Addressing WaSH challenges in Pacific Island Countries: A participatory marketing systems mapping approach to empower informal settlement community action

Addressing complex and challenging issues entails access to credible systems information in the form of systems maps or diagrams. The purpose of our paper is to describe a participatory action research (PAR) systems mapping activity that was undertaken by an urban informal settlement community in a small Pacific Island Country. A total of 19 households participated in a systems mapping activity to map a household-level water or sanitation system. The individual household systems maps and related data were then used to construct a de-identified aggregated water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) marketing systems map (and accompanying narratives) for the informal settlement. We present the marketing systems map, which delineated a series of marketing exchanges, and report on how the map assisted the community to address a number of expressed needs. We conclude by suggesting that systems mapping is a valuable activity that communities could undertake to generate credible systems information to inform and empower collective planning and actions

Human effects on ecological connectivity in aquatic ecosystems: Integrating scientific approaches to support management and mitigation

Understanding the drivers and implications of anthropogenic disturbance of ecological connectivity is a key concern for the conservation of biodiversity and 50 ecosystem processes. Here, we review human activities that affect the movements and dispersal of aquatic organisms, including damming of rivers, river regulation, habitat loss and alteration, human-assisted dispersal of organisms and climate change. Using a series of case studies, we show that the insight needed to understand the nature and implications of connectivity, and to underpin conservation and 55 management, is best achieved via data synthesis from multiple analytical approaches. We identify four key knowledge requirements for progressing our understanding of the effects of anthropogenic impacts on ecological connectivity: autecology; population structure; movement characteristics; and environmental tolerance/phenotypic plasticity. Structuring empirical research around these four 60 broad data requirements, and using this information to parameterise appropriate models and develop management approaches, will allow for mitigation of the effects of anthropogenic disturbance on ecological connectivity in aquatic ecosystems.Keywords: Fragmentation, Climate change, Migration, Meta-population, Dispersal, Source-sin

I'm going where the cold wind blows : an exegesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

"What is time without conscious perception? Quotidian spaces within seemingly lifeless environments we wouldn’t typically think to consider, are brought to light, not for their potentially sinister value, but for an appreciation of the fleeting traces of life. What small events take place that define time passing? How do we affect what we don’t consider? I am drawn to the calm of night-time, when what is left behind, the traces, become the inhabitants of these urban settings. It is what we leave behind that lingers. An idea which I have been further developing during my MFA is the notion of time-based photography, which has become the main drive of the physical processing of my art practice. This concept in particular has acted as an appliable medium which can be crafted to work with sound or silence, projection, both photographic and time-based installation and is experiential for the audience. Over the past three years I have been conducting photographic studies of these sites within urban and industrial settings, searching for mundane, generally non-specific, anonymous sites that present interestingly lit structural, textural and overall compositional properties. The work I make comes from a basis of documentative nightscape photography, while formally considering light, site, trace and time. With introduced aspects of fiction and subtle augmentations of the imagery, I simultaneously capture and create my experiences to be presented I NT RODUCT ION in an isolated, dramatised, distinctive viewing space. A large part of my work, I have found, is more instinctive and spontaneous - looking for happy coincidences. My research is centred around artworks and installations, film, music, writing and experiences which I have been inspired by, the things which I feel my work and interests resonate with and that I can often see similarities to. In July of this year I was part of a group that embarked on a European Fine Arts Study Tour while three international art events were coinciding – this only happens once a decade. 2017 was a special year too, as one of the events, Documenta 14 was split between Athens and Kassel, Germany. The tour began in Athens, then on to the Venice Biennale, followed by a short visit to Berlin. The bulk of Documenta 14 was in Kassel and we finished at Skulptur Projekte in Münster. The tour lasted twenty-one days and involved viewing a large and diverse range of artworks most days. As a result of this, I was able to see a lot of work that I connected with, recording and researching as we went. This gave me a huge range of compelling works to choose from to suit my exegesis, and has heavily impacted on my practice as an artist, both conceptually and in the physical making and installation processes. Now, more than half of my artist research and the final imagery that I intend to work with was found and made on that amazing tour. I feel that my artistic ability and self awareness has gone through a sort of metamorphosis."--Introductio

Recent advances in recreation ecology and the implications of different relationships between recreation use and ecological impacts

Recreation ecology – the study of the environmental consequences of outdoor recreation/nature-based tourism activities and their effective management – is an emerging field of global importance. A primary research generalization in this field, the use–impact relationship, is commonly described as curvilinear, with proportionally more impact from initial recreation/tourism use. This finding has formed the basis of visitor management strategies in parks, wilderness, and protected areas in many parts of the world. In this paper, however, we argue that the current generalization may be an oversimplification derived from one ecological response: the response of vegetation cover in some plant communities to trampling. Use–response functions for other plant communities, wildlife, soils, and aquatic/marine systems, for example, can differ and require alternative management strategies for sustainable use. On the basis of the available literature, we propose several alternative response relationships

Future destinations - Recommendations for taking the approach to new areas

Copyright CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Ltd 200

Urbanisation: Hydrology, water quality, and influences on ecosystem health

Urbanization significantly alters the hydrology of catchments, the transport of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants and consequently has a degrading impact on urban stream biota. In response to these impacts, water sensitive urban design (WSUD) is often seen as an approach to reduce the hydrological and pollutant risks for receiving waterbodies. We explored the impacts of urbanization across three stream types: an urban system, one subject to upstream WSUD development, and a forested stream. Our results suggested that there were strong differences in the hydrology, water quality, and macroinvertebrate assemblage composition between the FOREST site and the two sites impacted by urbanization; the WSUD and the URBAN sites. Despite the upstream WSUD development, both the WSUD and URBAN sites had hydrology characterized by higher rates of rise and fall of flood peaks. However, very little variation in macroinvertebrate assemblage composition across the three streams could be directly attributed to the changed hydrology. Rather it was differences in water quality that showed the strongest influence on the biota, suggesting that even when measures are implemented to help restore more natural flow patterns, degraded water quality can have an overriding influence on stream ecosystem health

Integration: Common themes and adaptation strategies across destinations

Copyright CRC for Sustainable Tourism Pty Lt

Transforming environmental water management to adapt to a changing climate

Environmental water management has become a global imperative in response to environmental degradation and the growing recognition that human well-being and livelihoods are critically dependent on freshwater ecosystems and the ecological functions and services they provide. Although a wide range of techniques and strategies for planning and implementing environmental flows has developed, many remain based on assumptions of hydrologic stationarity, typically focusing on restoring freshwater ecosystems to pre-development or "natural" conditions. Climate change raises major challenges to this conventional approach, in part because of increasing uncertainties in patterns of water supply and demand. In such a rapidly changing world, the implementation of, and capacity of water managers to deliver flow regimes resembling historical hydrological patterns may be both unfeasible and undesirable. Additionally, as emphasis shifts from species-focused water allocation plans toward a greater appreciation of freshwater ecological functions and services, many of which will be influenced by climate change, a thorough re-evaluation of the conventional objectives, planning, delivery and monitoring of environmental water, including its role in the broader context of water and environmental management, is essential. Here, we identify the major challenges posed by climate change to environmental water management and discuss key adaptations and research needed to meet these challenges to achieve environmental and societal benefits and avoid maladaptation