Earth Sciences Commons^™

Enforcing Higher Standards For Flood Hazard Mitigation In Vermont, Tamsin Flanders

Masters Theses

The state of Vermont faces increasing risk of costly damage from catastrophic flooding events as climate change increases the frequency of heavy rains and cumulative precipitation. In addition to increasing flood inundation risk, extreme precipitation events are leading to high rates damage from fluvial erosion—erosion caused by the force of floodwater and the materials it carries. As in all U.S. states, flood hazard governance in Vermont is shared by multiple levels of government and involves a complex compliance model that relies on local governments to regulate private property owners to achieve community, state, or federal goals.

To encourage municipalities to …

An Assessment Of The Hydrological Trends Using Synergistic Approaches Of Remote Sensing And Model Evaluations Over Global Arid And Semi-Arid Regions, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Rejoice Thomas, Surya Prakash Tiwari, Karuppasamy Manikandan, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Drylands cover about 40% of the world’s land area and support two billion people, most of them living in developing countries that are at risk due to land degradation. Over the last few decades, there has been warming, with an escalation of drought and rapid population growth. This will further intensify the risk of desertification, which will seriously affect the local ecological environment, food security and people’s lives. The goal of this research is to analyze the hydrological and land cover characteristics and variability over global arid and semi-arid regions over the last decade (2010–2019) using an integrative approach of …

Monitoring Salt Diapir Related Land Deformation And Distribution: A Geophysical And Remote Sensing Approach Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia, Hannah G. Pankratz

Dissertations

Salt diapirs are rarely preserved on the surface and seldom considered as environmental hazards. The Jazan city diapir (JZD) is located in southwest Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea coastal plain and outcrops in the middle of a rapidly growing port city. The intrusion of the diapir (~ 2 km²) into the overburden sediments continues to cause uneven surfaces, compromises building foundations and infrastructure, caused dissolution sinkholes, and limits the expansion of the city along the coastline. This research aims to better understand the distribution and deformation associated with salt diapirs in arid environments.

Using integrated Interferometric Synthetic …

Sea Level Rise Impact Assessment Tool – A Web-Based Application For Community Resilience In Coral Gables, Florida, Levente Juhasz, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Sheyla Aguilar De Santana, Zhaohui J. Fu

GIS Center

No abstract provided.

Using Geospatial Data To Predict The Locations Of Groundwater Discharge To Salmon-Bearing Streams, Alaska, Mary Gerlach

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Identification and protection of groundwater resources are considerations of increasing interest as climate shifts but can be challenging to accomplish in remote areas. To that end, a series of GIS techniques and weight of evidence approach were applied to determine the feasibility of remotely identifying likely areas of ground discharge. Through the confluence of topographic analyses and a novel geologic dataset, these techniques were found to consistently identify areas characterized by either shallow subsurface or aquifer-fed groundwater discharge or evidence of ephemeral surficial water features. Two distinct GIS techniques to build spatial proxies of the effects of topography and geology …

Exploring The Potential Of Feature Selection Methods In The Classification Of Urban Trees Using Field Spectroscopy Data, Simbarashe Jombo, Elhadi Adam, Marcus J. Byrne, Khalid Adem Ali, Solomon W Newete

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Mapping of vegetation at the species level using hyperspectral satellite data can be effective and accurate because of its high spectral and spatial resolutions that can detect detailed information of a target object. Its wide application, however, not only is restricted by its high cost and large data storage requirements, but its processing is also complicated by challenges of what is known as the Hughes effect. The Hughes effect is where classification accuracy decreases once the number of features or wavelengths passes a certain limit. This study aimed to explore the potential of feature selection methods in the classification of …

The Use Of Green Pond Conglomerate As Building Stone In Morris County, New Jersey, Gregory A. Pope

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Green Pond Conglomerate (GPC) is a maroon colored quartzite with white quartz pebbles, a classic “puddingstone”. GPC derives from a NW-SW-trending sliver of Paleozoic sediments, the “Green Pond Outlier”, surrounded by older metamorphic and igneous rocks of Morris and Passaic Counties. Buildings, retaining walls, field fences, and monuments incorporate the durable and attractive stone, in a distinct geographic area of Morris County. Several instances of structures completely constructed or faced with GPC occur in and around Morristown, limited to affluent houses and one prominent church. In these cases, GPC stones were dressed and faced, a labor-intensive effort. Elsewhere in the …

