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Faculty of Engineering School of Civil and Enviromental Engineering 9506023j PMISTRY@WEBMAIL.co.za / This report investigates the viability of satellite remote sensing in monitoring the rehabilitation of coal discard dumps. Four levels of thermal monitoring data were assessed in this project. These were: ground and below surface temperature probes; aerial thermal and atmospheric monitoring surveys; high altitude aircraft; and satellites. Remote sensing methods measure only variation of temperatures on the surface of the dump. Fires on discard dumps are sub-surface fires, and the depth and extent of the fire below the surface cannot be easily inferred. The resolution of satellite sensors is a limiting factor for detecting individual hotspots on dumps. Small mine dumps occupy just a few pixels and the position of fires cannot be accurately assessed. Although the larger dumps are discernable, the variation of temperatures across the dump cannot be easily determined. For the present, aircraft monitoring may be the most viable means of monitoring spontaneous combustion in coal discard dumps, until satellite resolutions improve further.

Black/white/male/female struggles over knowledge correctness and who is brave are examined inductively in the field of bushfires. The paradoxes of a white male icon are linked to contradictions in gender theories in disaster. In mainstream literature, assumptions of innate white male superiority in bravery justify white women???s diminution and white male domination. In feminist theory, women???s diminution is the problem and their bravery for struggling against hegemony applauded. Philosophies of bravery are explored in 104 semistructured interviews and 12 months??? fieldwork as a volunteer bushfirefighter. There is great variety in the ways volunteers cope with bushfires. However, evidence of white male hegemony emerges when volunteers complain of state and territory indifference to preventing property and environmental damage and injury and death. Evidence is examined that Indigenous Australians once managed bushfires better than a sprawl of bureaucracy. Bushfire service claims that Aborigines knew nothing about hazard reductions are contradicted. This debate over bushfire management leads to the discovery of a third epistemology breaking with claims of white male iconic bravery and bureaucratic mastery. To generalise about the habitus of claims to knowledge and bravery, I analyse Newcastle Herald articles from 1881-1981. Three competing knowledge fields and their associated struggles are examined; Indigenous Australians and white womens??? emancipatory struggles confront data on bushfirefighting. Bushfires emerge as a serious problem, a bureaucratic power base and a white male icon from the 1920s.

Fire is a recurrent disturbance that removes above ground vegetation in many locations throughout the world, including the Sydney region. Many species in fire-prone locations, and most species in the Sydney region, form soil seedbanks and regenerate through post-fire germination. However, a germination response is determined by the fire regime acting as a selective pressure over a sufficient period of time, rather than a single fire. The components of the fire-regime are intensity, season, type and frequency. The natural fire regime is dominated by warm-season fire, but management burning is conducted in cooler seasons. Cool season burning produces lower levels of germination than warm season fires in a number of locations with Mediterranean-type climate, but the effects of cool season burning on species composition in the relatively aseasonal Sydney region is unknown. An experimental approach was adopted to address this lack of knowledge. Fire can be simulated using heat shock and smoke (fire cues), and the seasonal factors of temperature and water availability can be reproduced in the laboratory. I have investigated the effect of various combinations of heat shock and smoke, of various pre-and post-fire cue temperatures, of prefire cue hydration status, of various post-fire cue water availabilities, and of accelerated aging before application of fire cues on germination of a number of species forming soil seedbanks in the Sydney region. A degree of primary dormancy was overcome in most species by the combination of heat shock and smoke in the current investigation. Fire intensity is expected to influence germination, as germination of most species was increased by the combination of heat shock and smoke within a narrow heat shock range.The interaction between ambient temperature and the level of heat shock may affect germination. Soil water content, and thus seed moisture content at the time of a fire may interact with the level of heat shock to affect both germination and survival of a seed. The age of a seed may also affect its germination response to fire. The above factors are predicted to affect the germination of species differently, and thus season of fire is expected to alter species composition. Such predictions can be readily field-tested / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Fire is a recurrent disturbance that removes above ground vegetation in many locations throughout the world, including the Sydney region. Many species in fire-prone locations, and most species in the Sydney region, form soil seedbanks and regenerate through post-fire germination. However, a germination response is determined by the fire regime acting as a selective pressure over a sufficient period of time, rather than a single fire. The components of the fire-regime are intensity, season, type and frequency. The natural fire regime is dominated by warm-season fire, but management burning is conducted in cooler seasons. Cool season burning produces lower levels of germination than warm season fires in a number of locations with Mediterranean-type climate, but the effects of cool season burning on species composition in the relatively aseasonal Sydney region is unknown. An experimental approach was adopted to address this lack of knowledge. Fire can be simulated using heat shock and smoke (fire cues), and the seasonal factors of temperature and water availability can be reproduced in the laboratory. I have investigated the effect of various combinations of heat shock and smoke, of various pre-and post-fire cue temperatures, of prefire cue hydration status, of various post-fire cue water availabilities, and of accelerated aging before application of fire cues on germination of a number of species forming soil seedbanks in the Sydney region. A degree of primary dormancy was overcome in most species by the combination of heat shock and smoke in the current investigation. Fire intensity is expected to influence germination, as germination of most species was increased by the combination of heat shock and smoke within a narrow heat shock range.The interaction between ambient temperature and the level of heat shock may affect germination. Soil water content, and thus seed moisture content at the time of a fire may interact with the level of heat shock to affect both germination and survival of a seed. The age of a seed may also affect its germination response to fire. The above factors are predicted to affect the germination of species differently, and thus season of fire is expected to alter species composition. Such predictions can be readily field-tested / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Graduation date: 1970

Thesis--University of Oklahoma. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-44).

Thesis (M.S.) in Civil Engineering--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-100).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2003. / Includes maps in pocket. Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-166). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.) in Ecology and Environmental Sciences--University of Maine, 2002. / Includes vita. Bibliography: leaves 55-61.