Digital Commons Network^™

Book Review: Under The Weather: Reimagining Mobility In The Climate Crisis., Raymond Murphy

Critical Disaster Studies

Under the Weather: Reimagining Mobility in the Climate Crisis is an insightful, important book that reports on a fine-grained investigation Sodero made of the consequences and response to the disasters resulting from Hurricane Juan in Nova Scotia in 2003 and Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland in 2010, with comparisons to Hurricane Sandy in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the 1998 ice storm in northeastern North America and the Icelandic ash cloud. One original feature is the focus on mobility, how indispensable it is in modern societies, how it is disrupted by extreme weather, and …

Disturbance Regimes And Management Strategies Of Mountain Ash Forest Ecosystems In Victoria, Australia; A Literature Review, Zoe Plumb

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper discusses the ecology of mountain ash forests, the disturbances regimes that currently exist in these ecosystems, and finally addresses the current management practices and future management practices. Mountain ash forests are subjected to a wide range of research in the Central Highlands of Victoria, an area approximately 14,000 hectares in range. These forests are dominated by montane ash trees (Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell), which are critically endangered and at risk of collapse, attributed to the decline in large hollow-bearing trees throughout the region. Management of these forests are controlled by the Department of Environment, Land, Water, and …

Urban & Deltaic Subsidence In Bangladesh From Sentinel-1 Insar Data Analysis, Gavin Middleton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Bangladesh's Bengal Delta faces multiple challenges, such as rising sea levels, coastal flooding, and high population density, leading to land subsidence, saltwater intrusion, and biodiversity loss. The region's groundwater security, essential for the country's survival, is at risk due to climate change and saltwater intrusion. Groundwater security is dependent on the Bengal Water Machine (BWM), which is at risk due to saltwater intrusion and monsoon rainfall distribution from climate change. Groundwater exhaustion leads to natural hazards such as subsidence, landslides, and flooding. A large portion of the population is at risk from groundwater insecurity, which requires mitigating worldwide greenhouse gas …

Pandemic Produce: Impacts Of Covid-19 On Florida's Fruit And Vegetable Industries, Christa D. Court, David Outerbridge, Lauri Baker, Laura Birou, Catherine Campbell, Gigi Digiacomo, Sebastian Galindo, John Lai, Alexandre Magnier, Michelle Miller, Gustavo De L.T. Oliveira, Eyrika Orlando, Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, Xiaohui Qiao, Fritz Roka, Andrew Ropicki, Bijeta Bijen Saha, Andrew W. Stevens, Li Zhang

Geography

Florida has one of the most diverse agricultural economies in the United States, producing several dozen types of fruits and vegetables that are consumed within the state, across the country, and around the world. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting policy responses occurred during the peak of spring harvest season for many crops in Florida, abruptly removing market demand from the food service industry and shifting consumer purchasing habits, which enabled insights into several aspects of the fruit and vegetable supply chain. This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted fruit and vegetable industries in Florida, how these industries responded to …

Saint John's Prep Navigation Map, Alec Otte

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This map was a project commissioned by Jill Pauly, Director of Communications at St. John’s Prep School. The intended purpose of the map is to assist new students and first-time visitors with finding buildings and fields. Places such as Tower Field, Sexton Commons, and Thomas Hall/Life Safety were desired focuses as they are further from the main prep school building and thus more difficult to find without guidance.

A Graphical User Interface Using Spatiotemporal Interpolation To Determine Fine Particulate Matter Values In The United States, Kelly M. Entrekin

Honors College Theses

Fine particulate matter or PM2.5 can be described as a pollution particle that has a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller. These pollution particle values are measured by monitoring sites installed across the United States throughout the year. While these values are helpful, a lot of areas are not accounted for as scientists are not able to measure all of the United States. Some of these unmeasured regions could be reaching high PM2.5 values over time without being aware of it. These high values can be dangerous by causing or worsening health conditions, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases. Within …

Dr. Paul Sutton, Ayanna Schubert

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This interview with Dr. Paul Sutton was conducted by the DUURJ Editor At Large.

Legal Geographies, Caroline Griffith, Sarah Klosterkamp, Alida Cantor, Austin Kocher

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This encyclopedia entry defines and discusses legal geography. Legal geography is an interdisciplinary area of scholarship that focuses on the intersections and co-constitution between law and space and place: that is, how law and legal processes produce space/place, and how particular places in turn influence law. Rather than thinking of law as an abstract, universal, a-spatial set of rules, legal geography examines the ways in which law is situated in place, and how places are shaped by legal practices and processes.

