Resource Management and Geography - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 59
-
ItemHow does deforestation affect the functional links between riparian zones and stream channels?( 2018)Riparian vegetation is essential for headwater streams, as it regulates allochthonous inputs of coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) delivered into streams. CPOM accumulates in patches across the streambed, these patches are sources of energy and shelter where ecological linkages between aquatic populations occur. This group of studies evaluate such relationships in Hughes Creek, Victoria, southern Australia. The first of these studies evaluates the evidence documented in 45 studies which were undertaken mostly in temperate or subtropical regions of the U.S.A., Canada, Spain and Australia. The main focus of these works was to evaluate the effect of deforestation upon allochthonous inputs of CPOM, often in first and second order streams. Most studies addressed airborne inputs only, while lateral surface inputs, or downstream transport of CPOM were not commonly studied. Hedges’ effect size (g) was calculated for allochthonous inputs data from the 45 articles and plotted against deforestation. A threshold for airborne inputs and benthic organic matter (BOM) standing stock was observed when deforestation reached 70%. At that level of deforestation, effect sizes decreased by up to -5 standard deviations. The second study encompassed a field survey where forested and low forested sites along the one stream were evaluated. The survey required the collection of allochthonous inputs monthly for one year, where airborne, lateral surface transfer (LST), and drifting CPOM fractions were collected in sites with contrasting forest cover. Sites with intact vegetation showed high inputs (14 kg m-2 DW year-1), while deforested reaches showed lower airborne inputs (9.25 kg m-2 DW year-1). LST inputs represented 42% of allochthonous inputs in forested reaches, and 37.5% in deforested sites. The transport of CPOM downstream was similar between forested and deforested sites (23-25 kg DW year-1). Given this similarity in CPOM transportation, and that the majority of streams in Victoria are deforested, patches of riparian forest might be an attractive management option for restoration/management of streams. However, it is necessary to be mindful of the scope and limitations of forested patches along streams, as they might not provide resources to neighbouring areas. Rather, forested sections tend to retain most of their allochthonous inputs within their boundaries. The third study of this thesis comprises a field survey where patches of CPOM, located on the streambed of forested and deforested reaches, were collected in Summer, Spring and Winter. CPOM was separated intro fractions of leaves, bark and twigs. It was found that the type of cover did not modify the mass of CPOM fractions between forested and deforested reaches (p > 0.05). However, the results show significant differences between Sites within Forest Cover for all fractions, with exception of leaf material. The dominant patterns suggest high variation between sites and shifts between seasons. In relation to the contribution of each fraction provided to CPOM benthic standing stock, it was found that during the three sampling seasons, benthic CPOM composition was dominated by, in decreasing order, twigs, bark, leaf, and grass. Additionally, macroinvertebrates found in CPOM patches were separated and sorted into genus and species when possible. The analysis of species densities between forested and deforested sites show that Simulium ornatipes and Ecnomina F sp. densities differed between the two types of forest cover, while the remaining species showed no differences. However, Simulium ornatipes showed strong differences between sites. Ecnomina F sp. was the only taxon to show a significant difference related to forest cover, without having a substantial difference between sites within the same forest cover. On the other hand, Ecnomus continentalis, Notalina sp., Chemautopsyche sp, Hydroptila, Berosus (larvae), and Micronecta sp. showed higher significant differences in summer; whereas Chemautopsyche sp. and Hydroptila sp. densities were minimal in patches during spring. The regressions between the mass of CPOM and density of species showed that some presented negative relationships between specimens’ density and the increase of CPOM mass, as illustrated by Ecnomia F sp., Cheumatopsyche sp., and Nousia sp. The last study of this thesis was a field experiment where the size and spatial distribution of CPOM patches was manipulated, due to small-scale fragmentation being predicted to affect species densities, particularly where patches are ephemeral or organisms are transported advectively. CPOM patches were deployed in two possible configurations (a) one big patch treatment (BPT), comprised of 12 smaller sub-patches of the same size, and (b) 12 split patches (SPT), which were distributed across the streambed. Patches from the split treatment were of two sizes, double (300 cm2) and single (150 cm2). BPT and SPT patches from both treatments were oriented randomly on the stream (parallel or perpendicular) with respect to water flow. After 10 days, samples were collected of 13 common macroinvertebrates which had colonised the patches. It was found that the genera Offadens spp. and Notriolus spp. had responded to the orientation of patches in both treatments. Moreover, in SPT sites Offadens spp., Cheumatopsyche spp., and Notriolus spp. showed significantly higher densities in small patches, suggesting that species densities, which show no searching strategies for resources, are likely to be affected by patch size. The knowledge generated in this thesis provides a greater understanding of the effect upon macroinvertebrates densities by deforestation of a creek that flows through agricultural lands in southern Australian.
