Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Homeowners’ Lived Experience In Developing And Using Accessory Dwelling Units In Ireland, Geraldine Mary Hurley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have explored the role of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a form of housing since at least the 1970s. Such exploration has taken place across a number of different disciplines, including gerontology, housing affordability, and urban planning. The literature tends to focus on specific policies, however, rather than on the lived experience of the homeowners impacted by those policies. Ireland’s national and local governments have yet to acknowledge the potential use of ADUs as a contributing solution to ongoing problems with housing supply, housing affordability, and homelessness, despite a government-declared national housing crisis. Formal research on ADUs in the …

Public Participation In Los Angeles Water Resources Management, Hyginus Onyinyechukwu Mmeje

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public participation is essential to the efficient management of resources. However, there are significant problems with water resources management and water importation practices in Southern California due to lack of public awareness and input. Little is known regarding specific participants’ perceptions that could help in addressing the challenges of Los Angeles water resources management. Grounded in the advocacy coalition framework, this qualitative study was conducted with the purpose of narrowing this knowledge gap. The study explored the role of public participation in Los Angeles water resources management from the perspectives of key actors, resident stakeholders, nonprofit organizations, water agency administrators, …

The Traded Water Footprint Of Global Energy From 2010 To 2018, Christopher M. Chini, Rebecca A. M. Peer

Faculty Publications

The energy-water nexus describes the requirement of water-for-energy and energy-for-water. The consumption of water in the production and generation of energy resources is also deemed virtual water. Pairing the virtual water estimates for energy with international trade data creates a virtual water trade network, facilitating analysis of global water resources management. In this database, we identify the virtual water footprints for the trade of eleven different energy commodities including fossil fuels, biomass, and electricity. Additionally, we provide the necessary scripts for downloading and pairing trade data with the virtual water footprints to create a virtual water trade network. The resulting …

Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Marine protected areas (MPAs)—defined geographic areas where fishing and harvesting activity is limited or restricted—have emerged as a popular marine biodiversity and climate resilience strategy worldwide. MPA monitoring efforts often follow MPA designation to help inform the adaptive management of MPAs and MPA networks. In 2012, California completed the largest statewide system of MPAs to date, consisting of 124 MPAs covering 16% of state waters. Following MPA implementation, the state initiated a long-term monitoring program (2019-2022) to help inform the 10-year MPA management review. This two-chapter thesis presents findings from a state-funded project to conduct long-term socioeconomic monitoring for human …

Public Transit Infrastructure And Heat Perceptions In Hot And Dry Climates, Yuliya Dzyuban, David M. Hondula, Paul J. Coseo, Charles L. Redman

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Many cities aim to progress toward their sustainability and public health goals by increasing use of their public transit systems. However, without adequate protective infrastructure that provides thermally comfortable conditions for public transit riders, it can be challenging to reach these goals in hot climates. We took micrometeorological measurements and surveyed riders about their perceptions of heat and heat-coping behaviors at bus stops with a variety of design attributes in Phoenix, AZ, USA, during the summer of 2018. We identified the design attributes and coping behaviors that made riders feel cooler. We observed that current infrastructure standards and material choices …

Policy And Economic Variables Influencing Adoption Of Sustainable Electrification In Rural Sub-Saharan Africa, Payne William Morgan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Limited access to electricity remains a primary constraint to economic growth and the improvement of livelihoods throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In rural areas, electricity access is especially sparse. The reasons for the scarcity of electricity supply in the region are well documented, with low population density, limited household incomes, and poor regulatory institutions compounding to often make the investment of expanding electricity access result in poor or risky economic returns. However, the declining cost of solar PV and mandates for clean energy development throughout the region have created new channels for bringing electricity supply in potentially more cost-effective ways.Despite these macro …

Understanding Visitor Use At Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Melissa Maria Hurtado Alvarez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Effective management and monitoring of visitor recreational use is fundamental in marine protected areas. It is common to hear that tourism and outdoor recreation are often qualified as double-edged activities, making valuable socioeconomic contributions but also causing degradation of the environment. The convergence of social and natural resource research and practices can help managers to create better policies that will maximize human benefits from, and minimize human pressures on, ocean and coastal environments. For this study online surveys were sent via Qualtrics to email addresses obtained from the state of Florida during the summer of 2020. The first paper assessed …

The Efficacy Of Aligning Lessons Learnt From Significant Bushfire Incidents To The Organisational Stratum, Jennifer Medbury, David J. Brooks, Michael Coole

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Australia's bushfire seasons are expected to become longer and more severe due to the effects of climate change and an increasing population living in rural-urban fringes. Social and economic vulnerability to extreme natural hazards means that Australia’s emergency services sector plays a significant role in community safety and wellbeing. Therefore, it is important that the sector continually improves. Australia has a long history of conducting external reviews into significant bushfires. While these reviews receive good support and seek to identify relevant lessons, barriers remain that prevent these lessons from being effectively learnt. It is possible that some of these barriers …

