Digital Commons Network^™

Water Supply Planning In Virginia: The Future Of Groundwater And Surface Water, Jonathon Lubrano, Jeffrey Moore

Virginia Coastal Policy Center

This paper begins by exploring the current state of water resources planning and permitting. Then, considers current water demand in Virginia, as well as future challenges. Next is an examination of management structures from other states and a discussion of potential solutions to the water scarcity issue, including wastewater purification, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District’s (HRSD) Sustainable Water Initiative For Tomorrow (SWIFT) project, and desalination. The paper concludes with various next steps and policy recommendations that the Commonwealth should consider as dwindling water resources could hamper economic growth and threaten drought conditions, such as regional planning to achieve the optimal …

Experiences And Practices Of Environmental Adult Education Participants, Cindy Fitzwilliams-Heck

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Awareness of the sustainability of our natural resources is a continuing concern. Initiatives promoting environmental adult education (EAE) through professional development (PD) workshops ensure educators' have the knowledge and skills to inform their audience about environmental literacy and stewardship. However, these workshops have rarely been monitored. Specifically, it appears no researchers have focused on the reflective experiences of an EAE PD workshop on educator participants at least 5 years after participation. This basic qualitative study used telephone interviews of 8 past participants to explore whether and how they perceive their behavior changing in relation to natural resources conservation years after …

Environmental Injustice And Racial/Ethnic Heterogeneity In Houston, Texas, Michel G. Loustaunau Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis seeks to contribute to distributive environmental justice (EJ) research by analyzing racial/ethnic and intra-ethnic disparities in potential health risks from exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas. Previous EJ research in this urban area has not examined intra-ethnic heterogeneity in exposure to air pollutants or attempted to compare social disparities in exposure to air pollution caused by vehicular (mobile) and point (stationary) sources. The goal of this study is to determine how the EJ implications of cancer risks from inhalation exposure to HAPs from mobile and stationary sources differ across …

Public Participation During Reactive, Crisis-Driven Drought Planning Versus Proactive, Preparedness Planning, C. Anna Ulaszewski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Droughts are occurring globally and should be recognized as a global issue and drought planning should use a proactive approach on the part of the world community. However, much drought planning, even in developed and highly developed countries, is reactive and programs are often poorly coordinated sometimes with unforeseen negative consequences for marginalized and disenfranchised populations. Literature pertaining to planning strategy for existing, drought crises is nominal and often contributes to patterns of reactiveness and resulting inequity. To gain a better understanding of crisis-driven planning and the participatory process, this gap was viewed through the lenses of institutional analysis and …

Mchm (4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol) Influences The Predator-Prey Interaction Between Danio Rerio And Daphnia Magna, Anna C. Wagner

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Chemical contamination alters organism-level traits, such as activity and feeding, that can ultimately affect aquatic trophic interactions. Despite the importance of predator-prey relationships in aquatic communities, chemical toxicity is often tested on single species prior to use. For example, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) used in industrial coal-cleaning enters the environment regularly from low-level contamination during disposal and occasionally in high concentrations following accidental spills, but its effects on fish-zooplankton interactions remain unknown. It was hypothesized MCHM exposure affects zebrafish and D. magna swimming behavior differently when exposed individually or together, and ultimately affects their relationship. Zebrafish and D. magna were exposed …

Megaloads And Mobilization: The Rural People Of Idaho Stand Against Big Oil, Corrie Grosse

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

From 2011 to 2014 fossil fuel corporations trucked tar sands processing machinery along rural Idaho highways. The machinery was bound for the world's largest deposits of tar or oil sands, a heavy crude oil substance called bitumen, located in the western Canadian province of Alberta. These loads of machinery, what became known as megaloads, encountered much resistance. Throughout Idaho and the surrounding region, a network organized opposition. Neighbors, grassroots organizations, nonprofits, and the Nez Perce and other tribes all collaborated. They held information sessions, protested, waged legal battles, monitored the loads, and blockaded highways. What oil companies hoped would be …

Hazmat Storage Near Nyc Waterways Endangers Communities, Brett E. Dahlberg, Nicole Acevedo

Capstones

New York City has 520 miles of shoreline--that’s more than Miami and Los Angeles combined. These waterfronts are home to some of the city’s most polluted sites because major part of it is zoned for industrial use. Dozens of industrial plants in this area store toxic chemicals in flood zones: substances that are hazardous to our health, like Benzene, which is used in rocket fuel, toluene, a paint thinner, and lead a neurotoxin. In a flood, these chemicals can easily get caught up in moving waters and pollute entire neighborhoods.

