Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Development Of A Historic Digital Elevation Model (Hdem) From Archival Aerial Imagery Over The Black Mountain Alluvial Fan, Canada, Emma Menio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a rapidly changing Arctic, reconstructing landscapes pre-warming is essential to understanding impacts due to climate-inducted geomorphic change. High-latitude elevation datasets extend temporally back to the 2000s, while region-wide warming became measurable in the 1980s. Historic aerial imagery archives provide datasets of high-resolution imagery from the mid- to late- 1900s with stereo-capability that can be harnessed to create historic digital elevation models, or hDEMs. A major issue with reconstructing a surface from the past is finding a way to constrain it in space, given a lack of ground control from that era, especially at high latitudes. The main purpose of …

Age, Size, And Composition Of Selected Old-Growth Shortleaf Pine Stands In The Upper Buffalo River, Arkansas, Willa Avery Thomason

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) approaches the westernmost limits of its range in the Arkansas Ozarks. Despite heavy logging of shortleaf pine throughout its range during the 19th and 20th centuries, the species was not easily accessible for harvest and transportation in the most rugged areas of the Boston Mountains and, as a result, there are a few extant stands of old-growth shortleaf pine in the region. The shortleaf pine stands in the interior Boston Mountains are unusual in that they exist primarily above bluff lines at topographic breaks in the hardwood canopy and are not disturbed by fire as frequently …

The Human Natural Resource Endowment Of Limestone For Cement Manufacturing, Vanya Marie North

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the total per-capita allocation of limestone globally. Termed the Human Natural Resource Endowment (HNRE), it is calculated by subtracting the cumulative annual production from the ultimately recoverable reserve (URR) of limestone and dividing the difference by global population. HNRE represents a unique way of visualizing resource depletion by asking how much of a given resource can be allocated to each person on earth, and how long that allocation can last given multiple population and usage scenarios. The average American, born in 2021, will use approximately 23,930 kgs of cement in their lifetime, with similar demands globally. Demand …

Flood Hazard And Risk Analyses In The Republic Of Panama: A Case Study From The Juan Diaz River Watershed In Panama City, Virgilio De Jesus Quintero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flooding is the natural hazard with most occurrences in Panama. Its frequency and magnitude have increased over the years. This dissertation analyzes Panama’s flood activity in order to better understand flood hazards, the current evolution of Panamanian perceptions of flood risk, and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge used to mitigate flood hazards. The first chapter developed a baseline of past and current flood inventory in Panama, which required the use of flood historical data, thematic cartography, and Geographic Information Science (GIS). This chapter shows Panama has experienced floods in varying degrees. Through the spatial and temporal distribution of floods from …

Changes Of Winter Severity In Arkansas During 1901-2100, Christian Garcia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to quantify the winter severity in a way that was reproduceable and easy to understand. The Accumulated Winter Severity Seasonal Index (AWSSI) was chosen for this reason and was used to quantify winter severity by season across the state of Arkansas. The variables that go into the AWSSI calculation are maximum daily temperature, minimum daily temperature, daily snowfall, and daily snow depth. When the snowfall and snow depth were missing, they can be estimated using daily temperature and precipitation. Then the estimated snowfall and snow depth can be subsequently used to quantify the winter …

Analysis Of Gentrification And Green Spaces In East Austin, Texas, Carly Fordyce

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Gentrification, the urban process that results from uneven development within cities, can cause unjust displacement of traditional, low-income residents in residential neighborhoods, and inequitable access to community services and benefits. Because of the negative social impacts that gentrification can have, many local governments and agencies have been known to attempt to mitigate changes by initiating different types of planning policies. Such policies usually apply changes in housing or zoning rules to enable lower-income residents to have access to housing and community amenities in the area. Another aspect resulting from gentrification that local government will try to rectify is low access …

Forced And Unforced Permafrost Changes In The Northern Hemisphere During 1901-2100, Hong Guo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Permafrost regions are very sensitive to rapid changes in climate and environment. In recent decades, there has been growing interest to better understand the permafrost degradation over the Northern Hemisphere in the context of human-induced climate change. Understanding permafrost dynamics is not only important for infrastructure but also for environmental protection in cold regions. In-situ permafrost measurements are important for assessing permafrost conditions. However, direct permafrost observations are sparse and asymmetrical in both spatial and temporal coverage. Active layer thickness (ALT) modeling is another approach that can overcome many of these limitations, but the models have large uncertainty in predicting …