After The Flood: Exploring The Influence Of Risk Perception And Decision Criteria Preference On Flood Mitigation In The Lake Champlain Richelieu River Basin, Emma Jane Spett

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In April of 2011, heavy rainfall paired with snow melt from the Green and Adirondack Mountains caused unprecedented flooding in the Lake Champlain Richelieu River (LCRR) basin. A study was subsequently convened by the International Joint Commission (IJC), and was tasked with identifying how flood forecasting, preparedness, and mitigation could be improved in order to reduce the impact of flooding in this transboundary watershed, and build the greater community’s resilience to flooding. A component of this study includes an assessment of the social acceptability and political feasibility of potential flood mitigation measures, which was in part carried out through the …

Scottish Marine Renewable Energy: U.S. Approaches For Development Of Wave And Tidal Technologies, Stella Kathryn Fairall

Honors Theses and Capstones

Marine renewable energy, energy harnessed from various ocean resources such as waves, tides, currents, thermal gradients, and marine streams, has incredible potential in the United States. Several European countries have realized the potential of the resource in the North Sea and Atlantic and have created incredibly successful industries already. The United Kingdom, particularly Scotland, is the world leader because of the comprehensive policy, labor force, and markets it has established in order to make MRE a competitive energy source. In the United States, the industry is immature, underfunded, and lacks policy support. In order to establish itself as a world …

Local Climate Action Planning As A Tool To Harness The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation And Equity Potential Of Autonomous Vehicles And On-Demand Mobility, Serena Alexander, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Benjamin Y. Clark

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report focuses on how cities can use climate action plans (CAPs) to ensure that on-demand mobility and autonomous vehicles (AVs) help reduce, rather than increase, green-house gas (GHG) emissions and inequitable impacts from the transportation system. We employed a three-pronged research strategy involving: (1) an analysis of the current literature on on-demand mobility and AVs; (2) a systematic content analysis of 23 CAPs and general plans developed by municipalities in California; and (3) a comparison of findings from the literature and content analysis of plans to identify opportunities for GHG emissions reduction and mobility equity.

Findings indicate that maximizing …

Using Beam Software To Simulate The Introduction Of On-Demand, Automated, And Electric Shuttles For Last Mile Connectivity In Santa Clara County, Gary Hsueh, David Czerwinski, Cristian Poliziani, Terris Becker, Alexandre Hughes, Peter Chen, Melissa Benn

Mineta Transportation Institute

Despite growing interest in low-speed automated shuttles, pilot deployments have only just begun in a few places in the U.S., and there is a lack of studies that estimate the impacts of a widespread deployment of automated shuttles designed to supplement existing transit networks. This project estimated the potential impacts of automated shuttles based on a deployment scenario generated for a sample geographic area: Santa Clara County, California. The project identified sample deployment markets within Santa Clara County using a GIS screening exercise; tested the mode share changes of an automated shuttle deployment scenario using BEAM, an open-source beta software …

Peer-To-Peer Trade And The Economy Of Distributed Pv In China, Peiyun Song, Yiou Zhou, Jiahai Yuan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the deepening of power market reform, distributed power generation is gaining momentum. This paper tests the distributed photovoltaic (DPV) economy under different business models by taking three provinces to stand for typical resource zones. The Internal return rate (IRR) is used to measure the economy, while the improved levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is used to model the generation cost. Three business modes, namely pure producer (all generation sold to the grid), prosumer (self-use and the rest sold to the grid), and peer-to-peer trade (P2P, all generation traded via the grid) are studied. Results show that peer-to-peer trade is …

Human Centeredness: The Foundation For Leadership-As-Practice In Complex Local/Regional Food Networks, Maryann Martinez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Our local and regional food systems are predominately modeled on a failed capitalist market-based economy. In the absence of corporate accountability, and/or support on the federal policy level, local and regional leadership and self-organized networks are critical to the scaling across and evolution of a moral and equitable food system. Networked food systems leaders are developing the capacity to solve wicked problems, and spark change. Understanding the values and practices of local food systems leadership that initiate, influence, and support activities is essential to understanding how to foster conditions for local and regional food network growth. My dissertation research is …

Policy And Collaborative Governance: Case Studies Of Three Wildlife Crossings, Nicholas Maya

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last several decades, the number of wildlife-vehicle collisions in North America has significantly increased, driving substantial loss of human life and wildlife and economic costs. The most effective wildlife-vehicle collision mitigation is wildlife crossing structures (undercrossings and overcrossings), with some studies suggesting they can reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by 97% when paired with wildlife exclusion fencing. However, cost, funding, jurisdiction, land ownership, and local support are limiting factors in constructing these crossing structures. This paper presents case studies of three crossing projects in Snoqualmie, Washington, Teton County, Wyoming, and Summit County, Colorado, to illustrate the similarities and differences in …