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Fire Type Classification In The Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome, Sanath Kumar Sathyachandran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome (BTMFB) is “Earth’s greatest biological treasure and a major component of the earth system” and forest degradation and deforestation by fire is a serious issue in this region. Fires in the BTMFB can be broadly classified as maintenance, deforestation and forest fire types. Spatially and temporally explicit information on the incidences of fire types are important as they have widely varying atmospheric emissions and ecological impacts. Satellite based remote sensing is a practical means of monitoring the BTMFB that spans almost 4 million km2. However, there has been no way to reliably …

Transnational Policy Articulations: India, Agriculture, And The Wto, Christopher L. Blackden

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Agriculture remains one of the most contentious issues in the ongoing negotiations of the World Trade Organization, with serious implications for food security and the livelihood of farmers in the developing world. This dissertation examines the formation of agricultural trade policy and the politics and arguments surrounding it within the context of India’s position in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The research has two components. A set of archival documents relating to India’s participation in a WTO institution called the Trade Policy Review (TPR) was analyzed. In addition, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with a number of Indian experts and officials …

Convergence Of Dune Topography Among Multiple Barrier Island Morphologies, Jackie Ann Monge

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Wave-dominated and mixed tidal and wave energy barrier islands are assumed to have characteristic dune topographies that link to their macroscale form. However, there has been no systematic attempt to describe the linkage between barrier island macroscale form and dune topography. The goal of this thesis was to investigate how dune topographies correspond to a number of barrier island morphologies found along the southeastern U.S. Atlantic coast. Macroscale process-form variables were used to classify 77 islands into seven morphologic clusters. Islands from each cluster were selected and sites characteristic of the range of dune topographies within islands were characterized using …

Redefining Development: Exploring Alternative Economic Practices In Appalachia, Amanda Fickey

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines alternative economic practices and regional economic development strategies in the Appalachian region. First, I deconstruct regional economic development policies and practices. I argue that policy documents produced by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the State of Kentucky have often limited economic imaginings through the perpetuation of regional stereotypes and short-term, decontextualized strategies. Then, I explore the existence of alternative economic practices as well as the contradictory role of the state within the context of Eastern Kentucky’s craft industry. Using a mixed methods approach, I investigate how the state simultaneously supports cooperative craft production by perpetuating a geographical …

The Human–Hookworm Assemblage: Contingency And The Practice Of Helminthic Therapy, Sophia Anne Strosberg

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Through a qualitative analysis of the use of intestinal parasites for treating immune system disorders, this research illustrates how contingency emerges in the context of the human relationship to hookworms. The affect of the human–nonhuman relationship is an important part of understanding the direction of evolutionary medicine today, and has implications for the politics of biological health innovations. The shift from the bad parasite to a parasite that at least sometimes heals, discursively and materially, has opened new spaces for patients to change the way they relate to medical knowledge, medical professionals, and pharmaceutical companies. Hookworms are banned by the …

Entrepreneurial Planning And Urban Economic Development: The Case Of Establishing Commuter Rail In Orlando, Florida, Timothy J. Brock

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Rooted in the theories of urban entrepreneurialism, this dissertation employs a political economy framework as a means of analyzing urban governance and economic development in the contemporary US city. This case study of Orlando adds to our understanding of how entrepreneurial narratives are being applied to transportation infrastructure projects in pursuit of local economic development.

The empirical case study explores the relationship between planning narratives, urban governance and economic development in the establishment of the SunRail commuter rail system in central Florida. I present the political history of economic development and the role of local boosters in shaping the sociospatial …

Carbon Forestry: Pursuing Climate Change Mitigation And Poverty Alleviation Through Market-Based Forest Carbon Schemes In Chiapas, Mexico, Jonathan Otto

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Forest carbon projects seek to alleviate rural poverty and mitigate global climate change by facilitating the flow of capital from actors looking to offset CO2 emissions to land managers willing to engage in offset-oriented reforestation, afforestation, and forest preservation activities. In Mexico, forest carbon schemes have been pursued within the country’s national Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, and through REDD+ pilot projects and separate voluntary initiatives. In this dissertation, I explore one voluntary project, Scolel’ Te, which is managed by the non-governmental organization (NGO), AMBIO. Focusing on the case of Scolel’ Te, I show how forest carbon projects undermine …

