This thesis describes the geomorphology and morphodynamics of two embayed, sandy, macrotidal beach-dune systems in the Cape St. James region of Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site. Gilbert Bay beach is a small embayment with a southwest aspect that exhibits prograding dune ridges. Woodruff Bay beach, a larger system with a SE aspect, is characterized by large erosional scarps on the established foredune. Aspect to erosive conditions and embayment size control the distinct morphologic responses of these beach-dune systems. The morphodynamic regime at Cape St. James consists of high onshore sediment transport potential combined with an increasingly erosive water level regime that is forced by PDO and ENSO climatic variability events. Conceptual models of potential future responses of these beaches to sea level rise show a possible landward migration of up to 3.5 m at Gilbert Bay beach and up to 4 m at Woodruff Bay beach.

The use of hybrid processes med-arb and arb-med continues to grow in both commercial and labour relations contexts. With this growth, there remains a lack of research looking at why a particular hybrid process is chosen or what variables influence individuals to choose one process over another. This exploratory study uses both an online survey of full-time workforce members and semi-structured interviews of experienced hybrid process practitioners to identify and evaluate the variables that influence conflicting parties to choose either med-arb or arb-med. The research findings suggest that two variables, importance of the relationship between the parties and the perceived strength of legal case, are the two greatest indicators of hybrid process selection. Strong support for med-arb is found when disputants place a high value on the importance of their relationship. Arb-med is preferred when relationship is of low importance and strength of legal case is perceived to be high.

This thesis examines the informal recovery of recyclable beverage containers in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The socio-economic characteristics and structure of the informal recycling sector is explored using a case study of the United We Can bottle depot in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Results indicate that informal resource recovery, also known in local vernacular as “binning”, has the potential to make a significant contribution to poverty alleviation, social inclusion and waste management. Further, the informal recycling community is comprised of a highly diverse range of individuals. Society’s acceptance and integration of this sector could contribute positively to both the social economy and the environmental movement. In order to do so, however, a collaborative effort between government and community is required to build capacity and an adequate infrastructure.

Conflict is an integral and necessary aspect of human societies. The challenge is not to prevent conflict or even to resolve it, but rather, to effectively manage it so that it does not paralyse people. Historically, Gitksan society managed conflict through their legal traditions and governance practices, and I argue that it is the undermining of this conflict management system that has generated the pervasive conflicts among the Gitksan people today. While it is not possible to attribute the current internal conflict experienced by the Gitksan to the major legal action of Delgamuukw (inclusive of the several decades of preparation, levels of litigation and court decisions, and political aftermath), it was, and arguably still is, a very powerful force and influence in the lives of the Gitksan people. The extensive present-day internal conflicts in Gitksan communities must be reflexively appreciated within the complex of power relationships between the Gitksan people and Canada, and between Gitksan law and Canadian law. In Canada and beyond, Delgamuukw and the Gitksan were (and still are) part of a much larger continuum of political, social, and economic change as well as local economic shifts involving natural resources. The Gitksan people’s legal traditions enabled them to effectively manage themselves in a complex, decentralized, non-state society. Gitksan oral histories and other records such as the songs, crests, kinship roles, and traditions contain implicit and explicit law both as content and in their architecture as cognitive units that enable the sorting of information and dynamic intellectual processes of legal reasoning by analogy and metaphor. Gitksan legal traditions include intentional and deliberative collective processes to change law over time, transform implicit law into explicit law, and create legal precedent and a formal memory archive. These legal traditions are integral to the Gitksan people’s ongoing political perseverance and are the basis for the enduring connections to their territories. Moreover, the legal traditions are part of the dynamic political and social change processes that enable the Gitksan to be Gitksan in the past as well as in the present – complete with all the contested, pragmatic, entangled, contemporary forms of Gitksan politics. A deeper, critical, and more complex appreciation of Gitksan legal traditions is necessary if they are to be practically useful to the Gitksan people in today’s world for application to today’s issues. I have taken the position that Gitksan conflict management processes must be grounded within a substantive and critical articulation of Gitksan laws and legal practices, legal order, and legal theory. I propose a Gitksan legal theory that derives from a substantive treatment of the legal order, laws, and law cases. I draw resources from both western and indigenous legal theorists to explore, describe, and analyse Gitksan legal traditions. My proposed Gitksan legal theory comprises a broad overview, general principles, normative principles, and general working principles. While my work is based on a number of Gitksan law cases, my theoretical approach may be extrapolated to other non-state, decentralized peoples.

