Digital Commons Network^™

Disaster Site Structure Analysis: Examining Effective Remote Sensing Techniques In Blue Tarpaulin Inspection, Madeline G. Miles

Theses

This thesis aimed to evaluate three methods of analyzing blue roofing tarpaulin (tarp) placed on homes in post natural disaster zones with remote sensing techniques by assessing the different methods- image segmentation, machine learning (ML), and supervised classification. One can determine which is the most efficient and accurate way of detecting blue tarps. The concept here was that using the most efficient and accurate way to locate blue tarps can aid federal, state, and local emergency management (EM) operations and homeowners. In the wake of a natural disaster such as a tornado, hurricane, thunderstorm, or similar weather events, roofs are …

A Mixed Methods Case Study: Effects Of Instructors’ Beliefs On Incorporation Of Sustainability Curriculum At A Midwestern University, Anna Oetting

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

The degree to which sustainability is taught is often varied and inconsistent across colleges, departments, and higher education institutions. However, educating students and future generations regarding the different pillars of sustainability, including economic, social, and environmental topics, is increasing in importance and urgency. A mixed methods case study utilized surveys and interviews to investigate why instructors incorporate sustainability, what impacts course incorporation of sustainability, and barriers that instructors face. This study found that instructors’ beliefs regarding the importance of sustainability relate to the extent to which sustainability is incorporated into their curriculum. Topics of sustainability incorporated into a class are …

Safe Water For All: A Multi-Modal Approach To North Alabama's Water Resources, Elijah Walker

Theses

Environmental degradation is a destructive force produced by the human disturbance of pollution. It is a phenomenon that gradually evolves landscapes over time resulting in irreversible outcomes. Environmental degradation physically affects spaces’ resources, objects, and inhabiting humans. This study observes the impacts of pollution beyond physical boundaries and how it affects human identity/sense of place through the utilization of geographic information systems. Specifically, it examines cultural identity developed through human experiences and connections to landscapes containing water resources. Following, pollution contaminates water resources disrupting experiences and connections thus causing the cultural identity to disappear. The case study applied to this …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, March & April 2022, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 3, Issue 3

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2-3 Awards and Recognition
Page 4 2022 URSCAD - CNS Snaps
Page 5 Geography Convention Recap
Page 6 Attention Students!
Page 7-8 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 9 Spring Break Outreach, Adopt the Pantry,
Page 10 Discovery on Tap Event
Page 11 CNS Students Visit State Capital
Page 12 Celebrating 50 Years of Sally
Page 13 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 14 Grants Awarded and Bio-Micro Day of Scholars
Page 15 -17 2022 Geography Convention Snaps
Page 18 Sally Krueger's 50th Work Anniversary

The Impact Of Framing On Natural Gas Pipeline Siting In Virginia, Ritvik Shukla

Theses and Dissertations

Natural gas has become a major share of energy consumption in the U.S. over the past two decades. This rise has resulted in considerable investment in the natural gas pipeline network so that the supply can be maximized. However, pipeline infrastructures, much like other fossil fuel energy infrastructures and activities, have an uneven distribution of benefits and costs across different regions. In regions where natural gas activities and infrastructure are being developed, local communities can become increasingly dependent on natural gas systems for stable revenue and employment. Such communities risk becoming “locked in” to carbon energy at a time when …

Characterization Of Particulate Matter Species In An Area Impacted By Aggregate And Limestone Mining North Of San Antonio, Tx, Usa, Amit U. Raysoni, Esmeralda Mendez, August Luna, Joe Collins

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Aggregate and limestone mining in San Antonio's Bexar and Comal counties in Texas, USA, has caused considerable health concerns as of late. Aggregate mining actions can result in localized air quality issues in any neighborhood. Furthermore, heavy truck traffic, hauling, and transportation of the mined material contribute to pollution. In this research, PM species were sampled at four locations north of the San Antonio city limits. The data were collected using a TSI Air Quality Sampler that sampled PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM10, wind speed, wind direction, temperature, and relative humidity. Continuous data with 1 min averages were recorded during the …

Suitability Of Flood Hazard Assessment Methods For Tanzania: A Case Of Little Ruaha And Upper Ngerengere Catchment, Kashimbi J. Kihara, Patrick Valimba, Joel Nobert

Tanzania Journal of Science

Understanding the applicability of flood quantile estimation methods in flood hazard assessment is fundamental for planning, prevention, and management of flood risks. Therefore, this study evaluates and compares three hydrological methods, namely Hydrologiska Byråns Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV), Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number (SCS-CN), and regional regression equation (RRE), to estimate flood quantiles embedded in the existing flood damage assessment framework by applying them to two different river catchments, Little Ruaha (LR) and Upper Ngerengere (UN), Tanzania. The evaluation of method performance was carried out using three standard statistical measures for data from 1954 to 2010 and the 1971–1988 period in LR and …