Geolocation Of Monitoring Wells Using Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Joel Deyoung

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater monitoring wells are commonly installed on a property as part of an environmental investigation to observe hydrological subsurface conditions, facilitate the collection of groundwater samples, and predict the flow of groundwater across a site. In addition to their installation, monitoring wells should be surveyed or mapped as accurately as possible. Traditional surveying techniques have employed the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) technologies or other surveying equipment. A common surveying approach is to use real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS to accurately measure the coordinates of each monitoring well on the site.In recent years, drones, or small unmanned aircraft systems …

Machine Learning & Big Data Analyses For Wildfire & Air Pollution Incorporating Gis & Google Earth Engine, Abdullah Al Saim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The climatic condition, the vegetation type, and the landscape of the United States have made it susceptible to wildfires. This research is divided into two parts based on the analysis of two different aspects of wildfires of two distinct regions. The first part of the study investigates the wildfire susceptibility in Arkansas. Arkansas is a natural state, and it is heavily dependent on its forest and agricultural resources. During the last 30 years, more than 1,000 wildfires occurred in Arkansas and caused more than 10,000 acres of burned areas. Therefore, identifying wildfire-susceptible areas is crucial for ensuring sustainable forest and …

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 …

The Effects Of Urban Development And The Incidence Of Flooding And Discharge Changes From 1956-2016: A Case Study From Juan Diaz Township, Republic Of Panama, Virgilio De Jesus Quintero Rodriguez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increase in flood occurrences in the Township of Juan Diaz has affected thousands of families and hundreds of businesses and has negatively impacted the lives of thousands of residents, who expect the worse every time there is a prolonged period of rain. Some of the residents lose their appliances, cars, furniture and houses every year. This study examines the relationship between urban development and flooding. Also, it addresses the influences of topography, green cover, population changes, runoff changes, and social dynamics on this relationship. This study implemented the use of thematic cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), personal interviews and …

A Geospatial Analysis Of Safety And Risk Perception In The Buffalo National River, Julie Nicole Terhune

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 1972, the Buffalo River in Arkansas became America’s First National River. Since then, the Buffalo National River has become a beloved recreational retreat for locals and visitors alike. The Buffalo National River is home to incredibly scenic views and host to many outdoor activities, among them, hiking and floating. As with any confluence of nature and humans, there is great risk involved in all aspects of the park. Between 2011 and 2017, a total of 140 search and rescue missions were carried out. Some were resolved easily, but more serious accidents were not unheard of.

Risk perception studies are …

Spreadsheets-In-Space: A Quantitative Exploration Of Movement, Currency Creation, And Conflict Within Eve Online, Christopher Alan Pryor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

EVE Online is a massively-multiplayer online game with complex interactions between players and their unique, virtual environment. These relationships are the ongoing results of a conflict-driven economy, but they vary both in duration and by location.

This study attempts to quantify the direct effects of movement and indirect effects of conflict upon economic activity in the form of currency creation and delineate how successfully these relationships can be quantified by narrower time-spans and areas. Results of the mediation models used in this exploration indicate the changing relationship between movement (Ship Jumps), conflict (Ship Kills), and currency creation (Faction Kills) is …

Analysis And Conservation Of Native Forests At Kessler Mountain Fayetteville, Arkansas, Alan James Edmondson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kessler Mountain in Fayetteville Arkansas has long been recognized for its beauty and natural resources. Parts of Kessler Mountain have been homesteaded and developed in the past, but most of the mountain has remained relatively undisturbed. The planned development of over 4,000 housing units to cover Kessler Mountain stimulated controversy and consideration of other management alternatives. A twist of fate involving an economic recession, a dedicated group of outdoor recreation enthusiasts, and environmental conservationists led to the permanent protection of 384 acres in the Kessler Mountain Regional Park. To help evaluate the natural resources at Kessler Mountain, forest composition, structure, …

The Image From The Road: Towards Mapping The Phenomenological, Rachel Anna Smith Loerts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An area of focus, used in early and contemporary forms of cognitive geography research, is the ‘cognitive map’, a concept that suggests “that people hold a map-like database in their minds to which they can add and use to tackle geographical tasks”. Kevin Lynch, an urban planner in the 1960s, was an early adopter of the cognitive map approach to reveal spatial cognition, what or how people see their environment, specifically cognition of the urban environment. Lynch’s research aimed to develop empirical methods, to identify how people make spatial relationships. Contemporary tools like machine learning are now considered relevant for …

