Transformations of energy systems in line with the Paris Agreement demand rapid deliberate decline of fossil energy production for decarbonization. Rising in priority on national political agendas, policy change for deliberate decline meets political barriers in the form of powerful incumbent actors, path dependencies and frames of loss. Although these dynamics can impede transformations, literature remains unclear in how to engage with these barriers. Therefore, this study focused on discourse and policy process theories in a qualitative analysis based on a broad selection of documents and expert-based interviews to explore and illustrate the “Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment” in Germany (2018/19). In this multi-stakeholder committee, a phase-out plan for coal-fired power generation was negotiated alongside claims of just transitions. Findings indicate that policy change was reached through consensual agreement but was reduced in ambition through path dependent discourse and expert-based information. The selection and evaluation of expert-based information was closely tied to expert members, while political debate on necessary assumptions as a basis for this information remained scarce. Lastly, insights from discourse and expert-based information can enrich the understanding of sustainability transformations and further research on the case could investigate the narrative subscriptions of stakeholders.

Food production and consumption is causing environmental harm such as climate change and a decline in ecosystem services. Hence, a transformation of the food system is necessary for humanity’s future well-being. The public meal can be used as a tool for establishing healthy and sustainable eating habits at an early age and contribute to changed dietary choices in the future, yet few municipalities are prioritizing this opportunity. This study uses Södertälje municipality as a case to look at the change process of implementing a sustainable diet concept in preschools, schools, and gymnasiums, with the hope of acquiring knowledge and understanding useful for similar cases of transformation. Using a framework for deliberate social-ecological transformations and data primarily from qualitative interviews, I map the phases of transformation to better understand how agency and opportunity context have been used in navigating the process and identify possible opportunities going forward. Findings show the importance of political support, an integrated organization, and rooting new practices amongst the officials. The motivation and persistence of a key leader was crucial in navigating forward, and the process has been driven by several opportunities such as a political window of opportunity for change and the collaboration with a bridging organization in developing a food concept. It also shows how municipalities can have an important role in changing eating habits and how food-related norms and values can potentially shift and contribute to long-term food system change.

abstract: Sustainability research and action in communities should be holistic, integrating sociocultural, biogeophysical, and spiritual components and their temporal and spatial dynamics toward the aim of co-creating thriving living systems. Yet scientists and practitioners still struggle with such integration. Regenerative development (RD) offers a way forward. RD focuses on shifting the consciousness and thinking underlying (un)sustainability as well as their manifestation in the physical world, creating increasingly higher levels of health and vitality for all life across scales. However, tools are nascent and relatively insular. Until recently, no empirical scientific research studies had been published on RD processes and outcomes. My dissertation fills this gap in three complementary studies. The first is an integrative review that contextualizes regenerative development within the fields of sustainability, sustainable design and development, and ecology by identifying its conceptual elements and introducing a regenerative landscape development paradigm. The second study integrates complex adaptive systems science, ecology, sustainability, and regenerative development to construct and pilot the first iteration of a holistic sustainable development evaluation tool—the Regenerative Development Evaluation Tool—in two river restoration projects. The third study builds upon the first two, integrating scientific knowledge with existing RD and sustainable community design and development practices and theory to construct and pilot a Regenerative Community Development (RCD) Framework. Results indicate that the RCD Framework and Tools, when used within a regenerative landscape development paradigm, can facilitate: (1) shifts in thinking and development and design outcomes to holistic and regenerative ones; (2) identification of areas where development and design projects can become more regenerative and ways to do so; and (3) identification of factors that potentially facilitate and impede RCD processes. Overall, this research provides a direction and tools for holistic sustainable development as well as foundational studies for further research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2019

As spatial properties that systems theoretically have, Socio-Ecological Systems are characterized by dynamism and mobility, therefore, are subject to changes in the space they occupy in the biosphere. In land ecosystems, these changes are understood as processes of evolution over time, or the result of extreme natural events, or transformation of the natural space induced by human activities. These spatial changes produce effects on the land surface and groundwater of ecosystems colonized or penetrated by elements, individuals or populations belonging to other ecosystems. These are the so-called Transitional Spaces between ecosystems. Throughout the continuous geographical space, these spatial transitions affect human and not human ecosystems in different ways. Given their ambiguous characteristics and their indefinite temporal location between urban, rural or natural spaces, transition spaces deserve to be investigated in order to know their properties and functions within the cartography that represents complex socio-ecological systems. The research is conducted from a particular perspective of Political Ecology. For this I proceed to develop an epistemological exercise on the political ecology syntagma in order to approach its concept and object of study as a hybrid discipline between social sciences and natural sciences. Interdisciplinarity as a practice, a dialectic vision regarding