Human Geography Commons^™

Intra-Urban Analysis Of Commercial Locations: A Gis-Based Approach, Christopher D. Storie

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The urban landscape is an interspersed mixing of residences, shops, theaters, parks, natural areas, and a multitude of other uses. From the early days of the central markets, to the planned downtown, to the heavily planned super-regional shopping complexes, commercial landscapes evolve. There has been considerable research conducted on analyzing the commercial structure of urban environments in an attempt to better understanding the nature of retailing and its resultant impacts on the geography of the city.

This research has three broad goals: a) to develop a technique that makes operational, in a systematized and objective manner, an approach to analyzing …

Assessing The ‘Hazards Of Place’ Model Of Vulnerability: A Case Study Of Waterloo Region, Erin Joakim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research project examines the Hazards of Place model of vulnerability (as developed by Cutter, 1996) to determine whether it is applicable in a Canadian context.

An in-depth case study of the Regional Municipality of Waterloo was used to determine whether the model accurately describes:

1. emergency and community practitioners understandings of vulnerability and vulnerable populations in Waterloo Region
2. emergency and community practitioners perceptions of the variables that influence vulnerabilities
3. mitigation and preparedness efforts that could be enhanced and/or implemented to reduce the vulnerability of individuals and groups in Waterloo Region

To complete this study, in-depth interviews and surveys were conducted …

How The Formal Education System In Kenya Is Changing The Culture Of The Maasai Community, Jennifer Coles

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Colonialism brough Africa into the sphere of European dominance and laid the ground work for the adoption of neoliberal globalization. This has affected change for the Maasai of southern Kenya who had attempted to remain isolated for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, such cultural isolation has been disrupted by global tourism and the desire of western citizens to view and participate in ‘authentic’ experiences in unique Maasai environments; thus creating a global desire to visit the Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR). The MMNR is part of Maasailand and has exposed many in the surrounding communities to new …

Multi-Method Assessment Of Newcomer Settlement Experiences In Kitchener-Waterloo, Qaseem Ludin

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Every day hundreds of newcomers begin a new life in Canada. Some are refugees fleeing persecution, others come to join family, and yet others (mostly the economic and independent categories) are seeking to make a better life for themselves. In all, since 2000 around 250,000 people have settled in Canada each year. Their backgrounds and personal histories may be widely different and each one’s experience on arrival is unique. The communities across Canada into which they integrate differ too in their character and in the manner in which they receive newcomers. For many new Canadians, there are, nevertheless, certain shared …

No. 2: The Prospects For Migration Data Harmonization In The Sadc, Vincent Williams, Tiffany Tsang

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

No. 3: A Migration Audit Of Poverty Reduction Strategies In Southern Africa, Benjamin Roberts

Southern African Migration Programme

Southern Africa is characterized by long-established patterns of intra-regional migration, with countries sending and receiving labour migrants especially for employment in mines and on commercial farms and plantations since the late nineteenth century. However, these pat­terns and processes have undergone notable change in recent decades, the outcome being a progressive intensification of mobility in the region. The underlying determinants of this trend include increased and new opportunities for internal and cross-border movement follow­ing the end of apartheid, the region’s increasing engagement with the global economy, persistently high and worsening levels of poverty and unemployment, the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, …

Gender And Remittances: Creating Gender-Responsive Local Development: The Case Of Lesotho, Jonathan Crush, Belinda Dodson, John Gay, Clement Leduka

Southern African Migration Programme

The number of international migrants passed 200 million in 2008, more than double the figure in 1965. As the number of migrants continues to grow, the character of international migration has been transformed. South-South migration, as it is now commonly referred to, is acquiring ever-greater significance in contemporary migration configurations. South-South movements of international migrants are highly gendered. In particular, the feminization of international migration has meant that the absolute numbers and proportion of women migrants is increasingly rapidly. More and more women are also migrating for work in other countries in their own right. The gender dynamics behind this …

A Comparison Of The Perceptions Of Risk And Health Between Old Order Mennonites And Mainstream Society In The Grand River Valley: A Cross-Cultural Analysis, Ewa Dabrowska-Miciula

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The role of culture in the geography of health and technological hazard perception research is an important and relatively recent avenue of research. This dissertation contributes to this research by exploring cross-cultural differences in health and risk perceptions and by examining the relationship between health and place. It involves an in-depth examination of perceptions and meaning of health, as they exist in the local context. It is the first geographical research conducted with individual members of the Old Order Mennonite community considering perceptions of health, technological hazard and understandings of environmental risk.

