http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/69 Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:37:23 GMT 2026-04-29T11:37:23Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6747 Title: On the development and application of seeding metrics to improve river flow measurements using image velocimetry Authors: Jolley, Martin James Abstract: This thesis presents a novel approach to improving river flow measurement accuracy by optimising seeding metrics used in Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV), a non-contact method that estimates surface flow by tracking the movement of individual tracers—such as foam or debris—between frames of video footage. The study focuses on refining how seeding density, dispersion, and a combined metric known as the Seeding Density Index (SDI) are measured and applied under vary ing spatial and temporal conditions. SDI is developed as a post-processing tool that quantifies the quality of tracer conditions in each video frame by combining observed seeding density and dispersion values, and is shown to correlate with the accuracy of velocity measurements. Unlike traditional methods that rely on filtering input data, this research shifts the focus to post-analysis optimisation and error correction, improving the reliability of velocity estimates derived from video footage. High-resolution video was captured at several UK river sites, alongside synthetic datasets with controlled tracer conditions. All data was processed using an adapted version of Kanade-Lucas Tomasi Image Velocimetry (KLT-IV) software, developed to support new post-processing tech niques. The synthetic simulations confirmed the effectiveness of the approach, while real-world footage validated the findings and demonstrated the practical benefits of applying SDI in routine f low monitoring. The first analysis uses synthetic videos to assess how different combinations of seeding density and dispersion affect flow measurement accuracy, and to define SDI values that can be used to estimate error in each video. The second analysis applies these findings to real-world case studies, recalculating discharge based on filtered results to test how well the metrics hold in natural conditions. The third analysis shifts focus to spatial effects, identifying where within a river cross-section measurements are most reliable based on seeding characteristics. These insights are then applied to site data to evaluate their practical value. Together, these findings demonstrate how SDI can be used to improve the consistency and ac curacy of river discharge estimation from video data, offering a practical tool for enhancing hydro logical monitoring in a range of environmental settings. This research recommends the adoption of post-processed SDI as a standard component of image velocimetry workflows, particularly in oper ational monitoring contexts, where rapid, automated, and accurate flow estimation is increasingly essential. Description: Ph. D. Thesis. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6747 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6638 Title: Subnational variegations of populism and left-behind places in the UK and Germany Authors: Cure, Fatih Abstract: Populism plays a pivotal role in shaping economic, political, and societal discourse and outcomes, highlighting left-behind places as hotspots of the geographies of discontent as a focal point for understanding contemporary socio-political dynamics. This study draws upon Geographical Political Economy to emphasize the importance of considering time, space and context dependent knowledge in understanding this phenomenon. It undertakes a comparative analysis of Tees Valley, England and Duisburg, Germany, to identify and explain the drivers of populism, and to explore populism’s variegated nature across regions. Addressing the gap in work at the subnational level, the research aims to understand and explain the complexities of populism by examining its causes and manifestations at the regional level with a focus on left-behind regions and old industrial areas. Employing a multi-method approach, including quantitative and qualitative analysis, the thesis finds, first, that economic decline plays an important role in the geography of discontent and second, that beyond statistical indicators, left-behind feelings and loss of identity are also significantly influential in the production and manifestation of discontent especially in the old industrial regions which traditionally have a strong identity and sense of community. The thesis introduces the concept of variegated populism, which goes beyond conventional varieties perspective and dichotomies of economy versus culture. It demonstrates that populism is interconnected and interdependent, recognizing its articulated nature across various ideologies and actors. This highlights the complexity and nuance inherent within populist politics and populist reasons which have multiple dimensions as being real, perceived and mediated by politicians. The research demonstrates the nuanced interplay between economic trajectories, regional identities, and political representation which are the three key element of regional variegations of populism and offering fresh insights into the roots of populism and regional discontent in left-behind places. Description: PhD Thesis Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6638 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6635 Title: Colonial legacies of knowledge production : the political spirituality of the green tide feminist movement Authors: d'Alò, Pilar Morena Abstract: The project undertakes a sociology of knowledge to contribute to the understanding of enduring colonial presents (Povinelli, 2006) by looking at the colonial conditions of possibility of knowledge production in the Argentine Green Tide feminist movement. I analyse how the Green Tide, widely credited by public opinion with reviving feminist activism and theorisation in Latin America and beyond, produced the discourse of a radical, decolonial feminist spirituality centred around the figure of the Witch as a figure able to mobilise imaginaries and activists against the modern