Co-creating a smart tourism local service system in rural areas: a case study from south

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe most recent trends show an increase in the urbanization of cities, and, consequently, inner territories become more depopulated, business activities get closed, services get reduced and the overall services become poor and not able to offer quality offers to visitors (Bolay, 2020). According to (United Nations, 2019), by 2050 more than three out of four people will be living in urban areas. Nowadays, many studies have addressed the evolution and features of Smart Cities (Van Dijk & Teuben, 2015) and tourism is also one of those spheres that got digitally transformed by Smart Cities (Khan, Woo, Nam, & Chathoth, 2017). One of the features of smart applications is the possibility to let the user be a driver of value in creating and sharing contents (Kontogianni & Alepis, 2020). However, the explosion of smart solutions enabled by the latest technological innovations has been mostly contextualized in urban environments while fewer solutions have been developed in less urbanized rural areas (Steyn & Johanson, 2010). The methodology used employs the merging of two of the core contemporary service research approaches: Service Science and Service-Dominant logic; the first offers an organizational framework to generate and integrate value co-creation in terms of a smart service systems (Polese, Botti, Grimaldi, Monta & Vesci, 2018). For the same purpose, but differently, the second proposes a different layout called service ecosystems (Vargo & Lusch, 2016). This combination of approaches overcomes individual model limitations by setting an integrated model that can be employed to hypercompetitive and experience-based sectors (Polese, Botti, Grimaldi, Monta & Vesci, 2018), and that was adopted by using a case study methodology, relying on semi-structured interviews

Population genomic inference of ecology, conservation, evolution, and demographic history of Atlantic seahorses and pipefishes (Syngnathidae)

In the Atlantic Ocean powerful directional ocean currents can play a significant role in the formation and persistence of marine species. Syngnathidae fishes have a sparse fossil record, high morphological plasticity, and many of these species are difficult to observe in the wild, therefore they frequently lack life history information and the status of regional lineages and species designations are often obscure. In this dissertation I explore the ecology, evolution, and conservation of primarily Atlantic seahorses (Hippocampus) and pipefish (Syngnathus) in four core chapters, using differing genetic datasets ranging from mitochondrial DNA to genome-wide RAD sequences. Most Synganthids have the potential to disperse passively by rafting on floating vegetation, and are direct developers, which is thought to limit their active mobility, yet many species have widespread distributions. The majority of genetic research on Syngnathids fishes has focused on Indo-Pacific species, however the Atlantic Ocean is home to dozens of species of pipefishes from nine genera and roughly 1/5th of the world\u27s seahorses species. In Chapter 1, I use six loci to infer the species tree for all Atlantic seahorses and infer the demographic history and evolution of the Hippocampus erectus complex. The results of this study support the establishment of an ancestral population of the H. erectus complex in the Americas, followed by the Amazon River outflow splitting it into Caribbean/North American H. erectus and South American H. patagonicus at a time of increased sedimentation and outflow. Following this split, colonization occurred across the Atlantic via the Gulf Stream currents with subsequent trans-Atlantic isolation. Based on the results of Chapter 1, the species H. erectus exhibited a panmictic genetic structure from Latin America to temperate New York waters. However, inhabitants of the temperate region are considered by some ecologists to be tropical vagrants that only arrive during warm seasons from the southern provinces and perish as temperatures decline. Contrary to the findings of Chapter 1, in Chapter 2, I use thousands of RADseq loci and show strong support that temperate inhabitants are genetically diverged from southern populations and are composed of an isolated and persistent ancestral gene pool. The aim of Chapter 3 is to investigate how major current forces as well as climatic and geographic processes have shaped the evolutionary and demographic history of western Atlantic seahorses (Hippocampus) and pipefishes (Syngnathus). This Chapter takes a comparative approach across five codistributed species (two seahorses and three pipefishes). Genomic patterns of subpopulation divergence and post-divergence gene flow may be shared amongst fish species with similar life history traits, however ecological differences (i.e., macroclimatic tolerance and rafting propensity) may impact the rates of gene exchange and/or isolation times between subpopulations. The result of this study show how directional ocean currents and the life history trait of rafting propensity impacts population divergence and connectivity, and predicts gene flow directionality and magnitude in four out of five of the focal taxa. Lastly in Chapter 4, I use a molecular forensics approach to track the U.S. dried seahorse trade. Due to global exploitation, the genus Hippocampus are the only fish to have all species listed under the Convention of International trade of endangered species (CITES). Millions of individuals are traded each year for the use in traditional Chinese medicine as well as for souvenirs and crafts. Using DNA barcoding, while mentoring high school and undergraduate students, we identified and compared specimens collected from two primary U.S. dried seahorse end-markets: 1) traditional Chinese medicine and, 2) Internet and coastal souvenir retailers. The results of this study found a significant contrast in both the species composition and size of individuals being sold between each market

