Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemDisplacement: the unsettled geographies of Sri Lanka's civil war( 2015)This thesis provides a multi-scalar spatial analysis of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009) and the five-year post-war period (2009-2014), focusing on how various scenarios of displacement unsettled normative representations of national space. Using ontological insecurity as a conceptual starting point, it examines these displacements across five spatial categories – nation, home, city, route and camp – as they are impacted by varying degrees of wartime violence that multiply their meanings and representations for the social agents involved in the conflict. The argument at the centre of this thesis is that violence and geography are co-constitutive; that highly sought after and secure forms of emplacement are invariably underscored by multiple geographies of displacement, and that their sociospatial ontologies provide equally valid ground for analysing the nation’s turbulent past. This research follows the spatiotemporal inscription of wartime social mobilities across Sri Lanka’s multiple displacement geographies. It adopts a hermeneutic approach for analysing a range of socio-spatial phenomena using discourse analysis, fieldwork, participant observation and a small number of interviews as its main investigative methods. The five normative spatial categories proposed for investigation form distinct case study chapters. They draw on theories of spatial violence and interdisciplinary literature on the Sri Lankan conflict. This thesis further reviews the civil war as shaped by post-Cold-War forces of liberal democratisation, marketization and securitisation, illustrating how the resultant porosity of borders destabilised the nation, heightening inter-ethnic contestations, with violent spatial impacts. As national borders were increasingly opened to human traffic, goods, services and capital, fragmenting previously-insulated national subjectivities, the Sri Lankan government used militarisation to maintain sovereignty and its associated forms of ontological security. Armed resistance to its hegemonic representations and policies by minority Tamil groups thrust the Sri Lankan government into a protracted civil war. Literature on this period has largely represented the conflict as an ethno-nationalist contest, neglecting the ramifications of and internal responses to global economic change. This thesis proposes to broaden this analytical framework. The thesis’ chapters illustrate the process of dissolution and heightened mobility provoked by violent conflict. They raise salient questions regarding the nature of displacement linking wartime dislocations to post-war strategies for expediting neoliberal economic change. In doing so, this research situates the territorial understanding of Sri Lanka within broader discourses of globalisation reorienting the nationalist question towards post-national or denationalised concerns. The chapters provide an analytical over view of the range of ontological insecurities produced during the violent political dissolution of the postcolonial nation and highlight its resultant political and economic porosity.
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ItemInsights into mainstreaming climate change adaptation: a study of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement( 2015)This thesis aims to understand how the global Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has attempted to mainstream climate change adaptation into its programmes. The need for and merits of mainstreaming as an approach to addressing the impacts of climate change are discussed in the literature on climate change adaptation. However, to date there are very little examples and critiques of this as an approach relating to humanitarian institutions. A theoretical framework derived from research on mainstreaming gender, disaster risk management and climate change is used as the foundation for analysing the mainstreaming efforts of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. The methods for this analysis include document analysis, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and case study research. There are three components to the analysis: a chronology of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement’s mainstreaming efforts between 1999 and 2012; an analysis of the outcomes of a global climate change mainstreaming programme implemented over nearly six years in 64 countries; and a case study outlining the attempts of the Solomon Islands Red Cross to incorporate climate change considerations in its programmes. There are three key findings of this thesis. The first is that climate change communication with communities and the wider public, particularly in developing country contexts, is difficult and a barrier to mainstreaming climate change. Though the climate change adaptation literature acknowledges the important role of climate change communication and translation of climate information in mainstreaming, it doesn’t provide detailed empirical analysis of how this should be done in practice. The second is that mainstreaming is not expensive, but does require long-term, concerted investment. This need for a relatively low-cost, but long-term investment perspective, is not clearly highlighted in the literature on climate change adaptation. This is most likely because climate change adaptation is still in its infancy. The third major finding of this thesis is that mainstreaming is affected by fluctuations in organisational capacity, so organisational development is an important component of adapting humanitarian agencies to climate change. The thesis’ findings imply that the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement has an important role to play in communicating climate change to the wider public and the communities that it works with. In order to support this and the work of other actors globally, far more research, training and guidance on climate communications is required. Finally this thesis demonstrates that the broad commitments made by global institutions to mainstream climate change adaptation will require concerted long-term investments, including especially in organisational capacity.
