The island of Gotland is associated with a distinctive nature, high biodiversity and a rich cultural history. However, these values have generated landscape management challenges due to shifting land use. The thesis proceeds from the peninsula of Östergarnslandet which has been recognized as one the most exposed areas to current changes. Simultaneously, Östergarnslandet has been acknowledged to sustain a traditional expression to a greater degree than other highly exposed places. By external recognition and ambition to preserve landscape values, this thesis suggests that there is a venture in altering the identity of the landscape when preserving the tangible. The purpose of this thesis was to show that safeguarding landscapes are far more than just biology but also about recognizing the people living within them. By using the methodology of the EU-horizon project RURITAGE the aim was to understand the area of research and find potential future approaches. By proceeding from Östergarnslandet, the main objective was to explore mental and factual landscapes with an aim to understand current landscape management of the area. Through this, the thesis has also aimed to answer how to safeguard landscape identity in changing landscapes. This was conducted by studying three different Nature 2000 and policy documents in relation to theoretical literature. The study suggests that there is an authorial division recognizing different values within the same landscape. At the same time, locality and the social impact is sometimes overlooked. To find sustainable approaches for safeguarding the landscape identity of Östergarnslandet, this thesis has looked at areas of recognized successful redevelopment. The areas are Southern Öland and Bråbygden. Gathered lessons were discussed in relation to the current landscape management of Östergarnslandet. In this part, two models were presented. The first model shows how transparency of the different sectors’ valuation of the landscape can be a tool to gain understanding and bridge different perception of value. The second model suggest how landscape identity can be sustained through external recognition generating pride and increased local participation.

Until the last half century, land development patterns in the Intermountain West were designed after the Mormon settlement pattern. With its gridiron streets and in-town farmsteads, this pattern gave families the opportunity to grow crops and raise a few animals on their one acre or less in town with the added advantage of having a social life. Over the last century, small farms have dwindled and large farms have increased in size. However, in the Intermountain West the farmstead tradition continues with families who grow gardens and raise animals on their large city lots, who value self-sufficiency, and who thrive in wide open spaces. To better understand the land uses and preferences of this population, a research survey was mailed to a sample pool of residents of Cache Valley, Utah who live on large lots with animal rights. They contributed an array of data about their backgrounds and how they are specifically using their land. Their responses validated the existence of a continued agrarian culture and gave insight on how they felt about trends in conservation subdivisions and common open space. A range of opinions about ideal lot size supported rural planners' suggestions to develop lots of varying sizes to meet the needs of a diverse population. Small farms on large lots can be a valuable part of a sustainable urban and rural environment. Local vegetables and agricultural products bring nature and natural processes back to an urban setting and reduce the environmental footprint imposed by extensive shipping. Culturally, small farmers provide a connection to the past and fulfill a lifestyle choice for a rural-minded population. Particularly in the Intermountain West, planners need to integrate these small farms into their developments to preserve the rural character of towns and cities of the region.

