Second home ownership is a new and booming phenomenon in China. Although it has been widely discussed in newspaper, radio and other mass media, it has not raised much academic concern. This study is a preliminary research in this field. <br /><br /> In western counties, second home growth has caused a series of socio-economic impacts to the host community, including housing price inflation, displacement of local people, disruption of local service, etc. These effects identified by western literatures are examined in the context of Haikou, China. <br /><br /> Through applications of interview, on-site observation and secondary research, this study generally confirms the impacts addressed by other second home research. Similar to the western experience, the growth of second homes in Haikou has both positive and negative impacts. On the positive side, the increase of second home purchase contributes to the boom of property-related industry. On the negative side, it causes inflation pressure on housing price and affects the affordability of the housing for local people. The seasonality of second home occupation also leads to a "ghost communit" problem. However, as the development of second homes in Haikou is at an early stage, both their positive and negative impacts are not significant. Some effects such as the displacement of locals, the effects on local retail outlets and services are not detectable. Remarkably, this study addresses two problems that can only be found in China: "college entrance exam immigration" and "illegal sale of <em>hukou</em>". <br /><br /> Based on the major findings, policy recommendations for local government are provided. Implications for conducting research in China, and for future research opportunities are also suggested.

Second home ownership is a new and booming phenomenon in China. Although it has been widely discussed in newspaper, radio and other mass media, it has not raised much academic concern. This study is a preliminary research in this field. <br /><br /> In western counties, second home growth has caused a series of socio-economic impacts to the host community, including housing price inflation, displacement of local people, disruption of local service, etc. These effects identified by western literatures are examined in the context of Haikou, China. <br /><br /> Through applications of interview, on-site observation and secondary research, this study generally confirms the impacts addressed by other second home research. Similar to the western experience, the growth of second homes in Haikou has both positive and negative impacts. On the positive side, the increase of second home purchase contributes to the boom of property-related industry. On the negative side, it causes inflation pressure on housing price and affects the affordability of the housing for local people. The seasonality of second home occupation also leads to a "ghost communit" problem. However, as the development of second homes in Haikou is at an early stage, both their positive and negative impacts are not significant. Some effects such as the displacement of locals, the effects on local retail outlets and services are not detectable. Remarkably, this study addresses two problems that can only be found in China: "college entrance exam immigration" and "illegal sale of <em>hukou</em>". <br /><br /> Based on the major findings, policy recommendations for local government are provided. Implications for conducting research in China, and for future research opportunities are also suggested.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate local impacts of large investments. This problem has been approached from three directions and, therefore, the study consists of three themes, namely: the changing spatial patterns of corporate activities, the short-term local economic impacts of invest­ments, and the long-term socio-economic impacts of investments on the local municipality. In order to put the impact studies of investments into a broader context the first theme provides an analysis of the macro-orientated processes that change the spatial pattern of a forest- based industry. The empirical investigation is based on a case-study of a major Swedish forest company (SCA — Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget), analysing its development from the 1950s to the present (Paper I). The locational changes of production plants, sales units and headquarters have been mapped and, parallel to this study of the company's spatial evolution, the underlying corporate strategies are discussed. The second theme focuses on the short-term local economic impacts of investments which are carried out at production units. The empirical data has been collected from a major investment introducing a new technology (Light Weight Coated paper - LWC) at Ortviken, an SCA-owned paper mill in Sundsvall. The point of departure for the analysis is the identification of contracted suppliers and their location in order to obtain a picture of the investment's diffusion in the local economy. As the choice of supplier is an important part of the study, criteria on how suppliers are chosen have also been examined (Paper II). Moreover, by using results from a number of similar investment studies, an attempt is made to summarize general experiences within a tentative model for estimating the share of local purchase deriving from major investments: the Local or Non-Local (LNL) model (Paper III). The third theme of the thesis pinpoints long-term local impacts of large investments. The investment generates impacts not only concurrently with the implementation phase, but also during the operation period of the invested item. The investigation of long-term socio-economic impacts has been performed by two studies employing different methodological approaches. The first study (Paper IV) deals with ex ante local impacts of locating a nuclear waste repository in Storuman or Mala, two sparsely populated municipalities in northern Sweden. The model is a traditional macro- formulated cohort model which is combined with a 'basic/non-basic' assumption regarding the intcrdependency within the local trade and business. The second study (Paper V) refers once again to the forest-based industry by emphasising the long-term socio-economic impacts of the investment examined in Paper II. This paper employs a micro-analytical modelling approach, so that, the municipal population is represented individually within the model. A microsimulation model is elaborated in order to analyse the long-term (15 years) local population and labour market dynamics induced by the LWC-investment. Some major findings of the thesis are: * The share of local purchase is connected to the composition of the investment. Analyses have shown that the higher the technological demand and the more technically advanced the goods and services related to the investment, the smaller is the local share of the purchase. *  It has proved possible to trace chain effects on different local labour-markets induced by changes in production at a particular place of work. Through linkages between the partial labour markets the closure of a major place of work will not only affect the occupational groups to which laid-off employees belong, but also give rise to changes in unemployment levels in many other occupations. / digitalisering@umu

