2,693 research outputs found
Making the third mission possible: investigating academic staff experiences of community-engaged learning
Community-engaged Learning (CEL) is an intentional and structured pedagogical approach, which links learning objectives with community needs. Most of the existing literature is centred on Service-learning practice in the United States. To date, there have been no in-depth studies on the experiences and perspectives of practitioners who engage with CEL in a UK or more specifically, a Scottish Higher Education context.
The thesis presents data collected from a qualitative study utilising documentary analysis of government and institutional literature and 23 in-depth interviews with University practitioners, managers and leaders. I explored factors which influence the perspectives and experiences of CEL practitioners at one Scottish, research-intensive Russell Group university.
Adopting a research ontology informed by Margaret Archer’s Morphogenetic, Critical Realist approach, I analyse the data collected through the lens of an emancipatory Neo-Aristotelian virtue-ethics framework and argue that CEL practice at this university contributes to, what the evidence suggests is, its ultimate purpose: promoting and cultivating individual flourishing and emancipatory critical thinking for the common good. Focussing on university-community engagement, the findings suggest that there are some inconsistencies between how the University is portrayed in public-facing literature compared to the level of institutional support individual practitioners of CEL report receiving. I conclude that failure to adequately support CEL activity in the future could negatively impact the sustainability and quality of community engagement at Alba University
Climate Change and Critical Agrarian Studies
Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the institutionalised responses in agrarian settings, highlighting what exclusions and inclusions result. It explores how different people — in relation to class and other co-constituted axes of social difference such as gender, race, ethnicity, age and occupation — are affected by climate change, as well as the climate adaptation and mitigation responses being implemented in rural areas. The book in turn explores how climate change – and the responses to it - affect processes of social differentiation, trajectories of accumulation and in turn agrarian politics. Finally, the book examines what strategies are required to confront climate change, and the underlying political-economic dynamics that cause it, reflecting on what this means for agrarian struggles across the world. The 26 chapters in this volume explore how the relationship between capitalism and climate change plays out in the rural world and, in particular, the way agrarian struggles connect with the huge challenge of climate change. Through a huge variety of case studies alongside more conceptual chapters, the book makes the often-missing connection between climate change and critical agrarian studies. The book argues that making the connection between climate and agrarian justice is crucial
Forest planning utilizing high spatial resolution data
This thesis presents planning approaches adapted for high spatial resolution data from remote sensing and evaluate whether such approaches can enhance the provision of ecosystem services from forests. The presented methods are compared with conventional, stand-level methods. The main focus lies on the planning concept of dynamic treatment units (DTU), where treatments in small units for modelling ecosystem processes and forest management are clustered spatiotemporally to form treatment units realistic in practical forestry. The methodological foundation of the thesis is mainly airborne laser scanning data (raster cells 12.5x12.5 m2), different optimization methods and the forest decision support system Heureka. Paper I demonstrates a mixed-integer programming model for DTU planning, and the results highlight the economic advances of clustering harvests. Paper II and III presents an addition to a DTU heuristic from the literature and further evaluates its performance. Results show that direct modelling of fixed costs for harvest operations can improve plans and that DTU planning enhances the economic outcome of forestry. The higher spatial resolution of data in the DTU approach enables the planning model to assign management with higher precision than if stand-based planning is applied. Paper IV evaluates whether this phenomenon is also valid for ecological values. Here, an approach adapted for cell-level data is compared to a schematic approach, dealing with stand-level data, for the purpose of allocating retention patches. The evaluation of economic and ecological values indicate that high spatial resolution data and an adapted planning approach increased the ecological values, while differences in economy were small. In conclusion, the studies in this thesis demonstrate how forest planning can utilize high spatial resolution data from remote sensing, and the results suggest that there is a potential to increase the overall provision of ecosystem services if such methods are applied
Revisiting the capitalization of public transport accessibility into residential land value: an empirical analysis drawing on Open Science
Background: The delivery and effective operation of public transport is fundamental for a for a transition to low-carbon emission transport systems’. However, many cities face budgetary challenges in providing and operating this type of infrastructure. Land value capture (LVC) instruments, aimed at recovering all or part of the land value uplifts triggered by actions other than the landowner, can alleviate some of this pressure. A key element of LVC lies in the increment in land value associated with a particular public action. Urban economic theory supports this idea and considers accessibility to be a core element for determining residential land value. Although the empirical literature assessing the relationship between land value increments and public transport infrastructure is vast, it often assumes homogeneous benefits and, therefore, overlooks relevant elements of accessibility. Advancements in the accessibility concept in the context of Open Science can ease the relaxation of such assumptions.