That’s exactly what happened when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. …

The Firece Green Fire: Vol. 8 Issue 11, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Water, Lead, And Environmental Justice: Easing The Flint Water Crisis With A Public Water Contamination Liability Fund, Jonathon Lubrano

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Accessing Blue Spaces: Social And Geographic Factors Structuring Familiarity With, Use Of, And Appreciation Of Urban Waterways, Melissa Haeffner, Douglas Jackson-Smith, Martin Buchert, Jordan Risley

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Are urban waterways amenities, and if so, are there inequities in household access? While urban waterways represent a potential site for access to nature within the urban environment, there have been few studies on the accessibility and interactions with water features in particular, what we refer to as “blue spaces." This study drew on a sample of households in Northern Utah living in neighborhoods with a nearby river or canal to ask if local waterways provide positive impacts to households and if proximity to them increased the likelihood of households spending time at them and being familiar with them. We …

The Firece Green Fire: Vol. 8 Issue 7, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

The Firece Green Fire: Vol. 8 Issue 6, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Urban Foraging: A Ubiquitous Human Practice Overlooked By Urban Planners, Policy, And Research, Charlie M. Shackleton, Patrick T. Hurley, Annika C. Dahlberg, Marla R. Emery, Harini Nagendra

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Although hardly noticed or formally recognized, urban foraging by humans probably occurs in all urban settings around the world. We draw from research in India, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States to demonstrate the ubiquity and varied nature of urban foraging in different contexts. Across these different contexts, we distill seven themes that characterize and thereby advance thinking about research and the understanding of urban foraging. We show that it is widespread and occurs across a variety of urban spaces and places. The species used and the local practices vary between contexts, and are in constant flux as urban …

Getches-Wilkinson Center Newsletter, Fall 2017, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment Newsletter (2013-)

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Young Environmental Activists In Iceland And Furthering Youth Engagement With Environmental Issues, Story Schwantes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper looks at the role of youth environmental activism in Iceland and how these actors view their work in a country which has long held a reputation as one of the greenest in the world. Much of the credit for that distinction goes not to careful choices, sacrifice, or excellent stewardship but rather to its ideal geography providing massive geothermal energy which Iceland turns into electricity, a clean renewable source. So are there young environmental activists in Iceland, and if so what do they do? Short answer: yes, and they study and talk. The long answer is more complex. …

The Firece Green Fire: Vol. 8 Issue 3, Wofford College Environmental Studies Program

The Fierce Green Fire

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Distribution Of Environmental Stewardship Organizations And Their Relationship To The Demographics Of Los Angeles County, Krystle M. Golly

LMU Theses and Dissertations

An equal distribution of environmental stewardship organizations across the urban landscape provides an environment that facilitates community empowerment. The systemic issues found in Los Angeles County play an important role in the social development of the area. Through the utilization of modern technology and geographical mapping software, spatial distribution of environmental stewardship organizations provided an understanding of social conditions within Los Angeles County. Environmental stewardship organizations provide the capability for communities to be more engaged in helping to eliminate environmental injustice. The comparison of minority populations at the census tract-level emphasizes the importance of connecting environmental stewardship organizations with their …

For Many In Puerto Rico, ‘Energy Dominance’ Is Just A Newname For Us Colonialism, Catalina M. De Onis

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

The Trump administration has made “achieving American energy dominance” a central policy goal. President Trump asserts that “energy dominance” requires expanding nuclear development, increasing coal and natural gas exports, building transnational pipelines and accessing offshore oil and gas deposits. These efforts, Trump contends, will maximize the nation’s “boundless capacity” for energy production, including spreading U.S. fossil fuels around the globe, to showcase its independence from foreign oil.