-
ItemFloodplain avulsion channels: understanding their distribution and how they reconnect to the parent channel( 2018)This study is concerned with new river channels that develop on floodplains. These channels can develop gradually, or they can develop more rapidly (avulsions). This study concentrates on the relatively more rapid channel changes known as avulsions. An avulsion specifies the gradual abandonment of an existing river-channel and in response to this, the processes of development of a new channel on a floodplain nearby. The study addresses two specific knowledge gaps: 1) how common are river floodplain avulsions globally, and 2) what are the detailed processes that occur at the up and downstream points where avulsions connect to the main channel? Using random sampling from a global spatial layer I discovered that developing avulsions are extremely common on alluvial floodplains globally, wherever the floodplain is wider than several channel widths. Avulsions are most common on single thread meandering floodplain types, but a review of avulsion literature shows that research is biased to relatively less common floodplain types. Avulsions increase the rate of valley widening, particularly in narrow floodplains. There is a relationship between floodplain width and the number of avulsion channels. The rest of the thesis is focussed in the major process knowledge gap which is how avulsion channels connect into the main channel at the up and downstream ends. The focus of the process component of this study is the broad Murray river floodplain from Yarrawonga to Echuca, SE Australia. I mapped and classified developing channels on the floodplain and found that the avulsion connection point here develops in an unusual way, involving the development and coalescence of low points (depressions) on the levee (this mechanism is very different from normal crevasse splay development). The chain of low points on the alluvial levee coalesce to form a levee channel. Rather than forming by erosion as expected from the literature, form progressively by locally reduced vertical accretion. This identifies a new process by which topography is developed on floodplains. Initially the levee channels are not connected with the Murray main stream and slope away from the river. The connection occurs by lateral migration of the river bank into the levee channel, but also by progressive upslope (river ward) migration of the deepest part of the levee channel towards the river, narrowing the gap between the river and the levee channel. Following connection, the levee channel captures flow from the river, and hydraulic modelling shows that shear stress is sufficient to erode the upstream end of the levee channel. As the channel erodes the shear stress declines, but the proportion of back-flow from the flood recession increases. The result is that the slope of the levee channel reverses to slope towards the river. This is a new mechanism, and it is critical in the sequence of avulsion development. The final stage of the development of avulsion is when a knickzone moves up the levee channel joining another levee channel that is leaving the river upvalley. This is new mechanism of avulsion likely to operate in low energy river systems dominated by fine-grained sediments.
-
ItemJust adaptation at resource frontiers: climate and empowerment in post-Soviet northern Russia( 2018)Despite an emerging interest in integrating climate policy and development goals, little is known about the potential synergies and trade-offs in resource extraction regions, particularly for Indigenous and rural communities that host resource projects. This thesis explores the institutional and political context in two resource extraction regions that shape resource development and climate change outcomes and mediate planning and implementation of initiatives to support adaptation decisions. The aim of the thesis is to identify the potential of climate change adaptation to contribute to the development of more equitable outcomes and processes for host communities. I present a conceptual framework called ‘just adaptation at resource frontiers’ that seeks to explicate the cross-scale political economy and ecological forces acting in the context of a changing global economy and climate change. The framework is applied and refined based on an empirical study, using interviews, purposive observations, focus groups and document analysis, in four cases in the Republic of Komi and the Republic of Sakha in Arctic and sub-Arctic Russia. Here, Indigenous subsistence-based and rural livelihoods face 'double exposure' to expanding oil exploitation and the impacts of climate change. Host communities bear the impacts inequitably, and they lack recognition of their rights and effective participation in governance. Despite different contexts between case study communities in Komi and Yakutia, the findings show that a) the impacts of oil exploitation and climate change intersect and manifest in altering the dynamics of environmental degradation, resulting in adverse societal outcomes; b) community responses incorporate traditional orders, reproducing governance patterns from the Soviet era, hindered by the state and private interests that favour oil exploitation; c) expansion of oil exploitation is determined by power and politics cutting across the legacies of the past, imaginative geographies of hydrocarbon resources, struggles for resource rents, and struggles over authority and recognition; d) relational injustice mediates the power of communities to shape adaptation decisions in relation to oil projects; e) collective action to fight environmental pollution and inequitable outcome and processes has emerged, and increasingly using climate change narratives rather than opposing the hydrocarbon sector directly. The thesis argues that there is a need to conceptualise and develop adaptation pathways (and pathways towards development) that avoid 'double exposure' in resource frontiers, and this can be achieved by a more nuanced understanding of cross-scale power dynamics and justice as a starting point. The thesis contributes to knowledge by offering conceptual, methodological and policy insights into a more holistic understanding of adaptation in resource extraction regions, specifically in northern Russia.
