Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Use Of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (Drones) Based Remote Sensing To Model Platform Topography And Identify Human-Made Earthen Barriers In Salt Marshes, Joshua J. Ward

Masters Theses

Elevation is a foundational driver of salt marsh morphology. Elevation governs inundation and hydrological patterns, vegetation distribution, and soil health. Anthropogenic impacts at grand scales (e.g., rising sea levels) and local scales (e.g., infrastructure) have altered the elevation of the salt marsh surface, changing the topography and morphology of these ecosystems. This study establishes and assesses means to document and analyze these impacts using Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based remote sensing to model platform topography. This thesis’s first and primary study presents and compares methods of producing high-resolution digital terrain models (DTMs) with UAV-based Digital Aerial Photogrammetry (DAP) and Light …

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 …

Environmental Justice And Carbon Pricing: Can They Be Reconciled?, James K. Boyce, Michael Ash, Brent Ranalli

ETI Publications

Carbon pricing has been criticized by environmental justice advocates on the grounds that it fails to reduce emissions significantly, fails to reduce the disproportionate impacts of hazardous co-pollutants on people of color and low-income communities, hits low-income households harder than wealthier households, and commodifies nature. Designing carbon pricing policy to address these concerns can yield outcomes that are both more effective and more equitable.

“Trash Talk” - Rethinking The Notion Of Waste, Shivaangi Salhotra

Student Showcase

In the twenty-first century, waste has become a ubiquitous problem. Images of things like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have ceased to become jarring, and pictures of overflowing landfills and statistics about plastic in the ocean have become so commonplace that they are “memed”. Yet despite increasing awareness and changes in policy, global waste production and its deleterious effects continue to rise. Dominant narratives surrounding waste tend to focus on how individuals can properly dispose of their waste, which, while certainly important, is not the full story. It doesn't question why we produce so much waste in the first place, …

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I advance a political ethnography of critical infrastructure to better understand terminal capitalism, in which the waste products of commodification and resource depletion are destroying the ecological systems that support life. My object of study is the massive disjuncture between individual knowledge and intention, and these catastrophic collective planetary outcomes. Theoretically, I develop critical infrastructure theory to diagnose these destructive structures. By “infrastructure,” I mean systems of material and discursive flows fundamental to sedentary human organization, connecting local actions with global systems. Such infrastructure is “critical” in three senses: A) denoting the most important forms of infrastructure …

Perceptions Of Historical Climate Change And Park Policy: The Impact On The Fremont Cottonwood In Zion National Park, Kathleen Kavarra Corr

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite its “natural” appearance and the Organic Act 1916 mandate for preservation of the natural environment in National Parks, the Virgin River as it flows through Zion National Park’s Zion Canyon was transformed through massive flood control re-engineering projects in the 1930s. The armoring of the river has had significant impacts on riparian vegetation, particularly on the stands of native Fremont Cottonwood trees that once filled the narrow valley. What was the motivation for this massive flood control project carried out in an arid region with less than 15 inches of rain per year? This dissertation explores the motivations which …

A Just Energy Transition Requires Research At The Intersection Of Policy And Technology, Erin Baker

Publications

The current energy system, in the US and around the world, is rife with inequities. The coming energy transition to a low carbon world has the potential to right some of these; but, without intention, it is more likely to perpetuate the current inequities. Enabling a just energy transition will require multiple categories of action, including fair policies and regulations; data and metrics; and knowledge generation. I focus on this last point, and particularly research at intersection of energy technology and social equity.

Data-Driven Decarbonization Of Residential Heating Systems: An Equity Perspective., John Wamburu, Emma Grazier, David Irwin, Christine Crago, Prashant Shenoy

Publications

Since heating buildings using natural gas, propane and oil makes up a significant proportion of the aggregate carbon emissions every year, there is a strong interest in decarbonizing residential heating systems using new technologies such as electric heat pumps. In this poster, we conduct a data-driven optimization study to analyze the potential of replacing gas heating with electric heat pumps to reduce carbon emissions in a city-wide distribution grid. We seek to not only reduce the carbon footprint of residential heating, but also show how to do so equitably. Our results show that lower income homes have an energy usage …

Correlational Analysis Of Mammals And Residential Land Use: Amherst, Ma, Ella Gutkowski

Massachusetts GIS Day

Mammal diversity varies in different types of land uses. Residential land use oftentimes interferes with the natural occurrence of mammal species. This study conducts a correlational analysis using camera trap data from Excel and land use data in GIS to uncover whether humans have disrupted mammal occurrence in residential land use areas in Amherst, MA. Results reveal that human activity in residential land use areas in Amherst did not strongly influence the occurrence of these mammals.

