Nature and Society Relations Commons^™

Geospatial Analyses Of Seismic Hazards And Risk Perception In Libya, Somaia Suwihli

Theses and Dissertations

Libya is not considered a highly active seismic region. However, several earthquakes of magnitude >5.0 have occurred there. This dissertation analyzes the seismicity of Libya in order to better understand earthquake hazards, related geomorphic features, and the current evolution of Libyan perceptions of seismic risk. The first article developed a baseline of past and current seismic inventory in Libya, which represented an assessment of Libya seismic hazard by translating, analyzing, and compiling historical sources and archaeological data. This study shows that Libya has experienced earthquakes in varying degrees since ancient times. Through the spatial and temporal distribution of earthquakes ...

A Conceptual Agent-Based Model Of Farming Households’ Vulnerability To Winter Storms, Yiyi Zhang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Vulnerability assessments are implemented to identify regions and groups at risk and factors that need to be addressed to reduce vulnerability. Existing assessments have allowed multidimensional factors to be examined in various settings and adopted complex models to simulate human-environment-weather interactions. However, these models are far less accessible than traditional models due to model abstraction and there has been limited research detailing a formalized way to simulate the interactions between rural households and external changes in response to a specific extreme weather event. To supplement applied efforts in vulnerability assessments and address the challenge in communicating agent-based models, this study ...

Rfia: An R Package For Estimation Of Forest Attributes With The Us Forest Inventory And Analysis Database, Hunter Stanke, Andrew O. Finley, Aaron S. Weed, Brian F. Walters, Grant M. Domke

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) is a US Department of Agriculture Forest Service program that aims to monitor changes in forests across the US. FIA hosts one of the largest ecological datasets in the world, though its complexity limits access for many potential users. rFIA is an R package designed to simplify the estimation of forest attributes using data collected by the FIA Program. Specifically, rFIA improves access to the spatiotemporal estimation capacity of the FIA Database via space–time indexed summaries of forest variables within user-defined population boundaries (e.g., geographic, temporal, biophysical). The package implements multiple design-based estimators ...

How Globalization, Sustainability, And Human Impacts Are Affecting Two Major Mexican Cities: Mexico City And Guadalajara, Cristina Sedano

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Mexico is one of the richest countries in the world, not in terms of economic stability but in terms of natural resources, culture, and atmosphere. When people think of Mexico, they usually think of the high-tension relationship with the United States, their neighboring country to the North. Although there are many diverse historical and present-day characteristics of Mexico, most associate the county with the high levels of crime due to narco and cartels, the high levels of poverty in regional areas, and to some just a party destination. Unbeknownst to many is the thousands year old culture that is passed ...

Causes Of Variations In The Scale Of Tourism In Polish National Parks, Piotr Miazek

Tourism / Turyzm

National parks are among the most frequently visited tourist places in Poland. Every year, millions of tourists travel to spend time there and their number is constantly rising. National parks take nearly 30% of all domestic tourism. However, the number of people visiting individual national parks strongly varies. Some parks are visited by millions, others by only several thousand. The article is an attempt to indicate the main causes of the varying number of tourists visiting national parks. By analysing individual features of tourism in specific national parks, especially in those where the differences are most visible, the author attempts ...

Przyczyny Zróżnicowania Ruchu Turystycznego W Polskich Parkach Narodowych, Piotr Miazek

Tourism / Turyzm

Parki narodowe są jednymi z najczęściej odwiedzanych przez turystów miejsc w Polsce. Na ich obszarach koncentruje się blisko 30% krajowego ruchu turystycznego. Corocznie przybywają tam miliony turystów, a ich liczba stale rośnie. Jednakże frekwencja w poszczególnych parkach narodowych jest mocno zróżnicowana. Jedne parki są odwiedzane przez miliony osób, inne zaś – zaledwie przez kilkanaście tysięcy turystów. Artykuł stanowi próbę wskazania głównych przyczyn zróżnicowania liczby tu­rystów odwiedzających parki narodowe. Analizując poszczególne cechy ruchu turystycznego w konkretnych parkach narodowych, szczególnie w tych, w przypadku których różnice są najbardziej widoczne, autor starał się zidentyfikować czynniki wpływające na taki stan rzeczy.