-
ItemBehind the scenes of land grabbing: conflict, competition, and the gendered implications for local food production and rural livelihoods in Cameroon( 2017)Large-scale land acquisitions or land grabbing are widespread – cutting across almost all parts of the developing world – Asia, Latin America and Africa. In recent years, this phenomenon has grown at unprecedented rates with Africa being the most targeted continent. In Cameroon, although land grabbing is raising prospects for national-level benefits, it is generating increasing tensions with local communities who suffer from dispossession of land and natural resources. This thesis examines the dynamics associated with the loss of land in a particular context in Nguti subdivision of the South West Region of Cameroon. It focuses on five communities in the region whose lands were earmarked by the state for the development of monoculture oil palm plantations. The main research objectives were to explore local perceptions and reactions to this phenomenon; but also to examine how it disproportionately affects men and women and its implications for local food production and rural livelihoods. This research is framed by studies of the ‘global land grab’; local communities’ livelihood strategies; womens’ access to land and forest resources; and land management and governance in Cameroon. Fieldwork included interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation. To attain the above objectives, four stand-alone empirical chapters are included in this thesis, each addressing particular research questions. My research questions query: 1) ‘why do people contest the establishment of commercial oil palm plantations on ancestral land and in what ways do they struggle for incorporation’; 2) ‘Why and how does land acquisition generates conflict within communities and with the agro-company/state’; 3) ‘How do men and women perceive and react to land grabbing projects’; 4) ‘In what ways does land grabbing disproportionately affect men and women; and what implications does it have for womens’ food production in particular, and rural livelihoods in general’? Broadly, this thesis offers insights into the complexities and challenges that confront heterogeneous local communities as a result of the acquisition of land hitherto accessed by them to sustain rural livelihoods. Specifically, it a) demonstrates that local communities are not necessarily against large-scale investments in land; rather their concern is how they can benefit from it without detriment, particularly if they lose access to their most fertile agricultural lands, b) explores some of the complexities that the ‘elite-dominated’ and corrupt land deals have generated, with particular reference to cross-scale governance, inter-village conflicts and community resistance in the region, c) shows that amidst societal discrimination over land ownership rights, perceptual differences between men and women appears rational in the event of land grabbing – men follow their ascribed roles in overt reactions, while women tend to be much less active and vocal in contesting land acquisition, despite the fact that the land acquired were mostly used by women to generate household food security, d) demonstrates how pre-existing land tenure systems combined with contemporary statutory land laws to accord men greater power over land to the detriment of women; posing severe implications for womens’ food production and rural livelihoods, and e) proposes policy recommendations that if instituted will help benefit the state, local communities and land investors. While this study specifically targets individuals, whose livelihoods are strictly tied to land and forest resources in the region, I also emphasized the roles of other actors such as village chiefs, local politicians, NGO personnel, and government authorities in shaping and influencing the dynamics around land grabbing in Nguti subdivision.
