title: Sensitivity of GIS-derived terrain variables at multiple scales for modelling stoat (Mustela erminea) activity

authors: Martin, R.D.

subjects: terrain

abstract: This research combines automated Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and iterative logistic regression scripting to data-mine for terrain variables that predict stoat (Mustela erminea) visitation to tracking-stations in a New Zealand indigenous forest and explore the impact of spatial analysis scale on modelling outcomes. Variables such as curvature and density of tracks are dependent on the scale of the analysis window used to compute the values. With automated GIS analysis it is possible to derive a large number of terrain parameters that vary in computational scale. It is common for analysts to make nominal choices regarding the size and type of analysis windows when calculating these derived variables, without testing the statistical validity of that choice. Stoats are a significant pest in New Zealand and threaten extinction for a number of vulnerable native species. Field data on stoat activity, based on footprint tracking tunnels, were used to develop an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) optimised predictive model applying stepwise model selection. Once the optimal model was determined, the sensitivity of the model to different terrain parameters was tested by systematically substituting each variable and calculating the difference this made to the model equation. The most dominant terrain predictors influencing stoat visitation were proximity to tracks, altitude, northerly and easterly aspect, mean curvature, and topographical position and slope. Proximity to tracks and mean curvature were the most sensitive variables to analysis scale. This paper demonstrates the importance of considering scale in developing predictive models and the need to test many ecologically sensible analysis scales in order to find the best predictive variables. The paper concludes that GIS-based spatial data extraction, combined with automated statistical data mining methods, has an important role in developing accurate animal activity models.

text: Sensitivity of GIS-derived terrain variables at multiple scales for modelling stoat (Mustela erminea) activity This research combines automated Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and iterative logistic regression scripting to data-mine for terrain variables that predict stoat (Mustela erminea) visitation to tracking-stations in a New Zealand indigenous forest and explore the impact of spatial analysis scale on modelling outcomes. Variables such as curvature and density of tracks are dependent on the scale of the analysis window used to compute the values. With automated GIS analysis it is possible to derive a large number of terrain parameters that vary in computational scale. It is common for analysts to make nominal choices regarding the size and type of analysis windows when calculating these derived variables, without testing the statistical validity of that choice. Stoats are a significant pest in New Zealand and threaten extinction for a number of vulnerable native species. Field data on stoat activity, based on footprint tracking tunnels, were used to develop an Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) optimised predictive model applying stepwise model selection. Once the optimal model was determined, the sensitivity of the model to different terrain parameters was tested by systematically substituting each variable and calculating the difference this made to the model equation. The most dominant terrain predictors influencing stoat visitation were proximity to tracks, altitude, northerly and easterly aspect, mean curvature, and topographical position and slope. Proximity to tracks and mean curvature were the most sensitive variables to analysis scale. This paper demonstrates the importance of considering scale in developing predictive models and the need to test many ecologically sensible analysis scales in order to find the best predictive variables. The paper concludes that GIS-based spatial data extraction, combined with automated statistical data mining methods, has an important role in developing accurate animal activity models.

year: 2010

title: Re-energising Knowledge Management: Communication challenges, interdisciplinary intersections, and paradigm change

authors: Jones, Rachel Anne

subjects: Knowledge Management

abstract: Knowledge Management (KM) in the 1990s was a key upwardly-mobile management discipline. Indeed, a proliferation of articles suggested KM had the potential to make a radical departure from conventional views of organisational assets and resources, and even held the promise of transforming economies. Instead, however, KM has tended to become incorporated as a subset of traditional management. This thesis suggests that, as a result, knowledge has been perceived simply as another resource to be managed for competitive advantage. It further argues that KM need not subscribe to conventional views of management and that knowledge need not be just another resource to be exploited, hoarded, and traded. Instead, it contends that knowledge is an outcome of the process of connecting to one another in new ways and explores the field’s still-unrealised potential for generating fresh approaches relevant to contemporary conditions. In seeking to revive the excitement, and rekindle the potential, that originally surrounded the field, the thesis intervenes in current debates in KM. It attends to, and expands, the existing discourses of KM while presenting the case for a re-energised understanding of the communication of knowledge. Exploring intersections with other disciplines as well as KM’s own multidisciplinary base, it proposes transdisciplinary research as a productive focus for KM. In making these recommendations for KM’s future, the thesis seeks to make the field more responsive to current complex and dynamic academic, organisational, and social contexts. Its overall goal is not only to ensure KM’s ongoing relevance and effectiveness as a field, but to direct KM towards fulfilling its early potential.