Anchorite Sacred Caves In Serbia: Balancing Between Pilgrimage And Religious Tourism Development, Aleksandar Antić

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Serbia is a country with diverse karst terrain, full of various surface and underground karst formations. This terrain is one of the factors that influenced the development of cultures and civilizations in this area. Many archaeological findings indicate that prehistoric people found refuge, safety and peace in many caves in present-day Serbia. The natural environment has also influenced many spiritual endeavours, which have shaped cultural identities throughout history. In this study, Orthodox anchorite sacred caves in Serbia are explored, as well as their related pilgrimage activities and potential for religious tourism development. For the purpose of this research, three pilgrimage ...

What Does A "Just" Local Food System Look Like? Views From Worcester In A Changing Climate, Marguerite Cawley

Capstone Collection

Food and climate are closely intertwined, with the high-emissions U.S. industrial food system contributing to climate change, while a changing climate produces new food system vulnerabilities, which will particularly impact those of the least means. This research is premised on the need to transform our food system, and to define what this vision looks like at the local level, while centering questions of power, justice and rights. It explores how groups, organizations and individuals engaged in local food system change envision transformation and understand corresponding social justice concerns, in a changing climate. It looks at opportunities for food and ...

Development Of A Modified Floristic Quality Index As A Rapid Habitat Assessment Method In The Northern Everglades, Rebakah E. Gibble, Donatto D. Surratt

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Floristic quality assessments (FQA) using floristic quality indices (FQIs) are useful tools for assessing and comparing vegetation communities and related habitat condition. However, intensive vegetation surveys requiring significant time and technical expertise are necessary, which limits the use of FQIs in environmental monitoring programs. This study modified standard FQI methods to develop a rapid assessment method for characterizing and modeling change in wetland habitat condition in the northern Everglades. Method modifications include limiting vegetation surveys to a subset of taxa selected as indicators of impact and eliminating richness and/or abundance factors from the equation. These modifications reduce the amount ...

Rethinking Boundaries, Spaces, And Networks Between Geography And Military Science: Understanding And Actualizing Real-Time Integrated Command And Control For Joint Air Operations, Samuel Wright

Honors Theses

Imagine a military commander standing around a table with a three-dimensional hologram projected onto to it. The hologram is of an ongoing air war of which this general is in command. Friendly forces are portrayed in blue and enemy forces in red as the opposing forces movements and actions are tracked and continuously updated. The commander has god’s eye view of where his forces are positioned relative to the enemy’s forces. Because of this view, the commander is able to make effective decisions with quick synergistic efficiency to achieve his desired outcome: defeat of the enemy. This scene ...

The Invasion Of The Southern Pine Bark Beetle, Matthew Shaughnessy

Transformations: Presentation Slides

The Southern Pine Bark Beetle is a pest that is native to the south eastern United States. Historically the population has been held to southern parts of the nation due to the harsher cold weather in the north. During the last twenty years there has been an increase in average annual temperatures on the east coast. This has allowed the species to move northward and afflict unprotected softwoods at a high rate. The objective of this project was to observe the movement of the Southern Pine Bark Beetles between 2012 and a population estimate for 2027 made by the USDA ...

Of Moose And Men (And Moose-Men), Henry Cavanaugh

Montserrat Annual Writing Prize

The story of a family's annual tradition of moose tracking in northernmost New Hampshire.

A View From Above: Alternative Perspectives On Smallholder Livelihoods And Agrobiodiversity Conservation In Northern Ecuador, Chris Hair

Dissertations

Food security and deintensification of agriculture are serious concerns in Latin America. Agriculture, especially at small-scale subsistence levels, is hard work, and comes with some economic and physical risk. Transitions from traditional multi-cropping to mono-cropping systems introduce two particular risks that are new to most smallholders: (1) the loss of agricultural diversity and (2) the potential for widespread failure when focusing on the cultivation of a single crop. This research explores how Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), or drones, can be used for rapid inventories of crop diversity and to enhance crop management techniques on small-scale farms. In the community ...

The Belknap Campus And Metro Louisville Urban Heat Island Effect: Air And Ground Surface Temperature Analysis, Kenyetta Johnson

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

Numerous studies show that urban morphologies and land covers generate excess heat emissions and retain heat relative to surrounding rural areas, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Urban fabrics paved by concretes and asphalts absorbs solar radiation during solar peak then radiates heat after sundown. This study investigates temperature distribution data related to the UHI effect on the Belknap campus at the University of Louisville, which represents a small aerial sample of the Louisville metropolitan UHI effect. The objective of this study is to measure the reflectivity of ground surfaces and air temperatures on the Belknap campus during ...