British Columbia’s current mountain pine beetle epidemic has led to salvage and mitigation harvesting strategies intended to slow the dispersal of beetles, and recover economic value from infested timber stands. These resulting harvesting strategies will alter the spatial pattern of forest landscapes in impacted regions, often resulting in forest fragmentation. As a result, wildlife habitat, hydrologic regimes, local carbon budgets, and soil dynamics, amoung other ecological properties, are expected to be negatively impacted. Monitoring of forest fragmentation in Canada is now required for the Montreal Process, an international forest monitoring policy. Effective methods that quantify changes in forest fragmentation, the breaking up of forest land cover into smaller, and more numerous parts, are required to meet forest monitoring objectives. This research provides two new methods that build upon existing approaches widely used for quantifying the spatial patterns of landscape features (i.e., landscape pattern indices). The first approach I demonstrate aids the quantification of forest pattern change over two time periods, by accounting for the impact of composition on spatial configuration. The value of this method is demonstrated using a case study that highlights the impacts of forest harvesting, associated with insect salvage and mitigation activities. This method allows landscapes that have changed primarily in composition to be distinguished from those that have experienced large configurational change. In the second approach I use multivariate cluster analysis for regionalization (the grouping of objects in space), and identify regions within a study area where increased fragmentation is observed. Regions delineated based on forest spatial pattern can be linked to underlying processes. Ancillary information (e.g., elevation) can be used to identify areas where observed forest pattern is due to underlying physiological features. Pattern indices (e.g., patch perimeter-area ratio) can be used to distinguish between patterns arising from forest disturbance that is likely natural (e.g., fire) or anthropogenic (e.g., harvest activity) in origin. The methods presented in this thesis may be most appropriate when observed changes in landscape pattern can be attributed to substantial changes in landscape composition.

This thesis situates the ongoing changes to pension schemes in China within the macro legal and economic conditions in that country, and contextualizes these changes in light of international influences, particularly the influence of the World Bank. Drawing on such contextualization, this thesis explores a number of related factors, including the rule of law, economic development and pension reform strategy in order to understand both the need for and flaws in pension reform in China during the past three decades. This thesis argues that the pension system has mirrored China’s economic reforms. The marketization process that began in the late 1970s impelled China to make fundamental pension reforms. The fact that China has not yet achieved the rule of law further complicates the pension reform process. This thesis concludes that the pension reforms that have been inspired by the World Bank pension model have not been ideal reform choices for China; however, several steps on the way to fundamental reform are suggested as being worth trying in China’s current economic and legal climate.

Integrated organic waste management, based on the door-to-door collection and decentralised processing of organic waste for urban agriculture, can be conceptualised as a socio-ecological process of re-circulating environmental amenities for social equality and environmental sustainability. In this thesis, a framework for participatory integrated waste management is presented, based on the findings of an empirical study carried out in the Brazilian city of Diadema, in 2008. The results reveal that the capacity exists for the collection and processing of organic waste, while civil society is sufficiently mobilised to ensure a reliable supply of good quality food waste. The quantity and quality of the resulting fertiliser helps enhance community food security through direct production for self-provision, reciprocal distribution networks, and increased income generation. Barriers include conflict over land and insecure political support. Such insecure support is characterised by the paradox of Brazilian politics, whereby rhetorical support for social policies contrasts their neoliberal implementation. This thesis addresses the ways in which the national political paradox affects the potential for integrated organic waste management in Diadema, paying particular attention to the need for combined social and environmental policies, the political culture of project implementation, the rhetoric of public participation versus neoliberal policy enforcement, and the contested nature of deliberative decision-making spaces. The thesis concludes with suggestions for progressive policy reform, such as a remuneration agreement with the recyclers and firm land tenure arrangements with the gardeners.