The coastal section of the London to Penzance railway line (Dawlish-Teignmouth) lies very close to sea level and has been susceptible to frequent closure during high seas and storm events. As the main railway connection for the southwest of England to the rest of Great Britain, it is a vital transport link for the Devon and Cornwall economy. Current understanding of future sea-level rise in the region is compromised by a lack of reliable geological data on which to establish accurate future sea-level projections. Furthermore, the impacts – in engineering and economic terms – of potential sea-level change on the long-term functioning of the main railway are unclear, and future policy making and planning are compromised by a similar gap in scientific knowledge. The central aim of this thesis is to establish the extent to which future sea-level changes will impact upon the Southwest’s main railway line. This aim carries three objectives: (1) to establish accurate sea-level trends over the last 4000 years (late Holocene) in order to validate geophysical models used in current future sea-level projections in the southwest of England; (2) to establish the likely impacts of future sea-level change on the functioning of the Dawlish-Teignmouth railway line; and (3) to integrate climate and socio-economic futures (scenarios) in an internally consistent manner for future use in regional policy debates. In addressing these objectives, we estimate that during the last 2000 years the coast of south Devon has subsided at a rate of ~1.1 mm/yr, generating a relative sea-level rise of ~0.9 mm/yr. The geophysical model (used to determine regional sea-level projections) underestimates the geologically estimated coastal subsidence rate by only 17%, which would generate an additional sea-level rise, compared to predicted values, of 0.014 m by 2100. Based on an empirical trend between increases in sea-level changes and rail functioning during the last 40 years, the corrected sea-level projections provide input for establishing future days with line restrictions due to overtopping on the Southwest Mainline. Impacts to both the Southwest economy (e.g., rail users) and the infrastructure owners have been determined, and integrating these forecasts with socio-economic scenarios (SES) has highlighted the important interaction between climate and socio-economic trends and future vulnerability. In a worst case scenario (e.g., high emissions), rail services are predicted to be disrupted (on average) for around 35% of the winter by 2060. By this stage, the cost of these disruptions will have exceeded the capital needed for constructing a new alternative inland route.

Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Thesis (M.Com. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This thesis is an assessment of socio-economic development of Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey after GAP Project. The aim of this study is to analyze and discuss impacts of the GAP Project and to evaluate achievements of the most important sustainable development project of Turkey. Several social and economic indicators, like demographic structure, education, health, financial figures, industry, agriculture and energy, have been analyzed and evaluated in order to obtain reliable and realistic conclusions. The main conclusion of this thesis states that Southeastern Anatolia Region has developed both socially and economically with the impacts of GAP Project. Rapid economic growth, increased agricultural and industrial activities are the evidences of this development. However, another conclusion of the study indicates that the achievements of GAP cannot ensure the expected socio-economic development of the Region. This conclusion shows the necessity of questioning the success of the governance and execution of the GAP Project.

The dissertation thesis focuses on the economic view of interventions in the extensive brownfields, ie uninhabited parts of cities, abandoned halls, buildings, industrial zones. It monitors the factors influencing their regeneration, deals with ecological and related financial issues. It examines the possibilities and ways of financing the recovery of these abandoned and unused areas. The work demonstrates the suitability of using the CBA method to determine the economic efficiency of brownfields regeneration projects. Whether the regeneration of brownfields is economically efficient, establishes a new indicator cef as the difference between the financial and economic profitability of the project. The work verifies the suitability of using the indicator on a research sample of 28 implemented brownfield regeneration projects. At the end of the thesis, the expected value of the social benefit of Monte Carlo is determined with the support of the Crystal Ball simulation software.

