Although the construction of flexible culverts involves simplicity in comparison to similar concrete structures, the complexity of the beneficial interaction between soil and steel materials requires good understanding for their composite action and performance. Current design methods have certain validity limitations with regard to applicable slopes above the structures. Given the short construction time of flexible culverts, there is an urge to explore the feasibility and the constructability of such as cost-effective structures in sloping terrain, where they may function as an avalanche protection structure for a given road, a culvert under a ski slope, or even as a protection canopy for tunnel entrances. This report compiles the efforts carried out toward gaining knowledge about the different factors that may affect the behaviour of flexible culverts in sloping environment. The report includes an extended summary of the investigation, which is mainly presented in two appended papers. The study involved numerical simulation of three case studies to investigate their performances with regard to soil loading and avalanche loads as well. The height of cover, surface slope intensity, slope stability, soil support conditions, and avalanche proximity, were studied and discussed. The study results allowed realizing the susceptibility of flexible culverts to low heights of soil cover when built in sloping terrain, which is reflected in the deformation response and the incremental change in sectional forces, especially the bending moments. It is also found that increasing the depth of soil cover may feasibly improve the structural performance under asymmetrical soil loading and avalanche loads, where it subsequently help in reducing the bending moments in the wall conduit. The presence of a flexible culvert may affect adversely the soil stability in sloping terrain and thus need to be addressed in design. Furthermore, the flexural response of a flexible culvert is directly influenced by the soil support configuration at the downhill side of the structure. In addition, the report also attempts to highlight some general guidelines about the design aspects of flexible culverts in sloping terrain, and seeks to reflect some of the findings on the design methodology for flexible culverts used in Sweden. / <p>QC 20151130</p>

Vattenkraften har en negativ miljöpåverkan på flera sätt, inte minst genom fragmentering av vattendrag. Därför är det viktigt att studera åtgärder som potentiellt minskar vattenkraftens inverkan. Här undersöktes experimentellt avledningseffektivitet och tidsåtgång för nedströmsvandrande atlantlaxsmolt hos låglutande avledare i en strömränna. Smolten startade uppströms om anläggningen och registrerades ifall de besökte flyktöppningarna i passagelösningen för nedströmsmigrerande fisk. Inom båda huvudtyperna, α- och β-avledare, testades tre olika avledare vardera där α-avledarna bestod av galler med spaltvidderna 15, 18 och 30mm. β-avledarna innefattade två galler med spaltvidderna 15 och 30 mm samt ett kevlarnät med entumsmaskor. Resultaten visade att hos α-avledare hade spaltvidden hos gallret betydelse för effektiviteten mellan största och minsta gallret. Mellan β-avledarna med 15 och 30 mm spaltvidd hade spaltvidden ingen betydelse varken för avledningseffektivitet eller tid till passage. Däremot var entumsnätet mindre effektivt. Resultaten indikerade att β-avledare var generellt mer effektiva än α-avledare med högre avledningseffektivitet, möjligen på grund av olikheter i konstruktionerna av flyktöppningarna i anslutning till avledarna. Resultatet pekar också på att β-galler kan ge upphov till en beteenderespons hos smolten som inte registrerades hos α-galler. / Hydropower has a negative environmental impact in several ways, not least through fragmentation of watercourses. This makes it important to study measures that potentially reduce the impact of hydropower. Here, diversion efficiency (passage) and time spent migrating by Atlantic salmon smolts was tested experimentally in a flume equipped with low-slope diverters, simulating passage of a hydropower plant. The smolt were released upstream of the facility and were registered if they visited the entrance to the flume’s passage solution for downstream migrating fish. In both main types, α- and β-diverters, three different diverters were tested each, where the α-diverters consisted of bar racks with gap widths of 15, 18 and 30mm. The β-diverters included two bar racks with gap widths of 15 and 30 mm and a kevlar net with 25 mm meshes. The results showed that in α-diverters, the gap width of the racks was important for the efficiency between the largest and smallest gap widths. Between the β-diverters with 15- and 30 mm gap width, the gap width had no significance either for efficiency or time to passage. However, the one-inch net was less efficient. The results indicated that β-racks were generally more efficient than α-racks with higher diverting efficiency, possibly due to differences in the constructions of the escape openings adjacent to the diverters. The result also suggests that β-racks may give rise to behavioral responses in the smolt that was not registered in α-racks.

