Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Risk Perception And Response Among International Students Of The University Of Southern Mississippi, Elida Lopes Souza Rocha

Master's Theses

Given the exposure of university campuses to hazards, disaster mitigation is a critical element of higher education policy. Although U.S. higher education institutions are leaders in the global education market, emergency warning systems give little consideration to how international students perceive risk, prepare for hazards, or access warning technologies available to them. This poses several questions regarding the suitability of hazards mitigation practices and the welfare of international students.

This thesis investigates the relationship between USM international students and natural hazards. Responses from online surveys and semi-structured interviews data were analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods to document the extent …

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 …

Empowering The Human-Nature Bond, Lightning Talk (7 Min), Valeria Widjaja

GIS Day

What is land? Is it dirt, the Earth, property, a resource? But rarely we ask who is land? When we change the question, it changes the way we think about land. It transforms the way we make decisions about how we might protect land. Through the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond, this story map explores how Carolinian Canada, Chippewas of the Thames First Nations, VERGE Capital, Ivey Business School, Thames Talbot Land Trust, and 3M are striving to heal the landscape. Overall, this story map visualizes both the human-nature and human-human relationships being facilitated by the bond. Learn the about …

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 …

Firesafe: Designing For Fire-Resilient Communities In The American West, Brenden Baitch

Masters Theses

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available …

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 …

Revisiting Prehistoric Archeological Sites: Envisioning First Built Environments To Repossess Geographically Specific Approaches In Architecture, Alisa Mohammad Kheir Abdulghany, Marwan Halabi, Maged Youssef, Bahaa El Dine Abou El Khoudoud

BAU Journal - Creative Sustainable Development

Since Prehistoric times, architecture had been a human response to an occurring natural setting. Starting from places of dwelling to buildings that no longer only serve physical requirements for survival. Architectural languages were approached initially as an expression of culture, evolution, and growth of a community within a natural setting. This response resulted in the creation of built environments, humanity’s decision to become sedentary. This decision took place in the Late Stone age, a key phase in our timeline. First built environments were born in a time known as the Neolithic revolution, which shown itself as humans transitioned from hunter-gatherer …

El Atlas De Las Carreteras Propuestas En La Zona Transfronteriza Ucayali, Perú-Acre, Brasil, David S. Salisbury, Stephanie A. Spera, Elspeth Collard*, Anna Frisbie*, M. R. Place*, Yunuen Reygadas Langarica, Elizabeth Zizzamia

Multimedia

El Atlas de las Carreteras Propuestas en la Zona Transfronteriza Ucayali, Perú-Acre, Brasil incluye una serie de 15 mapas de dos carreteras propuestas: 1) Pucallpa, Perú-Cruzeiro do Sul, Brasil; 2) Nuevo Italia-Puerto Breu, Perú. El objetivo del atlas es presentar los mapas, posters, e información geográfica para dar una perspectiva geográfica de las propuestas de carreteras y entender mejor los posibles impactos socio-ambientales en estas áreas fronterizas con altos índices en diversidad ambiental y cultural. Los mapas y posters son de acceso público.

Digital Earth: The Impact Of Geographic Technology Through The Ages, Mishka Vance Huq

Theses and Dissertations

Geographic technology encompasses a wide range of geographic knowledge, concepts, processes, and artifacts. Because of its interdisciplinarity and integration with other technologies, the paper examines the diffuse impacts of geographic technology within the evolving relationship between technological and societal developments over time.

Hazardous Weather And Human Response In The Southeastern United States, Daniel Burow

Doctoral Dissertations

Effectively mitigating the human costs of future hazardous weather events requires examining meteorological threats, their long-term patterns, and human response to these events. The southeastern United States is a region that has both a high climatological risk and a high societal vulnerability to many different meteorological hazards. In this dissertation, I study hazardous weather and human response in the Southeast through three different lenses: identifying uniquely simultaneous hazards posed by tropical cyclones, assessing precipitation and synoptic weather patterns on hazardous weather days, and examining patterns in intended response to tornado watches. I find that simultaneous and collocated tornado and flash …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

427— Understanding The Spatial Distribution Of Avalanche Fatalities In Utah, 2010-2020, Jackson Ferguson

GREAT Day Posters

This project continues the work of building knowledge about avalanches by creating a database that maps avalanche fatalities in Utah. The primary vector layer is a point layer that marks the precise location of avalanche fatalities, which has the potential to capture spatial trends in such occurrences.The mapping in this project confirms that there is a strong spatial pattern to avalanche fatalities in Utah, with a high density of accidents in the Salt Lake county. A likely explanation for why there are higher numbers of fatalities in this region is simply population density. A statistical analysis exposes the complexity of …

