To address the negative environmental, political, and social consequences of the dominant, industrialized global food system, communities around the world have developed goals and values underlying a sustainable food system. Conceptualizing food production, distribution, and consumption as systems helps clarify the ways food affects social and natural environments, with the distribution element as the critical juncture where the product reaches the consumer. Urban food systems are a particularly important environment in which to study movements toward sustainability. This paper focuses on the movement for a sustainable food system in Portland, Oregon, with particular focus on the city’s markets for food acquisition – food retail, farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture endeavors, restaurants, food service and distribution companies, institutional purchasing programs, and community gardens, as well as the organizations that support the work of these businesses and programs. Leaders in the field of sustainable food systems are now beginning to operate with a strategy for change that emphasizes incorporating sustainable food products and sustainable food system values into mainstream food markets instead of remaining in niche, alternative markets as has occurred in the past. This notion is supported by economic and social theories including the consumer information model, stakeholder theory, social movement theories of change, and network theories. This paper explores the extent to which Portland food distribution businesses, programs, and organizations attempt to fulfill the goals of a sustainable food system movement with moving from niche to mainstream in mind. The fact that the movement is in fact acting according to new strategies for change emphasizing the mainstream is indicated by the movement’s extensive consumer education and creative use of marketing, strong social and business networks, and organized local policy influences.

Given that access to adequate housing is defined under South Africa's constitution as a fundamental human right, it is understandable that the post Apartheid government focuses significant time and expense on establishing human settlements intended to redress the historically unequal distribution of wealth and resources. This thesis is concerned with looking at why, in spite of this attention, the government has underperformed in delivering low income housing projects that evolve into socially sustainable and integrated communities. Since there is no substantial evidence that a comprehensive study of the consolidation of human settlements has been done in South Africa, this research and the recommendations it engenders will be an important resource for planning truly sustainable and integrated human settlements in the future. Both theoretical and applied research methodologies were utilised in this thesis to examine specifically six human settlements in the KwaZulu-Natal Ethekwini region, selected for their diversity in terms of social, economic and location characteristics, as well as the differing historical circumstances surrounding their establishments. That the analysis included three settlements with Greenfield and social housing projects developed during the Apartheid regime and three settlements established after the 1994 democratic elections, permits comparisons to be drawn and so facilitates a deeper understanding of the successes and failures of the creation of sustainable housing settlements. A thorough review of the limited literature in South Africa in this field and an assessment of strategies contained in the National Housing Policy, was complimented by a more practical approach, including the use of a Delphi survey method, which was conducted with experts in the housing field, policy makers and settlement inhabitants, and extensive on site data collection. This investigation shows that, paradoxically, the Apartheid housing settlements, designed to entrench racial segregation and inequality, have in fact flourished as consolidated communities, in comparison with post Apartheid housing projects. The thesis draws the conclusion that in the Apartheid settlements inhabitants are using their housing units as an invaluable asset to improve their living conditions and to create a sustainable environment. However, in the settlements developed by the post Apartheid regime, inhabitants are struggling to use their home as an asset to improve their living conditions and to create a convenient and sustainable environment. Consequently, poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability of the beneficiaries of low-cost housing are deepening. While this does not justify the Apartheid policy of enforced removals or the subsequent social evils, the sense of ownership that ensued from forcing inhabitants to thererafter pay for their dwelling based on a calculated proportion of household income, is key to understanding this disparity. In comparison, post Apartheid housing policy, framed within a socialist agenda, does not allow for equitable distribution based on income levels and so for the mainly poor and economically inactive inhabitants, there is an absence of this same ownership