an area that benefits from economic valuation because placing a monetary value proves that restoration efforts are justified to preserve resources for future generations, wanted by a community, and even a profitable investment of public funds. However, what determines that a community supports and understands restoration efforts is linked to their social, economic, cultural, and geographic reality. In this study I adopted the idea of willingness-to-pay to examine people’s attitudes towards river flow restoration efforts in the Colorado River Delta. The Colorado River Delta is a resilient ecosystem that has endured severe river flow depravation for more than 70 years now; yet, this ecosystem still provides many environmental services and goods and its restoration is well justified for that. This research mainly reveals that the Colorado River Delta is still an undervalued ecosystem despite its resiliency and the many regional benefits it still provides. This study has two research questions. Fist, I determined what factors influence Mexicali’s willingness-to-pay. Second, I compared willingness-to-pay attitudes between the cities of Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado (SLRC); two neighboring Mexican cities of different size and economic structure but of similar social, ecologic and geographical conditions. The instrument to collect field data was a survey that posed a realistic river flow restoration scenario at a range of prices from 10 to 90 pesos in order to test people’s willingness-to-pay; a total of 564 surveys were delivered face to face in Mexicali. Subsequently, I compared Mexicali survey results with a previous SLRC survey. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric analysis, and qualitative analysis were the main instruments to arrive to my conclusions. Within Mexicali, I found that parenthood and the perception of received benefits from the river were the most significant factors that determined people’s willingness-to-pay. Migration was also a salient socio-demographic factor that probably has an influence on people’s attitudes towards river flow restoration. When making comparisons between cities I found that SLRC is more willing to pay than Mexicali, which confirmed my hypothesis that environmental awareness influences willingness-to-pay in each city given that SLRC is a true river city while Mexicali is 64 km away from the river. Pricing was also influential in both cities. People’s exposure to the river varied from one city to the other –SLRC people have more interactions with the river than people from Mexicali do, thus matching again the difference in willingness-to-pay attitudes of each city. Although income, education, frequency of visits, and awareness of dry river conditions were expected to have a clear connection to willingness-to-pay within Mexicali, I found only a marginal statistical relationship that was very close to be significant. This was due to the fact that I analyzed the dependency of those variables for all prices and not at a specific price range where the actual average willingness-to-pay resides. Finding that average and then analyzing the relationships again should clarify this issue. What motivates people to pay was related to resource conservation and the recognition of the river’s ecological importance. What motivates people to not pay relates to negative attitudes such as incredulity and lack of trust in Mexican institutions. My main recommendations are to raise local environmental awareness of river issues with environmental education, to address local negative attitudes towards river restoration, and to explore the analysis of these data with other approaches such as socio-psychological models.

The increasing global air temperature will trigger changes in the global mean water vapor, precipitation patterns and evapotranspiration, which further leads to changes, for instance, instream flow, groundwater flow and soil moisture. Projections of future changes in thehydrological regime of the Aral Sea Drainage Basin (ASDB) in Central Asia are however highlyuncertain, due to complexities of natural and engineered water systems of the basin. The AmuDarya River Delta (ADRD) is vital to the water budget of the Large Aral Sea, the livelihood inUzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the surrounding riparian ecosystem. This study attemptsto investigate responses of river flow in the Aral Sea Drainage Basin and key riparian vegetationspecies (of the so-called Tugai community) in the Amu Darya River Delta to projected futureclimate change. Results from hydrological model and outputs from multi-GCM predictions providea basis for conducting more robust quantitative analysis of possible future hydro-climatic changesin the Amu Darya River Basin. A qualitative synthesis of the suitability of Tugai is furthermoreperformed in order to increase the knowledge of the riparian vegetation status under thechanging hydro-climatic conditions. The results show that the averaged temperature in the ASDBis likely to continuously increase and yield a total increase of about 2 °C ~ 5°C by 2100. Thechange trend of the annual regional precipitation of 2100 is relatively unclear, with estimatesranging from 50 mm lower than today to 75 mm higher than today. Modeled ensemble means (EM)river flow, obtained from hydrological modeling of climate output from multi-GCM projections,converge on showing future decreases in river runoff (R). Projected absolute R may decrease tozero around 2100, implying no surface flow and a dry out near the river outlet. The relationship ofwater flux between upstream and downstream will be changed dramatically due to climatechange. More specifically, R of the upstream region will decrease, and it is likely to becomeinsufficient for feeding downstream river reaches as it used to. The decreased river flow in thedelta may accelerate the desertification and salinization processes. Consequently, speciestransitions may occur, along with degradations of the existing Tugai communities. Theuncertainties of hydro-climatic change projections to some extent hinder the understanding of thedynamic hydrological-climatic-ecological system. However, the detailed responses of the delta toclimate change based on multiple qualitative and quantitative analyses provide an important basisfor the formulation of more robust forecasts on the future ecological development in the ADRD, and further for recommendations of measures to mitigate the ecosystem’s deterioration under achanging climate.