anthropocentrism, environmental perception as a method for an ontology of human ecology, The ecosystem as a unit of spatial analysis. These would be some of the characteristics of my ecological-political perspective. But what does transitional space mean for political ecology and what does it add to its theory? The question led me to seek the integral concept of ecosystem and to support myself in the General Systems Theory to analyze the notions of boundary and external environment as part of the classic concept of system. At that point, the notion of transitional spaces emerges implicit when recognizing the dynamic spatiality of other existing systems. v Since the research is not linear but interdisciplinary and convergent, a brief anthology of geographic and socio-spatial political thought is presented in order to connect the issue of transitional spaces with the point of view of the social sciences. Various socio-geographical, deterministic, anthropocentric, Darwinian, Marxist, modernist theories give an overview of the issues related to space and nature. With the emergence of the spatial turn, new concerns for political sociology, geography and environmental sciences are explained by the phenomenon of urban growth at the global level. In the same way, I introduce the topic of ecological spaces, specifically the concept of Ecotone, the space of transition between diverse natural ecosystems. The use of the notion of ecotone is based precisely on the perspective of the concept of political ecology developed previously. This, in turn, will allow me to introduce the FLACAM methodology into the research, which among its components has the virtue of identifying and analyzing the spatial phenomenon of physical and social Interfaces, that is, spaces of transition within human ecosystems. Several graphics and charts show the potential properties and functions of different kind of existing interfaces and ecotones. My proposal converges in using these concepts as planning tools for transitional spaces identified as Rurban Regions and metropolitan areas. A final reflection on the need for spatial research on global urban expansion and the theoretical and pragmatic advantages of the concept of intermediate cities closes the main body of the investigation.

Urbanisation is a global trend and in the year 2050 a big part of the world's population is expected to be living in urban areas. With this demographic change comes challenges. Biodiversity is the foundation for ecosystems to create services that human welfare depends on. The so called ecosystem services create functions that have provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting values för humans. The expansion of ecosystems is threatened around the world because of the increased urbanisation and more paved areas and less green spaces that are available for species to settle in. Green infrastructure is a management system that has become popular mainly in urban areas as a tool to conserve biodiversity and manage ecosystems in a sustainable way. By re-creating habitats and ecosystem functions a higher resilience is created in cities and through that it becomes easier to face challenges that come with a changed climate. In Sweden green infrastructure is an important component to reach global and national environmental goals. The capital of Sweden, Stockholm is growing rapidly. Because of the growing population the design of the city and the amount of green spaces is even more important to improve the ecological, economical and social aspects in society. In this study a qualitative content analysis has been made to examine how Sweden works with the implementation of green infrastructure on a national, regional and local level. By analysing three relevant policy documents an analytical framework has been used to look closer at how ecosystem services are expressed in the different levels. The result shows that ecosystem services are given a large place in the guidelines and the action plan for green infrastructure in Sweden. It is even more clear on a local level because a big part of the planprogram over the formation of the new district Årstafältet concentrates on creating ecological solutions to help ecosystem services to create its functions. The result also shows that the implementation of green infrastructure should be overarched by cooperation and transparency where more participants are included for the best possible decisions to be made. / Urbanisering är en global trend och år 2050 förväntas en stor andel av världens befolkning vara bosatta i urbana områden. Med denna demografiska förändring kommer utmaningar. Den biologiska mångfalden är en grundsten för att ekosystem ska kunna skapa de tjänster som människans välmående är beroende av. Ekosystemtjänster skapar funktioner som har försörjande, reglerande, kulturella och stödjande värden för människor. Ekosystemens utbredning hotas världen över på grund av ökad urbanisering då många ytor hårdläggs och färre gröna ytor blir tillgängliga för arter att bosätta sig i. Grön infrastruktur är ett förvaltningssystem som har blivit populärt framförallt i urbana områden för att bevara den biologiska mångfalden och förvalta ekosystem på ett hållbart sätt. Genom att återskapa livsmiljöer och ekosystemfunktioner skapas en högre resiliens i städerna och det blir på så sätt lättare att stå emot de utmaningar som kommer i och med ett förändrat klimat. I Sverige är grön infrastruktur en viktig komponent för att nå upp till globala och nationella miljömål. Sveriges huvudstad Stockholm växer i snabb takt. I och med den växande befolkningen blir utformningen av staden och andelen gröna ytor än viktigare för att förbättra de ekologiska, ekonomiska och sociala aspekterna i samhället. Denna studie har utgått ifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys för att undersöka hur Sverige arbetar med implementering av grön infrastruktur på nationell, regional och lokal nivå. Genom att analysera tre relevanta policydokument har ett analytiskt ramverk använts för att undersöka hur ekosystemtjänster kommer till uttryck på de olika nivåerna. Resultatet visar att ekosystemtjänster får en stor plats i riktlinjerna och handlingsplanerna för grön infrastruktur i Sverige. Än tydligare blir det på lokal nivå då en stor del av planprogrammet för utformningen av den nya stadsdelen Årstafältet inriktar sig på att skapa ekologiska lösningar för att underlätta för ekosystemtjänsterna att utveckla sina funktioner. Resultatet visar även att implementeringen av grön infrastruktur måste genomsyras av samarbete och transparens där flera aktörer involveras för att bästa möjliga beslut skall fattas.