Geology Online Lab Activities An Open Educational Resource For Community College Students And Instructors, Rondi Davies

Open Educational Resources

The online geology lab for community college students was developed by Dr. Rondi Davies, a faculty member at Queensborough Community College, City University New York, during two years of forced online synchronous learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This open educational resource collects many of Dr. Davies’ favorite open-access materials and supplements them with her own work within a single, cohesive laboratory manual intended for two-year, non-major college students from the New York area.

Dr. Davies wanted to develop labs that were fun, engaging, and that excited students about the subject, were relevant to their lives, helped them to …

Accumulation Model And Exploration And Development Suggestions Of Coal Measure Gas Hydrates In Sanlutian Area Of Muli Coalfield, Qinghai Province, Cao Daiyong, Qin Rongfang, Wang Anmin, Chen Limin, Li Jing, Wei Yingchun

Coal Geology & Exploration

The Natural Gas Hydrate(NGH) is known as the most promising strategic resource in the 21st century because of its huge energy density, convenient use, high combustion value, and cleanness, and it is an alternative energy source with huge potential for conventional oil and gas resources. The occurrence of the NGH in the Sanlutian area of Muli Coalfield in Qinghai Province is the result of the interaction between the abundant gas sources and the hydrate stability zone in cold highland areas. The NGH in coal-bearing strata is defined as the coal measure gas hydrate, belonging to unconventional coal measure gases. To …

Thoughts And Suggestions On Development Of Earth Sciences In China, Lihua Zhou, Xin Wang, Chengxiong Zhou, Quanyou Liu, Jianhua Si, Wang Zhang, Zhijun Jin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Earth Sciences is a multi-disciplinary science, which takes the interaction of Earth's various spheres and their resources and environmental effects as the research object. As a comprehensive and systematic science that not only expands the frontier of human knowledge but also serves the social and economic development of human beings, Earth Sciences not only studies the past and reveals the evolution history of the Earth, but also faces the future and provides solutions for the sustainable development of human beings. Based on the analysis of the international development trends of Earth Sciences and the summary of the development status and …

Flood Depth Estimation During Hurricane Harvey Using Sentinel-1 And Uavsar Data, Sananda Kundu, Venkat Lakshmi, Raymond Torres

Faculty Publications

In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey was one of the most destructive storms to make landfall in the Houston area, causing loss of life and property. Temporal and spatial changes in the depth of floodwater and the extent of inundation form an essential part of flood studies. This work estimates the flood extent and depth from LiDAR DEM (light detection and ranging digital elevation model) using data from the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)–Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) and satellite sensor—Sentinel-1. The flood extent showed a decrease between 29–30 August and 5 September 2017. The flood depths estimated using the …

Sustainable Management Of Rangelands: An Assessment Of Invasion Cover Trajectories And Their Contribution To Invasion Management In Marigat Sub-County, Kenya, Beatrice Adoyo, Albrecht Ehrensperger, Mikalitsa S. Mukhovi, Boniface Kiteme, Purity Mbaabu Rima, Sandra Eckert, Simon Choge, Urs Schaffner

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Invasive alien species have complex spatiotemporal patterns of spread beyond geographical and jurisdictional boundaries. This calls for a coordinated management approach that is spatially explicit, extends beyond individual plot levels, and incorporates land users’ perceptions and decisions. This study, therefore, aims at assessing spatiotemporal invasion trajectories of the invasive tree Prosopis juliflora in Baringo County, Kenya, and evaluating their possible relation to land users’ management decisions. Pre-classified land cover data over a seven-year time period (1988–2016) were reclassified based on the presence or absence of P. juliflora and integrated into ArcGIS to produce P. juliflora cover trajectories for analysis. The …

Accuracy Assessment, Comparative Performance, And Enhancement Of Public Domain Digital Elevation Models (Aster 30 M, Srtm 30 M, Cartosat 30 M, Srtm 90 M, Merit 90 M, And Tandem-X 90 M) Using Dgps, Kumari Preety, Anup K. Prasad, Atul K. Varma, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Publicly available Digital Elevation Models (DEM) derived from various space-based platforms (Satellite/Space Shuttle Endeavour) have had a tremendous impact on the quantification of landscape characteristics, and the related processes and products. The accuracy of elevation data from six major public domain satellite-derived Digital Elevation Models (a 30 m grid size—ASTER GDEM version 3 (Ast30), SRTM version 3 (Srt30), CartoDEM version V3R1 (Crt30)—and 90 m grid size—SRTM version 4.1 (Srt90), MERIT (MRT90), and TanDEM-X (TDX90)), as well as the improvement in accuracy achieved by applying a correction (linear fit) using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) estimates at Ground Control Points (GCPs) …

