Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling And Mapping In Support Of The Regional Conservational Strategy Framework, Theresa Burcsu, Thomas Albo, Joseph Bernert, Jennifer Dimiceli, James S. Kagan, Matthew D. Noone

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Prior to November 2010, when The Intertwine Alliance launched the Regional Conservation Strategy (RCS) and Biodiversity Guide (RBG) efforts for the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region, conservation priorities in the metropolitan region were identified at a broad regional scale that generally excluded urban areas (e.g., state conservation strategies and Willamette Synthesis); were regional but based solely on expert opinion (e.g., Natural Features); and consisted of localized priorities that abruptly ended at jurisdiction boundaries. The goal of the RCS was to fill in the gaps between broad and local scales of information related to conservation priorities. RCS members envisioned a data-driven approach that …

Disclosing Climate Change Patterns Using An Adaptive Markov Chain Pattern Detection Method, Zhaoxia Wang, Gary Lee, Hoong Maeng Chan, Reuben Li, Xiuju Fu, Rick Goh, Pauline A. W. Poh Kim, Martin L. Hibberd, Hoong Chor Chin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper proposes an adaptive Markov chain pattern detection (AMCPD) method for disclosing the climate change patterns of Singapore through meteorological data mining. Meteorological variables, including daily mean temperature, mean dew point temperature, mean visibility, mean wind speed, maximum sustained wind speed, maximum temperature and minimum temperature are simultaneously considered for identifying climate change patterns in this study. The results depict various weather patterns from 1962 to 2011 in Singapore, based on the records of the Changi Meteorological Station. Different scenarios with varied cluster thresholds are employed for testing the sensitivity of the proposed method. The robustness of the proposed …

Floatovoltaics: Quantifying The Benefits Of A Hydro-Solar Power Fusion, Abe Mckay

Pomona Senior Theses

To slow climate change, humans should take immediate and widespread action. One way to slow climate change is by switching to switch to renewable power plants such as solar fields. Recently, pioneering companies have built solar fields on water bodies. This study found that such a pairing of water and solar could increase production efficiency by 8-10% through panel cooling, save millions of liters of water from evaporation, and produce energy with under-utilized space.

The Evaluation Of Water Storage In Death Valley Using Grace Satellite Data, Maile Sweigart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As drought conditions spread across the United States, concerns over water supplies, water use, and water management policies are growing and possible contributing environmental factors are continually being scrutinized. This thesis examines Death Valley as an analog for Southern Nevada and utilizes NASA EOS data, combined with ancillary climate data, to assess the effect of decadal climate variability on groundwater storage in the Death Valley area. Historical climate data, combined with satellite imagery observations, were compiled and calculated for analyses. Conclusions derived from statistical analyses infer trends between GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data and fluctuating levels of …

Understanding Effects Of Changes In Land Use, Environmental Parameters, Habitat Characteristics On The Great Basin Aquatic Invertebrates Using Ecological Stoichiometric Theory, Knut Mehler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many freshwater ecosystems in the Great Basin have undergone dramatic alteration over the past decades due to groundwater withdrawal, water diversion and changes in land use. These changes have affected benthic food web dynamics by altering the availability of chemical key elements for primary and secondary producers, by loss of biodiversity and extinction of endemic species. However, only few studies are available that addresses the link between changes in land use, habitat characteristics and its effects on benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI) communities comprehensively and little attention has been given to integrating physiochemical aspects to link ecosystem functions.

This dissertation analyzes the …

The American Lawn: Culture, Nature, Design And Sustainability, Maria Ghys

All Theses

Abstract

This was an exploratory study examining the processes and underlying concepts of design nature, and culture necessary to discussing sustainable design solutions for the American lawn. A review of the literature identifies historical perceptions of the lawn and contemporary research that links lawns to sustainability. Research data was collected by conducting personal interviews with green industry professionals and administering a survey instrument to administrators and residents of planned urban development communities. Recommended guidelines for the sustainable American lawn are identified and include native plant usage to increase habitat and biodiversity, permeable paving and ground cover as an alternative to …

The Consciousness Of Water: Narrative Flows, Environmental Change, And The Voice Of Yemen, Tricia Nellessen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Icebergs are melting in the Arctic. The Gulf of Mexico is warming and producing hurricanes such as Katrina. The delta of the southern United States is drying. And, Yemen will be the first country in modern history to experience a lack of accessible ground water, as soon as 2017 possibly. Yemen's situation has been tracked by scholars and governments since the 1960s. Despite this fact, cities have expanded in Yemen and the population has increased its use of water while little has been invested in desalination or infrastructure to offset growth. Climate change has affected humans for thousands of years; …

