Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2008. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

All life depends upon water. For man, however, water can supply the power necessary to relieve him from the drudgeries of life and give the time and means to enrich his existence beyond the bounds set by the mere need to survive. Large scale hydropower makes a significant contribution to the total generated power of the developed world. The means of harnessing water power for large flows and heads above three metres are efficient and well established. There remains however, the fact that many people, especially in developing countries live adjacent to water courses and tidal estuaries where heads of 2 metres or less exist but are not exploited. The reasons for this are often that practical machines do not exist or are insufficiently well developed to be used. Much effort has been made in recent years to develop equipment suitable for small, low-head sites in remote places. The writer has worked on three such devices in both the laboratory and on site - these are the Salford Transverse Oscillator, the AUR Water Engine and the Underwater Motor. This thesis describes these machines in detail together with other contemporary devices. The initial chapter contains an assessment of machines used in the past to exploit low head sites. There is little doubt that some of these older machines, suitably brought up to date in design and materials, would be more suited to the needs of developing peoples than many of the esoteric devices described in later chapters. The thesis is concerned mainly with the need to provide a means of generating power rather than the assessment or suitability of a site for power generation. The writer draws on experience gained in the laboratory, and as a Mechanical Engineering Consultant for small installations in the United Kingdom and overseas.

The provision of freshwater, particularly in urbanizing arid regions facing increased variability in precipitation patterns due to climate change, is one of the greatest challenges. Desalination--the conversion of seawater or brackish water to potable water--offers a potentially "limitless" supply of this vital resource. The preference for desalination, as an innovative, supply-side water augmentation option is gaining traction worldwide, including in northwestern Mexico. In arid regions, where water is a limiting factor to increased production and growth and nearly every drop of water is contested, a new technology that augments water supplies is likely to engender vast social, economic, institutional, and environmental transformations. Through an in-depth study of water management in the context of global climate change in northwestern Mexico, this dissertation examines the factors that lead to the adoption of desalination technology and assesses how the technology affects the communities where it is implemented. In seeking to understand the (potential) transformations and complex imbrications of this technology within the socioecological system in which it operates, four themes have emerged, including: 1) The best path towards improved water management is through investments in both infrastructure and institutions (i.e., governance); 2) Despite the real and urgent need to address the negative impacts of climate change on water resources, desalination should be considered as a "last resort"; 3) While desalination can increase water security at certain scales, it also introduces new vulnerabilities; and 4) While discursively, Mexico's water policy embraces principles of contemporary environmental governance (i.e., decentralization, public participation, and sustainability), these principles have yet to be fully implemented in practice. Policy recommendations include integrating land use and water planning, improving monitoring and regulation of groundwater extraction, increasing capacity building within water and planning agencies, and pre-conditioning desalination (or other supply-side water infrastructure projects) upon the successful implementation of a range of water conservation and system efficiency measures. Without such measures, increased water availability is likely to encourage additional growth, rather than resource conservation. Specific findings and contributions of this dissertation to the field of human-environment geography are discussed at the end of chapter two and in the appended articles.

