A prospective ecological risk assessment method was developed evaluating the cumulative probabilistic impact of chemical stressors to aquatic organisms. This method was developed in response to the need to evaluate the magnitude, duration and episodic nature of chemical stressors on aquatic communities under environmental exposure scenarios. The method generates a probabilistic expression of the percent of an ecosystem's species at risk from a designated chemical exposure scenario.

The influence of Mohandas K. Gandhi on social and environmental movements in post-colonial India has been widely acknowledged. Yet, the contributions of two European associates of Gandhi, Madeleine Slade and Catherine Mary Heilemann, better known in India as Mira Behn and Sarala Behn, have not received the due attention of the academic community. This dissertation is an examination of the philosophy and social activism of Mira Behn and Sarala Behn and their roles in the evolution of Gandhian philosophy of socioeconomic reconstruction and environmental conservation in the present Indian state of Uttarakhand. Instead of just being acolytes of Gandhi, I argue that these women developed ideas and practices that drew upon from an extensive intellectual terrain that cannot be limited to Gandhi’s work. I delineate the directions in which Gandhian thought and experiments in rural development work evolved through the lives, activism, and written contributions of these two women. Particularly, I examine their influence on social and environmental movements, such as the Chipko and the Anti-Tehri Dam movements, and their roles in promoting grassroots social development and environmental sustainability in the mountain communities of Uttarakhand. Mira Behn and Sarala Behn’s integrative philosophical worldviews present epistemological, sociopolitical, ethical, and metaphysical principles and practices that have local and global significance for understanding interfaith dialog, social justice, and environmental sustainability and thus constitute a useful contribution to the theory and practice of human emancipation in our times.

Habitat restoration has socio-economic as well as biophysical impacts. In Grant County, Oregon a recent influx of funding and technical resources for habitat restoration has led to focused monitoring efforts there to better understand the impacts. This study explores how local land use and land management practices are changing in Grant County as a result of restoration and other drivers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 landowners, land managers, and long time residents to document the change they have observed and identify how they are adapting. The results suggest that many interconnected social, economic, and ecological changes have taken place in Grant County in the recent past, of which the increased focus on restoration and conservation is just one. Other significant changes include the decline of the timber industry, shifting land ownership patterns, intensified regulation of natural resources, and increased environmental awareness. Ways that the community is adapting and additional ways in which they might more successfully adapt to these changes were identified. Recommendations for how to contribute to a more resilient Grant County are presented for the regulatory, academic, and scientific communities.

This dissertation aims to develop methods for statistical predictions based on various types of data from different areas. We focus on applications from reliability and spatial epidemiology. Chapter 1 gives a general introduction of statistical predictions. Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the photodegradation of an organic coating, which is mainly caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation but also affected by environmental factors, including temperature and humidity. In Chapter 2, we identify a physically motivated nonlinear mixed-effects model, including the effects of environmental variables, to describe the degradation path. Unit-to-unit variabilities are modeled as random effects. The maximum likelihood approach is used to estimate parameters based on the accelerated test data from laboratory. The developed model is then extended to allow for time-varying covariates and is used to predict outdoor degradation where the explanatory variables are time-varying. Chapter 3 introduces a class of models for analyzing degradation data with dynamic covariate information. We use a general path model with random effects to describe the degradation paths and a vector time series model to describe the covariate process. Shape restricted splines are used to estimate the effects of dynamic covariates on the degradation process. The unknown parameters of these models are estimated by using the maximum likelihood method. Algorithms for computing the estimated lifetime distribution are also described. The proposed methods are applied to predict the photodegradation path of an organic coating in a complicated dynamic environment. Chapter 4 investigates the Lyme disease emergency in Virginia at census tract level. Based on areal (census tract level) count data of Lyme disease cases in Virginia from 1998 to 2011, we analyze the spatial patterns of the disease using statistical smoothing techniques. We also use the space and space-time scan statistics to reveal the presence of clusters in the spatial and spatial/temporal distribution of Lyme disease. Chapter 5 builds a predictive model for Lyme disease based on historical data and environmental/demographical information of each census tract. We propose a Divide-Recombine method to take advantage of parallel computing. We compare prediction results through simulation studies, which show our method can provide comparable fitting and predicting accuracy but can achieve much more computational efficiency. We also apply the proposed method to analyze Virginia Lyme disease spatio-temporal data. Our method makes large-scale spatio-temporal predictions possible. Chapter 6 gives a general review on the contributions of this dissertation, and discusses directions for future research. / Ph. D.