The studied communities are situated at an agricultural/industrial …

The Battle Over Our Land: Urbanization Versus Farmland Preservation In The Greater Golden Horseshoe, Kali Mikulica

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Urban sprawl continues to advance further and further into the countryside, as individuals trade cramped urban spaces for much larger rural lots and longer commutes to work. This increased sprawl permanently converts productive agricultural land to urban uses, especially in regions surrounding rapidly expanding cities. It is for this reason that farmland preservation has become a significant issue for policy officials in recent decades. According to the literature, there are numerous methods of protecting prime agricultural land in the face of urbanization; however there are few studies that focus on how these different policy techniques affect farmers. The Ontario government …

No. 1: Migration And Development In Africa: An Overview, Richard Black, Jonathan Crush, Sally Pederby, Savina Ammassari, Lyndsay Mclean Hilker, Shannon Mouillesseaux, Claire Pooley, Radha Rajkotia

Southern African Migration Programme

Migration is clearly a major issue across Africa. Indeed, migration – both within countries and across borders – can be seen as an integral part of labour markets and livelihoods across much of the continent for at least the last century. Over time, and in different places, migration has taken a number of different forms. It has cut across class and skill boundaries, and exists in widely different geographical and demographic contexts. Migration represents an important livelihood strategy for poor households seeking to diversify their sources of income, but is also characteristic of the better off, and indeed of many …

An Analysis Of Community Forest Implementation In British Columbia, Canada, Ryan C. Bullock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The community forest is increasingly seen as an alternative to industrial forestry for its perceived potential to mitigate conflict in forest resource management and planning. Theoretically, a community-based approach affords the chance to assert local values, provide local benefits, and manage resources differently than established top-down approaches. Yet practical examples of community forest initiatives in Canada reveal a host of constraints. This research uses a multiple case study design to investigate the motivations for and challenges to implementing community forests in British Columbia, Canada. Observations are drawn from four case studies (Denman Island, Malcolm Island, Cortes Island, and Creston) in …

Modelling Relationships Between Road Access And Recreational Fishing Site Choice While Accounting For Spatial Complexities, Lenny Michael Hunt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examined the relationships between road access and the fishing site choices of northern Ontario recreational anglers. A revealed preference choice model (random utility model) was estimated with fishing trip data from an angling diary with resident anglers from the Thunder Bay and Wawa areas. The results showed that poor quality gravel roads and trails heavily and negatively impacted fishing site choices by Thunder Bay anglers who fished only during the open water season. Poorer quality roads and trails had much less impact on the fishing site choices of other Thunder Bay anglers. Wawa area anglers were, on average, …

A History Of Non-Farm Rural Residential Development In Oxford County, Ontario And Its Impact On Farm Life, Jaime Lynne Patricia Gillespie

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This paper traces the history of non-farm rural residential development in Oxford County, Ontario from the early 1970s through to 2004 and investigates the impact of these non-farm uses on farm activities. In contrast to planning departments in the Province of Ontario that have been slow to develop restrictions on non-farm development, Oxford Country has a long history of safeguarding its agricultural heritage through its planning policies. This paper examines the effectiveness of Oxford County’s legislation in preserving agricultural land and in preventing non-farm rural residential development. The literature review presents an overview of agriculture in southern Ontario, Ontario’s agricultural …

The August 14th, 2003 Blackout: Implications For Future Disaster Preparedness In Toronto, Ontario, Kelly Marie Macgrandles

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Hazards, both natural and technological occur on a fairly regular basis. Timely and accurate communication of information before, during and after a disaster is essential for saving lives and property. This theme is the focus of this Master's thesis, in which the August 14th, 2003 blackout is used as a case study to assess how information is provided to the public during disaster events. More specifically, the thesis evaluates how agencies within the City of Toronto communicated risk information to the public. A news release analysis and interview analysis were then conducted to determine how closely the information in news …

No. 1: Towards The Harmonization Of Immigration And Refugee Law In Sadc, Jonathan Klaaren, Bonaventure Rutinwa

Southern African Migration Programme

The MIDSA project on legal harmonization of immigration and refugee law in the Southern African Development Community had four main objectives: (a) to collect and collate information on national legislation in a single publication as a resource for policy-makers; (b) to identify points of similarity and difference in national immigration law between SADC-member states; (c) to investigate the possibilities for harmonization of national immigration policy and law; and (d) in the interests of good governance and regional cooperation and integration to make specific recommendations for harmonization. A second, parallel, SAMP study is investigating the issue of harmonization of migration data …

Tackling The Issue Of Access: Situating Place Within Immigrant Women's Experiences Of Health And Health Care (Ontario), Jillian C. Paul

