Water is a constantly changing resource by way of the hydrological cycle. It is unevenly distributed and crosses boundaries of all kinds i.e. political, social, cultural and natural. Samoa is a small developing state in the Pacific Region that is facing rapid pressure with its water resource availability. Consequently, access to and use of water resources has created tensions between water resources regulators, water utilities and villages. Therefore, managing and governing of water becomes a challenging process that has to take into account the complexity of both nature and society. With the emergence of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) framework, a greater social acceptance and importance has been given to catchment scale management and governance. Nowadays, many countries including Samoa, have embraced this appealing concept where catchments are seen as natural units for water governance and management. This study used a social qualitative approach, aimed to investigate the implementation of catchment management and examine local community perceptions of catchment management, using Apia Catchment as case study. It is based on a conceptual framework of the concept of scale i.e. set out in recent debates and ideas in the arena of catchment scale water governance and management. The primary data was collected from community focus groups within two villages of Apia Catchment, and semi-structured interviews with government agencies involved in the Water and Sanitation Sector programmes. The findings revealed a shift in water resources management and governance and a spatial scale mismatch in Apia Catchment management. According to government officials, the catchment approach is a ‘management tool’ adopted to improve the coordination between water users and to promote local ownership of catchment activities amongst individual villages. However, several challenges arose around land ownership, monetary cost, community resistance and issues outside of catchment areas when implementing catchment management. Despite the challenges that government officials encountered and the concerns raised by the communities, catchment scale management is still being adopted in Samoa. With the adoption of catchment management, many individual villages within Apia Catchment are expected to make decisions collectively. However, some local groups have concerns about the use of the term ‘boundary’, the possibility of the government taking over their land and the proposed catchment-based authority taking precedence over pre-existing cultural hierarchy. Overall, this research reveals that catchment management is often viewed or seen by government as a ‘one size fits all’ notion that ignores the range of the socio-ecological realities on the ground. This study shows that in order to design better water resources policies and strategies that are fully applicable and workable for Samoa, it is very important to identify these mismatches in scales (e.g. spatial and administrative) and levels (e.g. national and local). Understanding scales and associated levels is critical to understanding the whole system and can reduce possible consequences of mismatches due to lack of interaction and collaboration between levels and scales. Local villages have expressed their opinions on how to enhance catchment management and this could perhaps be useful for government in terms of implementation. Based on the results, recommendations are made for water resources managers to assess the importance of different levels and their interactions but, more importantly, to consider how local communities perceive catchment management.