Recent concerns about the health of marine environments have led to the worldwide creation of new marine conservation initiatives. Multiple-use marine protected areas (MPAs) are one potential solution; however, they may be perceived by some as 'economic sterilizers' and threats to certain livelihoods, such as marine tourism or aquaculture. For instance, shellfish growers may perceive MPAs as favouring tourism as an economic activity, attracting recreational boaters who may inflict a negative impact on shellfish health through sewage or chemical discharge. Conversely, recreational boaters may perceive shellfish aquaculture as a threat to safe navigation and desirable anchorages. One significant challenge for resource managers then, is to design MPAs in ways that are acceptable to different stakeholder groups. This research, a partial application of the "Limits of Acceptable Change" (LAC) visitor management framework, examines acceptability of recreational boating and shellfish aquaculture within a proposed MPA from a community stakeholder perspective. This study examined Gulf Islands residents’ attitudes, perceptions and values towards the Gulf Islands marine environment. Gaining a clear understanding of the views of stakeholders is key in allowing coastal planners and marine resource managers to proceed effectively towards achieving their mandates. Specifically, this knowledge allows them to (1) identify what is important to different users; (2) determine public relations needs; (3) justify management decisions; (4) promote resource protection; (5) identify potential conflict areas; and (6) address negative concerns and build on positive perceptions. This project samples the views of a random selection of residents (n = 302) from Thetis. Salt Spring and Saturna Islands during the summer of 2004. This research applies respondents' values towards the marine environment as an independent variable in the analysis of (1) perceptions of threats towards the marine environment; (2) attitudes towards recreational boating and sewage from boating; (3) attitudes towards shellfish aquaculture: and (4) attitudes towards different strategies for zoning the marine environment.

This research is focused on evaluating NEED Crisis and Information Line's Youth Line training. The training prepares youth, aged 14 -19. to respond to telephone calls from youth in the community who are experiencing distress in their lives. The service is telephone-based and is provided for youth. by youth, from 4 -10 pm daily. The two purposes of this research were to assess changes in knowledge, attitudes and skills of Youth Line volunteers that result from training required for effective suicide intervention response, and to assess what worked and did not work in training. This could lead to future planning and changes for training. A total of 65 participants, divided into four training groups, completed a pre-test questionnaire prior to the start of training and of those, a total of 56 participants completed a post-test after Phase 1 of training. Phase 1 consists of 27 hours of training split into 9 sessions and 12 hours of peer support. Following each training session, each participant completed a questionnaire designed to evaluate their satisfaction with each session. A total of four training groups were evaluated. The questionnaire used to evaluate Youth Line training was comprised of the following; demographic information, a set of true and false knowledge questions. Suicide Intervention Questionnaire (SIQ), Suicide Intervention Response Inventory (SIRI-II), and set of questions regarding satisfaction with training. Following training, significant effects were found collectively for all 56 participants in all three areas, knowledge, attitudes and skills. When the 56 participants were broken down into four individual training groups, no significant results were found in knowledge and skills for one of the four training groups. Implications for further research are discussed.

Optical remote detection of surface water quality for open ocean waters has been ongoing since the 1960's. This method of detection is much more challenging, and not yet standard practice, for the more optically complex inland and coastal waters. A series of empirically developed models were built relating remote sensing reflectance (Rrs) for Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imagery (CASI), acquired over both inland and coastal water bodies of the Cowichan River watershed in British Columbia, to concurrently sampled water parameter concentrations. The models predict concentrations of chlorophyll-a and its pheopigments (as a proxy signal of phytoplankton), coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) and total suspended solids (TSS), using techniques including simple regression, step-wise regression, band ratios, derivative analysis, and fluorescence line height (FLH). The most statistically significant models were ultimately applied. Each of the models was found to be statistically significant, although confidence in the lake models and the CDOM model for the bay are limited due to potential chance correlations. The Chl-a and TSS models for Cowichan Bay were found to be acceptable based upon an understanding of the phenomenon being investigated. These two parameters were correlated to short blue wavelengths, where Chl-a is primarily correlated with absorption at 451 nm and TSS with scattering at 462nm. These findings provide support of the application of the standard configuration of MERIS bands as the common configuration for further coastal and inland water remote sensing studies.