Gold mining is often associated with positive economic benefits; however, it may also have negative impacts on the environment and human health. It is essential that communities understand the risks and benefits associated with mining, particularly in developing countries where there is often a lack of legislation governing the environmental performance of mining corporations. The perceptions of local people regarding the risks and benefits of mining may differ significantly from those of company representatives, policy makers, and the scientific community. Indeed, public concerns have sometimes been ignored or downplayed by those responsible for the implementation of environmental policies and practices. Examination of the complex social, economic, psychological, political, and cultural factors influencing risk perception in mining communities is thus important for successful risk communication and management. Issues arising from the interplay between socio-economic benefits and risks are particularly acute in small island states which have isola ted and highly limited economic development trajectories. The lessons learned in such cases are therefore instructive for crisis planning across the developing world. This study conducted firsthand empirical research into the perception of environmental and health risks in the communities surrounding the Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji. Primary data was obtained through a survey questionnaire designed to quantify and evaluate perceived risks (n= 340, representing approximately 24% of the target population). Concurrently, environmental samples were collected to assess the extent of environmental impacts at the study site. Study results revealed that gender is an important variable in risk perception at Vatukoula. Major findings include: (1) women feel they have less knowledge about the risks of mining compared to men; (2) women feel they have less control to avoid the risks of mining compared to men; and (3) women and men tend to receive risk messages from different sources. The information obtained during this study was made directly available to local stakeholders, to aid in risk management and decision-making.

Urban areas are hubs of creativity and innovation providing fertile ground for novel responses to modern environmental challenges. One such response is the community-led management of urban green spaces as a form of organised social-ecological innovation (OSEI). Previous studies have attempted to conceptualise the ecological, social and political potential of such informal approaches to urban green space management. However, little work has been carried out into their efficacy in the landscape, either by describing the social-ecological conditions influencing their occurrence or by quantifying the actual benefits in terms of ecosystem service provision. This research explores the emergence and impact of OSEI in a continuous urban landscape comprising the metropolitan areas of Manchester, Salford and Trafford (UK). The social-ecological context and content of OSEI were investigated using a cross-scale approach. At the landscape scale a snowball-sampling method mapped the occurrence of OSEIs using GIS and remote sensing technology. At the micro-scale, a case study quantified relative levels of provision across four key ecosystem services. The analysis presented OSEI as an adaptive response to environmental stressors, clustered around “hubs” of social-ecological innovation in the urban landscape. The distribution of OSEIs was influenced by historical context, degree of urbanisation and dependent on levels of, and dynamics between, social and ecological deprivation. Urban agriculture was instrumental as a catalyst for the emergence of OSEI and the associated production of a range of ecosystem services. Site productivity was also influenced by spatial and design considerations. This thesis has detailed the character of OSEI as a coherent phenomenon in the urban landscape which exhibits valuable response diversity according to social-ecological conditions. This, together with an evaluation of factors influencing ecosystem service provision at the local scale, has informed the validity of OSEI as an element of adaptive capacity which contributes to resilience in urban social-ecological systems.

In the 1990s social scientists researching public perceptions of GM foods recommended the introduction of new modes of public participation to make decision-making more inclusive. This research utilises categories and concepts from cultural theory (as developed by anthropologists Mary Douglas, Michael Thompson and Steve Rayner, and political scientists Aaron Wildavsky and Richard Ellis) as tools to consider how a range of opinions, illustrated by cultural theory's ideal types, were represented within the GM crop debate. By doing so, it considers whether this approach supports the notion that greater public participation would improve inclusiveness. Furthermore, it considers how best to model the ways that individuals utilised the discourse of cultural theory's ideal types, and whether this has implications for seeking greater inclusiveness. The research is based upon 55 one-to-one interviews that were conducted with various individuals engaged in the GM crop debate in 2000, and secondary sources of data such as media coverage, electronic mailing lists and public meetings between 1996 and 2002. It was determined that the discourses of cultural theory's ideal types were best presented along a continuum, with the hierarchists in the centre and the egalitarians and individualists at either extreme. Within the wider public debate, the media and public reflected the concerns of egalitarians, while government discourse reflected the concerns of hicrarchists. By enabling the public to have a greater say in decision-making,it is asserted that decisions will favour the egalitarian outlook and will ignore the wisdom of cultural theory's other ideal types. Furthermore, since the discourse of those engaged in the debate included all but the most fatalistic comments made by members of the public, it is argued that public participation is unlikely to bring any new voices to the debate. Rather than introducing new modes of public participation,t his research recommends that the government actively consults with individuals already engaged in the GM crop debate on all issues, including those of a more political nature. The aim of such an exercise would be to identify, communicate and consider the full range of opinions available so that decisions can become more fully informed, transparent and trusted.

