The thesis is an exploration of strategies that could be utilised in creating sustainable urbanism, one in which the inhabitants retain a relationship with the environmental and geographic conditions of their place. Promoting awareness of the natural context of urban activities is necessary in an increasingly complex world that is more able to disregard the natural systems that we depend on. Sustainability is seen as crucial in terms of the economic viability of cities as well as the sustainability of the environment in which dense urban centres are situated. In the case of a city located on a flood plain, the viability of the physical and social condition of the urban centre as well as its impact on that of the surrounding region comes to the forefront each time there is a flood. The city of Winnipeg on the Red River flood plain in the central lowlands of the eastern prairie of Canada is chosen as the site for this exploration where the difficulties of freezing temperatures make the problem of building on a flood plain a greater challenge. Several methods are explored in this urban design, demonstrating that urban sustainability and environmental sustainability are not exclusive of one another. The technique of densifying and unifying elements of the urban fabric, including parks and landscaping, residential inhabitation, as well as industrial and commercial activities, can be effective for both environmental and urban sustainability. Techniques explore the incorporation of vertically integrated multi-use buildings, the movement of public areas above street level, and construction on engineered hills, stilts or with the use of floatation devices, resulting in a site specific response to urban inhabitation. The trend toward a generic non-location specific urban lifestyle is superceded in this proposal for a mode of urban dwelling reconnected with surrounding context, marked by experience of seasonal and cyclical conditions of environment inscribed by an awareness of place.

The thesis is an exploration of strategies that could be utilised in creating sustainable urbanism, one in which the inhabitants retain a relationship with the environmental and geographic conditions of their place. Promoting awareness of the natural context of urban activities is necessary in an increasingly complex world that is more able to disregard the natural systems that we depend on. Sustainability is seen as crucial in terms of the economic viability of cities as well as the sustainability of the environment in which dense urban centres are situated. In the case of a city located on a flood plain, the viability of the physical and social condition of the urban centre as well as its impact on that of the surrounding region comes to the forefront each time there is a flood. The city of Winnipeg on the Red River flood plain in the central lowlands of the eastern prairie of Canada is chosen as the site for this exploration where the difficulties of freezing temperatures make the problem of building on a flood plain a greater challenge. Several methods are explored in this urban design, demonstrating that urban sustainability and environmental sustainability are not exclusive of one another. The technique of densifying and unifying elements of the urban fabric, including parks and landscaping, residential inhabitation, as well as industrial and commercial activities, can be effective for both environmental and urban sustainability. Techniques explore the incorporation of vertically integrated multi-use buildings, the movement of public areas above street level, and construction on engineered hills, stilts or with the use of floatation devices, resulting in a site specific response to urban inhabitation. The trend toward a generic non-location specific urban lifestyle is superceded in this proposal for a mode of urban dwelling reconnected with surrounding context, marked by experience of seasonal and cyclical conditions of environment inscribed by an awareness of place.

This thesis describes the present nature of one facet of some of the flood plain forest stands in Denton County, Texas. The specific purpose was to demonstrate the presence or absence of difference between the Celtis laevigata (commonly known as the hackberry, southern hackberry or sugarberry) populations in stands on Denton Creek and Elm Fork of the Trinity River.

<p>The main objective of this study is to understand and asses flood risk perception among people living in Msimbazi Valley in Das es Salaam, Tanzania. Many of the people I have interviewed are experiencing flooding every year but it is rarely considered disastrous. Looked at individually they may not be disasters but cumulatively they may be. The rapid urbanisation, in this part of the world, forces people to live on hazardous but central land because of the livelihood opportunities available there. The government and the local communities are well aware of the risk of floods in the area and are considered as a serious threat to the families. People are still living in these areas because they find the benefits big enough to make up the risks.</p>