I’M Afraid Of That Water: A Collaborative Ethnography Of A West Virginia Water Crisis, Luke E. Lassiter, Brian A. Hoey, Elizabeth Campbell

Brian A. Hoey, Ph.D.

Changing Geographies Of Flood Mitigation Policies: A Case Study Of Central, Louisiana, Ria Mukerji

LSU Master's Theses

In 2016, the Baton Rouge region experienced what would come to be record-setting precipitation levels. The 1,000 year rainfall event dumped almost triple the amount of water on Louisiana than was seen during Hurricane Katrina (some areas received over 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours), with rain persisting from August 12^th until the 17^th. Previously a part of Baton Rouge, Central is a relatively new development that expanded into the 100 year floodplain in 2005. This thesis will present the changing geographies of flood mitigation policies since a major flood in 1983 to the ...

Acoustically Advertising Male Harbour Seals In Southeast Alaska Do Not Make Biologically Relevant Acoustic Adjustments In The Presence Of Vessel Noise, Leanna P. Matthews, Michelle E.H. Fournet, Christine Gabriele, Holger Klinck, Susan E. Parks

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Aquatically breeding harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) males use underwater vocalizations during the breeding season to establish underwater territories, defend territories against intruder males, and possibly to attract females. Vessel noise overlaps in frequency with these vocalizations and could negatively impact breeding success by limiting communication space. In this study, we investigated whether harbour seals employed anti-masking strategies to maintain communication in the presence of vessel noise in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Harbour seals in this location did not sufficiently adjust source levels or acoustic parameters of vocalizations to compensate for acoustic masking. Instead, for every 1 dB ...

Carnivore Population Structure Across An Urbanization Gradient: A Regional Genetic Analysis Of Bobcats In Southern California, Julia G. Smith, Megan K. Jennings, Erin E. Boydston, Kevin R. Crooks, Holly B. Ernest, Seth Riley, Laurel E. K. Serleys, Shaelynn Sleater-Squires, Rebecca L. Lewison

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Context In human-dominated landscapes, habitat fragmentation and barriers to movement can interrupt gene flow. While often considered at a local extent, regional analyses are also needed to reveal broader landscape-mediated population processes.

Objectives To explore the relationship between patterns of gene flow and fragmentation resulting from urbanization across southern California, we used the bobcat as an indicator species. We assembled data for a landscape level genetic analysis across southern California from both archived and new samples, including two northern Californian populations for comparison, to identify local and regional areas affected by isolation.

Methods Our regional analyses focused on a dataset ...

Asynchronous Carbon Sink Saturation In African And Amazonian Tropical Forests, Wannes Hubau, Simon L. Lewis, Et. Al. Authors

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Structurally intact tropical forests sequestered about half of the global terrestrial carbon uptake over the 1990s and early 2000s, removing about 15 percent of 1–3 anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. Climate-driven vegetation models 4,5 typically predict that this tropical forest ‘carbon sink’ will continue for decades . Here we assess trends in the carbon sink using 244 structurally intact African tropical forests spanning 11 countries, compare them with 321 published plots from Amazonia and investigate the underlying drivers of the trends. The carbon sink in live aboveground biomass in intact African tropical forests has been stable for the three decades ...

Estimation Of Available Epinephrine Dose In Expired And Discolored Autoinjectors Via Quantitative Smartphone Imaging, Amirus Saleheen, Bill M. Campbell, Rebecca A. Prosser, Christopher A. Baker

U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers

Epinephrine autoinjectors (EAIs) are important first aid medications for treating anaphylaxis. A 10-fold price increase over the past 12 years and evidence that expired EAIs may still contain significant doses of available epinephrine have motivated interest in the efficacy of expired EAIs as treatments of last resort. Degradation of expired EAIs, which can be caused by improper storage conditions, results in various degrees of discoloration of the epinephrine solution. Previous studies have determined that significant epinephrine remains available in expired EAIs, but these have only considered EAIs that show no discoloration. Here, we investigate the potential for colorimetric estimation of ...