Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of Uranium In Groundwater From Domestic Wells In Southeastern Nebraska, Usa, Farzana I. Rahman

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, I assessed the groundwater quality of drinking water from domestic wells within the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District (UBB NRD) in southeastern Nebraska. Rural residents in the UBB NRD obtain drinking water from domestic wells that terminate in the High Plains Aquifer, one of the most important groundwater resources in the United States. This aquifer is known to have several potential sources of uranium, a locally common geogenic contaminant that may affect human health.

The two main methodologies used in this study were statistical modeling using kriging and process-based modeling using PHREEQC. Ordinary kriging was used …

Enhancing Landslide Susceptibility Modelling Through A Novel Non-Landslide Sampling Method And Ensemble Learning Technique, Chao Zhou, Yue Wang, Ying Cao, Ramesh P. Singh, Bayes Ahmed, Mahdi Motagh, Yang Wang, Ling Chen, Guangchao Tan, Shanshan Li

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In recent years, several catastrophic landslide events have been observed throughout the globe, threatening to lives and infrastructures. To minimize the impact of landslides, the need of landslide susceptibility map is important. The study aims to extract high-quality non-landslide samples and improve the accuracy of landslide susceptibility modelling (LSM) outcomes by applying a coupled method of ensemble learning and Machine Learning (ML). The Zigui-Badong section of the Three Gorges Reservoir area (TGRA) in China was considered in the present study. Twelve influencing factors were selected as inputs for LSM, and the relationship between each causal factor and landslide spatial development …

Utilizing Suas-Based Remote Sensing For Sustainable Outdoor Recreational Trail Design And Monitoring, Isaac C. Kinder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study utilizes sUAS-based remote sensing and hydrologic models to analyze and predict locations susceptible to water-based trail erosion. Erosion is frequently cited as the most significant environmental impact of trails and often requires costly design and management considerations. A professionally designed trail totaling 4 km in length was segmented based on presence or absence of water-based erosion for analyses and then flown with sUAS technology. Three Logistic regression (LR) models were generated utilizing several hydrologic terrain models of varying resolutions to determine the effects of spatial resolution on the models’ predictive accuracies. Receiver operator characteristics, kappa, and overall accuracy …

Beach Erosion And Recovery Since Hurricane Ivan In 2004 Along A Headland-Bay Coast In Treasure Beach, Jamaica, Elandé Engelbrecht

MSU Graduate Theses

Anthropogenic climate change is causing sea-level rise and shoreline changes that threaten the environment and economy of coastal communities in Caribbean Island nations. To assess this risk, this study quantifies shoreline changes at Treasure Beach in St. Elizabeth Parish on the south coast of Jamaica from 2001 to 2023. The effects of storm events on erosion were also assessed. Over 10 km of shoreline are assessed with about half being sandy pocket beaches ranging from 300 to 900 m in length, separated by rocky headlands and beach rock outcrops. Sand beach erosion trends since 2001 are assessed for seven sandy …

The Impact Of The Use Of Mercury In Mining In Colombia, Johan Martinez

CMC Senior Theses

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a practice that is common all around the world, especially in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It is also one of the leading consumers of mercury and leading sources of emissions. Governments have banned the use of mercury completely, including Colombia, but it continues to be used and emitted into the environment. This issue is exacerbated because there is a lack of standards, a lack of research done regarding mercury use in mining, and a complex socio-political history in Colombia. For this reason, this paper seeks to provide a proposed pathway for research to …

Post-Wildfire Effects On A Headwater Stream In The San Bernardino National Forest, Kelley Giron

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Southern California has experienced prolonged drought conditions that have supported frequent wildfires that adversely impact ecosystems, natural resources, and human development. A primary consequence of these events is the impact on water quality and quantity. Of equal concern is evaluating how diverse land use configurations within a watershed can alter the physio-chemical properties of headwater reaches where drought and wildfire conditions are prevalent. To better understand the extent to which wildfires impact water quality and quantity across a headwater watershed, this study investigates wildfire impacts from the 2021 South Fire to Lytle Creek, a headwater stream of the Santa Ana …

