Digital Commons Network^™

Global Perspectives On Harmful Algal Blooms: Impacts And Responses, Ryan Mitchell

Sustainability and Social Justice

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can have devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems, economies, and communities. In general, their effects are also likely to worsen and become more frequent because of climate change. This paper will examine contemporary attempts to predict, prevent, monitor, control, and adapt to HABs.

Global Perspectives On Harmful Algal Blooms: Impacts And Responses, Ryan Mitchell

Sustainability and Social Justice

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can have devastating effects on aquatic ecosystems, economies, and communities. In general, their effects are also likely to worsen and become more frequent because of climate change. This paper will examine contemporary attempts to predict, prevent, monitor, control, and adapt to HABs.

Building A Just Transition: Creating A Community Engagement Strategy For Building Electrification Policy In The City Of Riverside, Emma Barker

Pitzer Senior Theses

This project sought to promote a just transition to building electrification in the city of Riverside, CA through a community engagement process that prioritized equity. Policy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in a way that corrects environmental injustice rather than contributing to it further is crucial as the disastrous impacts of climate change continue to increase in intensity and frequency. In Riverside, challenges in creating opportunities for meaningful engagement included the Covid-19 pandemic, an absence of trust between community organizations and the local government, and the limited timeline and budget of the project. However, by cultivating relationships with local organizations, …

Potentially Terminal Conditions: Economic Globalization And Ecological Footprint, Raymond A. Wiseley

Student Publications

This paper studies the relationship between economic globalization and environmental footprint. It hypothesizes that economic globalization will increase the negative environmental impact. The study covers theories for and against this argument, focusing especially on the validity of an environmental Kuznets curve, market-based solutions, and other suggested policies. It then gathers data and tests the relationship using a regression analysis. The results show a statistically significant positive relationship between economic globalization and ecological impact. The study concludes by discussing these results and proposing future steps.

Assessing Undergraduate Sustainability Knowledge At California Polytechnic State University, Elysa Briens

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Sustainability education has become an important focus of many higher education institutions (HEIs), with the inclusion of many sustainability-related learning objectives for undergraduate students. As sustainability is a new, rising discipline, an increasing number of HEIs have made efforts to assess their teaching and learning effectiveness. However, most assessments fall short in determining the relationship between sustainability curriculum and the impacts on leaning outcomes. Therefore, this study aims to assess the impact of academic setting, specifically of a structured sustainability curriculum, on undergraduate sustainability knowledge, as well as analyze the implications of perceived barriers and opportunities to implementing sustainability into …

Collaboration And Evaluation In Urban Sustainability And Resilience Transformations: The Keys To A Just Transition?, Liliana Elizabeth Caughman

Dissertations and Theses

Climate has changed and will continue changing; city populations are swelling as urbanization continues to accelerate; extreme environmental events like heat waves and floods are becoming more severe and more common; and the climate justice movement is rapidly gaining momentum. It in this context that municipal governments find themselves urgently seeking solutions to transition cities from extractive, vulnerable, and unjust to sustainable, resilient, and equitable. The task is complex and will require systemic transformations across interconnected social, environmental, and economic infrastructures. Emerging theories regarding how to govern such massive changes suggest Transition Management strategies and the values of a just …

What Does A "Just" Local Food System Look Like? Views From Worcester In A Changing Climate, Marguerite Cawley

Capstone Collection

Food and climate are closely intertwined, with the high-emissions U.S. industrial food system contributing to climate change, while a changing climate produces new food system vulnerabilities, which will particularly impact those of the least means. This research is premised on the need to transform our food system, and to define what this vision looks like at the local level, while centering questions of power, justice and rights. It explores how groups, organizations and individuals engaged in local food system change envision transformation and understand corresponding social justice concerns, in a changing climate. It looks at opportunities for food and climate …

Redesigning Our Conception Of Local Food Utilizing A Value-Based Approach, Heather Riesenberg

Sustainability and Social Justice

The goal of this study was to design a new method of evaluating and building local food systems which is based on a new conception of how we view local food. Beginning with a review of the current literature on how local food is defined and its apparent goals, I begin to pick apart the dated idea that local needs not be more complex than the 400-mile limit offered by the USDA. Utilizing the literature review, I bring together a host of values that local food seems to (want to) embody and use these to form a pathway toward the …

Environmental Justice In Little Village: A Case For Reforming Chicago’S Zoning Law, Charles Isaacs

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Chicago’s Little Village community bears the heavy burden of environmental injustice and racism. The residents are mostly immigrants and people of color who live with low levels of income, limited access to healthcare, and disproportionate levels of dangerous air pollution. Before its retirement, Little Village’s Crawford coal-burning power plant was the lead source of air pollution, contributing to 41 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks per year. After the plant’s retirement, community members wanted a say on the future use of the lot, only to be closed out when a corporation, Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the lot …

Measuring The Size Of Bryant’S Ecological Footprint, Benjamin Martin, Gianny Pires

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

Since the beginning of the industrial age, people have been leaving a significant footprint on the Earth's environment. Currently, the environment has become a notable issue all over the world. Many countries, institutions, and people, in general, have taken steps toward slowing down the effect we are leaving on Earth. In this research paper, we are researching national trends of sustainability and a specific institution, Bryant University, overtime Bryant University has developed many integrated methods of sustainability. Various methods of sustainability are explored throughout the text. Bryant's sustainability efforts can be reviewed and monitored, with methods such as Life-Cycle Assessments, …

Investing In A Green Future: Universities And Renewable Energy, Tommy Kimmell, Philip Kimmell, Matthew Sorensen, Cameron Ruggiero, Ben Coit

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

This paper explains how the implementation of renewable energy is a favorable energy choice and explores the growing trend of investing in a green economy. The report begins by providing some context as to what renewable energy is and explains why it is a favorable energy choice. The first section outlines the energy industry and deciphers between the two forms of energy currently making up the sector. Breaking up the industry into two separate sectors, being renewable energy and nonrenewable energy, provides an understanding on which form is currently dominating the market. Moreover, the outline describes the concept of investing …

Cultural Resources Report For The Mission Road Archaeological Scraping Project, Bexar County, Texas, Karissa Basse, Jacob Sullivan, Brooke Bonorden, Zachary M. Overfield

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of San Antonio (COSA) Public Works Department retained Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. to conduct cultural resource investigations for proposed road improvements along Mission Road and Acequia Road (i.e., the Project) within San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The Project consists of the installation of brick pavers and continuous illumination assemblies, electrical service, and underground infrastructure along both sides of Mission Road from SE Military Drive to the San Antonio River and along Acequia Road from Mission Road to Ashley Road. The added alternate to the Project includes the construction of a shared-use path along the east side of Mission Road …

Cultural Resources Report For The Mission Road Archaeological Scraping Project, Bexar County, Texas, Karissa Basse, Jacob Sullivan, Brooke Bonorden, Zachary M. Overfield

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The City of San Antonio (COSA) Public Works Department retained Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. to conduct cultural resource investigations for proposed road improvements along Mission Road and Acequia Road (i.e., the Project) within San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The Project consists of the installation of brick pavers and continuous illumination assemblies, electrical service, and underground infrastructure along both sides of Mission Road from SE Military Drive to the San Antonio River and along Acequia Road from Mission Road to Ashley Road. The added alternate to the Project includes the construction of a shared-use path along the east side of Mission Road …

An Intensive Phase I Cultural Resources Investigation Of The Proposed Southwest Independent School District Natatorium Project, Bexar County, Texas, Adam Leroy, Mikayla Matthews

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of Southwest Independent School District (SWISD), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) conducted an archaeological survey for the proposed SWISD Natatorium Project (Project) in southwestern San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. SWISD proposes to develop one of three plans for the natatorium complex on an approximately 2-hectare (5-acre) tract of land (Project Area).

The Project Area is located within the City of San Antonio’s (COSA) jurisdictional boundary, necessitating compliance with the Historic Preservation and Urban Design Section of the COSA Unified Development Code (Article 6 35-630 to 35-634). As SWISD is a political subdivision of the State of Texas, compliance with …

Intensive Cultural Resources Survey Of The Westpointe West Off-Site Sewer Extension Phase 3 Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Adam D. Leroy

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

At the request of D. R. Horton and on behalf of San Antonio Water System (SAWS), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) conducted an intensive cultural resources survey supplemented by shovel testing and mechanical trenching for the proposed Westpointe West Off-Site Sewer Extension Phase 3 Project (Project) in western San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The Project consists of the installation of a 1.5-mile (mi; 2.4-kilometer [km])-long, 36-inch (91-centimeter)-diameter sewer extension pipeline on privately-owned land northeast of Talley Road, between two tributaries to Medio Creek. The Project will originate 0.3 mi (0.5 km) northwest of the intersection of Louis Agusta Drive and Talley …

Archaeological Monitoring Of The Olmos Basin Golf Course Tree Planting Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Nesta Anderson, Adam Leroy, Jake Sullivan, Sheldon Smith, Melanie Nichols

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

At the request of the City of San Antonio (COSA), Pape-Dawson Engineers, Inc. (Pape-Dawson) monitored for cultural resources during the planting of new trees within portions of the existing Olmos Basin Golf Course, located west of the intersection of Basse Road and US 281, in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The trees were placed randomly throughout the golf course along with new, connecting irrigation lines. Excavations for the trees averaged 3.6 feet (ft) (1.1 meters2 [m2]) in diameter and 1.6 ft (0.5 m) deep. Irrigation lines were installed approximately 1 ft (0.3 m) below the ground surface and were on …

Analytical Variables Leading To The Involvement Of Consumers And Farmers In Sustainable Urban Agriculture In The Indianapolis Region, Olivia Holabird

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

200,000 people living in Indianapolis have low food access, most of whom live in low-income areas. One solution to these food deserts is sustainable urban agriculture. I investigated what factors bring people living in the Indianapolis region to become involved in sustainable agriculture in the hopes of increasing future involvement. To do this, I conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with 6 farmers and 6 consumers across the Indianapolis region. I used Vermeir and Verbeke’s analytical categories of values, social norms, certainty, perceived availability, and perceived influence. Through my interviews, however, I found my own variables of sense of identity, accessibility, health, …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Good Governance Of The Commons Of Rapa Nui: Present And Past, Pamela A. Mischen, Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

Sustainable communities on Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) — whether in the past or present— require good governance of shared and common pool resources. Whether managing communal land needed for cultivation, ground water, stones for tools, fishing grounds, cultural heritage, or tourism, governance structures must balance individual interests with the common needs of the community. Much of the recent history of the island has been dominated by government structures that were imposed by Chilean authorities. Recently, however, much of the island’s cultural heritage has been turned over to local native governance. This shift has challenges due to the complex contemporary …

Internet Of Things For Sustainable Community Development: Introduction And Overview, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

The two-third of the city-dwelling world population by 2050 poses numerous global challenges in the infrastructure and natural resource management domains (e.g., water and food scarcity, increasing global temperatures, and energy issues). The IoT with integrated sensing and communication capabilities has the strong potential for the robust, sustainable, and informed resource management in the urban and rural communities. In this chapter, the vital concepts of sustainable community development are discussed. The IoT and sustainability interactions are explained with emphasis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and communication technologies. Moreover, IoT opportunities and challenges are discussed in the context of sustainable community …

Women’S Perspectives On Human Security: Violence, Environment, And Sustainability, Richard Matthew, Patricia A, Weitsman, Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, Nora Davis, Tera Dornfeld

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Violent conflict, climate change, and poverty present distinct threats to women worldwide. Importantly, women are leading the way creating and sharing sustainable solutions.

Women’s security is a valuable analytical tool as well as a political agenda insofar as it addresses the specific problems affecting women’s ability to live dignified, free, and secure lives. First, this collection focuses on how conflict impacts women’s lives and well-being, including rape and gendered constructions of ethnicity, race, and religion. The book’s second section looks beyond the scope of large-scale violence to examine human security in terms of environmental policy, food, water, health, and economics. …

Arising: Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy’S Impact On Design/Planning Professionals, Maxinne R. Leighton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Standing by my bedroom window, looking out at the ocean, a huge wave comes and swallows up my building. Everything around me is gone, including me. I wake up. I am 13 years old and living in the Coney Island Houses on Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. With ongoing anthropogenic changes to the natural environment such as sea level rise and intensifying storms, coastal communities, especially ones segregated by class and culture, are particularly vulnerable in this context that challenges a way of life, and in some instances, threatens that life's survival. This dissertation focuses specifically on what one massive …

Real-Time Evaluation Of City–University Partnerships For Sustainability And Resilience, Liliana Elizabeth Caughman, Lauren Withycombe Keeler, Fletcher Beaudoin

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Cities face many challenges in their efforts to create more sustainable and resilient urban environments for their residents. Among these challenges is the structure of city administrations themselves. Partnerships between cities and universities are one way that cities can address some of the internal structural barriers to transformation. However, city–university partnerships do not necessarily generate transformative outcomes, and relationships between cities and universities are complicated by history, politics, and the structures the partnerships are attempting to overcome. In this paper, focus groups and trial evaluations from five city–university partnerships in three countries are used to develop a formative evaluation tool …

Air Pollution & Asthma Prevalence: Hotspot Analysis On Environmental Injustice In Buffalo, New York, Zuveria Shaguphta

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This research aims to focus on the historical impacts of segregation in these communities (with Census Bureau data) and whether we see that these are the areas with continued segregation and a disproportionate number of TRI facilities. The third part of this research will be to investigate the presence of asthma in these neighborhoods as documented by the New York State Health Department. Asthma is a chronic disease in which the airways are inflamed due to some kind of external factor causing this reaction. Literature shows that there is a relationship between outdoor air pollution from combustion of fossil fuels …

Energy Assessments Of Student Housing At Augustana College: Identifying Opportunities For Improving Campus Sustainability, Jill Humecke

Geography: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

This research assesses energy consumption of student housing at Augustana College. The purpose of this project was to conduct energy audits to identify where and how sustainability could be improved through energy efficiency.

Sustainable Solutions, Fall/Winter 2020, Issue 41

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Communities, Fall/Winter 2010, Issue 21

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Environmental Justice, Spring/Summer 2004, Issue 10

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Active Transportation, Spring/Summer 2012, Issue 26

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Behavior, Spring/Summer 2013, Issue 28

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.