Contaminated sites are a common problem across municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. These problems are complicated and multi-dimensional, and raise fundamental concerns about the risks to human and environmental health. This thesis shows however, that there are no easy answers to how much risk is "acceptable", and no one right way to decide. How the acceptable risk problem is structured is important, because fact and value issues, a source of controversy and dispute, are variously interpreted depending on how the problem is cast. The literature generically categorizes acceptable risk as either a technical, social or decision problem, and each of these have implications for the types of decision-making approaches and solutions that are considered appropriate in resolving acceptable risk. This thesis investigated how acceptable risk in contaminated site problems is handled in British Columbia by reviewing the provincial decision-making framework, and by surveying municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District for their views on contaminated site problems and acceptable risk decision-making. The underlying goal of the thesis is to question the use of the current approach, the Pacific Place site criteria, as a model for acceptable risk decision-making in the province, and to explore the implications for urban communities. The Ministry of Environment is the central authority for contaminated sites in British Columbia and has generally taken a scientific and technical approach to the problem. Although the municipal survey suggests that the Pacific Place site criteria has a broad base of support in the GVRD, the technical emphasis has implications for urban communities. The approach is expert-oriented and largely excludes local and public involvement in the acceptable risk debate. The major concern is that important social value issues have been neglected, relative to the engineering and technical aspects of the problem. The research also finds however, that the majority of individuals in the municipal survey are willing to explore other methods of determining acceptable risk, and support in principle, local government and public involvement in deciding what these methods should be. This thesis suggests that British Columbia can benefit from a more comprehensive view of acceptable risk in contaminated site problems. Resource limitations at the provincial and local level, and the high stakes in contaminated site problems for urban communities point to the growing importance of incorporating a broad range of value issues and understanding the trade-offs in acceptable risk decisions. The Ministry of Environment can improve the current decision-making approach by: incorporating structured value assessments that elicit stakeholder values and address trade-offs; involving a wider range of stakeholders in standard setting and risk assessment, including the forthcoming review of the Pacific Place site criteria; creating forums to explore other decision-making approaches; and by encouraging private sector involvement in risk assessment and risk management. The province can also encourage and support community-based institutional networks, both at the municipal and regional level.