One of the most visible impacts of climate change in Arctic environments is declining sea ice. Due to an absence of spatially coarse quantitative data, there is a lack of understanding on declining sea ice on a community scale. This study seeks to document historical trends in air temperature, sea ice thickness (SIT), break-up dates (BUDs) and freeze-up dates (FUDs), correlate sea ice behaviour to air temperatures, and document the socio-economic impacts of sea ice change in Resolute Bay Nunavut, using traditional Inuit knowledge (TIK) and scientific methods. During the scientific portion of this study linear regression, statistical significance, anomaly analysis, and change point detection were used on time series of sea ice concentration (SIC), SIT, and air temperature. Two SIC datasets were accessed to characterize BUDs and FUDs, Canadian Ice Services archived sea ice charts from 1982-2022 and Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S) gridded satellite derived SIC from 1979-2015. The BUD was defined when SIC fell and stayed below 20%, and the FUD was when SIC returned and stayed above 50%. By applying a statistically significant linear regression to both datasets, the BUD was shown to occur 37.5 days earlier and the FUD occurred 23.4 days later in 2022 than in 1979. This study accessed two SIT datasets, Environment and Climate Change Canada fast ice measurements from 1947-2022 and C3S satellite derived sea ice freeboard measurements from 2002-2020 at four locations in the Barrow Strait. After applying change point detection algorithms, this study found annual maximum fast ice thicknesses increased 32.5 cm from 1948-1981 and decreased 33.2 cm from 1981-2021. Fast ice decreased most substantially in the months of April and May. Sea ice freeboard decreased by 260.8 cm on average from 2002-2020 in the Barrow Strait. Freezing degree days (FDDs) were used to correlate sea ice behaviour to air temperature. As FDDs decrease, sea ice freeboard was the most rapidly changing sea ice parameter and fast ice thickness was most strongly correlated to FDDs. Both these results indicate that air temperature has a greater effect on SIT than the BUD and FUD. During the TIK investigation of this study, seventeen community members from Resolute Bay, Nunavut, ranging from age 19-81 were interviewed about their perception of changes in SIT, BUD, FUD, and seasonal weather patterns. Participants were interviewed about the socio-economic impacts of sea ice change, traditional Inuit methods of determining thickness, and asked to indicate typical areas of thin and thick ice, areas that break-up and freeze-up first, and hunting and travel routes on printed maps. The interviewees described a decline in sea ice thickness, areas of thin ice in the Barrow Strait, north of Cornwallis Island, and between Bathurst and Devon Island, less frequent use of the sea ice, less traditional food available in the community, increased vessel traffic, a decrease in seal population, new species and birds in the area, and detailed traditional methods of determining ice thickness through observation of color and use of the harpoon. Agreement between traditional knowledge and the scientific data was present in typical break-up and freeze-up patterns, and annual maximum thickness decreasing over time. While most respondents indicated FUD was later and BUD earlier, more participants responded there have been changes to the FUD than the BUD, whereas the scientific data showed more severe changes to the BUD than FUD. During interviews, there was consensus that summer temperatures are getting warmer but there was variability in responses when asked about winter temperatures. The scientific results showed less warming in the summer (Jun-Aug) than winter months (Jan-Mar) with the most warming in the fall (Sept-Nov). The lack of agreement between these results could be attributed to local perceived changes to winter weather referring to storminess rather than strictly temperature. TIK provided small scale information about the sea ice that the current state of scientific observation can not. In conclusion, a more holistic understanding of sea ice behaviour can be achieved by including Inuit traditional knowledge in partnership with scientific methods.

Invasive alien species (IAS) pose a serious threat to ecosystems and societies worldwide. Local ecological knowledge (LEK) is increasingly valued as a means of understanding environmental issues; however, its application in the context of IAS research has been limited. The overall objective of this study was to document the LEK of farmers and Weed Supervisors to gain insight into a recent IAS, Odontites serotina. I conducted semi-structured interviews with farmers and Weed Supervisors with O. serotina management experience. Results indicated that the socio-economic impacts for farmers were severe in affected rural communities. However, participants had developed promising control techniques, including the application of compost mulch. I used this LEK as well as data on species occurrence, environmental variables, and measures of propagule pressure to forecast the potential distribution of O. serotina across Manitoba. The risk map generated will be useful for guiding future monitoring and public outreach efforts.