Thesis (doctoral)--University of Southampton, 1997. / BLDSC reference no.: DX214282.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / Wildcat Creek Watershed near Manhattan, Kansas, experiences damaging flash floods that have required evacuations in recent years (Spicer 2011). The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine the issue of flooding in the Wildcat Creek Watershed through interviewing stakeholders (those that reside, own a business, or study) using a semi – structured approach. Interview discussion examined stakeholders’ perceptions of 1) how they understand the processes that create the flooding hazard, 2) whether or not they value the implementation of mitigation efforts to reduce the negative impacts of flooding, 3) whether they feel at risk to flooding, and 4) who they consider a trusted source of information about the hydrologic characteristics of the watershed. Based on the results of this study, a spatial relationship in perceptions of flooding issues in the Wildcat Creek Watershed was found. Across the study area, stakeholders understood many of the physical causes of flooding, but did not tend to see the connections among the many physical components. Overall, stakeholders believed that mitigation strategies to curb flash flooding were valuable, although many were not supportive of paying for these efforts through potential taxation from a watershed district. Despite the increase of flooding events in the past decade (Anderson 2011), many stakeholders neither saw any changes in their personal risk of exposure to flooding nor a change in their flood vulnerability. In the context of the flooding issue in Wildcat Creek Watershed, most participants trusted their neighbors and community leaders as sources of information instead of professionals who research and/or conduct work on the watershed.

Free-roaming domestic cats are an increasing concern for biodiversity conservation. Cats prey on wildlife, spread disease and breed with native wildcat species leading to hybridisation. It is therefore useful to know what factors influence the movement of domestic cats. There is a particular concern in Scotland where hybridisation between domestic cats and the highly endangered Scottish wildcat is prevalent. This study placed GPS collars on ten domestic cats in and around a Scottish wildcat priority area. The home ranges and core areas for each cat were calculated and various explanatory variables were tested. There was a large variation in cat home ranges, from 0.22 – 17.5 hectares. Trends were observed that males roamed further than females, older cats roamed less than younger cats, rural cats roamed further than urban cats and cats roamed further at night than during the day. There was no definitive evidence of habitat selection, though three cats appeared to prefer arable land over coniferous forest. Weather conditions of temperature and rainfall did not have an impact on cat movement. However, snow cover did reduce the home range by 94.5%, although snow was only present when one cat was collared. The results suggest restricting cat ownership or imposing a night time curfew in ecologically sensitive areas, with a minimum buffer zone of 300 m, could be beneficial to reduce the negative impact of domestic cats.

El objetivo general de este trabajo consiste en extender el framework Reflex para soportar context-aware aspects. Este nuevo framework permitirá integrar sensores de contexto implementados con WildCAT para el desarrollo de una aplicación modelo que requiera aspectos context-aware.

Population of the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) are slowly recovering after a severe decline in the 18th century. The wildcat was a rare species already on the beginning of 19th century on the territory of Czech Republic. During the 20th century the species was considered to be extinct and the scarce records to be individuals dispersed from Carpathian or West-European population. Furthermore there was lack of evidence to this observations. With the expansion of photo monitoring methods, there comes pictures of wildcats from the Beskid Mountains, Bohemian Forest, The upper Palatine Forest and Doupov mountains. After more than 60 years there is finely a proof for the presence of wildcats in Czech Republic. To understand its space requirements and dispersion context, and to know if there is a place for wildcats to live in Czech Republic, we made a habitat model in ArcGIS. This rule-based model works with attributes like land cover type, duration of snow cover, aspect and the vertical heterogeneity of terrain. The model was applied also for Slovakia, because the evaluation data only comes from Slovakia. We found out that the occurence of wildcats in the model territory relate to broad-leaf forests, duration of snow cover (>20cm) not exceeding 50 days and the southern exposure. In Czech Republic there is...