episteme of Man (Wynter, 2003). Through Foucauldian (1972) discourse analysis of Green Tide feminist essays, newspaper articles, scholarly papers, collective manifestos, social media posting, and the timelines of Green Tide protest between 2015 and 2020, I look at the conditions of possibility of the Green Tide discourse and situates it within a global political economy of power and knowledge (Deleuze, 1999). Insofar as the Green Tide situates itself both nationally and internationally as a feminist, radical, and decolonial emancipatory project from the South, the thesis is attentive to the “convivial relations” (Puar, 2017a: xxii) of coexistence and mutual informing between the Green Tide discourse, Argentina’s ongoing colonial history, and contemporary mobilisations of Indigenous women. I trace the articulation of the Witch to the Green Tide framework of liberal sexual politics in combination with a popular democracy, and in alignment with race as not whiteness/Europeanness, seeming to rearticulate the sexual politics toward more radical political alternatives. Overall, I argue that by mobilising the Witch, the Green Tide makes a claim to decoloniality, Southerness, and racialised otherness vis-à-vis the Global North, especially so in relation to the country’s recent history of subjection to international financial institutions and national raise in neoliberal conservative politics. However, the thesis’ argument is that this is possible through a representational conflation (Spivak, 1988) of subalternity, indigeneity, non-whiteness, and popular democracy. Representations of an ‘otherwise’ to the episteme of Man are made especially feminist through the Witch as a figure of Southern feminine otherness akin to indigeneity. By producing the feminine difference of the Witch as a difference from modernity through the conflation of racial and classed categories, the Green Tide produces a feminist discourse from the South that elides its racial epistemic and structural conditions of possibility and subsumes difference from the episteme of Man to the primacy of the sexual subject. Description: PhD Thesis Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6635 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6598 Title: The emergence of a post-developmental state in variegated capitalism? Industrial and regional development policies for the shipbuilding and semiconductor industries in South Korea Authors: Woo, Jungsuk Abstract: Despite claims about the convergence of capital accumulation regimes in the late twentieth century, each country’s economic activities remain persistently differentiated by their geographical and historical settings and pathways. The ‘developmental state’ is conceptualised as one particular actor that has driven the rapid economic growth and industrialisation of East Asian countries since WWII. The concept explains how countries developed into advanced economies within the global capitalist system in a relatively short period of time through a particular configuration of their internal political economic organisations as well as external conditions. Claims have been made that such developmental states underwent neat transition to ‘post-developmental’ state status following the economic crisis of the 1990s and the resultant neoliberalisation. Critically scrutinising this transitional process, this study examines whether post-developmentalism has emerged in South Korea, and does so from a perspective of Evolutionary Economic Geography blended with Geographical Political Economy. In so doing it considers whether South Korea still has developmental attributes. Contrary to conventional discussions that emphasise neoliberalisation of state developmentalism, the study demonstrates the institutional continuity and path-dependency of the developmental state and argues that South Korea’s ‘post-developmental’ state is a product of the evolution of state developmentalism. Although neoliberalisation has accelerated in tandem with economic globalisation, strong developmental legacies remain. To examine the legacies and novelties that emerged during this period of state developmentalism in in South Korea, a cross-sectoral case study of focused on the industrial and regional development policies for the shipbuilding and semiconductor industries is undertaken herein. The case study finds, firstly, that a state-led strategic industrial nurturing programme, a key characteristic of state developmentalism, persists despite changes in targets, such as from shipbuilding to high-tech electronics. Secondly, it suggests that the Korean state has developmental corporate and industrial production strategies and it sustains to date. Industries and corporations that have grown in state-led ways during state developmentalism take an in-house production strategy to protect domestic industries and promote exports. In other words, these corporations have a limited tendency to participate in global production networks in both shipbuilding and semiconductor sectors. Thirdly, the study finds that the spatial unfolding and results of strategic industrialisation have led to the localisation of industries, creating strong local dependency on both industries and the central government. Local governments demonstrate dependence on the national strategic industries and even persistent dependence on the central government. These developments indicate that the role of the central government is still significant in terms of sustaining old industries and establishing new industries in the local areas. To conclude, the strong path dependence of industrial and institutional configurations and strategies formed during the developmental era of the 1960s to the 1980s created strong and enduring continuities which underpinned a lock-in to the developmental configurations and strategies and led to gradual evolution to an open-ended post- developmental state. This gradual evolution across two important economic sectors in South Korea reflects strong institutional path dependence in the face of neoliberalising pressures. Description: Ph. D. Thesis. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/6598 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z