Analysis And Assessment Of Land Use / Land Cover Impact On Human And Natural Ecosystems In The Salton Sea Watershed, 2013 - 2021, Diego Ramirez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This study represents an interdisciplinary analysis of the changing landscape of the Salton Sea Watershed from 2013 to 2021, focusing on land use land cover (LULC) category changes, climatic variations, and socioeconomic factors. The findings of this research show a shift in land cover categories, portrayed by the changes of natural landscapes and vegetative areas into rapidly increasing urbanized expansion and increased impervious surfaces. These changes pose concerns about increased temperature in the region, a decrease in overall water availability and groundwater infiltration, and an increase in pollution. The study explores 10 sub-watersheds within the Salton Sea Watershed basin, focusing …

Patterns In Winter Stonefly Distribution Along A River Continuum And Land-Use Gradient In Northwest Arkansas Streams, Zachary Tipton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Freshwater ecosystems are facing a crisis with extinction rates of aquatic species exceeding those of their terrestrial counterparts by up to fivefold. This decline is predominantly attributed to evolving land use patterns within watersheds, leading to chemical and physical transformations in freshwater habitats. Northwest Arkansas (NWA) represents one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, undergoing substantial shifts in land use. Consequently, the status of aquatic life in this region remains uncertain. Addressing this concern, the latest Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan emphasizes the necessity of distribution and population data to guide conservation efforts for Species of Greatest Conservation Need …

Data Management Plan Bnsf And Union Pacific Railroad Assets Within Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit, Kennedy Jenks

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Does Drought Stress Eliminate The Benefit Of Elevated Co2,/Sub> On Soybean Yield? Using An Improved Model To Link Crop And Soil Water Relations, Wenguang Sun, David Fleisher, Dennis Timlin, Chittaranjan Ray, Zhuangji Wang, Sahila Beegum, Vangimalla Reddy

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Crop simulation models are indispensable tools that facilitate studies to assess climate impacts and adaptation responses, but have not been adequately tested in terms of accurately predicting crop growth and water stress responses to high carbon dioxide concentrations [CO₂]. The soybean model, GLYCIM, previously modified with a coupled leaf-level gas exchange – energy balance model, was integrated with a two-dimensional convectivediffusive root growth module which linked soil and leaf water potentials with the regulation of stomatal conductance. We evaluated the accuracy of this modified GLYCIM using experimental data from a Free-Air CO₂ Enrichment (FACE) site, SoyFACE, and …

Environmental Controls On Soil Organic Matter Fractions In Post-Fire Landscapes, Alexis Heuer

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

In the past few decades, the world’s climate is being altered by anthropogenic forces such as the increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to fossil fuel combustion (Paraschiv and Paraschiv, 2020). In California, the impacts of increased CO2 concentrations have created longer fire seasons, warmer temperatures, and increased lightning strikes which allow for wildfires to become more frequent, severe, and larger in scale (Westerling et al., 2006). Wildfires of this magnitude result in acceleration of landscape scale processes such as erosion and aggregation which in turn affects soil organic matter (SOM), the basis of soil health (Gonz´alez-P´erez et al., …

Fire Effects On Soil Organic Matter In The Creek Fire, Gracie E. Doolin

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Wildfires have increased in frequency and severity over the past few decades due to the increased concertation of CO2 emissions from anthropogenic influence. Soil carbon (C) sequestration has been identified as a climate change mitigation strategy; however, the influx of large-scale wildfires has accelerated landscape processes such as erosion, reducing soil aggradation, and soil C and nitrogen (N) protection. This trend is highlighted by the Creek Fire that occurred in September 2020 and burned 379,895 acres in the Sierra National Forest. This research is designed to close the knowledge gap regarding the impact of burn severity on soil organic matter …

Analyzing The Adoption, Cropping Rotation, And Impact Of Winter Cover Crops In The Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Map) Region Through Remote Sensing Technologies, Zobaer Ahmed