Farm dwellers in the North West Province have been identified as an extremely vulnerable group. in terms of physical, physiological and mental health. Therefore the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus (Focus Area 9.1) launched the FLAGH study with the broad aim of gaining reliable information on the reasons for and contributing factors to their poor health status, which could be used to design appropriate intervention programmes. The research formed part of this multidisciplinary study and focused on farm dwellers' experience of the farm as the environment in which they live and work. While a great deal is already known about the psychological strengths of people that protect them against psychological malfunctioning, far less is known about environmental elements protecting people against adversity. From a social work perspective it is a long-cherished conviction that individual outcomes are the results of a transactional process between personal and environmental influences. However, it is also a conviction that is often not reflected in social work practice. Strength-based assessment models are, for example, overwhelmingly concerned with individual human factors, while practice guidelines and specific practice knowledge about environmental factors are lagging behind. This situation consequently pointed to the need for further theoretical and empirical research. The concept of social niche was identified as a possible framework for organising strengths and risks as experienced by a specific group within a specific context (in this case people living on farms). Against this background a research need was identified to develop an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. This was done by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The strengths perspective and the concept of social niche are described and evaluated as a paradigm and theoretical construct (or perspective) for developing an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. It is concluded that, from the strengths perspective, an environment can be considered strong when it consists of human beings who are connected to their innate strengths and capacity for healing, where there is community, membership, mutuality and connection among people and the environment, and people who experience the environment as strong and contribute to creating a strong environment. From the social niche perspective, an optimal niche refers to conditions and resources that would enable people to function at the best possible level, while a realised niche refers to the more limited spectrum of conditions and resources which allows people to survive. These niche types have enabling and entrapping elements to a greater or lesser degree. It was found that the social niche concept does provide a theoretical approach to assessing the environment in terms of strengths and risks and gives better insight into the result of the transactional process between person and environment. It was also found that the niche construct does not fully reflect the assumptions of the strengths perspective in terms of mainly two points: (1) the belief in the inherent strengths and capacity for healing of people (human agency), and (2) understanding reality as it is subjectively constructed. Based on this evaluation, it was thus endeavoured to broaden both the description of social niche, based on a critical evaluation of the ecological analogy, and to reflect more fully the strengths perspective. A revised definition of social niche is proposed and each of the niche components presented in the definition are discussed, evaluated and in some instances broadened, as indicated earlier. Farm dwellers' experience of their environment is explored and described, following a qualitative approach in order to promote an understanding of their specific experience from their own viewpoint. The social niche is used, in addition, as a tentative conceptual framework to describe the main dimensions of their experience. Analysis of the farm dwellers' narratives produced six categories (each with several sub-categories), namely: employment (unhealthy working conditions for men, employment security threatened, grievance procedures unsatisfactory, limited work opportunities and underemployment of women); income and spending (inadequate income and high cost of living, debt trap, a longing for the former practice of 'mahala', and supplementing income); housing (housing security threatened, and availability and access to housing outside the neighbourhood a concern); transportation (distance, means of transport and cost involved are major considerations); community life (the importance of family and friends, lack of connection between residents, community life in the past being better, and ambivalence about the employer as support system); and people, places and services outside the immediate farm environment (importance of extended family, church as a source of strength, and health services a link with the outside world). It is concluded that numerous entrapping elements are present in the account of farm dwellers of their life on the farm, namely a lack of tangible resources, a lack of social resources and a low sense of power. The entrapping nature of farm dwellers' social niche, however, can not only be understood in terms of lack of social and tangible resources. The experiences and the meanings the farm dwellers attach to their environment provide the key to a better understanding of the living experiences of farm dwellers and the entrapment contained in their narratives. However, it also reveals their experience of a few enabling elements within this environment. Based on the critical analysis of viewing the environment from a strengths perspective, the evaluation and broadening of the concept of social niche, and findings from the fieldwork done with farm dwellers, a social niche approach for assessing environmental strengths and risks is proposed. The goal of the social niche assessment approach is to provide a framework to review people's environmental strengths and risks/stressors, based on their own experience and understanding, in collaboration with another person (social worker), so as to co-construct a description of their human environment. A diagram and description of the approach is provided. This approach has already been validated through peer evaluation. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Farm dwellers in the North West Province have been identified as an extremely vulnerable group. in terms of physical, physiological and mental health. Therefore the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus (Focus Area 9.1) launched the FLAGH study with the broad aim of gaining reliable information on the reasons for and contributing factors to their poor health status, which could be used to design appropriate intervention programmes. The research formed part of this multidisciplinary study and focused on farm dwellers' experience of the farm as the environment in which they live and work. While a great deal is already known about the psychological strengths of people that protect them against psychological malfunctioning, far less is known about environmental elements protecting people against adversity. From a social work perspective it is a long-cherished conviction that individual outcomes are the results of a transactional process between personal and environmental influences. However, it is also a conviction that is often not reflected in social work practice. Strength-based assessment models are, for example, overwhelmingly concerned with individual human factors, while practice guidelines and specific practice knowledge about environmental factors are lagging behind. This situation consequently pointed to the need for further theoretical and empirical research. The concept of social niche was identified as a possible framework for organising strengths and risks as experienced by a specific group within a specific context (in this case people living on farms). Against this background a research need was identified to develop an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. This was done by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The strengths perspective and the concept of social niche are described and evaluated as a paradigm and theoretical construct (or perspective) for developing an approach to assess environmental strengths and risks. It is concluded that, from the strengths perspective, an environment can be considered strong when it consists of human beings who are connected to their innate strengths and capacity for healing, where there is community, membership, mutuality and connection among people and the environment, and people who experience the environment as strong and contribute to creating a strong environment. From the social niche perspective, an optimal niche refers to conditions and resources that would enable people to function at the best possible level, while a realised niche refers to the more limited spectrum of conditions and resources which allows people to survive. These niche types have enabling and entrapping elements to a greater or lesser degree. It was found that the social niche concept does provide a theoretical approach to assessing the environment in terms of strengths and risks and gives better insight into the result of the transactional process between person and environment. It was also found that the niche construct does not fully reflect the assumptions of the strengths perspective in terms of mainly two points: (1) the belief in the inherent strengths and capacity for healing of people (human agency), and (2) understanding reality as it is subjectively constructed. Based on this evaluation, it was thus endeavoured to broaden both the description of social niche, based on a critical evaluation of the ecological analogy, and to reflect more fully the strengths perspective. A revised definition of social niche is proposed and each of the niche components presented in the definition are discussed, evaluated and in some instances broadened, as indicated earlier. Farm dwellers' experience of their environment is explored and described, following a qualitative approach in order to promote an understanding of their specific experience from their own viewpoint. The social niche is used, in addition, as a tentative conceptual framework to describe the main dimensions of their experience. Analysis of the farm dwellers' narratives produced six categories (each with several sub-categories), namely: employment (unhealthy working conditions for men, employment security threatened, grievance procedures unsatisfactory, limited work opportunities and underemployment of women); income and spending (inadequate income and high cost of living, debt trap, a longing for the former practice of 'mahala', and supplementing income); housing (housing security threatened, and availability and access to housing outside the neighbourhood a concern); transportation (distance, means of transport and cost involved are major considerations); community life (the importance of family and friends, lack of connection between residents, community life in the past being better, and ambivalence about the employer as support system); and people, places and services outside the immediate farm environment (importance of extended family, church as a source of strength, and health services a link with the outside world). It is concluded that numerous entrapping elements are present in the account of farm dwellers of their life on the farm, namely a lack of tangible resources, a lack of social resources and a low sense of power. The entrapping nature of farm dwellers' social niche, however, can not only be understood in terms of lack of social and tangible resources. The experiences and the meanings the farm dwellers attach to their environment provide the key to a better understanding of the living experiences of farm dwellers and the entrapment contained in their narratives. However, it also reveals their experience of a few enabling elements within this environment. Based on the critical analysis of viewing the environment from a strengths perspective, the evaluation and broadening of the concept of social niche, and findings from the fieldwork done with farm dwellers, a social niche approach for assessing environmental strengths and risks is proposed. The goal of the social niche assessment approach is to provide a framework to review people's environmental strengths and risks/stressors, based on their own experience and understanding, in collaboration with another person (social worker), so as to co-construct a description of their human environment. A diagram and description of the approach is provided. This approach has already been validated through peer evaluation. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Recent applications in the use of light gauge steel members have been concerned with developing large scale systems built entirely from cold-formed steel members. An explicit analysis of such structures is complicated by the different phenomena that the structure may be prone to during loading. In particular, elastic buckling phenomena is an important consideration in the design of such structures since the load at which buckling occurs often provides a close upper bound to the carrying capacity of the structure. The first part of this two-part thesis (Part I, Chaptersl-8) has been devoted to general methods of analysis of the torsional-flexural buckling of thin-walled structures. A review of previous investigations and the available methods of solution is presented. A general finite element formulation of the torsional-flexural buckling of thin-walled structures has been derived. The resulting elastic geometric matrix can be used to analyse structures with monosymmetrical members. It also includes the effect of sectorial-monosymmetry for cross-sections without any axis of symmetry. A general transformation matrix has been developed to allow for the application of the finite element method to the three-dimensional elastic stability analysis of space and portal frames. The validity and accuracy of the new finite element formulation have been checked by analysing a number of different elastic lateral buckling problems for which exact or highly accurate solutions by other techniques are available. An experimental program was carried out on simply supported cold-formed steel z-beams. The first part of this program was undertaken to check the validity of the finite element calculations of the bimoments caused by nonuniform torsion. The second part was devoted to elastic lateral buckling of z-beams under combined bending and torsion. The second part of this thesis (Part II, Chapter 9) deals with the analysis of hipped roof structures with corrugated steel roof sheeting. A simple theoretical model has been suggested. The model has been used to perform an elastic linear analysis of the behaviour of two types of the hipped roof structures. The theoretical results are compared with previous experimental results for these two structures.

