Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model For Classifying Marginal Cropland In Nebraska Using Historical Crop Yield And Biophysical Characteristics, Andrew Laws

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Marginal cropland is suboptimal due to historically low and variable productivity and limiting biophysical characteristics. To support future agricultural management and policy decisions in Nebraska, U.S.A, it is important to understand where cropland is marginal for its two most economically important crops: corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max). As corn and soybean are frequently planted in a crop rotation, it is important to consider if there is a relationship with cropland marginality. Based on the current literature, there exists a need for a flexible yet robust methodology for identifying marginal land at different scales, which …

Prescribed Burning And Land Functions In The Mixed-Land Use Management Of The Berea College Forest., Hinzee Smith

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

The Berea College Forest is the oldest privately managed forest in Kentucky. Spanning over 9,000 acres, the forest provides opportunities for hiking, timber production, carbon sequestration, education, and much more. The Berea College Forest is uniquely situated as it is mere miles from the town center of Berea and Berea College. This proximity to a concentrated population causes the management of the forest to be observed and experienced by the community members, where accessibility to trails, hosted events, and educational experiences extend the land functions of the managed forest to community members in more direct ways than other publicly managed …

The Plague And The Parthenon: Crusade, Climate Change And Disease In The Early Modern Mediterranean, John Mark Nicovich

Master's Theses

The present study examines the role epidemic diseases, specifically malaria and bubonic plague, played on the course of the Morean War (1684-1699). The Morean War was a major offensive by Christian powers, led by the Venetian Republic, against Ottoman controlled Greece. Christian victories during the war were widely celebrated across western Europe, but even in victory Christian forces took severe casualties from multiple disease outbreaks. First, this study seeks to explain the terrestrial and maritime networks the war was fought over, and how those networks either led the opposing forces into regions of endemic disease (malaria), or how they allowed …

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 …

The Demotechnic Index Of Nations, 1980-2018, Camden Rainwater

Geosciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Demotechnic Index (DI) is a non-dimensional metric that is the scalar multiple of energy consumption over and above that required for mere subsistence of a national population. Thus, the DI is a measure of energy efficiency that scales a country’s industrial energy consumption (called the total technological energy) and the energy required to meet the metabolic demand of the population (called the total metabolic energy). The DI was created by scientist John Vallentyne in 1982, refined in 1994, but never gained popularity or wide use as a sustainability metric. The objective of this thesis was to re-evaluate the DI …

Multi-Decadal Analysis Of Remotely Sensed Vegetation Change In Berea College Forest - Seasonality Of Forest Patterns Using Remote Sensing., Jacob Foushee

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Satellite imagery is a practical and valuable tool for monitoring vegetation condition in forests. The longevity of the USGS/NASA Landsat program along with its medium spatial resolution (30m) gives researchers the ability to make informed statements on land cover generally, and specifically on aspects such as forest conditions. The Landsat program’s nearly 50-year archive of imagery show how Earth’s surface has changed through modern development and how these developments have influenced forests. Google Earth Engine (GEE) is a cloud-based repository of satellite imagery dating as far back as the 1970s. This study utilizes Landsat 5-8 imagery from GEE to calculate …

Statistical And Spatial Analysis Of Hurricane-Induced Power Outage And Restoration, Dakotah Daniel Maguire

Masters Theses

Tropical cyclones (TC) cause billions of dollars in damage to coastal areas in the United States annually. Global climate change is increasing favorable environmental conditions for TCs which produce heavy flooding and precipitation. It is important to understand the communities that will be most affected, and will likely suffer the longest power outages. County-level power outage data from the Department of Energy’s Environment for Analysis of Geo-Located Energy Information (EAGLE-I) were used to analyze the relationships of environmental and socioeconomic variables on power outage trends, response, and recovery for power outages caused by two North Atlantic Basin hurricanes: Hurricane Florence …