Contaminated sites are a common problem across municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. These problems are complicated and multi-dimensional, and raise fundamental concerns about the risks to human and environmental health. This thesis shows however, that there are no easy answers to how much risk is "acceptable", and no one right way to decide. How the acceptable risk problem is structured is important, because fact and value issues, a source of controversy and dispute, are variously interpreted depending on how the problem is cast. The literature generically categorizes acceptable risk as either a technical, social or decision problem, and each of these have implications for the types of decision-making approaches and solutions that are considered appropriate in resolving acceptable risk. This thesis investigated how acceptable risk in contaminated site problems is handled in British Columbia by reviewing the provincial decision-making framework, and by surveying municipalities in the Greater Vancouver Regional District for their views on contaminated site problems and acceptable risk decision-making. The underlying goal of the thesis is to question the use of the current approach, the Pacific Place site criteria, as a model for acceptable risk decision-making in the province, and to explore the implications for urban communities. The Ministry of Environment is the central authority for contaminated sites in British Columbia and has generally taken a scientific and technical approach to the problem. Although the municipal survey suggests that the Pacific Place site criteria has a broad base of support in the GVRD, the technical emphasis has implications for urban communities. The approach is expert-oriented and largely excludes local and public involvement in the acceptable risk debate. The major concern is that important social value issues have been neglected, relative to the engineering and technical aspects of the problem. The research also finds however, that the majority of individuals in the municipal survey are willing to explore other methods of determining acceptable risk, and support in principle, local government and public involvement in deciding what these methods should be. This thesis suggests that British Columbia can benefit from a more comprehensive view of acceptable risk in contaminated site problems. Resource limitations at the provincial and local level, and the high stakes in contaminated site problems for urban communities point to the growing importance of incorporating a broad range of value issues and understanding the trade-offs in acceptable risk decisions. The Ministry of Environment can improve the current decision-making approach by: incorporating structured value assessments that elicit stakeholder values and address trade-offs; involving a wider range of stakeholders in standard setting and risk assessment, including the forthcoming review of the Pacific Place site criteria; creating forums to explore other decision-making approaches; and by encouraging private sector involvement in risk assessment and risk management. The province can also encourage and support community-based institutional networks, both at the municipal and regional level. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Thesis (MSc) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis focuses on the effects of vegetation resting on biodiversity and community dynamics at Rocherpan Nature Reserve (320 36'S, 180 18'E) in the semi-arid coastal strip of the Succulent Karoo known as Strandveld. As a whole, the Succulent Karoo has an extraordinary high level of phyto diversity with high levels of endemism. This is particularly true for succulent shrubs belonging to the groups Mesembryanthemaceae, Crassulaceae and Asteraceae. The thesis begins with an investigation into effects that vegetation resting has on plant diversity. The aim was to determine if resting affected biodiversity levels and if so, which plant groups are affected and why. Through a numerical approach, it was determined that with resting overall species richness remained the same. However, different plant life forms responded to resting differently. With increased resting, abundance of succulent shrubs decreased, while richness of annuals increased. The second aspect under investigation was to determine how resting the vegetation affected community dynamics. The aim was to understand how vegetation structure and interspecific associations changed with resting and to apply these findings to known community models. Through an autocorrelation approach, it was found that horizontal patterning of long-lived woody species, that formed distinctive vegetation clumps, did not change with resting, while differences were found in woody matrix species and succulent species. These changes in structure were investigated further through a study on the demography of specific species. Demography of woody species associated with vegetation clumps did not change with vegetation resting, while significant changes were observed for woody matrix species and succulent species. In longer rested vegetation, woody matrix species