Ecosystem services are intrinsically social-ecological. The capacity to provide them over time is both dependent on the functional attributes of species that contribute to ecological processes and social assets underpinning management practices. Yet, these two dimensions are rarely integrated or empirically assessed, even though their interaction contributes to the overall capacity of a social-ecological system to respond. In this study, theoretical frameworks of resilience, adaptive capacity, and ecosystem services are combined to explore “social-ecological response capacity” as the ability of a social-ecological system to respond to extreme weather events. This study focuses on Swedish livestock farms and was set up in response to the drought of 2018 and concerns raised about the general lack of drought mitigation and adaptation strategies in Europe. 15 surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted and combined with ecological data collected before the drought, to create a baseline for the capacity to respond before the disturbance. The relationship between assets and drought impact on farm performance was indirect and results revealed that social-ecological response capacity was not a mitigating factor of the impacts of drought on the financial and subjective success of farms. However, financial capital and diversification of income might have a disproportionate influence on the farms performance. Moreover, results showed that farms used a wide diversity of strategies to handle drought effects that focused on increasing current and future fodder supply. These findings can provide useful information for all stakeholders that rely on the stability and provision of essential ecosystem services when navigating similar, as well as other disturbances in the future. Additionally, this study contributes to insights on the empirical assessment of properties that are essential for specified and general resilience.

Den mänskliga populationen har tredubblats på 70 år och det råder konsensus om att människan är den dominerande faktorn till klimatförändringarna och den negativa påverkan på ekosystemens processer. Det betonar att den globala utvecklingen främst vilar i mänsklighetens händer, inte minst den urbana utvecklingen då städer i hög grad driver på klimatpåverkan. Därför behövs social-ekologiska hållbara system i städerna utvecklas för att bidra till global hållbarhet och för att främja människors välbefinnande. I städer är grönområden viktiga för människors välbefinnande och gynnar även den ekologiska anknytningen som är betydande för miljöfrämjande värderingar vilket understryker vikten av invånares integreringsmöjligheter med grönområden. Studier pekar däremot på att upplevd otrygghet kan hindra integreringen med grönområden och att kvinnor i högre utsträckning upplever barriärer än män.  Samuelsson, Peterson, Legeby, Brandt, & Barthel (2018) studie syftade till att undersöka människors upplever i Stockholm ur ett miljöpsykologiskt perspektiv. Med den studien som utgångspunkt syftar detta examensarbete till fördjupad förståelse för hur den urbana miljön påverkar registrerade upplevelser baserat på upplevd trygghet och även ur ett könsperspektiv. Samuelsson et al. (2018) utgick från en upplevelse- och deltagande baserad metodik för att förena rumsliga och erfarenhetsmässiga aspekter. I detta examensarbete utfördes därmed två statistiska kvantitativa analyser där den första syftade till att studera samband mellan upplevelser baserat på upplevd trygghet och miljökvalitet. Resultatet visade att positiva trygga upplevelser registrerats främst i grönområden och negativa otrygga i byggd stadsmiljö. Baserat på så få negativa registrerade upplevelser i grönområden syftade den andra analysen till att enbart analysera skillnaden mellan kön och positivt registrerade upplevelser i grönområden och i byggd stadsmiljö. Resultatet visade att kvinnor skattar både byggd stadsmiljö och grönområden i högre grad än män. Resultatet visade även att grönområden i högre grad skattats som positiva än byggd stadsmiljö. Det fanns ingen interaktionseffekt mellan kön och miljökvalitet, men en tendens till ett signifikant resultat.  Utifrån behovet att utveckla hållbara social-ekologiska system i städer för att främja global hållbarhet finns även ett behov att studera människors upplevelser i den urbana miljön. Utifrån resultaten i examensarbetet dras slutsatsen om att åtgärder i stadsutvecklingsprocessen främst bör riktas att designa den byggda stadsmiljön för att främja människors välbefinnande och att grönområden ska bibehållas och stärkas. Studier har visat på att kvinnor i högre utsträckning upplever barriärer för att interagera med grönområden men detta resultat visade inga belägg för det utan tvärtom att kvinnor skattar upplevelser i grönområden högre än män. Därmed anses det vara intressant att i framtida studier studera andra individuella skillnader som kan påverka upplevelserna, exempelvis fysiska och psykiska barriärer. Det vore även intressant att vidare studerar hur element i den urbana miljön, som belysning och bullernivåer, påverkar människors upplevelser och upplevda trygghet. Dessutom bidrar det här examensarbetet