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Tim Keane / Wildcat Creek in Riley County, KS has repeatedly flooded in the past 5 years causing significant damage to the watershed, private property, and community livelihood. Strategically placing wetlands throughout the watershed can help reduce stormwater runoff, increase infiltration, and increase wildlife habitat. A watershed assessment was completed to determine the best location for wetlands in the Wildcat Creek Basin. Two watershed-scale plans for wetlands were derived and evaluated based upon estimation of stormwater runoff and quality of wildlife habitat. Wetlands were then examined and incorporated into existing land cover and land uses at the site-scale for an existing golf course. Three proposals for the nine hole course (for best golf experience, wildlife habitat, and wetland creation) were developed to reflect expansion options from a Par 30 to a Par 34 or 35 course. Each proposal was evaluated based on wetland capacity from estimated stormwater runoff, quality of wildlife habitat, playability of the golf course for all skill levels, and cost of implementation. After this evaluation, the wetland proposal was moved forward and further developed into a proposal that is best suited for the site. Following wetland implementation, stormwater runoff can be collected on-site to prevent runoff and flooding at the golf course and downstream. In order to solve flooding problems in the Wildcat Creek watershed, a series of wetlands can be implemented at the smaller site scale, like the Wildcat Creek Golf Course site, throughout the watershed. Wetlands are one component of a larger stormwater management system that is needed to reduce flooding of the Wildcat Creek and the flood-prone area of Manhattan, KS.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy Keane / Wildcat Creek watershed in Riley County, Kansas has been scene to increasingly severe and damaging flooding in recent years. Significant flood events in the summer of 2010 and 2011 have prompted the community to action. One of many areas of concern is addressed by this project in order to facilitate community efforts to reduce future flooding. Residential stormwater best management practices (BMPs) implemented by property owners to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff entering the Wildcat Creek watershed is the focus of this project. An analysis of the residential development typology in the City of Manhattan within the Wildcat Creek watershed guides stormwater BMP implementation strategies. GIS identified residential development types based on land use, land cover, and parcel size. Single family residential and high density multi-family developments are the areas of focus. Rational method stormwater calculations were conducted on one sample site selected from each of four areas identified as unique within the residential context. The four sample sites include large lot single family, small lot single family, traditional single family, and high density multi-family. The current stormwater runoff situation was constructed for residential areas of Manhattan within the Wildcat Creek watershed using these samples. Sample sites were evaluated four times. Existing stormwater runoff amounts for each site were determined. A minimal BMP treatment in the form of rain gardens was applied. Then a moderate BMP treatment including rain gardens, rain barrels, and native plantings was applied. The fourth evaluation was on a high level of rainwater BMP treatment including rain gardens, rain barrels, cisterns, native vegetation, bioretention, and permeable paving. Post-BMP runoff calculations were performed. The resulting data was compared to the pre-BMP stormwater data to determine the impact of varying degrees of BMP treatments. This work produced a series of BMP strategies specifically suited to the Wildcat Creek watershed. These site specific strategies are a valuable resource for community members to help reduce flooding in the watershed. The resulting calculations are also valuable tools for community leaders determining the value of stormwater regulations that may require or promote stormwater BMPs in Manhattan.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy Keane / The City of Manhattan, Kansas is looking for possible solutions to mitigate flooding along Wildcat Creek within the Wildcat Creek Watershed. Recent flooding has caused substantial property damage. The project presented here brings recreation into the community by designing a golf course in a location along Wildcat Creek that addresses flooding issues, increases infiltration, and improves water quality. The golf industry has a long way to go to become more sustainable. The world is facing many challenges related to water and hydrology. Much of the opposition towards the golf industry is because critics see it as environmentally unfriendly. Golf has the potential to become a catalyst for change in the way we design and develop the landscape around us. The golf industry can become a leader in sustainable design while taking on hydrological concerns within the community. This project demonstrates the application of a golf course to help mitigate flooding along Wildcat Creek with the use of vulnerability and suitability analysis as a guide to site selection. This method of analysis illustrates the process of identifying and protecting areas vulnerable to degradation by designing a golf course in a suitable location to utilize water hazards to store flood water, provide more floodplain access to effectively increase infiltration capacity, reduce runoff rates, and improve water quality. The report explains the relationship between golf course design and environmental practices as they relate to hydrology on a theoretical site in Manhattan, Kansas. By integrating golf course design theory and environmentally sound stormwater management practices, water hazards on the golf course can become the fundamental elements used in strategizing the design of the golf course. A conceptual plan was created to maximize the infiltration capacity of the site as well as allow increased floodplain access, and provide a place to store flood water. A golf course can then be properly sited and designed hydrologically around the use of water hazards to help reduce flooding and improve water quality within the watershed.

