Abstract The present measures and methods of beneficiary payments carried out by ABC Refinery is an incomplete good-neighborliness project. Although large amounts of funds were accumulated over a period of several years, due to the lack of long-term, complete and concrete planning, no beneficial effects could be achieved. The study aims to profoundly understand the needs and thoughts of residents from six villages in Hsiaokang District, Kaohsiung, by using questionnaires and conducting interviews in order to analyze their feedback and determine their actual needs in relation to the beneficiary payments made by the ABC Refinery. It also aims to analyze whether the measures carried out by ABC Refinery can meet the residents¡¦ demands as well as their acceptance and implementation effects. According to the results of a systematic investigation, related projects were proposed. The result was that different resident types require various strategies and programs for good- neighborliness. It is hoped that the local residents¡¦ appreciation of ABC Refinery can be raised and more support and understanding received from them. The results of a science laboratory showed that the risk recognition and trust were weak in A village; it means that since the residents of A village did not trust ABC Refinery, their support was therefore at a low level. Consequently, the risk recognition and trust in regard to ABC Refinery needs to be strengthened. The project for increasing the risk recognition includes announcing environmental inspection data on a regular basis or inviting residents to visit the facilities and equipment of ABC Refinery on an irregular basis. This would help the residents of A village to obtain a clearer idea of what ABC Refinery is doing, so that the risk recognition could be elevated. Furthermore, the degree of feedback satisfaction and the environmental attitude towards living quality for residents were quite low, particularly for those whose incomes are below the NTD 70,000-100,000 monthly level. It presents that the lower the income, the higher the demand. ABC Refinery should take more actions in relation to beneficiary payments in order to improve the local living quality.

The purpose of the research is to study the solutions for the difficulties encountered in the water resources development in southern Taiwan. In the recent years, Owing to the phenomenon of global warming, many countries in the world experienced more powerful flood and longer drought then before. The water resources development of southern Taiwan is very difficult not only because the limitation of the weather and geographical condition, but also the hinder of the inner and outside factors of government organizations. The inner factors majorly include : The opinions of central government and local government cannot be integrated effectively like the old province government and results in the suspension of the engineering land acquisition. The authority¡¦s policy of water resource development is unstable, which also make the situation worse. The outside factors majorly includes: The intention of the local government authority can be affected easily by the effect of NIMBY and the pressure of environmental protection group,which causes the problem of land acquisition becoming more complicated and harder to resolve. This paper trys to study the cases of Ma-Tan Reservoir and Tseng-Wen Reservoir Transbasin Water diversion project, based on the efficiency of the land acquisition of the province government, to analyse the inner and outside factors and the dealing mechanism of government to provide some suggestions for the government.

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Wind power is often presented as a technique for energy production with many environmental benefits, especially since it does not emit any carbon dioxide. Most people are generally positive towards wind power. But when a wind farm is to be implemented on a local level, often resistance occurs. This study investigates how and why local perceptions of a wind farm differ. A qualitative method using interviews was chosen, and the focus has been on an area where a wind farm was planned. The results reveal that advocates have a users’ perspective on nature, while opponents have a conservation perspective. Advocates believe wind power can contribute to a better environment, while opponents believe that preserving natural areas is the best for the environment. Moreover, living in a calm landscape is part of the opponents’ identity, while the identities of the advocates, who often are active farmers, are connected to their ability to live from the land. Thirdly, whether a person recognizes the need for a change towards a renewable energy system or not also matters for the attitude. According to previous research, a person’s relationship to the landscape is of crucial importance for her/his attitude towards wind power implementation, and this is confirmed in the current study. Research also stresses that the visual impact of wind turbines is usually what creates most resistance, but this is not supported. The roles of information and citizen participation, which previous research found significant, are not confirmed as important either: Both were deficient, but this study cannot determine whether a better managed planning process would have made some of the interviewees more positive to it or not. Definitely, the claims from earlier research that Not-In-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) motives are rarely the reason for resistance are supported.