Geese Management At The University Of Richmond, Virginia Mead

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Geese are a nuisance in all fifty states and particularly at the University of Richmond. For the most part, Canada Geese, Branta canadensis, have effectively stopped migrating which has led them to be a problem for the surrounding ecosystem (Handwerk, 2021). The university has taken some preliminary steps to discourage geese from inhabiting our campus, but none have proven to be effective in the long run. To answer the question of how to deter geese from hanging out on campus, I assessed various geese management practices with the intention that the university could potentially adopt one of the practices. Our …

Sharing Air: A Review And Application Of Effective Methods Of Communicating Temperature Data, Claire A. King

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

One’s residence should not determine an individual’s health or lifespan. Further, if the environment where someone lives is detrimental to one’s health, that information ought to be shared with him or her. Surface heat exposure poses dangers to human health, and surface temperature is influenced by surrounding environmental factors. Surface temperature and related environmental data should be shared with communities in formats that best meet local needs. It is a matter of environmental and health justice. On July 15, 2021, a team of citizen scientists united under the Virginia Heat Watch project to collect surface temperature data in ten localities …

Down The Drain: Stormwater Management Effects On The Quality Of The Westhampton Lake, Indya Woodfolk

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This paper examines incidents of illicit discharges on the University of Richmond campus as outlined by the City of Richmond's MS4 permit. Illicit discharges contaminate the Westhampton Lake by flowing from our storm drains directly into the Westhampton Lake. I detected incidents of illicit discharges by performing visual inspections as guided by numerous scholarly articles. The visual inspections were done with a special consideration of land use on campus. Along with the visual inspections, I inspected the storm drains during a dry weather event to find whether there was any flow during this period. In this study, I found several …

The Green Passport Program: Proposing A Study Abroad Program To Encourage Sustainable Behavior And Offset Emissions, Suraya Souidi

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The University of Richmond has a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and in order to do this, carbon offsets are likely a necessary component to implement in lieu of adequate technology to abate the usage of carbon from behaviors such as travel. The scope of this proposal focuses on the Office of International Education and study abroad travel, which accounts for a large amount of emissions in the University’s portfolio. The purpose of this study was to propose a program to the Office of International Education which oriented students towards sustainability while they engaged in a study abroad …

Testing The Waters: An Analysis Of Recent Nutrient Levels In Westhampton Lake And Their Implications For Water Quality Management, Taylor Coleman

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This investigation was undertaken to understand recent nutrient levels of Westhampton Lake and determine the implications of its water quality relative to the sustenance of aquatic life on campus at the University of Richmond. Nutrient data was obtained from the documentation of ongoing monthly sampling by a research team from Virginia Commonwealth University and consisted in the evaluation of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, chlorides, and the bacteria, Escherichia coli between November 20, 2018, and December 9, 2021. Analysis of each individual nutrient included the comparison of its minimum, maximum, and mean level relative to recommended criteria provided …

Red Wolf Reintroduction: Land Ownership And Protection Status Analysis, Anna Frisbie

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Red wolves (Canis rufus) are critically endangered, and currently the only wild population exists in northeast NC (“Red Wolf,” FWS, n.d.). Here, I use geospatial analysis to investigate the potential for another wild population to establish in the Delmarva Peninsula. I consider land ownership and protection status because these factors influence local public support (Nie, 2001; Naughton-Treves et al., 2003; Berger-Tal et al., 2020), as well as reintroduction success (Carroll et al., 2003; Wolf & Ripple, 2018). I compare the ownership and protection status of land in the Delmarva Peninsula to that in the Albemarle Peninsula, where the red wolf …

Unfair: Investigating The Links Between Richmond’S Air Quality Issues And Environmental Racism, Charles Miller