Scale Mis-Matches When Assessing Chloride Concentration And Corrosiveness Using Statewide Data For Trend Analysis, Rebecca L. Kauten

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study compares chloride concentrations and a series of corrosiveness indexes to determine whether trends in statewide databases appropriately detect local conditions. Chloride concentrations in local, urban streams generally persist at higher levels than what is typical of natural waters. Data collected for statewide water quality assessments are often at a broader geographical scale. Results and subsequent policies may indicate little to no environmental concern, meanwhile degradation at the local scale remains relatively undetected. Pulses of local snowmelt runoff may violate water quality criteria, but long-term trends measured at the statewide scale are in decline. Results highlight the need for …

Rainfall Interception And Redistribution By A Common North American Understory And Pasture Forb, Eupatorium Capillifolium (Lam. Dogfennel), D. Alex Gordon, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Brent A. Sellers, S. M. Moein Sadeghi, John T. Van Stan Ii

School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability Faculty Publications

In vegetated landscapes, rain must pass through plant canopies and litter to enter soils. As a result, some rainwater is returned to the atmosphere (i.e., interception, I) and the remainder is partitioned into a canopy (and gap) drip flux (i.e., throughfall) or drained down the stem (i.e., stemflow). Current theoretical and numerical modeling frameworks for this process are almost exclusively based on data from woody overstory plants. However, herbaceous plants often populate the understory and are the primary cover for important ecosystems (e.g., grasslands and croplands). This study investigates how overstory throughfall (P_T,o) is partitioned into …

A Neighborhood-Level Perspective Of Real Estate Determinants In Three U.S. Cities, Mikhail Samarin, Madhuri Sharma

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study examines the relationships between commonly available socio-economic and environmental determinants of real estate (crime, quality of schools, racial/ethnic diversity, and built environment) and real estate values in socially and politically recognized units in the three largest cities of the U.S.—New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Utilizing a variety of data sources used by potential real estate buyers, we conduct correlations, mapping, and multiple regression analyses to identify the degrees and strengths of associations between select determinants and real estate values at these politically recognized units. Results suggest that the cities exhibit similar patterns for crime-related characteristics and quality …

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Paleontological Resources Management Plan (Public Version), Scott Kottkamp, Vincent L. Santucci, Justin S. Tweet, Jessica De Smet, Ellen Stark

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the basis for establishing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). The fossil remains from the Harrison and Anderson Ranch formations span a short, but important, time period within the Miocene Epoch. AGFO has provided science with an intimate look into North American mammalian evolution …

Snow-Albedo Feedback In Northern Alaska: How Vegetation Influences Snowmelt, Lucas C. Reckhaus

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates how the snow-albedo feedback mechanism of the arctic is changing in response to rising climate temperatures. Specifically, the interplay of vegetation and snowmelt, and how these two variables can be correlated. This has the potential to refine climate modelling of the spring transition season. Research was conducted at the ecoregion scale in northern Alaska from 2000 to 2020. Each ecoregion is defined by distinct topographic and ecological conditions, allowing for meaningful contrast between the patterns of spring albedo transition across surface conditions and vegetation types. The five most northerly ecoregions of Alaska are chosen as they encompass …

Geology, Soils And Climate Of The Margaret River Wine Region, Peter J. Tille, Angela Stuart-Street, Peter S. Gardiner

All other publications

This report is an extract from the broader description and analysis of the Geology, soils and climate of Western Australia's wine regions. It expands on the brief descriptions in the second edition of 'Viticulture' (Coombe & Dry 2004) concerning the soils and landscapes of Western Australia’s main wine growing regions. We have tailored this report extract to the specific needs of the Margaret River wine region. It contains local soil names and soil-landscape zones and systems maps.