Intersectionality & Climate Justice: A Call For Synergy In Climate Change Scholarship, Michael Mikulewicz, Martina Angela Caretta, Farhana Sultana, Neil J. W. Crawford

Geography and the Environment - All Scholarship

In this intervention, we call for extending the critical lens of intersectionality to the field of climate justice. We do so by identifying the theoretical and methodological links through which intersectionality can benefit climate change studies. These include common roots in radical theory, a focus on marginalized populations, challenging dominant epistemologies and ontologies, similar strategies for pursuing social justice, de-emphasizing of positivist methodologies, while at the same time deploying similar research methods, embracing cross-scalar and spatiotemporal analysis, and strong emphasis on interdisciplinarity and crosssectoral alliances. We conclude with a number of potential questions to inform future research on these linkages …

Complexities Of Health And Care Worker Migration Pathways And Corresponding International Reporting Requirements, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Ivy Bourgeault, Denise Spitzer

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

The increasing complexity of the migration pathways of health and care workers is a critical consideration in the reporting requirements of international agreements designed to address their impacts. There are inherent challenges across these different agreements including reporting functions that are misaligned across different data collection tools, variable capacity of country respondents, and a lack of transparency or accountability in the reporting process. Moreover, reporting processes often neglect to recognize the broader intersectional gendered and racialized political economy of health and care worker migration. We argue for a more coordinated approach to the various international reporting requirements and processes that …

Lewisburg Bikeability Report 2022, Morgan Powell, Shaunna Barnhart, Taylor Lightman

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Covid-19 On Us Agri-Food Supply Chain Businesses: Regional Survey Results, Hikaru Hanawa Peterson, Gigi Digiacomo, Christa D. Court, Michelle Miller, Gustavo Oliveira, Andrew W. Stevens, Li Zhang, Lauri M. Baker, Joseph Nowak, Eyrika Orlando, Bijeta Bijen Saha

Geography

Visible disruptions of appropriate food distribution for end consumers during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted calls for an urgent, renewed look at how the U.S. agri-food system is impacted by and responds to pandemics, natural disasters, and human-made crises. Previous studies suggest the COVID-19 pandemic yielded uneven impacts across agri-food supply chain segments and regions. For a rigorously comparable assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on agri-food businesses, a survey was administered from February to April 2021 to five segments of the agri-food supply chain in three study regions (California, Florida, and the two-state region of Minnesota-Wisconsin). Results …

Kulpmont Pocket Park Survey Results, Matt Mcmullen, Shaunna Barnhart, Steve Motyka

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Salty: A Diffractive Inquiry Of Visceral Knowing And Embodied Aesthetics, Mei Ling Chua

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes a diffractive, onto-epistemological approach to everyday practices with salt in order to articulate an expanded understanding of meaning making and knowledge production. This research reckons with and challenges dominant modes of knowing that engage a Cartesian perspective to situate knowing as the exclusive domain of the mind in both form and topic of inquiry. This research acts simultaneously as both a direct practice of and metacognition about knowledge production by examining 1. the embodied (including sensory and emotional aspects) and 2. the relational (including interpersonal and socio-cultural) dimensions of experience as visceral knowing. This articulation of …

The Future Of Health Care Work And The Place Of Migrant Workers Within It: Internationally Educated Nurses In Ontario Canada During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Margaret Walton-Roberts

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of immigrant health workers in OECD nations, and intensified debates about the current and future supply and distribution of such workers, particularly nurses. This review paper considers internationally educated nurses in the case of Ontario, Canada, and the policy responses developed during the pandemic to address the increased utilization of immigrant health workers. To further consider the evolving place of migrant workers within health, the broader issue of the future of health care work is examined to imagine what a sustainable and resilient health workforce agenda that integrates internationally educated nurses might look like.

Considering The Shrinking Physical, Social, And Psychological Spaces Of Rohingya Refugees In Southeast Asia, Kendra L. Duran, Robin Al-Haddad, Saleh Ahmed

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Refugees experience shrinking social, economic, political, and physical spaces at astonishing rates. However, these shrinking spaces are challenging to trace simultaneously and are rarely considered in policymaking or analysis. Using the Rohingya case study, this paper implores policy analysis to include these spaces, conceptually categorizing them into physical, social, and psychological spaces. Here we chronologize the plight of Rohingya refugees and identify how their spaces have changed over time. Our findings reveal four primary causal relationships linked to Rohingya refugees' fluctuating spaces, including: (I) Bangladesh's policy framework has kept the Rohingya largely isolated, yet their public-private partnerships have expanded their …

No. 58: Wild Foods, The Nutrition Transition And Urban Food Security In Northern Namibia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