Umeå är en växande stad som ligger längs norrlandskusten. Kommunen har starka mål och ambitioner för att staden ska växa de närmaste 25 åren. Kommunen planerar att komplettera ett område vid namn Berghem med 80-100 lägenheter. Ett helt nytt kvarter ska bildas på nuvarande naturmark i sluttande terräng. Kvarteret ligger nära Umeå centrum och bara ett stenkast ifrån Berghems eget centrum. Berghem är en av de dyraste stadsdelarna i Umeå att köpa en bostad på och kötiderna är bland de längsta för hyresrätter. Vid byggnation på denna plats behöver många faktorer beaktas. Att anpassa byggnaden efter platsen och dess terräng har varit arbetets stora utmaning och fokus har lagts på förstudiearbetet med en ingående platsanalys över planområdet och dess omgivning. Förstudiearbetet och platsanalysen består bland annat av resonemang kring hur solen påverkar byggnadernas placering, hur omkringliggande byggnader påverkar exploateringsgraden och hur markens terräng inverkar på utformningen. Detta arbete har som syfte att gestalta ett förslag för det nya kvarteret. Visionen har varit att skapa ett kvarter med stark anknytning till omkringliggande natur. / Umeå is a growing city that lies along the coast of Norrland. The municipality has strong goals and ambitions for the city to grow over the next 25 years. The municipality plans to complete an area named Berghem with 80-100 apartments. A new block shall be formed on current natural land on sloping ground. The area is near Umeå city center and just a stone throw away from Berghem’s own center. Berghem is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Umeå to buy an apartment and queues for rental apartments are among the longest. Building on this area needs a lot of factors to take into account. To adapt the buildings to the area and its terrain has been the works greatest challenge, focus has been placed on the pilot study with a detailed site analysis of the area and its surroundings. Pilot study and site analysis consists among others on reasoning about how the sun affects the placement of the buildings, how the surrounding buildings affects on the rate of exploitation and how soil terrain affecting the composition. This work aims to design concept drawings for the new area. The vision was been to create a neighborhood with strong ties to the surrounding nature.