Recent Trends In Temperature And Relative Humidity In Bawku East, Northern Ghana, Kwasi Frimpong, Jacques D. Oosthuizen, Eddie J. Van Etten

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Extensive analyses of trends in mean annual and mean seasonal minimum and maximum temperatures and relative humidity were examined for Bawku East, northern Ghana, for the period 1961 to 2012. Mean monthly maximum and minimum temperatures were used to analyse and establish recent temperature trends on an annual and seasonal basis. The year was divided into rainy and dry seasons for the seasonal trends. Mean monthly relative humidity at 6 am and 3 pm from 1961 to 2012 were considered to show recent trends in humidity since temperature and humidity interact to determine the heat exposure for outdoor workers. Regression …

Bastard Immigrants: Asylum Seekers Who Arrive By Boat And The Illegitimate Fear Of The Other, Lelia R. Green, Anne Aly

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The human capacity to marginalise and discriminate against others on the basis of innate and constructed characteristics is evident from the long history of discrimination against people whose existence is ‘illegitimate’, defined as being outside the law. What is inside or outside the law depends upon the context under consideration. For example, in societies such as ancient Greece and the antebellum United States, where slavery was legal, people who were constructed as ‘slaves’ could legitimately be treated very differently from ‘citizens’: free people who benefit from a range of human rights (Northup). The discernment of what is legitimate from that …

Penn Place Transit Plan: Connecting & Engaging The Emu-Ypsilanti Community, Michael Strugala

Graduate Capstone Projects

The overall mission and vision for the Peninsular Place Neighborhood Study area is to increase collaboration amongst stakeholders, residents, businesses, and the EMU community to increase walkability, enhance pedestrian safety (in and around the park), deter criminal activity, repair broken and outdated infrastructure including sidewalks and antiquated lighting. Furthermore, the Peninsular Place Neighborhood Plan from a transportation perspective will focus on creating nodes of interest, developing key gateway entry points, connecting users to the AATA route, and establishing connectivity between Eastern Michigan University, Peninsular Place Park, Frog Island Park, and Depot Town. Additionally, the transportation plan will provide a robust …

A Resilience-Based Approach To The Conservation Of Valley Oak In A Southern California Landscape, James J. Hayes, Shannon Donnelly

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

Conservation thinking will benefit from the incorporation of a resilience perspective of landscapes as social-ecological systems that are continually changing due to both internal dynamics and in response to external factors such as a changing climate. The examination of two valley oak stands in Southern California provides an example of the necessity of this systems perspective where each stand is responding differently as a result of interactions with other parts of the landscape. One stand is experiencing regeneration failure similar to other stands across the state, and is exhibiting shifts in spatial pattern as a response to changing conditions. A …

Landscape And Impervious Surface Mapping In The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Using Feature Recognition And Decision Tree Techniques, Philipp Nagel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) and Impervious Surface Area (ISA) are important parameters for many environmental studies, and serve as an essential tool for decision makers and stakeholders in Urban & Regional planning. Newly available high spatial resolution aerial ortho-imagery and LiDAR data, in combination with specialized, object-oriented and decision-tree classification techniques, allow for accurate mapping of these features. In this study, a method was developed to first classify LULC using an object-based classifier, and then use the resulting map as input for a decision-tree model to classify ISA in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area in Minnesota. It was …

Birds And Beaches: The Affective Geographies And Sense Of Place Of Participants In The Coasst Citizen Science Program, Benjamin Kent Haywood

Theses and Dissertations

Participatory science research initiatives within the natural sciences like citizen science or crowd sourcing have enjoyed a recent explosion in popularity due to the efficient and expansive data collection processes they foster and the opportunities for general science outreach and education they provide. Now often the tool of choice among informal science outreach practitioners, Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) programs are purported to expand knowledge and understanding of science and ecology, increase the relevancy of science for society, and cultivate more environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Despite such claims, the influence and impact of participatory science engagement is still …

Sacred Social Spaces: Finding Community And Negotiating Identity For American-Born Converts To Islam, Sarah A. Soliman

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines the religious experiences of American-born converts to Islam. The social nature of religion has been long ignored in research on the lives of religious people. A review of research on Muslim identities reveals an emphasis on immigrants, women, and youth in the British context. However, there is little to no research on the unique constituency of converts to Islam and the importance of social aspects of faith for establishing a sustainable and transformative practice of Islam. This research closes this gap through a case study of the religious experiences of American-born converts to Islam.