The Mobile Monitoring Of Particulate Matter Through Wearable Sensors And Their Influence On Students' Environmental Attitudes, Joseph M. Abbate

DePaul Discoveries

While we have a comprehensive understanding of air pollutants, and their spatiotemporal characteristics across global, and even regional, scales, we are quite limited in our capacity to monitor neighborhood-scale emissions. The mobile monitoring of air pollution is a growing field, prospectively filling in these gaps while personalizing air quality-based tools and risk assessment. In the present study, we developed wearable sensors for particulate matter (PM); and through a citizen science approach, students of partnering Chicago schools monitored PM concentrations throughout their commutes over a five-day period. While their recorded findings would be used to explore the relationship between PM concentrations …

Conversations In The Rainforest: Culture, Values, And The Environment In Central Africa, Richard B. Peterson

Environmental Studies Faculty Books

This book examines the environmental perceptions, values, and practices of inhabitants of Central Africa’s rainforests in order to help build a more firm foundation for ecological and social sustainability at the local level, while also making contributions to global environmental ethics from underrepresented African cultural traditions. It focuses on two case studies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one an integrated health and sustainable development project in the Ubangi region, and the other a large wildlife reserve in the Ituri Forest. Through in-depth interviews, focus groups, and participant observation conducted with local farmers and foragers, project staff, and local …

Ecological Restoration, Elizabeth P. Mccann, Tania Schusler

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ecological restoration involves revitalizing neglected, degraded, damaged, or destroyed habitats.

• Restoration-based education involves learners in ecological restoration with an intentional educational purpose.

• Urban restoration-based education can enhance personal and community well-being while improving ecosystem services in degraded environments.

• Restoration-based education can benefit from consciously forming partner ships, integrating local values alongside socioeconomic and ecological considerations, and being sensitive to issues of power and diverse cultures.

A Geospatial Assessment Of Social Vulnerability To Sea-Level Rise In Coastal San Luis Obispo, Jesse A. Carpentier

Master's Theses

This project is an assessment of social vulnerability to sea-level rise in the unincorporated coastal area of the County of San Luis Obispo (County) using geospatial and statistical analysis. The intention of this assessment is to inform local climate adaptation efforts now required by state legislation. A social vulnerability index was generated at the Census block group level using 32 variables positively correlated with social vulnerability. The social vulnerability score for each block group is the sum of scores generated for the following principle components: (1) race/ethnicity and disability status, (2) social isolation and age, (3) income, and (4) housing …

Regulating The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Interdependencies, Transaction Costs And Procedural Justice, Shaun Larcom, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

There have been calls for an overhaul of regulatory and governance frameworks to incorporate the implications of the water-energy-food nexus. We map one small component of the regulatory space of the nexus and highlight its immense complexity. We draw on insights from the economics and socio-legal literatures to show that a decentralised approach to regulation based upon procedural justice can enable the trade-offs of the nexus to be considered and addressed. We use a nexus case study of micro hydro-electricity generation in Dartmoor National Park in England to show that when we take into account interactions between state and non-state …

Subjectivity Of Solar Power: Using Q Methodology To Evaluate Perceptions Of Solar Energy Projects In The San Luis Valley, Aaron D. Russell

Geography ETDs

Renewable energy is on the verge of becoming a significant source of power generation and for many Americans, that will mean thinking and talking about energy technologies in new ways. Land intensive energies such as solar and green will compete more and more with aspects of our social world. This project focuses on the perception, acceptance, and discourse of renewable energy projects by examining the solar energy conversation in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. This vast high-desert valley holds the excellent geographic conditions needed for the siting of large solar energy installations, but such projects continue to run …

