Shorebird Populations on the Wollongong Open Coastline: An Evaluation of Occurrence Records, Species Richness and Key Threats

Shorebirds consistently serve as indicator species for measuring the extent of environmental change. As a consequence of the rapid shift in global climatic conditions and anthropogenic interference, long-term trends in shorebird populations demonstrate an alarming decline. Focusing in on the open coastline of Wollongong, NSW, there is a lack of up-to-date, comprehensive ecological information of shorebirds for use in the Wollongong City Council’s (WCC) upcoming Coastal Management Plan (CMP). This thesis aims to source the available occurrence records from citizen science databases eBird and Birdlife Australia, as well as the BioNet Atlas database to produce an inventory of shorebirds within the Wollongong LGA and open coastline. Field studies of dog visitation are conducted to quantify the efficacy of dog access zones within the Wollongong LGA, coupled with human visitation data to examine these key threats to shorebirds alongside the growing human population. Additionally, an assessment of the potential for citizen science data to be incorporated into the WCC’s CMP is explored. The key findings suggest that there is a wide diversity of 40 species of shorebird present in the LGA’s record with variable degrees of spatial and temporal extent, and 18 species recorded on the coastline, correlated strongly with user effort and spatial accessibility. Field studies of dog visitation concluded that off-leash and no-dog access zones are reflected in the counts of dogs on these beaches, but that timedon leash zones have a high rate of non-compliant behaviours with a leashing rate of 33%. A combination of physical protective measures, like fencing and mesh caging, in conjunction with signage indicating both the location of beach-nesting shorebird nests and the severe impact of off-leash dogs, an increase in nest count and chick survival can be achieved. Further, through the integration of citizen science data using model-based analysis specifically designed for citizen science, expert involvement for quality control, and engagement with the birding community through incentive, training and birdwatching event organisation, a wider scope of ecological surveying of shorebirds in the Wollongong LGA’s CMP can be effectively achieved. By compiling available ecological data, assessing threats, and proposing strategies for citizen science integration, this study contributes a foundational insight for the conservation and management of shorebirds within the WCC’s CMP

Quality of experience in affective pervasive environments

The confluence of miniaturised powerful devices, widespread communication networks and mass remote storage has caused a fundamental shift in the user interaction design paradigm. The distinction between system and user in pervasive environments is evolving into an increasingly integrated loop of interaction, raising a number of opportunities to provide enhanced and personalised experiences. We propose a platform, based on a smart architecture, to address the identified opportunities in pervasive computing. Smart systems aim at acting upon an environment for improving quality of experience: a subjective measure that has been defined as an emotional reaction to products or services. The inclusion of an emotional dimension allows us to measure individual user responses and deliver personalised services with the potential to influence experiences positively. The platform, Cloud2Bubble, leverages pervasive systems to aggregate user and environment data with the goal of addressing personal preferences and supra-functional requirements. This, combined with its societal implications, results in a set of design principles as a concrete fruition of design contractualism. In particular, this thesis describes: - a review of intelligent ubiquitous environments and relevant technologies, including a definition of user experience as a dynamic affective construct; - a specification of main components for personal data aggregation and service personalisation, without compromising privacy, security or usability; - the implementation of a software platform and a methodological procedure for its instantiation; - an evaluation of the developed platform and its benefits for urban mobility and public transport information systems; - a set of design principles for the design of ubiquitous systems, with an impact on individual experience and collective awareness. Cloud2Bubble contributes towards the development of affective intelligent ubiquitous systems with the potential to enhance user experience in pervasive environments. In addition, the platform aims at minimising the risk of user digital exposure while supporting collective action.Open Acces

Outsourcing Information Technology and the Insider Threat

As one of our nation\u27s top critical infrastructures, telecommunications is an essential element of many aspects of our lives upon which we, as a society, are becoming increasingly dependent. Computers, digital telephone switches, and interconnected information technology (IT) systems impact finances, travel, infrastructure management, and missions of national defense. This research examined whether the trend in increased outsourcing of information technology systems is a significant contributing factor to a reportedly increasing amount of insider attacks. In light of changing social, global economic, and technological conditions, the paradigm in which risk analysis, management practices, and operational and personnel security practices are applied to protect information has shifted over the last decade. A comprehensive model of the discursive nature of the insider threat in the outsourced IT environment was developed using a qualitative grounded theory approach put forth by Glaser and Strauss in 1967. The theory generated by this research suggests a multidimensional real and growing threat resulting from outsourced IT as well as preconditions for continued future growth of the insider threat phenomenon

Characterizing the Natural System: Toward Sustained, Integrated Coastal Ocean Acidification Observing Networks to Facilitate Resource Management and Decision Support

