Proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress

Published proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress, hosted by York University, 27-30 May 2018

The influence of the quality of the built environment on social cohesion in English neighbourhoods

High quality built environments are promoted in urban planning and design in the UK on the grounds that they support positive social activity and behaviour. There is a severe lack of empirical evidence examining these concepts holistically, and there is little evidence to support such claims made in theory, policy and practice in the UK. Therefore, the aim of this research is to determine the relationship, if any, between the quality of the built environment and social cohesion in English neighbourhoods. As quality seems to be a multi-faceted concept, a further aim is to identify those features of quality of the built environment most likely to support social cohesion in English neighbourhoods. The methodology adopted in this research is primarily quantitative and takes the form of a large-scale multivariate investigation of the influence of quality of the built environment on social cohesion, both of which were operationalized as a series of indicators. The data were collected using a number of different methods including a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview, and the nature and extent of relationships were investigated through statistical analysis. The findings show that a number of features of quality of the built environment are • significantly associated with dimensions of social cohesion, however the nature and extent of the associations vary from feature to feature. There is consistent evidence to suggest that features of quality of the built environment, on the whole, do positively contribute to residents' sense of community, feelings of trust and reciprocity, feelings of safety, and sense of place attachment. These findings support existing policy to varying degrees and, on the whole, support claims made in the current UK government's 'sustainable communities' plan and associated policies. This research provides tools for further empirical investigation which include a set of indicators which express the abstract concepts of quality and social cohesion in operational terms and a method of neighbourhood delineation which takes into account residents' perceptions of neighbourhood boundaries. It makes a contribution to the extensive body of theoretical, and to a lesser extent, empirical evidence to shed light on the relationship between the physical environment and social activity and behaviour

Modeling the oriented strandboard manufacturing process and the oriented strandboard continuous rotary drying system

Oriented Strand Board (OSB) is the leading structural panel product used in residential building construction. This dissertation describes three models and a statistical process control technique all designed to aid manufacturers to cost effectively manufacture OSB. The first model is an OSB Mill Process Flow Model that defines the processing steps and the desired outcomes. The second model is an OSB Mill Model, an ExcelRTM based computer program, designed to answer operational what if and trade-off questions. The model is a spreadsheet representation of the OSB production process. The third model is an OSB Dryer Model that predicts the dryer outlet moisture content derived using a multivariate data analysis technique called projection to latent structures by means of Partial Least Squares (PLS). PLS was instrumental in identifying outlet temperature and heat source temperatures as the most influential dryer system variables in predicting dryer outlet moisture content. The SPC technique is Multivariate Statistical Process Control (MSPC) that uses multivariate scores or Hotelling T2 to determine the state of the drying process; and if the drying process is out of control, what process variables influenced the process shift

Going local for a change : towards a community food security approach to farm-to-university development at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

In rural and urban communities across North America, signs that our modern food system is failing our farmers, our environment, our health and our poor are growing painfully apparent. Now that we find ourselves at the brink, an appetite for change has started to develop. Farm-to-university programs are among a new crop of food system alternatives designed to change food and agriculture from the ground-up. Regarded as the planned efforts to connect universities with local farms, farm-to-university is intended to benefit farmers with fair and stable markets while making local sustainable food more accessible to members of university communities. As an initial assessment of the possibilities for farm-to-university at Concordia University, this community food planning study was an attempt to identify stakeholder interests as well as potential barriers and opportunities to development. Using a community food security framework focused on partnership, program and policy development, this thesis sought to connect with relevant and diverse stakeholders from both inside and outside the University. Based on stakeholder interviews, student surveys and an analysis of produce purchasing data, this study found that Concordia University needs new purchasing and supply structures that can effectively link food services and farmers in order to become a reliable market for local sustainable food. Perhaps more importantly, it found that Concordia University needs to see itself as part of the solution and ultimately redefine its current relationship with food to become a force for change. Based on these findings, the study identifies several topics for future research

NASA Laser Light Scattering Advanced Technology Development Workshop, 1988

The major objective of the workshop was to explore the capabilities of existing and prospective laser light scattering hardware and to assess user requirements and needs for a laser light scattering instrument in a reduced gravity environment. The workshop addressed experimental needs and stressed hardware development

Factoring community welfare estimates into freshwater allocation decision making in New Zealand : a common good case study : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Resource Management at Massey University, New Zealand

The study recognises the centrality of the ‘common good’ by working to improve the intergenerational well-being of all people in society. The research adopts the Tukituki River catchment in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand as a case study to demonstrate how community welfare estimates can be factored into freshwater allocation planning and decision-making. The Tukituki catchment faces water pollution and allocation challenges that are typical of agricultural landscapes with summer water scarcity. A survey measured both current and future perceptions of the catchment, focussing on comparing perceptions of anglers and gamebird hunters with other recreational users. A second survey estimated the marginal welfare benefits generated by improved water quality and the welfare associated with trust in freshwater advocates and policy-oriented organisations. Most users felt the catchment was in a poor state and wanted a future with improved water quality. There was little or no difference between the perceptions of anglers and other recreational users. Gamebird hunter’s perceptions were different from other recreational users at the p<.05 level. Recreational users were willing to pay a mean $6.67 a month for ten years to improve water quality to a level representative of the successful delivery of current policy goals by 2030. Bayesian trust scores were used to model social capital in the form of a novel social trust economy, which proved to be an effective descriptor of the known political economy. Keywords: Freshwater, Welfare, Perceptions, Trust, Common good, Latent Class Analysis, Best-worst scaling, Non-market valuation, Contingent valuation