incentive to either care for or improve the dwellings that they are given. Furthermore, the current National Housing Policy fails to take a holistic approach to the issue since its priority is simply meeting short-term high demand to eradicate the most visible effects of Apartheid. Subsequently, the National Housing Policy has failed to consider how access to education facilities for children, availability of consumer goods and the proximity to commercial activity, jostle with the need for shelter as high priorities for low income households, which fundamentally affects the success of any housing policy. For this reason, several beneficiaries of post Apartheid housing units have sold their homes to raise income to meet more pressing needs. All social housing settlements that formed the sample of this research study have long term viability issues and so replicating any model is problematic. The thesis suggests therefore, that in the future, legislators and policy makers look towards cultivating mixed use housing settlements centred around vibrant commercial, business and retail sites with connecting public transit and pedestrian networks, and various tenure options, including rentals, rent-to-buy and outright purchase. Development initiatives taking into considerations the reforms and recommendations outlined in this thesis could be implemented on housing projects that use developed buffer zones of land that were left over from the Apartheid era housing policy or on "lost spaces" within existing human settlements. The advantages of such a new approach for creating sustainable housing settlements provides an opportunity to link spatially and economically dislocated communities while ensuring beneficiaries and stakeholders in housing settlements meet a wider variety of needs. The conclusion that this thesis draws is that South Africa needs a post Apartheid approach to create sustainable human settlements. The Delphi Study reveals that the strategy to be adopted should represent the expectations of both policy-makers and beneficiaries. Consequently, this thesis proposes a sustainable housing development model and has developed guidelines and processes that take into consideration the many issues affecting housing policies and so becomes a workable tool for future housing professionals. Consolidated and integrated settlements that evolve into socially sustainable communities then becomes a real possibility. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Cities are defined as the ecological phenomenon of the 21st century since urban form is becoming dominant geographical context for human settlement on Earth. Due to that one of the major tasks of contemporary urban planning policy is adaptation of urban areas to the changing realms. In connection to the adaptation strategies, concept of resilience is gaining much more attention in the current planning discourse as an approach which perceives problem of climate change as the opportunity for better development. New aspect that concept of resilience brings to the planning is a view that social and ecological dimensions are interlinked. According to that, main aim of the thesis is to find an answer for the research question “What is the connection between culture and nature and its role in sustainable adaptation of urban areas to the climate change?” and through the research and analysis develop a theoretical foundation for the strategy of adaptation to the climate change which offers an opportunity for more effective urban growth based on three main pillars of sustainability: Environmental responsibility, Economic viability and Social justice as well as currently distinguished new dimension i.e. Cultural vitality.

Sustainable urban development is mentioned together with the concept of urban form in contemporary planning literature. The main reason behind this is a need for determining an ideal physical development scheme and its main principles of urban future in a broad term. Besides, the operational side of urban planning requires a concrete set of design codes in order to transform urban space in both macro and mezzo scale. At this point, the concept of urban compactness and the idea of Compact City have come into the agenda of planning. In the last decade, the model of compact city has become a prototype of sustainable urban form in developed countries. It is also argued whether compact urbanity is a nostalgic metaphor or an engineering solution. It has emerged as a reaction to the negative consequences of urban sprawl and suburbanization as the anti-urbanist urban phenomena in Western geographies. Hence, the relevance of urban compactness should be examined for developing and underdeveloped countries and their settlement structures. The basic motivation of the thesis is to examine the relevance and validity of urban compactness in the case of Turkey as a developing Eurasian country. For this end, the evolution of urban compactness as a fact and an idea in the historical context of developed countries and it&rsquo / s meaning for the developing world / Ankara is examined as a case study by re-reading its planning history and the transformation of its urban form from the point of view of compactness.

The Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) is endowed with natural resources which are drivers for sustainable development at local, national and regional levels. However, these resources are adversely affected by dynamic social, economic, environmental and political factors. Poor coordination and ineffective knowledge management programmes among various players within the LVB has led to duplication of efforts as substantial information and knowledge generated is unavailable to users. As a result, over-exploitation of natural resources has resulted in unsustainable development of the LVB. This study sought to establish the role of knowledge management in promoting sustainable development of the LVB. Specific objectives were to: determine the role of knowledge management in sustainable development of LVB; determine challenges and barriers hindering effective knowledge management; establish tools and technology that can be used to enhance knowledge management; and establish the strategies used by organisations in LVB to manage knowledge generated for sustainable development. A descriptive survey design was used in this study targeting 98 (with 76.5% response rate) officers of various ranks working in 26 organisations involved in development programmes/projects and located in the five partner states within the LVB. Data was collected using self administered questionnaires and a desk review. Findings showed most respondents agreeing that knowledge management is a systematic utilisation of policies, processes, activities and tools which empower organisations to apply knowledge to improve effectiveness, innovation and quality. Up to 93.9% of the organisations facilitated discovery, capture, storage and retrieval of knowledge. Most organisations encouraged documentation of lessons learnt, with some making it mandatory to deposit key documents in the library. Paper-based media was the most preferred knowledge storage format. Lack of an open-minded sharing environment, bureaucratic procedures and poor information systems were the common barriers to knowledge management, while lack of time (68.4%) was an obstacle to proper xvi documentation. The internet was the most popular knowledge management tool/technology; though technical issues were the most critical problems affecting ICT use (71.4%). Based on these findings, this study recommends a holistic and coordinated approach to knowledge management among all institutions working in the LVB to address the challenges of sustainable development in the basin. / Information Science / M. Inf. (Information Science)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:55:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuzimarPC_DISSERT.pdf: 2709355 bytes, checksum: f0ffc1929078a13ebd517e0fdce3cda1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-24 / In contemporary times, the urban mobility is presented as one of the main challenges of large and medium-sized Brazilian cities , it presents signs of unsustainability , above all due to the increase in motorized transport system , especially the individual . Thus , it is clear that mobility is considered of special interest for sustainable urban development , is facing a crisis that is reflected in negative externalities , particularly with regard to congestion , accidents , air pollution , social exclusion , among others. The complexity of these problems requires an integrated analysis based on the principles of sustainability . In this sense , trying to understand this problem and in the attempt to minimize its impacts, Costa (2008 ) proposed the Index of Sustainable Urban Mobility (I_SUM) with the goal of providing a methodology capable to assess relevant aspects of mobility , including social dimensions , political, economic and environmental . Given the above, was elected as the main objective of this study is to analyze urban mobility in Natal / RN from the perspective of sustainability . Like specific objectives will seek to analyze Natal?s urban mobility, using the I_SUM like a tool for both the city as a whole and for each of its four administrative regions; evaluate Natal s urban accessibility conditions and verify to what extent the access to urban services and equipment is facilitated or hindered because of the location and incomes of the population . For this, it was necessary to use bibliographic , documentary and field research . The index , which varies from 0.00 to 1.00, revealed for Natal an Global value of 0,510, and that refers to its administrative regions, it was found that there are very small percentage differences from the overall index calculated for the city . The performance of I_SUM by administrative region showed that although there are differences , the results were very similar , varying between 0,494 and 0,537. Particularly in relation to urban accessibility, it appears that Natal presents as an unequal city and this inequity , which is not only income is reflected in the issues related to accessibility and hence urban mobility / Na atualidade, a mobilidade urbana se apresenta como um dos principais desafios das grandes e m?dias cidades brasileiras, pois apresenta sinais de insustentabilidade, principalmente em decorr?ncia do incremento no