L'humidité du sol est une variable climatique essentielle dont le suivi à l'échelle globale est possible grâce à des instruments micro-ondes à bord des satellites. La précision de ces estimations est validée par comparaison directe aux mesures au sol. Tandis que les estimations satellitaires ont des résolutions allant de 30 à 100 km, les capteurs in situ sont généralement représentatifs d'une zone de quelques centimètres (résolution ponctuelle). Cette différence entre l'échelle spatiale des estimations satellitaires et in situ impacte le processus de validation et les statistiques obtenues à un niveau qui n'est pas connu actuellement. Cette thèse vise à améliorer la connaissance de l'impact du changement d'échelle spatiale, ainsi qu'à fournir des méthodes d'évaluation de celle-ci applicables à toute zone de validation. Pour ce faire, la relation entre les échelles spatiales et temporelles a été étudiée. Des séries modélisées et mesurées sur des régions différentes du globe ont été décomposées en échelles de temps allant de 0,5 et 128 jours, en utilisant des transformées en ondelettes. La représentativité spatiale des mesures à résolution ponctuelle a ensuite été évaluée, par échelle de temps, avec 4 approches différentes : l'analyse de la stabilité temporelle, la triple colocation, le pourcentage de zones corrélées (CArea) et une nouvelle approche utilisant des corrélations basées sur des ondelettes (WCor). De plus, l'incertitude d'échantillonnage a été évaluée séparément avec des approches bootstrap et des simulations de Monte Carlo de séries à résolution ponctuelle. À l'issue de ces expériences, il y a été constaté que la moyenne des valeurs de représentativité spatiale obtenues tend à augmenter avec l'échelle de temps, mais aussi leur dispersion. Cela implique que certaines stations ont de vastes zones de représentativité à des échelles saisonnières, tandis que d'autres ne l'ont pas. Aux échelles sous-hebdomadaires, toutes les stations présentaient de très petites zones de représentativité. Enfin, l'impact de l'incertitude d'échantillonnage s'est avéré assez important dans les métriques de validation satellitaire. / Soil moisture is an essential climate variable that is globally monitored with the help of satellite borne microwave instruments. The accuracy of satellite soil moisture estimations is assessed by direct comparison to in situ measurements. While satellite estimates have a resolution ranging between 30 and 100 km, in situ sensors typically measure over an area of a few centimetres (point resolution). This spatial scale mismatch between satellite and in situ soil moisture estimates impairs the validation process and the respective summary statistics to an extent that is not currently known. This thesis aims at improving the knowledge of the spatial scale mismatch, as well as providing methods for its assessment applicable to any validation area. To this end, the connection between the SM spatial and time scales was investigated. Modelled and measured soil moisture series at different regions of the globe were decomposed into time scales ranging from 0.5 to 128 days, using wavelet transforms. The spatial representativeness of the point measurements was then assessed, on a per time scale basis, with 4 different approaches: temporal stability analysis, triple collocation, the percentage of correlated areas (CArea) and a new approach that uses wavelet- based correlations (WCor). Moreover, one of the components of the mismatch, the sampling uncertainty, has been assessed separately with bootstrap and Monte Carlo simulations of point-support series. It was found that the average of the spatial representativeness values tends to increase with the time scales but so does their dispersion. This implies that some stations had large representativeness areas at seasonal scales, while others do not. At sub-weekly scales, all stations exhibited very small representativeness areas. Finally, the sampling uncertainty has been observed to have a considerable impact on satellite validation statistics.

<p>With accelerating urbanization it is crucial to understand how urban ecosystems play a part in generating ecosystem services for urban dwellers, such as clean water, spaces for recreation, stress relief and improved air quality. An equally important question relate to who gets to enjoy these benefits, i.e. the distribution of ecosystem services, and how issues of power and equity influence the management of ecosystems. Through case studies from the urban landscape of Stockholm, this doctoral thesis engages with these perspectives through combining ecological theory with social theory, including social network analysis, actor-network theory and social movement theory. Strategies for how to improve urban ecosystem management are presented along with frameworks for how to analyze issues of power and equity in relation to natural resource management.</p><p><b>Paper I </b>shows that ecosystem management can be studied through analyzing the structure of social networks, i.e. the patterns of relations between agencies, stake-holders and user groups. <b>Paper II</b> and <b>Paper III</b> analyze, based on a network survey of 62 civil society organizations and in-depth interviews, a transformational process of how an urban local movement managed to protect a large urban green area from exploitation (The Stockholm National Urban Park). <b>Paper IV</b> discusses, based on several case studies from Stockholm, a conducive network structure for linking managers and user groups (e.g. allotment gardens, cemetery managers, and urban planners) across spatial ecological scales so as to improve urban green area management. <b>Paper V</b> presents a framework to analyze the social-ecological dynamics behind the generation and distribution of ecosystem services in urban landscapes.</p><p>The thesis points towards the notion of "a social production of ecosystem services" and argues for deeper engagement with urban political ecology and critical geography to inform governance and collective action in relation to urban ecosystems.</p>