Phylogeography Of The California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila Californica) Using Multilocus Dna Sequences And Ecological Niche Modeling: Implications For Conservation, Robert M. Zink, Jeffrey G. Groth, Hernan Vázquez-Miranda

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

An important step in conservation is to identify whether threatened populations are evolutionarily discrete and significant to the species. A prior mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) phylogeographic study of the California Gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica) revealed no geographic structure and, thus, did not support the subspecies validity of the threatened coastal California Gnatcatcher (P. c. californica). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that mtDNA data alone were insufficient to test subspecies taxonomy. We sequenced eight nuclear loci to search for historically discrete groupings that might have been missed by the mtDNA study (which we confirmed with new ND2 …

Effects Of Hru Size On Prms Performance In 30 Western U.S. Basins, Madeline Olena Steele

Dissertations and Theses

Semi-distributed hydrological models are often used for streamflow forecasting, hydrological climate change impact assessments, and other applications. In such models, basins are broken up into hydrologic response units (HRUs), which are assumed to have a relatively homogenous response to precipitation. HRUs are delineated in a variety of ways, and the procedure used may impact model performance. HRU delineation procedures have been researched, but it is still not clear how important these subdivision schemes are or which delineation methods are most effective. To start addressing this knowledge gap, this project investigated whether or not HRU size has a significant effect on …

Home Rule And Environmentalism: The Adoption Of Green Initiatives In U.S. Municipalities, Luke Eastin

2013 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

In recent years there has been a movement in academia from studying environmental policy on the national level to a much narrower examination of local municipalities and their respective green initiatives. The implications of this research reach well beyond the borders of academics and hit squarely municipalities and their corresponding local policy makers. We, as political scientists, must ask what particular characteristics of municipalities play the most significant role in green initiative adoption. Recent urban scholarship has suggested several variables that influence the adoption of environmental policies, but one specific variable, municipality home rule status, has had little to no …

Center For Governance And Sustainability: Policy Impact Through Rigorous Analysis, Center For Governance And Sustainability, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Maria Ivanova, Craig Murphy, Michael Denney

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Three main functions define the center:

• Serves as an information hub
• Provides rigorous analysis
• Acts as an honest broker

We collect and manage data on governance and sustainability across scales, apply diverse analytical models grounded in empirics, and create dialogues among scholars, practitioners, and the public.

Climate Data Manipulation And The Use Of Water To Build Political Power In The Southwest United States, Conrad Moore, Professor Emeritus

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

Models utilized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicate a striking trend toward increasing aridity in the Southwest United States. Two landmark articles published in Science magazine have emphasized the critical future consequences of this trend. Data from 59 National Weather Service stations distributed across the region west of the continental divide and south of the 41^stparallel (the northern border of Colorado and northeastern Utah), including 36 stations in the Upper Colorado River Basin and lower Southwest, show that annual and winter precipitation increased over the 60-year period 1950-2010, although the record is impoverished by the deletion …

Missouri National Recreational River Visitor Study, Summer 2012, Marc F. Manni, Yen Le, Steven J. Hollenhorst

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

This visitor study report profiles a systematic random sample of Missouri National Recreation River visitors during July 19 - 25, 2012. A total of 467 questionnaires were distributed to visitor groups. Of those, 256 questionnaires were returned, resulting in a 54.8% response rate.

Group size and type: Thirty-eight percent of visitor groups consisted of two or three people and 35% were in groups of six or more. Sixty-four percent of visitor groups consisted of family groups.

State or country of residence: United States visitors were from 29 states and comprised 99% of total visitation during the survey period, …

Fertile Lands And Bodies: Connecting The Green Revolution, Pesticides, And Women’S Reproductive Health, Sarah M.K. Cycon

Pitzer Senior Theses

Environmentalists, social scientists, and economists have long critiqued the enduring impacts of the Green Revolution’s diffusion of agricultural technologies throughout the Global South. However, largely missing from the myriad analyses is the relationship between those technologies, namely pesticides, and health outcomes. This thesis explores the social and biological mechanisms through which excessive pesticide use culminated into adverse reproductive health outcomes for rural women in the Global South. Drawing together the history of the Green Revolution’s use of DDT, its social and economic impacts, and the biology of pesticide contamination in women’s bodies exposes how the Green Revolution situated women in …