Meine Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit den institutionellen Aspekten staatlicher Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen (Payments for Ecosystem Services „PES“) in China. Marktbasierte Ansätze zur Steuerung von Ökosystemleistungen, insbesondere von PES, wurden in den letzten Jahrzehnten als neue und innovative Politikinstrumente angesehen. Entsprechend diesem internationalen Trend sind PES auch in China populär, werden jedoch meist mit dem inländischen Begriff der Ökokompensation beschrieben. Einen wirtschaftlichen Anreiz für Verhaltensänderungen zu schaffen, wenn das Ökokompensations-Programm nur ein Ausgleich für gesetzliche Einschränkungen ist, kann eine Herausforderung darstellen. Die Merkmale der Ökokompensation unterscheiden sich von anderen nationalen PES-Programmen, da sich das Governance-Modell, die Eigentumsrechte und die gesellschaftlichen Strukturen in China stark von anderen Staaten unterscheiden. Die Ökokompensation steht vor vielen institutionellen Herausforderungen, wenn es darum geht, ökonomische Anreize für Verhaltensänderungen zu schaffen. Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen, die Elemente sowohl eines freiwilligen, marktbasierten als auch eines hierarchischen Systems kombinieren, um mit den besonderen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen umzugehen, wurden bisher noch nicht ausreichend untersucht. Eine Wissenslücke besteht insbesondere hinsichtlich der Anpassung des Designs von PES an die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen in China. Die Mechanismen von Zahlungen für Ökosystemleistungen in China unterscheiden sich in wichtigen Punkten von den aus der westlichen Erfahrung bekannten Mechanismen. Die vorliegende Dissertation zielt darauf ab, die Diskrepanz zwischen der allgemein gültigen Rahmung von Zahlungen von Ökosystemleistungen und der Realität ihrer Praxis zu verringern, indem sie eine institutionelle Analyse des chinesischen staatlichen PES-Programms vornimmt. Das Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) gilt als eines der weltweit größten PES-Programme und ist ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Ökokompensation. Das erste Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, anhand des SLCP als empirische Fallstudie zu verstehen, wie das institutionelle Design des staatlichen PES in China verbessert werden kann. Das zweite Ziel ist in einem breiteren internationalen Kontext zu sehen und zielt darauf ab, einen methodischen Beitrag zur Analyse der Governance von Ökosystemleistungen zu leisten. Die Dissertation folgt einer kumulativen Struktur, die aus einem Rahmentext besteht, in den fünf, von Experten begutachtete, Artikel aus internationalen Fachzeitschriften integriert sind. Kapitel 1 ist eine Einführung, in der die Forschungslücken und die Forschungsziele im Hinblick auf staatliche PES beschrieben werden. Kapitel 2 liefert die theoretische Grundlage der institutionellen Ökonomie und zeigt die Bedeutung der Governance von Naturressourcen in China auf. Darauf aufbauend konkretisiert Kapitel 3 das Forschungsdesign, indem es die Forschungsziele in verschiedene Forschungsfragen untergliedert. Kapitel 4 beinhaltet den Ergebnisteil, der fünf Zeitschriftenartikel umfasst. Der erste Artikel liefert die konzeptionelle Grundlage für alle nachfolgenden Untersuchungen, die in dieser Dissertation vorgestellt werden, und gibt einen Überblick über die Wirksamkeit und die institutionellen Herausforderungen des chinesischen SLCP. Sowohl der zweite als auch der dritte Artikel sind empirische Untersuchungen. Der zweite Artikel untersucht, wie die sozioökonomischen und institutionellen Bedingungen Anreize für Haushalte in ländlichen Gebieten schaffen, um die primären Umweltziele des SLCP zu erreichen. Der dritte Artikel zeigt, wie lokale Dynamiken die Umsetzung des SLCP beeinflusst und geprägt haben. Der vierte Artikel veranschaulicht und diskutiert die im zweiten Artikel angewandte Methode im Vergleich zu einer weiteren Fallstudie in Deutschland. Der fünfte Artikel schließlich stellt die Stärken und Schwächen der im dritten Artikel angewandten Methode den Erfahrungen ähnlicher Studien in vier weiteren Ländern gegenüber. Zusammen liefern diese Artikel wichtige Beiträge für die beiden Ziele der Dissertation. Kapitel 5 beinhaltet die Synthese und Diskussion der Ergebnisse und Kapitel 6 schließt die Dissertation ab. Das wichtigste Ergebnis dieser Dissertation ist, dass die Wirksamkeit des staatlichen PES in China das Ergebnis der Interaktion der treibenden sozialen Kräfte ist, während institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen und lokale Dynamiken eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Ausgestaltung der Programmumsetzung spielen. Das SLCP hätte unter bestimmten institutionellen Bedingungen ein großes Potenzial für die Schaffung signifikanter Skaleneffekte und für die Verbesserung der Umwelteffektivität. Allerdings weicht die derzeitige Umsetzung des SLCP wegen der besonderen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen erheblich von dem von der Politik geförderten Marktansatz ab. Zwar haben die institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen die breite Akzeptanz und schnelle Entwicklung des SLCP in der Anfangsphase nicht behindert, doch gibt es keine Möglichkeit, einen langfristigen Erfolg im Hinblick auf die Umwelteffektivität zu erreichen, wenn die wichtigsten PES-Elemente fehlen. Der überwiegend von oben nach unten gerichtete Ansatz des Programms und das Fehlen von echter Freiwilligkeit, Konditionalität und Eigentumsrechten werden zusammen als kritische Faktoren verstanden, die mögliche Misserfolge langfristig erklären. Ein weiterer Beitrag der Dissertation sind die methodischen Ansätze, die zum besseren Verständnis der Governance von Ökosystemleistungen beitragen. Diese Dissertation zeigt, dass Ansätze, die qualitative und quantitative Methoden kombinieren, wie z.B. Qualitative Vergleichende Analyse (Qualitative Comparative Analysis „QCA“) und Soziale Netzwerkanalyse (SNA), ein großes Potenzial für die institutionelle Analyse und partizipative Forschung von PES haben. Bei beiden Methoden wurde besonderes Augenmerk auf die detaillierte Beschreibung ihrer Anwendung sowie die damit verbundenen Vor- und Nachteile gelegt. / My dissertation focuses on institutional aspects of governmental payments for ecosystem services (PES) in China. Market-based approaches for ecosystem service governance, particular the PES, have been considered new and innovative policy instruments over the past decades. Corresponding to this international trend, PES schemes in China are mostly described by the domestic term eco-compensation. However, the characteristics of eco-compensation are distinct from other national PES programs, as governance model, property rights and societal structures in China are different to the PES theory. Eco-compensation faces many institutional challenges in creating economic incentives for behavioral change. However, PES that combines elements of both a voluntary market and hierarchy-based system in dealing with incomplete institutional settings has not yet been sufficiently addressed. In particular, there is a knowledge gap regarding fitting the design of PES and institutional settings in China together. The mechanisms of PES in China differ in important ways from mechanisms familiar from the western experience. This dissertation aims to reduce the divergence between the common framing of PES and the reality of its practice by presenting the institutional analysis of China’s governmental PES program. As a major component of eco-compensation, the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is considered one of the world’s largest PES programmes. By taking SLCP as an empirical case, the first objective of this dissertation is to understand how to improve the institutional design of governmental PES. The second lies in a broad international context, aiming at methodologically contributing to the analysis of ecosystem services governance. This dissertation follows a cumulative structure, integrating the framework text and five papers. Chapter 1 is an introduction, outlining the research gaps and objectives of governmental PES. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical foundation to the institutional economic schools, their respective theories and the relevance of nature resource governance in China. Based on this, Chapter 3 confirms the research design by deconstructing the research objectives into different research questions. Chapter 4 is the results section, which comprises five papers. The first paper provides the conceptual basis for all subsequent studies presented in this dissertation, as it is an overview of the effectiveness and institutional challenges of China’s Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP). Both the second and third papers are empirical works. The second paper explores how socioeconomic and institutional conditions encourage rural households to reach the primary environmental goals of SLCP. The third paper shows how local dynamics derived and shaped the SLCP’s implementation. The fourth paper illustrates and discusses the method used in paper 2, comparing it with another case study in Germany. Finally, the fifth paper present the strengths and weaknesses of the method used in paper 3 based on the experiences of four different countries. Together, these papers deliver important contributions to both objectives. Chapter 5 is the synthesis and discussion, and Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation. The key finding of this dissertation is that the effectiveness of governmental PES is a result of interacting driving forces, whereas institutional settings and local dynamics play key roles in shaping program implementation. The SLCP could achieve its potential in creating significant economies of scale and environmental effectiveness under certain institutional conditions. However, against incomplete institutional settings, the current implementation of SLCP has deviated substantially from the market approach promoted by policy makers. While the incomplete institutional settings did not prevent SLCP’s wide acceptance and fast development in its first phases, there is no by-pass to reach the long term success in terms of environmental effectiveness in the absence of key PES elements. The program’s predominantly top-down approach and lack of genuinely voluntary characteristics, conditionality and property rights are jointly understood to be critical factors that explain possible failures in the long-term. Another contribution which this dissertation makes is in methodological approaches of ecosystem service governance. This dissertation has shown that mixed approaches combining qualitative and quantitative methods, such as Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and social network analysis (SNA), could have great potential for institutional analysis and participatory research for PES. The two methods were given particular emphasis in the detailed description of application, as well as in the inherent merits and limitations.