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

With breathable air being a resource inequitably distributed among populations based on race and socioeconomic status, this study’s objective was to analyze heat and air quality distributions in Richmond, Virginia and provide recommendations for minimizing its effects throughout the city. Richmond provided an ideal subject for this analysis as it has a lengthy history of racial segregation and discrimination and is one of the worst ranking cities for Asthma sufferers. Background was given on environmental racism as a means of systemic disproportionate pollution distribution to minorities, urban air pollution( via Fine Particulate Matter/PM 2.5) and the historical housing segregation process …

Tropical Cyclone Translation Speeds In The Northern Atlantic Ocean, Marybeth Melcher

Honors Theses

Over the past 40 years, tropical cyclones have caused over $1,076.9B in damage in the United States. The fatalities from tropical cyclones are just as devastating. Hurricane Katrina of 2005 caused over 1,800 deaths; Harvey in 2017 just under 90 deaths; Ike of 2018 took 112 deaths; and horrifically, Maria of 2017 claimed nearly 3,000 lives. The destruction that tropical cyclones have caused is astronomical, and a factor of tropical cyclones that is responsible for this level of destruction is their translation speeds. Tropical cyclone translation speed (TCTS) is the speed at which a hurricane is moving--the duration of time …

Invasive Plant Management At Huguenot Flatwater, Antonia Kempe

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Invasive plants have become a wicked problem of the 21st century. Brought to areas outside of their native range by humans, they cause ecological and economic harm by disrupting ecosystem dynamics that in turn affect humans. Management methods include mechanical, chemical, and biological treatments, but each of these have their own advantages and limitations, which further adds to the complexities of invasive plant management. Units of the James River Park System in Richmond, Virginia are plagued by invasive plants, which are managed by the Invasive Plant Task Force. One of these units, Huguenot Flatwater, is overrun by invasive plants but …

Economics Of Red Wolf Reintroduction, Logan West

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

In any animal reintroduction, one main component that is heavily evaluated is the economics of the reintroduction process of introducing an endangered animal to a specific area. Red wolves in specific, have a strong economic correlation between ecotourism and economics, as red wolves are an almost extinct species. In this analysis, I examined the economics of ecotourism as a benefit for red wolf reintroduction into the Delmarva. Additionally, I further examined how ecosystem services are an additional benefit to the economics in Delmarva. I used two case studies in my analysis to determine if the Delmarva Peninsula would enhance economically …

Social Vulnerability, Diabetes, And Obesity In Georgia, Danny Jang

Symposium of Student Scholars

This project examines factors of health geography and population geography by examining the spatial correlation between diabetes and obesity prevalence among the population of Georgia. Diabetes and obesity are closely linked together, however, they are still far apart in various aspects which can be from personal to environmental impacts like geographical locations. This research attempts to investigate diabetes and obesity prevalence by examining the SVI of given counties of a state. This project uses data from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Opendata (which can be found on ESRI). Future studies can examine these health factors …

Feasibility Of Introduced Species Into The Westhampton Lake For Pollution Control, Kathryn Grage

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Westhampton Lake, located at the University of Richmond in Virginia is a man made lake that feeds into the James river. The lake itself suffers from pollution and above average nutrient loads from external sources. There have been efforts to try to reduce some pollution from the lake but this research proposes and explores the viability of introducing species into the lake for the same purpose. Two types of animals proposed for introduction into the lake are common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Sterilized common carp are proposed as a short term solution to removal of invasive …

Short-Term 2d And 3d Geomorphic Change Detection At A Public Park On Lake Michigan Using Uas Remote Sensing Techniques, Scott Patrick Fitzgerald

Masters Theses

The high-water level of Lake Michigan (LM) in the past few years has led to significant periods of erosion and increased the risk to private property owners on the coast. To cope with this, many property owners on the coast of LM have constructed coastal protections, some opting for seawalls. Previous studies have assessed the effects of seawalls but disagreed on their impacts, and only laboratory studies were able to establish their range of influence. Using a different method to study their effects will be pertinent to understanding them.

This research aims to use a higher temporal and spatial resolution …