Análisis De Los Impactos Socio-Ambientales De Dos Rutas De La Carretera Propuesta Entre Pucallpa, Perú Y Cruzeiro Do Sul, Brasil., A. Frisbie *, E. Collard *, E. Zizzamia, D. S. Salisbury, V. Galati, S. Spera

Conference Presentations and Posters

À medida que a construção de estradas na Amazônia continua a ser proposta e promovida por governos do Brasil e do Peru, torna-se cada vez mais importante considerar os efeitos que essa infraestrutura pode ter nas diversas culturas e ecossistemas da Amazônia. Uma das propostas em discussão é uma rodovia de 200 km que ligaria as cidades de Pucallpa, no Peru, e Cruzeiro do Sul, no Brasil. Embora a estrada seja promovida como economicamente vantajosa, a rota passará perto, se não cruzar, territórios indígenas e áreas de conservação protegidas, notadamente o Parque Nacional Sierra del Divisor. A região de Sierra …

Data Collection In The Field: Lessons From Two Case Studies Conducted In Belize, Rico Kongsager

The Qualitative Report

There is a vast load of literature concerning how data collection can be conducted. This literature provides guidelines and recommendations on how data collection might be done, however, only a very limited part of this literature describes in detail how data actually are collected in the field. This paper is intended to be an example, where the methodology is explained in detail to assist and inspire other researchers, on their way to conduct interesting and important research. The data collection and fieldwork described in this paper were conducted to complete two case studies in Belize, Central America. The core of …

Análisis De Los Impactos Socio-Ambientales De La Carretera Propuesta Trocha Uc-105 Entre Nuevo Italia Y Puerto Breu, Ucayali, Perú, M. R. Place *, E. Zizzamia, D. S. Salisbury, V. Galati, S. Spera

Conference Presentations and Posters

La construcción de carreteras se promueve cada vez más en las zonas fronterizas que comparten Perú y Brasil a pesar de una comprensión incompleta de los impactos socioambientales de la infraestructura de transporte en la región. Las carreteras amazónicas a menudo se expanden de manera informal, sin un proceso gubernamental oficial, consulta previa de las poblaciones indígenas y declaraciones de impacto ambiental. La expansión de las carreteras amazónicas también suele seguir un ciclo de retroalimentación progresiva, con carreteras nuevas y no planificadas que generan caminos de tala ilegal y una expansión agrícola que a su vez amplía y formaliza los …

Análisis De Los Impactos Socio-Ambientales De Las Carretera Propuesta Trocha Uc-105 Entre Nuevo Italia Y Puerto Breu, Ucayali, Perú, M. R. Place *, E. Zizzamia, D. S. Salisbury, V. Galati, S. Spera

Conference Presentations and Posters

A construção de estradas é cada vez mais promovida nas fronteiras compartilhadas pelo Peru e pelo Brasil, apesar de uma compreensão incompleta dos impactos socioambientais da infraestrutura de transporte na região. As estradas amazônicas geralmente se expandem informalmente, sem processo oficial do governo, consulta prévia das populações indígenas e declarações de impacto ambiental. A expansão das estradas na Amazônia também freqüentemente segue um ciclo de feedback progressivo, com novas estradas não planejadas gerando caminhos ilegais de extração de madeira e expansão agrícola que, por sua vez, expande e formaliza os sistemas de estradas. Um sistema de estradas em expansão está …

Análisis De Los Impactos Socio-Ambientales De Dos Rutas De La Carretera Propuesta Entre Pucallpa, Perú Y Cruzeiro Do Sul, Brasil., A. Frisbie *, E. Collard *, E. Zizzamia, D. S. Salisbury, V. Galati, S. Spera

Conference Presentations and Posters

A medida que los gobiernos de Brasil y Perú continúan proponiendo y promoviendo la construcción de carreteras a través de la Amazonía, se vuelve cada vez más importante considerar los efectos que esta infraestructura podría tener en las diversas culturas y ecosistemas de la Amazonía. Una de las propuestas en discusión es una vía de 280+ km que conectaría las ciudades de Pucallpa, Perú y Cruzeiro do Sul, Brasil. Si bien la carretera se promociona como económicamente beneficiosa, la ruta pasará cerca, si no cruzará, territorios indígenas y áreas de conservación protegidas, en particular el Parque Nacional Serra do Divisor. …

