The Production Of Unequal Vulnerability To Flood Hazards In Metro Vancouver, Canada, Greg S. Oulahen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Flood risk is a growing concern in Canada’s cities. Residents of these cities have differential risk according to their unique vulnerability and exposure to flood hazards. Factors related to societal structural forces, human agency, and place interact to produce vulnerability to hazards. Analysis of the factors that influence vulnerability will lead to a better understanding of how unequal vulnerability to hazards is produced among residents of a city. This dissertation investigates the factors that influence vulnerability to flood hazards in a Canadian coastal urban region, Metro Vancouver. It develops and applies a conceptual framework for looking across scales and across …

Land Use Interactions Drive Southwestern Ontario Stream Nutrient Concentrations, Renee L. Lazor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Human activities have transformed the landscape and altered natural habitats through intensive land uses including agriculture and urbanization. Identifying land use drivers of tributary nutrient concentrations and describing the magnitude and direction of their relationship are critical activities to improvement management of water quality in basins draining into the Great Lakes. The overarching goal of my thesis was to quantify the cumulative influence of spatial patterns in land use and land cover on variation of nutrient concentrations in tributaries of the Great Lakes. Biweekly water chemistry samples were collected in 29 streams located in southern Ontario between May and November, …

Dirty Modernism: Ecological Objects In American Poetry, Michael D. Sloane

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines how early-to-mid twentieth century American poetry is preoccupied with objects that unsettle the divide between nature and culture. Given the entanglement of these two domains, I argue that American modernism is “dirty.” This designation leads me to sketch what I call “dirty modernism,” which includes the registers of waste, energy, animality, raciality, and the sensual. Reading these registers, I turn to what I call “ecological objects,” or representations of how nature and culture come together, which includes trash, natural resources, inanimals, and tools. Through an ecocritical mode of analysis, I introduce dirty modernism with the Baroness Elsa …

Environmental Health Effects Of Multiple Exposures: Systemic Risks And The Detroit River International Crossing Study, Tor H. Oiamo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines cumulative exposures to traffic noise and outdoor air pollution on environmental and health related quality of life in Windsor, Ontario, and provides a critical analysis of the environmental assessment process for the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC) Study. The research utilizes a systemic risk framework to understand environmental health and stress effects of cumulative exposures. The significance of this research is based on a relative absence of literature on the systemic health risks of cumulative exposures and the need to elucidate environmental annoyance as a health outcome for risk assessment. The objectives of the research were to …

Multivariate Spatial Visualization Using Geoicons And Image Charts, Bo Shan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Spatial databases are growing in size and complexity, yet current visual data mining methods are challenged when it comes to multivariate spatial data. The specific research question addressed in this thesis is: how can spatial multivariate data be effectively visualized using an icon based non-fused co-visualization approach? The thesis presents a Python based design and implementation of a visualization program termed GeoIcon Viewer. The program incorporates two different visualization methods: GeoIcon Image Map and Region-of-Interest Image Layers Chart. The GeoIcon Image Map technique uses an icon to co-visualize up to nine attributes at a single location. The Region-of-Interest Image …

The Preferential Loss Of Small Geographically Isolated Wetlands On Prairie Landscapes, Jacqueline N. Serran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Reliable estimates of wetland loss require improved wetland inventories and effective monitoring programs. To improve upon current wetland inventories, a novel method for mapping wetlands using an automated object-based approach was developed for a regional watershed located in central Alberta. This approach used digital terrain objects derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for which 130,157 wetlands were identified. Using this LiDAR derived wetland inventory, wetland loss estimates (% number and % area) were obtained by applying a wetland area vs. frequency function to the wetland inventory for the watershed. Using this power law, it was found that historically, …

Reconstructing The Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Daily Life In The 19th Century City: A Historical Gis Approach, Donald Lafreniere

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, historians and historical geographers have become interested in the use of GIS to study historical patterns, populations, and phenomena. The result has been the emergence of a new discipline, historical GIS. Despite the growing use of GIS across geography and history, the use of GIS in historical research has been limited largely to visualization of historical records, database management, and simple pattern analysis. This is, in part, due to a lack of accessible research on methodologies and spatial frameworks that outline the integration of both quantitative and qualitative historical sources for use in a GIS environment. The …

