title: Feasibility of water quality monitoring by remote sensing in the Waikato Region

authors: Lehmann, Moritz K.

subjects: Remote sensing

abstract: The Waikato Regional Council (WRC) has statutory environmental monitoring requirements, including commitments arising from the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and State of the Environment reporting. Lakes, large rivers and estuaries pose a challenge for water quality monitoring programs due to their size, number and accessibility. To meet the increasing demand for more comprehensive monitoring to facilitate evidence-based regional policy making, cost-effective monitoring tools capable of capturing multiple attributes at various temporal and spatial scales are desirable.

text: Feasibility of water quality monitoring by remote sensing in the Waikato Region The Waikato Regional Council (WRC) has statutory environmental monitoring requirements, including commitments arising from the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and State of the Environment reporting. Lakes, large rivers and estuaries pose a challenge for water quality monitoring programs due to their size, number and accessibility. To meet the increasing demand for more comprehensive monitoring to facilitate evidence-based regional policy making, cost-effective monitoring tools capable of capturing multiple attributes at various temporal and spatial scales are desirable.

year: 2017

title: Life on parole: An extended investigation of how pre-release and post-release factors contribute to desistence from crime

authors: Brown, Andrew

subjects: prevention of recidivism

abstract: Prevention of recidivism is the universally accepted goal of the New Zealand/ Aotearoa justice system, the nation’s Department of Corrections, politicians and public (“Our vision goal and priorities reducing re-offending”, New Zealand Department of Corrections, 2015). What can be done within prisons prior to release and then in the community post-release to reduce recidivism needs to be better understood. Parolees endure significant challenges when they transition back to their communities. Finding suitable accommodation, confirming stable employment, and maintaining prosocial support networks rate highly among these challenges (Bucklen & Zajac, 2009). While a high proportion of parolees fail to meet these challenges and recidivate soon after release, there are some who do not. Understanding the factors that enable those who avoid further convictions post-release is an important step in designing interventions and processes that might lead to higher a proportion of parolees similarly succeeding (Polaschek & Yesberg, 2016). Of equal importance is the need to understand the factors that increase parolees’ risks of recidivating. Measures have been designed by researchers to understand first, how men prepare for, and conceptualise, their re- entries and second, how they then experience life on parole. The Release Plan Quality (RPQ) measure was designed to analyse prisoners’ release plans and rate their quality on various metrics. Another measure, the Parole Experiences Measure (PEM) rates the quality of parolees’ experiences during re-entry and transition (Wilson, Kilgour & Polaschek, 2013). This thesis examines the PEM and the RPQ in relation to four recidivism outcomes at one- year post-release, namely; conviction for breach of parole conditions, reconviction for new offending (excluding convictions for breach of parole), new convictions for violence offences and convictions leading to reimprisonment. Logistic regression analysis results indicated that PEM outcomes were more predictive of the four recidivism outcomes than the RPQ results. Better RPQ results did, however, predict better PEM results. PEM results (particularly PEM results from the PEM external circumstances subscale) at the two-month mark post-release were found to best predict the four recidivism outcomes. This indicated that environmental issues external to the parolee such as employment and accommodation were more likely to impact risk of recidivism than internal, personal factors such as mental health and personal attitudes. The effectiveness of the PEM two-month results for predicting the four recidivism outcomes remained after controlling for possible confounding variables. This research suggests first, that parolees who have better release plans will have better experiences when on parole and second that parolees who have early positive experiences on parole particularly in relation to external factors such as employment and accommodation are somewhat more likely to remain crime-free post-release.

text: Life on parole: An extended investigation of how pre-release and post-release factors contribute to desistence from crime Prevention of recidivism is the universally accepted goal of the New Zealand/ Aotearoa justice system, the nation’s Department of Corrections, politicians and public (“Our vision goal and priorities reducing re-offending”, New Zealand Department of Corrections, 2015). What can be done within prisons prior to release and then in the community post-release to reduce recidivism needs to be better understood. Parolees endure significant challenges when they transition back to their communities. Finding suitable accommodation, confirming stable employment, and maintaining prosocial support networks rate highly among these challenges (Bucklen & Zajac, 2009). While a high proportion of parolees fail to meet these challenges and recidivate soon after release, there are some who do not. Understanding the factors that enable those who avoid further convictions post-release is an important step in designing interventions and processes that might lead to higher a proportion of parolees similarly succeeding (Polaschek & Yesberg, 2016). Of equal importance is the need to understand the factors that increase parolees’ risks of recidivating. Measures have been designed by researchers to understand first, how men prepare for, and conceptualise, their re- entries and second, how they then experience life on parole. The Release Plan Quality (RPQ) measure was designed to analyse prisoners’ release plans and rate their quality on various metrics. Another measure, the Parole Experiences Measure (PEM) rates the quality of parolees’ experiences during re-entry and transition (Wilson, Kilgour & Polaschek, 2013). This thesis examines the PEM and the RPQ in relation to four recidivism outcomes at one- year post-release, namely; conviction for breach of parole conditions, reconviction for new offending (excluding convictions for breach of parole), new convictions for violence offences and convictions leading to reimprisonment. Logistic regression analysis results indicated that PEM outcomes were more predictive of the four recidivism outcomes than the RPQ results. Better RPQ results did, however, predict better PEM results. PEM results (particularly PEM results from the PEM external circumstances subscale) at the two-month mark post-release were found to best predict the four recidivism outcomes. This indicated that environmental issues external to the parolee such as employment and accommodation were more likely to impact risk of recidivism than internal, personal factors such as mental health and personal attitudes. The effectiveness of the PEM two-month results for predicting the four recidivism outcomes remained after controlling for possible confounding variables. This research suggests first, that parolees who have better release plans will have better experiences when on parole and second that parolees who have early positive experiences on parole particularly in relation to external factors such as employment and accommodation are somewhat more likely to remain crime-free post-release.

year: 2019

title: Building capacity for sustainable Iwi development

authors: Bishop, Russell

subjects: Māori community development

abstract: Since 1998, four iwi groups have participated in a Māori Sustainable Development project with researchers from the University of Waikato. This project has sought to develop a better understanding of iwi aspirations for economic, social and cultural development. Based on this research, the project seeks to identify, in conjunction with iwi, capacity building models and options in order to provide sustainable economic, social and cultural development. One finding of the research, based on the responses from iwi who have participated in this project, identifies iwi values and identity as the basis for a capacity building model for Māori sustainable development. It is this that is the focus of this paper.

text: Building capacity for sustainable Iwi development Since 1998, four iwi groups have participated in a Māori Sustainable Development project with researchers from the University of Waikato. This project has sought to develop a better understanding of iwi aspirations for economic, social and cultural development. Based on this research, the project seeks to identify, in conjunction with iwi, capacity building models and options in order to provide sustainable economic, social and cultural development. One finding of the research, based on the responses from iwi who have participated in this project, identifies iwi values and identity as the basis for a capacity building model for Māori sustainable development. It is this that is the focus of this paper.

year: 2002-09