Digital Commons Network^™

Energy, U.S. Department Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides information about the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies and how DOE influences federal energy policy and scientific research in the western U.S.

Defense, U.S. Department Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of U.S. Department of Defense activities in the western U.S. including the military's increasing emphasis on Asia-Pacific strategic trends and developments.

Aridity, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of how aridity in the American West has influenced that region's economic, environmental, and political development and U.S. Government policies in this region.

Conservatism, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of late 20th and early 21st century conservatism and its impact on western U.S. politics and national politics. Stresses the roles played by individuals such as Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan,and George W. Bush and their influence on western conservatism. Analyzes how conservatism has been influenced by policy research institutions and advocacy groups such as the Claremont Institute and Focus on the Family. Reviews areas of collaboration and contention in western conservatism between economic, national security, and social conservatives and more libertarian elements. Examines the rise of the Tea Party movement in response to Obama Administration policies and …

Agriculture, U.S. Department Of, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a succinct organizational history of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its impact on the American West.

Colorado River Compact (1922), Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of the 1922 Colorado River Compact seeking to fairly distribute Colorado River water to Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and their increasing populations.

Hydroelectric Power, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview and contemporary analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of federal government support for hydroelectric power in the American West.

Oil Industry, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of the historical and contemporary development of the American oil industry and how it has impacted U.S. natural resources policies in the American west.

Mining, Uranium, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of uranium mining's role and influence in the American West with comparative information on uranium mining in foreign countries.

Subsidies, Agricultural, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides historical and contemporary information on U.S. Government agricultural subsidies and how they affect agricultural policy in the Western U.S.

Negotiating Neoliberalism: Community-Based Organizations And The Production Of Urban Place, Caroline S. Devany

Geography Honors Projects

Focusing on two community-based organizations’ roles in producing urban place, this thesis contributes to the “New Urban Politics” literature that explores the neoliberal governance of space. Synthesizing participant observation, informant interviews and ideas introduced in Henri Lefebvre’s Production of Space my thesis explores the possibility of aesthetic practices rooted in everyday life to create alternate subjectivities of people and place. While both organizations engage urban governance in ways that do not directly contest neoliberalization, they each affirm participants as agents in the production of urban place in ways that can destabilize the marketization of everyday life.

Agricultural Production And Stability Of Settlement Systems In Upper Mesopotamia During The Early Bronze Age (Third Millennium Bce), Tuna Kalayci

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between rainfall variation and rain-fed agricultural production in Upper Mesopotamia with a specific focus on Early Bronze Age urban settlements. In return, the variation in production is used to explore stability of urban settlement systems. The organization of the flow of agricultural goods is the key to sustaining the total settlement system.

The vulnerability of a settlement system increases due to the increased demand for more output from agricultural lands. This demand is the key for the success of urbanization project. However, without estimating how many foodstuffs were available at the end of a production …

A Pedagogical Simulation Of The Spatial Distribution Of Carbon Flux Dynamics In Peat Soils, Alan Gilmer

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

For Want Of Sloops, Water Casks, And Rum: The Difficulties Of Logistics In The Canadian Theater Of The Seven Years War, Daniel Bazan

Masters Theses

The thesis examines the various difficulties with logistics the British needed to overcome in Canada during the Seven Years War and those who helped . Without the necessary supplies and provisions for frontier campaigning, Britain would have lost the war. The thesis provides primary accounts of the geography during the war, various logistical factors, and the men that helped provide the necessary materials for the successful outcome of the British offensive in Canada.

Integrating, Developing, And Testing Methods To Generate More Cohesive Approaches To Biogeographic Inference, Mallory Elizabeth Eckstut

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As a fundamental component of the developing discipline of conservation biogeography, broadscale analyses of biotic assembly and disassembly across multiple temporal and spatial scales provide an enhanced understanding of how geologic transformations and climate oscillations have shaped extant patterns of biodiversity. As with any scientific field, there are limitations in the case of biogeographic historical reconstructions. Historical reconstructions are only as robust as the theoretical underpinnings of the methods of reconstruction (including data collection, quality, analysis, and interpretation). Nevertheless, historical reconstructions of species distributions can help inform our understanding of how species respond to environmental change.

