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    The ecological footprint of international tourists in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Natural Resource Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) O'Connor, Katrina Marie
    Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is a technique that was first developed by Wackernagel as a Ph.D. thesis in 1994, then further developed in combination with Rees and published (Rees & Wackernagel, 1995). EFA is employed in this study to assess the resource utilisation of international tourists visiting New Zealand. Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world and the ecological sustainability of tourism is becoming more important term for managing tourism. This is becoming increasingly important with tourism identified as particularly as a significant contributor to carbon emissions. This study uses EFA to assess whether international tourists visiting New Zealand behave in a sustainable manner. Tourists are surveyed and classed into high, mid and low budget tourist types to gain a detailed account of their behaviour with particular reference to food, accommodation, transport, services, activities attractions, goods and waste. The EFA helps to identify areas of a tourist’s trip that have the greatest impact on the environment, thereby identifying ways to improve the sustainability of tourism in New Zealand. It was found that tourists generally consume more whilst on holiday than they do at home and more than New Zealand residents. The results show that international tourists’ behaviour is sustainable and New Zealand has the ecological carrying capacity to allow the number of international tourists to increase without incurring any significant ecological costs to the country. It was found that there is a positive relationship between ‘high’ income tourists and their ecological footprint and that independent travellers have a larger ecological footprint than the package travellers; however, package travellers have a larger food and housing ecological footprint than independent travellers. The energy footprint was the largest out of the six land types of a tourist’s ecological footprint. Food is the consumption category that is the largest contributor to a tourist’s ecological footprint.
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    Mapping the environmental footprint of the Central Plains Water irrigation scheme : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the Masters of Design at the Institute of Communication Design, Massey University, Wellington, NZ
    (Massey University, 2009) Ivamy, Dean
    In the statement Mayor Parker is referring to a complexity of issues that involves a plethora of hard-scientific and statistical information. The diversity of opinions regarding the scheme’s benefits and potential negative implications also create misunderstanding for the general public. This prompts the hypothesis of this design thesis, which suggests that statistical data when visually mapped and in the context of its physical environment can provide significant cognitive and ecological awareness for the viewer to understand the economic and environmental implications of the proposed irrigation scheme. Both the areas of cartographic mapping and the dairy industry contain controlled vocabularies, which present opportunity for graphic modeling and explanation through visible phenomena. The Canterbury Plains has a well-established historical and agricultural narrative. However, due to the recent dramatic and substantial transition of the region’s dairy industry between the periods 1995 – 2008, subsequent demand for freshwater now represents the real prospect of uncharted future environmental instability. The development of a visual language system capable of the interpretation and construction of the irrigation scheme’s benefits and potential negative implications, provide this thesis through graphic modeling the possibility to compare the proposed CPW scheme’s issues. While some industry groups consider public participation as arbitrary and unnecessary, recent surveys indicate water quality and fertiliser management as the most significant areas for environmental concern. The debate should not exclude the public, but rather include communication systems capable of reaching all communities.
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    An environmentally-based systems approach to sustainability analyses of organic fruit production systems in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sustainable Agricultural Systems at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Page, Girija
    An environmentally-based systems approach to sustainability analyses of organic fruit production systems in New Zealand. This research introduces an approach for the assessment of the sustainability of farming systems. It is based on the premises that sustainability has an environmental bottom line and that there is very limited substitutability between natural capital and other forms of capital. Sustainability assessment is undertaken through analyses of energy and material flows of the system and their impacts on the environment. The proposed sustainability assessment approach is based on two high level criteria for sustainability: efficient use of energy and non-degradation of the environment from energy and material use. Sustainability assessment of organic orchard systems in New Zealand was undertaken to demonstrate this approach. Five indicators which address the two criteria for the sustainability of the orchard systems are the energy ratio, the CO2 ratio, changes in the soil carbon level, nutrient balances, and the leaching of nitrogen. Organic kiwifruit and organic apple systems are modelled based on their key energy and material flows and their interactions with the natural environment. The energy and material flows are converted into appropriate energy and matter equivalents based on coefficients taken from the published literature. Sustainability indicators are estimated over one growing season using two computer modelling tools, Overseer® and Stella®, in a life cycle approach. Sustainability assessment of the organic orchard systems suggests that the approach is useful for evaluating energy use and key environmental impacts that occur in soil, water and atmosphere. The results indicate that the model organic orchard systems are sustainable in terms of energy use and are a net sink of CO2-equivalent emissions. The implication of this result is that organic orchard systems potentially could trade carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol. The findings also suggest that the sustainability assessment approach is capable of identifying the trade-offs within the sustainability indicators associated with particular management practices. Further research to improve and validate the proposed approach is essential, before it can be practically used for decision making at the orchard level and for policy making at the national level.