Face au constat des limites de la lutte contre les inondations, la vision de «Vivre avec» se développe. Il ne s’agit plus de rejeter l’eau mais de l’accepter sur le territoire et de s’y adapter. Cette approche stratégique ouvre la voie vers une vision positive du risque d’inondation qui permet d’envisager des opportunités liées aux inondations.Dans ce contexte du «Vivre avec», ce travail de thèse vise à théoriser et valoriser l’approche émergente que représente la démarche par l’opportunité pour la conception de villes éco-résilientes aux inondations. Ainsi, cette thèse examine en quoi :1. le concept d’opportunité constitue une démarche dans le cadre théorique des villes éco-résilientes aux inondations ;2. la démarche par l’opportunité constitue une méthode de conception et présente des avantages, une pertinence et un potentiel pour la conception de villes éco-résilientes aux inondations, notamment au vu de la gestion du risque plus courante.La recherche mise en œuvre a pour objet de formaliser la méthode de conception par l’opportunité au travers d’une représentation – une grille d’observation – afin d’en faciliter l’utilisation et la promotion. Pour communiquer mais surtout exploiter les résultats sur la méthode, une grille d’observation des stratégies associées à des projets urbains et paysagers pour la conception par l’opportunité est investiguée. Ce support tout particulièrement destiné aux concepteurs architecturaux, urbains et paysagers, est élaboré selon le principe d’une représentation sémantique. La cartographie sémantique correspond à l’outil méthodologique utilisé dans cette recherche. Elle permet d’explorer et de mettre en relation les multiples informations établies tout en les organisant pour une meilleure compréhension de leur complexité. Ainsi, la grille d’observation vient cartographier la méthode établie et constituer un support d’aide à la conception par l’opportunité.Les résultats obtenus de ce travail démontrent premièrement que d’une part, la démarche par l’opportunité présente un potentiel de conception face à la complexité des territoires inondables en milieu urbain. En agissant sur des notions diversifiées et proactives elle apparaît comme pertinente dans la balance entre phénomènes naturels et activités humaines. D’autre part, les démarches par le risque et par l’opportunité sont deux approches différentes mais complémentaires. Il ressort du travail cartographique que la conception de villes éco-résilientes aux inondations s’appuie sur un équilibre entre risque et opportunité.Ces résultats démontrent deuxièmement que la conception par l’opportunité correspond à une logique qui induit des cycles vertueux entre des caractéristiques paysagères (sols, végétations, etc.) et des flux fondamentaux (eau, énergie, déchets, nutriments, etc.) pour la production de bénéfices socio-éco-environnementaux. Elle a pour socle d’action de reconnecter les villes avec leur territoire en articulant et exploitant de manière multifonctionnelle, interdisciplinaire et pluritemporelle les synergies entre les éléments physiques du territoire urbain. Elle est particulièrement pertinente en ce qu’elle formule une nouvelle relation équilibrée pour le couple humain/systèmes hydro-écologiques et présente le potentiel d’un horizon sociétal innovant.En conclusion et synthèse, il est tout d’abord à retenir que la cartographie sémantique constitue un outil de recherche pertinent en ce qu’elle facilite le traitement et l’analyse de données complexes. Ensuite, la méthode théorisée, tout comme la grille d’observation élaborée, induit une évolution des pratiques de conception liées aux inondations. Enfin, cette thèse définit une base de travail théorique et pratique affinée, qui vient questionner le paradigme de la gestion du risque pour approfondir la recherche sur les villes éco-résilientes aux inondations et le «Vivre avec». / In recognition of the limits of the possibilities of combating floods, a vision of “Living With” floods is developing. The aim is no longer to resist water, but to allow it into the territory and adapt. This strategic approach opens the way to a positive vision of flood risk, in which the opportunities associated with floods can be envisaged.In this context of “Living With”, this piece of research seeks to theorise and promote the emerging method of opportunity-based design as applied to flood eco-resilient cities. This thesis therefore examines how:1. the concept of opportunity constitutes an approach within the theoretical framework of flood eco-resilient cities;2. the opportunity-based approach constitutes a method of design and offers advantages, relevance and potential for the design of flood eco-resilient cities, in particular by comparison with the most common method of risk management.The purpose of this thesis research is to formalise the method of opportunity-based design through a representational tool—an observation grid— in order to facilitate the use and promotion of such design. In order to communicate on —but above all to exploit the results— of the method, a grid for the observation of the strategies associated with urban and landscape projects for opportunity-based design is investigated. This instrument, in particular aimed at architectural, urban and landscape designers, is developed by means of a semantic map. Semantic mapping is the methodological solution employed in this research. It is used to explore and connect the multiple data collected, and to organise them so that their complexity can be understood. The observation grid therefore maps the method employed and constitutes a tool for implementation in opportunity-based design.On the one hand, the results obtained from this research demonstrate, first, that the opportunity-based approach offers potential for design in response to the complexity of urban flood territories. Through diversity and proactiveness, it would seem to be relevant in achieving the balance between natural phenomena and human activities. On the other hand, the risk-based and opportunity-based approaches are different but complementary. What emerges from the mapping process is that the design of flood eco-resilient cities entails a balance between risk and opportunity.Second, these results show that opportunity-based design reflects a logic that generates virtuous cycles between landscape features (soil, vegetation, etc.) and fundamental flows (water, energy, waste, nutrients, etc.) for the production of socio‑eco-environmental benefits. The basis of its action is to reconnect cities with their territories by articulating, in a multifunctional, interdisciplinary and multitemporal way, the synergies between the physical elements of urban territory. It is particularly relevant in that it formulates a new, balanced relationship between human and hydro-ecological systems and offers the potential for a new societal perspective.To sum up, the first important conclusion is that semantic mapping is an effective research tool in that it facilitates the handling and analysis of complex data. The second is that the method theorised, together with the observation grid developed, constitute a change in flood-related design practices. And finally, this thesis establishes a refined theoretical and practical starting point for challenging the risk management paradigm and pursuing further research into flood eco-resilient cities and into “Living With” floods.

