The lowland area of Delta Municipality in Southwestern British Columbia comprising some 50 square miles with a population of 4,000 is one of the main suppliers of food to the Vancouver market. Although 10,000 acres classified as peat are unsuited for agricultural purposes, the remaining area has a fertile soil. In addition the area has a mild climate suited to the development of a dairying economy. Settlement of Delta started in 1868 and proceeded rapidly for several years. It was the wealth of the Fraser River fisheries rather than the agricultural productivity of the land that brought early prosperity to Delta and to Ladner, the municipal centre, in particular. After the decline of the fishing industry following the Hell's Gate disaster in 1913, agriculture became the economic mainstay of the district. As a result of poor internal transportation and a lack of fresh water in the western half of the municipality early agricultural practises differed in East Delta and in West Delta. Dairying developed in the east whereas cattle ranching became prominent in the west. In both sections similar field crops were grown. The opening of a road network after 1875 and the installation of a municipal water system in 1910 resulted in dairying gradually becoming the principal industry of Delta. In recent years a diversified agriculture has become the outstanding characteristic of the land use pattern in Delta. The major uses of land are for pasture, hay and oats, with lesser amounts devoted to potatoes, peas, and a variety of other crops. Most of the farm revenue comes from the sale of fluid milk to the Greater Vancouver market. There is some industrial activity in the area. Prior to 1913 salmon canning was important but declined consequent upon the diminishing of the Eraser River salmon runs. Between 1942 and 1944 two peat processing plants commenced operations upon the peat bog. They have become the largest industrial c concerns in Delta. A vegetable canning factory, a grass dehydration plant, and a grist mill are the local industries based upon agriculture. Ladner is the municipal centre and owes its prosperity to the surrounding farming community. Originally Ladner grew in response to the fishing industry. Summer resorts have grown up at Beach Grove and Boundary Bay. Sunbury is a small fishing community along the river and Tswassen is an Indian reservation. Since 1941 an area of 1,100 acres has been used for military purposes. The conclusions arrived at in the thesis were that the area should remain as agricultural land. Danger from flooding and the limited amount of good agricultural land near the city of Vancouver are two factors which should operate against urbanization of the fertile lowlands of the Fraser Valley. In the event that urban development should come a plan to provide the necessary services and to prevent friction with the farming community has been recommended. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This thesis describes the change in the pattern of service centres in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia at various periods during a century of European occupance. The study of settlement evolution in this region involves an examination of hierarchical change as indicated by variations in postal revenue. The attempt to focus both in time and space is one of the inherent difficulties in any dynamic study of the urban hierarchy, for it presents a basic problem in establishing an adequate and readily available index of centrality. Tertiary revenue would provide the best index, but it is neither available for the smaller centres nor through time. These disadvantages are not apparent in postal revenue which closely correlates with tertiary revenue. It is inferred that postal revenue reflects the tertiary activity of the great majority of service centres in British Columbia. Since the end of the nineteenth century the North American post office, with its low condition of entry, has been an essential part of all except some of the lowest order centres. Postal revenue data is available,throughout Canada, from Confederation onwards, but it presents some problems of utilization as dollar values change through time. The suggested method of expressing the revenue for each given year as a percentage of that for an areal unit is illustrated by its application to the Lower Mainland. However, while the Lower Mainland can be thought of as a physical entity, it must be considered as being part of a larger functional region which changes both functionally and areally. The province has been taken as the continuing functional unit. The idea would seem to be supported by the graphic analysis. The whole period, from 1858 to 1961, has been broken down into five eras, in each of which a common means of transport has predominated. The first era up to 1880 covers the years of initial exploitation and settlement of the region by Europeans, a period when water transport predominated. The second era (1881-1900) is a period of transition from water to rail: the first trans-continental railway merely duplicated the existing water facilities, but its construction encouraged a rapid expansion of settlement even before it actually opened. The turn of the century heralded a decade of feverish rail-way construction, culminating with the opening of the second trans-continental railway in 1915. The railway era ends with the close of hostilities in 1918, and the following era embraces the inter-war years, a period of transition from rail to road. The final era commences in 1940 for, although the steam railway and electric interurban assumed a new lease of life during the war, it was merely a temporary resurgence and road transport was soon predominant. The wartime incentive spurred a tremendous growth of the regional economy, a growth which has continued, somewhat sporadically, up to the present. Throughout the century, settlement change reflects the changes in the economy and transport facilities in the Lower Mainland. The economy of the region has passed from primary exploitation to that of a metropolitan complex with a growing secondary component. The Vancouver area has formed a distinct economic unit within the regions since the arrival of the railway in 1886. The growing functional concentration on the city led to the attainment of metropolitan status by the end of the first decade of the twentieth century. This attainment was expressed in the physical as well as the functional growth of the city: by 1910 it possessed over 30% of the provincial population and greater than 40% of the tertiary activity, more than double the proportions of a decade earlier. The interaction between the metropolis and the smaller centres, with the metropolis playing the dominant role, has given rise to the present urban hierarchy. The settlement pattern has varied from discrete and independent settlements, during the phase of primary exploitation, to a metropolitan-dominated complex. The discrete pattern changed to an increasingly depends hierarchy following the growth of Vancouver and New Westminster as market and distribution centres. The growth of these centres linked them into a common metropolitan area, while the external expansion of this area has resulted in the functional and physical domination of most of the region by the metropolis: a trend that has resulted in the supplanting of the central place hierarchy by an inter-urban complex. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

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No description available.

Land settlement programs have been promoted by governments worldwide to accomplish such broad goals as providing equitable land distribution among national populations, expanding agricultural production, correcting population imbalances, providing new income opportunities to the poor and landless, and preserving national security (Oberai 1986). By promoting frontier land settlement, governments introduce both intended and unintended changes in agrarian systems and social classes. These changes raise questions about the extent of small farmer participation in capitalist economies, whether these farmers are a socioeconomically homogenous group, and about their future viability as distinct social and economic formations. The primary focus of this micro-level analysis is to identify common land use, demographic, and economic characteristics of small farmers in Rolim de Moura, Rondonia to create a profile of smaIl farmers in the region, to determine if these farmers are stratified by these characteristics, and to assess whether changes in these characteristics from 1985 to 1990 indicate differentiation among these farmers. The results of the study are compared with theoretical descriptions of peasant producers to determine their applicability for describing small farmers in Rondonia. Cluster analysis of the longitudinal data presented in two household surveys of small farmers in Rolim de Moura reveal that these households are stratified according to land use and economic factors into three major groups. Further division of the households into four groups in 1990 suggests that differentiation is occurring among households in the area. The results of this longitudinal study support Mann's (1990) thesis that types of agricultural production indicate stratification among small farmers. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

論文(碩士)--香港中文大學, 1974. / Includes bibliographical references (l. [79-85). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang zhong wen da xue.

Thesis (M.Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The purpose of this study was to evaluate post-settlement support given to beneficiaries of land restitution on selected farms in Mpumalanga Province. The study used qualitative and quantitative research methods. Data collection was done using focus group discussions and semi-structured questionnaires. Three groups of respondents participated in the study: the beneficiaries (n=193), government officials (n=13) and private sector [NGOs] (n=5). The study highlighted the inadequacy of support provided to beneficiaries. Support was inadequate in terms of infrastructure, provision of training services and improving access to markets. The findings revealed that there is poor participation by the youth and educated people in the projects. The study also found that strategic partners did not significantly contribute towards viability of projects, primarily, because of conflicting interests between the two. The study recommends that the government, with the private sector, should make enough resources available and attract the youth and educated people to participate in the projects.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981.

No description available.

No description available.