Through in-depth interviews …

Buying A Colonial Dream: The Role Of Lifestyle Migrants In The Gentrification Of The Historic Center Of Granada, Nicaragua, Abigail Foulds

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation aims to expand our understanding of how lifestyle migrants from the Global North impact the urban space of a Global South city, particularly the built environment. In order to situate the questions posed in this dissertation, I focus on how lifestyle migrants from the Global North and their foreign capital transform the city of Granada, Nicaragua through processes of gentrification, and how the social and economic climate of the city and its residents are impacted. This research allows for empirically informed theoretical critiques to be made about the economic and social implications of the globalization of gentrification resulting …

Life On The Big Slab: Identity And Mobility In The United States Trucking Industry, Valerie J. Keathley

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Many changes have occurred in the United States trucking industry over the last thirty years. This study examines the effects of these changes by looking at three related themes: life on the road and life at home, body image and bodily health, and the experiences of women and sexual minorities in the industry. This research is based on a discourse analysis of interviews conducted with truck drivers and trucking industry leaders.

Most truck drivers say that they value the independent nature of their workplace. Yet the independence that is a part of the trucker mystique is challenged by increased surveillance …

Subsistence And Biodiversity Conservation In The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, West Bengal, India, Priyanka Ghosh

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

My dissertation research investigates the impacts of biodiversity conservation on the local population living in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR). More specifically, the research examines the impacts of conservation on local fishing communities living on the edge of the Sundarban Reserve Forest. In addition, it examines the causes and characteristics of conflicts between the biosphere reserve managers and the local fishing communities over the resource use of the biosphere reserve. The research project also explores the impacts of ecotourism on the local population that lives on the edge of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR). STR is one of the important …

Biomechanical Effects Of Trees And Soil Thickness In The Cumberland Plateau, Michael Shouse

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Previous research in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas suggests that, on relatively thin soils overlying bedrock, individual trees locally thicken the regolith by root penetration into bedrock. However, that work was conducted mainly in areas of strongly dipping and contorted rock, where joints and bedding planes susceptible to root penetration are more common and accessible. This project extended this concept to the Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, with flat, level-bedded sedimentary rocks. Spatial variability of soil thickness was quantified at three nested spatial scales, and statistical relationships with other potential influences of thickness were examined. In addition, soil depth beneath trees was compared …

Planning And Protest In Memphis: The Limits And Possibilities Of Participatory Discourse, Andrea Craft

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Recent discussions of participatory urban planning have focused largely on municipal-led initiatives for collaborative resident engagement as an increasingly visible trend of neoliberal urban governance. Critical observers have noted the alliance between local government and business interests, and their capacities to manage, co-opt, and depoliticize diverse community-based efforts, and to marginalize dissent, through public-private partnerships, often facilitated by private consultants. Actual practices of participation demonstrate a variety of alternative meanings. This case study of a community-based planning initiative for public housing redevelopment in Memphis, TN challenges and complicates these narratives. The Memphis Housing Authority invited a local community organization to …

Natural Phenomena As Potential Influence On Social And Political Behavior: The Earth’S Magnetic Field, Jackie R. East

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, …

Understanding The Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of The Taimyr Reindeer Herd During The Summer Concentration Period, Matthew D. Cooney

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study was part of a larger research effort devoted to investigation of spatiotemporal patterns and dynamics of the Taimyr Reindeer Herd (TRH) migration under changing climate and environmental conditions. The research aimed to systematize and analyze available historical (archival) data on wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) migration and ecosystems change in the Taimyr Peninsula, Russia. The summer concentration patterns of the TRH as observed from 1969-2009 were investigated through the utilization of existing and innovative spatioanalytic methods and advanced GIS technologies not previously used to examine R. tarandus migration in the Russian Arctic. The project applied and tested the …

Enhancing Geographic Learning And Literacy Through Filmmaking, Christina E. Dando, Jacob J. Chadwick

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

In this media-saturated society, students need to think more critically about the media they encounter and that they are producing. Through filmmaking, students can link geographic theory and the real world, bridging the distance from readings/lectures/ discussions to the geography on the ground, making the abstract concrete. But constructing films also enhances students’ understanding of the communications they consume and the communications they construct (films, television, podcasts, YouTube, etc.). In this article, a student and instructor discuss the making of short films or videos in geography classes and how it can enhance both geographic education and media literacy.

