OTROS FACTORES TRÓFICOS UTILIZADOS EN ESTA TESIS

Kehinde Bamdupe

University of Salford,

College of Science and Technology, School of Built Environment E-mail: [email protected]

Nigeria can best be described as one of the several mono-product economies in the world today; especially as it derives a high proportion of its gross revenue from crude oil and crude oil based transactions. Nigeria has continuously relied upon the proceeds from the sector to drive national development. Unfortunately, the citizenry and government of the country lament the spate of project abandonment and divestments of major oil and gas operators from production activities in the industry in recent times; maintaining that such actions lead to reduced productivity and hence reduced contribution to the national economy. Considering the significance of this factor, it is then surprising that there is a seeming paucity of studies which have been carried out to investigate the current modes of cost management being utilised in the industry. Also, there appears to be a lack of studies exploring the impact of the adopted procurement systems on the identified cost management strategies

selecting appropriate procurement systems to achieve effective cost management within the oil and gas industry, this particular study will attempt to identify the various cost management strategies being used in the Nigerian oil and gas industry through an extensive review of the literature and explore the probable relationships between the effectiveness of these strategies and the prevalent procurement systems in the industry. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to the development of a conceptual framework upon which the rest of the PhD study would be hinged.

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Evaluating the Value of Urban Food: Real Food Wythenshawe

Rebecca St. Clair Room 335, Peel Building

Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre School of Environment and Life Sciences

University of Salford M5 4WT

Email: [email protected]

Keywords: Urban Agriculture, food poverty, food security

Urban Agriculture (UA) is the production of food in the city context. Agriculture is commonly thought of as a rural practice, conducted in spaces that are kept separate from urban areas and invisible to the city dweller. UA bridges the gap between production and consumption, whilst potentially offering a partial solution to the difficulties that may arise in feeding urban populations.

Food poverty affects urban areas all over the UK, an example of which is Wythenshawe, a district in South Manchester. Wythenshawe, built as a garden city in the 1920s, contains many green spaces, and yet there are few outlets where residents are able to purchase fresh, healthy food. The area suffers from high levels of deprivation and has been referred to as a ‘food desert’ due to the lack of access that residents have to fresh food. Access problems along with high levels of unemployment, poor health and a lack of knowledge regarding food preparation have inspired the Real Food Wythenshawe project (RFW).

RFW received £1 million from the Big Lottery to pioneer the practice of UA in Wythenshawe. The project aims to initiate a level of behavioural change within the community, whereby residents will redevelop their connection to food and will be more inclined and better equipped to grow, cook and eat fresh, local food.

This PhD aims to evaluate RFW, providing a review of the project’s impact. It aims to map access to fresh food across parts of Wythenshawe and to use qualitative techniques to assess dietary habits and perceptions towards food. This research also seeks to establish reasons for food choices in concert with accessibility limitations and to monitor changes in perceptions as a result of participants’ involvement with RFW.

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Decision support tool based on ecosystem service variables for

retrofitting of sustainable drainage systems including wetlands

Vincent Uzomah and Miklas Scholz

Civil Engineering Research Group, The University of Salford, School of Computing, Science and Engineering, Newton Building, Salford, Greater Manchester M5 4WT, UK

Email: [email protected]

Keywords: Sustainable drainage system, Ecosystem services, Decision support

There is a lack of practical decision support tools useful for a rapid assessment of the potential of ecosystem services when retrofitting of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) such as wetlands and ponds in urban areas. A wetland is effective at providing storage capacity, diverse wildlife habitat and pollutant removal capacity. The aim was to develop an innovative rapid decision support tool based on novel ecosystem service variables for retrofitting of wetlands and ponds, and other SuDS techniques.

More than 100 sites and corresponding catchment areas that were large enough for the retrofitting of SuDS were identified in Greater Manchester. The key ecosystem service variables of relevance to wetlands were Moderation of Extreme Events and Storm Runoff Treatment. A rapid assessment methodology for retrofitting of SuDS was developed to reduce the currently high level of subjectivity in practice. The suitability of sites for SuDS retrofitting was also assessed based on traditional ‘community and environment’ variables (promoted by the construction industry) for comparison.

A comparison of the traditional variables and the new ecosystem services variables shows a bias of the old tool towards semi-natural SuDS techniques such as wetlands, ponds, filter strips and swales. In comparison, the new ecosystem services approach favoured infiltration techniques. All sites were suitable for the retrofitting of SuDS when the traditional assessment based on ‘community and environment’ variables was carried out. In comparison, the ecosystem services approach shows that nearly half of the sites have a relatively low ecosystem services potential, making them of limited use for retrofitting of most semi-natural SuDS techniques.

The findings can be used to prioritise sites for SuDS retrofitting. Wetlands and ponds did not feature highly when only the ecosystem services approach was used. This is because of the relatively high importance of non-regulating services such as supporting, regulating and cultural services.

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A FRAMEWORK OF CAPTURING AND SHARING TACIT

KNOWLEDGE IN CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAINS IN CONTEXT OF