Decisive moments and their fleeting experiences are born from an individual’s interaction within a defined physical space. It is here at the intersection of environment and context that my work in site-specific art begins. I endeavor to create an examination of socio-political and environmental issues through a manipulation of materials, thereby altering one’s private, communal, and cultural response to them. My installations are comprised of slip casted multiples which reference the human form. I place these forms in galleries and specific exterior locations, and incorporate materials that are charged with societal discord, such as used motor oil and post-consumer detritus, in order to still the blur of contemporary life. This allows for a contemplative pause that pulls into focus the effect of pursuing our individual wants and desires against the consequences of these pursuits on the larger society and environment.

Cancer incidence is associated with exposures to multiple environmental chemicals, and geographic variation in cancer rates suggests the importance of accommodating spatially varying effects in the analysis of environmental chemical mixtures and disease risk. Traditional regression methods are challenged by the complex correlation patterns inherent among co-occurring chemicals, and the applicability of geographically weighted regression models is limited in the setting of environmental chemical risk analysis. In comparison to traditional methods, weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression performs well in the identification of important environmental exposures, but is limited by the assumption that effects are fixed over space. We present an extension of the WQS method that models spatially varying chemical mixture effects called local weighted quantile sum (LWQS) regression, and assess through a simulation study its ability to identify important environmental risk factors over space. We use two different approaches to estimate the LWQS model based on variable subspaces. One uses an ensemble of variable subsets of the same size, and the other selects the best subset over a range of candidate subset sizes according to the model goodness-of-fit. We assess the performance of both estimation methods in simulated scenarios that incorporate increasingly complex levels of spatial dependency in the model, and consider correlation patterns from observed exposure data. The results demonstrate that LWQS has the ability to replicate spatially dependent mixture effects and can correctly identify important exposures in a mixture of environmental chemicals. In all scenarios, the best subset approach correctly chose an index containing only the important chemicals and improved on the accuracy of the chemical importance weights in comparison with the ensemble solutions. Future work will evaluate if the ensemble subset approach has better relative performance with larger chemical mixtures of highly correlated components.

This research examined the technical and economic feasibility of harnessing flare gas emissions from oil fields. The outcome would provide the basis for a substantial re-utilization of this waste energy due to the current practice of flaring and use it alternatively as energy for powering oil fields, rural electrification and desalination. Nigeria is used as a case study. Burning fossil fuels have grave environmental impact, amidst increasing global concerns over harmful emissions. This research addresses resource decline and suggests divestment as a partial cure. The gas turbine is subject to degradation of its components as it is used. Though several methods of assessing gas turbine degradation have been developed with varying degrees of success, no one method has addressed issues pertaining to associated gas and its effects on degradation with divestment. Simulation of two single shaft, heavy duty industrial gas turbines; and three aero-derivative industrial gas turbines of the heavy medium and light capacity ranges were carried out for varying operating conditions, to ascertain the effects of degradation when run on associated gas. Thereafter, optimizations for the best power plant engine mix and the least cost of electricity were carried out. Genetic algorithm was used to assess a population of 10,000 individuals over 500 generations; convergence was achieved for different configurations of the five study engines at discount rates of 5% and 10%, over three power ranges. The divestment pattern starts with the lightest aero-derivative industrial gas turbine; the best power plant selection was limited to the two lightest aero-derivatives in the fleet, completely ignoring the heavy engines. A techno-economic, environmental and risk assessment model comprising performance, emission, economics and risk modules was successfully developed to assess gas turbine degradation with divestment. Using this tool, it was confirmed that associated gas usage resulted in degradation of gas turbine performance, an increase in gas collection as well as operation and maintenance costs. Also there was increasingly higher creep life consumption during slow, medium and fast degradation scenarios for both engine sets. The novel technical contribution of the research work therefore is the influence of degradation on the economic use of associated gas as fuel in gas turbine power generation; and the implementation of divestment in the face of fuel decline.

The goal of the submitted thesis: "The legal regulation of hunting and gamekeeping" is to evaluate the hunting legislation in the Czech Republic and to propose possible solutions leading to eliminate their lacks. The thesis describes the development of hunting law from 16th century up to the present, including EU legislation and international conventions on the environment related to hunting. It compares also hunting legislation in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

The benefits that humans receive from nature are not fully understood. The ecosystem service framework has been developed to improve understanding of the benefits, or ecosystem services, that humans receive from the natural environment. Although the ecosystem service framework is designed to provide insights into the state of ecosystem services, it has been criticised for its neglect of spatial analysis. This thesis contains a critical discussion on the spatial relationships between ecosystem services and the urban landscape in Salford, Greater Manchester. An innovative approach has been devised for creating a landscape mosaic, which uses remotely-sensed spectral indices and land cover measurements. Five ecosystem services are considered: carbon storage, water flow mitigation, climate stress mitigation, aesthetics, and recreation. Analysis of ecosystem service generation uses the landscape mosaic, hotspot identification and measurements of spatial association. Ecosystem service consumption is evaluated via original perspectives of physical accessibility through a transport network, and greenspace visibility over a 3D surface. Results suggest that the landscape mosaic accuracy compares favourably to a map created using traditional classification methods. Ecosystem service patterns are unevenly distributed across Salford. The regulating services draw from similar natural resource locations, while cultural services have more diverse sources. The accessibility and visibility analysis provides evidence for the importance of urban trees as mitigators of ‘grey’ views, and urban parks as accessible producers of multiple services. Comprehensive ecosystem service analysis requires integration of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Evaluation of spatial relationships between ecosystem services and the physical landscapes in this thesis provides a practical method for improved measurement and management of the natural environment in urban areas. These findings can be used by urban planners and decision makers to integrate ecological considerations into proposed development schemes.