Species composition in biological communities is a result of interactions of the evolutionary history of both organisms and environments, along with local factors that currently mediate species occurrence and coexistence. In floodplains, like the Pantanal, flood pulses are recognized as the main driver of ecological processes that control both species spatial and temporal distribution, but also shape communities. The Pantanal is the largest tropical floodplain on Earth and it has a less rich biota than that of surrounding regions. This has been attributed to the hardness imposed by the flood cycles on the organisms and also to the recent formation of the plain. The main goal of this thesis was to investigate diversity patterns of the snake community of the Pantanal regarding their origins, through stating and testing hypothesis about past and present processes that acted on the current assembly of snake communities in this seasonal floodplain. We adopted approaches that provided evidences for processes at deep and recent time scales, as well as a wide special scale, that encompasses the entire hydrographic basin where the Pantanal is located - the Paraguay River Basin. We found that Pantanal snake fauna belongs to a species group widely distributed in the basin, and is linked to the Paraguay River channel and nearby lowland areas. The entire basin has regionalized faunas distributed around the Pantanal floodplain, which may be acting as a barrier for some species and as a dispersal corridor for others. Our expectation that seasonal flooding could act as an environmental filter, allowing only species with adaptations to deal with this recurrent event to occur, was not supported. Rather than that, flooding seemed to be decreasing the relative force of deterministic processes on community assembly and so favoring species with generalist habits by promoting recurrent ecosystem disturbances. Environmental filter can be acting through the forest cover gradient, giving origin to richer communities in more open areas and assemblages formed by species with similar habitat uses in more forested areas. However, these patterns also could have originated from the ecological divergences between biotas originating from open and forested areas in South America / A composição de comunidades biológicas atuais é resultado da interação da história evolutiva dos organismos e dos ambientes com fatores locais contemporâneos que mediam a ocorrência e coexistência das espécies. Em planícies de inundação como o Pantanal, os pulsos de inundação são considerados as principais forças que mediam processos ecológicos, que por sua vez controlam a distribuição espacial e temporal dos organismos e a composição das comunidades. O Pantanal é a maior planície de inundação tropical e possui uma biota menos rica que a encontrada em áreas de entorno. Isto tem sido atribuído as condições adversas que os ciclos de inundações impõem sobre os organismos, e também à recente formação da região. O principal objetivo desta tese foi investigar os padrões de diversidade de comunidades de serpentes no Pantanal a respeito de suas origens, apresentando e testando hipóteses sobre processos passados e atuais que operaram na organização de comunidades de serpentes dessa planície inundável. Nós adotamos abordagens que podem evidenciar processos em escalas temporais recentes e antigas, e uma escala espacial ampla, que abrange toda a bacia hidrográfica onde o Pantanal está situado - a bacia do Rio Paraguai. Nós encontramos que a fauna de serpentes do Pantanal é parte de uma conjunto de espécies amplamente distribuído na bacia, que é relacionado à calha do Rio Paraguai e às planícies associadas a ele. A bacia hidrográfica possui faunas regionalizadas distribuídas ao redor da planície do Pantanal, a qual pode estar atuando como barreira para algumas espécies e como corredor de dispersão para outras. Nossa expectativa de que as inundações sazonais ajam como filtro ambiental, permitindo a ocorrência na planícicie somente das espécies com adaptações para lidar com esses eventos periódicos, não foi suportada. Ao invés disso, as inundações parecem diminuir a força relativa dos processos determinísticos na organização das comunidades e então favorecem a ocorrência de espécies com hábitos generalistas por causarem distúrbios recorrentes no ecossistema. Filtros ambientais podem estar em ação por meio do gradiente de cobertura de florestas, dando origem a comunidades mais ricas em áreas mais abertas e taxocenoses formadas por espécies com uso de hábitat similares em áreas mais florestadas. Porém esses padrões podem igualmente terem sido produzidos a partir das divergências ecológicas observadas entre as biotas que se originaram em áreas abertas e florestadas da América do Sul, e não pela ação isolada de um filtro ambiental