The wine industry recognises the importance of giving customers an understanding of the vines’ environment and how that may influence wine character …

Triple Threat Gateway? Respiratory Health, Demographics And Land Use In Metro East St. Louis, Missouri-Illinois, Usa, Stacey R. Brown-Amilian

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper examines a triple threat for residents of two counties in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Previous environmental justice research has focused on demographics and toxic facilities. This research builds upon those assessments by incorporating hospital discharge data and demographics as well as three different types of pollution sources. Air pollution monitors were unavailable to use during the time period of 2009-2011, therefore proxy measures of pollution in the form of major roadways, industrial land use parcels, and toxic facility information from the EPA Toxic Release Inventory are utilized. This study integrates both spatial coincidence and proximity analysis methods …

Digital Mapping Of Togo’S Soil Fertility: Savannah Region, Aminou Saibou

English Language Institute

A soil assessment was carried out in the savannah region of Togo in 2018, aiming at drawing the digital map of Togo’s soil fertility and making fertilizer recommendations. Soil samples were taken from geo-referenced GPS points and were analyzed for parameters such as water pH, Organic matter, available phosphorus and exchangeable potassium. Thematic maps have been drawn using an ArcGIS package. The results showed that the soils of the Savannah region in Togo are mainly (84%) not very acidic (pH = 5.5 to 6.5), overall poor to very poor (84%) in organic matter (<2% OM), essentially poor to very poor (86%) in available phosphorus (<15 mg/kg of soil) and mostly very poor (87%) in exchangeable potassium (<90 mg / kg of soil). These results allowed the agricultural research institute of Togo to make fertilizer use recommendations and to develop, in partnership with Morocco, a digital platform (fertitogo.tg ) for decision making in crop fertilization.

Geospatial Analyses Of Seismic Hazards And Risk Perception In Libya, Somaia Suwihli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Libya is not considered a highly active seismic region. However, several earthquakes of magnitude >5.0 have occurred there. This dissertation analyzes the seismicity of Libya in order to better understand earthquake hazards, related geomorphic features, and the current evolution of Libyan perceptions of seismic risk. The first article developed a baseline of past and current seismic inventory in Libya, which represented an assessment of Libya seismic hazard by translating, analyzing, and compiling historical sources and archaeological data. This study shows that Libya has experienced earthquakes in varying degrees since ancient times. Through the spatial and temporal distribution of earthquakes from …

Using Soil Geospatial Properties And Environments To Explore Microbial Diversity, Sharon Faye Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soil microorganisms help maintain nutrient cycling, control carbon sequestration, impact plant productivity, and influence several soil chemical and physical properties; yet, the processes that control the microbial composition of soil and how environmental changes may affect the composition and activity of these organisms at different scales remains a difficult and intriguing puzzle for soil scientists, ecologists, and modelers. Wetlands are endangered and important ecosystems that provide several services, which are directly linked to soil function. However, few wetland assessments consider the soil environment and microbial ecology. Linking soil microbial community composition and distribution patterns to soil physio-chemical properties would provide …

Hydrogeochemical Characterization And Speleogenesis Of Sistema Huautla In Oaxaca, Mexico, Fernando Hernandez

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sierra Mazateca, Mexico is home to Sistema Huautla, the deepest cave in the Western hemisphere with 1,560 meters of depth and 90 kilometers of passage, including 26 entrances distributed in a high-relief, karstified terrain, within the Sistema Huautla Karst Groundwater Basin. Exploration of the cave has generated research questions about its evolution and geomorphology given the different vadose and phreatic zones impacted by tectonic and incision processes. Dye traces during this study of Cueva de La Peña Colorada confirmed it is a fossil resurgence of the cave system. An additional cave, Cueva Elysium, was connected hydrologically in 2019, expanding the …

Green To Gray: Political Ecology Of Paving Over Green Spaces In Moscow, Russia, Mikhail S. Blinnikov, Liudmila Volkova

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Moscow, Russia is the largest city in Europe with over 12.6 million residents. The remarkable fact is that it is also a biologically diverse ecosystem with a few dozen specially protected natural areas, including 15 large forest parks and a variety of smaller nature-places. The recent landscaping “improvements” conducted by the Moscow government since 2010 greatly increased negative impacts on the green infrastructure, e.g., a lot more paving, systematic grass mowing, widespread planting of exotic plant species, increased residential and commercial construction, more noise, etc. While quantification of the impacts of the above on the biota is not easy, we …