sistema de transporte motorizado, especialmente o individual. Diante disso, torna-se evidente que a mobilidade, considerada de especial interesse para o desenvolvimento urbano sustent?vel, vem enfrentando uma crise que se reflete em externalidades negativas, sobretudo no que se refere aos congestionamentos, aos acidentes, ? polui??o atmosf?rica, ? exclus?o social, entre outros. A complexidade desses problemas exige uma an?lise integrada alicer?ada nos princ?pios da sustentabilidade. Nesse sentido, buscando compreender tal problem?tica e na tentativa de minimizar os diversos impactos dela decorrentes, Costa (2008) prop?s o ?ndice de Mobilidade Urbana Sustent?vel (IMUS) com o objetivo de oferecer uma metodologia capaz de avaliar aspectos pertinentes ? mobilidade, incluindo as dimens?es social, pol?tica, econ?mica e ambiental. Diante do exposto, elegeu-se como principal objetivo deste estudo analisar a mobilidade urbana de Natal/RN na perspectiva da sustentabilidade. Como objetivos espec?ficos busca-se analisar a mobilidade urbana de Natal, utilizando como ferramenta o IMUS tanto para a cidade como um todo, quanto para cada uma das suas quatros Regi?es Administrativas; avaliar as condi??es de acessibilidade urbana em Natal e verificar em que medida o acesso a servi?os e equipamentos urbanos ? facilitado ou dificultado em virtude da localiza??o e do poder aquisitivo da popula??o. Para tanto, fezse necess?rio o uso de pesquisa bibliogr?fica, documental e de campo. O ?ndice, que varia de 0,00 a 1,00, revelou para Natal o valor Global de 0,510, e no que se refere ?s suas regi?es administrativas demonstrou que h? diferen?as percentuais muito pequenas em rela??o ao ?ndice global calculado para a cidade. O desempenho do IMUS por regi?o administrativa evidenciou que, embora existam diferen?as, os resultados ficaram muito pr?ximos, com varia??es entre 0,494 e 0,537. No que tange particularmente ? acessibilidade urbana, verifica-se que Natal apresenta-se como uma cidade desigual e, essa iniquidade que n?o ? apenas de renda, se reflete nas quest?es relacionadas ? acessibilidade e, consequentemente, ? mobilidade urbana

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-16T00:14:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Gustavo Luiz Mestriner1.pdf: 2243793 bytes, checksum: a1c06f5eaa7eff79bc276f72d6e0e06e (MD5) Gustavo Luiz Mestriner2.pdf: 2750701 bytes, checksum: a5abda0e155ae8b1a195f0e2701c63f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-12 / Cities all over the world, go through a process of urban changing never seen before. Data from great developing population in cities, added with the urban exodus from rural areas, are the causes of swelling, and later, an explosive urban sprawlling caused in cities. In this process, the land appreciation in urban centers and tax incentives and the cheaper labor in neighboring towns, made that big industries change from urban centers, leaving the obsolete large areas. On the other hand, the cities, originally created for the celebration of life, and to celebrate what we have in common, today are draining energy resources, and the most polluting source of the planet. The new urban projects should consider this complex reality, then look for some contemporaries principles, such as sustainable urban development, productive restructuring, the environments of research and technological innovation and biotechnology. To do so, development agiencies have been created to conciliate the public and private interests. We explore the concept of compact city, in the light of contemporary urban projects in wastelands in central areas. To context, we selected some case studies, building an analytical inventory and always relating them to our context and reality. / Cidades pelo mundo inteiro passam por um processo de mutação urbana jamais visto. Os dados do desenvolvimento substancial demográfico nas cidades, somados aos êxodos urbanos oriundos das zonas rurais são as causas do inchaço, e posterior espraiamento urbano explosivo causado nas cidades. Neste processo, a valorização da terra nos centros urbanos e o incentivo fiscal e de mão de obra mais barata nas cidades vizinhas, fez com que as grandes indústrias se deslocassem dos centros urbanos, deixando grandes áreas obsoletas. Por outro lado, as cidades, inicialmente criadas para a celebração da vida, e para celebrar o que temos em comum, hoje são poços drenantes de recursos energéticos, e direta e indiretamente, a maior fonte poluidora do planeta. Desta forma, os novos projetos urbanos devem levar em consideração essa realidade complexa, para então atender certos princípios contemporâneos, como o desenvolvimento urbano sustentável, reestruturação produtiva e os ambientes de pesquisa e inovação tecnológica e biotecnológica. Para tanto, agências de desenvolvimento foram criadas para conciliar os interesses públicos e privados envolvidos. Nesse contexto, utilizamos o conceito da cidade compacta, como base conceitual desta pesquisa à luz dos projetos urbanos contemporâneos em vazios urbanos em áreas centrais. Para contextualizar, buscamos os estudos de caso, construindo um inventário analítico das obras selecionadas, com maiores detalhamentos e sempre os relacionando à nossa realidade e contexto locais.