Soil Chemistry And Clay Mineralogy Of An Alluvial Chronosequence From The North Carolina Sandhills Of The Upper Coastal Plain, Usa, Bradley E. Suther, David S. Leigh, Larry T. West

Faculty Articles

Temporal changes in soil development were assessed on fluvial terraces of the Little River in the upper Coastal Plain of North Carolina. We examined five profiles from each of six surfaces spanning about 100,000 years. Soil-age relationships were evaluated with inter-surface clay mineral comparisons and regression of chemical properties versus previously reported optically-stimulated luminescence ages using the most developed subsoil horizon per profile. Bases to alumina (Bases/Al2 O3 ) ratios have negative correlations with age, whereas dithionite-Fe (FeD ) concentrations are positively correlated with time and differentiate floodplain (BP) from terrace (≥10 ± 2 ka) soils and T4 pedons (75 …

Contrasting Styles Of Inter-Caldera Volcanism In A Peralkaline System: Case Studies From Pantelleria (Sicily Channel, Italy), Pierangelo Romano, John C. White, Silvio G. Rotolo, Nina J. Jordan, Rosolino Cirrincione, Giovanni De Giorgio, Patrizia Fiannacca, Epifanio Vaccaro

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The recent (<190 ka) volcanic history of Pantelleria is characterized by the eruption of nine peralkaline ignimbrites, ranging in composition from comenditic trachyte to comendite to pantellerite. The ~46 ka Green Tuff (GT) was the last of these ignimbrites, which was followed by many effusive and explosive low-volume eruptions of pantellerite from vents within the caldera moat and along the caldera rim. Although recent studies have shed additional light on the age, petrochemistry, and volcanology of the older ignimbrites, there is very little knowledge of magmatism that occurred between these older ignimbrites, primarily due to the very scarce exposures. In this paper, we present new field descriptions and geochemical data for three local peralkaline centers never studied before, two pre-GT and one post-GT, which share a similar setting with respect to the caldera scarps but differ in terms of their age, composition, and eruptive style. These centers include: (i) the older (~125 ka) Giache center (comenditic trachyte), (ii) the ~67 ka Attalora center (comendite, pantellerite), and (iii) the younger (~14 ka) Patite center (pantellerite).

Comparative Assessment Of Pollutant Concentrations And Meteorological Parameters From Tceq Cams Sites At Houston And Rio Grande Valley Regions Of Texas, Usa In 2016, Esmeralda Mendez, Jonathan Rodriguez, August Luna, Amit U. Raysoni

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in pollutant concentrations exists at the intra-urban level. In this research work, the concentrations of various pollutants and meteorological parameters are characterized between various central ambient monitoring sites at Houston, TX, and the Rio Grande Valley Regions of South Texas. Meteorological (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction) and pollutant (O3, SO2, CO, NO2, and various PM species) concentrations were downloaded from the appropriate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Central Ambient Monitoring Station (CAMS) sites for the year 2016. Correlation Analyses and Coefficient of Divergence (COD) analyses suggest that statistically significant differences occur between the …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Large Wildfires On The Hydrology Of Three Small Catchments In Central Chile Using Tritium-Based Measurements And Hydrological Metrics, Francisco Balocchi, Diego Rivera, José Luis Arumi, Uwe Morgenstern, Donald A. White, Richard P. Silberstein, Pablo Ramírez De Arellano

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Wildfires are an important disturbance affecting catchments’ soil and hydrological processes within. Wildfires are predicted to increase in both frequency and severity under climate change. Here, we present measurements of tritium (3H) in surface water of three streams before and after the ‘las Máquinas’ megafire of January 2017 in central Chile and streamflow metrics. Mean transit times (MTTs) of water were calculated in three coastal catchments with the Mediterranean climate type, covered by native forest, a mixture of native forest and Pinus radiata D. Don, and P. radiata. Lumped parameter models (LPMs) were used to obtain MTTs. Tritium activities from …

Hydrologic Profiles And Geospatial Trend Analysis Evaluating Recurrent Flooding At Coastal U.S. Air Force Installations, Dylan D. Bechen

Theses and Dissertations

Military installations are exposed to numerous threats, including a changing climate and the risk of recurrent flooding. The four components of recurrent flooding are sea-level rise, tidal fluctuations, storm surges, and precipitation. This research analyzed 40 years of historical precipitation and tidal data at 17 coastal U.S. Air Force installations using indicators of both peak and threshold exceedances to identify long-term temporal trends in the hydrologic components that make up recurrent flood risk, establishing an installation’s “hydrologic profile” which can be used to better inform decision makers when evaluating portfolio-wide adaptation strategies and prioritization of long-term infrastructure investments.