showed a greater range in size class distribution (i.e. had both very large and smaller plants) with the tendency towards larger plant sizes. Succulents on the other hand, had a smaller range in size class distribution with a tendency towards larger plants. For all species investigated there were low seedlings counts. It was concluded that succulent shrub populations were 'mature' and continued resting could result in local extinction of some species due to the lack of regeneration. The overall lack of seedlings was attributed to a saturated establishment environment. Implications for conservation management were discussed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis fokus op die gevolge van plantegroeirus op biodiversiteit en gemeenskapsdinamika by die Roeherpan Natuurreservaat (320 36'S, 180 18"0) in die halfdor kusstrook van die Sukkulente Karoo, bekend as die Sandveld. In die geheel gesien het die Sukkulente Karoo 'n buitengewone hoë vlak plantdiversiteit met hoë vlakke endemie. Dit is veral waar vir sukkulente struike wat tot die groepe Mesembryanthemaceae, Crassulaceae en Asteraceae behoort. Hierdie tesis ondersoek eerstens die gevolge wat plantegroeirus op plantdiversiteit het. Die doel was om te bepaal of rus die biodiversiteitsvlakke beïnvloed het en indien wel, watter plantgroepe en waarom. Deur middel van 'n numeriese benadering is bepaal dat die algehele diversiteit, numeries gesproke, met plantegroeirus dieselfde gebly het. Verskillende plantlewensvorme het egter verskillend gereageer. Met toenemende rus het die diversiteit van sukkulente struike afgeneem, terwyl die diversiteit van jaarplante verhoog het. Die tweede aspek wat ondersoek is, was om te bepaal hoe die plantegroeirus die dinamika van die omgewingsgemeenskap beïnvloed het. Die doel was om te verstaan hoe die struktuur van die plantegroei en die interspesifieke assosiasies verander het met rus en om dan hierdie bevindinge toe te pas op bekende gemeenskapsmodelle. Deur middel van 'n outokorrelasiebenadering is gevind dat die horisontale patrone van meerjarige houtagtige spesies wat in duidelik-uitkenbare plantegroeigroeperings voorkom, nie met rus verander het nie. Veranderinge is egter wel in die houtagtige matriksspesies en die sukkulente spesies waargeneem. Hierdie veranderinge in struktuur is verder ondersoek deur 'n studie te maak van die demografie van spesifieke spesies. Daar is gevind dat die demografie van houtagtige spesies geassosieer met plantegroeigroeperings nie met plantegroeirus verander het nie, maar beduidende veranderinge is waargeneem in die geval van houtagtige matriksspesies en sukkulente spesies. By plantegroei wat langer gerus het, het die houtagtige matriksspesies 'n wyer verspreiding in klasgroottes vertoon (d.i. daar was baie groot plante én kleiner plante) met 'n gemiddelde afname in plantgrootte. Sukkulente, aan die ander kant, het 'n kleiner verspreiding in klasgroottes vertoon met 'n neiging tot groter plante. Vir al die spesies wat ondersoek is, was daar lae saailingtellings. As gevolg van die "volwassenheid" van die populasies van sukkulente struike, sou voortdurende rus, weens die gebrek aan regenerasie, kon lei tot die plaaslike uitwissing van sommige spesies. Die algemene gebrek aan saailinge is toegeskryf aan die versadigde vestigingsomgewing. Die implikasies VIr natuurbewaringsbestuur word bespreek. v

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sustainable development has gained great interest at global, national and local community levels. For instance, governments, civil societies, the commercial sector as well as local communities have responded to the agreed framework of UNCED known as Agenda 21, developed at the „Earth Summit‟ held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, inter alia through the development of indicators aimed at monitoring and evaluating the achievement of sustainable development. As a result, different tools to measure the level of sustainability have been developed and applied in many cities globally. These include different types of indicators, namely environmental, social, and economic performance monitoring indicators, as well as combined indices. Since cities are dynamic complex open systems with interrelated social, economic and environmental systems, and sustainable development cannot be absolutely achieved, integrated sustainable development indicators that concurrently address social, economic and environmental dimensions are crucial to aid in monitoring sustainable development particularly in any given urban system. This study gives an overview of these indicators and indices. The South Africa government has acknowledged in both its National Framework for Sustainable Development of September 2006 and the Draft National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Action Plan of May 2010 that like other cities globally, cities in this country face similar challenges particularly due to urbanisation. In this study, the focus is on evaluating the sustainability challenges of the City of Cape Town and the role sustainability indicators could play in helping to achieve sustainable development objectives. This is supported