Maintaining large carnivores in human-dominated landscapes poses a significant conservation challenge. Extirpation is common because of habitat loss or direct persecution. I studied cougar habitat selection and human perception of cougars in west-central Alberta to better understand human-cougar coexistence. Cougars that were exposed to higher levels of development at the home-range scale exhibited less avoidance of anthropogenic features and altered habitat use temporally to accommodate variation in human activity, indicating behavioral resilience to development. Survey results showed that cougars were valued and tolerated by people, provided cougars did not occur near residences. Where human densities are increasing in moderately developed landscapes in west-central Alberta, therefore, human tolerance may currently be more important than habitat change for conserving cougar populations. Tolerance was negatively affected primarily by the risk (real and perceived) cougars pose to people, livestock, and game. Public education to counteract overestimation of risk may increase tolerance. / Ecology

Klockar, Z., och Kåhre Zäll, O. 2020. Deltagandeprocessen under vindkraftsetableringen på Ripfjället. Uppsatser Kulturgeografiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. Den här studien ämnar till att utreda vindkraftsprojektören wpd:s deltagandeprocess i samband med dess potentiella vindkraftsetablering på Ripfjället i Malung-Sälens kommun. Vindkraftsetableringen har utgjort frågan till en folkomröstning i kommunen. Studien utgår från en Mixed Method Research metodik, där en explorativ sekventiell design har tillämpats. Studien tillämpar intervjuer, enkätundersökningar, tidigare kunskap om lokala vindkraftsmotstånd och planeringsteori för att bemöta dess syfte. Huvudsyftet är att beskriva deltagandeprocessens betydelse för utvecklingen i vindkraftsetableringens aktörsnätverk. Resultaten visar på att wpd:s deltagandeprocess tycks utgå från ett kommunikativt planeringsideal. Främst har deltagandeprocessen påverkat de som inte har haft en åsikt sedan tidigare, medan den inte tycks påverka de som redan hade bildat en åsikt. Vidare tyder resultaten på att Malung-Sälens kommuns tidigare arbete och deltagandeprocesser har påverkat aktörsnätverkets form vid dess uppkomst. I det här fallet går det se att Malung-Sälens rationella planeringsideal har påverkat tilliten i nätverket. Därav har aktörsnätverkets ursprungliga form haft en betydelse för dess framtida utveckling. Under aktörsnätverket uppstår ett motståndsmonopol i aktörsnätverket. Genom motståndsmonopolet förstärks det lokala motståndets, föreningen Nej till vindkraft på Ripfjället, påverkan på wpd:s deltagandeprocess.

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine the spatial distribution of economic activities. The first chapter examines how disasters as well as individuals’ expectations of what others will do affect the development of cities. The development of cities often involves the rejuvenation or replacement of existing structures. However, history, in the form of the sunk cost of existing durable structures, often serves as an impediment to urban development. In theory, by reducing the opportunity cost of waiting to rebuild to zero, disasters can eliminate these frictions and bring about higher quality structures. In addition, the simultaneous rebuilding after a disaster would allow property owners to experience stronger cross-building spillovers which would encourage further upgrades of nearby buildings. Nevertheless, these are not sufficient to guarantee higher quality buildings. This is because individuals’ investment decisions also depend on their expectations of what others will do. Therefore, in this chapter, we examine both of these issues using the 1666 Great Fire of London as a natural experiment. First, using a difference-in-differences (DiD) strategy, we show evidence that the Fire was able to free parishes within London from the constraints of their existing durable structures and move them to a new equilibrium involving higher quality structures. Second, using DiD and an IV strategy, we find that legal rulings arising from the Fire Court – a court specially set up by the English Parliament to hear rebuilding disputes – were able to anchor expectations and in so doing, helped to facilitate the development of London. Providing causal evidence that legal rulings can be a main driver in the formation of expectations is the main contribution of our paper. The second chapter examines how the quirks of history shape present-day economic outcomes. Building on Bazzi et al. (2020), I study how a particular episode of history – time at the frontier – helps to explain the present-day manufacturing production patterns across American counties. First, I show empirical evidence that there are fewer establishments and lower employment in counties that spent a longer time on the frontier. The same results hold for industries that are more “contractible” (i.e., easier to specify in contracts and hence less susceptible to holdup). Second, using a DiD strategy, I show that firms in high “contractibility” industries sort into producing at counties that spent a longer time on the frontier. I hypothesize that due to “rugged individualism”, individuals in counties that spent a longer time on the frontier are less likely to trust other people. Therefore, anything that is not “contractible” becomes harder and more costly to enforce. Consequently, only the more “contractible” industries locate in counties that spent a longer time on the frontier. The third chapter examines how land use regulations and NIMBY (“not in my back yard”) behavior affect housing prices in the UK. In the UK, developers have to apply to the local planning authority to seek development permission. Applicants who have their plans rejected can appeal to the Secretary of State, via the Planning Inspectorate. The Planning Inspectorate then assigns an inspector to decide whether to overturn the local authority’s decision. We propose a theoretical model which shows that in locations with high levels of NIMBY-ism, developers are better off getting their plans rejected by the local authority and gambling on drawing an inspector who is less sympathetic towards locals’ NIMBY behavior. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that inspectors are quasi-randomly assigned to the appeals. This allows us to use inspector leniency as an instrument for whether an appeal is successful. We find that overturning the local authority’s decision does not lead to a large fall in housing prices. For some projects, the impact may in fact be positive because they also add to local amenities such as retail shops. This suggests a prevalence of NIMBY-ism, as locals pressure authorities to reject even relatively benign projects.