Justified By Faith: The Upper Susquehanna Lutheran Synod And The Pennsylvania Natural Gas Fracking Controversy, Lena R. Connor

Pomona Senior Theses

An exercise in applied Christian ecotheology, this thesis focuses on a community of Lutheran church bodies (ELCA) in North Central Pennsylvania as they grappled with natural gas hydraulic fracturing in the summer of 2012. In the paper, I employ a combination of theological, environmental, historical, and ethnographic research methodologies to ground my analysis of how this synod of Lutherans to date has approached the fracking boom. My primary research question is: How might the Upper Susquehanna Synod of the ELCA--as a representative body of 131 Lutheran churches that are steeped in tradition--use its history, community involvement, theology, and church structure …

Rethinking Sustainability To Meet The Climate Change Challenge, Michael Burger, Elizabeth Burleson, Rebecca M. Bratspies, Robin Kundis Craig, Alexandra R. Harrington, David M. Driesen, Keith H. Hirokawa, Sarah Krakoff, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Stephen R. Miller, Jessica Owley, Patrick Parenteau, Melissa Powers, Shannon M. Roesler, Jona M. Roesler

Journal Articles

This article presents a preliminary effort to capture the dialogue at the Environmental Law Collaborative’s inaugural Workshop. Attendees engaged in the re-conceptualization of sustainability in the age of climate change, premised on evidence that climate change is forcing changes in the norms of political, social, economic, and technological standards. As climate change continues to dominate many fields of research, sustainability is at a critical moment that challenges its conceptual coherence. Sustainability has never been free from disputes over its meaning and has long struggled with the difficulties of simultaneously implementing the “triple-bottom line” components of environmental, economic, and social well-being. …

Shifting Sands, Clay Arnold, Joel Stocker, Juliana Barrett

Wrack Lines

Tells the story of Griswold Point and shoreline change.

Methods To Develop A Crediting Strategy For Transportation And Metropolitan Planning Agencies: White Paper, James S. Kagan, Lisa Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

The focus of this paper is to identify the ways in which the Ecosystem Services Crediting methodology, part of the Integrated Ecological Framework (IEF), could be developed to make it easily usable and meaningful to transportation agencies. IEF is an ecological assessment process and framework to integrate conservation planning and transportation planning.

An Evaluation Of Environmental Education Programs On Pemba Island, Lindsay Kingston

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Pemba Island, a member of the Zanzibar archipelago, is intimately connected and highly dependent on their natural resources, which are rapidly deteriorating. How to sustain their agrarian-based economy whilst also conserving the environment is the current challenge facing this island. Key to overcoming this dilemma is the development of knowledgeable and effective environmental organizations, such as environmental clubs and NGOs. A small-scale assessment of the environmental education (EE) and associated clubs was established primarily through a student survey, on-site visits, and interviews. It focuses primarily on evaluating three schools and their associated clubs, but also provides information on the Island’s …

Extending A Geographic Lens Towards Climate Justice, Part 1: Climate Change Characterization And Impacts, Morey Burnham, Claudia Radel, Zhao Ma, Ann Laudati

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

There has been a recent increase of interest within the academic literature on the justice issues posed by climate change and the human responses to its present and forecasted effects. This literature is partially shaped by debates from environmental justice scholarship, but also has roots in various subfields of geography. In two parts (here and in a subsequent article), we review and synthesize the recent literature by asking what climate justice concerns have been identified within three related realms: 1) the characterization of climate change itself and the assignment of responsibility for that change; 2) the differential or uneven impacts …

A Distributed Intelligence Approach To Multidisciplinarity: Encouraging Divergent Thinking In Complex Science Issues In Society., Jarod Kawasaki, Dai Toyofuku

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

The scientific issues that face society today are increasingly complex, open-ended and tentative (Sadler, 2004). Finding solutions to these issues, not only requires an understanding of the science, but also, concurrently dealing with political, social, and economic dimensions that exist (Hodson, 2003). For example, 40 years after the first congressional hearing on climate change held by Al Gore in 1976, the 2012 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that climate change is still getting worse, despite efforts by governments, businesses, social actors such as Non-Government Organizations, and scientists. With the top minds in the world, across all disciplines, …

Sustainable, Affordable Housing For Older Adults: A Case Study Of Factors That Affect Development In Portland, Oregon, Alan Kenneth Delatorre