Portland has a rich, active, and fluid music culture which is constantly being (re)created and (re)defined by a loose network of local musicians who write, record, produce, promote, distribute, and perform their music locally (and sometimes regionally, nationally, and internationally) and local residents, or audiences, who engage in local musical practices. Independent ("indie") local music making in Portland, which is embedded in DIY (do it yourself) values, creates alternative cultural places and landscapes in the city and is one medium through which some people represent themselves in the community. These residents not only perform, consume, promote, and distribute local music, they also (re)create places to host musical expressions. They have built alternative and democratic cultural landscapes, or culturescapes, in the city. Involved Portlanders strive to make live music performances accessible and affordable to all people, demonstrating through musical practices that the city is a shared space and represents a diversity of people, thoughts, values, and cultural preferences. Using theoretical tools from critical research about the economic, spatial, and social role of cultures in cities, particularly music, and ethnographic research of the Portland music scene, including participant observations and in-depth interviews with Portland musicians and other involved residents, this research takes a critical approach to examining ways in which manifestations of independent music are democratic cultural experiences that influence the city's cultural identity and are a medium through which a loosely defined group of Portlanders represent their cultural values and right to the city. In particular, it focuses on how local musical practices, especially live performances, (re)create alternative spaces within the city for musical expressions and influence the city's cultural landscapes, as well as differences between DIY independent music in Portland and its commodified forms and musicians and products produced by global music industry.

No description available.

Denna fallstudie presenterar forskning om vad som kan påverka framgången för internationella teknikföretag när det kommer till att etablera sig i det svenska medielandskapet. Sverige ses som ett nav för innovation och med globalisering samt framväxten av kommunikationsteknologier kan företag bedriva sin verksamhet på andra marknader än deras ursprung, vilket gör det viktigt att förstå vad som kan påverka framgången med att etablera sig i det svenska medielandskapet när man genomför kommunikationsinsatser. Denna fallstudie består av 7 semistrukturerade intervjuer med tre typer av medieproffs, (1) interna mediaproffs, (2) externa PR-specialister och (3) journalister. Resultaten visar att det finns sex faktorer som kan påverka framgången med att etablera sig i det svenska medielandskapet för internationella techföretag; (1) realistiska förväntningar, (2) bra timing, (3) nyheter kopplade till samhälleliga utmaningar och möjligheter, (4) en förståelse för hur medielandskapet fungerar, (5) lokala talespersoner och valid data, samt (6) relevans för målgruppen. / This case study presents research on what can affect the success of international tech companies establishing a presence on the Swedish media landscape. Sweden is seen as a hub for innovation and with globalisation and the rise of communication technologies, companies are able to conduct their business in different markets than their origin, making it important to understand what can affect the success of establishing a presence on the Swedish media landscape when conducting communications efforts. This case study consists of 7 semi-structured interviews with three types of media professionals, (1) in-house media professionals, (2) external PR-specialists, and (3) journalists. The results show there are six factors which can affect the success of establishing a presence on the Swedish media landscape for international tech companies; (1) realistic expectations, (2) good timing, (3) news connected to societal challenges and opportunities, (4) an understanding of how the media landscape operates, (5) local spokespeople and valid data, and (6) relevance for the target audience.