Protocol For Monitoring Fish Communities In Small Streams In The Heartland Inventory And Monitoring Network, Version 2.0, Hope R. Dodd, David G. Peitz, Gareth Rowell, Janice A. Hinsey, David E. Bowles, Lloyd W. Morrison, Michael D. Debacker, Jennifer L. Haack-Gaynor, Jeffrey M. Williams

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Fish communities are an important component of aquatic systems and are good bioindicators of ecosystem health. Land use changes in the Midwest have caused sedimentation, erosion, and nutrient loading that degrades and fragments habitat and impairs water quality. Because most small wadeable streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) have a relatively small area of their watersheds located within park boundaries, these streams are at risk of degradation due to adjacent land use practices and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shifts in the physical and chemical properties of aquatic systems have a dramatic effect on the biotic community. …

Ecological Risk Assessment Of Managed Relocation As A Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, Aviv Karasov-Olson, Mark W. Schwartz, Julian D. Olden, Sarah Skikne, Jessica J. Hellmann, Sarah Allen, Christy Brigham, Danielle Buttke, David J. Lawrence, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Gregor W. Schuurman, Melissa Trammell, Cat Hawkins Hoffman

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Changing climate and introduced species are placing an increasing number of species at risk of extinction. Increasing extinction risk is increasing calls to protect species by relocating, or translocating, them to locations with more favorable biotic or climatic conditions. Managed relocation, or assisted migration, of species entails risks to both the conservation target organisms being moved as well as the recipient ecosystems into which they are moved.

Recognizing this risk, calls have been made for practitioners interested in considering a managed relocation project to engage in a serious risk assessment prior to advancing a project. We engaged a …

Cultivated Wild: Enhancing Human Health In Cities Through Green Projects Especially During A Pandemic, Glenn Rose

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The University of Richmond Eco-corridor, a new renovation project, transformed a wildly overgrown area into one of beauty with several recreational uses. The opening of this project comes at an important time for local outdoor recreation in cities, the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous work has suggested that landscapes are more beautiful when there is minimal human impact, therefore wilderness scenes are more likely to be used for nature walks and observing nature. While other studies suggest that beauty is dependent on how the land may be used, suggesting that “cultivated wild” is preferrable. This paper used an observational study and a …

Protocol For Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates Of Small Streams In The Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network, Version 2.1, David E. Bowles, Michael H. Williams, Hope R. Dodd, Lloyd W. Morrison, Janice A. Hinsey, J. Tyler Cribbs, Gareth A. Rowell, Michael D. Debecker, Jennifer L. Haack-Gaynor, Jeffrey M. Williams

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) is a component of the National Park Service’s (NPS) strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. The purposes of this program are to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring and provide information for park managers to evaluate the integrity of park ecosystems and better understand ecosystem processes. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of various monitoring approaches to assess stream water quality. Freshwater streams in network parks are threatened by numerous stressors, most of which originate outside park boundaries. Stream condition and …

The Tijeras Pueblo (La 581) Archaeofaunal Project, Emily Lena Jones, Scott Kirk, Caitlin S. Ainsworth, Asia Alsgaard, Jana Valesca Meyer, Cyler Conrad

Anthropology Datasets

These files contain data generated by the Tijeras Pueblo (LA 581) Archaeofaunal Project, a project of the University of New Mexico Department of Anthropology Zooarchaeology Laboratory between 2011 and the present. This project has been supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1732622 and by a grant from the Research Allocations Committee of the University of New Mexico.

These data are the basis of the analyses presented in the following publication:

Jones, Emily Lena, Scott Kirk, Caitlin S. Ainsworth, Asia Alsgaard, Jana Valesca Meyer, and Cyler Conrad. 2021. The Community at the Crossroads: Artiodactyl Exploitation and …

An Application Of The Sleuth Model: Future Urbanization Of Davidson County, Tennessee, Caitlyn J. Linehan

Theses

As the urban population is expected to grow in the coming decades, there is pressure on urban areas to expand to accommodate this growth. Often times, these expansions are not sustainable, they consume valuable lands and cause significant environmental, social, and economic burdens, a theory which is known as urban sprawl. Therefore it is often imperative to model areas more likely to urbanize in order for cities to plan for their expansion in the most sustainable way possible. Nashville, Tennessee located within Davidson County is an area that has been experiencing a significant period of urban growth. The objective of …