Over the course of the last few decades, most developing countries, including Libya, have experienced a rapid economic growth and associated increase in population. This growth has led to a substantial increase in the implementation of contemporary housing programmes and urbanisation in the form of new districts, mainly influenced by western models, although the use of some traditional forms continues in hybrid designs. Traditional housing gains its name due to its close relationship between the functional needs of the occupants, the culture, the climate, and other aspects of the living environment. In contrast contemporary designs of houses have appeared only recently in State development plans and projects, and have begun to show some shortcomings in functionality. Thus, this study aims to investigate and understand the reason for these shortcomings and to make recommendations for future housing policies in the state. The design of traditional and contemporary housing in Tripoli-Libya is analysed in terms of suitability for cultural, social and climate conditions. This is explored through contextual research based on a review of the literature, concentrating on the development of housing design in Libya since 1885, including all the factors that have influenced Libyan housing design. The satisfaction level of the occupants living within both types of housing has been explored in three representative case study areas in Tripoli. Residents' views on their satisfaction with their house were sought through questionnaires. Interviews were also conducted amongst government officials and design professional concerned with housing design and implementation programmes to understand professional opinion on the quality of traditional and contemporary housing. The main conclusions drawn from the research emphasises the importance of social and cultural factors, climate conditions, and local building materials, as they all play an important role in designing any house and are important to the level of satisfaction of users. Regardless of the advantages of the contemporary housing used in the case study areas in terms of space and access for motor transport, most respondents were dissatisfied with their new houses in terms of privacy, climate condition, and building materials used in the construction. The research also illustrates the danger of not properly considering all these factors may result in dissatisfaction of users, and may lead them to alter or modify their houses. This may lead to illegal and possibly unsafe modifications, or at least to unsatisfactory visual appearance. Finally, based on the study of both traditional and contemporary houses, the findings of the empirical study, and the opinions of experts, a set of guidelines for future house designs are presented. The guidelines inform and possibly assist designers, planners, academics and Libyan public policy makers to achieve the goals of providing new housing concepts and forms, which are appropriate to the requirements of residents, and which do not detract nor constrain their social and cultural activities.