Georeferencing The Macconnell Aerial Photo Collection, Alex Heilmann, Matthew Martin, Camille Barchers, Forrest J. Bowlick, Rebecca M. Seifried

Massachusetts GIS Day

In the 1950s, Professor William P. MacConnell from the University of Massachusetts Forestry Department began working with his students to map the land cover in Massachusetts via the state’s earliest aerial photography program. These individual photographs are now part of the Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries, and although they have been digitized and made available online, they have not yet been georeferenced.

In Spring 2021, our team (Alex and Matthew) began manually georeferencing the photos in ArcMap 10.8 software onto USGS 2019 color orthoimagery of Massachusetts available from MassGIS. Ideal ground control points …

Algorithm Performance On The Estimation Of Cdom And Doc In The North Slopes Of Alaska, Monica Weisenbach

Masters Theses

Use of satellite imagery makes environmental monitoring easy and convenient with little of the logistics involved in planning sampling campaigns. Colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) is an important component to track as a proxy for the large pool of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). In a world contending with the looming issue of global climate change, the ability to investigate the carbon cycle of inland to coastal environments allows for examination of the magnitude of carbon flowing through the system and potential changes over years. The Arctic region is a critical area for climate change impacts but is a difficult landscape …

Monitoring Mammals At Multiple Scales: Case Studies From Carnivore Communities, Kadambari Devarajan

Doctoral Dissertations

Carnivores are distributed widely and threatened by habitat loss, poaching, climate change, and disease. They are considered integral to ecosystem function through their direct and indirect interactions with species at different trophic levels. Given the importance of carnivores, it is of high conservation priority to understand the processes driving carnivore assemblages in different systems. It is thus essential to determine the abiotic and biotic drivers of carnivore community composition at different spatial scales and address the following questions: (i) What factors influence carnivore community composition and diversity? (ii) How do the factors influencing carnivore communities vary across spatial and temporal …

Tourism-Related Climate Change Perspectives: Social Media Conversations About Canada’S Rocky Mountain National Parks, Farshid Mirzaalian, Elizabeth Halpenny

TTRA Canada 2021 Conference

This study employed quantitative social media big data analysis in conjunction with qualitative analysis of postings to better comprehend online lay discourse of climatic change issues in a nature-based tourism destination, Jasper National Park, Canada. Such mixed methodological approaches to big data enable tourism researchers to not only study unstructured social media big data for future-proofing purposes but to address some methodological concerns often raised about solely using corpus linguistic or thematic analyzes. This study unearthed divergent themes regarding tourists’ perceptions of climate change upon visiting JNP, with the most significant discourses on climate grief, education and interpretation, pro- environmental …

Towards Equity In Energy Efficiency Analyses, John Wamburu, Emma Grazier, David Irwin, Christine Crago, Prashant Shenoy

Publications

The electric grid has begun a profound transition from primarily using carbon-intensive energy to instead using carbon-free renewable energy. In parallel, smart meters and other sensors are now providing us unparalleled visibility into the energy-efficiency of building and grid operations. Researchers are actively using building and grid energy data from these sensors to develop analytics techniques, e.g., using machine learning, that can improve energy-efficiency and facilitate the energy transition. Unfortunately, much of this research ignores the impact of these analytics on equity. That is, while current data analytics techniques may accurately identify energy-inefficiencies, they generally do not contextualize the underlying …

Environmental Decision-Making, Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …

Beyond Green Cars And Goddesses: Gender, The Global Environment, And Sustainability, Kiran Asher