text: Re-energising Knowledge Management: Communication challenges, interdisciplinary intersections, and paradigm change Knowledge Management (KM) in the 1990s was a key upwardly-mobile management discipline. Indeed, a proliferation of articles suggested KM had the potential to make a radical departure from conventional views of organisational assets and resources, and even held the promise of transforming economies. Instead, however, KM has tended to become incorporated as a subset of traditional management. This thesis suggests that, as a result, knowledge has been perceived simply as another resource to be managed for competitive advantage. It further argues that KM need not subscribe to conventional views of management and that knowledge need not be just another resource to be exploited, hoarded, and traded. Instead, it contends that knowledge is an outcome of the process of connecting to one another in new ways and explores the field’s still-unrealised potential for generating fresh approaches relevant to contemporary conditions. In seeking to revive the excitement, and rekindle the potential, that originally surrounded the field, the thesis intervenes in current debates in KM. It attends to, and expands, the existing discourses of KM while presenting the case for a re-energised understanding of the communication of knowledge. Exploring intersections with other disciplines as well as KM’s own multidisciplinary base, it proposes transdisciplinary research as a productive focus for KM. In making these recommendations for KM’s future, the thesis seeks to make the field more responsive to current complex and dynamic academic, organisational, and social contexts. Its overall goal is not only to ensure KM’s ongoing relevance and effectiveness as a field, but to direct KM towards fulfilling its early potential.

year: 2011

title: The Treaty, tikanga Māori, ecosystem-based management, mainstream law and power sharing for environmental integrity in Aotearoa New Zealand – possible ways forward

authors: Joseph, Robert

subjects: Maori, ecosystem-based management, coastal marine estate, sustainability, Treaty of Waitangi

abstract: Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has become an appropriate international response for addressing alarming global environmental degradation trends. EBM is designed and executed as an adaptive, learning-based process that applies the following common international principles:
•	the connections and relationships within an ecosystem;
•	the cumulative impacts that affect marine welfare; 
•	focus on maintaining the natural structure and function of ecosystems and their productivity;
•	incorporate human use and values of ecosystems in managing the resource;
•	recognise that ecosystems are dynamic and constantly changing;
•	are based on a shared vision of all key participants; and
•	are based on scientific knowledge, adopted by continual learning and monitoring.

The New Zealand Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge agrees with these EBM principles but has adapted them into an Aotearoa New Zealand theoretical approach that fundamentally acknowledges mātauranga and tikanga Māori law hence the following Aotearoa New Zealand EBM principles:
•	a co-governance and co-design structure that recognises the Māori constitutional relationship and mana whenua at all levels (whānau, hapū, iwi), together with the guiding principles of mauri, whakapapa, kaitiakitanga, mātauranga-a-iwi and mātauranga-a-hapū;
•	is place and time-specific, recognising/understanding the ecosystem as a whole in all its ecological complexities and connectedness and addressing cumulative and multiple stressors;
•	acknowledges humans as ecosystem components with multiple values;
•	views long-term sustainability as a fundamental value, in particular maintaining values and uses for future generations;
•	includes collaborative and participatory management throughout the whole process, considering all values and involving all interested parties from agencies and iwi to industries, whānau, hapū and local communities;
•	has clear goals and objectives based on knowledge; and
•	includes adaptive management, appropriate monitoring and acknowledgement of uncertainty.

The report focuses on analysing EBM through the incorporation of mātauranga and tikanga Māori and power sharing through Treaty partnerships over the marine and coastal estate.

text: The Treaty, tikanga Māori, ecosystem-based management, mainstream law and power sharing for environmental integrity in Aotearoa New Zealand – possible ways forward Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has become an appropriate international response for addressing alarming global environmental degradation trends. EBM is designed and executed as an adaptive, learning-based process that applies the following common international principles:
•	the connections and relationships within an ecosystem;
•	the cumulative impacts that affect marine welfare; 
•	focus on maintaining the natural structure and function of ecosystems and their productivity;
•	incorporate human use and values of ecosystems in managing the resource;
•	recognise that ecosystems are dynamic and constantly changing;
•	are based on a shared vision of all key participants; and
•	are based on scientific knowledge, adopted by continual learning and monitoring.

The New Zealand Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge agrees with these EBM principles but has adapted them into an Aotearoa New Zealand theoretical approach that fundamentally acknowledges mātauranga and tikanga Māori law hence the following Aotearoa New Zealand EBM principles:
•	a co-governance and co-design structure that recognises the Māori constitutional relationship and mana whenua at all levels (whānau, hapū, iwi), together with the guiding principles of mauri, whakapapa, kaitiakitanga, mātauranga-a-iwi and mātauranga-a-hapū;
•	is place and time-specific, recognising/understanding the ecosystem as a whole in all its ecological complexities and connectedness and addressing cumulative and multiple stressors;
•	acknowledges humans as ecosystem components with multiple values;
•	views long-term sustainability as a fundamental value, in particular maintaining values and uses for future generations;
•	includes collaborative and participatory management throughout the whole process, considering all values and involving all interested parties from agencies and iwi to industries, whānau, hapū and local communities;
•	has clear goals and objectives based on knowledge; and
•	includes adaptive management, appropriate monitoring and acknowledgement of uncertainty.

The report focuses on analysing EBM through the incorporation of mātauranga and tikanga Māori and power sharing through Treaty partnerships over the marine and coastal estate.

year: 2019-07-30