Partnership, politics and public administration: a case study of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Efforts to reform the public sector reflect the social, political and economic environment within which government must function. The recent demands by the public for more consensual decision-making, as well as more efficient, effective and responsive public service, have resulted in a number of reform initiatives, including an emphasis on partnership development. The purpose of this thesis is to examine partnership arrangements within the public sector. Specifically, the thesis will assess the value of partnerships and their impact on government by examining six partnership arrangements involving the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (OMNR). The OMNR, having recently been awarded the 1992 Institute of Public Administration of Canada Award for Innovative Management, on the theme of partnership development, is being lauded as an example for other government agencies considering similar alliances. The thesis begins by introducing the concept and practice of partnership within the public sector in general and the OMNR specifically. Descriptive analysis of six OMNR partnerships is provided and a number of criteria are used to determine the success of each of these arrangements. Special attention is paid to the political implications of partnerships and to those attributes which appear to contribute to the successful establishment and iii maintenance of partnership arrangements. The conclusion is drawn that partnerships provide the government with an opportunity to address public demands for greater involvement in decision-making while accommodating government's limited financial resources. However, few truly collaborative partnerships exist within the public sector. There are also significant political implications associated with partnerships which must be dealt with both at the political and bureaucratic levels of government. Lastly, it is argued that while partnerships within the OMNR are experiencing some difficulties, they constitute a genuine attempt to broaden the base of decision-making and to incorporate the concerns of stakeholders into resource management.

Using GPS, GIS & remote sensing to understand Niagara Terroir : Pinot noir in the Four Mile Creek & St. David's Bench sub-appellations

The relationships between vine water status, soil texture, and vine size were observed in four Niagara, Ontario Pinot noir vineyards in 2008 and 2009. The vineyards were divided into water status zones using geographic information systems (GIS) software to map the seasonal mean midday leaf water potential (,P), and dormant pruning shoot weights following the 2008 season. Fruit was harvested from all sentinel vines, bulked by water status zones and made into wine. Sensory analysis included a multidimensional sorting (MDS) task and descriptive analysis (DA) of the 2008 wines. Airborne multispectral images, with a spatial resolution of 38 cm, were captured four times in 2008 and three times in 2009, with the final flights around veraison. A semi-automatic process was developed to extract NDVI from the images, and a masking procedure was identified to create a vine-only NDVI image. 2008 and 2009 were cooler and wetter than mean years, and the range of water status zones was narrow. Yield per vine, vine size, anthocyanins and phenols were the least consistent variables. Divided by water status or vine size, there were no variables with differences between zones in all four vineyards in either year. Wines were not different between water status zones in any chemical analysis, and HPLC revealed that there were no differences in individual anthocyanins or phenolic compounds between water status zones within the vineyard sites. There were some notable correlations between vineyard and grape composition variables, and spatial trends were observed to be qualitatively related for many of the variables. The MDS task revealed that wines from each vineyard were more affected by random fermentation effects than water status effects. This was confirmed by the DA; there were no differences between wines from the water status zones within vineyard sites for any attribute. Remotely sensed NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) correlated reasonably well with a number of grape composition variables, as well as soil type. Resampling to a lower spatial resolution did not appreciably affect the strength of correlations, and corresponded to the information contained in the masked images, while maintaining the range of values of NDVI. This study showed that in cool climates, there is the potential for using precision viticulture techniques to understand the variability in vineyards, but the variable weather presents a challenge for understanding the driving forces of that variability.

Using GPS, GIS & remote sensing to understand Niagara Terroir

The focus of this study was to detennine whether soil texture and composition variables were related to vine water status and both yield components and grape composition, and whether multispectral high definition airborne imagery could be used to segregate zones in vineyards to target fruit of highest quality for premium winemaking. The study took place on a 10-ha commercial Riesling vineyard at Thirty Bench Winemakers, in Beamsville (Ontario). Results showed that Soil moisture and leaf'l' were temporally stable and related to berry composition and remotely-sensed data. Remote-sensing, through the calculation of vegetation indices, was particularly useful to predict vine vigor, yield, fruit maturity as well as berry monoterpene concentration; it could also clearly assist in making wines that are more representative ofthe cultivar used, and also wines that are a reflection of a specific terroir, since calculated vegetation indices were highly correlated to typical Riesling.

APPLICATION OF GEOMATICS TECHNOLOGIES TO CHARACTERIZE SPATIAL VARIABILITY AT STRATUS VINEYARDS

Vineyards vary over space and time, making geomatics technologies ideally suited to study terroir. This study applied geomatics technologies - GPS, remote sensing and GIS - to characterize the spatial variability at Stratus Vineyards in the Niagara Region. The concept of spatial terroir was used to visualize, monitor and analyze the spatial and temporal variability of variables that influence grape quality. Spatial interpolation and spatial autocorrelation were used to measure the pattern demonstrated by soil moisture, leaf water potential, vine vigour, soil composition and grape composition on two Cabernet Franc blocks and one Chardonnay block. All variables demonstrated some spatial variability within and between the vineyard block and over time. Soil moisture exhibited the most significant spatial clustering and was temporally stable. Geomatics technologies provided valuable spatial information related to the natural spatial variability at Stratus Vineyards and can be used to inform and influence vineyard management decisions.