Pastoralist Conservation: Local Ecological Knowledge And Collective Action For Grassland Conservation In Sierra De Segura (Spain), P. Sanosa-Cols, F. Ravera, F. Dominguez, M. Ventura

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Even if Pastoralism is not practised anymore by a majority of families in the Sierra de Segura (south-eastern Andalusia, Spain), it is still considered a paradigmatic way of life and management of its highlands and a key cultural heritage deeply rooted in local identity. In this article we explore two pastoral communities of this region, Santiago and Pontones, with their body of situated knowledge of the territory and natural resources, which helps pastoralists to organize their livelihoods, while requiring collective organization to manage access to grasslands. Through an ethnographic research based on participant observation and in-depth interviews, we explore the …

Endangered Sustainable Innovation: Indigenous Milk Hygiene And Preservation Techniques By Maasai Too Valuable To Lose, J. Y. Laffa, C. R. Mcculloch, D. Schoder

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The indigenous Parakuyo Maasai communities of Tanzania are traditional pastoralists who depend on fresh cow’s milk as a staple food. However, the arid climate and a lack of clean water challenge milk production and conventional milk hygiene practices.

By conducting informational interviews in eight Parakuyo Maasai regions and 13 districts of Tanzania we sought to identify the key indigenous plants preferred and establish their traditional manner of use. A semi-structured questionnaire was designed to: (i) determine the plants used, (ii) the parts used, (iii) methods of preparation and utensil smoking, (iv) therapeutic applications and associated health benefits of these plants, …

Comparative Analysis Of Cbrm Cases In Kenya, Ethiopia And Tunisia, I. N. Nganga, L. W. Robinson, B. Eba, F. Flintan, E. M. Ontiri, M. Sghaier, N. H. Abdu, S. S. Moiko

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In various countries, development and conservation organizations and national policymakers have been experimenting with ways of applying the community-based natural resource management approach to the unique social and biophysical characteristics of pastoralist rangeland settings, with mixed results. We carried out comparative case study research on community-based rangeland management (CBRM) in a variety of settings in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tunisia with the objective of identifying what kinds of strategies and methods work in which social and ecological contexts. We used an “options by context” approach guided by a research protocol that includes key variables and descriptors for characterizing the implementing organization’s …

An Analysis Of Community-Based Values Informing Land Management On The Midwestern Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Of Kansas, Usa, Heidi Mehl, Diana L. Restrepo-Osorio, Melinda Howard, Cynthia Annett

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The focus of this study is to examine the interface between land management practices and values within a tribal community in rural midwestern North America. The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN) reside on a tribal reservation with a checkerboard distribution amongst private, non-tribal landowners. Previous studies have indicated that landowners may have different value-systems leading to variations in land-management practices. This can impose discontinuous land management in areas within shared biological boundaries, such as watersheds, especially between tribal and non-tribal entities. Preliminary spatial analysis in and around the PBPN landscape determined that the tribally-managed lands present more vegetative cover per …

Making The Case For Rangelands To Become The Poster Child Of The Sdgs: How Rangelands Provide Fertile Ground For An Interconnected Approach To The Three Pillars Of Sustainable Development, B. Jones

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 ambitious goals set by global leaders to transform the world by 2030 and create a sustainable future for all. They are founded on the three pillars of sustainable development – environmental, economic and social sustainability, or as they are more colloquially known, “people, planet and profit”. Creating a better world requires an integrated approach that simultaneously improves livelihoods and reduces inequalities whilst dramatically reducing environmental damage.