O leste da região amazônica é uma região ainda pouco explorada pela palinologia, sendo que algumas questões sobre o paleoclima e o paleoambiente ainda necessitam de respostas. Além disso, o conhecimento da vegetação de planícies de inundação é fundamental para o entendimento da formação e evolução das Florestas de Várzea e Igapó. O trabalho foi desenvolvido na porção leste da Amazônia na região da Volta Grande do Rio Xingu, município de Altamira no Estado do Pará. Foram coletados dois testemunhos intitulados XC06 - Lago Irirí (3°48\' 56.09\" S - 52°40\' 29.60\" O) e XC01-2 - Ilha Arapujá (3°48\' 57.56\" S - 52°40\' 27.42\" O). Os objetivos da pesquisa foram: Verificar a evolução da vegetação de várzea e igapó durante o Holoceno; investigar o possível evento seco durante o Holoceno Médio no leste da Amazônia; avaliar o clima que prevaleceu ao longo do perfil sedimentar e buscar evidências de alteração na paisagem relacionadas a atividades antrópicas. A técnica empregada para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa foram a palinologia, partículas carbonizadas, granulometria, XRF e isótopos (C/N, NT, ? 15N e COT). Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a vegetação alcançou dois momentos de expansão e desenvolvimento sendo o primeiro em cerca de 8.700 anos cal. AP e o segundo cerca de 2.000 anos cal. AP. Oscilações na concentração de táxons polínicos, mostraram momentos de períodos de inundação prolongados que afetou diretamente a vegetação. Durante o Holoceno a região de estudo apresentou umidade sempre presente, o que revela a ausência de evento seco no Médio Holoceno em Altamira. Atividades antrópicas estão evidenciadas a partir de 1.900 anos cal. AP, pelo aumento de esporos, presença de vegetação característica de abertura de floresta e presença de vegetação de interesse humano como é o caso de Mauritia flexuosa (Buriti). / The eastern part of the Amazon region is a region not yet explored by palynology, and some questions about paleoclimate and paleoenvironment still require answers. In addition, the knowledge of floodplain vegetation is fundamental for understanding the formation and evolution of the Várzea and Igapó Forests. The work was carried out in the eastern portion of the Amazon region of the Volta Grande region of the Xingu River, in the municipality of Altamira in the State of Pará. Two cores entitled XC06 - Lago Irirí (3 ° 48 \'56.09 \"S - 52 ° 40\' 29.60\" W) and XC01-2 - Ilha Arapujá (3 ° 48 \'57.56 \"S - 52 ° 40\' 27.42\" W). The objectives of the research were: To verify the evolution of the vegetation of várzea and igapó during the Holocene; to investigate the possible dry event during the Middle Holocene in eastern Amazonia; to evaluate the climate that prevailed along the sedimentary profile and to seek evidence of alterations in the landscape related to anthropic activities. The technique used for the development of the research was palynology, carbonized particles, granulometry, XRF and isotopes (C/N, NT, ?15N and TOC). The results showed that the vegetation reached two moments of expansion and development, being the first in about 8,700 cal. years BP and the second about 2,000 cal. years BP. Oscillations in the concentration of pollen taxa showed moments of prolonged flood periods that directly affected the vegetation. During the Holocene, the study area presented constant moisture, which reveals the absence of a dry event in the Middle Holocene in Altamira. Anthropogenic activities are evidenced from 1,900 cal. years BP, by the increase of spores, presence of vegetation characteristic of opening of forest and presence of vegetation of human interest as is the case of Mauritia flexuosa (Buriti).

The main objective of this study is to understand and asses flood risk perception among people living in Msimbazi Valley in Das es Salaam, Tanzania. Many of the people I have interviewed are experiencing flooding every year but it is rarely considered disastrous. Looked at individually they may not be disasters but cumulatively they may be. The rapid urbanisation, in this part of the world, forces people to live on hazardous but central land because of the livelihood opportunities available there. The government and the local communities are well aware of the risk of floods in the area and are considered as a serious threat to the families. People are still living in these areas because they find the benefits big enough to make up the risks.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Eric A. Bernard / This study is an integration of GIS, the Arc Hydro data model and tools, and hydrologic models to solve land use planning issues in the Little Kitten Creek watershed, Riley County, Kansas. Every day designers plan and design in watersheds. These designs alter the land use cover and change the hydrologic regime. Generally the design and development process does not consider upstream/downstream impacts on water quality and quantity. As a result development often increases flooding and water pollution. With the advent of the geodatabase, and the Arc Hydro geodatabase data model, designers have a flexible new tool for rapid simulation of a watershed. Arc Hydro allows the incorporation of traditional hydrologic data into linked modeling software together enabling users a “one-stop” approach for assimilating and modeling water resource systems. Once hydrologic data is in the Arc Hydro format it can be incorporated into assessment models, such as the Map to Map model. This case study assessed the floodplain analysis capabilities of the Map to Map model in the Little Kitten Creek (HUC 14) watershed. Steps to accomplish this goal were: data collection (digital and field surveys) and processing, geodatabase construction, linking the geodatabase with hydrologic modeling programs and, analysis of land uses within the watershed using the Map to Map model with the intent to produce flood maps based on land use changes.

