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Great Plains Research, 23-2 Fall 2013, Editorial Matter, Richard Edwards, Peter Longo

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Masthead

Contents

Volume Introduction, by Richard Edwards & Peter Longo

Instructions to authors

The Role Of Suburbia In The Attribution Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Jochen Albrecht, Peter Marcotullio, Andrea Sarzynski, Niels Schulz

Publications and Research

The original goal of the research presented here was to quantify by world region, the contribution of urbanized areas to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (EDGAR, 2011). Regressions on population density and growth rate, GDP, and heating/cooling degree days, as well as a row of other non-significant variables, show that the contribution of urban extents is between 38% and 49% of total emissions (Marcotullio et al., 2012). In spite of using very liberal definitions of urban extents (GRUMP, 2011) this is at the low end of academic estimates (Satterthwaite, 2008; WEO, 2008; Dhakal, 2010). It is no surprise that the …

Security Here Is Not Safe': Violence, Punishment, & Space In The Contemporary U.S. Penitentiary, Karen M. Morin

Faculty Journal Articles

The US penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, was retrofitted in 2008 to offer the country’s first federal Special Management Unit (SMU) program of its kind. This model SMU is designed for federal inmates from around the country identified as the most intractably troublesome, and features double-celling of inmates in tiny spaces, in 23-hour or 24-hour a day lockdown, requiring them to pass through a two-year program of readjustment. These spatial tactics, and the philosophy of punishment underlying them, contrast with the modern reform ideals upon which the prison was designed and built in 1932. The SMU represents the latest punitive phase …

Avalanche Chronology Of The Maple Mountain/Spanish Fork Peak Avalanche Paths, Kimball Hansen, Dr. Matthew Bekker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I began planning my project of the avalanche chronology of the Maple Mountain/Spanish Fork Peak Avalanche Paths in 2009 while applying for the ORCA grant. I was currently wrapping up a similar project of an avalanche chronology of Loafer Mountain near Woodland Hills Peak. This later project helped form a basis for the new avalanche path near Spanish Fork Peak. Since the two paths are relatively close to each other in the Wasatch Mountain Range, I can use the chronology found from Loafer Mountain avalanche path with the new path I will be researching and correlate the data and help …

The Effects Of Migration On Salvadoran Families, Teresa Gomez, Dr. Matthew Shumway

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The results of our research were presented on April 14th at the Annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in the “Immigrants in the USA” session. The presentation was successful. Afterward presenting, we had the opportunity to talk with other professors studying migration that were interested in our research.

Understory Diversity And Succession On Coarse Woody Debris In A Coastal, Old-Growth Forest, Oregon, Shannon Lee Mcdonald

Dissertations and Theses

This research examines the relationship between understory plant diversity and logs in a Pacific Northwest (PNW) Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)-western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) old-growth, coastal forest. These forests are renowned for their high forest productivity, frequent wind storms, and slow log decomposition rates that produce unmatched accumulations of coarse woody debris (CWD) yet few studies have examined the relationship between CWD and understory vegetation ecology. My research addressed this topic by comparing understory plant census data between paired fallen log and forest floor sites (n=20 pairs). My objectives were to: 1) determine the influence of substrate type on community composition …

Identifying Potential Wilderness Areas On The Fremont-Winema National Forest With Arcgis Modelbuilder, Zach Adams

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Fremont-Winema National Forest administers over two million acres in south central Oregon. Part of managing this landscape includes overseeing existing wilderness areas and identifying new potential wilderness areas. In the past this process has been cumbersome, with little thought given to standardizing the effort across the administrative area. This project was an effort to develop a geospatial model that incorporates U.S. Forest Service spatial datasets ultimately standardizing the potential wilderness identification process during site specific NEPA analysis.

Gis Analysis Of Placer Gold Mining Potential In The Yuba River Watershed, California, J. D. Chandler

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Can a Geographic Information System (GIS) be used to analyze and locate precise geographic locations along rivers and creeks that have high potential for placer gold extraction in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California?