The overarching goal of this research is to establish a successful forum for a transition from the existing paradigm of managing wastewater infrastructure to a more sustainable paradigm that achieves a more efficient utilisation of wastewater assets. A transitioning approach to support a more efficient utilisation of surface water and wastewater assets and infrastructure is proposed and developed. The determined transitioning approach possesses key stages namely developing the arena, developing the agenda, case study, and monitoring. The case study stage investigates a drainage utility identifying their improvement drivers, the removal of surface water through detailed drainage modelling and the financial examination of the costs incurred under the various scenarios conducted. Understanding the implications of removing/attenuating surface water from the network is improved through obtaining data by detailed drainage modelling. Infoworks software is used to investigate and assess the current and future operational scenarios of a wastewater system operating over one calendar year. Modelling scenarios were conducted removing surface water from selected areas focusing on the volumes requiring pumping and durations of pumping station(s) operation prior to treatment during storm conditions. The financial implication of removing surface water in combined sewer systems is examined in three main components. Firstly the costs of electricity incurred at the single sewage pumping station (SPS) investigated during the various scenarios modelled require to be addressed. Secondly the costs to retrofit sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) solutions needs to be identified. Thirdly the implications of removing surface water for the drainage utility at the national level and the potential saving for householder’s committing to a surface water disconnection rebate scheme. When addressed at the macro level i.e., with over 2,100 pumping stations, some operating in sequence and contained within one drainage utility annually treating 315,360 megalitres the significance of the same multiple quantifiable and intangible benefits becomes amplified. The research aims, objectives and findings are presented to the identified and convened stakeholders. The transitioning approach developed encourages positive discourse between stakeholders. The level of success of the transitioning approach determined is then tested using a quantitative methodology through the completion of questionnaires. From the questionnaires completed the respondents unanimously agreed that surface water flows should be removed as well as reduced from the combined sewer system. The respondents agreed that the removal of surface water from a typical combined sewer system is justified by applying a transitioning approach focusing on the energy consumption required to pump increased volumes during storm events. This response is significant based upon the economic evidence and is contrary to the respondents previous position that finance was their most influencing factor. When provided with other potentially available benefits the respondents were even more supportive of the justification to remove surface water from the combined sewer system. The combined findings of the work presented in this thesis provide further justification that the transitioning approach applied to the removal of surface water from a typical combined sewer system, as determined in this research has been successful.

Notre recherche s'inscrit dans le cadre de la problématique générale du développement et de la ville durable. En partant de l’analyse de notre environnement construit et notamment des réponses architecturales et urbaines à apporter en vue de diminuer de façon significative les émissions des gaz CO2, limiter l'effet de serre et préserver la biodiversité, nous nous sommes attachés à l'étude d'un écoquartier situé dans une ville emblématique du point de vue écologique, celle de Grenoble, et dans l'un de ses espaces urbains : la caserne de Bonne. Nous sommes partis de l'hypothèse que c'est tout d’abord au plan local, puis régional et national que l’on devra élaborer et mettre en pratique des solutions adaptées pour lutter contre toutes les formes de pollution, créer et innover en matière d'énergie renouvelable, tout en diminuant de façon progressive l'usage des énergies fossiles. C'est en tant qu'architecte urbaniste praticien que nous avons voulu apporter notre contribution dans ce domaine, en optant pour une analyse approfondie de l’écoquartier de l'ancienne caserne de Bonne à Grenoble. / Our research addresses the general issue of urban development and how to design sustainable cities through architecture and town planning. Our analysis focused on a study of caserne de Bonne, an ecodistrict located in Grenoble, which is an emblematic city from an ecological viewpoint. Our task was to significantly reduce CO2 gas emissions, limit the greenhouse effect, and preserve biodiversity. We developed our hypothesis to devise satisfactory solutions to fight pollution, reduce the use of fossil fuels, and create innovative ways to employ renewable energy. Our program will start locally, then expand on a regional and national level. We observed that in residential districts, remedies such as reducing transportation generated pollution, conserving energy, treating household waste, and other parameters,can be scaled up and implemented regionally and nationally. As architect and urban planner, we wanted to contribute to this field by providing an analysis of Bonne ecodistrict.

