Indoor air quality measurements and staff absentee data were collected from elementary schools in a Winnipeg school division. Data was collected measuring carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, temperature, relative humidity, particulate matter, and in some schools, radon. It was found that nearly all schools were experiencing some measure of IAQ problems. The most common issues measured were low levels of relative humidity and high concentrations of carbon dioxide. No significant relationships between staff absenteeism and IAQ parameters were identified in Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression analyses. Survey results found that 96% of respondents found IAQ problems in the workplace, and 79% of respondents show ‘sick building syndrome’-like symptoms. Recommendations have been provided to improve IAQ and establish an IAQ management program in order to improve the indoor environment in the school division.

The research undertaken during this project has resulted in an investigation of atmospheric phenomena within constructed space, using light, space and water as primary materials to explore the peripheries of human perception. The project examines the extremities of human sensory experience as a means of navigating and further understanding the finite nature of our experience of 'reality'. We construct and apprehend a cohesive idea of our surroundings based on the information given to us by the senses, which are inherently limited in their capabilities. This thesis explores ways of deconstructing the processes involved in the creation of our contemporary understanding of reality, physiologically via the senses and externally through the active and conscious construction of our surroundings. The illusive and intangible nature of atmospheric phenomena is utilised in the practical component of this project for its ability to remain perceptually just out of reach; the distances in the sky cannot be judged, the air around us cannot be felt, and water in its forms of cloud, mist, ice, rain and snow hovers around the perimeters of materiality. In isolating phenomena such as these within fabricated environments the project aims to bridge the conceptual gap that exists between the highly constructed nature of our increasingly urbanised existence and the natural world.

Thesis (Honors)--Liberty University Honors Program, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available through Liberty University's Digital Commons.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 250-25l).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 458-469).

Given the qualitative, exploratory and comparative nature of the investigation, this study has employed a mixed-methods approach. According to the conceptual framework of this research, the emphasis of the study is on mechanisms and interrelationships that affect the process and product of urban sustainability assessment. Accordingly, this study has concentrated on the identification of the urban sustainability indicators, data sources and assessment methods and their strategies and interests within the environmental, socio-cultural and economic contexts in which they operated. To this end, the study has enjoyed the insights from 64 participants including experts, scholars, practitioners as well as high-ranking officials across the ministries, municipalities and local authorities, through carrying out a questionnaire survey and conducting a series of semi-structured interviews in Iran. Due to a lack of established and well-documented data, it was initially required to find out what kinds of sustainability assessment methods have officially been used in Iran. This led the researcher to conduct a survey of Iranian local authorities and government departments. The findings of this survey were reviewed, discussed and compared to the UK sustainability assessment methods. As a result, the study suggests a detailed proposal for developing an urban sustainability assessment model in Iran including a comprehensive urban sustainability indicator set. The research also concludes that there is an urgent need for establishing a bottomup organisational structure in Iran to pursue the concepts of sustainable development and sustainability assessment within the public and private sector. The unique contribution of this study is that it has done a systematic research on the principles and frameworks of developing an urban sustainability assessment mechanism in Iran based on the UK experience and achievement in this area. It has also explored various weaknesses and barriers in the current Iranian urban planning and development system. Examining these barriers and weaknesses may form the demand and objectives of reforms in the current Iranian planning and development systems. Furthermore, the findings of this study provide insights into the issues that policymakers and practitioners need to consider in developing programs and efforts dealing with the problems of urban sustainability assessment. It will enhance the theory and literature within the knowledge bases of evaluation of urban sustainability in Iran tackling the existing issues and making suggestions which will depict the most appropriate way for the development of Iranian urban sustainability assessment mechanisms considering the three substantial pillars of sustainability: environment; society; and economy.

NatureWatch Canada, a citizen science program, collects and analyses data pertaining to plant phenology, frog species and ice coverage over water bodies in Canada to monitor trends through time and space in relation to climate change. An important question is whether this database is currently usable to infer environmental changes through space and time. This thesis presents a metadata analysis of the Nature Watch database in order to identify the spatial validity, quality, reliability and usability of the current data. We first explore citizen science through a review of the literature, followed by a detailed analysis of the content of the database. We also produce an example Newsletter for each module to illustrate some of the current trends in the data. The Frogwatch Newsletter shows how weather conditions in 2001 may have favored a population spurt of Leopard frogs resulting from more spawning ponds essential for this species. Next the Plantwatch Newsletter reveals that an increase in Aspen poplar and Prairie crocus in 2002 may have been due to fires during the preceding years. Lastly, the Icewatch Newsletter shows how ice formation, but not melt, reveals a clear trend of occurring 17 days later over the last 100 years with a stronger increase starting in the sixties for Western Ontario. In summary, this thesis presents a detailed metadata analysis of the Naturewatch database in order to provide recommendations for its improvement in the future. Improving programs like Naturewatch Canada is important to monitoring climate and ecological changes that could be applied throughout the Canadian North which are not currently well represented in this database.