Spacing Units In The Greater Wattenberg Area, Tera Dillon

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Horizontal wells are the most commonly drilled wells in the Wattenberg Field, located in Weld County, Colorado. Petroleum engineers have become interested in determining how many horizontal wells can economically be drilled per section in this vertically, well-developed field. Using the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s spacing unit regulations as a guide, a GIS workflow was developed to create the deliverables required for further analysis. Spacing units were created by applying a buffer to horizontal well surveys, and using this buffer to select intersecting quarter-quarter sections. The selected quarter-quarter sections were simplified using the dissolve tool and then spatially …

Guidance In Feature Extraction To Resolve Uncertainty, Boris Kovalerchuk, Michael Kovalerchuk, Simon Streltsov, Matthew Best

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

Automated Feature Extraction (AFE) plays a critical role in image understanding. Often the imagery analysts extract features better than AFE algorithms do, because analysts use additional information. The extraction and processing of this information can be more complex than the original AFE task, and that leads to the “complexity trap”. This can happen when the shadow from the buildings guides the extraction of buildings and roads. This work proposes an AFE algorithm to extract roads and trails by using the GMTI/GPS tracking information and older inaccurate maps of roads and trails as AFE guides.

Evaluation Of A Coupled Event-Driven Phenology And Evapotranspiration Model For Croplands In The United States Northern Great Plains, V. Kovalskyy, G. M. Henebry, D. P. Roy, B. Adusei, M. Hansen, G. Senay, D. M. Mocko

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

A new model coupling scheme with remote sensing data assimilation was developed for estimation of daily actual evapotranspiration (ET). The scheme consists of the VegET, a model to estimate ET from meteorological and water balance data, and an Event Driven Phenology Model (EDPM), an empirical crop specific model trained on multiple years of flux tower data transformed into six types of environmental forcings that are called “events” to emphasize their temporally discrete character, which has advantages for modeling multiple contingent influences. The EDPM in prognostic mode supplies seasonal trajectories of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); whereas in diagnostic mode, it …

¿Del Mar Quién Es Dueño? Artisanal Fisheries, Tourism Development, And The Struggles Over Access To Marine Resources In Playa Gigante, Nicaragua, Nikolai Alexander Alvarado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In post-revolutionary Nicaragua tourism development has been embraced as a way to inject foreign exchange into an ailing economy. Despite rapid growth of the sector, particularly along Nicaragua's southwestern Pacific coast, little attention has been given to the impacts of this development on local producers. This research focuses on the tourism development taking place in the fishing community of Playa Gigante and its impacts on artisanal fisheries. Additionally, I focus on the struggles over access to marine resources, especially with creation of La Anciana Marine Protected Area (MPA), a marine conservation corridor being pushed forth by the largest resort development …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Environmental Health Risks Among New Mothers: A Qualitative Study In Ontario, Canada, Eric Crighton, C Brown, Jamie Baxter, L Lemyre, J R. Masuda, F Ursitti

Geography & Environment Publications

There is a growing awareness and concern in contemporary societies about potential health impacts of environmental contaminants on children. Mothers are traditionally more involved than other family members in managing family health and household decisions and thus targeted by public health campaigns to minimise risks. However little is known about how new mothers perceive and experience environmental health risks to their children. In 2010, we undertook a parallel case study using qualitative, in-depth interviews with new mothers and focus groups with public health key informants in two Public Health Units in Ontario Province, Canada. We found that the concern about …

Alaska Winter's Relationship To Domestic Violence And Alcohol Abuse, Jennifer Marie Read

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Alaska is known for its long, dark, cold winter months. Daylight savings time exists to cope with months that have little sunlight, but that still leaves on average, five hours of daylight. Special light bulbs exist to help with the darkness by providing light that tricks the body into thinking it is getting more sun than it really is. As daylight decreases, the weather turns colder; depression, alcohol, and domestic violence begin to rise. Studies show alcohol related crime and domestic violence occur more during the winter months in Alaska. This research paper will analyze the data pertaining to alcohol …

Mapping Human-Environment Connections On The Olympic Peninsula: An Atlas Of Landscape Values, Rebecca J. Mclain, Lee Cerveny, Diane Besser, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Stephanie Rohdy, Corinna Kimball-Brown