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ItemNatural resource conflicts in Afghanistan( 2015)This study investigates the role of environmental scarcity and the resulting changes in land-use patterns, as well as social factors in igniting or intensifying the pasture conflict in Wardak Province of Afghanistan. A recurrent, century-old conflict between Hazara (the settled community in close proximity to pastures) and the Kuchi (herders) occurs over access to summer-time pastures in central highlands of Afghanistan.
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ItemStudent housing as social opportunity: external influences on international students' housing decisions( 2014)The thesis examines how and when external factors influenced international students in Melbourne, Australia, in their decision making regarding housing. Understanding why the student body of Australian universities is housed in a segregated manner, in which ‘international’ students rarely live in housing with ‘local’ students, is important because international students’ wellbeing is enhanced when they engage in meaningful cross-cultural contact. Interviews with 30 international students from two universities in Melbourne were conducted to examine how they chose their accommodation. An international student housing timeline was created based on these interviews, which shows when housing decisions were made and what external influences impacted housing decisions. Educational agents routinely channelled international students into segregated purpose built student accommodations. Both sampled universities heavily influenced housing decisions through their housing websites, online housing boards, and personal consultations. International students found these services very valuable. Surprisingly, the resulting housing outcomes at the two universities did not differ significantly. International students are not eligible for concession fares on public transport in Victoria. Therefore, many only considered housing in walking distance to campus. This limited the choice of housing types, as purpose built student accommodations dominated the areas around the universities. Visa regulations required underage students to move into homestays, which always resulted in low housing satisfaction. Further, visa regulations limited working rights which forced some international students to move housing when experiencing financial difficulties. Parents preferred booking initial housing from overseas. Only segregated purpose built student accommodations or expensive residential halls and colleges could be booked from overseas. Many had distant relatives offering temporary housing during international students’ first weeks in Australia. International students routinely followed their friends’ housing advice without considering alternatives. Therefore they reinforced existing, segregated, housing patterns. Only a few international postgraduates made some housing decisions based solely on their own preferences and prior experiences. In most cases external factors strongly impacted the housing outcome. This thesis contributes to urban geography literature by showing when external influences impacted international students’ housing decision making. Such information will also be valuable to university housing offices or policy makers interested in mitigating housing segregation between local and international students. Inquiring when such influences occurred allowed for the possibility that some international students purposefully chose segregated over cross-cultural housing options. However, no evidence was uncovered that any of the interviewees intentionally self-segregated. Also, focussing on decision making of international students showed that some interviewees made their housing decisions free from external influences and solely based on their own experiences and preferences. The number of students who made their housing decisions without external influences was small, but their housing outcomes could not have been explained by examining external factors alone. However, the results of the thesis also suggest that the urban geography literature’s concentration on external influences on international student housing is in most cases sufficient.
