Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemFitness landscapes and the precautionary principle : the geometry of environmental risk( 2000)Current environmental impact assessment methods assume by default that, where there are multiple stressors on an environmental system, that such stressors act independently and additively. There is evidence suggesting this assumption does not hold for all such sets of stressors. Such evidence places this assumption in conflict with the precautionary principle. This thesis proposes a new means of modelling a set of environmental stressors. The model allows estimation of the sensitivity of the cumulative impact of the set to variations in number of stressors and the degree to which they interact. The method developed has, as its default assumption, the potential for non-linear interaction between stressors within sets. This method is in keeping with the objectives of the precautionary principle. The model draws on empirical data from the environmental sciences, and mathematical and computational techniques from complex adaptive systems theory. In doing so, it draws on methods used in a range of disciplines for modelling non-linear interactions between multiple parts of a complex system. These methods share the common mathematical foundation of fitness landscape theory. It is argued that the proposed model allows statements about the sensitivity of the gross effect from a set of stressars to be made when the number of stressors in the set, and/or their degree of interaction, is varied. It is argued that this can be achieved through identification of properties of the set itself, without reference to the specific causal chains determining behaviour in specific instances. While such properties are very general, they offer the potential of parameterising of the effects of sets of stressors where interactions are highly uncertain and empirical data severely limited, i.e., situations which would typically invoke the precautionary principle. The model represents a generalisation and abstraction of the Scheffe {q,m} simplex-lattice method used for modelling laboratory based chemical mixture experiments. The output of the model suggests that the cumulative impact arising from a set of environmental stressors is: a) acutely sensitive to variations in the number of stressors in the set; b) sensitive to variations in the degree of interaction between these stressors, and that this sensitivity increases with the number of stressors in the set; c) acutely sensitive to simultaneous variation in the number of stressors in the set and the degree to which they interact. It is argued that knowledge of the acuteness of these sensitivities provides a valuable additional input into precautious environmental decision making.
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ItemRelating and designing : modelling the human-environment nexus( 1983)Nothing less than a paradigm shift will do. If architecture is to enrich human dwelling, if it is to be consistently practised as both art and science, then it must be profoundly grounded on a knowledge and understanding of the ways in which humans relate to their environments. Architects have rediscovered and reinterpreted this belief over many centuries. For some two decades now many have sought knowledge of their fellow humans from the Behavioural Sciences. There has been considerable inter-disciplinary co-operation, but it has been undertaken without attention to the prevailing disciplinary paradigms. And, while there have been modest successes, an increasing concern has been receiving expression at conferences and in journals: the nature of research disciplines and design disciplines is such that their relationship is dominantly 'producer-user' and the information produced is often of a different character to, or in a form different from, that which the users require. The solution to this dilemma cannot be effected through superficial surface change. A revision and restructuring of the way both discipline-areas conceive of their domains is necessary. Their joint areas of concern provide the most fertile starting point for this endeavour. Nothing less than a paradigm shift will do. This thesis proposes models that could form the core of a revised paradigm. There is no claim made that they are the only models possible or necessary to generate paradigmatic revolution. They are held to be sufficient to the task, however. There are four levels at which the argument is presented within this work. First the title: it names the two major models presented - relating and designing, claims that there is a nexus between humans and environments and that it can be modelled. As a second level of elaboration the following brief summary of the chapters is given to outline the structure of the whole: Chapter 1 considers models and prescribes a model-concept appropriate to the field of human-environment relations and designing. The next three chapters examine humans, environments and relations and, loosely, propose models of each. These can then be employed subsequently. Chapter 5 develops a model of relating, a model of an agent intentionally acting to ensure that his relations to his environment are, he would judge, appropriate. A descriptive model of architectural designing is presented next. In the final chapter these two models are shown to have the same domain and to satisfy the model-concept prescriptions established in Chapter 1. Speculations about the nature and character of researching and designing in the alternative paradigm conclude the thesis. The third level of elaboration is provided by the seven chapter abstracts. Collectively they form the outline below. Each is repeated prior to the relevant chapter to form an argumentative skeleton. The discussions within the chapters form the fourth level of argument. They put flesh on the skeleton.