A government-funded scheme, the UK Climate Change Communications Initiative (UKCCCI), provided money for organisations to deliver projects that attempted to impact positively on people’s attitudes towards climate change and to increase knowledge and awareness of the issue. This devolution of communications is a relatively novel approach after previous centralised campaigns. This thesis adopts a mixed-method approach; a qualitative and a quantitative study have been conducted based on three case studies of individual projects funded under the UKCCCI. The quantitative study analyses pre- and post-project surveys to assess whether the communications produced the desired changes in attitude, knowledge and awareness; results are generally mixed in relation to all three case studies as some statistics are more positive after communications, whereas some are less positive. Data from a regional UKCCCI project are compared with a nationally representative dataset; this analysis shows that attitudes, knowledge and awareness differ at regional and national scales, supporting the policy of devolving communications. Regional data are also analysed to see if there are differences between socio-demographic groups within a single target audience for communications; this analysis suggests that interventions must strike a balance between personalisation of information and the higher cost of targeting smaller groups with more specific material. The quantitative study uses conceptual content cognitive mapping (3CM) to discover the climate change-related knowledge of twenty subjects who received communications from two of the case study projects. Results suggest that people have knowledge of a wide range of issues related to climate change, but they do not possess a detailed scientific understanding. However, there is a high knowledge of how to mitigate climate change and this is expressed largely through individual actions and lifestyle choices. A template analysis was also conducted to discover what interviewees thought specifically about the communications and a range of practical recommendations are made for future projects. Implications are discussed in relation to future practical climate change communications projects, wider policy and academic research.

Adaptation is necessary to cope with, or take advantage of, the effects of climate change on socio-ecological systems. This is especially important in the forestry sector, which is sensitive to the ecological and economic impacts of climate change, and where the adaptive decisions of owners play out over long periods of time. These decisions are subject to experienced and expected impacts, and depend upon the temporal interactions of a range of individual and institutional actors. Knowledge of, and responses to, climate change are therefore very important if forestry is to cope with, or take advantage of, the effects of climate change over longer timescales. It is important to understand the role of human behaviour and decision-making processes in the study of complex socio-ecological systems and modelling is a method that can support experiments to advance this understanding. This study is based on the development of CRAFTY-Sweden; an agent-based model that allows the exploration of Swedish land-use dynamics and adaptation to climate change through scenario analysis. In CRAFTY-Sweden, forest and farmland owners make land use and management decisions according to their objectives, management preferences and capabilities. As a result of their management and location characteristics they are able to provide ecosystem services. To explore future change, quantitative scenarios were used that considered both socio-economic development pathways and climatic change. Simulations were run under the different scenarios for the period 2010-2100, for the whole of Sweden. Furthermore, because institutions (i.e. organisations) also influence socio-ecological systems through their actions and interactions between them and with land owners and the environment, a conceptual model of institutional actions applied to socio-ecological systems was developed. The application of this conceptual model was explored through a model of institutions that can act, interact and adapt to environmental change in attempting to affect ecosystem service provision within a simple forestry governance system. I found that forestry in the future will likely be unable to meet societal demands for forest services solely on the basis of autonomous adaptation. A northward expansion of agriculture and especially of forestry proved positive for both sectors to adapt to changing conditions, under several scenarios, given the substantial land availability and the improved environmental conditions for plant growth. Legacy effects of past land-use change can have a great impact on future land-use change and adaptation processes, especially in forestry. Also, greater competition for land may lead to shorter forest rotation times. Socio-economic change and land owner behavioural differences may have a larger impact on owner competitiveness, land-use change and ecosystem service provision than climate-driven changes in land productivity. Different owner objectives and behaviour resulted in different levels of ecosystem service provision. Also, particular forest types were differently suitable for adaptation depending on the sets of objectives under which they were managed. Owners implementing particular management strategies can be differently competitive under different future scenarios, and the suitability of such strategies for adaptation is not a static, inherent characteristic of a system. Instead, it evolves in response to changing contexts that include both the external global change drivers and the internal dynamics of agent interactions. Additionally, institutional conceptual models as presented here can support better understanding of the key institutional decision-making dynamics and their consequences, endogenously, flexibly across different socio-ecological systems. Finally, study limitations, future research and the policy relevance of findings are discussed.