This study used the sediment samples collected in May (dry season) and September (wet season) 2010 in a river delta and tidal flat complex around Jhoushuei River mouth in Central Taiwan to examine seasonal sediment transport pathways and sources. Four different approaches were used in the analysis of grain-size distribution pattern. They include (1) the McLaren-Bowles method, and (2) the transport vector technique (Gao-Collins method), and (3) a combination of `filtering' and the empirical orthogonal (eigen) function (EOF) analysis technique, and (4) C/N elemental ratios of organic sediments. The results of surface grain size distributions of sediment range from clay to medium sand towards the sea, and very fine sand deposited in the river delta. On the upper tidal flat, mud content of the wet season is higher than dry season due to higher river output of organic sediment and low-energy sediment transport. In wet season, according to the fine-grained sediment from the Jhoushuei River is therefore mainly discharged to the offshore area and little remain around the tidal flat, the influence of river on the grain-size distribution is the least. The results based on McLaren-Bowles method indicate that there were two type sediment transport pathways, (1) the river carried sediment to the coast, then alone the northeast-southwest direction by the longshore current, and (2) during the flood tide, the riverine sediment move to northeast and east through the river delta and tidal creek to the upper tidal flat, respectively. The results based on Gao-Collins method indicate that there was possible seasonal variation of sediment transport pathways on the river delta front, where the significant transport was seaward in the wet season whereas the transport was the opposite in the dry season. On the tidal flat, the model results indicate that seaward transport seems to be controlled by ebb tidal current perhaps due to the sampling at low-tide.

This article aims to explore the influence of Mainland China's inter-governmental relations to the logistics in the Yangtze River Delta region. In short, research results can be summed up and related to Yangtze River Delta regions relationship between inter-structural governmental factors, to allow readers to understand the status of the logistics industry and policy development in the Yangtze River Delta and it¡¦s obstacles. Through governmental inter-system structure, relating to the Yangtze River Delta region's logistics industry environment review, analysis between local government in Yangtze River Delta, and the existence of competitive behavior, different difficulties, as well as logistics management system of the Government; on the other hand, Central Government policies on logistics development in Yangtze River Delta region and the role it plays, furthermore what means of intervention is necessary. Finally we can conclude that, Under the influence of inter-institutional structure, logistics reforms in the management of the local government and functions of the Central Government policies have been meet with difficulty; on the other hand, tax reform in logistics by means of Central Government macro-control, yet still compressed direct access to tax revenue of the local governments financial capacity, resulting in local governments to rely more on other non-tax revenues, indirect effects of layouts and the operation of the logistics industry chain. Due to these structural factors that affect local government in Yangtze River Delta areas causes a dilemma in choosing to compete or cooperate; reflecting to the effectiveness of the reform policies of the Central Government.

¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@¡@Abstract ¡@¡@In 1997 when Hong kong was returned to mainland China, one state - two systems was promoted. Politics was governed by basic laws. But on economic aspect, it was not until the promotion of CEPA that the economic development was apparently led by the Government, which is completely different from Hong Kong's free marketing trade. Such is the focus of all. The treaty signed between China and Hong kong came into effect in January, 2004. The content mainly includes in three areas -tax -relief on trade products, the import of service trade and investment coporation. CEPA has been carried out for the passed two years, and Hong kong's economic has since climbing upward along side with the tide of the world. To the Taiwanese bussinessmen this has become an increased investment competition stress for them in mainland China. And in turn it might affect Taiwan's economic status. So the influence is profound. ¡@¡@This article first tries to understand the related theories of regional economic integration. Focusing on the present stage after China and Hong Kong signed the treaty CEPA, to observed the operation of the allotment of political strategy between the Central government, localities and Hong Kong. To further understand through refering to all the problems and observation analysis done by experts. To practically understanding the practice of political strategy allotment and the interaction between various regions. With an attempt of analysing the value of political strategies which could in turn benefit analysis study on the adjustment of various trade strtegies. Analysing each and every factor that might cause the future economic development of Hong Kong and Taiwan which includes Govrnments setting of political strategies, international factor and China factor. Try to totally comprehend the role plays by Hong Kong and its interaction with other regional and international economic and trade On the other hand , it is to merge this article's diverse analysis on the impact of CEPA against Taiwan. And to suggest countermeasures in regards to the development of such situation. So as to enhance our competitiveness and to avoid the risk of being cornered. ¡@¡@This context intents to grant the basic introduction of regional economic integration to those who are concerned with China - Hong Kong's CEPA. It also serives as a reference to broaden the sight of business administraters. Last but not least, your comments are most appreciated. Key words¡GCEPA ¡BTheory of integration,regional economic integration,Pan Pearl River Delta¡]PPRD¡^

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Waterloo. / Includes bibliographical references.

Hong Kong has long been regarded as a global city and the regional service provider in the Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) region, with the provision of an opened and accountable economic and legal system, support of high-quality infrastructure and policies, and being the gateway to enter the Chinese market. This can be reflected by its consistently high score in different global competitiveness ranking index. A lot of Transnational Corporations (TNCs) are attracted by this reputable global city development of the city, establishing their headquarters and other tertiary services in Hong Kong. Other cities in the GPRD region tend to specialize in factory production with their comparative advantage in lower production cost in terms of labour, looser regulations and industrial agglomeration. The functional division in the GPRD region is well defined spatially which can be explained by the traditional "Front office, back factory" model. However, this settings has been changing as many PRD cities like Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai have transformed their city's vision towards a global city currently. These cities have initiated economic restructuring and industrial upgrading towards modern servicing industries, and gradually force out the original factories and production base to less developed PRD cities or other locations beyond the GPRD region. New incentives are offered by the central and municipal government in attracting TNCs to invest in high value-added producer services, establishing Research and Development (R&D) base and headquarters in these PRD cities under urban entrepreneurialism. The dominant role of Hong Kong as a global city and regional service provider is challenged under rapid inter-city competition with these cities. This results in a new spatial dynamics and functional specialization settings for the GPRD region that cannot be explained by the traditional model. This study will examine the existing and potential role of global city development in Hong Kong and other PRD cities with reference to the investment choices of TNCs in the GPRD region. Through a comparative analysis with Guangzhou, the major strengths, weaknesses, and other factors required for global city development of Hong Kong and PRD cities will be identified. In addition, the latest locational settings of different functions will be explored in the case study analysis of TNCs in modern servicing and financing industry, manufacturing industry, and information and high-tech industry. The analysis will assist in identifying potential development opportunities, weaknesses of Hong Kong and PRD cities in attracting further investments from TNCs. Recommendations will be offered at the end of the study to enhance the overall competitiveness of Hong Kong and the GPRD region, through "co-opetition" incentives, fostering the development of GPRD mega-city region under the network city concept, and formulating an updated version of "Front office, back factory" model. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning