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Urban Water Demand Modeling: Review Of Concepts, Methods, And Organizing Principles, Heejun Chang, Lily House-Peters

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

In this paper, we use a theoretical framework of coupled human and natural systems to review the methodological advances in urban water demand modeling over the past 3 decades. The goal of this review is to quantify the capacity of increasingly complex modeling techniques to account for complex human and natural processes, uncertainty, and resilience across spatial and temporal scales. This review begins with coupled human and natural systems theory and situates urban water demand within this framework. The second section reviews urban water demand literature and summarizes methodological advances in relation to four central themes: (1) interactions within and …

Sources And Pathways To The Environment And Environmental Presence, Tess Chadil

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

In an attempt to successfully address and reduce contamination from toxic chemicals and other pollutants in the Oregon environment, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is in the early stages of developing a comprehensive agency-wide toxics reduction plan. The plan seeks to find a more efficient, sustainable approach to addressing contaminants of concern to human and ecological health. Team Toxics, a work group compromised of members from various DEQ departments, has been created to collaborate and create the framework for developing these strategies. In summer 2009, Team Toxics was in the very early stages of development, and found the need …

Informal Karst Education In The United States And Internationally, Leslie A. North

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the abundance of karst terrains and the important role they play in a wide variety of roles including supplying freshwater drinking supplies, no single, comprehensive study investigates the role of informal education for the improved understanding and protection of the terrains. Commonly overlooked anthropogenic karst disturbances partially occur because of the poor dissemination of scientific information to the general populace and policymakers and budgetary and time constraints of municipalities, thus generating a need to use informal education to fill these shortcomings. The purpose of this study was to: 1) establish the status of and quantify the amount of karst-related …

Temporal Changes In Quality Of Life And Environment In New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina, Danielle Johanna Larock

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding and assessing the spatial and temporal changes of quality of life and environment of a community is critical to its sustainable development, especially after a disaster strikes. This study explores an approach that integrates remote sensing with socioeconomic data to assess the temporal changes in quality of life and environment (QOL) using Orleans Parish as an example. Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans in 2005, has had vast implications economically, socially, and environmentally for this city and the surrounding area. Empirically quantifying these concepts will help to rebuild the city more sustainably. This study investigated change in environmental quality …

A Comparison Of Ecological Conditions And Relationships In An Altered Wetland And An Unaltered Wetland, Mark Kiyoshi Hurst

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to identify and quantify the hydrologic and ecologic differences between two adjacent sections of Colt Creek; one section unaltered and one section altered by clearing and drainage. These differences were measured by monitoring water levels, groundcover vegetation in each of the two areas, and monitoring numbers and species of birds utilizing the two areas. Surface water levels were measured in three locations: in the historic Colt Creek flow way, in the ditch draining the creek, and in an adjacent wetland strand. In addition, a shallow monitor well in the creek was used to measure …

Road-Based Landscape Metrics For Quantifying Habitat Fragmentation, Rebecca Whitehead Loraamm

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Landscape metrics measure the composition and configuration of habitats within landscapes; often the goal is to measure fragmentation. While a variety of existing metrics characterize the connectivity and contiguity of habitat patches, most do not explicitly consider the fragmenting effects of roads in their formulations. This research develops a set of new landscape metrics that explicitly quantify how roads disconnect and break apart habitat patches. This research introduces the following four metrics to consider the fragmenting effects of transportation networks: (1) Number of Connected Patches, a measure of connectivity; (2) Euclidean Nearest Neighbor-Roads, a measure of proximity; (3) Road Density, …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Irrigation Restrictions Within Key Communities In Tampa, Florida, Lin Allen Ozan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The City of Tampa, Florida has instituted water restrictions over the past decade that have been primarily aimed at mitigating non-essential usage of water resources by limiting domestic lawn irrigation. The mandatory restrictions are enforced by the issuance of citations to violators, which is intended to promote compliance and deter from subsequent violations. This thesis provides a thorough investigation of historical water restriction with relation to compliance in order to determine which factors might be related to high rates of water usage within key Tampa communities. The objectives are to: (1) develop a GIS data set that can be used …

The Politics And Culture Of Climate Change: Us Actors And Global Implications, Charles Waugh

English Faculty Publications

Despite the scientific consensus on global warming, many people in the USA,—both ordinary citizens and elected leaders alike—remain skeptical of the need to act, and in fact remain skeptical of the idea that humans are contributing to global warming at all. Thus, environmental justice arguments based on United States carbon emissions and the disproportionate impact of rising temperatures and rising sea levels on tropical developing nations such as Vietnam frequently fall on deaf ears. This chapter explores the political and cultural construction of this deafness, seeking a better understanding of how and why so many Americans refuse to act to …

Modeling Connectivity Of Black Bears In A Desert Sky Island Archipelago, Todd C. Atwood, Julie K. Young, Jon P. Beckmann, Stewart W. Breck, Jennifer A. Fike, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Kirby D. Bristow

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Landscape features such as rivers, mountains, desert basins, roads, and impermeable man-made structures may influence dispersal and gene flow among populations, thereby creating spatial structure across the landscape. In the US–Mexico borderland, urbanization and construction of the border fence have the potential to increase genetic subdivision and vulnerability to isolation in large mammal populations by bisecting movement corridors that have enabled dispersal between adjacent Sky Island mountain ranges. We examined genetic variation in black bears (Ursus americanus) from three regions in central and southern Arizona, US, to assess genetic and landscape connectivity in the US–Mexico border Sky Islands. We found …

Determinants Of Local And Migratory Movements Of Great Lakes Double-Crested Cormorants, Alban Guillaumet, Brian S, Dorr, Guiming Wang, Jimmy D. Taylor Ii, Richard B. Chipman, Heidi Scherr, Jeff Bowman, Kenneth F. Abraham, Terry J. Doyle, Elizabeth Cranker

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

We investigated how individual strategies combine with demographic and ecological factors to determine local and migratory movements in the double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). One hundred and forty-five cormorants were captured from 14 nesting colonies across the Great Lakes area and fitted with satellite transmitters. We first tested the hypotheses that sexual segregation, density-dependent effects, and the intensity of management operations influenced home range size during the breeding season. The influence of these factors appeared to be limited in part due to random variability in foraging and dispersal decisions at individual and colony levels. We also designed a statistical …

White-Tailed Deer Incidents With U.S. Civil Aircraft, Kirsten M. Biondi, Jerrold L. Belant, James A. Martin, Travis L. Devault, Guiming Wang

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Aircraft incidents with ungulates cause substantial economic losses and pose risks to human safety. We analyzed 879 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) incidents with United States civil aircraft from 1990 to 2009 reported in the Federal Aviation Administration National Wildlife Strike Database. During that time, deer incidents followed a quadratic response curve, peaking in 1994 and declining thereafter. There appeared to be some seasonal patterning in incident frequency, with deer incidents increasing overall from January to November, and peaking in October and November (30.7%). Most incidents (64.8%) occurred at night, but incident rates were greatest (P 0.001) at dusk. Landing-roll represented …

Development Of A Web-Based Geographic Information System For Arctic Science, George Walker Johnson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental science is a large field of study that requires the acquisition of data for decision making in solving environmental issues. Leveraging desktop geographic information systems (GIS) and web-based GIS (WebGIS) systems for assisting in the problem solving processes can benefit both the research community and policy makers for decision making activities. Ensuring interoperability between desktop, web, and server GIS is essential for maximizing access, sharing and manipulation of data. Interoperability is maximized through the adoption of best practices, use of open standards, and utilization of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI). While many of the interoperability challenges such as infrastructure, data …

Monitoring Ecosystem Dynamics In An Arctic Tundra Ecosystem Using Hyperspectral Reflectance And A Robotic Tram System, Santonu Goswami

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Global change, which includes climate change and the impacts of human disturbance, is altering the provision and sustainability of ecosystem goods and services. These changes have the capacity to initiate cascading affects and complex feedbacks through physical, biological and human subsystems and interactions between them. Understanding the future state of the earth system requires improved knowledge of ecosystem dynamics and long term observations of how these are being impacted by global change. Improving remote sensing methods is essential for such advancement because satellite remote sensing is the only means by which landscape to continental-scale change can be observed.

The Arctic …

Flexible Use Of Anti-Predator Defences, Ximena J. Nelson, Robert R. Jackson

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Belonging to a size category that makes them vulnerable to a wide variety of predators, spiders have evolved a bewildering array of anti-predator adaptations, which can be clustered under two broad categories, primary and secondary defence. Primary defences are ploys by which the spider avoids provoking pursuit by, and interaction with, the predator. Camouflage and masquerade are especially common examples. Secondary defences come into play once an interaction with a predator is under way, and these are the defences that have been most thoroughly studied. However, elements of anti-predator defence may often be integrated into other aspects of the spider's …

Toward An Integrated History To Guide The Future, Sander Van Der Leeuw, Robert Costanza, Steve Aulenbach, Simon Brewer, Michael Burek, Sarah Cornell, Carole L. Crumley, J. A. Dearing, Catherine Downy, Lisa J. Graumlich, Scott Heckbert, Michelle Hegmon, Kathy A. Hibbard, Stephen T. Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Paul Sinclair, Sverker Sörlin, W. L. Steffen

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Many contemporary societal challenges manifest themselves in the domain of human?environment interactions. There is a growing recognition that responses to these challenges formulated within current disciplinary boundaries, in isolation from their wider contexts, cannot adequately address them. Here, we outline the need for an integrated, transdisciplinary synthesis that allows for a holistic approach, and, above all, a much longer time perspective. We outline both the need for and the fundamental characteristics of what we call ?integrated history.? This approach promises to yield new understandings of the relationship between the past, present, and possible futures of our integrated human?environment system. We …

Assessment Of A Countywide Stormwater Pond Improvement Project: Impacts Of The Hillsborough County Adopt-A-Pond Program, Anthony Thomas Betts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Comparative research was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of the Adopt-a-Pond program, which operates throughout Hillsborough County, Florida. The Adopt-a-Pond program was established in 1992 and designed to address nonpoint pollution through outreach and stormwater pond enhancement. However, the program had never been thoroughly and scientifically evaluated. Therefore, assessments of water quality and vegetative characteristics were made at ninety Adopt-a-Pond participants and eleven control ponds to explore the potential impacts of the program on measurable environmental parameters. Statistical analysis of the results failed to demonstrate any statistically significant environmental improvements associated with the Adopt-a-Pond program, and measures of program …

Pce Groundwater Quality Assessment Of The University Of Northern Iowa Campus Area, Brian Gedlinske

Graduate Research Papers

Perchloroethylene (PCE), is a colorless, nonflammable, and relatively insoluble chlorinated solvent once widely used for dry cleaning and metal degreasing operations. Because of its past widespread use, poor solvent management practices, and environmental persistence, PCE is a common contaminant found in groundwater supplies. Potential health concerns include liver problems and increased cancer risk.

This research paper presents the findings of an effort to better characterize the spatial, temporal, and transport attributes of a PCE groundwater plume that exists within the Devonian aquifer underlying the University of Northern Iowa campus and the surrounding area in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Findings reveal the …

Examining Reasons For Bottled Water Consumption: A Case Study In Pensacola, Florida, Marina Leigh Foote

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over-consumption in developed economies undoubtedly puts a large strain on the environment, and many would argue that the damage is irreversible. Current uses and rates of consumption of freshwater resources are also deemed to be unsustainable. A large contributor to the high demand for water is the shift in consumer preferences from tap to bottled water. In the last few decades, bottled water companies have set unprecedented records, surpassing all other types of non-alcoholic beverages to become the second largest beverage market next to soda. Bottled water has been on the rise due to its supposed safety, purity and convenience. …

Relative Abundance And Spatial Distribution Of Lepomid Sunfishes In The Peace River, Justin Henry Heller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines spatially continuous sampling data in order to investigate patterns of abundance and distribution of three recreationally important sunfish species (bluegill, redear, and spotted sunfish) along the main-stem of the Peace River, a large softwater river located in southwest Florida. A total of 467 electrofishing transects were sampled biannually from spring 2008 to spring 2010. Sampling sites ranged from the headwaters of the Peace River in Polk County, FL to the oligohaline waters located in Charlotte County, FL. All fish were collected with boat mounted electrofishing gear, and aquatic habitat and physiochemical water quality measurements were recorded at …

Evaluating The Effects Of Beach Nourishment On Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta) Nesting In Pinellas County, Florida, Corey R. Leonard Ozan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The health of Florida's beaches are vital to the survival of loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta), as nearly half of the world's loggerheads nest on the states beaches. Many of the beaches utilized by the turtles have undergone nourishment projects in hopes of combating erosion of the shoreline, protecting beachfront property, and creating more suitable beaches for tourism. Although it is argued that beach nourishment benefits sea turtles by providing more nesting habitat, the effects of the Pinellas County nourishment projects on loggerhead nesting are unknown. Beach nourishment can alter the compaction, moisture content, and temperature of the sand, all …

The Influence Of Meteorological Parameters On Rainfall And Severe Weather In Pinellas County, Fl, Cristina A. Mazza