Regime Shifts And Panarchies In Regional Scale Social-Ecological Water Systems, Lance Gunderson, Barbara Cosens, Brian C. Chaffin, Craig Anthony (Tony) Arnold, Alexander K. Fremier, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Robin Kundis Craig, Hannah Gosnell, Hannah E. Birge, Craig R. Allen, Melinda Harm Benson, Ryan R. Morrison, Mark C. Stone, Joseph Hamm, Kristine Nemec, Edella C. Schlager, Dagmar Llewellyn

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

In this article we summarize histories of nonlinear, complex interactions among societal, legal, and ecosystem dynamics in six North American water basins, as they respond to changing climate. These case studies were chosen to explore the conditions for emergence of adaptive governance in heavily regulated and developed social-ecological systems nested within a hierarchical governmental system. We summarize resilience assessments conducted in each system to provide a synthesis and reference by the other articles in this special feature. We also present a general framework used to evaluate the interactions between society and ecosystem regimes and the governance regimes chosen to mediate …

Environmental Health, Tessa Oliaro

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

There is a very important intersection between the environment, public health, and socioeconomic factors (Braveman, 2014). These include waste disposal, water use and quality, road safety, ecosystem services, and many more. Environmental health stresses, “the health impacts of physical, chemical, and biological agents in the environment and workplace, and learns to develop strategies to measure and control major environmental health problems both locally…and in settings around the globe” (UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 2017). This overarching umbrella can have emphases in environmental epidemiology, exposure science, climate change, ergonomics, home and industrial hygiene, and molecular epidemiology. Exploring each of these …

Increasing Public Skepticism In The Face Of Imminent Dangers From Climate Change: A Call For Science To Repair Rifts Between Society And Academia, Matthew W. Morrissey, Joshua Schmidt

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project is a composition of a literature review, our learning process, and an attached experimental project. The project as a whole sought to understood how and why policies/corporations resist environmentally sustainable practices/laws and makes suggestions for how to convince people to change their behaviors and utilize their power as consumers. Overall, our goal was to investigate and understand the relationship between science and the public by composing a literature review of environmental science, sociology, and psychology papers, and then compose a presentation that would communicate the threat of climate change. The interdisciplinary nature of climate change made this research …

Emphasizing Colonization In Modern Environmental And Women’S Activist Movements In India And The Future Of Ecofeminist Movements For Creating A More Just And Sustainable Future, Alea M. Tveit

Honors Theses

This research discusses the extent of colonial acknowledgement in modern women’s rights and environmental movements in India. British colonization profoundly altered the ecological landscape and social norms of the societies it affected while leaving behind institutional structures that encouraged and perpetuated discrimination, oppression, and environmental degradation. In the case of India, I illustrate pre-colonial norms surrounding environmental stewardship and women’s rights and compare it to post-colonial ideology to make a connection of modern human rights and environmental problems to a colonial past. Today’s popular environmental and women’s activist movements are analyzed to determine if colonial acknowledgment or a decolonial framework …

Agrarian Reform In Sumber Klampok, Emma Trainor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Agrarian reform in Indonesia is part of a movement beginning after independence was gained in 1945. Farmers have been fighting to obtain rights to their land from a government that has a history of violence, repression, and corruption for decades. Environmental, indigenous peoples’, peasant, and agrarian movements were given a legitimate, legal framework to work within after 1960 when the Basic Agrarian Law was passed, protecting the rights of the people to their land. However, during both the Old Order and especially New Order regimes, the law was often ignored by the government, and many grassroots organizations had to work …

Geographical Information Systems (Gis) Applied To Urban Nutrient Management: Data Scarce Case Studies From Belize And Florida, Charlotte Juliane Haberstroh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient inputs into the environment greatly impact urban ecosystems. Appropriate management strategies are needed to limit eutrophication of surface water bodies and contamination of groundwater. In many existing urban environments, retrofits or complete upgrades are needed for stormwater and/or wastewater infrastructure to manage nutrients. However, sustainable urban nutrient management requires comprehensive baseline data that is often not available. A Framework for Urban Nutrient (FUN) Management for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was developed to specifically address those areas with limited data access. Using spatial analysis in GIS, it links water quality, land use, and socio-demographics, thereby reducing data collection and field-based …