med betydande förbättringsförslag till hur framtida PPGIS-undersökningar kan utformas för att förbättra analysmöjligheterna. / The human population has tripled in 70 years and there is a consensus that humankind is the dominant factor in climate change and that ecosystem processes are adversely affected. It emphasizes that global development is primarily in the hands of humanity and, not least, the urban development as cities are greatly driving climate change. This requires sustainable urban systems to contribute to global sustainability and to promote people's well-being. In cities, green spaces are particularly important for people's well-being and also promote the ecological connection that is important for environmental-promoting values. It underlines the importance of residents' integration opportunities with green spaces. Studies, on the other hand, suggest that perception of unsafety can hinder integration with green spaces and that women experience barriers to a greater extent than men.  Samuelsson, Peterson, Legeby, Brandt, & Barthel (2018) study aimed to investigate people's experiences in Stockholm from an environmental-psychology perspective. Based on this study, this thesis aims at a deeper understanding of how the urban environment affects experiences based on perceived safety and from a gender perspective. Samuelsson et al. (2018) study was based on an experience- and participation-based approach to combining spatial and experiential aspects. In this work, two quantitative statistical analyses were carried out in which the first analysis was aimed to study whether there were links between experiences, based on perceived safety, and environmental quality. The result showed that positive safe experiences were recorded mainly in green areas and negative unsafe in built urban environments. Based on a small percentage of negative experiences in green areas the second analysis aimed to analyze only the difference between gender and positively recorded experiences in green areas and in built urban environments. The results showed that women estimating both built urban environment and green spaces in a higher grade than men based on perceived safety. The results also showed that green spaces were more appreciated as positive experiences than built urban environments. There was no statistical interaction between gender and environmental quality, but a tendency of a significant result.  Based on the necessity to develop sustainable social-ecological systems in cities to promote global sustainability, there is also a need to study people's experiences in the urban environment. Based on the results of this thesis, it is concluded that actions in the urban development process should primarily focus on designing the built urban environment in order to promote people's well-being and green spaces should primarily be maintained and strengthened. Studies have shown that women in a greater extent experience barrier to integrate with green spaces, but this thesis showed no evidence of this, instead women rate experiences in green spaces higher than men. Therefore, it is considered interesting to study individual differences that can affect experiences instead, such as physical and mental barriers. It would also be interesting if future studies aimed to study how elements of the urban environment, such as lighting and noise levels, affect people's experiences and perceived safety. In addition, this thesis contributes significant improvement proposals to how future PPGIS surveys can be designed to improve analysis opportunities.

Urbanization coupled with the lack of space has led to soil sealing and encroachment upon stream corridors in many cities the world over. This has caused not just the degradation of the riparian ecosystem, but has also increased the frequency and intensity of flash flooding. India is one of the countries worst affected by urban floods. To manage flood risk, especially in the case of rain-fed urban streams, not just the government but also the public needs to be engaged in the management of the stream corridor. In this context of flood risk management, the resilience concept is increasingly being applied. It revisits some fundamental notions conventionally associated with viewing and managing floods, beginning by acknowledging that floods are natural and unavoidable, and resilience, not stability is the desirable quality. This research aims to study how governance attributes like public participation can enhance flood resilience. To this end, relevant literature on resilience and governance has been studied followed by a study of the events surrounding the flooding of the Ramnadi stream corridor in Pune city through policy analysis, data derived from documents and maps, and through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders like locals, experts, activists and civic authorities. Categorization and meaning interpretation of relevant data has enabled an analysis of the governance structure for the Ramnadi corridor using a causal loop diagram. The nodes, linkages and feedback loops in this diagram have been studied to understand how public participation affects resilience