Sustainability Education Resources

Gender, the environment and sustainability are key terms in debates about economic globalization and social justice. While not new, they are reemerging as part of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda. This course will introduce students to the perceived and existing links between women, gender, and the global environment as they appear in 21st century discussions about sustainable development. Through readings, lectures and discussions will explore the following questions:  When did the environment and sustainability emerge as key biological and social issues on global agendas?  What are their connections to economic globalization? To colonialism and capitalism?  How did …

How Can Employers Contribute To Reducing Commuter-Generated Carbon Emissions? Evaluating Employer-Provided Commuter Benefits In Cambridge, Ma, Mary Richards

Masters Theses

Encouraging a more sustainable commuter mode shift and improving urban transportation systems have the potential to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), a major contributor to climate change. Replacing some single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) trips with alternative modes of transportation, such as public transit, walking, or bicycling, represents one approach to begin reducing transportation-related emissions. Collectively, these shifts in transportation patterns would help to reduce the negative social, economic, and environmental costs associated with high rates of personal vehicle use. Employer-provided benefits programs have the potential to influence commuter behavior by making sustainable, alternative commuting choices a more convenient and economically …

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 …

New England’S Underutilized Seafood Species: Defining And Exploring Marketplace Potential In A Changing Climate, Amanda Davis

Masters Theses

New England’s seafood industry has been searching for opportunities to diversify their landings and build resilience as it faces socio-economic challenges from a changing climate. Developing markets for underutilized species is one way the New England community could help their seafood industry build resilience. This thesis identified New England’s underutilized fish species and explored their marketplace potential by examining their availability in a changing climate, current availability to consumers, and consumers’ responses. In Chapter I, I account how New England’s seafood preferences have changed over time. In Chapter II, I identify New England’s seven underutilized seafood species: 1) Acadian redfish …

Integrative Experience: Soil Microbes And The Sustainability Of Organic Agriculture, Kristen Deangelis, Luiz Domeignoz Horta

Microbiology Educational Materials

This curriculum describes a one-unit course designed to fulfill the University of Massachusetts requirement for Integrative Experience as part of the Gen Ed curriculum for undergraduates.

Panel 9. Paper 9.3: Connecting Social And Physical Boundaries Of The Commons : Study Of Kuhl Irrigation Systems Of Kangra, Amit Tandon

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

Water has been a lifeline of Indian agrarian society. The thriving agrarian economy requires water for irrigation and the need for resources to the evolution of indigenous technology through generations of communities. Kuhl irrigation system of Kangra is a community managed traditional irrigation systems found in western Himalayan. These are a centuries-old network of interconnected drainage channels that drain water from nearby khads (rivers) into the fields. The irrigation systems have codified customary laws, systems of collective action for maintenance and preservation and various traditional livelihoods.

Kuhls of Kangra is a unique case where the community is owned and managed …

Panel 11. Paper 11.3: Views Through Rose-Colored Glasses: The Need For Diverse Lenses To Support Rural Landscape Heritage, Steve H. Brown Dr, Cari Goetcheus

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

The ICOMOS-IFLA Principles Concerning Rural Landscape as Heritage (the Principles; 2017) provide a comprehensive outline of the fields and work required to better recognise and safeguard rural landscape heritage. The Principles acknowledge that the field of heritage conservation cannot sustain rural places and traditional rural heritage landscapes on their own, but must engage with a diverse breadth of disciplines to support and safeguard these spaces. The Principles seek to address loss and adverse changes to rural landscapes and their associated communities through the recognition, safeguarding, and promotion of their heritage values. They aim to promote an appropriate balance between economic, …

Environmental Decision-Making (Nrc 494 Ei), Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …

Analytical Methods For Energy And Climate Policy, Dwayne Breger

Sustainability Education Resources

Course Description

The course will introduce students to analytical methods applicable to the evaluation of energy and climate problems and policy solutions. The methods include ethical analysis, spreadsheet analysis, lifecycle analysis, optimization and systems analysis. While applicable across many fields, the methods will be applied through class and assignments to current issues in clean energy and climate policy.