This paper argues that rangelands are an ideal arena for showcasing the SDGs because they are, by their very nature, interconnected landscapes in which …

Landslide Detection In The Himalayas Using Machine Learning Algorithms And U-Net, Sansar Raj Meena, Lucas Pedrosa Soares, Carlos H. Grohmann, Cees Van Westen, Kushanav Bhuyan, Ramesh P. Singh, Mario Floris, Filippo Catani

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Event-based landslide inventories are essential sources to broaden our understanding of the causal relationship between triggering events and the occurring landslides. Moreover, detailed inventories are crucial for the succeeding phases of landslide risk studies like susceptibility and hazard assessment. The openly available inventories differ in the quality and completeness levels. Event-based landslide inventories are created based on manual interpretation, and there can be significant differences in the mapping preferences among interpreters. To address this issue, we used two different datasets to analyze the potential of U-Net and machine learning approaches for automated landslide detection in the Himalayas. Dataset-1 is composed …

Teaching The “Wicked” In Geography: Educational Structure, Standards, And Teacher Training As Obstacles To Teaching About Climate Change, Jerry T. Mitchell

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Black Carbon And Organic Carbon Dataset Over The Third Pole, Shichang Kang, Yulan Zhang, Pengfei Chen, Junming Guo, Qianggong Zhang, Zhiyuan Cong, Susan Kaspari, Lekhendra Tripathee, Tanguang Gao, Hewen Niu, Xinyue Zhong, Xintong Chen, Zhaofu Hu, Xiaofei Li, Yang Li, Bigyan Neupane, Fangping Yan, Dipesh Rupakheti, Chaman Gul, Wei Zhang, Guangming Wu, Ling Yang, Zhaoqing Wang, Chaoliu Li

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

The Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings, also known as the Third Pole, play an important role in the global and regional climate and hydrological cycle. Carbonaceous aerosols (CAs), including black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC), can directly or indirectly absorb and scatter solar radiation and change the energy balance on the Earth. CAs, along with the other atmospheric pollutants (e.g., mercury), can be frequently transported over long distances into the inland Tibetan Plateau. During the last decades, a coordinated monitoring network and research program named “Atmospheric Pollution and Cryospheric Changes” (APCC) has been gradually set up and continuously operated …

Land-Surface Parameters For Spatial Predictive Mapping And Modeling, Aaron E. Maxwell, Charles Shobe

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Land-surface parameters derived from digital land surface models (DLSMs) (for example, slope, surface curvature, topographic position, topographic roughness, aspect, heat load index, and topographic moisture index) can serve as key predictor variables in a wide variety of mapping and modeling tasks relating to geomorphic processes, landform delineation, ecological and habitat characterization, and geohazard, soil, wetland, and general thematic mapping and modeling. However, selecting features from the large number of potential derivatives that may be predictive for a specific feature or process can be complicated, and existing literature may offer contradictory or incomplete guidance. The availability of multiple data sources and …

The World As We Know It: Maps And Atlases From Special Collections, Archives And Special Collections, Luke Meagher

Library Exhibits

Selections of maps and atlases from Sandor Teszler Library’s Special Collections are presented in this exhibit to show how, over time, cartographers have represented the world as we know it.

Charcoal Value Chain As A Complimentary Livelihood Activity For Pastoralists In The Rangelands, S. Teyie, Oliver Vivian Wasonga, C. Bergmann, M. Petersen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Global charcoal production has more than tripled over the past 50 years from 17.3 million tons in 1964 to 53.1 million tons in 2014. 61% of the present global charcoal production occurs in Africa, mostly to satisfy demand for cooking fuel from urban and peri-urban households. Despite the adverse environmental impacts associated with charcoal production, a significant global population relies on it for energy needs, while many producers depend on it as a livelihood source. Whereas this calls for efforts to promote sustainable charcoal production practices, this has to be informed by in-depth understanding of the charcoal value chain to …

Reykjanes Mantle Convection And Climate: Crustal Objectives, Ross E. Parnell-Turner, Anne R. Briais, Leah J. Levay, Ying Cui, Anita Di Chiara, Justin P. Dodd, Deborah E. Eason, Sarah A. Friedman, Katharina E. Hochmuth, Boris T. Karatsolis, Danielle E. Leblanc, Melody R. Lindsay, David D. Mcnamara, Sevasti E. Modestou, Bramley Murton, Suzanne B. O’Connell, Gabriel T. Pasquet, Paul N. Pearson, Sheng Ping Qian, Yair Rosenthal, Sara Satolli, Jose M. Cuevas, Jamie L. Shamrock, Takuma Suzuki, Saalim M. Syed, Nicholas J. White, Alexandra Yang Yang

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The five primary sites proposed for International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 395, which was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, were cored during IODP Expedition 395C. The Expedition 395C operations, shipboard measurements, and sampling were adjusted to account for the absence of a sailing science party. The Expedition 395/395C objectives are (1) to investigate temporal variations in ocean crust generation at the Reykjanes Ridge and test hypotheses for the influence of Iceland mantle plume fluctuations on these processes, (2) to analyze sedimentation rates at the Björn and Gardar contourite drifts, as proxies for Cenozoic variations of North Atlantic deepwater …