Public concern over the state of the environment has grown over the past decade. All indications are that this concern will continue to influence policy making into the foreseeable future. Road transport is seen as the major contributor to environmental degradation. Transportation planners around the world face the question: cleaner air and/or faster commutes? While individual vehicles can be made more environmentally friendly, the sheer scale of growth in world-wide vehicle numbers is projected to cause significant environmental degradation in the longer run, and in the absence of newer and stricter polices. It is a challenge for governments to find policies that ensure congestion-free metropolitan areas while guaranteeing both critical environmental quality levels and a sufficient infrastructure access to all groups involved. The objective of the dissertation is to provide a mathematical framework to study transportation policy models for the purpose of controlling congestion and pollution. Towards this objective. a series of transportation policy models are developed to study travel behavior and to quantity the reductions in congestion and automobile emissions. The dissertation begins with a brief historical overview of some of the pioneering works in urban transportation economics and later presents the theoretical foundation for the transportation policy models developed. The dissertation introduces single modal and multimodal transportation network policy models that accomplish road pricing with the imposition of goal targets on link loads. as well as, integrated traffic equilibrium models with marketable mobile emission permits. Furthermore, equilibrium conditions are derived for each model, and both qualitative analysis and computational procedures are studied. Finally, the dissertation concludes with a comparative study of the relationship between regulatory pricing models and marketable emission permit transportation models and a discussion on key factors that influence implementation of the proposed policy models. The framework of variational inequalities has been utilized in our dissertation, because it is ideal for equilibrium systems. With the addition of pricing policy interventions and the integration of marketable mobile emission permits, traffic equilibrium models become extremely complex. Consequently, the computation of the equilibrium is made more difficult. However, it is shown in the dissertation that in addition to pricing interventions and the integration of a marketable emission permit system that it is possible to incorporate multiple modes of transport and even to handle the issue of noncompliance, using the framework of variational inequalities.

abstract: Organic compounds are influenced by hydrothermal conditions in both marine and terrestrial environments. Sedimentary organic reservoirs make up the largest share of organic carbon in the carbon cycle, leading to petroleum generation and to chemoautotrophic microbial communities. There have been numerous studies on the reactivity of organic compounds in water at elevated temperatures, but these studies rarely explore the consequences of inorganic solutes in hydrothermal fluids. The experiments in this thesis explore new reaction pathways of organic compounds mediated by aqueous and solid phase metals, mainly Earth-abundant copper. These experiments show that copper species have the potential to oxidize benzene and toluene, which are typically viewed as unreactive. These pathways add to the growing list of known organic transformations that are possible in natural hydrothermal systems. In addition to the characterization of reactions in natural systems, there has been recent interest in using hydrothermal conditions to facilitate organic transformations that would be useful in an applied, industrial or synthetic setting. This thesis identifies two sets of conditions that may serve as alternatives to commonplace industrial processes. The first process is the oxidation of benzene with copper to form phenol and chlorobenzene. The second is the copper mediated dehalogenation of aryl halides. Both of these processes apply the concepts of geomimicry by carrying out organic reactions under Earth-like conditions. Only water and copper are needed to implement these processes and there is no need for exotic catalysts or toxic reagents. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Geological Sciences 2020

The research question: What do adults understand about the cyclic nature of organic matter and the concepts in decomposition? This study examined the scientific and alternate views on the concept of decomposition in two phases. The first is a constructive phase and dealt with collecting ideas and terminology. The second, the validation phase, determined how many adults shared the ideas collected. The constructive phase involved clinically interviewing 20 adult subjects of various age groups and educational backgrounds using open ended questions and concepts mapping. The validation stage was administering a survey constructed with the ideas found in the clinical interviewing to various people randomly in public places and employment facilities. Additional data was collected regarding the experience of the subjects in composting and gardening or courses in biology or chemistry. This data was examined to identify what ideas are held most often by adults, what ideas are not in conjunction with scientific concepts, and what variables might have produced the factors based on a constructivist approach to educational development. The findings include firmly held ideas about the decomposition of bones and the lack of understanding of the microbial role of decomposition.

The multicultural and environmental education movements have constituted significant political and educational forces over the last several decades. However, there has been little merger of these in terms of constituencies, ideologies and agendas. In schools, environmental and multicultural education are most often considered occasional additives rather than core curriculum, and rarely are they introduced as interconnected. Educational curricula and programs that support young people, particularly in but not limited to urban areas, in exploring connections between social and environmental issues and becoming knowledgable and conscientious decision makers, leaders and activists are urgently needed. Urban youth involved in environmental issues represent a venue for bridging multiculturalism and environmentalism as change agents who bring multiple cultural perspectives, wisdom, and leadership potential to the discourse. This research study explores conditions that promoted environmental activism and leadership among urban youth. An interview-based methodology was used to gain insights into the experiences and perceptions of twelve young people, male and female, who live in urban areas and are of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The analysis explores influences such as family, culture, neighborhood and school in shaping the study participants' perceptions and involvement in environmentalism. Their perspectives challenge limited and sterotypical definitions of environmental issues and support the notion that 'environment' is a socially constructed concept. The youth illustrate this in the examples of urban environmental concerns they identify and discuss as important to their lives and communities. Their experiences as youth activists and the nature of their activism is explored, including the importance of adult support and membership in community to sustaining their involvement. Their perceptions of leadership as a collaborative process, informed visions for rethinking schooling, and clarity in terms of educational and career aspirations reinforce their importance as contributors to the discourse on environmentalism. The lessons learned from this research are translated into recommendations for rethinking curriculum development and teacher education from a multicultural environmental perspective, and building alliances between schools and community and national organizations.

Bibliography: pages 108-118. / Management of the coastal environment of the Erongo Region of Namibia is currently fraught with difficulty because of a lack of cohesive planning at national, regional, and local level; a multiplicity of agencies responsible for the management of coastal activities whose planning and management actions are not integrated; and, fragmented environmental legislation which suffers from a lack of coordination. The lack of integrated planning and management has resulted in an uncoordinated and fragmented approach to coastal zone management (CZM) in the Region. Development pressure exists on the coast of the Erongo Region because of factors such as high migration numbers into the area; an increased need for housing and employment; proposed dune mining activity; and, growth of the tourism industry with associated increases in infrastructural provision and the number of people visiting the area. Without effective planning, over-exploitation of coastal resources could occur. This could place at risk the resource base on which the Region depends as a source of income. To achieve better management of the coastal environment of the Erongo Region, the dissertation proposes a Coastal Zone Management Framework for the Region. The suggested Management Framework is applied to coastal zone management in Namibia. The analysis concerns Namibia, and not the Erongo Region, because the framework involves management planning at a national level, and not only at a regional level and local level; the setting in place of national level CZM policies, and not only regional level and local level CZM policies; the adoption of CZM legislation; the establishment of a steering committee to oversee implementation of the framework at national level; and the extension by national level authorities of the role of Strategic Environmental Assessment.

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Results indicate that the urban forest resource inventory data collected in this study by trained volunteers is valid, and its accuracy compares favorably to levels found among a control group of Certified Arborists. In addition to successfully collecting urban forest field data, both the community and the individual volunteers received substantial indirect benefits. They developed greater environmental awareness, became more informed about "urban" forests, and they recognized their own abilities to improve the quality of urban life through participation in a satisfying project that provided the basis for a more active and informed political voice in promoting urban forest initiatives.