-
ItemThe geomorphic impact of large in-stream wood on incisional avulsions( 2017)Many anabranching rivers depend on the development and maintenance of avulsions. The avulsion, or formation of a new channel across the floodplain of such rivers,is integral in the construction of the floodplain stratigraphy. The load of large in-stream wood in a river channel interacts with the routing of flow and sediment in the channel and has received much attention over the last three decades, but the geomorphic role of wood in avulsions has not been quantified. This thesis investigates the relative role of large in-stream wood on the avulsion process. A detailed wood census was combined with LiDAR data and strategic stratigraphic coring on the King River (northeast Victoria, Australia). This multi-tiered approach was used to address four key areas: First, the overall length of each evolutionary stage of the avulsion process was calculated using floodplain sediment cores and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating techniques. The length of each stage was necessary to estimate how long the load of wood was in contact with the river channel. Second, to describe the spatial distribution of wood loads within the river a statistical analysis resulted in the novel use of the Weibull distribution. This provided a way to describe how both the wood load and its distribution may alter over time. Third, the delivery and removal processes of wood to the channel was modelled using a wood budget. Fourth, the wood delivery model was combined with a channel evolution model developed to simulate the avulsion process and the delivery of wood to the channel. Results show it takes an average of 4920 years for the complete avulsion process to pass through all five evolutionary stages. The development and completion of the avulsion (Stages 1-2) takes 1380 years, after which it takes a further 3540 years for the channel to become inefficient and develop a new avulsion (Stages 3-5). Given a healthy riparian forest, the accumulation of a steady state natural load of wood requires approximately 270 years, but this is dependent on the balance between wood delivery and removal processes within the channel, and the evolutionary stage of the avulsion. Throughout the entire avulsion process, wood is a dominant hydraulic inefficiency factor 21 % of the time. During avulsion development, wood in the channel provides approximately 50 % of the hydraulic roughness compared to the bed and bends. Wood may also act as a potential trigger of hydraulic inefficiency for 10% of the time towards the end of the avulsion lifecycle. This thesis advances previous models of anabranching. For each stage of development processes have been described, stratigraphic markers identified, and dated. This has allowed, for the first time in Australia, the sequence of anabranch development to be dated. The role of wood in anabranch development has now been quantified, and a model set up that can be adapted by others. The results can now inform management decisions on passive vs. active wood recovery. The role of in-stream wood, riparian and floodplain forests cannot be ignored in the process of river channel avulsion.
-
ItemLinking the past to the present: housing history and the sense of home in temporary public rental housing in Sarawak( 2017)The current literature on sense of home argues that security in housing tenure is necessary for people to feel ‘at home’ in their dwelling. In particular, the idea about housing security is framed using the notion of tenure longevity and this definition has been consistently reproduced or implied in recent studies investigating how people experience sense of home. While most studies in this scholarly space are taken from English-speaking, middle-class and high-income contexts, how low income households experience sense of home, particularly in developing countries where housing assistance is scarce, is still under-researched. Similarly, there is limited investigation of how the home is understood in housing situations where tenure longevity is uncertain. This thesis contributes another view to this scholarly space, using the Sarawak context where public housing is intended solely for transitional purposes. The policy specifies six years of maximum tenancy, after which tenants are expected to exit public housing. This policy is not enforced and tenants may stay on after the maximum period. Such ambiguity in the public housing tenure affects tenants’ sense of home. Given this context, my thesis critically examines how current tenants of the Sarawak public housing experience a sense of home. I use the case study methodology to capture tenants’ lived experiences of home in their former housing and public housing, by employing in-depth interviews, observations and survey as data collection methods. Despite the insecure tenure, most tenants regard public housing as their home. The findings demonstrate a strong association between housing history and a sense of home in public housing. The ways in which current tenants experience a sense of homeliness or unhomeliness in the facility are specifically shaped by their lived experiences of home in their former housing. This thesis highlights the significance of trade-offs that vulnerable households have to make in their housing decisions, in order to make a home in public housing. In addition, the critical examination of home in the context of this thesis has offered alternative ways to examine important concepts in the housing literature such as housing security and trade-offs in housing decision making.
-
ItemProducing difference: the political economy of small-scale fisheries governance on Colombia’s Pacific coast( 2017)The importance of small-scale fisheries for coastal people has been largely overlooked. Governments have often framed oceans as open access spaces prioritising processes of capital accumulation that have had major socio-environmental impacts. Neoliberal approaches to fisheries and environmental governance have relied on territorialisation processes and market-oriented mechanisms to control and ensure the conservation and sustainable use of fishing resources. This thesis investigates how the political economy of small-scale fisheries governance has led to the production of difference and interacted with place-based institutional processes. I have studied the participatory process undertaken by nine coastal Afro-descendant villages along the Gulf of Tribugá in the Pacific coast of Colombia, that led to the creation of a marine protected area. Critically, I examine how difference materialises and manifests in multiple ways by way of: i) territorialisation processes; ii) commodification of fish; and iii) neoliberal biodiversity conservation. I draw on political ecology and geographies of the sea to analyse how the production of difference has influenced place-based institutional processes, social relations, and socio-natural interactions. I argue that the expansion of the political economy of fish and the processes that led to the creation of the marine protected area have enforced static, homogeneous, and atemporal images of reality at sea that fail to reflect the complex and fluid dynamics shaping the lives of coastal dwellers. Sea materialities, social relations, and socio-natural interactions are central in the production of place-based institutional processes. As such, this research highlights the need for legal and political instruments for the recognition of waterscapes as social spaces, and the inclusion of coastal fishing communities in the negotiation of fisheries governance and marine territorialisation processes.