by a review of the so called „sustainable cities‟ and in particular how the Cities of Seattle (USA), Santa Monica (USA) and Curitiba (Brazil) have tried to address urban challenges. To meet the study objective of recommending the type and a process of developing indicators that will aid in improving sustainability in the City of Cape Town, selected indicators and indexes developed globally, nationally and for other cities are critically reviewed. Selected policies, plans and indicators developed by the South African national government, the Western Cape provincial government, and the City of Cape Town are reviewed. The review aims at investigating whether the existing policies and indicators were useful in addressing sustainability challenges particularly in the City of Cape Town. The review focuses on the policy objectives to assess whether the policies contradicted or were supportive of each other, the existence or lack thereof of gaps in the policies, and whether local communities and other stakeholders were involved in decision making processes. The findings suggests that although sustainable development is addressed in the policy documents of all three spheres of government in South Africa, the implementation has not yet been effective – and the City of Cape Town is no exception based on published reports such as the State of Cape Town Report. On the basis of the lessons derived from the success stories of cities like Seattle, Santa Monica, and Curitiba towards achieving sustainability, several recommendations are suggested to assist the City of Cape Town in developing, implementing, and reporting on sustainability indicators. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Op internasionale, nasionale asook plaaslike gemeenskapsvlakke het volhoubare ontwikkeling groot belangstelling gelok. In reaksie op die ooreengekome raamwerk van UNCED, Agenda 21, ontwikkel by die “Earth Summit” (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), is aanwysers gemik op die monitering en implementering van volhoubare ontwikkeling deur regerings, burgerlike samelewings, die kommersiële sektor asook plaaslike gemeenskappe ontwikkel. Dit het gelei tot die ontwikkeling en implementering van verskillende instrumente vir die meet van volhoubaarheid in verskeie stede wêreldwyd. Hierdie instrumente sluit in verskillende aanwysers, ondermeer omgewings-, sosiale-, ekonomiese- en prestasie aanwysers asook gekombineerde indekse. Omdat stede dinamies komplekse ope sisteme met interafhanklike sosiale, ekonomiese en omgewingssisteme is, en volhoubare ontwikkeling nie absoluut bereikbaar is nie, is geintegreerde volhoubare ontwikkelings aanwysers wat sosiale, ekonomiese en omgewings dimensies gelyktydig aanspreek van kritieke belang in die monitering van volhoubare ontwikkeling, spesifiek in enige gegewe stedelike sisteem. In beide sy nasionale raamwerk vir volhoubare ontwikkeling (Julie 2008) en nasionale strategie vir volhoubare ontwikkeling en Aksie plan (weergawe van 20 Mei 2010) het die Suid Afrikaanse regering erken dat plaaslike stede, soos ander wêreldwyd, dieselfde uitdagings in die gesig staar veral as gevolg van verstedeliking. Die fokus van hierdie studie was die evaluering van die volhoubaarheids-uitdagings van die Stad Kaapstad en die moontlike rol wat volhoubaarheids-aanwysers kan speel in ʼn poging om volhoubare ontwikkelings doelwitte te bereik. Hierdie word ondersteun deur ʼn oorsig van die sogenaamde “volhoubare stede” en spesifiek hoe stede soos Seattle (VSA), Santa Monica (VSA), en Curitiba (Brasilië) stedelike uitdagings probeer aanspreek het. Ten einde die studie doelwit aangaande die aanbeveling van die ontwikkelingsproses van aanwysers en indekse vir die verbetering van volhoubaarheid in die Stad Kaapstad te bereik, is verskeie internasionale, nasionale sowel as stedelike volhoubare ontwikkelings indekse krities geëvalueer. Geselekteerde beleid, planne en aanwysers wat deur die Suid Afrikaanse Nasionale regering, die Wes Kaapse provinsiale regering en die Stad Kaapstad ontwikkel is, is ondersoek. Die doel van hierdie evaluasie was om vas te stel of bestaande beleid en aanwysers nuttig is, in die aanspreek van volhoubaarheids-uitdagings spesifiek in die Stad Kaapstad. Die fokus van die evaluasie was op beleidsdoelwitte ten einde te bepaal of: verskeie beleid teenstrydigheid toon of andersins ondersteunend is, die bestaan of gebrek aan leemtes in beleid en of plaaslike gemeenskappe en of ander belange groepe in die besluitnemingsproses betrokke is. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat alhoewel volhoubare ontwikkeling in beleidsdokumente van al drie sfere van die Suid Afrikaanse regering aangespreek word, die implementering daarvan nog nie so doeltreffend is nie - en gebaseer op gepubliseerde verslae soos die stand van Kaapstad, is die Stad van Kaapstad nie ʼn uitsondering nie. Na aanleiding van lesse geleer uit die sukses verhale van stede soos Seattle, Santa Monica en Curitiba in die bereiking van volhoubare ontwikkeling is verskeie aanbevelings gemaak om die Stad Kaapstad by te staan in die ontwikkeling, implementering, en rapportering van volhoubaarheids-aanwysers.