A Coupled Human and Natural Systems Approach to Studying Recreation on Public Lands

Outdoor recreational use has increased rapidly in the western United States in recent years, which provides more people with opportunities to enjoy public lands and benefit from recreation. However, increased recreation can lead to negative social and ecological impacts that degrade both natural resources and the recreation experience. I used a Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) approach to study recreational use at the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (NCA) in southwest Idaho. This approach considers the human and natural systems, feedbacks within the systems, and effects from telecoupled influences outside of the site, which gives a more complete view and helps to predict how the system may change in the future. The human system at the NCA includes recreationists, management agencies, biologists, recreation organizations, military training, agriculture, and infrastructure. Recreational shooting – shooting inanimate targets or unprotected mammals – is a popular recreational activity at the NCA and was a primary focus of my efforts within the social system. The natural system includes a river with steep cliffs and the surrounding sagebrush-steppe along with raptors, ravens, mammalian scavengers and predators, ground-nesting birds, and small mammals. I used the CHANS framework to identify and investigate questions about the feedbacks within and between the human and natural systems. In Chapter 1, I focused on how the human and natural systems affect the expected and observed spatiotemporal patterns of recreation at the NCA. I used a multidimensional survey of recreationists and observational survey routes to characterize the site use of individual recreational shooters and the larger spatiotemporal patterns of recreational use, respectively. Recreational shooters reported a strong preference for sites with natural backstops and generally avoided other groups of recreationists. More experienced shooters placed greater importance on vegetation type and less importance on the presence of other recreationists. Motivation and activity type also affected preference, as individuals who were motivated to view wildlife or hunting unprotected mammals reported a stronger preference for sites with a greater abundance of the most common target species, Piute ground squirrels (Urocitellus mollis). Observed spatial patterns of all recreation showed a concentration of recreational use in northern portions of the site and along major access roads with little overlap between shooting and other recreational activities. Observations of recreational use were higher on weekends, earlier in the year, later in the day, on warmer days but not the hottest days, and during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results help to understand the site needs of recreational shooters and how recreational use is currently distributed across the NCA, as well as how these patterns might change in the future as environmental and social conditions change. In Chapter 2, I examined interactions within social groups associated with the NCA. I asked recreationists, managers, and biologists about their perceptions of recreation impacts, challenges, and management using multidimensional surveys and semi-structured interviews. I focused on recreational shooters, the most common type of recreationists at the site, and birdwatchers, who rely on the natural resources at the site. Recreational shooters were primarily concerned with trash, crowding, and safety, whereas managers and biologists listed a variety of concerns focused on wildlife, habitat, safety, illegal killing of protected wildlife, lead, and trash. I assessed standards of quality for three levels of trash and crowding that represent conditions at the site, then compared ratings of acceptability between groups using an ordered logistic regression model. Recreational shooters rated low and medium trash conditions as more agreeable than managers, while biologists and birders did not differ from managers. Conversely, recreational shooters rated all crowding conditions as less acceptable than the other groups. Recreational shooters and birdwatchers placed the highest responsibility for enforcing rules on individuals and law enforcement but disagreed on the role of management agencies. Recreational shooters were supportive of educational management interventions whereas birdwatchers supported management changes, recreation participation, and limits on recreational use. Managers and biologists suggested a variety of management actions, including closures, increased law enforcement, and designated shooting areas. From these results, I identified opportunities for improving recreation at the site. In Chapter 3, I investigated the impact of recreation on multiple trophic levels of the ecological system. I selected 10 paired 1-km2 sites, with half in areas of high recreation and half in areas of low recreation. I used observational driving survey routes to collect locations of recreational use, mapped a kernel density estimate of recreation locations, then extracted the estimate as a measure of recreation intensity for specific areas and time periods. I assessed the effect of recreational use intensity on the abundance of a keystone prey species (Piute ground squirrels), the abundance of avian and mammalian predators that rely on ground squirrels, and the breeding density and nesting success of ground-nesting birds at the NCA. The abundance of ground squirrels had a positive relationship with recreation use intensity, potentially due to recreationists selecting sites with squirrels. The presence of native shrub cover had a stronger positive relationship with ground squirrel abundance. The abundance of avian scavengers, particularly common ravens (Corvus corax), was positively related to recreational intensity, as well as power lines and development. The density of a common mammalian scavenger, American badgers (Taxidea taxus), was positively related to recreational intensity. Breeding bird density and nesting success of ground-nesting birds were negatively related to recreational intensity, with the nest success of a more sensitive species, long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus), being most strongly affected. Together, my results highlight the importance of considering variation in recreation intensity, the effect of recreation relative to other conservation threats, and the outcomes for multiple levels of the ecosystem. Together the results of these chapters give insight into the interactions and feedbacks within and between the coupled human and natural system of recreation at the NCA. This provides a more complete view of the full system to balance the needs of the human and natural systems into the future