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The high small-scale diversity of plant species in semi-natural grasslands can be seen as a function of environmental conditions and land use history. This study explores the potential of using Worldview-2 spectral imagery and accessible GIS data to identify a set of vegetation characteristics known to influence biodiversity in semi-natural grasslands. Field sampling was done in 52 grassland sites
This thesis has been written as input for a publicly funded research project on the economic evaluation of the implications of renewable energy expansion in the German electricity and heating sector. So far, the project has only qualitatively assessed the impact of renewable energy deployment on energy security. This thesis presents the first approach of its kind to quantitatively assess the influ
Buildings account for a significant portion of energy consumption and carbon dioxide production in the United States. Renovations could improve the energy efficiency of these buildings. However, a number of market barriers, e.g. high upfront costs, are resulting in a low adoption rate of energy efficiency (EE) technologies in the building sector. Apartment buildings face an additional challenge of
Recent years have seen an explosion in innovative and sustainable mobility service offerings, especially car sharing and bike sharing. The latter contribute to sustainability by reducing individual car ownership, which has negative social, economic and especially environmental consequences. Yet, both industrial and academic discourses point out that no single mobility service is enough to meet the
In order to exploit the renewable energy (RE) and climate mitigation potential, transaction costs (TCs) of implementing RE technologies need to be better understood and eventually scaled down. The objective of this thesis is to identify and analyze the nature of TCs borne by obliged parties under the recent “Feed-in Tariff” (FIT) scheme in the United Kingdom. In addition, the findings are compared
4 Abstract Title Capital Structure – A study about Market Timing and its affects during a financial depression Seminar data 2013-05-29 Course FEKN90 Degree Project, Master of Science in Business and Economics, 30 ECTS Authors Amelie Persson and Robin Fransson Advisor Maria Gårdängen Keywords Capital Structure, Market Timing, Depression, Driving Factors, Debt Level, Nordic Market Purpose The purpos
This thesis aims to evaluating the actual performance of China’s “Feed-in-Tariff” system for wind energy, especially the updated version after 2009 which being part of the Chinese economic stimulus package that intended to help the recovery of the economy from global financial crisis. The research started by looking thoroughly into the evolution and mechanism of the system. Then through a case stu
Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs) have been adopted in developed countries since 1970s to help stimulate public participation, facilitate environmental regulation and promote industrial transformation, but have not been widely established in developing countries. In China, environmental pollution is increasing rapidly and has reached severe levels as a result of economic development
The Sahel lies in the semi-arid zone of North Africa between the Sahara Desert to the north and the savannas and rainforest to the south. In the Sahel, the variability of vegetation growth is predominately controlled by moisture reception in the concurrent rainy season. The inter-annual variability of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) during the rainy season (April to August) can be ex
The packaging waste problem was realized a couple decades ago. The effectiveness of waste policy instruments and EPR schemes for packaging and packaging waste is still being discussed in Europe. Finland like other EU Member states has transposed EU waste legislation into the national law. An EPR system for packaging and packaging waste in Finland was introduced in 1997. Plenty of changes to this E
ISO 14001:2004 is the most commonly used standard for third-party certification of Environmental Management Systems (EMS) in the world. It is currently undergoing an upgrading process, which will affect all the companies certified to ISO 14001. A first draft has been produced, the Committee Draft 1 (CD1). The thesis has two research questions: What are the most likely changes in the new version
Wine tourism is a niche tourism product that is increasing in wine regions across the world. Wine tourism is also being hailed as a more sustainable approach to tourism due to its promotion of economic, environmental and social sustainability. Sustainable rural development is a high priority around the world due to declining rural economies. Tourism is increasingly being viewed as a component of r
Georgia is facing social and economic challenges and at the same time there are signs that more pressure is put on the environment and natural resources. Georgian industry is energy- intense and encompassing deregulations have put even more stress on the environment. How to combine economic and social goals with environmental concerns has been a hotbed for disputes in Georgia. A recognized approac
The transition towards a sustainable society has become more and more an urban challenge due to a dramatic shift from rural to urban living over the past century. Cities cause environmental and social problems and offer solutions to many sustainability challenges. Living Labs are research infrastructures embedded in a real-life environment, which have recently emerged as a tool for urban governanc
Abstract Host genes for resistance to pathogens and parasites have been a subject of long-term research efforts and continue to be a hot subject in biology. Many important theories have been hypothesized through the years, and they are now being complemented by new and more detailed ones leading to increased understanding of the complex dynamics between host life history strategies and the select
China's growing and expanding economic engagement in Africa the last century, has captured the attention of International Relations, in media and research as well as in Europe and Africa, but also worldwide. In particular, much attention was brought together with the Forum on China – Africa Cooperation held in Beijing 2006 (FOCAC III), when China declared the year as The Year of Africa and pre
Air pollution still poses a serious air quality problem. There are numerous of different sources for air pollution. One of them is ship traffic, which has an effect on human health as well as the climate system. We decided to investigate one of the largest shipping lanes in the North Sea to what extent ships actually contribute to the particle concentrations in inland locations. Both particle numb
The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) has been assembled by the Centre for Economic Demography (CED), Lund University. It contains information about the demographic and economic conditions of people that have lived in 5 parishes in Scania from the 17th century until the present. The SEDD database has been integrated with geographic data, which are digitized from four independent histori
Deteriorating water quality is a challenge which affects people of the entire world, with a growing population and increased industrialization worldwide. The problem is especially apparent in many developing nations where water resource management must be improved to secure a future sustainable supply. This study was undertaken as a bachelor degree within the MFS-program funded by SIDA. The study