Environmental management agencies make efforts to reduce pollution loading in streams and rivers by promoting vegetated buffer zones between human activity and water. Most of these efforts do not mesh water quality-based buffer zone width requirements with conservation and wildlife values, specifically, the use of these riparian forest corridors for wildlife dispersal between habitats in highly fragmented landscapes. Forest interior birds are of the most concern to management in riparian forests due to their population declines across much of their breeding range. This dissertation investigates the role that landscape-level and habitat-level factors play on the presence of breeding birds in riparian forests, particularly the landscape and habitat factors that are influenced by human-caused fragmentation. This study describes research at the Ray Roberts Greenbelt, Denton, Texas, that explores the relationships between the landscape and forest habitats of the Greenbelt with its breeding bird community. The major findings of this study are that bird communities in the corridor forests are associated with a greater array of factors than are bird communities in patches, suggesting that the birds of patch forests are somewhat insulated from landscape-scale effects. Also, habitat values can be maintained in corridors, but there does not seem to be a significant relationship between the bird communities and the habitat. Forest factors are the primary influences (as inferred from the number of associations and the relative strength of these associations) on the bird communities of the Ray Roberts Greenbelt. Thresholds of richness or abundance in the amount of forest as compared with the forest interior bird community suggest that patches are better than corridors to support this community, and that the more interior forest available, the better for forest interior birds. The suggested minimum amount of forest derived from these thresholds is 35% of the amount of forest within 1 kilometer of any given part of the Greenbelt. Thresholds in forest width for avian communities suggest a minimum width of 200 m for any corridor. Thresholds in distance from interior forest suggest that the forest interior bird community can be best supported by shorter corridors that connect larger patches, with a suggested maximum corridor length of 125 m.

Nonprofit housing organizations primarily exist to address the housing needs of low-income residents, whose housing needs are not sufficiently met by the public or private housing market. NHOs are very similar to private corporations in their size, productivity and commitment to the “bottom line.” However, unlike private firms, NHOs are “mission driven” instead profit-driven corporations. The development of affordable housing in the nonprofit housing sector requires a myriad of financial and non-financial resources. As competition for financial resources intensifies many organizations are adopting strategies as a means to not only reduce organizational uncertainty and sustain them, but also increase or maintain organizational capacity. The evolution of the role of nonprofit organizations coupled with market pressures such as attracting investment, competing for clients, and retaining and hiring skilled employees shapes the need for them to adopt market culture strategies (Salamon, 1999). A key strategy of market culture is collaboration (Frost and Sullivan, 2006). This dissertation study was designed to examine interorganizational relationships between nonprofit housing organizations in the Richmond Metropolitan area, and the influence of organizational characteristics, environmental conditions, and resource availability on an organization’s Level of Collaboration. Furthermore, the study examined the attitudes and perceptions of executive directors of collaboration. The primary research question is: Do nonprofit housing organizations display identifiable patterns of relationships with each other? This study contributes several important findings to furthering the understanding of collaboration within the nonprofit sector, and the relationship between organizational characteristics, environmental conditions, and resource availability and an organization’s Level of Collaboration (interorganizational relationships). Study findings convey that the examination of the network itself using social network analysis is a useful tool for examining relationships and identifying opportunities for collaboration. For this network it revealed that the organizations interact on an informal basis as well as identified the prominent actors are in the network. The findings of this study suggests that there are two key factors that influence nonprofit organizations establishing relationships interorganizational learning and personal characteristics.