Rapid urbanization and food system transformation in Africa have been accompanied by growing food insecurity, reduced dietary diversity and an epidemic of non-communicable disease. While the contribution of wild and indigenous foods (WIF) to the quality of rural household diets has been of longstanding attention, research on their consumption and role amongst urban households is much more recent. This paper focuses on the consumption of WIF in three towns in northern Namibia with close ties to the surrounding rural agricultural areas. Based on data from a household survey of food sourcing and consumption patterns in 2018, the paper shows that …

Ten New Insights In Climate Science 2023/2024, Mercedes Bustamante, Joyashree Roy, Daniel Ospina, Ploy Achakulwisut, Anubha Aggarwal, Ana Bastos, Wendy Broadgate, Josep G. Canadell, Edward Carr, Deliang Chen, Helen A. Cleugh, Kristie L. Ebi

Geography

Non-technical summary: We identify a set of essential recent advances in climate change research with high policy relevance, across natural and social sciences: (1) looming inevitability and implications of overshooting the 1.5°C warming limit, (2) urgent need for a rapid and managed fossil fuel phase-out, (3) challenges for scaling carbon dioxide removal, (4) uncertainties regarding the future contribution of natural carbon sinks, (5) intertwinedness of the crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, (6) compound events, (7) mountain glacier loss, (8) human immobility in the face of climate risks, (9) adaptation justice, and (10) just transitions in food systems. Technical …

From The Poor People’S Campaign To The Poor People’S Campaign: Fifty Years Of Protest In The United States, Mike Kohout

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

2015-16 Antarctic Travel Project Data Set, Clare A. Sammells, Claudia Roedel, Duane Griffin

Other Faculty Research and Publications

During the 2015-2016 season, links to an internet survey were distributed to Antarctic travelers traveling with two different tour companies with expedition ships leaving from Ushuaia, Argentina, A paper brochure was placed in the expedition ship cabins of tourists before their arrival, and expedition staff gave reminders to complete them. 175 travelers, largely from two ships, completed this internet survey through Qualtrics. Tourists received links to the survey from expedition leaders who volunteered to distribute paper explanations of the survey with the link, including one author of the study (Roedel). This document gives the questions from the Qualtrics survey and …

A Gis Look At Woody Plant Encroachment (Wpe): Mapping Grassland Degradation Through Habitat Succession, Brandon M. Wolf

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The grasslands of North America remain at a fraction of their historic range. Estimates of acreage remaining vary between 4% and 13%. Affectionately known as the Great Plains, these grasslands have been converted for agriculture, rangeland, infrastructure, and civilization itself. Woody Plant Encroachment (WPE) on the grasslands is a silent, often overlooked, serious threat. The use of a simple GIS can estimate current acreage of a grassland, its adjacent woodland corridor, riparian buffers, and predict future acreage based on trends and hypothetical management scenarios, or lack thereof. The American prairie, though a remnant of its former self, is still home …

Fostering Socio-Ecological Resilience To Wildfire By Interconnecting Knowledge Systems At Cal Poly Humboldt, Jeffrey M. Kane, Erin Kelly, Benjamin Graham, David Greene

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The wildfire-related challenges of Northern California and many other regions in the western United States are daunting in scope and magnitude. Ecologically and culturally salient solutions that limit the negative impacts of wildfire and promote resilience of human and ecological systems will require newer approaches. Through Cal Poly Humboldt and the Fire Resilience Institute, there is greater emphasis on the interconnection of knowledge systems across education, training, research, and management. Here we highlight several on-going efforts that seek to enhance the fire resilience workforce, promote socio-ecological resilience through interdisciplinary projects, and inform management through monitoring and research projects that intentionally …

The Rhino Horn Trade And Radical Inequality As Environmental Conflict, Elizabeth Lunstrum, Nícia Givá, Francis Massé, Filipe Mate, Paulo Lopes Jose

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is one of the most acute global conservation challenges. This paper examines what is driving young men to enter the rhino horn trade while advancing theory on environmental conflict. We show how the illicit rhino horn economy is a telling instance of environmental conflict—largely between ground-level hunters and increasingly militarized state conservation forces—that emerges from a context of radical inequality. We examine how practices ranging from labor migration and sidelining rural development to biodiversity conservation itself have profoundly transformed the Mozambican-South African borderlands from which many hunters originate, in turn generating poverty, exclusion, and vulnerability …

Ethnic Difference At The Center Of Land Struggles In The Americas: A Complex History Of Marginalization And Multidimensional Challenges Among The Garifuna In The Northern Honduras, Kaitlyn Bellamy, Victoria Garcia, Saleh Ahmed, Adriana Archila

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Across the world, natural resources play a critical role in shaping livelihoods among the ethnic and indigenous communities. This article highlights the struggles Garifuna in northern Honduras face regarding land ownership, despite being constitutionally recognized yet ignored by the government. For them, land struggles are also their racial struggles. Contested land ownerships are the outcomes of historical discriminations, leaving Garifuna vulnerable to violence. This article addresses the multidimensional aspects of land-based struggles that have resulted in social, cultural, and environmental damage, creating insurmountable pressures on local Garifuna livelihoods.