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 …

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 …

The Bicycle, The Unsuitable Substitute:A Feasibility Study Based In Fayetteville, Ar Using A Bicycle As A Year-Round Replacement For An Automobile, Jamey Voorhees

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Can a bicycle can be used in place of an automobile for everyday transportation and commuting needs? Fayetteville, Arkansas is a bicycle friendly and they plan continue to expand the current trail system improve other components in the future. Alternative transportation forms like the bicycle are important but only if bikes are integrated into traffic which needs to be done in some way that all involved understand their place in the system. By actively participating in this system I have attempted to show that a bicycle is just not feasible as a form of daily transportation in a city like …

Environmental And Climatic Constraints On Large-Scale Camelina Production In Eastern Arkansas, Benjamin Robert Tracy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Camelina sativa is a cold weather crop that is typically grown in semi-arid environments in the Western United States, usually as a spring crop, but sometimes during the winter. Research analyzing climate data and soil hydrology is important to better understand the environmental and terrain conditions necessary for Camelina farming wherever it is proposed for large-scale production. This study focused on various conditions and constraints pertaining to the potential for Camelina as a crop biofuel in Eastern Arkansas. Due to interest in the economic potential of crop biofuels in this area, and in particular the low input costs for Camelina, …

A Gis Approach To Modeling Groundwater Levels In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, Josef Orion Lilly

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater depletion, a subject of growing concern for a significant portion of Arkansas, may lead to future economic challenges for the Arkansas Delta region. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer is the uppermost aquifer and features the largest groundwater capacity in the Mississippi Embayment Aquifer System. The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer, commonly referred to as the “alluvial aquifer”, spans 53,000〖 km〗^2 underlying portions of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Tennessee. As the alluvial aquifer trends southward for approximately 250 miles alongside the Mississippi River, its geographical extent ranges from 50 to 125 miles wide. There is a …

Lidar-Assisted Extraction Of Old Growth Baldcypress Stands Along The Black River Of North Carolina, Weston Pierce Murch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The remnants of ancient baldcypress forests continue to grow across the Southeastern United States. These long lived trees are invaluable for biodiversity along riverine ecosystems, provide habitat to a myriad of animal species, and augment the proxy climate record for North America. While extensive logging of the areas along the Black River in North Carolina has mostly decimated ancient forests of many species including the baldcypress, conservation efforts from The Nature Conservancy and other partners are under way. In order to more efficiently find and study these enduring stands of baldcypress, some of which are estimated to be more than …

Baha’I Sacred Architecture And The Devolution Of Astronomical Significance: Case Studies From Israel And The Us, Michael Steven Meizler

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sacred architecture is a complex conglomerate of different ideals of a faith. Within modern terms, the Baha’i faith is an excellent example of modern sacred architecture. Within ancient times the architecture of temples and shrines oftentimes had celestial alignments meant to connect the adherent to the gods. With this in mind, the Baha’i faith is evaluated with the use of cartography, celestial measurements, orthophotography, and archival research to evaluate the significance of the Baha’i sacred architecture and the symbolism embedded within it. The Baha’i faith came out of Persia during the 19th century and relocated to Israel late in that …

Shared Perspectives Of Divided Space: Perceptions Of The Urban Environment Among Jerusalemites, Andie Duplantis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multidisciplinary research and philosophical discourse have long explored the complex relationship between the objective environment and subjective human perception. No two humans perceive, experience, and form attitudes about the same phenomenon in exactly the same way. Individual demographics (sex, age) and group identity (culture, religion, ethnicity, political ideology) have been shown to have a profound effect on perception of phenomena; research has also focused on the effect of the physical environment itself. Differences in perception, experience, and resulting behavior have great implications for governance, particularly in regards to planning and development. Recognizing these differences, modern urban planning increasingly seeks to …

Towards Systematic Selection Of Terrain- And Ground Cover-Specific Lidar Filtering Parameters, Vance Green