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the application of remote sensing technologies in conservation agriculture, specifically focusing on identifying and mapping winter cover crops and assessing voluntary cover crop adoption and cropping patterns in the Arkansas portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP). In the first chapter, a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology examines the last 30 years of thematic research, development, and trends in remote sensing applied to conservation agriculture from a global perspective. The review uncovers a growing interest in remote sensing-based research in conservation agriculture and emphasizes the necessity for further studies dedicated to conservation practices. Among the 68 …

Geospatial Wildfire Risk Prediction Using Deep Learning, Abner Alberto Benavides

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This report introduces a thorough analysis of wildfire prediction using satellite imagery by applying deep learning techniques. To find wildfire-prone geographical data, we use U-Net, a convolutional neural network known for its effectiveness in biomedical image segmentation. The input to the model is the Sentinel-2 multispectral images to supply a complete view of the terrain features.

We evaluated the wildfire risk prediction model’s performance using several metrics. The model showed high accuracy, with a weighted average F1 score of 0.91 and an AUC-ROC score of 0.972. These results suggest that the model is exceptionally good at predicting the location of …

The Relationship Between Water Temperature And Proximity To Surface Urban Heat Islands Within The Lower Chesapeake Bay Watershed For The Summer Of 2019, Sarah Kerner

Student Research Submissions

Surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are land surfaces with high concentrations of impervious surfaces like roofs, roads, sidewalks and other infrastructures that trap, absorb, and re-emit heat throughout the day/night and typically present higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas. In this study, I evaluate how presence of and distance to SUHIs are associated with water temperature in the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed for the summer of 2019. When heavy precipitation events occur, flooding creates stormwater runoff, which is exposed to the hotter temperatures in urban areas. This introduces thermal pollution to nearby rivers and streams disrupting aquatic ecosystems. The …

Automated Mapping Of Oblique Imagery Collected With Unmanned Vehicles In Coastal And Marine Environments, Jacob B. Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

Recent technological advances in unmanned observational platforms, including remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), have made them highly effective tools for research and monitoring within marine and coastal environments. One of the primary types of data collected by these systems is video imagery, which is often captured at an angle oblique to the Earth’s surface, rather than normal to it (e.g., downward looking). This thesis presents a newly developed suite of tools designed to digitally map oblique imagery data collected with ROV and sUAS in coastal and marine environments and quantitatively evaluates the accuracy of the …

Multidimensional Investigation Of Tennessee’S Urban Forest, Jillian L. Gorrell

Doctoral Dissertations

Preserving existing trees in urban areas and properly cultivating urban forest conservation and management opportunities is valuable to the ever-growing urban environment and necessary for creating optimal experiences and educational tools to meet the needs of increasing urban populations. This dissertation contains studies investigating several facets of the urban forest, including environmental effects of deforestation and urbanization, tree equity, and urban forest facility management and accessibility. Community education and outreach at arboreta about the importance of the tree canopy can help promote environmental stewardship. A digital questionnaire was electronically distributed to representatives of arboreta certified through the Tennessee Division of …

Exploring The Association Of Brownfield Remediation Status With Socioeconomic Conditions In Wayne County, Mi, Brendan F. O'Leary, Alex B. Hill, Colleen Linn, Mei Lu, Carol J. Miller, Andrew Newman, F. Gianluca Sperone, Qiong Zhang

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Research Publications

Urban neighborhoods with locations of environmental contamination, known as brownfields, impact entire neighborhoods, but corrective environmental remedial action on brownfields is often tracked on an individual property basis, neglecting the larger neighborhood-level impact. This study addresses this impact by examining spatial differences between brownfields with unmitigated environmental concerns (open site) and sites that are considered fully mitigated or closed in urban neighborhoods (closed site) on the US census tract scale in Wayne County, MI. Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy’s leaking underground storage tank (LUST) database provided brownfield information for Wayne County. Local indicators of spatial association (LISA) …

Modeling Spatial Distributions Of Tidal Marsh Blue Carbon Using Morphometric Parameters From Lidar, Bonnie Turek