Adaptation Outcomes In Climate-Vulnerable Locations: Understanding How Short-Term Climate Actions Exacerbated Existing Gender Inequities In Coastal Bangladesh, Saleh Ahmed, Elizabeth Eklund, Elizabeth Kiester

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Adverse climate impacts present a significant challenge for the majority of the world’s population. It is especially true for smallholder farmers in coastal Bangladesh, where some adaptation initiatives appeared to be short-sighted and reproduced further inequity, poverty, and food insecurity. Based on empirical insights, this paper shows how short-sighted climate responses can adversely affect gender equity, illustrated through three adaptation strategies. First, agricultural institutions have traditionally and historically linked with gender roles. Outmigration from the region is gendered as males leave first. This forces increased household and farm responsibilities onto female household members and increased vulnerability. This gendered vulnerability becomes …

Grain-Washing: The Issue With Corn Ethanol As A Sustainable Aviation Fuel, Emily J. Rinn

Scripps Senior Theses

Decarbonizing the aviation sector remains one of the most prevalent obstacles in reducing the United States’ significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Launched in 2021, the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge aims to supply enough fuel to meet 100% of demand by 2050 through reducing its production costs and enhancing its sustainable practices. Corn ethanol feedstock has been proposed to make up as much as half of all SAF production in the 2030 benchmark. This thesis explores the assemblage of corn ethanol – from its true environmental impacts, role in the future SAF market, to research claiming corn …

Water Stories: An Exploration Of Human-Water Connectedness In Ontario And The Implications For Water Sustainability, Tracey Ehl

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

Water is the great connector. Water connects people, health, wellness, culture, spirituality, nature, and the economy. Clean, safe water (potable water) and sanitation were recognized over a decade ago by the United Nations General Assembly (UN) as a basic human right, and more recently the UN has also identified water sustainability and management as one of 17 sustainable development goals for all people in all countries. Water is inextricably connected to humans. Yet, in Ontario, Canada, a place with access to some of the largest freshwater reserves in the world, robust regulatory frameworks, involvement, some investment by all levels …

“To Be Involved In A Meaningful Way”: Mobilizing Indigenous Knowledge In Environmental Monitoring Practices In Northern Ontario, Alanna Robbins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

A steady shift in the environmental management literature encourages greater inclusion of traditional knowledge (TK) alongside Western science, much of it seeking to directly support Indigenous communities develop their own frameworks for environmental monitoring and stewardship. To date, little attention has been placed on research practices themselves as sites where interdisciplinary and intercultural work takes place to bridge between different knowledge systems and develop best practices for effective collaboration. Matawa Water Futures (MWF), the object of study for this thesis project, is a three-year water stewardship project involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, environmental managers, and community interns, working with the …

Utilizing Ground-Penetrating Radar To Estimate The Spatial Distribution Of Snow Depth Over Lake Ice In Canada’S Sub-Arctic, Alicia Pouw

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

With the expected rise in air temperature, it becomes important to understand how snow will respond in different climate scenarios. The presence of snow over lake ice largely influences the ice thickness, and as Canada’s Arctic and sub-arctic regions are experiencing warming at twice the global rate, concerns rise as changes in the snowpack will significantly impact northern communities that rely on lake ice as a means of transportation, source for drinking water, and feeding their families. The distribution of snow depth is highly sensitive to changes in climate over time, as such a slight increase in air temperature or …

Wildlife Value Orientations And Recreation Conflict: A Focus On Hunters And Non-Hunters In Alberta, Canada, Yuvana Sequeira

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Parks and other forms of protected areas are considered a vital tool in the effective conservation of biodiversity. These areas also provide important spaces for nature-based tourism and recreation (NBTR), where activities such as hiking, swimming, canoeing, and socializing with friends and family often occur. In some cases, hunting may also occur within a protected area, but there is little understanding of how such activities affect the experience and overall satisfaction of other recreationists (and vise-versa). While NBTR is a popular and growing industry, there is limited research in Canada about the values of tourists and recreationists and the …