“The Pastoral Field: Local Ecologies in Early Modern Literature” excavates the ways in which pastoral literature registers the role nature-human interaction played in shaping protracted struggles over land use and ownership, and in the degradation and improvement of natural landscapes. Revising a longstanding critical tradition that understands early modern pastoral as primarily allegorical, the project instead insists that the form can also accommodate topical thinking about regional ecologies. Shifting the emphasis away from the Elizabethan court towards local agricultural politics, it unearths the ways in which natural crises such as flooding, famine, sheep rot, and soil degradation hastened processes of agricultural improvement and enclosure—and how those processes were in turn mediated, counter-factually imagined, and actively promoted within the literary devices of pastoral. Each of my four chapters locates pastoral plays, poems, romances, and country-house entertainments in the particular landscapes that shaped their development— landscapes that were, in turn, reconfigured by the literary and political concerns of Elizabethan authors.

<p>Soil organic carbon (OC) is one of the most important terrestrial carbon pools and plays a major role in climate regulation, water quality, provisional services, and numerous other ecosystem functions. The conversion of natural vegetation and the supporting soil to intensively managed agricultural systems put soil at risk for loss due to erosion and enhanced microbial degradation with loss rates increased by orders of magnitude above the pre-managed system. The process has negatively impacted agricultural productivity on hillslopes by diminishing soil health, as well as the quality of stream water and coastal aquatic environments, and it is an important but as of yet poorly quantified factor in the region’s terrestrial C budgets. There have been substantial debates on the role of erosional and depositional processes on the landscape as a control on exchange of C between the land surface and the atmosphere. A central aspect of the debate stems from the limited data regarding the fate of soil erosion-induced transport of OC through stages of detachment and splash, transport and redistribution, deposition and burial. The overarching purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how dynamic patterns of soil OC erosion due to intensive agricultural management influences soil aggregate strength, the chemical nature of mobilized organic particles, and connectivity and sourcing between hillslope and streams. Using both simulated and natural, short-term, event-based erosive rainfall processes, with a multiproxy geochemical approach, we attempt to develop a comprehensive understanding of how upland watershed mechanistic controls soil movement and associated chemical alterations to the material exported through dissected segments from hillslope to the fluvial network. </p> <p>Our results demonstrate that erosive processes on hillslope connects between terrestrial sources to receiving potential deposition settings, actively ‘filter’ soil aggregates and particles and associated OC at each erosional stage (i.e., detachment and transport downhill/downstream), with distinct geochemistry in low relief and poorly drained agricultural systems, like the CCW. Complex interactions among tillage intensity, tillage practice-induced, oriented surface roughness, and storm-induced hydrological connectivity, that potentially impact the fate of these transported OC upon decomposition, deposition and burial, and have important implications for predicting landscape level heterogeneity in surface and buried soil chemistry upon mobilization and burial, as well as the dynamics of sourcing and transformation of material exported to inland water systems.</p>