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Access to health care services is an essential element to immigrant women receiving the care that they need. However, there are barriers that women face as immigrants in a new community. Language, cultural awareness and household responsibilities are issues that a significant number of immigrant women encounter when accessing health care services. There are significant gaps within geographic literature pertaining specifically to marginalized populations and health care experiences. More recent work is beginning to emerge that examines the social and behavioural aspects of health and health care. This study intends to contribute to this growing body of literature aimed at …

Housing The Low-Income Elderly In Geneva. A Case Study (Switzerland), Martine Freedman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In Geneva (Switzerland), some of the elderly live in housing built especially for this category of the population. Most of this housing is located in the city centre, is close to all services, and has good access to public transportation. However, we observe spatial and social segregation between the elderly who live in retirement housing and the population of their neighbourhood. The aims of this research are to examine the barriers and meeting-points between the elderly who live in these apartments and the population of their neighbourhood, to identify the factors that lead these elderly to be segregated, and to …

Regional Disparities In The Labour Market In East Germany, Gabriela Yvonne Pierow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In February 2003 the unemployment in Germany reached the third highest peak since unification with more than 4.7 million unemployed persons. The number of unemployed persons in Germany increased from February 2002 to February 2003 by over 410,000 (+9.5%), which accounts for an increase of the unemployment rate from 10.4% in February 2002 to 11.3% in February 2003. The numbers for East Germany are even more alarming. The average unemployment rate in East Germany increased from 18.8% in February 2002 to 19.9% in February 2003. That means that nearly 1.76 million persons were unemployed in East Germany in February 2003 …

Risk, Vulnerability And Environmental Hazards In The Village Of Darkot, Northern Pakistan, Nicholas Andrew Cradock-Henry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conventional approaches to studying environmental risks and hazards have focused on the physical parameters of geomorphic, hydrologic and climatic events—magnitude, duration and frequency—without adequately accounting for the role of human agency in averting disaster and distributing loss. Secondly, where human intervention was recognized it was often in an incriminating way, particularly in work dealing with the developing world or peripheral regions such as mountain areas. Here, humans were portrayed as helpless victims; unable to successfully adapt to their environment or else they were viewed as having played an unwitting role in their own downfall through ‘short-sighted’ agricultural practices such as …

The Use Of Geographic Information Systems To Study Repeat Victims Of Domestic Abuse In The Waterloo Region Of Ontario, Canada, Claudia Saheb

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The importance of repeat victims as an effective target for crime prevention measures has been widely recognised. Many have studied repeat victims of property crimes, but few have studied repeat victims of personal crimes and their spatial distribution. This study used 1996 and 1997 crime data from the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) in Ontario, Canada and focused specifically on domestic-abuse-related crimes and repeat victims of those crimes. Various methods of mapping and analysis were used to better understand the spatial distribution of those crimes and vulnerability of the victims. Standardised crime rates and crime density were calculated. Thematic and …

From Bricks And Mortar To Bricks And Clicks: The Transformation Of A Bank Branch Network Within The Greater Toronto Area (Ontario), Michelle Anne Mok

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Over the last 20 years, Canadian retail financial services have undergone a dramatic transformation due to a number of driving forces: technology, globalization, changing lifestyles and demographics, competition, and deregulation. Because retail financial services have been impacted, the way Canadians perform banking transactions has also been impacted, resulting in a shift from a spatially-oriented banking approach to a non-spatial approach. Transactions are being performed using alternative delivery channels including the automated banking machine, telephone banking, internet banking, point of sale purchasing, and new format branches, rather than in the traditional branch network. This research examines changes in the branch network …

Health And Development: Infectious Intestinal Diseases In A Transborder Region (United States-Mexico), Flavia Bianchi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Intestinal infectious diseases are considered the northern Mexican border’s most obvious challenge facing children. The Mexico-US Border region is a 200-kilometer border zone that extends 100 kilometers on either side of an imaginary borderline and stretches 3,141 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. In 2000, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization’s representative for the Americas, published a study of the top causes of mortality between 1995 and 1997 to estimate the absolute burden of mortality in the primary Mexican and American border community, collectively known as the Sister Cities. Using the PAHO …

The Impact Of Large Plant Closure On Small Firm Creation In Kitchener, Ontario, 1987 To 1998, Christopher William Charman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The impact of restructuring in the manufacturing sector of Kitchener, Ontario has been felt in many ways. For those who were displaced, the alternatives for re-employment were limited. In some cases, workers have turned to self employment and small firm creation as a source of income. This study attempts to quantify the business dynamic at work in the Manufacturing and Business Service sectors in Kitchener between 1987 and 1998. Using a database developed from the Kitchener Business Directory the process of manufacturing loss and service industry increase is studied. The examination follows new business creation, the change in activity within …