-
ItemOutsourcing adaptation: examining the role and influence of consultants in governing climate change adaptation( 2017)The aim of this thesis is to examine the role and influence of consultants in governing climate change adaptation. The thesis is guided by three research questions: how did consultants become involved in advising governments on adaptation planning; what work do consultants do as advisors; and how do consultants reproduce themselves in adaptation planning? In answering these research questions, this thesis develops a conceptual framework that theorises adaptation governance as a governmental programme shaped by (and shaping) the practices, materialities and spatial-temporalities of consulting. The research combines a broader historical analysis of adaptation consulting (2004-2015) with a multi-sited and multi-scalar institutional ethnography of adaptation consulting as it was performed over a two-year period (2014-2015) in an adaptation planning consulting project and at conferences, training events and other sites. This thesis finds that (1) consultants are advising governments on a wide range of adaptation issues and across scales, places and time so as to deeply entangle public and private actors in adaptation governance; (2) the project creation and business development work of consultants renders adaptation both techno-managerial and governable by the market; and (3) the involvement of consultants in advising governments on planning for a changing climate constitutes adaptation governance in ways that highlights the increasing depoliticisation of public policy development in Australia. The thesis concludes with discussion of the implications for the future of adaptation governance in Australia, as well as the contribution of this research to broader debates on geographies of governance and productions of neoliberal expertise.
-
ItemPolitical trust in China: evidence from water consumption in Shanghai( 2017)This thesis aims to understand political trust in China through the lens of fresh water consumption in Shanghai. Research on political trust suffers from a case-selection bias. Most of the studies on political trust focus on liberal democracies and this problematizes the generalisability of those findings. In order to broaden the evidence and to test the relevance of existing theories of political trust in a different political context, this thesis answers three questions: 1. what is the influence of demographic factors on political trust? 2. what is the relationship between risk perception and political trust? and 3. what other factors help explain political trust? It answers these questions through an investigation of people’s trust in water management institutions in Shanghai, which grounds the analysis in a specific risk that requires people to trust in public authorities. A combination of qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (questionnaire survey) methods is used, supported by secondary data collection. This thesis finds that that some of the explanations of political trust in democratic regimes also apply in China, but with some subtle differences. Demographic factors have a slightly different effect in China: more educated people and people with urban hukou tend to be less trusting than people with less education and rural hukou, while other individual characteristics, such as age, gender, and household income do not have significant influence on political trust. Risk perception and political trust are statistically correlated and seemingly bidirectional, but the association is moderated by some factors. The main difference between people who trust and distrust the government is whether they perceive the existing risks are reasonable and attribute those risks to the fault of the government. Another key finding of this thesis is that for various reasons political trust may not be a meaningful concept for many people in China, at least with respect to water consumption in cities.
-
ItemWalk the talk: mainstreaming climate change adaptation in donor-aided projects in Cambodia( 2016)Scholars have focused on climate change vulnerability and looked in some detail at measures to reduce it or to adapt; however, the act of mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) into the development investments of multilateral donors in developing countries is under-researched. Multilateral donors provide financial and technical support to least-developed countries in several climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water and infrastructure. Some business-as-usual development projects may actually increase vulnerability to the changing climate and even hamper the progress of sustainable economic growth. However, climate-resilient development practice can be designed to reduce climate risks, and support for road infrastructure is one important sector where this is needed. As little research has been done on the act of addressing climate change vulnerability in donor-aided development projects, this research aims to fill in this gap. An interdisciplinary, qualitative case study approach is applied to investigate process, institutional change and challenges in implementing climate-resilient road projects in Cambodian floodplains. Building on the theoretical concept of institutional change and relating it to impact assessment, I explore how climate change adaptation is mainstreamed into the project decision-making process. The study of two road investments contributes to a growing interest in whether multilateral donors can play a leading role in mainstreaming CCA considerations into their current and future development investments. Change and accountability for these climate-resilient road projects were found to be constrained by at least three related capacities: institutional, technical, and financial. I conclude that mainstreaming CCA at project-level leads towards more integrated and sustainable outcomes. However, ‘mainstreaming’ is unlikely to be the sole answer for safeguarding sustainability in the face of climatic impacts. Although the theory and practice of climate-resilient road projects is emerging, there are no affirmed methods of mainstreaming CCA. The research explored two different methods: climate-vulnerability reduction assessment and adaptation-integrated environmental safeguards procedure (e.g. IEE/EIA). There is no single best pathway for mainstreaming CCA, a finding that counters the arguments of scholars who uphold that mainstreaming CCA into ex-ante IEE/EIA is the way forward.