A Spatial Exploration Of Institutional Investment In Canada For The Year 2010, Martin R. Lefebvre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Using measures of central tendency, the average nonUS-based institutional investor has more capital invested in securities than his US-based counterpart. The present study shows that US-based investors favour manufacturing companies, whereas Canadian investors prefer companies based in natural resources. Nationally, Toronto acts more as the centre of gravity for Canadian institutional investors than New York City does for the United States. Comparatively, Toronto accounts for 70% of all Canadian investors while New York accounts for only 30% of the American total, despite it being the city with the most capital invested worldwide. Notwithstanding Alberta’s oil boom, inter-provincial investment capital show …

Hungry Farmers: A Political Ecology Of Agriculture And Food Security In Northern Ghana, Hanson Nyantakyi-Frimpong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Whilst Ghana has made momentous strides in national food security over the last decade, peasants in the rural north, indeed, those who produce the bulk of the country’s food, are also the hungriest population. This paradox immediately raises profound questions for research in human-environment geography. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate some of these questions, with particular emphasis on why Ghana’s food system is failing precisely those who produce food. The research combines insights from agrarian political economy and political ecology, and is informed by nine months of intensive fieldwork. Three carefully selected case studies uncover the full …

Agricultural Interventions As A Means To Improving Food Security: Experiences Of Hiv/Aids-Affected Households In Northern Malawi, Faith N. Mambulu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many rural Malawians experience food insecurity, attributed to a number of factors including poverty, climate change, structural adjustment, poor governance and the impacts of HIV/AIDS. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is currently estimated at 11% amongst adults. To address food insecurity in Northern Malawi, the Soils, Food and Health Communities (SFHC) agroecological project was implemented in 2000. In 2006, the project began to focus some of its program on farmers living with HIV/AIDS, but the impact of this shift has not been studied. There are few studies examining the potential for agricultural interventions to address the food security needs of AIDS-affected …

Analytic Network Process (Anp) For Housing Quality Evaluation: A Case Study In Ghana, Lucia Kafui Hussey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Quality of housing is crucial to an individual's quality of life as it is known to affect human health and well-being. Several studies have employed different methods to assess housing quality. These methods, however, failed to account for the interdependence among the factors (criteria) used for evaluating the quality of housing. This thesis proposes an Analytic Network Process (ANP)-based framework, integrated into Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to assess housing quality. ANP is a multicriteria analysis method. It provides a tool for identifying the relative importance of all the elements (criteria) influencing a goal of decision/evaluation problem (e.g., the problem of …

Exploring The Association Between Commute To School Duration And Children's Physical Activity Level And Bodyweight Status, Lucie Richard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The commute to school is recognized as a daily activity with high potential for influencing children’s health behaviours and outcomes. While the impact of commute mode on children’s health has been extensively researched, the influence of commute duration remains relatively unexplored. This thesis uses binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression analysis of a cross-sectional sample to determine how active and inactive commute to school duration impacts children’s physical activity level and bodyweight status in urban, small town and rural environments in Southwestern Ontario.

It is found here that longer active commute duration is associated with greater average levels of …

Examining The Influence Of Environmental Opportunities And Exposures On Children's Sleep Duration, Leanne B. Mcintosh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research aims to fill a void in knowledge on how certain characteristics of the built and natural environments may impact children’s sleep duration. Data was collected on a sample of 614 children (aged 9-14 years) drawn from 22 elementary schools throughout the City of London, Ontario, Canada. Participants completed the STEAM (Spatial Temporal Environmental Activity Monitoring) protocol which involved completion of a survey, daily activity diary, and tracking the time they spent in different environments with a portable Global Position System. This thesis incorporates an innovative analytical approach which uses two Geographic Information System techniques to examine if and …

A Sensor View Model To Investigate The Influence Of Tree Crowns On Effective Urban Thermal Anisotropy, Daniel R. Dyce

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A sensor view model is modified to include trees using a gap probability approach to estimate foliage view factors and an energy budget model for leaf surface temperatures (SUM_VEG). The model is found to compare well with airborne thermal infrared (TIR) surface temperature measurements. SUM_VEG is used to investigate the influence of trees on thermal anisotropy for narrow field-of-view TIR remote sensors over treed residential urban surfaces. Tests on regularly-spaced arrays of cubes on March 28 and June 21 at latitudes of 47.6°N and 25.8°N show that trees both decrease and increase anisotropy as a function of …

Women's Navigation Of Maternal Health Services In Ghana's Upper West Region In The Context Of The National Health Insurance Scheme, Andrea C. Rishworth