Esta dissertação consiste em uma leitura da Trilogia Wildcat, de Mudrooroo. O foco da leitura recai sobre as Relações de Poder e seu impacto sobre os jovens aborígines urbanos australianos. O corpus de pesquisa é formado pelos romances Wild Cat Falling (1965), Wildcat Screaming (1992) e Doin Wildcat (1988). O objetivo é analisar os efeitos das estratégias de poder em indivíduos pós-coloniais que são sujeitos a e fazem uso de mecanismos de poder ao estabelecerem relacionamentos tanto com seus pares quanto com pessoas que representam autoridade. A discussão das relações de poder, de seus mecanismos e efeitos se dá no terreno do discurso literário, através da análise das escolhas e estratégias do autor quanto à formatação dos três romances que operam, simultaneamente, como obras de arte, como estratégias políticas de sobrevivência e como estudos reflexivos sobre o processo da escrita literária. Wildcat é o protagonista, bem como autor e narrador nos textos da Trilogia. Ele é também um representante do povo aborígine australiano urbano e jovem na luta pela sobrevivência em uma sociedade na qual eles foram assimilados, mas não realmente aceitos. O texto de Mudrooroo versa sobre história, cultura, luta pela sobrevivência, mas trata principalmente sobre a escrita do texto literário e o papel da literatura aborígine. Para contemplar um construto tão complexo, minha leitura busca a combinação de literatura, cultura e pensamento pós-colonial. O suporte teórico do trabalho está apoiado nas idéias de Michel Foucault sobre poder e discurso, bem como na visão de Mudrooroo sobre a escrita literária aborígine, e também sobre a noção do exótico pós-colonial de Graham Huggan. Minha análise pretende alcançar a compreensão dos mecanismos de poder que povos e indivíduos assujeitados podem colocar em uso quando têm como objetivo serem ouvidos e respeitados pelas pessoas que os vêem como “outros” e que são maioria nas sociedades nas quais vivem. A conclusão indica que relações de poder firmemente estabelecidas são de crucial importância para a sobrevivência dos povos aborígines, e que a literatura é um dos melhores meios para alcançar esta finalidade, não só para garantir sobrevivência, mas também para representá-la. / This thesis consists of a reading of Mudrooroo’s Wildcat Trilogy, focusing on the issue of Power Relations and their impact on Young Urban Australian Aborigines. The corpus of the research comprises the novels Wild Cat Falling (1965), Wildcat Screaming (1992) and Doin Wildcat (1988). The purpose is to examine the effects of power strategies on postcolonial individuals who are subjected to and make use of mechanisms of power when establishing relationships with both their peers and other people representing authority. This discussion is carried out from within the realm of literary discourse, through the analysis of Mudrooroo’s choices and strategies in the shaping of these three novels that operate, simultaneously, as pieces of art, as political strategies of survival, and as self-reflexive studies about the process of writing. Wildcat is protagonist, author and narrator in the Trilogy. He is also a representative of the young urban Australian Aboriginal people’s struggle to survive within a society into which they have been assimilated, but not actually accepted. Mudrooroo’s text is about history, culture, struggle for survival, but it is mainly about writing and the role of Aboriginal Literature. In order to contemplate such a complex construct, my reading aims at combining postcolonial, cultural and literary concerns. The theoretical support of the work rests upon Michel Foucault’s ideas about Power and Discourse, as well as upon Mudrooroo’s views on Aboriginal Writing, and Graham Huggan’s notion of the Post-Colonial Exotic. My analysis intends to reach the understanding of the mechanisms of power that subjected peoples and individuals may put to use in order to be heard and respected by the people who see them as “Others” and are now majority in the societies they live within. Therefore, the conclusion indicates that firmly established Power Relations are central to Aboriginal people’s survival, and that Literature is one of the best means to achieve – as well as represent – it.