Masters Theses

Tidal marshes serve as important “blue carbon” ecosystems that accrete large amounts of carbon with limited area. While much attention has been paid to the spatial variability of sedimentation within salt marshes, less work has been done to characterize spatial variability in marsh carbon density. Driven by tidal inundation, surface topography, and sediment supply, soil properties in marshes vary spatially with several parameters, including marsh platform elevation and proximity to the marsh edge and tidal creek network. We used lidar to extract these morphometric parameters from tidal marshes to map soil organic carbon (SOC) at the meter scale. Fixed volume …

Benthic Habitat Mapping Of Mountain Top Bank Within The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Through Integrated Geophysical And Visual Data Analysis, Bethany Pertain

Master's Theses

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) are among the seafloor ecosystems that have been poorly studied throughout the world’s oceans, but they are a vital and diverse ecosystem that should be prioritized for future mapping and ecological studies. Priority should be given to them because they possess natural, social, and economic values, and face a variety of threats, all of which, if not better understood will result in the loss of this unique ecosystem. Insights into these ecosystems, among other deep-sea environments, are lacking due to difficulty accessing them, inherent lag between data collection by an autonomous system and observation by a …

Simulation Of Monthly Mean And Monthly Base Flow Of Streamflow Using Random Forests For The Mississippi River Alluvial Plain, 1901 To 2018, Benjamin J. Dietsch, William H. Asquith, Brian K. Breaker, Stephen M. Westenbroek, Wade H. Kress

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

Improved simulations of streamflow and base flow for selected sites within and adjacent to the Mississippi River Alluvial Plain area are important for modeling groundwater flow because surface-water flows have a substantial effect on groundwater levels. One method for simulating streamflow and base flow, random forest (RF) models, was developed from the data at gaged sites and, in turn, was used to make monthly mean streamflow and base-flow predictions at 162 ungaged sites in the study area. Daily streamflow observations and computed base flow from 247 streamgages were used as the basis for the development of these RF models. RF …

Five Years Measuring The Muck: Evaluating Interannual Variability Of Nutrient Loads From Tidal Flooding, Alfonso Macías-Tapia, Margaret R. Mulholland, Corday R. Selden, J. Derek Loftis, Peter W. Bernhardt

OES Faculty Publications

Due to sea level rise, tidal flooding is now common in low-lying coastal systems around the world. Yet, the contribution of tidal flooding to non-point source nutrient loads and their impact on the quality of adjacent waters remains poorly constrained. Here, we quantified dissolved nutrient loading and Enterococcus abundance during annual autumnal king tides (i.e., perigean spring tides), between 2017 and 2021, in a sub-watershed of the lower Chesapeake Bay. To calculate nutrient loading from tidal flooding, we used geospatial inundation depths from a street-level hydrodynamic model to estimate floodwater volumes during each of the five sampling events and the …

Over A Half Century Of Connecting Science And Management For Virginia’S Tidal Wetlands At The Virginia Institute Of Marine Science, Center For Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute Of Marine Science

Reports

Rivers & Coast is a periodic publication of the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Institute of Marine Science. The goal of Rivers & Coast is to keep readers well informed of current scientific understanding behind key environmental issues related to watershed rivers and coastal ecosystems of the Chesapeake Bay.

Evaluating The Use Of Environmental Tracers To Reduce Conceptual Model Uncertainty Of Hydrogeologic Models, Andrew Nordberg, Jon Graham, W. Payton Gardner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Environmental tracer concentrations for CFC12, SF6, and tritium are used in groundwater simulations to assess the ability of these tracers to reduce conceptual model uncertainty due to uncertainty of a site’s geologic and recharge characterization. The resulting groundwater simulations are characterized by site-specific hydrologic and geologic data, and with coordination from a field team with years of knowledge about the site. First-order (conceptual) uncertainty is directly addressed by using a stochastic modeling approach for spatial variability of the proposed subsurface configurations. Simulations of environmental tracer concentrations and water levels are used to assess six alternate conceptual models that are based …

Unmanned Aircraft Systems For Precision Meteorology: An Analysis Of Gnss Position Measurement Error And Embedded Sensor Development, Karla S. Ladino

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The overarching objective of this research was to enhance our comprehension of the three-dimensional precision of meteorological measurements obtained using small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Two complimentary experiments were conducted to achieve this objective.