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pinellas County is located on a peninsula in Florida that experiences daily patterns of sea breeze associated rainfall mainly during the summer months of June through August. Previously, rainfall patterns, amounts and timing and severe weather in Pinellas County have not been examined considering dominant wind flow patterns, sea breeze circulations and other atmospheric variables. To improve forecasting of local mesoscale phenomena, this project examined the rainfall patterns, amounts and timing and severe weather occurrences that occur as a result of sea breezes and associated prevailing wind regimes within Pinellas County for the months of June, July and August for …

The Role Of Nature In John Muir's Conception Of The Good Life, Randy R. Larsen

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Aristotle says our best moral guidance comes from considering the lives of exemplary individuals. I explore John Muir, as an exemplar of environmental virtue, and consider the role of Nature in his conception of the good life. I argue his conception consists of a web of virtue including various goods, values, and virtues. I suggest three virtues are cardinal: attentiveness, gratitude and reverence. I explore how Muir cultivated these virtues in Nature.

I argue Muir sought freedom from a popular conception of the good life, grounded in the gilded age values of money and materialism, and was sensitive to the …

Dormant Ethnobotany: A Case Study Of Decline In Regional Plant Knowledge In The Bull Run Mountains Of Virginia, Susan Rene Leopold

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation introduces and applies the concept of dormant ethnobotany, a concept that helps explain the socio-economic, cultural and ecological aspects and implications of the transition away from active use of ethnobotanical knowledge and the factors that may lead to its re-emergence. Dormant ethnobotany is the study of relationships between people and plants that are inactive, but nonetheless still alive in memories, the historic record, and folklore and thereby capable of reemergence in support of the transition to a more sustainable society. The dissertation extends the field of ethnobotany from its current roots in the dynamic ethnobotany of indigenous peoples. …

Anaplasmataceae As Human Pathogens : Biology, Ecology And Epidemiology, Marina E. Eremeeva, Gregory A. Dasch

Environmental Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

This review describes the biology, ecology, and epidemiology of known human pathogens in the family Anaplasmataceae that are transmitted by ticks and belong to the genus Anaplasma and genus Ehrlichia. We discuss the current status of diagnosis and surveillance of the diseases they cause, and address the challenges and new perspectives raised due to continuous recognition of new emerging human pathogens in the family Anaplasmataceae.

Elementary Teachers' Views Of Environmental Education, Rose M. Hotchkiss

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine teachers' views of environmental education (EE) at the elementary level. The study addresses teachers' attitudes toward the EE at the elementary school level and their self-efficacy in teaching EE.

The study's sample consisted of 201 randomly selected kindergarten through fifth grade United States public school teachers. The participants completed an on-line survey with eight percent of the respondents participating in follow up interviews. The questionnaire measured two constructs; Teachers Attitudes Toward EE and Teacher Efficacy in EE. Teachers Attitudes Toward EE had 3 subscales; Advocacy for EE, Stewardship in EE, …

Sensitivity Of Planetary Boundary Layer Atmosphere To Historical And Future Changes Of Land Use/Land Cover, Vegetation Fraction, And Soil Moisture In Western Kentucky, Usa, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Irrigation On Dry Season Precipitation In India, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Heat Flux Measurements And Modeling Of Malodorous Compounds Above An Anaerobic Swine Lagoon, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Land Use/Land Cover Changes And Climate: Modeling Analysis And Observational Evidence, Roger A. Pielke Sr., Andy Pitman, Dev Niyogi, Rezaul Mahmood, Clive Mcalpine, Faisal Hossain, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Udaysankar S. Nair, Richard Betts, Souleymane Fall, Markus Reichstein, Pavel Kabat, Nathalie De Noblet

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

This article summarizes the changes in landscape structure because of human land management over the last several centuries, and using observed and modeled data, documents how these changes have altered biogeophysical and biogeochemical surface fluxes on the local, mesoscale, and regional scales. Remaining research issues are presented including whether these landscape changes alter large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns far from where the land use and land cover changes occur. We conclude that existing climate assessments have not yet adequately factored in this climate forcing. For those regions that have undergone intensive human landscape change, or would undergo intensive change in the …

Continual Energy Management Dynamics: Energy Efficiency In U.S. Automotive Manufacturing Industry, Cem O. Onus

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Managers at automotive manufacturers are seeking ways to reduce energy consumption, costs, carbon emissions, and waste from production processes. Researchers and practitioners perceive energy efficiency as the least expensive and most effective way to deal with issues related to climate change, but adoption of energy efficiency measures has been slow among industrial facilities. The topic of this research study was the decision-making process for energy efficiency projects in the U.S. automotive manufacturing industry. Flaws in this decision-making processes are preventing changes that can dramatically reduce energy usage, cost, and pollution. The study was grounded in the theories of energy management, …