Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Dec 8, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.) in Mathematics and Statistics--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 57).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-182) Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universiteit Twente, 2004. / Thesis propositions sheet inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-184) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: David R. Maidment. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005.

No description available.

Orientador: Eliseu Savério Sposito / Banca: Paulo Fernando C. Mourão / Banca: Elson Luciano Silva Pires / Banca: Ariovaldo Umbelino de Oliveira / Banca: Olga Lúcia C. de F. Firkowski / Resumo: Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal identificar e refletir sobre as principais influências do pensamento econômico (idéias, autores e teorias) presentes na produção geográfica brasileira. O aspecto priorizado referiu-se ao elemento econômico e sua presença nos estudos geográficos, ou seja, o foco das análises e reflexões realizadas recaiu sobre os trabalhos de Geografia em que o econômico comparece como elemento essencial e central. Do ponto de vista da metodologia empregada, esta reflexão teve por base a seleção e análise das teses de doutorado defendidas na FFLCH/USP no período de 1970 a 2001, cujas temáticas e formas de abordagem foram identificadas no âmbito da Geografia Econômica. A partir da análise, identificamos as principais influências provenientes do pensamento econômico e seus períodos de incidência na produção geográfica. Podemos dizer que a introdução do materialismo histórico a partir de teorias, conceitos, idéias e proposições metodológicas, foi principal caminho de afirmação do econômico na análise geográfica, visto que a partir desta base teórico-metodológica, o econômico ganha importância, tendo papel central nas análises. No entanto, a partir da segunda metade da década de 1990 com as mudanças estruturais do próprio sistema produtivo, são incorporadas novas idéias e referenciais para a análise geográfica do econômico. / Abstract: The aim of this work was to identify and look into the major influences of economical thought (ideas, authors and theories) underlying geographic production in Brazil. The analyses and reflections have focused on the geographic works in which the essential and central element is economic. From the viewpoint of the methodology employed, these reflections were based on the selection and analysis of doctorate thesis presented at FFLCH/USP spanning the period from 1970 to 2001 whose themes and approaches were placed within Economic Geography. The analysis has enabled us to identify the major influences of economic thought and the periods when it pervaded the geographic production. We could say that introducing historical materialism through theories, concepts, ideas and methodological statements has been the main way of highlighting the economic element in geographic analysis, since the theoretical-methodological basis employed in this work allows for a strengthening of the economic element, which takes the central role in the analyses. However, from the late 1990s on, new ideas and references for the geographic analyses of the economical element have been incorporated in the wake of the structural changes undergone by the production system itself. / Doutor

Effective information communication and public participation in the planning process are important elements for facilitating successful environmental decision-making. Previous research has demonstrated the importance of such factors for delivering benefits to a wide range of stakeholders in the planning system by increasing the transparency and efficiency of the planning process. Given the current problems facing onshore wind farm planning in the UK there is an urgent need to investigate alternative approaches for enhancing the quality of information dissemination and public participation in the planning process. Planning information relating to the potential visual impacts of wind farms is particularly important in the case of the wind farm planning, given the high levels of concern amongst members of the public regarding the perceived negative visual impact of proposed wind turbines on the landscape. However, shortcomings associated with traditional techniques used to assess such impacts have been highlighted in previous research, along with drawbacks related to the dissemination of such information to the public during the planning stages of wind farm development. This has been shown to affect the overall quality of public participation in the planning process. This research is concerned with evaluating the potential of innovative digital landscape visualisation and Internet-based techniques for addressing some of the shortcomings in these areas. This thesis describes the implementation of two survey studies designed to meet these objectives. The first study uses a postal questionnaire approach in order to determine the current 'state-of-play' regarding the levels of use of such innovative techniques for improving impact assessment and information dissemination in wind farm planning. In addition to a review of the existing literature, the findings of the survey provide further rationale for conducting the second (Internet-based) survey study, designed to evaluate the potential of online visualisation-based approaches for improving the quality and dissemination of visual information, and enhancing public participation in wind farm planning. The survey is based on visualisations created for an actual proposed wind farm development in South Wales, UK. The findings reinforced much of the existing research literature, confirming that innovative visualisation and Internet-based approaches do have good potential for augmenting existing methods of visual information creation, dissemination and public participation although a variety of observations and concerns were raised by survey respondents that highlighted the potential limitations of such approaches. Further avenues for research are then identified.

Most GIS systems use separate thematic "layers" to store different types of spatial data. Each of them contains specific characteristics of the area, so there are separate layers for the distribution of buildings, the road network or the relief of the terrain. The spatial information used in GIS can be grouped into four main groups: polygonal maps, terrain models, networks and discrete, unconnected objects. Polygonal maps and terrain models are considered to be "field" models of space, covering the whole map, so there is some kind of information available at every location. On the other hand, networks and discrete objects are representations of the "object" model of space, in which the map is populated by entities and the space between them is empty. Choropleth maps are the most common examples of polygonal maps and the three main representations of terrain models are Triangular Irregular Networks (TINs), grids and contour lines. Networks consist of connected edges, while discrete objects can be points, lines or polygons. In networks, polygonal maps and surfaces there is some model of connectivity available. Polygons are adjacent to each other, as are the elements in terrain models. Network data is connected along the edges and junctions are defined. Unconnected objects need have no connectivity information, but in that case the possible spatial queries are limited. The layers can be stacked on top of each other to perform various operations and analyses on them. However, there is no consistent method applicable to all data types because GIS has traditionally separated field and object layers and used different data structures to represent them. This thesis presents a unified spatial data model for these most common types of spatial information and intends to show that it has clear advantages for geographical analysis. The idea is to represent discrete object models as fields, so there is information available at all locations. The model is based on the Voronoi Diagram (VD) and the dual Delaunay Triangulation (DT), two well studied geometric structures. Depending on the application it may be appropriate to represent the data on the map by the simple VD/DT, or their derivatives - the Constrained DT (CDT), the Line Segment VD (LSVD) or the crust and the skeleton. All of these are directly related to each other and may be handled in a single manner in the computer. Algorithms and the storage of these various forms of the VD using the quad-edge data structure is described. This structure may be updated locally, and dynamic algorithms for each of these representations are presented. This allows for the development of a common interactive framework for what are traditionally considered to be distinct data types. The unified model is illustrated by a variety of GIS applications, and the implementation of several traditional GIS operations and queries is discussed.