My dissertation takes a …

The Evaluation Of Water Storage In Death Valley Using Grace Satellite Data, Maile Sweigart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As drought conditions spread across the United States, concerns over water supplies, water use, and water management policies are growing and possible contributing environmental factors are continually being scrutinized. This thesis examines Death Valley as an analog for Southern Nevada and utilizes NASA EOS data, combined with ancillary climate data, to assess the effect of decadal climate variability on groundwater storage in the Death Valley area. Historical climate data, combined with satellite imagery observations, were compiled and calculated for analyses. Conclusions derived from statistical analyses infer trends between GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite data and fluctuating levels of …

Landscape Epidemiology And Machine Learning: A Geospatial Approach To Modeling West Nile Virus Risk In The United States, Sean Gregory Young

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The complex interactions between human health and the physical landscape and environment have been recognized, if not fully understood, since the ancient Greeks. Landscape epidemiology, sometimes called spatial epidemiology, is a sub-discipline of medical geography that uses environmental conditions as explanatory variables in the study of disease or other health phenomena. This theory suggests that pathogenic organisms (whether germs or larger vector and host species) are subject to environmental conditions that can be observed on the landscape, and by identifying where such organisms are likely to exist, areas at greatest risk of the disease can be derived. Machine learning is …

A Conceptual Model Of Exploration Wayfinding: An Integrated Theoretical Framework And Computational Methodology, Matthew Lee Tenney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an attempt to integrate contending cognitive approaches to modeling wayfinding behavior. The primary goal is to create a plausible model for exploration tasks within indoor environments. This conceptual model can be extended for practical applications in the design, planning, and Social sciences. Using empirical evidence a cognitive schema is designed that accounts for perceptual and behavioral preferences in pedestrian navigation. Using this created schema, as a guiding framework, the use of network analysis and space syntax act as a computational methods to simulate human exploration wayfinding in unfamiliar indoor environments. The conceptual model provided is then implemented …

Site Location Modeling And Prehistoric Rock Shelter Selection On The Upper Cumberland Plateau Of Tennessee, Lucinda M. Langston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using data collected from 2 archaeological surveys of the Upper Cumberland Plateau (UCP), Pogue Creek Gorge and East Obey, a site location model was developed for prehistoric rock shelter occupation in the region. Further, the UCP model was used to explore factors related to differential site selection of rock shelters. Different from traditional approaches such as those that use (aspatial) logistic regression, the UCP model was developed using spatial logistic regression. However, models were also generated using other regression-based approaches in an effort to demonstrate the need for a spatial approach to archaeological site location modeling. Based on the UCP …

Drive-By Geography: Perceptions Of Urban Growth And Land Use In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Courtney Shea Norville

Master's Theses

One of the most important mechanisms in which human societies have transformed the earth is through urbanization. Land use changes such as from cropland to businesses are important ways in which urban growth transforms landscapes. This study uses qualitative and quantitative methods in order to visualize where urban growth and landscape changes are occurring between Hattiesburg and Columbia, Mississippi within the first decade of the 21st century. The methods I used involved conducting transects and creating hand-drawn maps, conversion of hand-drawn maps into ArcGIS shapefiles for interpretation and analysis, and lastly juxtaposition of shapefiles onto Landsat imagery. To analyze the …

Using Geographic Information Systems To Select Suitable Columbian Sharp-Tailed Grouse Habitat In Northern Idaho, Jennifer Grew

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Columbian sharp-tailed grouse was once the most abundant game bird in the Inland Northwest area. The main reason for their loss was the conversion of their habitat into agricultural lands and timber forests. Several variables were incorporated into a weighted sum tool in ArcGIS using public raster layers for each of three seasons. The results layers were analyzed using the same tool to find the most suitable habitat. Six locations in the county had 50% or better suitability. One location showed 80% or better. The grouse historic range appears to coincide with Palouse prairielands in Benewah County. Further research …