A Conceptual Agent-Based Model Of Farming Households’ Vulnerability To Winter Storms, Yiyi Zhang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Vulnerability assessments are implemented to identify regions and groups at risk and factors that need to be addressed to reduce vulnerability. Existing assessments have allowed multidimensional factors to be examined in various settings and adopted complex models to simulate human-environment-weather interactions. However, these models are far less accessible than traditional models due to model abstraction and there has been limited research detailing a formalized way to simulate the interactions between rural households and external changes in response to a specific extreme weather event. To supplement applied efforts in vulnerability assessments and address the challenge in communicating agent-based models, this study …

Long-Term Ndvi And Recent Vegetation Cover Profiles Of Major Offshore Island Nesting Sites Of Sea Turtles In Saudi Waters Of The Northern Arabian Gulf, Rommel H. Maneja, Jeffrey D. Miller, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Ace Vincent B. Flandez, Joshua J. Dagoy, Joselito Francis A. Alcaria, Abdullajid U. Basali, Khaled A. Al-Abdulkader, Ronald A. Loughland, Mohamed A. Qurban

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Vegetation is an important ecological component of offshore islands in the Arabian Gulf (AG), which maintains long-term resilience of these islands. This is achieved by influencing sediment retention and moisture acquisition via condensation during periods of high humidity and by providing a variety of microhabitats for island fauna. The resilience of offshore islands’ ecosystems in the Saudi waters is important because they host the largest number of nesting hawksbill and green turtles in the AG. This study defines the characteristics and the long-term trends in vegetation cover of the offshore islands used by sea turtles as nesting grounds in the …

Wrack & Ruin: A Tale Of Tortured Trees, John T. Van Stan Ii, Albertus Tyasseta, Siloy, Graphic Artist

School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability Faculty Bookshelf

Here, we visit a community of trees living along the Georgia coast, just above the high tide line, on a little lump of sand called a "hammock." This hammock plant community is battered by a hurricane. The plants that survive soon realize that they have fallen prey to a hydrological torture wrack - one composed of the salty corpses of their neighboring marsh plants (Spartina alterniflora). This sci comic is based on the publication, "Wrack and ruin: Legacy hydrologic effects of hurricane-deposited wrack..." (https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab9527).

Wrack And Ruin: Legacy Hydrologic Effects Of Hurricane-Deposited Wrack On Hardwood-Hammock Coastal Islands, John T. Van Stan Ii, Scott T. Allen, Travis Swanson

School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Hurricanes can cause immediate catastrophic destruction of marsh vegetation and erosion of soils; however, they also have long-lasting ecological impacts. Those impacts include the deposition of tremendous amounts of saltmarsh litter ('wrack') onto upland ecosystems, the hydrologic effects of which have not previously been investigated. When Hurricane Irma battered the southeastern US coastline, widespread wrack deposition was reported (often exceeding 0.5 m depth), especially in vulnerable coastal hammock ecosystems: locally-elevated forests within the saltmarshes that rely on freshwater inputs from rain. We report the impacts of this deposited wrack, which has persisted for 2 years, on effective precipitation inputs to …

How Much Variation In Land Surface Phenology Can Climate Oscillation Modes Explain At The Scale Of Mountain Pastures In Kyrgyzstan?, Monika A. Tomaszewska, Geoffrey M. Henebry

NASA Land-Cover Land-Use Change Data Sets

Climate oscillation modes can shape weather across the globe due to atmospheric teleconnections. We built on the findings of a recent study to assess whether the impacts of teleconnections are detectable and significant in the early season dynamics of highland pastures across five rayons in Kyrgyzstan. Specifically, since land surface phenology (LSP) has already shown to be influenced by snow cover seasonality and terrain, we investigated here how much more explanatory and predictive power information about climatic oscillation modes might add to explain variation in LSP. We focused on seasonal values of five climate oscillation indices that influence vegetation dynamics …