Bibliography: leaves 341-389. / The central aim of this research is to evaluate the claim by members of the Coloured population of the Western Cape that they are as socially and economically marginalized under the current government as they were under apartheid. The purpose of this is to contribute to the debate on post-apartheid social transformation and broader debates on the continued use of the notion of Colouredness in the South African context. The research findings are based on fieldwork carried out in four main high schools in Coloured communities in the Western Cape province. This thesis first establishes the broad theoretical, political and historical background of the research. This section of the thesis debates the nature of Colouredness and the existing theoretical frameworks for the analysis of Coloured identities. Following this Coloured experiences of post-apartheid education policy and provision are considered. Within this analysis the evidence for claims of marginalization is discussed and its nature and intention is assessed. From this basis, the thesis then investigates the reactions of pupils to this perceived marginalization, in terms of their attitudes towards education, their aspirations and their attitudes towards other pupils. A final part of the analysis considers the nature of school and community responses to pupils' reactions to their perceived marginalization. This section investigates not only the nature of the responses, but also seeks to provide explanations for these responses, using the theoretical frameworks of the earlier sections. Finally, this thesis draws conclusions based on the original questions posed and then points to the wider implications of this research in the South African political and international theoretical contexts.

Variable erodibility (surface characteristics) and erosivity factors (meteorological conditions) result in dust emission dynamics being complex in both space and time. Accounting for localscale surface variability is critical to our understanding of dust emitting processes. This study identifies mineral dust using remote sensing, establishes emission thresholds through field measurements and identifies particle chemistry for major dust sources in the Central Namib Desert. Examining over 2000 Landsat images over a period from 1972 to 2016, identified 40 days of visually detectable dust, originating from sub-km scale point sources. The observations suggest that dust sources can be identified at the landform scales which particularly include ephemeral river valleys and saline pan surfaces. These persist throughout the 25-year record; however, a gradual shift in source point clusters is noted through time, which can be tentatively attributed to anthropogenic modification of the hydrological systems. A PI-SWERL (Portable In-Situ Wind ERosion Lab) wind tunnel was used to measure the emission potential of the Landsat derived targets. The most emissive sources were paleostockpiles of alluvial silt deposits and associated degraded nebkhas within the Kuiseb River Delta. These had a geometric mean emission flux of 0.076 mg m-2 s -1. In comparison, the active channel had a geometric mean emission flux of 0.008 mg m-2 s -1, undisturbed desert pavement 0.007 mg m-2 s -1, pan surfaces 0.001 mg m-2 s -1 and wadis within the gravel plains 0.030 mg m-2 s -1. The emission thresholds were augmented with site-specific field measurements such gravel cover (%), moisture content (%), particle size (µm), elemental composition (%) and shear and compressive strength (kg cm-2). A Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) machine-learning algorithm identified the most important surface and sediment characteristics determining dust emission from the measured surfaces. The model explained 70.8% of the deviance in the measured dust flux with the top predictor variables and their relative importance (%) as follows: gravel cover, 16%; moisture content, 14%; kurtosis, 13%; very coarse silt, 13%; very fine sand, 11%; fine sand, 8%; compressive strength, 7%, calcium, 7% and magnesium, 6%. Such an analysis can be used to identify critical thresholds for dust emission and standardise testing protocols. Linking landforms with such emission measurements allow for the assessment of two existing dust emission schemes: the Preferential Dust Scheme (PDS; Bullard et al. 2011) and the Sediment Supply Map (SSM; Parajuli et al. 2017). Although these schemes represent a major advance in our representation of dust emission source areas and erodibility, this study shows that these schemes still need to be improved to accurately depict dust emission potential. For the PDS this would include producing a global rasterised output with quantified dust emission potential and for the SSM, a more accurate classification of the highly emissive geomorphic units. Landsat source point sediments were subjected to physical and geochemical analyses and compared to samples obtained from passive collectors such as the Big Spring Number Eight (BSNE) and active PI-SWERL exhaust emissions, using an auto-SEM (QEMSCAN). This provided individual particle mineralogy (>2 µm resolution) for a total of approximately 10000 to 60000 particles per sample which enabled a comparison of particle size, shape and mineralogy. The samples consist of a mixture of minerals reflecting the varied metamorphic geology and consists predominantly of feldspar, quartz, mica, other aluminosilicates such as the alteration products epidote and chlorite and low to medium grade metamorphics such as amphibole and pyroxene, iron oxihydroxides, titanium minerals, carbonates and clay minerals.

"Acoustic Ecology and Sound Mapping the University of Central Florida Main Campus" explores the intersection of place and space, sound studies and acoustic ecology, visualization, and archives. The end result consists of a collection of "soundwalk" and stationary recordings conducted from 2016-2019 at the University of Central Florida (UCF) main campus in Orlando presented as an online Sound Map. This archive previously did not exist and provides a snapshot of the various sounds heard throughout the campus as well as a starting point and context for future research into this still-emerging field of acoustic ecology and sound studies. While the individual recordings help to provide a sense of place at the university, they also represent a benchmark from a public history standpoint to interpret sonic change over time.