This thesis explores the processes by which agri-environmental policy has developed in Scotland, using the 1996 Countryside Premium Scheme consultation as a case study. The role of interest groups within the policy process and the impacts those groups have on policy outcomes through the provision of information to policy-makers are investigated. In the process of developing a new policy, policy-makers require new information. In designing agri-environmental schemes, the Scottish Office requires information on the likely environmental, farm management and farm income impacts of proposed schemes and prescriptions. Such information is increasingly sought through public consultations, which can be considered in terms of the policy-makers demanding information which is then supplied by interested parties. This policy 'market' is amenable to analysis using economic tools more generally used in conventional markets for priced goods and services, such as the Structure-Conduct-Performance framework and the analysis of transaction costs. The public consultations undertaken prior to the introduction of the Countryside Premium Scheme in 1997 was investigated as such a policy 'market'. This revealed the structure of the agri-environmental policy network within Scotland. Three-quarters of the 71 respondents to the consultation were interviewed to establish their conduct within the policy process, and the costs involved in their providing information to the Scottish Office. The impact of the information provided on the policy outcome was explored using a combination of the perceptions of the policy actors surveyed and, more objectively, a comparison of the suggestions made in the written consultation responses with the changes made prior to implementation of the Scheme. The transaction costs paid by interest groups involved in this consultation were the equivalent of around £50,000. In return for this investment, both agricultural and environmental interest groups were found to have had some limited impact on the policy outcomes, through the provision of different types of information.

The work in this thesis is concerned with the Green Rusts, which are bluegreen metastable Fe(II) - Fe(III) hydroxy compounds incorporating anions such as SO42-, Cl- or CO3-. These Green Rust compounds (or Fe-GR compounds to distinguish them from the aluminium Green Rusts (Al-GRs) which are isostructural Fe(II) - Al(III) hydroxy compounds) can be produced in a consistent fashion from Fe(II) solutions by the method of induced hydrolysis using Fe(III) gel at pH 7 and under anoxic conditions. A series of sulphate and chloride Fe-GR samples were synthesised, and characterised primarily by the analytical techniques of M8ssbauer spectroscopy, X-Ray diffractometry, infra-red spectroscopy, and vacuum microbalance to measure surface area using the BET N2 adsorption method. For comparison, a few samples of the analogous Al-GR compounds were also synthesised and characterised by the analytical techniques mentioned above. The results in this thesis showed that the systems producing the Fe-GR compounds were of a highly complex nature, and that the amount of precipitate formed depended crucially on the starting conditions. For the 0.1 M FeSO4 system, the GR formed was almost always accompanied by a goethite phase while, for the 0.1 M FeC12 system, pure GR material was only formed at initial Fe(II) - Fe(III) ratios (IFFRs) greater than 6. Any-differences between__the, sulphate and chloride Fe-GRs can. be attributed to the difference in anion-type. X-Ray diffraction in conjunction with electron microscopy and surface area measurements confirm-that the Fe-GRs have a pyroaurite crystal structure, with brucite-like layers formed by a matrix of Fe2+ and Fe 3+ cations and each layer bridged to the other by anions. As far as Messbauer spectroscopy is concerned, the most important diagnostic parameter is the quadrupole splitting (QS) of the Fe(II) doublet measured at 77K for the wet, fresh precipitate (i. e. frozen material). For sul phate Fe-GRs derived from 0.1 M FeSO4 the mean QS is 2.93 ± 0.05 mms-', while for the chloride Fe-GRs derived from 0.1 M FeC12 the mean QS is 2.80 ± 0.05 mms-1. Surface areas for the sulphate Fe-GRs are in the range 40-65 m2. g-1. The products of oxidation and ageing for the Fe-GRs indicate several transformation pathways, especially for the chloride Fe-GRs. Sulphate Fe-GRs converted to goethite on oxidation under both wet and dry conditions, while the chloride Fe-GRs converted to akaganeite on dry oxidation, and to lepidocrocite on wet oxidation. Under both wet and dry anoxic conditions, the chloride Fe-GRs converted to magnetite. In the case of the sulphate Fe-GRs, there was a suggestion that, under the right wet anoxic conditions, the material probably transformed into magnetite. These facts clearly demonstrate that the Fe-GRs are intermediaries in the thermodynamic transformation of Fe in the II oxidation state to Fe in the III oxidation state.