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 7

The advent of computerized mapping has land managers’ ability to map the biophysical services provided by forested ecosystems. However, mapping the cultural services of those systems is more challenging. Human ecology mapping (HEM), which provides spatially-explicit depictions of the complex connections between humans and their environment, is an approach that can be used to improve understandings of the cultural services associated with landscapes. This atlas provides an overview of what HEM is and draws on experiences with a pilot project on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington to illustrate what HEM data looks …

Producing Africa At The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Helen A. Regis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Natural Resource Condition Assessment For Sequoia And Kings Canyon National Parks, Appendix 16 - Bats, Alice Chung-Maccoubrey

United States National Park Service: Publications

Scope of Analysis

North American bats are highly unique animals that have historically been overlooked by land managers and misunderstood by the public. Bats are unique as the only true flying mammals and due to their exceptionally long lives (5-15 years) and unusually low reproductive rates (typically one young per year) for their small size. Most North American bat species are insectivorous, serve as the primary predators of nocturnal insects, and can consume up to one-third of their weight in insects per night. Thus, bats play a role in regulating insect populations, insect-related ecological processes, and nutrient redistribution and cycling …

Blm Riparian Area Management Technical Reference: Using Uas Remotes Sensing Imagery To Assess Proper Functioning Condition Of Riparian-Wetland Areas, Heather Fonda

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was loaned older military Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and is pioneering their employment for land management applications. Riparian areas make up a small percentage of BLM lands but are some of the most environmentally and economically valuable. Assessments of these riparian areas are required by law. Assessments from UAS imagery could become an important monitoring tool that is cheaper, safer and allows access to previously unreachable areas. This capstone project tests the UAS imagery for conducting riparian proper functioning condition (PFC) and quantitative assessments; and includes a technical reference with an interpretation key and …

The Impact Of Westernization On The Fijian Birth Model, Sophia Heick

Social Sciences

Over the past 200 years a dramatic shift in the method of birth has occurred in the world and especially in the United States. Birth has been transformed from a common event overseen by a local midwife, a process that was common and largely mysterious as it lacked any scientific understanding, to an infrequent event overwhelmingly overseen by obstetricians and scientifically dissected in attempts to maximize health outcomes. Although many countries have gone through a transition similar to this, this specific transition is unique to the culture of the United States. With the impact that US Western culture is having …

Geographical Spread Of Asians In California, Lydia Tang

Social Sciences

The goal of my senior project is to perform a spatial analysis of Asian American settlement patterns within California. With my findings, I want to predict future Asian immigrant settlement patterns, places within California that they will likely cluster around, the rate of immigration, and how their increasing or decreasing presence in California affects California’s urban and economic climate. What I hope to achieve from this study is an understanding for why certain areas attract more Asians than others. By finding the answers to the following questions, I will be able to forecast the future spread of Asian Americans in …

Tourism In China With An Emphasis On Shanghai: A City Thriving Off Of The Future, Not The Past, Eileen Wu

Social Sciences

Tourism is an important industry throughout the world, not only does tourism create an influx of visitors to a certain destination, but it also creates millions of jobs around the world. Ever since China's opening reveal to the world in 1978, the tourism industry has increased and is a thriving business throughout the country. With the growing middle class of the Chinese population and their disposable incomes, tourism has increased not only internationally, but also domestically. More specifically, Shanghai has been a booming city with the recent renovation of Pudong, improvements in infrastructure for upscale accommodations, and the hosting of …

Energy Conservation And Green Roofing, Michael Meskin

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Data Storage Alternatives For A Gridded Crop Disease Risk Forecasting System, Paul J. Roehsner

Masters Theses

Three separate storage technologies able to serve gridded data were selected for comparison of performance in terms of providing speed and expandability to a crop disease forecasting system. The three storage technologies chosen were PostgreSQL (a relational database management system), MongoDB (NoSQL system), and netCDF files. Speed tests were performed for each by running two different crop disease risk forecasting models requiring data of different spatiotemporal resolutions. Multiple trials were done using different storage hardware. Systems were then qualitatively compared for expandability by noting the process involved in adding successive crop disease forecasting models.