A Tale Of Two Species: Black-Tailed And White-Tailed Prairie Dog Biogeography From The Last Interglacial To 2070, April Dawn Bledsoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological niche models (ENMs) were created for White-tailed and Black-tailed prairie dogs and projected into the Last Interglacial (LI), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and mid-Holocene (mid-H) to discern possible past suitable habitat for both species. Additionally, ENMs were projected into the future year 2070 representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5 to discern how climate change may affect future habitat suitability. Kernel density estimations, minimum convex polygons, and median distribution centers of White-tailed and Black-tailed occurrence records were examined between time-periods to discern the effects of anthropogenic westward expansion on both species’ distributions. Current ENMs were constructed from commonly …

Archaeological, Geophysical, And Geospatial Analysis At David Crockett Birthplace State Park, In Upper East Tennessee, Reagan Cornett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A geophysical survey was conducted at David Crockett Birthplace State Park (40GN205, 40GN12) using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry. The data indicated multiple levels of occupation that were investigated by Phase II and Phase III archaeological excavations. New cultural components were discovered, including the remnants of a Protohistoric Native American structure containing European glass trade beads and Middle Woodland artifacts that suggest trade with Hopewell groups from Ohio. A circular Archaic hearth was uncovered at one meter below surface and similar deep anomalies were seen in the GPR data at this level. A semi-automated object-based image analysis (OBIA) was implemented …

Spatial Analysis Of Soil Creep Rates On Mount Sequoyah, Fayetteville Arkansas, Amy Suzanne Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a part of the Boston Mountains, which are considered a deeply dissected plateau. The area is prone to mass wasting, which is the general downslope movement of sediments, soils, and rock through different processes that cause instabilities along a hillslope, and in its soil and loose rubble mantle. For this study, we looked at soil creep, which is the small-scale movement of soil downhill because of gravity, wetting and drying cycles, and heating and cooling cycles.

By measuring the tilt of utility poles, we determined multiple causes of soil creep. The variables that are …

Changes In Land Use Land Cover (Lulc), Surface Water Quality And Modelling Surface Discharge In Beaver Creek Watershed, Northeast Tennessee And Southwest Virginia, Tosin James

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beaver Creek is an impaired streams that is not supporting its designated use for recreation due to Escherichia coli (E.coli), and sediment. To address this problem, this thesis was divided into two studies.

The first study explored changes in Land Use Land Cover (LULC), and its impact on surface water quality. Changes in E.coli load between 1997-2001 and 2014-2018 were analyzed. Also, Landsat data of 2001, and 2018 were examined in Terrset 18.31. Mann-Whitney test only showed a significant reduction in E.coli for one site. Negative correlation was established between E.coli load, and Developed LULC, Forest LULC, and …

Earth Observation And Cloud Computing In Support Of Two Sustainable Development Goals For The River Nile Watershed Countries, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary, Venkat Lakshmi, Thomas Piechota, Daniele Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In September 2015, the members of United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with universal applicability of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets. The SDGs are consequential for the development of the countries in the Nile watershed, which are affected by water scarcity and experiencing rapid urbanization associated with population growth. Earth Observation (EO) has become an important tool to monitor the progress and implementation of specific SDG targets through its wide accessibility and global coverage. In addition, the advancement of algorithms and tools deployed in cloud computing platforms provide an equal opportunity to use EO …

Land Surface Phenology In The Highland Pastures Of Montane Central Asia: Interactions With Snow Cover Seasonality And Terrain Characteristics, Monika A. Tomaszewska, Lan H. Nguyen, Geoffrey Henebry

NASA Land-Cover Land-Use Change Data Sets

Many studies have shown that high elevation environments are among very sensitive to climatic changes and where impacts are exacerbated. Across Central Asia, which is especially vulnerable to climate change due to aridity, the ability of global climate projections to capture the complex dynamics of mountainous environments is particularly limited. Over montane Central Asia, agropastoralism constitutes a major portion of the rural economy. Extensive herbaceous vegetation forms the basis of rural economies in Kyrgyzstan. Here we focus on snow cover seasonality and the effects of terrain on phenology in highland pastures using remote sensing data for 2001–2017. First, we describe …