Diploma thesis on a topic ‘Municipal restaurant‘ deals with a new building proposal of a restaurant. An object is designed in the central part of a village called Štěměchy. It is a brick detached building in a slightly sloping terrain. The new building is a double-storeyed. The building has a letter ‘L‘ shape in the floor plan. The main entrance is situated from the south-east side. We can enter the restaurant from the wind lobby. The restaurant is connected with a bar and an outdoor terrace. There is a beverage store etc. next to the bar. A sanitary located background and a cleaning room are at the back side. There are accessible bowling lanes from this place. There are two entrances to the building from the north-east side. We can enter the outdoor equipment storage from the first door and the second one to the hallway which is served as for deliveries, an employee´s entrance and for taking the rubbish out from the waste repository of the kitchen. The hallway connects the restaurant to the kitchen which adheres to the rough vegetable preparation, a store with a freezer and some fridges, a dry store, a background for employees, an office, a cleaning room, an oil store, a mixed waste, a cooled waste and a utility room. There is an attic which is accessible from the wind lobby behind the main entrance. We can go to the hallway up the stairs. The hallway connects the area for exercise and an associated store of exercise aids to the roof terrace, the cleaning room and the sanitary facilities. The sanitary facilities is divided to the men´s part and women´s part. It is made by changing rooms, showers and toilets. The wall system is formed by ceramic blocks of Porotherm. There are a timber joist floor and a plank floor in the attic part. There is a system ceiling of Porotherm company where is placed a warm flat roof´s assembly with an extensive greenery . The attic part is roofed by the sloping gable double–layer roof which is made by a timber collar beam´s roof truss.