It was found that due to …

Change And Continuity: Euro-American And Native American Settlement Patterns In The St. Joseph River Valley, Allison M. Kohley

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a particular interest in the fur trade and colonialism through identification and investigation of Fort St. Joseph. This fort was an 18th century French trading post in the St. Joseph River valley located in southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana. This study expands our current understanding of the change and continuity of the Euro- American and Native American settlement patterns in the valley during the periods immediately prior to, during, and after the abandonment of Fort St. Joseph through the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analyses.

The Effectiveness Of The New Town Policy In Managing Growth And Congestion In Mega Cities: A Case Study Of Lagos, Nigeria New Town Policy, Abolaji Samson Olanipekun

Masters Theses

One of the major challenges facing municipal governments of megacities in developing countries is shortage of urban infrastructures relative to population growth. Because cities play important role in the economic development of every nation, problems confronting them require proactive policy measures by the government. One such mega city is Lagos, Nigeria. From 1962 to 2006, the population of Lagos grew from 1,135,805 to 17.5 million. Crammed on a 2200 square kilometer land area of which 18.9%, Lagos population is projected to reach 20.5 million by 2015, an explosion largely driven by the non-regulatory internal migration system. The result of this …

The Development Of An Electronic Data Collection Tool And Comparison Of The Electronic And Manual Methods Of Land Use Inventory, Wesley M. Catanzaro

Master's Theses

An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information …

Gis-Based Flood Analysis For Adequate Flood Mitigation In An Unplanned Urban Area; The Case Of Pikine Dagoudane In Dakar County, Senegal, Sokhna Helene Diop

Masters Theses

Since 1989, Pikine Dagoudane, in the suburbs of Dakar City has faced several flooding events, resulting in economic loss, environmental degradation and severe disturbance of the social life of the residents. The mitigation programs implemented have not appeared to provide any relief since 2000. Review of the existing literature on the crisis has revealed that the general scale of the studies, and the insufficient attention to some of the major factors could be accounted for such little efficiency. This thesis applies a different approach, based on a small area and focusing mainly on topographic characteristics, to provide a better understanding …

Lone Parents, Leisure Mobilities And The Everyday, Bernadette Quinn

Books / Book chapters

This chapter highlights the importance of the ordinary as a site for enquiring into how people make sense of their worlds. The primary intention is to highlight the spatiality of everyday leisure practices and to unravel some of the connections that link these to the occasional leisure practice of holidaying. Empirically, the study focuses on a group of female lone parents of dependent children living on low incomes in Dublin. In Ireland as elsewhere, lone parent families constitute a sizeable, growing but marginal societal group. For the women studied, leisure constituted informal, unstructured and modest activities that were stitched into …

Using Remotely Sensed Data To Detect Tamarisk Along Colorado’S San Miguel River, William E. Johnson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Tamarisk, an invasive tree native to Eurasia, has become widespread in river corridors across the southwestern United States. Accused of excessive water consumption and degradation of native habitats, it has been the target of extensive eradication and restoration efforts. Identifying its ever-changing distribution and extent benefits natural resource managers tasked with planning and prioritizing invasive plant management activities.

The use of GIS tools and remotely sensed data offers the potential to speed and improve our ability to locate tamarisk distributions. This project searches for tamarisk by classifying land cover vegetation (including tamarisk) based on spectral reflectance values from three-band natural …

A New View On Ski Maps, Greg Schonberger

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Traditional ski area trail maps have remained mostly unchanged for many decades. Since the earliest maps were produced, they have shown picturesque panoramic views of the ski mountain nestled in with its the surrounding peaks. Trees individually painted on the slopes, pristine and snow-covered, the runs marked as a winter wonderland. These maps are each an individual work of art, painstakingly created by skilled artists but they are not quality maps. This project will present a new view on the ski area map, creating a more traditional topographic map depicting ski runs, elevation contours, and shaded topography. The project will …