To Do or Doughnut: Defining the Limits of the Urban Safe and Just Operating Space

This master thesis explores the relevance of the doughnut for sustainable urban planning and decision-making in the context of planetary urbanisation. The doughnut economics model outlines an ecologically safe and socially just operating space for humanity to operate in. The objectives of the study are to describe recent advances in downscaling the doughnut to the local context, explore the doughnut's relevance for sustainable urban planning and decision-making, and evaluate these findings in light of ongoing planetary urbanisation. The study is relevant because of the urgent need for urban planning and decision-making practices that consider the global impact of local actions and the emergence of the local as a battleground for global sustainability. The thesis used a qualitative research approach, specifically a literature review and case study method, to describe the application of the doughnut model in the local context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven participants who were involved in applying the doughnut model locally. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and analysed thematically to identify patterns and trends between cases. Results show that working with the doughnut can enhance strategic planning practices by providing a meaningful definition of sustainability that can be communicated both internally and externally. A shared definition of sustainability, among others, promotes goal coherence, and ex-ante consideration of impacts. The findings indicate that local governments have limited capacity to address the different dimensions associated with broader sustainability considerations, calling into question the dominant narrative of the role of cities in saving the planet. The findings indicate that applying the doughnut is mostly relevant for enhancing local exchange processes between actors and strategic planning, but provides limited support for addressing urbanisation impacts at different scales. Working with the doughnut does not inherently challenge the hegemony around local urban and economic growth, as these remain key in meeting the needs of urban dwellers. The results highlight the need for greater efforts to integrate intergovernmental and academic sectors in sustainability planning to address the cross-scale interactions of urbanisation. Recommendations are made for future research and practice. Working with the doughnut stimulates cities to consider the broader impacts of local actions; this provides an opportunity to change the status quo of interactions between actors in the local governance system, possibly redirecting the operations of local institutions. However, this study raises questions about whether incremental actions of local actors will be enough in halting the rate and pace of socio-ecological deterioration in the age of the urban

A “Devolved Minority”: Contemporary German and French Guidebook Perspectives of Wales

Guidebooks play an important role in increasing the visibility of a nation, as they introduce the country to potential visitors and create images prior to travelling. However, they also tend to reinforce stereotypes and create “romantic fictions” (Mahn 2008). This article examines the representation of Wales in French and German guidebooks and consequently elucidates the cultural and political recognition of Wales in these continental texts. The depiction of Wales as a distinct entity on an administrative, or rather on a cultural and linguistic level will be discussed, as well as the commonalities and differences between French and German views

Are you reading what I am reading? The impact of contrasting alphabetic scripts on reading English

This study examines the impact of the crosslinguistic similarity of translation equivalents on word recognition by Russian-English bilinguals, who are fluent in languages with two different but partially overlapping writing systems. Current models for bilingual word recognition, like BIA+, hold that all words that are similar to the input letter string are activated and considered for selection, irrespective of the language to which they belong (Dijkstra and Van Heuven, 2002). These activation models are consistent with empirical data for bilinguals with totally different scripts, like Japanese and English (Miwa et al., 2014). Little is known about the bilingual processing of Russian and English, but studies indicate that the partially distinct character of the Russian and English scripts does not prevent co-activation (Jouravlev and Jared, 2014; Marian and Spivey, 2003; Kaushanskaya and Marian, 2007)

Wales in Continental Guidebooks (1850-2013): A Country on the Imaginative Periphery

This thesis examines the representations of Wales in German-, French- and Dutch-language travel guidebooks published between 1850 and 2013. The analysis focuses on the conceptualisation of the country in these texts within the framework of ‘imaginative peripheries’. This framework is mainly based on the work of Edward Said and his model of ‘imaginative geographies’, which examines the perception of spaces through texts and discourses. In the thesis it is asserted that guidebooks have the power to significantly influence tourists’ views of a destination, thus affecting the socio-spatial construction of the area in question. The thesis scrutinises how Wales is conceptualised as a cultural, linguistic, ethnographic, historical, geographical and political entity and how these representations influence the country’s spatial realisation in the texts. In conclusion it is argued that during the course of the centuries under examination, Wales has been increasingly recognised as a distinct entity, but has simultaneously been moved to the periphery on a textual and conceptual level. Finally, these shifts not only provide insights into the way Wales is perceived in overseas travel guidebooks, but also reflect broader discourses concerning the changing balance of power in our globalising world

Projections of the Transient State-Dependency of Climate Feedbacks

When the climate system is forced, e.g. by emission of greenhouse gases, it responds on multiple time scales. As temperatures rise, feedback processes might intensify or weaken. Current methods to analyze feedback strength, however, do not take such state dependency into account; they only consider changes in (global mean) temperature and assume all feedbacks are linearly related to that. This makes (transient) changes in feedback strengths almost intangible and generally leads to underestimation of future warming. Here, we present a multivariate (and spatially explicit) framework that facilitates dissection of climate feedbacks over time scales. Using this framework, information on the composition of projected (transient) future climates and feedback strengths can be obtained. Moreover, it can be used to make projections for many emission scenarios through linear response theory. The new framework is illustrated using the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2).Comment: main text: 11 pages, 4 figures, 1 table Supporting Information: 14 pages, 17 figures, 1 table, 8 movie

Multivariate Estimations of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity from Short Transient Warming Simulations

One of the most used metrics to gauge the effects of climate change is the equilibrium climate sensitivity, defined as the long-term (equilibrium) temperature increase resulting from instantaneous doubling of atmospheric CO$_2$. Since global climate models cannot be fully equilibrated in practice, extrapolation techniques are used to estimate the equilibrium state from transient warming simulations. Because of the abundance of climate feedbacks - spanning a wide range of temporal scales - it is hard to extract long-term behaviour from short-time series; predominantly used techniques are only capable of detecting the single most dominant eigenmode, thus hampering their ability to give accurate long-term estimates. Here, we present an extension to those methods by incorporating data from multiple observables in a multi-component linear regression model. This way, not only the dominant but also the next-dominant eigenmodes of the climate system are captured, leading to better long-term estimates from short, non-equilibrated time series.Comment: Main Text (10 pages, 4 figures) plus Supporting Information (36 pages, 18 figures, 1 table

Antecedent precipitation as a potential proxy for landslide incidence in South West UK

This paper considers the effects of antecedent precipitation on landslide incidence in the UK. During 2012-2013 an extraordinary amount of precipitation resulted in an increase in the number of landslides reported in the UK, highlighting the importance of hydrogeological triggering. Slope failures (landslides on engineered slopes) in particular caused widespread disruption to transport services and damage to property. SW England and S Wales were most affected. Easy-to-use and accessible indicators of potential landslide activity are required for planning, preparedness and response and therefore analyses have been carried out to determine whether antecedent effective precipitation can be used as a proxy for landslide incidence. It is shown that for all landslides long-term antecedent precipitation provides an important preparatory factor and that relatively small landslides, such as slope failures, occur within a short period of time following subsequent heavy precipitation. Deep-seated, rotational landslides have a longer response time as their pathway to instability follows a much more complex hydrogeological response. Statistical analyses of the BGS landslide database and of weather records has enabled determination of the probability of at least one landslide occurring based on antecedent precipitation signals for SW England and S Wales. This ongoing research is of part of a suite of analyses to provide tools to identify the likelihood of regional landslides occurrence in the UK