This project examines the spatial relationships that exist between Winnipeg, Canada and Tokyo, Japan, with the intent to develop an understanding of the preciseness of the world. Different site-specific systemic conditions were used as critical tools to explore the implication of distinct design catalysts and inhibitors. I have concentrated on the relationships that exist between time and space, to identify and displace localized, momentary events that exist in one site to the other. Familiarities of my local surroundings were deliberately obscured to make explicit a heightened awareness of my position on the planet. This helps to facilitate discussions. I have created a space that is dissembled through abstract understandings of displaced elements in the environment. It is my intention for this space to be experienced in a different way each time we come across it, by shifting and changing ones perception of their character in the world. / October 2008

Residential environments have a close relationship to everyday human life. They are not only significant places for human activity; they also play an important role in the physical and social contexts. Additionally, welcoming and attractive open spaces in residential neighbourhoods increase opportunities for informal interaction among residents, and create hospitable places for humans to live, build family, develop community,and interact with their natural environment. The intention of this practicum is to provide a lens through which to reconsider the definition of home, focusing on outdoor space as a crucial and key component to increasing overall satisfaction with one’s home. The study of Lilong housing in Shanghai plays a significant role in this practicum, through exploring the spatial-social relationship of Lilong housing, looking at how physical and spatial layout influence patterns of space use and movement, and examining impact on the social life (Hillier, 1987). These findings are derived from carefully investigating both the physical and community aspects of Lilong, and prove that the hierarchy of social structure is reflected and supported by a hierarchy of communal spaces (Gehl, 2011). Therefore, the most important spatial feature graduated, outdoor spaces with public, semi-public, semi-private and private areas - dominates the design decisions. The design is presented as a major means to redefine and reform outdoor spaces in residential Winnipeg, in relation to social interaction from a landscape architecture perspective. / February 2016

The purpose of this practicum is to evaluate current standards for Winnipeg’s high school athletic field development, and suggest alternatives to conventional methods. This document is structured to support the argument of developing athletic fields to not only satisfy the needs of the school, but the needs of the surrounding community as well. Using active transportation principles as a guide, this practicum provides the opportunity to improve connectivity and circulation within an established Winnipeg neighbourhood. Furthermore, active transportation provides the framework to support a greater variety of recreational activities on a site that currently receives limited use. The final design serves as a proposal to perceive high school athletic sites as more than fields, but as a community resource within the larger network of the city-wide active transportation system. / October 2015

Advance care planning (ACP) is defined as a process of open communication and information sharing between the health care team, the patient, and his/her family to enable patient’s wishes for future care and medical treatment to be explored and supported. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of medical-surgical nurses working in Winnipeg, Manitoba in relation to ACP. This cross-sectional descriptive study involved the use of a questionnaire developed and used in Singapore and assessed for face validity by local experts. A sample of 218 registered nurses responded to the web-based survey. Nurses were found to have: a sound understanding of foundational ACP concepts; communal and also varied attitudes toward ACP; and reported variable levels of involvement in ACP with patients and families. The results of this study can be used to inform change within both the educational and clinical care settings. / October 2015

Changing hydroclimatic conditions are the primary source of risk to hydroelectric power generation. The research described in this dissertation investigates hydrological and drought variability in the Winnipeg River basin, Canada, during the last several hundred years using instrumental hydroclimate data and paleoclimatic records derived from tree rings. The basin drains parts of northwestern Ontario, northern Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and is the most important component of the hydrological system used to generate power in Manitoba. Extreme low annual flows in the Winnipeg River are associated with enhanced meridional flow across western Canada during summer and autumn, which suppresses precipitation over the watershed and reduces runoff from spring snowmelt. In contrast to the declining flows observed for other regional rivers, mean annual discharge in the Winnipeg River basin has increased substantially since the early 1920s. For a longer perspective, fifty-four ringwidth chronologies (mainly Pinus resinosa and P. strobus) were used to assess changes in summer climate in the Winnipeg River region since AD 1783. Tree growth in this region is significantly, but weakly, correlated with both temperature and precipitation during summer. Synthetic tree-ring records produced by the Vaganov-Shashkin model of tree-ring formation are consistent with these relationships with climate, and suggest that the primary factor limiting tree growth switches from temperature to moisture in mid-summer. The Winnipeg River tree-ring record indicates that summer droughts were more persistent in the 19th and late 18th century than during the last 100 years, but there is no evidence that drought was more extreme prior to the onset of direct monitoring.This dissertation also examines past changes in summer drought over the broader region using 138 ringwidth records from the Canadian Prairies provinces and adjacent areas. Regional ringwidth signals are primarily related to summer moisture and drought conditions. These summer-sensitive records are not linearly related to major modes of climate variability, including ENSO and the PDO, which mainly affect the climate of western Canada during winter. Extended drought records inferred from regional tree-ring series indicate that drought on the Canadian Prairies has exhibited considerable spatial heterogeneity over the last several centuries.