characteristics. Findings of this investigation along with draft recommendations for specific actors were presented to stakeholders in a validation workshop. Implications of the results on the theories of flood resilience, governance and public participation have been examined which has enabled their analytic generalization. General policy recommendations have been based on this. Subsequently, recommendations which promote systems approach based public participation and systems thinking in the governance of social-ecological systems have been made.:Table of Contents i List of figures iv List of tables vi Abbreviations vi Definitions vii 1 Introduction: Urban Floods, Urban Causes 1 1.1 Urban flood risk in India 3 1.2 Flooding in urban stream corridors 5 1.3 Rationale and aims of the research 8 1.4 Structure of the document 9 2 Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 13 2.1 Flood risk management 15 2.1.1 Towards a systems approach 16 2.2 Social-ecological systems 17 2.2.1 The stream corridor as a social-ecological system 17 2.3 Resilience 22 2.3.1 From ecological resilience to social-ecological resilience 23 2.3.2 Characteristics of resilience 24 2.4 Resilience in the light of other prevalent concepts for flood risk management 29 2.5 Flood Resilience 30 2.5.1 Flood resistance vs flood resilience 31 2.6 Governance 32 2.6.1 Resilience building attributes of governance 33 2.6.2 The Resilience characteristics vs. Governance attributes matrix 36 2.6.3 Special focus: Public participation 37 2.7 Research Questions 44 2.8 Conclusions from the theoretical and conceptual study 45 3 Research design and methods 47 3.1 Overall research design 48 3.1.1 The case study approach 51 3.1.2 Sampling of the case study 54 3.1.3 Boundaries of the case study 56 3.2 Data collection methods 57 3.2.1 Why interviews? 57 3.2.2 Interviewing techniques 58 3.3 Data analysis 61 3.3.1 Coding and Categorization 63 3.3.2 Meaning interpretation: 64 3.3.3 Causal loop diagram 65 3.3.4 Validation of the results and recommendations 66 3.4 Concluding remarks on the adopted research design and methods 67 4 The Ramnadi corridor: A Social-Ecological System 69 4.1 Ramnadi in context 70 4.2 A journey along the Ramnadi 75 4.2.1 Section 1: Ramnadi at the source 77 4.2.2 Section 2: Ramnadi in Bhukum 79 4.2.3 Section 3: Ramnadi between Bhukum and Pune Municipal Corporation limits 84 4.2.4 Section 4: Ramnadi in Bavdhan 87 4.2.5 Section 5: Ramnadi between the Pashan Lake and its confluence with the Mula River 91 4.3 Conclusion after the Ramnadi corridor reconnaissance 93 5 Changes in flood governance and observations from the case study 95 5.1 The history of local governance in India 96 5.2 Institutional framework for urban flood management in India 97 5.3 Flood governance and participation in the stream corridors of PunePune 98 5.3.1 The Ramnadi 98 5.3.2 The Devnadi 103 5.4 Remarks on the changes in flood governance seen in the case study 105 6 Understanding the causal links between governance attributes and flood resilience 107 6.1 The need for a Causal Loop Diagram 108 6.2 Causal Loop Diagram 109 6.2.1 Use of Causal Loop Diagram in this Thesis 109 6.2.2 The importance of identifying archetypes 111 6.2.3 Explanation of the causal loop diagram of governance of the Ramnadi corridor 113 6.2.4 Understanding the implications of change in the governance structure between 2010 and 2016 on flood resilience 141 6.3 The importance of public participation for flood resilience 142 6.3.1 Public participation promotes self-organization 142 6.3.2 Public participation increases the adaptive capacity through promotion of learning 142 6.3.3 Public participation increases robustness 143 6.3.4 Public participation increases redundancy 143 6.3.5 Public participation can increase resilience by boosting other governance attributes 143 6.3.6 Some emerging ideas on complex systems and their implications for public participation 145 6.4 Benefits of systems thinking and of the causal loop diagram for public participation 147 6.5 Conclusions from the causal loop diagram based study 149 7 Towards flood resilience through public participation 151 7.1 Continuous public participation and event-based public participation 153 7.1.1 The need for continuous public participation 154 7.1.2 Disadvantages of continuous public participation 158 7.2 Institutional recommendations for continuous public participation 158 7.2.1 Municipal Corporations and other urban local development bodies 158 7.2.2 Schools: 164 7.2.3 NGOs: 166 7.2.4 Ward Councils: 167 7.3 Conclusion 169 8 Epilogue: Discussion and Avenues for Further Research 171 8.1 Answering the research questions in the course of this research 172 8.2 Key lessons 173 8.3 Theoretical contribution to governance, public participation and resilience 174 8.3.1 Interplay between governance attributes 174 8.3.2 A new paradigm for classification of public participation 175 8.3.3 Systems approach for social-ecological resilience 175 8.4 Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 176 8.5 Limitations of the research 176 8.6 Avenues for further research 177 9 References 179 10 Appendices 193

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