Dissertations and Theses

Portland, Oregon, is considered to be a leader in sustainable development. Government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and businesses have been innovators in policymaking and practice that is aimed at creating a more sustainable city. Despite population aging, little is known about how or whether planners and developers consider older persons in terms of sustainable development. Thus, this study examined the case of sustainable, affordable housing developed for low-income adults aged 55 and older. Interviews with 31 key informants were conducted in order to answer three research questions: What is the meaning of sustainable development in Portland, Oregon, as it pertains to …

Status Of Nutria (Myocastor Coypus) Populations In The Pacific Northwest And Development Of Associated Control And Management Strategies, With An Emphasis On Metropolitan Habitats, Trevor Robert Sheffels

Dissertations and Theses

The nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a semi-aquatic rodent native to South America that was introduced to the Pacific Northwest, USA, in the 1930s. Primary damage categories from this invasive species include burrowing and herbivory, resulting in habitat degradation. Nutria have become well-established in metropolitan habitats, and anecdotal information suggests the problem has increased in recent years. However, little regional research on the species has been conducted. The scope of this research, which emphasizes metropolitan habitats, includes three primary foci in relation to nutria populations in the Pacific Northwest: modeling habitat suitability, assessing activity and movement patterns, and identifying and managing …

Scotts Bluff National Monument 2012 Resource Brief, Isabel W. Ashton, Michael Prowatzke, Kara Paintner

United States National Park Service: Publications

Includes brief information on plant community monitoring, air quality monitoring, and weather and climate monitoring at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska, USA in 2012.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument 2012 Resource Brief, Marcia Wilson, Kara Paintner, Isabel Ashton, Michael Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Includes brief information on plant community monitoring, aquatic invertebrate monitoring, weather and climate monitoring at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska, USA from 2012.

Birds Of The Central Platte River Valley And Adjacent Counties, Mary Bomberger Brown, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

The central Platte River Valley region of Nebraska is described ecologically, and defined as encompassing 11 counties and nearly 10,000 square miles, and extending about 120 miles from the western edge of Lincoln County to the eastern edge of Merrick County. At its center is the Platte River, the historic spring staging area for Sandhill and Whooping cranes, five species of geese, and millions of waterfowl and water-dependent birds, in addition to providing the breeding habitats for more than 100 other bird species. Collectively, at least 373 bird species have been reported from the Central Platte Valley, making it the …

Allometric Scaling And Resource Limitations Model Of Tree Heights: Part 1. Model Optimization And Testing Over Continental Usa, Yuli Shi, Sungho Choi, Xiliang Ni, Sangram Ganguly, Gong Zhang, Hieu V. Duong, Michael A. Lefsky, Marc Simard, Sassan S. Saatchi, Shihyan Lee, Wenge Ni-Meister, Shilong Piao, Chunxiang Cao, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Ranga B. Myneni

Publications and Research

A methodology to generate spatially continuous fields of tree heights with an optimized Allometric Scaling and Resource Limitations (ASRL) model is reported in this first of a multi-part series of articles. Model optimization is performed with the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) waveform data. This methodology is demonstrated by mapping tree heights over forested lands in the continental USA (CONUS) at 1 km spatial resolution. The study area is divided into 841 eco-climatic zones based on three forest types, annual total precipitation classes (30 mm intervals) and annual average temperature classes (2 °C intervals). Three model parameters (area of single …

2012 Southern Nevada Existing Conditions Report, Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coaltion, Lincy Institute, Unlv Urban Sustainability Initiative, Unlv School Of Community Health Sciences, Jennifer Pharr Phd, Courtney Coughenour

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

No abstract provided.

Researching Storms To Prepare For The Next One, Joshua Behr, Rafael Diaz

News Items

No abstract provided.

Too Pig To Fail: Considering Regulatory Solutions To The Environmental Damages Caused By Industrial Hog Farms In North Carolina, Samir Hafez

Student Theses 2001-2013

Arguably one of the most important innovations in all of human history has been the shift from hunting-and gathering towards agriculture. Many American states hold a rich agricultural tradition and have relied on the domestication of plants and animals for economic sustenance. Since the 17th century, the land of North Carolina has been utilized for the farming of a multitude of different crops. After World War II, America saw a dramatic shift in the nature of agricultural practices. Operations shifted from small-scale diversified production towards industrialized largescale facilities that rely heavily on innovative technology and an increase in fossil fuel …