With accelerating urbanization it is crucial to understand how urban ecosystems play a part in generating ecosystem services for urban dwellers, such as clean water, spaces for recreation, stress relief and improved air quality. An equally important question relate to who gets to enjoy these benefits, i.e. the distribution of ecosystem services, and how issues of power and equity influence the management of ecosystems. Through case studies from the urban landscape of Stockholm, this doctoral thesis engages with these perspectives through combining ecological theory with social theory, including social network analysis, actor-network theory and social movement theory. Strategies for how to improve urban ecosystem management are presented along with frameworks for how to analyze issues of power and equity in relation to natural resource management. <b>Paper I </b>shows that ecosystem management can be studied through analyzing the structure of social networks, i.e. the patterns of relations between agencies, stake-holders and user groups. <b>Paper II</b> and <b>Paper III</b> analyze, based on a network survey of 62 civil society organizations and in-depth interviews, a transformational process of how an urban local movement managed to protect a large urban green area from exploitation (The Stockholm National Urban Park). <b>Paper IV</b> discusses, based on several case studies from Stockholm, a conducive network structure for linking managers and user groups (e.g. allotment gardens, cemetery managers, and urban planners) across spatial ecological scales so as to improve urban green area management. <b>Paper V</b> presents a framework to analyze the social-ecological dynamics behind the generation and distribution of ecosystem services in urban landscapes. The thesis points towards the notion of "a social production of ecosystem services" and argues for deeper engagement with urban political ecology and critical geography to inform governance and collective action in relation to urban ecosystems.

Avoiding the negative effects of habitat fragmentation on biodiversity is especially challenging when also the management institutions are spatially and administratively distributed. This doctoral thesis introduces five case studies that investigate ecological, social and social-ecological relations in fragmented landscapes. I present new approaches in which research and governance can detect and manage mismatches between landscape ecology and planning. The case studies include urban and forested landscapes where an intense land-use is limiting the connectivity, i.e., the potential for many species to disperse between the remaining patches of habitat. Graph-theoretic (network) models are applied to map connectivity patterns and to estimate the outcome for dispersing species at the patch level and for the whole study system. In particular, the network models are applied to evaluate the spatial complexity and the potential mismatches between ecological connectivity and geographically distributed management institutions like protected areas and municipalities. Interviews with municipal ecologists complement the spatial analysis; revealing some problems and ways forward regarding the communication and integration of ecological knowledge within local spatial-planning agencies. The results also show that network models are useful to identify and communicate critical ecological and social-ecological patterns that call for management attention. I suggest some developments of network models as to include interactions between species and across governance levels. Finally, I conclude that more effort is needed for network models to materialize into ecological learning and transformation in management processes. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 2: Manuscript.</p>

abstract: Landscape restoration is a global priority as evidenced by the United Nations’ 2020 goal to restore 150 million hectares of land worldwide. Restoration is particularly needed in estuaries and their watersheds as society depends on these environments for numerous benefits. Estuary restoration is often undermined by social-ecological scale mismatch, the incongruence between governing units and the bio-physical resources they seek to govern. Despite growing recognition of this fact, few empirical studies focus on scale mismatches in environmental restoration work. Using a sub-basin of Puget Sound, Washington, U.S.A., I analyze scale mismatches in estuary restoration. I take a network science approach because governance networks can bridge scale mismatches. I combine quantitative social network analysis (SNA), geographic information systems (GIS), and qualitative interview analysis. Spatial network analysis reveals several areas with weak scale mismatch bridging networks. These weak social networks are then compared to ecological restoration needs to identify coupled social-ecological restoration concerns. Subsequent study investigates jurisdictional and sectoral network integration because governance siloes contribute to scale mismatch. While the network is fairly well integrated, several sectors do not interact or interact very little. An analysis of collaboration reasons disentangles the idea of generic collaboration. Among three relationship types considered, mandated relationships contribute almost 5.5 times less to perceived collaboration productivity than shared interest relationships, highlighting the benefits of true collaborations in watershed governance. Lastly, the effects of scale mismatch on individual restoration projects and landscape level restoration planning are assessed through qualitative interview analysis. Results illustrate why human-environment processes should be included in landscape restoration planning. Social factors are not considered as constraints to restoration but rather part of the very landscape fabric to be restored. Scale mismatch is conceptualized as a complex social-ecological landscape pattern that affects the flow of financial, human, and natural capital across the landscape. This represents a new way of thinking about scale mismatch and landscape restoration in complex multi-level governance systems. In addition, the maps, network diagnostics, and narratives in this dissertation can help practitioners in Puget Sound and provide proofs of concepts that can be replicated elsewhere for restoration and broader conservation sciences. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Geography 2015