Les travaux de cette thèse s’intéressent au comportement mécanique d’une mousse destinée à l’absorption d’énergie dans une assise de siège pilote. Les méthodes de caractérisation habituelles proposent de solliciter le matériau suivant une seule direction. Cependant, cette caractérisation ne permet pas d’être représentatif des sollicitations lors de l’utilisation de l’assise, qui sont multiaxiales. Cette étude s’intéresse donc à la caractérisation du comportement multiaxial d’une mousse. L’approche originale utilisée est une séparation du comportement en deux contributions: changement de volume (pression-volume) et de forme (distorsion-cisaillement). Un premier moyen d’essais de compression hydrostatique a été développé afin de caractériser le changement de volume. Les résultats mettent en évidence une forte influence de la contribution en changement de volume, lors d’une sollicitation de compression uniaxiale. Un deuxième moyen d’essais a été développé permettant d’appliquer des sollicitations radiales suivant un angle cinématique ϑε, imposant une proportion de volume et de distorsion. Les résultats montrent une forte influence de l’angle cinématique sur les comportements des contributions de changement de volume et de forme. D’autres sollicitations impliquant de la compression et du cisaillement d’une manière séquentielle ont montré une influence du niveau de volume sur le comportement en changement de forme. Enfin, un modèle de simulation 2D par assemblage d’éléments finis 1D, montre une bonne représentation des différents comportements des contributions de changement de volume et de forme obtenus expérimentalement. / This thesis is focused on the mechanical behavior of foam designed to absorb energy in an airplane pilot seat cushion. Usually, these materials are characterized using uniaxial compressive test. Nevertheless, this uniaxial characterization doesn’t represent the real in-use loading of cushion. To complete these data, this work focuses on multiaxial behavior characterization of foam. The analysis of behavior is realized by using a separation into two contributions linked to the volume (pressure-volume) and the shape (distortion-shear) change. A hydrostatic testing system was developed with the aim to characterize the volume change behavior. Results highlight a strong influence of the volume change behavior during an uniaxial compression solicitation. A second testing system was developed allowing to apply radial solicitations following a kinematic angle, which imposes a non-proportional variation of volume and distortion. A kinematic angle influence is observed on the volume and shape change behavior. Other solicitations composed of compression and shear applied in a sequential way, permit to observe a volume influence on the shape change behavior. Finally, a 2D simulation model composed of 1D element composition shows a good representation of the volume and shape changes behavior obtained from experimentation.

Miljö- och klimatfrågor är bland de största frågor vi står inför idag. Dessa frågor behandlar bland annat matproduktion och matsvinn. Enligt Naturvårdsverket står livsmedelshantering för 20 – 25% avden totala klimatpåverkan i Sverige. 75% av detta är matavfallinnehållande en stor del onödigt matsvinn från de privata hushållen. Som individer har vi därför en stor möjlighet till att påverka detta. Denna studie behandlar en kvalitativ undersökning av en lågteknologisk knapps möjligheter till att skapa ett beteende att inventera sitt kylskåp för att reducera det privata matsvinnet. Undersökningen innefattar utformning, design och framställning av en lågteknologisk knapp samt dess användarupplevelse och funktion i praktiken. Knappen är utformad med hjälp av en analys inom beteendeförändringsramverket Behavioural Change Wheel. Knappen testades på 10 studenter under tre veckors tid för att sedan utvärdera knappens påverkan. Användandet utvärderades genom att undersöka knappens möjligheter till en beteendeförändringkring inventering av kylskåp. Knappen tilldelades och kopplades samman med en rad funktioner för att underlätta och skapa ett beteende till att inventera: En lampa som lös två gånger per vecka, en text på knappen som löd “time to save the world.”, tillhandahållande av bakgrundsinformation gällande klimatfrågan, instruktioner gällande hur en inventering skulle utföras samt den fysiska närvaron av knappen. Resultatet pekar mot att en förändring i beteende skett underundersökningsperioden men resultaten från enkätsvaren är inte tillräckliga för att med statistisk signifikans bekräfta om knappen med funktioner skapat ett beteende. Knappens olika funktioner graderades av deltagarna i utvärderingen och utifrån dessa svar visade det sig att lampans påminnelsefunktion samt knappens fysiska närvaro hade störst påverkan till att en inventering utfördes. / Climate change and the environmental situation is two of the biggest challenges we face both locally and globally. Food production and food swill is a big part of these challenges. 20-25% of the total climate footprint in Sweden is caused by food production and handling according to Naturvårdsverket. 75% of this is food swill that contains a lot of unnecessary food waste produced in the private household. This gives individuals and households a great opportunity to reduce these numbers and affect the total climate footprint. This is a qualitative study investigating and evaluating the possibility of a low-tech buttons effect on individuals behaviour on keeping stock of the content in their refrigerator and possibly reducing their food waste. The study describes the process of creating and designing a low-tech button and an evaluation of the participants thoughts and experience with the button. The button is designed with an analysis of the behaviour change framework Behavioural Change Wheel as well as implementation of different behaviour change techniques to optimize the behaviour change and create a habit of keeping stock of the content of the refrigerator. Ten students used the button for three weeks before evaluating its effect on their behaviour and analysing if they perceived a reduction of their food waste. Five functions where assigned to the button; A LED that shone twice a week, a text engraved on the button that read “time to save the world.”, they were assigned background information regarding the environment and food waste, instructions on how to perform a stock-check and the physical presence of the button itself. The results of the study indicates a change in the participants behaviour during the time of using the button, but the results was not sufficient enough to confirm a change with statistical significance. All the functionalities was graded by the participants of the study and it shows that the reminder from the LED as well as the physical presence of the button was the two functions with the most impact on why the stock keeping was performed.