Methods: This thesis draws on the case of Greater Mexico City between 2009 and 2019. It focuses on the effects of the main public transport network (MPTN) which is organised in seven temporal stages according to its expansion phases. The analysis incorporates location based accessibility measures to employment opportunities in order to assess the benefits of public transport infrastructure. It does so by making extensive use of the open-source software OpenTripPlanner for public transport route modelling (≈ 2.1 billion origin-destination routes). Potential capitalizations are assessed according to the hedonic framework. The property value data includes individual administrative mortgage records collected by the Federal Mortgage Society (≈ 800,000). The hedonic function is estimated using a variety of approaches, i.e. linear models, nonlinear models, multilevel models, and spatial multilevel models. These are estimated by the maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods. The study also examines possible spatial aggregation bias using alternative spatial aggregation schemes according to the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) literature.
Results: The accessibility models across the various temporal stages evidence the spatial heterogeneity shaped by the MPTN in combination with land use and the individual perception of residents. This highlights the need to transition from measures that focus on the characteristics of transport infrastructure to comprehensive accessibility measures which reflect such heterogeneity. The estimated hedonic function suggests a robust, positive, and significant relationship between MPTN accessibility and residential land value in all the modelling frameworks in the presence of a variety of controls. The residential land value increases between 3.6% and 5.7% for one additional standard deviation in MPTN accessibility to employment in the final set of models. The total willingness to pay (TWTP) is considerable, ranging from 0.7 to 1.5 times the equivalent of the capital costs of the bus rapid transit Line-7 of the Metrobús system. A sensitivity analysis shows that the hedonic model estimation is sensitive to the MAUP. In addition, the use of a post code zoning scheme produces the closest results compared to the smallest spatial analytical scheme (0.5 km hexagonal grid).
Conclusion: The present thesis advances the discussion on the capitalization of public transport on residential land value by adopting recent contributions from the Open Science framework. Empirically, it fills a knowledge gap given the lack of literature around this topic in this area of study. In terms of policy, the findings support LVC as a mechanism of considerable potential. Regarding fee-based LVC instruments, there are fairness issues in relation to the distribution of charges or exactions to households that could be addressed using location based measures. Furthermore, the approach developed for this analysis serves as valuable guidance for identifying sites with large potential for the implementation of development based instruments, for instance land readjustments or the sale/lease of additional development rights
Evaluating the sustainability and resiliency of local food systems
With an ever-rising global population and looming environmental challenges such as climate change and soil degradation, it is imperative to increase the sustainability of food production. The drastic rise in food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic has further shown a pressing need to increase the resiliency of food systems. One strategy to reduce the dependence on complex, vulnerable global supply chains is to strengthen local food systems, such as by producing more food in cities. This thesis uses an interdisciplinary, food systems approach to explore aspects of sustainability and resiliency within local food systems.
Lifecycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate how farm scale, distance to consumer, and management practices influence environmental impacts for different local agriculture models in two case study locations: Georgia, USA and England, UK. Farms were grouped based on urbanisation level and management practices, including: urban organic, peri-urban organic, rural organic, and rural conventional. A total of 25 farms and 40 crop lifecycles were evaluated, focusing on two crops (kale and tomatoes) and including impacts from seedling production through final distribution to the point of sale. Results were extremely sensitive to the allocation of composting burdens (decomposition emissions), with impact variation between organic farms driven mainly by levels of compost use. When composting burdens were attributed to compost inputs, the rural conventional category in the U.S. and the rural organic category in the UK had the lowest average impacts per kg sellable crop produced, including the lowest global warming potential (GWP). However, when subtracting avoided burdens from the municipal waste stream from compost inputs, trends reversed entirely, with urban or peri-urban farm categories having the lowest impacts (often negative) for GWP and marine eutrophication. Overall, farm management practices were the most important factor driving environmental impacts from local food supply chains.
A soil health assessment was then performed on a subset of the UK farms to provide insight to ecosystem services that are not captured within LCA frameworks. Better soil health was observed in organically-farmed and uncultivated soils compared to conventionally farmed soils, suggesting higher ecosystem service provisioning as related to improved soil structure, flood mitigation, erosion control, and carbon storage. However, relatively high heavy metal concentrations were seen on urban and peri-urban farms, as well as those located in areas with previous mining activity. This implies that there are important services and disservices on farms that are not captured by LCAs.
Zooming out from a focus on food production, a qualitative methodology was used to explore experiences of food insecurity and related health and social challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourteen individuals receiving emergency food parcels from a community food project in Sheffield, UK were interviewed. Results showed that maintaining food security in times of crisis requires a diverse set of individual, household, social, and place-based resources, which were largely diminished or strained during the pandemic. Drawing upon social capital and community support was essential to cope with a multiplicity of hardship, highlighting a need to develop community food infrastructure that supports ideals of mutual aid and builds connections throughout the food supply chain. Overall, this thesis shows that a range of context-specific solutions are required to build sustainable and resilient food systems. This can be supported by increasing local control of food systems and designing strategies to meet specific community needs, whilst still acknowledging a shared global responsibility to protect ecosystem, human, and planetary health
Climate change: strategies for mitigation and adaptation
The sustainability of life on Earth is under increasing threat due to human-induced climate change. This perilous change in the Earth's climate is caused by increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, primarily due to emissions associated with burning fossil fuels. Over the next two to three decades, the effects of climate change, such as heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, storms, and floods, are expected to worsen, posing greater risks to human health and global stability. These trends call for the implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Pollution and environmental degradation exacerbate existing problems and make people and nature more susceptible to the effects of climate change. In this review, we examine the current state of global climate change from different perspectives. We summarize evidence of climate change in Earth’s spheres, discuss emission pathways and drivers of climate change, and analyze the impact of climate change on environmental and human health. We also explore strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation and highlight key challenges for reversing and adapting to global climate change
SCENARIO DEVELOPMENT FOR URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT PLANNING FOR UNCERTAINTY
The urban water sector is confronted with a multitude of challenges. Rapid population growth, changing political landscapes, aging water infrastructures, and the worsening climate crisis are creating a range of uncertainties in the sector around managing water. Scenarios have been used extensively in the environmental domain to plan for and capture uncertainties to develop plausible futures, including the field of urban water management. Scenarios are key in enabling plans and creating roadmaps to attain desired futures. Despite the advantages and opportunities that scenarios offer for planning, they also have limitations; generally, and within the urban water space. Firstly, the growing uncertainty surrounding urban water management systems necessitates a focused review specifically aimed at the use of scenarios in urban water management. This thesis presents a systematic review to empirically investigate the crucial dimensions of urban water scenarios. Through this review, key knowledge gaps are highlighted, and recommendations are proposed to address these gaps. Secondly, scenarios often depict distressing, almost dystopian futures. Though negative future visions help understand the consequences of present trends and aid in anticipating imminent threats, the