Within the twenty&ndash / first century, nearly three billion people, half of total population of the world, live in cities. It is estimated that in the forthcoming twenty&ndash / five years, two billion more people will settle in urban lands. Essentially most of these devastating changes will occur in developing countries, both in terms of the total global urban population as well as increased percentage of the individual country&rsquo / s population living in urban areas. For many developing countries, the urban population is already large. Further increases in size and rates of growth will no doubt stress already impacted environments and living quality. All cities, however, are not impacting the ecology of the world similarly. On the one hand, developed cities have mostly cope with their environmental problems regarded as traditional / concern has focused to their impacts on ecosystems as well as those larger in scale. Cities in the developing world are more concerned with other issues. However, it is not only the development level of countries but the urban planning and development tendencies of their cities impacting the environment differently should be considered, which comprehensively shows us environmental performance of urban patterns. Environmental performance basically refers to the abilities and capabilities of urban patterns to mitigate their impacts on environment and ecology of the world and to cope with the negative of all. As an indicator of environmental performance of urban patterns, ecological footprints, its reasons and long term effects should be specified as inseparable part of urban development and inevitably ecological footprints of different urban patterns and their effects on climate change should be concerned while taking planning and development decisions for urban areas. The basic purpose of the thesis is to specify the environmental performance of different urban patterns in terms of their ecological footprints through defining the relationship between implications of urban patterns and their contributions to the ecological footprint.

Pertinent abiotic and biotic factors and their interdependencies necessary to comprehend the ecology of saline systems are investigated and evaluated. A designed saline ecosystem is proposed as a constructive method to reduce waste volume. Landscape pattern is investigated as the vehicle for an evapotranspiration induced directional saline gradient. A demonstration site is used to explore conceptual design application of the idea of ecosystem pattern consisting of a linear sequence of ecotopes, each displaying its own ecological community in relation to salinity range and site context. Biota is relinquished to self-organization. Potential for research use of the ecosystem is illustrated.

The quest for sustainable industrial development demands the transition from the current linear to the circular economy. An inter-firm approach to drive this transition to a circular economy at a local or regional scale is industrial symbiosis, which refers to the exchange or sharing of underutilized resources between industrial plants to reap economic and environmental benefits. There is a widespread consensus in the scientific community on the merits and (anticipated) benefits of information systems and information technology (IT) to support and accelerate the emergence of industrial symbiosis by aiding all involved parties. Though the conceptualization and development of IT, in particular IT platforms, to support industrial symbiosis has gained momentum in recent years to facilitate industrial symbiosis, current research provides little insight and scarce guidance for the design, diffusion and continued operation of IT-supported industrial symbiosis. Especially, experiences and viewpoints of (potential) users and providers of such tools are hardly captured. On the one hand, this thesis elaborates on the status quo of research as well as practice of IT-supported industrial symbiosis and on the other it examines the potential contribution of IT platforms to facilitate industrial symbiosis and its IT support, by applying perspectives of knowledge management and platform as well as ecosystem theory to the field. Based on the gathered insights and a design science research process, this thesis proposes the Digital Industrial Symbiosis Ecosystem concept as proposal to overcome current issues and facilitate industrial symbiosis and the respective platforms.