In both developed and emerging-economies, major cities continue to experience increasing traffic congestion. To address this issue, complex Traffic Management Systems (TMS) are employed in recent years to help manage traffic. These systems fuse traffic-surveillance-related information from a variety of sensors deployed across traffic networks. A TMS requires real-time information to make effective control decisions and to deliver trustworthy information to users, such as travel time, congestion level, etc. There are three fundamental inputs required by TMS, namely, traffic volume, vehicular speed, and traffic density. Using conventional traffic loop detectors one can directly measure flow and velocity. However, traffic density is more difficult to measure. The situation becomes more difficult for multi-lane motorways due to drivers lane-change behaviour. This research investigates statistical modelling and analysis of traffic flow. It contributes to the literature of transportation and traffic management and research in several aspects. First, it takes into account lane-changes in traffic modelling through incorporating a Markov chain model to describe the drivers lane-change behaviour. Secondly, the lane change probabilities between two adjacent lanes are not assumed to be fixed but rather they depend on the current traffic condition. A discrete choice model is used to capture drivers lane choice behaviour. The drivers choice probabilities are modelled by several traffic-condition related attributes such as vehicle time headway, traffic density and speed. This results in a highly nonlinear state equation for traffic density. To address the issue of high nonlinearity of the state space model, the EKF and UKF is used to estimate the traffic density recursively. In addition, a new transformation approach has been proposed to transform the observation equation from a nonlinear form to a linear one so that the potential approximation in the EKF & UKF can be avoided. Numerical studies have been conducted to investigate the performance of the developed method. The proposed method outperformed the existing methods for traffic density estimation in simulation studies. Furthermore, it is shown that the computational cost for updating the estimate of traffic densities for a multi-lane motorway is kept at a minimum so that online applications are feasible in practice. Consequently the traffic densities can be monitored and the relevant information can be fed into the traffic management system of interest.

Prejudices are a big problem in our society and something that some underprivileged groups suffer from more than others. One of the many negative effects of prejudices is that some groups are finding it more difficult than others to get a job. One of these groups are people with a disability. Would it be possible to reduce prejudices and change negative attitudes by using commercials? If so, how could it be accomplished?The purpose of this study is to investigate how the prominent participants of Arbetsförmedlingen’s campaign Se Kraften are depicted in the campaign. I have analysed two texts, two film clips and one image from the campaign by using qualitative text analysis and multimodal analysis. I have also used a comparative analysis between the results of the accomplished analysis and the expressed strategies of the campaign.The results show that people with a disability are depicted as active and just as good co-workers as people without a disability. The employers in the campaign are depicted as people who employ people with a disability and who encourage other employers to do the same thing. Arbetsförmedlingen are depicted as an administrative authority which can help employers with the employment of people with a disability and the target audience “employers” are depicted as people who obviously want to employ people with a disability.