Aids In Ontario: An Examination Of Mobility Patterns And Spatial Variations (Immune Deficiency), Holly Nadean Innes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The primary objective of this thesis is to examine mobility patterns of people with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in terms of where they go for testing, treatment and support. The secondary objective is to examine and describe spatial variations in the prevalence of AIDS among the forty-two Public Health Units (PHUs) of Ontario, and to explain the processes underlying these patterns. An assessment of the spatial perspective will be completed utilizing two contributors. The first employs the process of interviewing the AIDS Educators at the Ontario PHUs and capturing their impressions as to what is occurring within their areas regarding …

Adaptation Of Ghanaian Immigrants In Metropolitan Toronto: A Focus On The Spatial Aspects Of Their Labour Market Activity (Ontario), Edmund Nkansah Okoree

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The major thrust or aim of this study, which focuses on the Ghanaian immigrant population living in Metropolitan Toronto (which has the largest proportion of Ghanaians in Canada), was to find out whether respondents living in the main area of Ghanaian concentration in Metropolitan Toronto have different socio-economic characteristics from those living away from the main Ghanaian concentration, as is suggested by the general urban ethnic literature. It had three specific research objectives. First, the study sought to ascertain the relationship between the residential location patterns of Ghanaian immigrants in Metropolitan Toronto and their socio-economic characteristics, as defined by their …

The Historical Geography Of The Distilling Industry In Ontario: 1850-1900, Tanya Lynn Mackinnon

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A significant change occurred in the spatial pattern of Ontario’s distilling industry during the second half of the nineteenth century. Around 1850 there were approximately 150 distilleries and, by 1871, there were only 19. The industry went from numerous small, local distilleries to a few large industrial enterprizes. This industry was one of the manufacturing industries to lead the way during Canada’s industrial revolution. By 1871, the beginnings of whisky region was created for Canada in Southern Ontario, based on the “Big Five”: Hiram Walker & Sons Ltd. located in Walkerville near Windsor; Joseph E. Seagram in Waterloo; Gooderham & …

Vulnerability To Natural Disasters In A Rapidly Growing, Affluent Society, British Columbia, Canada, Jonathan P. Maclean Belcher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

British Columbia is a province that experienced rapid demographic, urban and economic growth in the past few decades. It is a modern and technologically sophisticated society. Although the province possesses the knowledge and resources to combat most dangers that threaten its people and communities, these dangers continue to outstrip the precautions and safety measures in place. The reasons for this seem to lie less in the characteristics of dangers or hazards, but rather relate to socioeconomic processes and organisations that disadvantage particular people, groups and sectors of the population, or make them more vulnerable to dangers than others. This thesis …

Political Participation In Kitchener-Waterloo: A Spatial Analysis Of The 1993 Federal Election (Ontario), Paul Churcher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study examines political participation in the 1993 federal election in Kitchener- Waterloo. Voter turnout is modeled at the polling division level using statistical analysis with spatial diagnostics. This study is different from other Canadian research since it uses a fine scale spatial unit and it explores the geographical aspect of political participation. The findings confirm results from other studies as well as showing that geography plays a small but significant role in the decision to vote. The results of the statistical analysis show that polling divisions are appropriate spatial units for the examination of political participation. Demographics, political motivation, …

Where Are The Urban Elderly? Clustered And Concentrated In Aged Spaces: Three Examples Kitchener-Waterloo, Halifax And Victoria (Ontario, Nova Scotia, British Columbia), Susan Lucas

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research uses enumeration area data from the 1991 census and a methodology consisting of principal components analysis (PCA), cluster and discriminant analysis to define 'aged spaces', highly localized concentrations of the elderly, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Halifax and Victoria.. The results show that: (1) it is possible to define aged spaces on the basis of the old-age family status dimensions identified by the PCA for each individual city, as well as a joint analysis of all three cities; (2) the old-age dimensions derived by the PCA are differentiated by marital status, advanced age and gender and (3) aged spaces defined on …

Spatial And Structural Determinants Of Residential Burglary Rates In Kitchener-Waterloo (Ontario), Martin Christopher Anstey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Traditional ecological analyses of burglary have a number of shortcomings. First, break-ins occurring within a neighbourhood have been regarded as a solely the product of local residents. Second, the relationship between burglary and its determinants has been considered constant across space. Third, the data used in ecological analysis has been treated as statistically independent. The purpose of this study is to expand upon previous ecological studies through an analysis of residential burglary in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada Theory from environmental criminology (a discipline concerned with the spatial aspects of crime) is used in conjunction with spatial data analysis techniques and GIS technology …