The objective of this research was to analyse and investigate the behaviour of a composite space frame. The space frame is assembled from individual inverted square-based pyramids. Each pyramid consists of a steelangle section top-tray and diagonals. When the top trays are connected together, they form the top-chord members of a double-angle section connected back to back. The investigation is primarily concerned with the composite section within the space frame system which comprises the top chord members, profiled steel sheeting and a concrete slab. This composite section is also assumed to work as a system of intersecting composite Tbeams. Each composite T-beam comprises of a top chord member, a certain width of profiled steel sheet and a concrete slab. The composite action is ensured by a series of self-tapping screws. The experimental work is based on two-unit space frame specimens. Each specimen represents two adjacent units with their top chord member which carries the highest compressive axial load in the real structure. Each unit is tested in a situation which simulates its position and loading within the real structure. In addition to the composite T-beams being tested, steel struts composed of the top chord member double-angles were tested. In the theoretical section, the real structure is analysed as composite beam elements and thin steel plate elements which all represent the top composite T-beams. The diagonals and the ties were considered as truss elements. A successful method of analysis was developed using matrix and finite element methods resulting in the force distribution and deformations for a full composite space frame. Additionally, the experimental work yielded useful information on the behaviour of composite struts of this type. Recommendations for future work are made. The investigation of the behaviour of the composite T-beams with different locations and numbers of shear connectors together with the analysis of the structure comprise the main part of this work.

No description available.

The growth of the international movement to involve the public in urban planning urges us to find new ways to achieve this. Recent studies have identified information communication technologies (ICT) as a mechanism to support such movement. It has been postulated that integrating geographic information system (GIS), virtual reality (VR) and Internet technologies will facilitate greater participation in planning activity and therefore strengthen and democratise the process. This is a growing area of research. There is, however, concern that a lack of a theoretical basis for these studies might undermine their success and hamper the widespread adoption of GIS-VR combination (GVIS). This thesis presents a theoretical framework based on the Learning System Theory (LST). ICT technologies are then assessed according to the framework. In the light of the assessmenta, prototype has been designed and developed based on a local urban regeneration project in Salford, UK. The prototype is then evaluated through two phases, namely formative evaluation and summative evaluation, to test the feasibility of the framework. The formative evaluation was focused on evaluating the functionality of the prototype system. In this case, evaluators were experts in IT or urban planning. The summative evaluation focused on testing the value of the prototype for different stakeholder groups of the urban regeneration project from local residents to planning officers. The findings from this research indicated that better visualization could help people in understanding planning issues and communicate their visions to others. The interactivity functions could further support interaction among users and the analysis of information. Moreover, the results indicated that the learning system theory could be used as a framework in looking at how GVIS could be developed in order to support public participation in urban planning.