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ItemHydrology of a vegetable raingarden: implications for vegetable yield and stormwater management( 2013)Stormwater runs off the roofs and other impervious surfaces of cities at artificially high rates, and carries with it a range of contaminants. Raingardens, as biofiltration systems, are self-watering garden beds that are designed to capture and filter this urban runoff, using sandy soils and resilient plants. This improves the health of local waterways; reducing both pollution and erosion. Given these benefits, the construction of raingardens is being actively promoted in many cities, including Melbourne. However, raingardens might have another significant benefit; as sites of food production, at least on a small, non-commercial scale, using captured stormwater (urban runoff) for irrigation. The use of stormwater is an increasingly popular practice for overcoming water scarcity issues, which often constrain home vegetable gardening and other forms of urban agriculture. Nonetheless, the use of raingardens for food production has not been explored, and vegetables represent a significant departure from the types of plants that are conventionally used in these systems. As such, this thesis investigates the potential to produce vegetables in raingardens. The focus is on how water availability in a “vegetable raingarden” affects the yield of various common vegetables, as well as the role of raingardens in reducing urban runoff. These issues were explored through a 1.5-year field trial and a greenhouse (pot) experiment. This included an assessment of: 1) the merits of a sub-irrigated raingarden design relative to surface irrigation, 2) two soil types with different water-holding capacities (loamy sand, as used in conventional raingardens, and potting mix, as commonly used in vegetable gardens), and 3) reduction in both the frequency and volume of urban runoff. The results indicate that, if designed and managed effectively, it is possible to productively grow vegetables in raingardens, and the function of raingardens in reducing runoff can be retained. A wide range of common vegetables could be able to survive and produce yield in these systems. Furthermore, whether sub- or surface-irrigated, a vegetable raingarden has the potential to not require any back-up irrigation, particularly in the winter months under Melbourne conditions, and particularly if the sub-irrigated raingarden is fitted with waterproof lining so that it retains water. A lined raingarden would be reasonable for stormwater management; the system tested in the field trial reduced the volume of runoff by 63% and the frequency by 34%. However, an infiltration (unlined) raingarden type was even more effective, reducing both the volume and frequency of runoff by > 90%. Overall, sub-irrigation did not offer any clear advantages over surface irrigation in relation to vegetable growth and yield, or the efficient use of water. A traditional vegetable gardening soil or mix is the preferred soil type, because it provides relatively high water availability, and thereby greater vegetable growth and yield, compared to conventional raingarden media (loamy sand). The use of this vegetable gardening soil or mix precludes a uniform profile design for a raingarden, because a separate layer of “filter” media would be required.
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ItemThe effects of increased fire frequency on calcareous shrubland communities of the Geraldton Sandplain Region, SW Australia( 2010)Fire is prevalent through much of Australia, and is arguably the most important disturbance agent for vegetation in fire-prone Mediterranean climate regions. Land managers must balance hazard mitigation with conservation priorities when designing fire management plans. Fire frequency has a critical role in both of these priorities and is one of the most readily manipulated components of fire regime for management. This study aims to improve understanding by investigating the implications of increasing fire frequency on the community composition and structure of high diversity calcareous shrublands in southwest Australia. Experimental fires were conducted in vegetation at 7 sites with time since last fire ranging from 3 to 14 years to test the effect of decreasing fire interval (increasing fire frequency) from current management target burn age (13 to 20 years). Community composition including richness and diversity measures and fire response modes (resprouting, non-resprouting), as well structure including life form and biomass, were assessed and their relation to time since last fire tested. Biomass was also determined to test its relationship with vegetation age, thus enabling predictions for fire behaviour based on stand age (TSF). Study sites were experimentally burned and fire behaviour was monitored. Regeneration was surveyed 6 months and 1 year following fire and was assessed in relation to characteristics of fire including especially fire interval and fire temperature (as a measure of intensity). Time since last fire was found to influence both composition and structure of the 7 study sites. Species richness was constant with time since last fire while evenness and diversity both increased, suggesting increased mortality with time for species that were typically abundant in younger vegetation. Biomass and density were both strongly associated with vegetation age: density decreased while biomass increased. Accumulated biomass was found to be low relative to Mediterranean-type shrublands in California, South Africa, France and Spain but was at the upper end of estimates relative to other kwongan shrublands. As fuel load is an important factor in both fire temperature and behaviour, these variables were expected to be related to vegetation age (and thus biomass) during experimental fires. However, fire events were preferentially lit according to vegetation age, such that younger sites were lit on days with higher fire danger and vice versa and as a result this relationship could not be tested. Instead, this provided the opportunity to separate fire intensity effects from fire interval effects, which are often confounding. Fire interval and fire temperature were found to influence vegetation regeneration, but in unrelated ways. Increased fire temperature was found to result in greater resprouter mortality while total community richness, diversity and evenness increases, presumably due to a greater range of temperatures for germination occurring within the soil profile. Decreased fire interval was found to result in decreased density and richness, particularly at fire intervals <6 years. Woody species were most strongly affected, particularly those unable to resprout. As a result shorter interval sites were dominated by non-woody species while longer interval sites were dominated by seedlings of woody species, providing support for the contention that frequent fire will promote non-woody species. Based on the findings of this thesis, it is recommended that land managers avoid management burns of vegetation <10 years and especially <6 years as this may result in irreversible changes to structure and loss of species.