The subject of this thesis is the process of building technical part of the design documentation for the realization of a newly-built restaurant and facilities for Czech fishing union in the village Lačnov. The building consists of two objects interconnected by a connecting neck. The ground floor of the building with a flat roof is used as a restaurant. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible. Public entrance is from the southern side. The entrance for the staff and the supply will be from the east side. Facilities for staff and technical facilities there is in the northern part of the building. On the second floor there is an office, a meeting room and a training room for the Czech fishing union. In the second object with a gabled roof is an apartment for a fishing man and a shop with small fishing equipment. There is also a showers and toilets for the disabled. The technical background is situated in the attic. The house is based on strips foudations. Vertical loadbearing structures above ground are made of Porotherm system, external walls of the basement are made of prefabricated concrete shuttering blocks. Horizontal structures are designed as a monolithic reinforced concrete slab. Building is insulated. Part of the external wall finish are made of silicone plaster and part of it consists of ventilated facade with timber cladding.

This master´s thesis proposes a design for a new hotel in the Giant. This master´s thesis is elaborated in the form of project documentation for construction. The building is located in the village Spindleruv Mlyn in sloping terrain. The object is designed from a two-way wall system, the porotherm, and the ceilings are designed as stacked also from the porotherm system. The building is a rectangular ground plan with a saddle roof and a dormer. Roof cover is designed from Tondach-baked bags and design is made of wooden elements. The perimeter walls of the underground floor will be made of concrete blocks of BS Klatovy. The internal staircase will be reinforced concrete. The elevator shaft across all floors will be fitted with an evacuation lift. The building will be insulated with a certified ETICS thermal insulation system.

The subject of the diploma thesis is design and processing of the design documentation for the new building in Velké Meziříčí. The building is designed as a four-storey building with a partial basement, which serves like garage for 4 cars. On the above floors there are 8 residential units. Other premises are used as a business and administrative area. The loadbearing structure is made of sand-lime bricks, which are insulated with combined thermal insulation.

The diploma thesis is focused on a new building guest house with a restaurant, located in the town of Valašské Klobouky. The land has a sloping character. The structure of the guest house consists of one basement and two above-ground floors. The capacity of the restaurant with a terrace is for 84 people, accommodation for 22 guests in 9 rooms and wellness for 15 visitors. The object is a rectangular shape of a rectangle measuring 25.4x14.25 m. The external and internal vertical structures are made of sand-lime blocks of the KM BETA SENDWIX system, horizontal structures are made of reinforced concrete ceiling. The guest house is insulated with the ETICS contact isulation system. The diploma thesis has the form of design documentation for the building process.

The project documentation, processed in the framework of the diploma thesis, solves the new building of the multifunctional house in Žďár nad Sázavou. The building is made of traditional brick technology of brick fittings, with insulation, ceilings are reinforced concrete monolithic, roof sloping in two variants. Commercial premises are located on the ground floor on the south side. Furthermore, on the floor there are technical facilities for offices and storage space for housing units and offices. On the next floors there are always 3 residential units. The building is located on flat terrain in the rapidly developing part of the city. The building envelope and individu-al structures are designed to the entire object it was as energy- consuming as possible, and do not pump irreparably by nature its natural resources in a larger quantity than necessary.