O atual modelo de planejamento dos transportes é constantemente confrontado com novos ideais associados à mobilidade sustentável. Assim, inúmeros pesquisadores debruçam-se em busca de indicadores e índices capazes de avaliar e monitorar o desempenho de políticas públicas relacionadas ao tema. Dessa forma foi desenvolvido o Índice de Mobilidade Urbana Sustentável (IMUS), uma ferramenta pautada nos preceitos da mobilidade sustentável com a proposta de tornar-se um apoio à gestão municipal. Por ser um método recente, sua aplicação ainda é limitada. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo concentra-se em realizar o cálculo do índice na cidade de Curitiba, muito conhecida por suas soluções urbanas que associam o planejamento dos transportes ao uso do solo. A aplicação do método na cidade fundamentou-se não apenas em obter o simples score relacionado ao desempenho das condições da mobilidade local, mas também possibilitaram avaliar o próprio método. O valor resultante alcançado foi correspondente a 0,747, confirmando Curitiba como uma cidade com características bastante positivas quanto às políticas urbanas voltadas à mobilidade. Por outro lado, foram identificadas algumas deficiências, especialmente quanto aos modos não motorizados de transporte. O cálculo do IMUS permitiu encontrar também indicadores que não foram capazes de identificar aspectos reconhecidamente favoráveis da cidade, demonstrando que possivelmente esses apresentem problemas de avaliação ou normalização de valores. A aplicação do método também se mostrou eficiente para promover uma avaliação intraurbana entre as diversas regiões da cidade. Nesse aspecto Curitiba demonstrou um saudável equilíbrio, sem apresentar grandes disparidades quanto suas políticas locais. Tal característica mostra-se bastante favorável para identificar Curitiba como um benchmarking da mobilidade sustentável. Finalmente o método foi testado como uma ferramenta de comparação entre cidades distintas, demonstrando também ser eficiente, desde que se mantenha uma estrutura de cálculo compatível entre as cidades que se deseja comparar. / The current transportation planning approach is constantly confronted with new values derived from the concept of sustainable mobility. As a consequence, several researchers have devoted time and effort in the search of indicators and indexes capable of evaluating and monitoring the performance of urban policies related to the theme. The Sustainable Urban Mobility Index (I_SUM) was one of them. It is a decision support tool developed to help municipal administrations in the planning and management of sustainable mobility. As it is a recent method, its application is still limited to just a few cases. The objective of this study is to conduct an application of the index in Curitiba, which is a well-known city due to the quality of its urban planning solutions that associate transport planning to land use. The application of the method in the city was motivated not only by the possibility of having a score showing the performance of the city regarding sustainable mobility, but also by the opportunity of evaluating the method itself. The overall resulting value was 0.747, what confirms that Curitiba has very positive characteristics and effective urban policies regarding sustainable mobility. Conversely, some deficiencies were identified, especially concerning non-motorized transport modes. The I_SUM calculation also allowed the identification of indicators that were not able to identify aspects that are good to the city. That may suggest problems in the assessment or normalization procedures of the index. The method application was also efficient for the evaluation of city subdivisions. Curitiba also performed well in that intra-urban evaluation, with a positive equilibrium of the values throughout the city. It may be an indication that the city policies are homogeneously applied in the entire urban area, what certainly contributes to characterize Curitiba as a benchmark of urban mobility. Finally, when used to compare distinct cities, the method was also efficient. In that case, the calculation was compatible with a structure adjusted to simultaneously represent the compared cities.