The first experiment entailed the development and implementation of a system to determine the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) position accuracy on a UAS platform. This system was utilized to assess the static and dynamic accuracy of L1 and L1/L2 GNSS receivers in real-time kinematic (RTK) and non-RTK fix modes. Adjusted two-sample t-tests revealed significant differences in horizontal and vertical error between RTK and non-RTK receivers …

Center For Coastal Resources Management Annual Report 2022, Center For Coastal Resources Management

Reports

No abstract provided.

Ecological Protection Alone Is Not Enough To Conserve Ecosystem Carbon Storage: Evidence From Guangdong, China, Lihan Cui, Wenwen Tang, Sheng Zheng, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The increase in atmospheric CO₂ caused by land use and land cover change (LUCC) is one of the drivers of the global climate. As one of the most typical high-urbanization areas, the ecological conflicts occurring in Guangdong Province warrant urgent attention. A growing body of evidence suggests LUCC could guide the future ecosystem carbon storage, but most LUCC simulations are simply based on model results without full consistency with the actual situation. Fully combined with the territorial spatial planning project and based on the land use pattern in 2010 and 2020, we have used the Markov and Patch-generating Land …

On Interpreting Eddy Covariance In Small Area Agricultural Situations With Contrasting Site Management., Joel Oetting

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined the carbon sequestration potential of a low C:N soil amendment and its incorporation into the soil over a rolling agricultural field. A segmented planar fit was developed to assess and correct the systematic errors the topography introduces on the carbon dioxide fluxes. The carbon dioxide fluxes were then be partitioned into gross primary productivity and soil respiration to understand the influence of the contrasting management practices, using flux variance partitioning. Concomitant with the partitioning, high resolution temporal and spatial scale remote sensing images were interpolated and standardized to conduct hypothesis testing for treatment effects.

The Sensitivity Of Meteorological Dynamics To The Variability In Catchment Characteristics, Shimelash Molla Kassaye, Tsegaye Tadesse, Getachew Tegegne, Kindie Engdaw Tadesse

Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Evaluating meteorological dynamics is a challenging task due to the variability in hydroclimatic settings. This study is designed to assess the sensitivity of precipitation and temperature dynamics to catchment variability. The effects of catchment size, land use/cover change, and elevation differences on precipitation and temperature variability were considered to achieve the study objective. The variability in meteorological parameters to the catchment characteristics was determined using the coefficient of variation on the climate data tool (CDT). A land use/cover change and terrain analysis was performed on Google Earth Engine (GEE) and ArcGIS. In addition, a correlation analysis was performed to identify …

Permafrost Landscape History Shapes Fluvial Chemistry, Ecosystem Carbon Balance, And Potential Trajectories Of Future Change, Scott Zolkos, Suzanne E. Tank, Steven V. Kokelj, Robert G. Striegl, Sarah Shakil, Carolina Voigt, Oliver Sonnentag, William L. Quinton, Edward A.G. Schuur, Donatella Zona, Peter M. Lafleur, Ryan C. Sullivan, Masahito Ueyama, David Billesbach, David Cook, Elyn R. Humphreys, Philip Marsh

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Intensifying permafrost thaw alters carbon cycling by mobilizing large amounts of terrestrial substrate into aquatic ecosystems. Yet, few studies have measured aquatic carbon fluxes and constrained drivers of ecosystem carbon balance across heterogeneous Arctic landscapes. Here, we characterized hydrochemical and landscape controls on fluvial carbon cycling, quantified fluvial carbon fluxes, and estimated fluvial contributions to ecosystem carbon balance across 33 watersheds in four ecoregions in the continuous permafrost zone of the western Canadian Arctic: unglaciated uplands, ice-rich moraine, and organic-rich lowlands and till plains. Major ions, stable isotopes, and carbon speciation and fluxes revealed patterns in carbon cycling across ecoregions …