limited exploration of positive future visions can make it challenging to find the direction to transform. Optimistic scenarios delve into what people want for the future and capture how their aspirations shape them. Imagining positive visions encourage innovative thinking, creates agency, and creates pathways to desired futures. There is therefore a recognition to move towards more positive, desirable futures. This thesis uses a narrative, participatory scenario process, the SEEDS method, to develop positive visions of urban water futures. The Greater Sydney region in New South Wales, Australia is used as a case study to evaluate the applicability of this approach for urban water management. The urban water sector in the Greater Sydney region faces a multitude of challenges including impacts from climate change, managing diverse water supply sources, and meeting future water demand. These challenges create an increasingly uncertain future for the water sector, where the scale and nature of water services needed in the Greater Sydney region can be unclear. Hence, the Greater Sydney region is selected as the case study region to apply the SEEDS method and develop scenarios for urban water management to plan for future uncertainties. Thirdly, only a few scenario studies include surprises, the unexpected events, which make scenarios useful for planning. Challenges around capturing surprises in scenarios include a lack of structured approaches as well as a lack of evaluation of those methods that have been developed. This thesis discusses the effectiveness and suitability of various surprise methods for scenario development. These methods have been applied in the context of the SEEDS method for urban water management. Finally, there is a lack of evaluation of the tools used to cope with surprises as well as a lack of evaluation efforts of urban water management scenario studies. The assessment of the SEEDS approach for urban water management as well as the different surprise methods for scenario development requires evaluation criteria. This thesis develops and presents an evaluation criteria list based on existing literature that captures key criteria required for adequate assessment of the surprise methods and the scenario process. This thesis contributes to the fields of scenario development and urban water management, and the use of surprises within scenarios. Critical gaps in existing urban water management scenario practices are highlighted and key recommendations are proposed to fill the gaps. Through the pilot study and full-scale implementation of a positive-visioning, narrative-based scenario approach - the SEEDS method, the thesis demonstrates that the SEEDS method is applicable for urban water planning and shows potential for use at different stages of water planning. The positive visions generated through the SEEDS method highlight fundamental aspirations for the urban water sector, possible challenges, and conflicts, and discuss pathways to achieve positive future visions. By using in-situ experimentation and engaging participants with expertise in the relevant field, this thesis provides a realistic evaluation of the scenario process and surprise methods. This thesis thus fills the critical gap about the lack of evaluation in urban water management scenario processes by assessing the scenario method using selected evaluation criteria. Further, the thesis contributes towards the development of quality surprise methods through application and evaluation, thus addressing the gap about the lack of evaluation of the methods used to explore surprise events. Finally, the lack of surprises in scenarios is addressed by presenting different methods that can be used to explore surprise events. Guidance is provided to researchers working with scenario development to understand the different surprise methods available and for choosing the appropriate method(s) to plan for uncertain futures
Spatial Interaction Models in a Big Data Grocery Retailing Environment
Grocery expenditure is responsible for around 10% of total household spend in the UK, making the grocery retail market worth over £200bn a year in 2021. The size of this market and the nature of retailing competition makes it important for retailers to make the right decisions. One such decision is the location of their stores for which there have been a number of changes in the location, format and channel of consumer interaction along with the methods that have been employed to determine new store location. In recent years it has been suggested that the spatial interaction model is the most appropriate method for estimating new store revenue and hence location. However, previous attempts to explore the performance of the spatial interaction model in grocery retailing have been limited by access to loyalty card data. In this thesis we show that these models are unable to account for the heterogeneity in store conditions and consumer behaviour to model total store revenue. Notably, we find that at the regional scale the size of the errors are such that these models are unlikely to be used consistently in practice for estimating store revenue or locating new stores. Furthermore, that the performance achieved in previous applications are unlikely to be consistently replicated. Thus our results demonstrate that the spatial interaction model in its current form is no longer appropriate for modelling grocery store revenue. It is anticipated that these results may become a starting point for the development and application of alternative forms of models and methods for predicting grocery retailing store revenue. Notably, such new methods must be able to account for recent changes in consumer behaviour such as convenience store shopping, multi-purpose trips and the growing influence of e-commerce, alongside changes in retailers interaction strategies
- …