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 2008 the sub Saharan African country of Ghana implemented a Maternal Exemption Policy (MEP) within its National Health Insurance Scheme. This policy provides coverage for free antenatal, postnatal, and facility delivery to all pregnant women for a one year period. By removing the fees associated with maternal health services, the MEP was intended to reduce maternal mortality and provide equitable health care for pregnant women. While the MEP is generally regarded as beneficial to the women of Ghana, challenges remain, especially in the poor, marginalized and rural communities of the Upper West Region. Given that access to a skilled …

Struggling To Compete: Community-Based Research On Agrarian Change In The Caribbean, Karen A. Ross

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many countries in the Global South have agricultural landscapes and economies that are heavily dependent upon a small range of agro-exports, such as bananas. Tropical agro-exports have long earned low prices in international markets, which led to a number of historical policy responses geared towards stabilizing export prices and volumes. However, since the 1990s these have been overwhelmed by trade liberalization, intensifying pressures to lower costs of production and exacerbating the enduring challenges associated with tropical agro-export commodity dependence.

This research seeks to understand these contemporary challenges through immersed fieldwork in rural communities. Through interviews with small farmers, farm workers, …

Economic Development In The Contemporary Global Environment: The Role Of Place Branding As A Tool Of Local Economic Development In Ontario, Canada, Evan P. Cleave

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the past three decades, place branding has emerged as a strategy for local economic development for municipalities in Canada and globally, as communities seek to (re)assert themselves in a dynamic global economic market. Due to the infancy of the research domain – as it has only been in the last 15 years that place branding has received critical academic attention – there are several major lacunae within the existing scholarship: (i) current research is primarily focused on Europe; (ii) research has mainly focused on nation branding and the largest urban centres, so place branding within ‘typical’ municipalities is not …

Determinants Of Health Insurance Enrolment In Ghana's Upper West Region, Jenna Dixon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis aims to explore the determinants of enrolment in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Ghana’s Upper West Region (UWR). While studies on the theoretically “pro-poor” NHIS have thus far focused on wealth as driver of enrolment, the high rates of enrolment in the poorest and most deprived region of the country (the UWR) suggest that other factors underpin health insurance acquisition and maintenance. This study uses mixed methods that combine quantitative and qualitative techniques in order to better understand patterned differences between enrolled, never enrolled and dropped out members of the scheme.

Results of a quantitative analysis …

Automated Building Information Extraction And Evaluation From High-Resolution Remotely Sensed Data, Chuiqing Zeng

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The two-dimensional (2D) footprints and three-dimensional (3D) structures of buildings are of great importance to city planning, natural disaster management, and virtual environmental simulation. As traditional manual methodologies for collecting 2D and 3D building information are often both time consuming and costly, automated methods are required for efficient large area mapping. It is challenging to extract building information from remotely sensed data, considering the complex nature of urban environments and their associated intricate building structures.

Most 2D evaluation methods are focused on classification accuracy, while other dimensions of extraction accuracy are ignored. To assess 2D building extraction methods, a multi-criteria …

Nitrate Sources And Lake Response In High Elevation Lakes, Uinta Mountains, Utah, Beth J. Hundey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Direct human activities in the Uinta Mountains, Utah, U.S.A., are limited to free-range grazing and recreation, but the larger-scale perturbations of climate warming and atmospheric deposition could also affect these remote sites. As few limnological measurements are available, it is difficult to discern whether changes in the high alpine lake ecosystems are occurring in this area. This study uses a range of paleolimnological and limnological techniques to: (1) identify the timing, nature, and causes of changes in primary production in high elevation Uinta Mountain lakes; (2) pinpoint the relative contributions of different sources of nitrate to these aquatic ecosystems; and …

Examining Children's Perceptions And Use Of Their Neighbourhood Built Environments: A Novel Participatory Mapping Approach, Stephen Fitzpatrick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses a mixed methods approach to contribute towards a more complete understanding of the relationship between the built environment and children’s active school travel. It is argued that active travel –human powered transportation – to and from school provides regular physical activity that can help reverse rising rates of overweight or obese Canadian children. The built environment of a child’s school neighbourhood has been shown to influence travel decisions. To achieve higher rates of children’s active travel, a comprehensive understanding of the built environment is required.

This study uses child-led perceptual mapping (CLPM) and GIS analysis in a …