Whitewater Ecotourism Development In Bhutan: Opportunities And Challenges for Local Communities

Whitewater raft and kayak ecotourism can provide environmental, social-cultural, and economic benefits and opportunities to local communities, but can also result in respective challenges. Globally, adventure ecotourism is seen as a potent win-win strategy for conservation and local community development; however, there is a significant proportion of adventure and whitewater tourism that do not meet ecotourism tenets, and there is a call for incorporating greater investment in local community involvement. Whitewater ecotourism is particularly significant because of the unique opportunities and challenges associated with rivers, the resource upon which the industry directly depends. Clean, free-flowing rivers provide a range of crucial ecosystem services, but are simultaneously experiencing rampant threats to existence, such as widespread large-scale hydropower development and increases in waste. Worldwide there is a call for growing local, national, and international efforts to address these threats. In Bhutan, a Himalayan Buddhist kingdom with a small but growing whitewater ecotourism industry, proposals for large-scale hydropower development and growing amounts of trash are changing Bhutan’s rivers and communities, yet there has been little research conducted on impacts of whitewater ecotourism related to communities and rivers in Bhutan.Through a case study in Panbang, Bhutan with the community-based raft company River Guides of Panbang, this research applies a qualitative methods approach to explore whitewater ecotourism related opportunities and challenges for local communities. The findings offer unique aspects of whitewater ecotourism in Bhutan; perceived opportunities, constraints, and constraint negotiations to increase women’s participation in whitewater ecotourism as river guides; and opportunities for the whitewater ecotourism industry in Panbang to engage in addressing Bhutan’s river threats of hydropower development and waste management. These outcomes provide a foundational understanding for specific benefits and constraints associated with whitewater ecotourism in Panbang, Bhutan that can inform sustainable tourism planning for whitewater ecotourism and river conservation initiatives at the local and national scale

Logs, labor, and living: an archaeological investigation of African-American laborers at the Upper and Middle Landing sawmills at Natchez-Under-the-Hill

By combining investigations of two sawmill complexes at Natchez-Under-the-Hill, Mississippi, and ethnohistoric data from contemporaneous mill operations in the region, this thesis analyzes aspects of two mid-nineteenth century lumber operations. It focuses not only on the machinery and technology involved in these operations, but also on the individuals, many of whom were enslaved prior to the Civil War, whose skills and labors provided the backbone for these early milling enterprises. The data for this research were derived from archival documents, oral testimonies, and artifacts recovered from archaeological survey and excavation. The archaeological data comes from excavations carried out at the circa 1841-1870 Brown Cozzens Sawmill (the Well site 22AD993) in the summer of 1999 and the survey in the spring of 1999 of the Learned Mill Road Area. Archaeological survey of the former Andrew Brown-Rufus Learned sawmill at Upper Landing and excavations at the Cozzens sawmill at Middle Landing yielded valuable information regarding the spatial layout of the mill complexes as well as details about the working and living conditions at these sawmills through time. At the former location of the Andrew Brown sawmill, only a few artifacts were recovered in the survey dating to the operation of the mill at this location from 1818 to 1917. Archaeological investigations at the former Cozzens Sawmill yielded information on the location and operation of this sawmill complex along the riverfront. A brick foundation provided information on the orientation and placement of the historic sawmill and its mechanical operation. Artifacts excavated from a brick-lined well represent an archaeological assemblage from a mid-nineteenth century sawmill complex. Parts of the mill\u27s machinery, food items, medicine bottles, clothing material, and personal items were excavated from the feature. Through the analysis of the Upper and Middle Landing sawmill operations, which involved the compilation of various textual source, a greater understanding of not only the financial and technical operation of a mid-nineteenth century sawmill in Natchez was garnered, but a greater insight was gained into the social and spatial workings of a mill operation and the dangers workers faced during this turbulent time

MP730: Land, Timber, and Recreation in Maine\u27s Northwoods: Essays by Lloyd C. Irland

This work is a collection of essays, all of them previously published but for the Introduction. They are about Maine’s forests, with a strong focus on the “Maine Woods” in Thoreau’s sense—the vast area of unsettled or lightly settled wildlands that stretch across western, northern, and eastern Maine. Much of the state is influenced by these woods—moose have wandered to the backyard of the Governor’s residence in Augusta. For some purposes, however, it is difficult to separate the wildlands for statistical treatment. This work aims to inform the reader about some of the important resource management conditions, issues, and trends in this region. Its focus is mostly on timber and recreational resources, the related economic values, and some of the policy issues related to them.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1035/thumbnail.jp