Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Keeping Pace With Relative Sea Level Rise: Marsh Platform Monitoring Shows Minimal Sediment Deficit Along The Louisiana Coast, Kelly Marie Sanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports estimate that the marshes of the Mississippi Delta receive just 30% of the sediment necessary to sustain current land area1. An extensive monitoring campaign by the USGS and LCPRA provides direct measurements of sediment accumulation, subsidence rates, and deposit characteristics along the coast over the past 10 years2, allowing us to directly evaluate this sediment balance. By interpolating bulk density, organic fraction, and vertical accretion rates from 273 sites, a direct measurement of organic and inorganic sediment accumulation can be made. Results show that a total of 82 MT/year of sediment is delivered to the coast. Using a …

Sustainability Of Utilizing Renewable And Nuclear Energy In Saudi Arabia Using Different Types Of Life Cycle Assessment, Kamel Almutairi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating the global environmental impacts of the current and future energy policies in Saudi Arabia using Life cycle assessment (LCA) method was the main objective of this dissertation. First, the attributional life cycle assessment (ALCA) framework was used to evaluate the Saudi’s air conditioning systems, as they are responsible for about 70% of the total Saudi residential electricity consumption. The ALCA’s results showed that the AC use phase produces the largest share of the environmental impact and the magnitude of the environmental impacts is influenced by the type of primary fuel used for electricity generation.

Emerging non-fossil sources of electricity …

Evaluating Climate Change Policy Through The Endangered Species Act, Richie Donahou

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research sets out to address a growing knowledge gap of climate change science in regards to the state of Arkansas. Within the coming chapters, the goal of this research is to examine climate data and to identify if any evidence of climate change can be detected and what are the policies in place to adapt to these potential changes. Furthermore, the scope of this research will be narrowed to a few counties over the southwest Arkansas, and a specific endangered species, the Leopard Darter. Upon examination of previous environmental and ecological climate change related research it became clear that …

Sustainable Intensification Of Agriculture: Opportunities And Challenges For Food Security And Agrarian Adaptation To Environmental Change In Bangladesh, Aaron Michael Shew

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates three unique aspects of sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) in the context of Bangladeshi rice production. The first article presents a qualitative analysis of SAI and farmer surveys in the embanked polder region of coastal Bangladesh. The second article investigates the global food security and environmental impacts of already adopted High Yielding Variety (HYV) rice and double-cropped rice systems in Bangladesh using a spatial partial equilibrium trade model and a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The final article demonstrates a remote sensing methodology for monitoring dry season rice production at 30 m resolution in Bangladesh using a harmonic time …

Irrigation Practice Adoption: Causes And Consequences In The Arkansas Delta, Kerr James Adams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Concerns about groundwater depletion from conventional irrigation agriculture in the Arkansas Delta region have led to the promotion of more efficient irrigation practices. With Arkansas being the largest producer of rice, the 10th largest producer of soybeans and the 16th largest producer of corn in the United States, the irrigation demand of these crops has put pressure on producers to find ways to irrigate more efficiently. Not only are the alternative technologies supposed to reduce water use, it is also believed that their adoption can also yield economic benefits for the producer. Despite these assumed benefits, adoption of alternative technologies …

Towards Quantifying Relevant Land Cover Change: A Case Study In The Central Flyway Of The Monarch Butterfly, Hanna Lenee Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the past 20 years notable decreases in monarch butterfly populations have led researchers to begin evaluating the landscape for changes and seeking out opportunities for enacting conservation programs to better support their survival. The monarch butterfly has recently come under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act which has created a need for a more informed view of the landscape through which the migrate and breed, the central United States. In this research three spatially-explicit models are explored using the most applicable datasets currently available to address pressing policy and land manager decisions regarding monarch butterfly and pollinator …