This thesis is an examination of the sex and gender differences in measures of relative deprivation for Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the value of these measures to predict health outcomes. Within theoretical frameworks of relative deprivation and intersectionality, principal component analysis was used to test nineteen different versions of a national area-based deprivation index using Census variables, for the total population and for males and females separately. Only one version of the deprivation index provided consistent factor scores, in keeping with the theoretical constructs, for the total, female-only and male-only populations for Winnipeg. Administrative health data were used to calculate area-level rates of select health outcomes and binomial negative regressions were then used to analyze whether the “best” index was predictive of health outcomes for the three populations. In regression models, only the “material” component of the deprivation index was predictive of the health outcomes, but results varied across the three populations. The application of the “best” deprivation index to health planning may depend on the health issue and the population in question. This thesis confirmed that examining the intersections of sex, gender and deprivation in population health research unmasks important differences that would otherwise be missed and could have implications in health planning.

Lake Winnipeg has the second largest walleye fishery in North America. The North and South Basins of the lake differ in many ways, e.g. water temperature, turbidity, and fish community. The study objectives were to determine if (a) growth, condition or diet of walleye, sauger or dwarf walleye differed between basins, (b) among seasons, and (c) whether the invasive rainbow smelt are associated with these differences. Walleye, sauger and dwarf walleye were caught using gill-nets and analysed for growth, condition and diet in all seasons. Walleye and sauger in the North Basin showed higher growth rates and condition than in the South Basin. Diet in the South Basin had more diverse species composition, whereas in the North Basin, the diet consisted almost entirely of rainbow smelt. Some seasonal variation was also documented and the impact of rainbow smelt seems to be positive for these piscivorous fish in Lake Winnipeg.

This thesis is an examination of the sex and gender differences in measures of relative deprivation for Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the value of these measures to predict health outcomes. Within theoretical frameworks of relative deprivation and intersectionality, principal component analysis was used to test nineteen different versions of a national area-based deprivation index using Census variables, for the total population and for males and females separately. Only one version of the deprivation index provided consistent factor scores, in keeping with the theoretical constructs, for the total, female-only and male-only populations for Winnipeg. Administrative health data were used to calculate area-level rates of select health outcomes and binomial negative regressions were then used to analyze whether the “best” index was predictive of health outcomes for the three populations. In regression models, only the “material” component of the deprivation index was predictive of the health outcomes, but results varied across the three populations. The application of the “best” deprivation index to health planning may depend on the health issue and the population in question. This thesis confirmed that examining the intersections of sex, gender and deprivation in population health research unmasks important differences that would otherwise be missed and could have implications in health planning.

Intercultural communication addresses some of the apparent challenges that surface from interactions among diverse people. The concept stretches beyond language and dialect barriers and includes the ways in which culture influences how people understand, create and respond to communication depending on where they are from, their life experiences, social structure, ethnicity, religion, education, occupation, and so on. This research acknowledges that culture is a broad and difficult to define concept because it influences individuals and groups in different ways, especially in an era of globalization. Through an exploration of literature, semi-structured interviews and a focus group, and applying the concept of intercultural communication to active planning practice, the research examines how a sample of Winnipeg planners learn and practice such intercultural communication. Their perspectives on this practice are then considered in the context of collaboration, where it is concluded that intercultural communication competencies can directly foster collaboration. The practice has potential benefits for the many diverse publics that now need to be better served through planning processes. Intercultural communication is an important practice of planners in culturally diverse cities such as Winnipeg because planners often find themselves in intermediary 'bridging' roles among diverse cultures. It is confirmed that intercultural communication requires a necessary set of competencies, values and skills that must influences one's planning practice.

This work is a compilation of ideas intended as a framework for an alternative approach to engaging ‘site’ in the design process, an approach that maintains and explores the complexities and subtleties of a landscape, of a place. Through two parallel explorations - one that considers an expanded and inclusive interpretation of landscape as the frame through which we engage with, and design, our surroundings, and one that examines the specific nature of this engagement as exchange between the self and the milieu - such an approach has been developed. This approach is called RECONNAISSANCE. Through encouragement of explicit, conscious consideration of how we perceive and experience a landscape, how this contributes to an understanding of a particular place and how this relates to and informs the practice of landscape architecture (both the process and the outcome), RECONNAISSANCE contributes to a strengthening of our abilities and actions as landscape architects.