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accurate automated classification of LiDAR point clouds is a well-known problem and proper parameterization of the classification algorithm is essential to creating useful bare-earth terrain models. Parameterization is particularly important in areas characterized by extremely low relief, such as the Little Red River Irrigation Project Area in central Arkansas. In this kind of landscape, analyses such as hydrological flow models are sensitive to small changes in the topography, and therefore prone to errors in the classification of the LiDAR point cloud and the digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from it. Developing effective project-specific parameters requires a high degree of knowledge …

Thermodynamic Modeling Of Aqueous Geochemistry Of Chlorine Salts: Application To Stability And Habitability Of Liquid Brines On Mars, Amira Elsenousy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The WCL (Wet Chemistry Lab) instrument on board the Mars’s Phoenix Lander has identified the soluble ionic composition of the soil at the landing site. Two important ions were detected at the landing site; perchlorates (ClO4-) with a concentration of ~ 2.4 wt% and chlorides (Cl-) with a concentration of 0.54 wt%. Between chloride and perchlorate ions three other oxidized ions exist and called chlorine ions: hypochlorite ClO - (ox. state +1), chlorite ClO2- (ox. state +3) and chlorate ClO3- (ox. state +5). These oxidized ions might be existed as intermediate species on the surface of Mars but remained undetected. …

Comparative Geomatic Analysis Of Historic Development, Trends, And Functions Of Green Space In Kuwait City From 1982-2014, Yousif Abdullah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research assessed green space morphology in Kuwait City, explaining its evolution from 1982 to 2014, through the use of geo-informatics, including remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and cartography. This research examined archival and contemporary satellite images that show the distribution, size, amount, and type of green spaces in Kuwait City, within the framework of its surrounding urban, exurban, and suburban expansion, and landuse change. Through this integrated analysis, it was found that green space growth passed through three main stages: Early Stage, Growth Stage, and Stable Stage.

This study also examined the effective use of public parks and …

Mapping Ancient Baldcypress Forests For Conservation At Black River, North Carolina, Jordan Nichole Burns

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A few ancient baldcypress-bottomland hardwood forests survive across the southeastern United States in a mosaic of remnant old-growth stands left untouched by extensive logging during the early 20th century. Uncut stands in the Southeast that survived centuries of disturbance following European settlement tended to be too senescent and non-commercial to justify logging. Remnant ancient baldcypress forests at Black River, North Carolina, appear to contain the oldest living trees in eastern North America and The Nature Conservancy has protected several of these stands. However, the full extent of ancient bottomland forests along Black River is not known and many valuable tracts …

The Relationship Of Goal Focus To Physical Distance, Job Title And Years Served Within The University Of Arkansas Division Of Agriculture, Christina Miller

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between physical distance from the headquarters, number of years working within the Division of Agriculture, and job title compared to mission statement and goal focus. The Division of Agriculture as part of the University of Arkansas System is a unique organization because many of its employees are not physically located at the headquarter locations of Little Rock and Fayetteville. The Cooperative Extension Service, part of the Division of Agriculture, has at least one office in each of Arkansas's 75 counties as well as faculty and staff members located at five …

Integrating Seismic Activity Into Land Use Management: A Case Study From Central Arkansas Using Hazus Software Application, Robert Dean Breashears

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Almost 20 years after a remarkable swarm of more than 30,000 micro-earthquakes, a new swarm revisited the same region of central Arkansas, less than 30 miles northeast of Conway, Arkansas. A main shock on May 4, 2001 of magnitude MR = 4.4 was followed by a large number of aftershocks in a small crustal volume about 2,500 events for about 2 months. Preliminary locations of aftershocks from the portable network together with the locations based on data from regional networks lead us to conclude that both swarms (2001 and 1982) occupy virtually the same crustal volume. In following years several …

A Geomechanical Study Of The Mississippian Boone Formation, Karen Nicole Mason Buckland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Boone Formation in northwest Arkansas is a chert-limestone sequence analogous to the subsurface Mississippi Lime reservoir in parts of Oklahoma and Kansas. It has low permeability and produces via horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. The response to stimulation by fracturing is dependent on the quantity of chert in the area. Chert nodules and laterally extensive chert layers in the sequence are variable. Locally, cm- to dm-scale chert bedding is continuous and comprises up to 50% of the outcrop. Elsewhere, the chert is nodular and intermittent.

Samples collected from representative outcrops spanning the thickness and aerial extent of the formation …