Situated within the interpretive and critical traditions, this study aims to contribute to one of the continuing primary themes in urban preservation: how to interpret and preserve the intangible values of built environments. A comprehensive analysis of dominant theories of urban preservation forms the conceptual framework within which this dissertation takes place. It starts by locating the intellectual context of preservation in North America, and examines its basic premises and core issues. It identifies three limits to the traditional approach to preservation planning. The complexity and fragility of history, its narrative quality and its particularities, its emotional content and economic values, all connect urban preservation with public history. Therefore, in the spirit of communicative democracy and "a shared authority", the study incorporates collective memory as an essential construct in urban landscapes, and suggests a culturally sensitive narrative approach (CSNA). The study employs an in-depth case study. The setting is Kensington Market in Toronto, Canada. It examines retrospectively the urban renewal planning of Kensington Market in the 1960s, identifies the pivotal events that prompted the change of urban renewal policies, and demonstrates, through the interpretive policy analysis, that sometimes urban renewal plans that fail to be implemented can become success stories in how to preserve urban neighborhoods as a kind of public history. To probe deeper into the sources of conflict between the professionals and the public, the study further explores the mutual relationship between collective memory and urban landscapes. It takes a selective look at some significant sites of memory, and connects them into a narrative path. Through oral history interviewing, field observation, and material cultural analysis, this part of the analysis constitutes an empirical study of CSNA. A proposition is derived from this critical case study. The study concludes with seven steps of CSNA, a guide for urban landscape preservation and planning.

The first paper is a two-phase mixed methods study that explored the relationship among nature connectedness, mental health, and childhood nature experiences in a sample of McMaster undergraduates. Study objectives were twofold: (1) to determine associations between measures of nature connectedness, positive childhood nature experiences, and mental health via an online survey (Phase One); and, (2) to compare, qualitatively, the self-reported childhood nature experiences of students who are more nature connected to those who are less nature connected via in-depth interviews (Phase Two). Quantitative findings from the Phase One survey (N=308) showed that nature connectedness is associated with higher levels of emotional and psychological well-being and also correlates positively with students’ self-recalled positive childhood nature experiences. Thematic analysis of qualitative findings from in-depth interviews held with students (n=12) in Phase Two showed that students who measured relatively higher in nature connectedness recall growing up in the vicinity of accessible, expansive, natural places, and being raised in families that modeled a love for nature and valued shared nature experiences. Overall, findings suggest that positive experiences in natural places growing up may have long-term mental health benefits through fostering a more ecological self. The second paper, an exploratory qualitative study, investigated the types of natural places that McMaster undergraduates consider beneficial to their mental health, and why. Twelve students were invited to photographically document a natural place that they consider mental health promoting. Thematic analysis of photographs and follow-up in-depth interviews revealed that students prefer familiar natural places that contain a variety of natural elements (especially mature trees and some form of water) and are separate from the context of everyday campus life (distanced from both the built and social campus environment). Overall, findings demonstrate the importance of acknowledging symbolic and social factors when assessing the potential mental health benefits of natural places for different groups and individuals. In the third paper, an argumentative essay, we argued that colleges and universities should take nature’s mental health benefits seriously by finding ways to foster student-nature relationships both on their campuses, and in their surrounding communities. We present and describe four geographically informed ways that this might be accomplished: (1) raising awareness; (2) planning for the availability and accessibility of natural spaces; (3) bringing nature indoors, and; (4) using nature-based therapies. While many students may be “bleeding at the roots”, it is not too late to graft them back onto the earth. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / The first paper explored associations among childhood nature experiences, nature connectedness (a measure of the degree to which an individual includes nature in her or his identity), and mental health in McMaster undergrads. Quantitative results showed that positive childhood nature experiences, nature connectedness, and mental health are all significantly related. Qualitative findings showed that students who are more nature connected remember growing up in nature loving families and in the vicinity of expansive natural areas (e.g., a conservation area). The second paper explored the types of natural places that McMaster undergrads consider beneficial to their mental health, and why. Twelve students were invited to visit a favourite natural place and take photographs of it. Qualitative findings showed that students’ prefer familiar natural places that contain a variety of natural elements and are separate from the context of campus life. In the third paper, four strategies that post-secondary institutions can use to connect students with nature are presented: (1) raising awareness; (2) planning for the availability and accessibility of natural spaces; (3) bringing nature indoors, and; (4) using nature-based therapies. While many students may be “bleeding at the roots”, it is not too late to graft them back onto the earth.