No description available.

O avanço da urbanização sobre as planícies de inundação causa impactos no ciclo hidrológico, na sedimentação e nas funções hidrológicas dos rios. Na planície fluvial do rio Gravataí os eventos de urbanização contribuíram para a redução da sua área inundável. Esse avanço da urbanização está associado à obras de engenharia que funcionam como barragens, que evitam que a água ocupe a planície fluvial em períodos de cheia. O presente estudo espacializa essa redução da área inundável da planície de inundação do rio Gravataí e as alterações nela recorrentes, a partir do avanço das áreas urbanas de Alvorada, Cachoeirinha, Canoas, Gravataí e Porto Alegre, sobre a planície fluvial. Foi elaborado o mapeamento da planície de inundação do rio Gravataí a partir de mapas geomorfológicos e geológicos; e das áreas inundadas, a partir de imagens do Landsat TM 5 de 10/01/2007 e 20/09/2009, aplicando o índice NDWI - Índice de Água por Diferença Normalizada - para definir o limite de inundação atual. Os dados obtidos foram comparados com um mapa das inundações da década de 1970. Também foi mapeada a expansão dos municípios analisados, nos anos de 1975, 1984 e 2009, e analisadas: A evolução urbana sobre a planície de inundação, a redução espacial das áreas inundáveis e os limites atingidos pela inundação. Os principais resultados mostram que as áreas urbanas dos cinco municípios cresceram consideravelmente sobre a planície de inundação do rio Gravataí, enquanto os limites de inundação foram reduzidos. A área inundável recuou consideravelmente em comparação ao seu alcance natural, pois os diques construídos para conter as cheias alteraram os limites de inundação e favoreceram o crescimento urbano. Na comparação entre as áreas ocorreu uma significativa expansão urbana, enquanto que inversamente, a área inundável apresentou redução espacial. Em 1975 a área de mancha urbana era de 75 Km², já em 2009 de 183 Km². A área inundável na década de 1970 tinha 58 Km², e em 2009 33 Km². As áreas urbanas na planície de inundação ocupavam 33 Km² em 1975, e em 2009 67 Km². / The advancement of urbanization on flood plains has been cause impacts on the water cycle, sedimentation and hydrological functions of the rivers . In the fluvial plain of the river Gravataí events urbanization contributed to the reduction of its flood area. This advance of urbanization is associated with engineering works that act as dams that prevent water occupy the plain river in flood season. This study spatializes this reduction of flood area in the floodplain river Gravataí and amendments thereto applicants from the advance of urban areas Alvorada , Cachoeirinha, Canoas , Gravataí and Porto Alegre, on the river plain. Was developed mapping of the floodplain of the river Gravataí from geomorphological and geological maps , and flooded areas from Landsat TM 5 of 10/01/2007 and 20/09/2009, applying the index NDWI - Water Index Normalized Difference - to set the limit of current flood . The data obtained were compared with a map of the floods of the 1970s. Was also mapped the expansion of the cities analyzed in the years 1975, 1984 and 2009 and analyzed: The urban development on the flood plain, the spatial reduction of the flood area and the limits reached by the flood. The main results show that urban areas of five counties grew considerably over the floodplain of the river Gravataí, while the flood limits were reduced. The flood area decreased considerably compared to their natural range because the levees built to contain the flood changed the limits of flooding and favored urban growth. Comparing the areas was a significant urban expansion, while conversely, the flood area was reduced space. In 1975 the urban area was 75 square kilometers, in 2009 of 183 Km². The flooded area in the 1970s was 58 Km ² and 33 Km ² in 2009. Urban areas in the floodplain occupied 33 Km ² in 1975 , and in 2009 67 Km ².