This thesis examines Sweden’s transition towards a 100% renewable energy system in 2040, by analyzing the expansion of wind power in particular. The study applies a theoretical framework consisting of the concepts of Social Acceptance and Ladder of Participation to analyze how these can be applied on the national and local levels. As the purpose is to acknowledge the different opportunities and problems with the ongoing expansion of wind power and to identify if the “social gap” between global and local is present in Sweden, both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied. Content analysis was used to examine the role of social acceptance and citizen participation while the Pearson Correlation Analysis was conducted to identify possible connections between the public’s attitudes towards wind power and the increasing number of wind turbines on different scaling levels. The results identified differences in quality and quantity of the approach strategies used to increase social acceptance and citizen participation on the national and local levels. Strong resistance movements were also found on the local level, while no moderate nor strong relationship could be found between the public’s attitudes and the number of turbines, instead, strong support was found on all geographical levels, hence, the “social gap” is present in the Swedish context. The thesis also concludes that if implemented wrong, wind power could be considered as a “land- grabber” while the opposite is true if done right, and thus function as a local catalyst.

In an age of increasing urbanization, rural communities and agricultural lifestyles are quickly disappearing. Many local, pastoral histories have been buried under the new narratives of modern suburban development. Do such places, located along the rural-urban fringe, contain accounts worth memorializing? This thesis is a case study of the Ancaster Meadowlands—a growing neighbourhood within the City of Hamilton, Ontario. It explores the process of suburban growth and uncovers the local history of a landscape. As a narrative, the study traces land-use change over time, displaying the area’s evolution from a site of Neolithic settlement, to an important Loyalist village, and finally to a large suburban neighbourhood with commercial and residential components. Three principal methods are employed: resident interviewing, key informant interviewing, and archival research. Themes elicited in this study include land-use conflict, NIMBYism, real-estate volatility, and the interconnectedness of politicians and developers. Given that there are few case studies of contemporary suburban development, this study provides a rare illustration of the multi-faceted process of expansion around a Canadian city while also supplying a historical account of local importance. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This study examined the opinions of 552 residents of rural Virginia regarding acceptance of manufactured homes, formerly known as mobile homes, and their occupants. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent respondents' demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, innovativeness, and perceptions of manufactured home characteristics, its occupants and neighborhood characteristics, predicted the acceptance of manufactured homes. Data were obtained from two mail surveys distributed among eight rural counties. One survey covered single-section manufactured homes (N = 274) and another covered double-section manufactured homes (N = 278). A proposed theoretical model was adapted from M. J. Dear and S. M. Taylor's (1982) model for community attitudes toward mental health care facilities. Hypotheses were tested through multiple regression analyses. The statistical model for the full sample included 13 independent variables. Six variables (perceived manufactured home occupant behavior, proportion of manufactured homes in the county, perceived manufactured home condition, manufactured home type, respondents’ gender, and manufactured home knowledge) emerged as significant predictors of manufactured home acceptance (R² = .3541). Separate regression models for the single- and double-section manufactured home subsamples were evaluated. In the single-section manufactured home subsample, perceived manufactured home occupants’ behavior, proportion of manufactured homes in the county, and perceived manufactured home condition were significant predictors of single-section manufactured home acceptance (R² = .2522). In the double-section manufactured home subsample, perceived manufactured home occupants’ behavior, perceived manufactured home condition, respondent's manufactured home knowledge, and neighborhood physical homogeneity were significant predictors of double-section manufactured home acceptance (R² = .3574). Results suggested respondents' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics were not important in predicting manufactured home acceptance. Instead, acceptance was mostly the result of perceptions about occupants’ behavior, a finding consistent with Dear and Taylor's (1982) study about acceptance of mental health facilities. In general, double-section models were more accepted than single-section models. / Ph. D.