Rökning är en ovana som många personer ägnar sig åt, det speglas inte minst på gatorna vart man än går. Fimpar på gator runt om i städer är en miljöbov som sällan uppmärksammas. Trots att det finns allmänna askkoppar för fimparna att slängas i, hamnar de ofta på gatan och blir en fara för djur och natur. Denna studie syftar på att ta fram ett designförslag på hur en omkonstruerad cigarettförpackning, som rymmer cigarettfimpar, kan se ut. Det undersöks även hur en cigarettförpacknings konstruktion kan uppmana konsumenter att inte slänga fimpar på marken, vilket i stort kan ha en positiv effekt på miljön. Den målgrupp som är relevant att undersöka är alltså alla rökare i Sverige. En digital enkät skickades inledningsvis ut för att ta reda på folks vanor och åsikter kring rökning. Detta resulterade i en bekräftelse av forskningsfrågorna där respondenterna önskade en smidig lösning som minskade antalet fimpar på marken, varpå några föreslog att en cigarettförpackning hade en funktion liknande snusdosans dubbla lock. Representanter från kartongproducenter kontaktades för att få information om material och dess möjligheter. Designprocessen inleddes med en konceptgenerering med hjälp av mindmapping och brainstorming. Ur detta föddes tio idéer som sedan reducerades till tre koncept genom en pugh-chart. LoFi-prototyper skapades av dessa och presenterades för åtta deltagare under semistrukturerade intervjuer. Intervjuerna resulterade i att två koncept föredrogs, men författarna tog beslutet att utveckla ett av dem. En slutgiltig prototyp skapades, vilken var konstruerad som en vanlig cigarettförpackning med flip top lock, men var knappt två centimeter längre. Detta gav utrymme i förpackningens botten att ha en separat plats för använda fimpar. Värderingen av den slutgiltiga prototypen skedde genom ytterligare en digital enkät som skickades ut till samtliga deltagare från den tidigare semistrukturerade intervjun. Genom att de besvarade påståenden samt beskrev prototypen fritt kunde det konstateras att alla deltagare inte är lika positivt inställda till denna förpacknings utformning, men att majoriteten ändå skulle använda en cigarettförpackning som denna till att förvara fimpar när inget bättre alternativ finns. Dessutom uppgav respondenterna att förpackningen skulle motivera dem personligen att slänga färre fimpar på marken, samt att förpackningen skulle minska antalet fimpar i naturen generellt. Därmed kan det konstateras att en alternativ cigarettförpackning troligtvis skulle minska antalet fimpar på marken och ge en positiv effekt på miljön i stort. / Smoking is a bad habit whose traces can be seen widely on the streets. The cigarette butts pose an environmental threat that seldom is given attention. Although there are public ashtrays, cigarette butts often end up on the ground and become a risk for animals and nature. This study aims to produce a design suggestion for a reconstructed cigarette packaging that can hold used cigarette butts. It will also be examined how a cigarette packaging’s construction can invite consumers to avoid tossing cigarette butts on the ground, which at large can have a positive impact on the environment. The relevant target group that will be analysed is all smokers in Sweden. A survey was distributed in order to examine the smoking habits of persons and their opinions about smoking and cigarettes. The result showed that the respondents wanted a handy solution that would reduce the amount of cigarette butts on the ground, whereupon some proposed that the cigarette packaging could utilize a feature like the double lid on the packaging of swedish snus. Representatives from large carton board producers were also contacted in order to retrieve information concerning material and their possibilities. The design process started by generating concepts with mind mapping and brainstorming. This resulted in ten ideas that later was reduced to three concepts via a Pugh-chart. LoFi-prototypes of the three concepts were created, which were presented to eight participants in semi structured interviews. The interviews led to two concepts being prefered by the respondents, where the writers chose to develop one of them. A final prototype was developed and produced. This was constructed as a general cigarette packaging with a flip top lid, but was barely two centimeters longer. This created a space in the bottom of the packaging to contain used cigarette butts. The valuation of the finished prototype was done by an additional survey that was distributed to the same participants that partook in the semi-structured interview. By having them answer statements and describe the prototype freely, it was clear that every respondent didn’t have a positive attitude towards the prototype’s construction. However, a majority of the participants claimed that they would use a cigarette packaging like this to hold the cigarette butts when no better option was available. Additionally, the respondents stated that the cigarette packaging would personally motivate them to discard fewer cigarette butts on the ground, and also that the cigarette packaging would decrease the amount of cigarette butts in the environment generally. Consequently, an alternative cigarette packaging would possibly reduce the amount of cigarette butts on the streets and therefore positively affect the environment.