Learning Objectives

The course will provide students with the understanding and skills to analytically address issues of policy pertaining to clean energy and climate policy. Students will understand the theory and practice associated with conducting economic cost benefit analysis, optimization under constraints …

The Analysis And Deployment Of A Fully Open Monitoring System In The Sri Lankan Deduroya Basin: The 4onse Project, Massimiliano Cannata, Daniele Strigaro, Imran Shahid, Rangajeewa Ratnayake, B.H. Sudantha

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

The 4onse project studies non-conventional monitoring systems fully based on open technologies (hardware, standard protocols, software and data) for the management of resources and natural hazards in developing countries. After the design of hydro-meteorological stations and software for the collection, management and distribution of data, the study involves the installation of 30 stations in the Deduroya Oya river basin in Sri Lanka. The system will be analysed to fully understand the real cost of ownership, data quality and applicability in real situations. If properly validated, these systems can provide an alternative solution, effective and sustainable for the protection of property …

Towards Osgeo Best Practices For Scientific Software Citation: Integration Options For Persistent Identifiers Fn Osgeo Project Repositories, Peter Löwe, Markus Neteler, Jan Goebel, Marco Tullney

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

As a contribution to the currently ongoing larger effort to establish Open Science as best practices in academia, this article focuses on the Open Source and Open Access tiers of the Open Science triad and community software projects. The current situation of research software development and the need to recognize it as a significant contribution to science is introduced in relation to Open Science. The adoption of the Open Science paradigms occurs at different speeds and on different levels within the various fields of science and crosscutting software communities. This is paralleled by the emerging of an underlying futuresafe technical …

Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Forest Conditions In Forest Classee De La Mondah (Gabon) Using Remote Sensing Data, Mariano Mboumba

Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) Conference Proceedings

This study aims to examine the relationship between temperature and precipitation as climatic factors and the vegetation characteristics in Forêt Classée de la Mondah (Gabon). A pixel based spatial analysis procedure with QGIS was used to extract vegetation characteristics from MODIS on Terra, NDVI band, data from February 2000 to December 2015, while temperature and precipitation were monitored from January 1980 to December 2015 to highlight climate fluctuations in the study area. Two regression analyses were conducted : one between temperature and NDVI and the other one between precipitation and NDVI. Results showed that temperature and precipitation did not vary …

From Planning To Passing: The Amherst, Massachusetts Plastic Bag Ban, Kevin J. Hollerbach

Student Showcase

This case study will detail the background and influences for a plastic bag ban in the town of Amherst, outline the steps taken from planning to passage, and address roadblocks and missteps that may be avoided with the implementation of future bans. It is my hope that this document will not only serve as a guide, but also an inspiration for additional local action in Massachusetts and across the country. No matter what the national political climate or attitude towards environmental issues, local action is always possible, and change is usually easier than you think. Think globally, act locally!

The Perfect Storm: Lasting Impacts Of Structural Adjustment Programs And Pressures Of Climate Change In Latin America And Ghana, Africa, Sam Kefferstan

Student Showcase

This work examines the intersectionality of economic, social and environmental impacts of the International Monetary Fund’s and World Bank’s application of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) within Latin America and Ghana, Africa. Varying economic and social indicators illustrate the underperformance of SAPs in their intended mission to reduce poverty and debt in developing nations. This research argues Gross Domestic Product is an imperfect measure of improving quality of life and points towards other indicators such as increasing national debt, rising incidences of poverty, and exacerbated regional disparities to demonstrate the shortcomings of SAPs. This piece also investigates the limitations adjustment imposes …

Umass Amherst Guide To Zero-Waste Events, Kevin J. Hollerbach, Ainsley Brosnan-Smith

Student Showcase

As the University of Massachusetts Amherst continues to grow, and as programming for the campus community becomes an ever-rising priority, events organizers will need to consider the waste implications of every event to comply with state and University standards, goals, and policies. This "Guide to Zero-Waste Events" aims to streamline the planning process as well as provide tips and examples for follow-through to implementing a successful zero-waste event. The guide also presents actionable policy recommendations for the University to reduce waste and increase diversion from large-scale outdoor events on the UMass Amherst campus.