On Dittmer's Popular Culture, Geopolitics, And Identity As A Classroom Resource, Reecia Orzeck, James Craine, Christina E. Dando, Katrinka Somdahl-Sands

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

In this intervention, four geographers, all of whom have used Jason Dittmer's book, Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity, in their classes, assess its status as a teaching resource. All have had considerable success using Dittmer's book, alongside other resources, to cultivate critical thinking and critical knowledge production in a wide range of classes.

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

Food Deserts And Migrant Farmworkers: Assessing Food Access In Oregon's Willamette Valley, Katie Grauel, Kimberlee J. Chambers

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Food insecurity, often correlated with “food deserts,” affects migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) at greater rates than other populations. Our research evaluates the food desert experiences of MSFW communities in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Through GIS mapping, interviews with MSFW, and food retailer inventories, our research helps elucidate the degree to which the geographical distribution of food retailers and the products they carry affects MSFW. Access to food retailers was assessed for distances of 0.25, 1.5, 5, and 10 miles. Mapping locations of registered MSFW labor camps (n = 62) and food retailers (n = 215) in the Willamette Valley revealed …

The Risks Of The Rose City: Assessing The Social Vulnerability Of Communities To Multiple Environmental Hazards In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Daniel R. Logan

Geography Masters Research Papers

In the past three decades, research in the geography of hazards and disasters has expanded beyond the response to hazard events and incorporated the concepts of preparedness, recovery, and mitigation. These issues require a complete understanding of the vulnerability of places to hazards, not only in regards to hazard characteristics but in regards to social and economic conditions as well. This paper offers a case study in hazard exposure and social vulnerability analysis which incorporates the methodology of two previous studies on the same topics. A geographic information system was used to determine vulnerable areas and populations exposed to five …

Industrial Decline In An Industrial Sanctuary Portland’S Central Eastside Industrial District, 1981-2014, Allison Jones

Geography Masters Research Papers

This study examines the evolution of the industrial landscape of Portland, Oregon’s Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID) from the initial declaration in 1981 as an ‘industrial sanctuary’ to the present day. The study recreates the historical landscape of 1981, mapping historical land use data from archived Sanborn maps in GIS. This was then compared to the current landscape of 2014, wherein data gathered from field visits, and online, public land use databases was mapped using GIS.

This paper addresses the recent transformation, looking at patterns within the physical and functional realm; and observing how these changes have influenced the character …

The Cully Park Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden: Place-Making Through Indigenous Eco-Cultural Reclamation, Randall Morris

Geography Masters Research Papers

Portland's history and geography are patterned, like any city, by spatial imaginings both utopian and dystopian. This examination of the raw landscape of the city’s nascent garden space in Cully Park is an attempt to research a third manifestation of space, one that might be called heterotopia. This research into the Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden is a search for a more complete accounting of place, one which also acknowledges the variety of non-human agencies (a list which would include streets, planning documents, various plants, historical accounts, and even the consistent boundaries of the space itself) found in all heterogeneous …

The Cost Of Hauling Timber: A Comparison Of Raster- And Vector- Based Travel-Time Estimates In Gis, Sara M. Loreno

Geography Masters Research Papers

The cost of transporting forest products from harvest site to processing facility is a critical indicator of timber project feasibility. In order to accurately assess these timber haul costs, least-cost travel-time estimates among the site and the facility can be estimated using vector- or raster-based GIS methods. This study explores the applicability of both the raster- and vector-techniques within a variety of landscapes, including forested areas where comprehensive transportation data is limited. A comparison between the travel-time estimates derived from both methods was performed on three study sites using real-world data. The comparison also tested the effect of resolution on …

Property Tax Rates As An Indicator Of Neighborhood Change: An Examination Of An Unanticipated Effect Of Measure 50 In The City Of Portland, Sonia N. Singh

Geography Masters Research Papers

Gentrification and stagnation are two prominent themes in neighborhood development today. The city or Portland, Oregon is experiencing both of these neighborhood stages in different neighborhoods. In Oregon a property tax measure passed in 1997, Measure 50, caused property tax rates to vary by location according to changes in real market values over time. Recent analysis has revealed that property tax rates in Portland follow the spatial patterns of gentrification and stagnation in Portland, and therefore could be contributing neighborhood change. Differential property tax rates have shown to influence mobility and homeownership, two factors of neighborhood change. In order to …