Recreation, tourism and nature in a changing world : proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 2010

Proceedings of the fifth international conference on monitoring and management of visitor flows in recreational and protected areas : Wageningen, the Netherlands, May 30-June 3, 201

Monument Monitor: using citizen science to preserve heritage

This research demonstrates how data collected by citizen scientists can act as a valuable resource for heritage managers. It establishes to what extent visitors’ photographs can be used to assist in aspects of condition monitoring focusing on biological and plant growth, erosion, stone/mortar movement, water ingress/pooling and antisocial behaviour. This thesis describes the methodology and outcomes of Monument Monitor (MM), a project set up in collaboration with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) that requested visitors at selected Scottish heritage sites to submit photographs of their visit. Across twenty case study sites participants were asked to record evidence of a variety of conservation issues. Patterns of contributions to the project are presented alongside key stakeholder feedback, which show how MM was received and where data collection excelled. Alongside this, the software built to manage and sort submissions is presented as a scalable methodology for the collection of citizen generated data of heritage sites. To demonstrate the applicability of citizen generated data for in depth monitoring and analysis, an environmental model is created using the submissions from one case study which predicts the effect of the changing climate at the site between 1980 - 2080. Machine Learning (ML) is used to analyse submitted data in both classification and segmentation tasks. This application demonstrates the validity of utilising ML tools to assist in the analysis and categorising of volunteer submitted photographs. The outcome of this PhD is a scalable methodology with which conservation staff can use visitor submitted images as an evidence-base to support them in the management of heritage sites

On Media, On Technology, On Life - Interviews with Innovators

The book 'On Media, On Technology, On Life: Interviews with Innovators' features thirteen artist-researchers whose artworks reconfigure the relationships between living bodies, microorganisms, tools, techniques, and institutions to ask new questions of life itself. When encountered for the first time, these are works that seem to challenge a conventional understanding of what artists and scientists do. Through the words of the artists themselves, these interviews explore what it means to spearhead innovative new partnerships able to create work that takes on a life of its own. By posing new questions at the interface between media, technology, and life, the book explores themes such as the life of multi-species bodies, the future of food security in the age of biotechnology, the microbial lives of historic archives, and the biohacker communities of the future. Together, they reveal how we are all actors in this theatre of life innovation

On Media, On Technology, On Life - Interviews with Innovators

The book 'On Media, On Technology, On Life: Interviews with Innovators' features thirteen artist-researchers whose artworks reconfigure the relationships between living bodies, microorganisms, tools, techniques, and institutions to ask new questions of life itself. When encountered for the first time, these are works that seem to challenge a conventional understanding of what artists and scientists do. Through the words of the artists themselves, these interviews explore what it means to spearhead innovative new partnerships able to create work that takes on a life of its own. By posing new questions at the interface between media, technology, and life, the book explores themes such as the life of multi-species bodies, the future of food security in the age of biotechnology, the microbial lives of historic archives, and the biohacker communities of the future. Together, they reveal how we are all actors in this theatre of life innovation

The Case of Inter-Expert Creative Collaboration in Science Gallery Dublin: A Discourse Analytical Approach

The phenomenon of creativity has been a focus of enquiry by psychologists for many years. Compared with individual creativity, much less is known about creativity in collaborative contexts (Glăveanu, 2010; Sawyer, 2010). Taking a sociocultural view of creativity, this study contributes to an emerging strand of research that focusses centrally on how creativity unfolds in the performance of creative collaboration. The research design followed an inductive path conducive to theory building and employed a single case study method (Yin, 2009). Science Gallery Dublin, part of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), is presented as a special place for creative collaboration. In response to calls for further detail about how ideas emerge in group contexts (Glăveanu, 2017; Hargadon and Beckhy, 2006; Harvey and Chia-Yu, 2013; Harvey, 2014; Kurtzberg and Amabile, 2010), this study contributes to the literature in a number of ways. It describes a kind of talk - Idea Talk - that is presented as characteristic of and instrumental in the collaborative development of ideas and solutions. It presents a ‘Creative Convergence framework’ as a model that seeks to explain how ideas emerge through interdisciplinary dialogue. Findings of the study also challenge an established doctrine of creative collaboration and brainstorming which holds that equality of participation is desirable. The implications for practice include an enhanced understanding of the organisational and contextual features that can positively contribute to creative collaborations. The Idea Talk and Creative Convergence contributions, combined with further observations relating to the hosting and facilitation of groups, provide leaders and participants with new insights into how creativity emerges in groups

Behavioural mechanisms of conflict and conflict reduction in a wild breeding polygynous pinniped

Aggressive interactions arise as a means of resolving access to resources such as food, habitat or mates, but these interactions are often costly in time, energy, or physical damage. Therefore, natural selection favours social systems, spatial organisations and behavioural mechanisms which can balance the trade-offs between conflict and increasing fitness. The diversity of behaviours associated with animal conflict has been investigated in a variety of species; however, rarely are these investigations done in wild systems or with consideration of geographic and intra-seasonal variation in environmental factors, resource availability or social dynamics. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to examine the behavioural mechanisms underpinning population and individual conflict and conflict reduction at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. I focused my investigation on a particular form of animal contest, male-male breeding aggression, and used the colonial, wild grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) as my model. Specifically, I studied males at Donna Nook, an atypical breeding colony, in order to: (1) update our current knowledge of grey seal breeding systems by comparing the behavioural patterns at recently expanding mainland colony to previously examined, offshore colonies, (2) investigate the information present in a geographically isolated behaviour used in male grey seal conflict, (3) identify the variation in assessment strategies used by individuals in grey seal conflict and conflict reduction, (4) examine how environmental, anthropogenic, and social environments shape individual variation in aggression, and (5) assess the individual variation in decision-making processes such as mating strategies within- and across seasons. Draws were identified as a common conflict outcome for male grey seals, and the acceptance of draws represented a behavioural mechanism which can promote conflict reduction. Assessment strategies relied on individual energetics when costs of conflict were high, but mutual assessment was used in low-cost contexts. Activity budgets were relatively conserved across colonies, and social stability played a key role in mediating conflict. These findings all demonstrate the trade-offs between conserving energy for reproductive activities and expending energy to ensure exploitation of resources. Methodological approaches which accounted for variation in individual partitioning of aggression and reproductive effort within- and between-seasons revealed that the relative importance of dominance as a driver of conflict, the use of specific aggressive behaviours, and broad assessment and mating strategies were all context-dependent at a variety of temporal and spatial scales. Overall, these findings have provided new insights into the evolution of conflict and conflict reduction within polygynous mating systems. This work highlights the importance of incorporating the natural environmental variation and social dynamics into models of individual behaviours. Such approaches not only reveal the plasticity or consistency in how individuals deal with tradeoffs, but they also allow for observing the importance of behavioural mechanisms such as draws, which might have been ‘artificially selected out’ in controlled, laboratory settings. Finally, by using the grey seal breeding system as a model, this work has contributed to our knowledge of this species’ behavioural repertoire, and the role of topography in the evolution of polygyny and aggression in pinnipeds

(In)formal perceptions and arguments on tourism governance multifaceted concept

A brief exploratory approach to (in)formal perceptions and arguments on tourism governance multifaceted concep