Coastal ocean ecosystems have always served human populations they provide food security, livelihoods, coastal protection, and defense. Ocean acidification is a global threat to these ecosystem services, particularly when other local and regional stressors combine with it to jeopardize coastal health. Monitoring efforts call for a coordinated global approach toward sustained, integrated coastal ocean health observing networks to address the region-specific mix of factors while also adhering to global ocean acidification observing network principles to facilitate comparison among regions for increased utility and understanding. Here, we generalize guidelines for scoping and designing regional coastal ocean acidification observing networks and provide examples of existing efforts. While challenging in the early stages of coordinating the design and prioritizing the implementation Of these observing networks, it is essential to actively engage all of the relevant stakeholder groups from the outset, including private industries, public agencies, regulatory bodies, decision makers, and the general public. The long-term sustainability of these critical observing networks will rely on leveraging of resources and the strength of partnerships across the consortium of stakeholders and those implementing coastal ocean health observing networks

Urban Planning principles as mechanisms for improving informal trading opportunities: A case study of inner-city Johannesburg

The inner city of Johannesburg presents a high number of informal traders who seek to make use of urban public space in their livelihood strategies. However, the forces driving the performance of informal traders have not led to positive development of opportunities for traders. Operation Clean Sweep in 2013, was a means of strongly enforcing the informal trading by-laws and removing traders from the pavements and public spaces in the inner-city Johannesburg. Regulation of informal trade has been conducted by the progressively formulated informal trading policy, however, it possesses ineffective implementation strategies. This research addresses the driving forces that affect informal traders' opportunities and the issues that arise from these present forces. The three driving forces which are of greatest impact on informal traders and are investigated in this research, institutions, regulatory and infrastructural forces. The study shows that informal traders experience complex dual realities affected by these driving forces and their need to engage in the informal economy to meet their livelihood strategies. The research seeks to address the use of urban public space by informal traders in meeting their needs, while understanding how these spaces are shaped and determined. The study aims at evaluating the performance of three case study areas located within the inner-city Johannesburg. The performance is measured in terms of meeting the needs of informal traders and providing opportunities for their economic and social development, while ensuring that the needs of the collective public are addressed as well. The background reading and desktop study were used to establish research questions before conducting interviews. These interviews were conducted with informal traders, government officials, private sector, NGOs and civil society. Using case study and discourse analysis methods, and the previously mentioned techniques, this study addresses the issues that informal traders face in light of the driving forces. It also examines how these have shaped the performance of urban pubic space in meeting the needs of informal traders as well as the collective public. The study aims to address these issues with urban planning principles and supplements these with policy recommendations to improve opportunities afforded to informal traders. While the recommendations put forward in this study require a long-term plan, such a plan also requires improved integration between governing departments and managing bodies. This research aims to improve this integration and governing structure, through recommending that increased responsibility for informal trading be taken up by the Johannesburg City Council Development Planning Department

TOWARDS NEW PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICE? FINDING THE OPTIMAL DESIGN OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE CONTRACTING ARRANGEMENTS. EVIDENCE FROM TWO REGIONAL CASES

The latest labour market reforms in Italy have brought the issue of strengthening public employment services (PES) and active labour market policies (ALMPs). With the decree 150/2015, a new policy tool has been introduced for activation purposes: the \u201creintegration voucher\u201d (assegno di ricollocazione - AdR). It is interesting to consider the nature of this tool, as implementation of a quasi-market model in Italian PES. Labour market policies in Italy have already undergone deep reform process between the second half of the Nineties and the early Two-Thousands. During this phase, there was a combination between marketization and decentralization reforms. Italian regions received policy competence for ALMPs and the responsibility for outsourcing employment services to private providers. These started to follow different logics of contracting-out, thus creating the conditions for a high level of territorial differentiation. Contracting-out of services, however, requires governance mechanisms that can mitigate the risks of opportunistic behaviour of private operators, who can tend to place only less disadvantaged people on the labour market (creaming) or avoid higher efforts to go faster toward remuneration (parking). These effects lead to sub-optimal results in terms of the equitability of the performance. In these terms, an \u201coptimal design\u201d could be approximated as the one able to take into account both economic (efficiency and effectiveness of the performance) and social goals (equity of the performance, avoiding opportunistic behaviour of private providers involved). This analysis is realized by means of a comparison between two regions considered as the two most dissimilar cases in the context of PES Italian regional differentiation: Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna. These two cases can be placed at the extremes of a hypothetical continuum defined on the basis of the degree of market exposure of PES regional models. Lombardy in particular has caught the attention showing a quasi-market model very similar to that of the AdR, giving the possibility to test the mechanisms of the new national scheme, not yet fully implemented, using a local experience already well established. In this way it will be possible to know what the consequences of a greater market exposure of Italian regional PES could be, considering both the impact in terms of effectiveness and equitability of the outcomes. The two cases are comparable not only in terms of capacity building and level of economic development, but especially regarding their political and institutional contexts, being characterized by a symmetrical and divergent trajectory of formation of their models. This has been the result of a layering process favoured in both the cases by a similar strength of different actors\u2019 coalitions. The research then will go for an in-depth analysis of market-based governance in regional contexts, relying on the methodology of policy evaluation, much used for studies in this field

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