Esta dissertação consiste em uma leitura da Trilogia Wildcat, de Mudrooroo. O foco da leitura recai sobre as Relações de Poder e seu impacto sobre os jovens aborígines urbanos australianos. O corpus de pesquisa é formado pelos romances Wild Cat Falling (1965), Wildcat Screaming (1992) e Doin Wildcat (1988). O objetivo é analisar os efeitos das estratégias de poder em indivíduos pós-coloniais que são sujeitos a e fazem uso de mecanismos de poder ao estabelecerem relacionamentos tanto com seus pares quanto com pessoas que representam autoridade. A discussão das relações de poder, de seus mecanismos e efeitos se dá no terreno do discurso literário, através da análise das escolhas e estratégias do autor quanto à formatação dos três romances que operam, simultaneamente, como obras de arte, como estratégias políticas de sobrevivência e como estudos reflexivos sobre o processo da escrita literária. Wildcat é o protagonista, bem como autor e narrador nos textos da Trilogia. Ele é também um representante do povo aborígine australiano urbano e jovem na luta pela sobrevivência em uma sociedade na qual eles foram assimilados, mas não realmente aceitos. O texto de Mudrooroo versa sobre história, cultura, luta pela sobrevivência, mas trata principalmente sobre a escrita do texto literário e o papel da literatura aborígine. Para contemplar um construto tão complexo, minha leitura busca a combinação de literatura, cultura e pensamento pós-colonial. O suporte teórico do trabalho está apoiado nas idéias de Michel Foucault sobre poder e discurso, bem como na visão de Mudrooroo sobre a escrita literária aborígine, e também sobre a noção do exótico pós-colonial de Graham Huggan. Minha análise pretende alcançar a compreensão dos mecanismos de poder que povos e indivíduos assujeitados podem colocar em uso quando têm como objetivo serem ouvidos e respeitados pelas pessoas que os vêem como “outros” e que são maioria nas sociedades nas quais vivem. A conclusão indica que relações de poder firmemente estabelecidas são de crucial importância para a sobrevivência dos povos aborígines, e que a literatura é um dos melhores meios para alcançar esta finalidade, não só para garantir sobrevivência, mas também para representá-la. / This thesis consists of a reading of Mudrooroo’s Wildcat Trilogy, focusing on the issue of Power Relations and their impact on Young Urban Australian Aborigines. The corpus of the research comprises the novels Wild Cat Falling (1965), Wildcat Screaming (1992) and Doin Wildcat (1988). The purpose is to examine the effects of power strategies on postcolonial individuals who are subjected to and make use of mechanisms of power when establishing relationships with both their peers and other people representing authority. This discussion is carried out from within the realm of literary discourse, through the analysis of Mudrooroo’s choices and strategies in the shaping of these three novels that operate, simultaneously, as pieces of art, as political strategies of survival, and as self-reflexive studies about the process of writing. Wildcat is protagonist, author and narrator in the Trilogy. He is also a representative of the young urban Australian Aboriginal people’s struggle to survive within a society into which they have been assimilated, but not actually accepted. Mudrooroo’s text is about history, culture, struggle for survival, but it is mainly about writing and the role of Aboriginal Literature. In order to contemplate such a complex construct, my reading aims at combining postcolonial, cultural and literary concerns. The theoretical support of the work rests upon Michel Foucault’s ideas about Power and Discourse, as well as upon Mudrooroo’s views on Aboriginal Writing, and Graham Huggan’s notion of the Post-Colonial Exotic. My analysis intends to reach the understanding of the mechanisms of power that subjected peoples and individuals may put to use in order to be heard and respected by the people who see them as “Others” and are now majority in the societies they live within. Therefore, the conclusion indicates that firmly established Power Relations are central to Aboriginal people’s survival, and that Literature is one of the best means to achieve – as well as represent – it.