The Human Face Of Permanent Climate-Induced Displacement, Alaina Umbach

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Climate change is predicted to lead to mass displacement, since the land where millions of people currently live will be, at some point, covered with water. For some populations, this will mean to be permanently displaced to a different country because the territory that their sovereign nations occupy will disappear. The most well‐known cases involve the citizens of Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Maldives. As the negative impact of climate change becomes clearer and closer in time, policy solutions to this problem are discussed. In this paper, I look at previous cases of populations’ displacement to identify policy lessons that …

Climate Change And Politics: A Connection Between Congressional Voting And Our Warming Planet Using Gis, Kelsie Rudolph

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

While climate change is widely accepted by the scientific community, it is not as accepted in the political world. Recently, there was an amendment to a bill put to a vote in the House of Representatives to accept that climate change is occurring and has anthropogenic causes. This amendment did not pass. This project aims to find a connection between the voting record of the representatives and the average temperature change over the last 50 years in their districts. Data from the Library of Congress, as well as NOAA will be analyzed using GIS methods. It is hypothesized that there …

The Effects Of Obesity, Eating Habits, And Lack Of Physical Activity Leading To Heart Disease, Natalie Jarrett

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Obesity has become a major problem throughout the United States. By the year 2030, a projection report has estimated that all 50 states could have obesity rates above 44 percent. Throughout the spring semester, I have been working on a project using the mapping program ArcGIS to show the greatest areas for obesity within Cook County, Illinois. The project deliverables will be in the form of a map of Cook County that will determine areas of highest obesity. The map will show fast food restaurants, parks, and income level. Once the map is completed, it will be determined whether highest …

A Gis Analysis Of Environmental Justice In Lake And Porter Counties, Halina Hopkins

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Starting with the publication in 1987 of the United Church of Christ Racial Justice Commission Report "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States," environmental justice research addresses the geospatial relation between environmental hazards and the social characteristics of the communities hosting toxic sites. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allows environmental justice researchers to consider questions involving public policy, health effects, risk analysis, and more nuanced considerations of race, income, and injustice. This project is an analysis of environmental justice in two counties in northwest Indiana: Lake County, which contains the city of Gary; and Porter County, an adjacent county with …

An Examination Of The Occurrence Of Divorce And Social And Demographic Factors Within Chicago, Louise Hahn

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

This research looks at the occurrence of divorce among Cook County-Chicago census tracts from data gathered from the 2006-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) of the U.S. Census Bureau. Previous research has looked at various factors believed to affect the divorce rate of a country, in particular the economic development, average educational attainment, and participation of women in the labor force. These past studies have often found a significant and positive correlation between divorce and a country's economic development, educational attainment, and participation of women in the labor force. However, these studies have mostly focused on cross-national boundaries, thus allowing for …

Changes In Indiana Water Usage Rates Related To Population From 1990-2005, Using Gis Analysis, Alexandra Olson

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Water is arguably our most important resource and the issue of its sustainability arises with our ever expanding population. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has five accessible data sets on their website regarding the water usage rates of each county in Indiana from 1985 to 2005. It does not provide any comparison among these years or display any maps regarding this data. Because this analysis is missing, I will focus on the correlation between water usage rates and population averages in each county of Indiana during the same years. I will then create a series of maps that display this …

Watts Up With That: Comparing Wind Farms In Texas And California While Explaining Why Farm Quantity Does Not Overcome Wind Quality, Alexandra Thompson

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Since the 1980s, California has been the leader in wind energy for the United States. In 2004, wind energy produced 1.5 percent of the state’s electricity. That is 4,258 x 108 kilowatt hours per year. The California wind farms producing the most energy are located in three regions: Altamont Pass, Tehachapi, and San Gorgonio. Research for California will be focused on the southern part of the state – the regions of Tehachapi and San Gorgonio. Presently, California has five major wind farms. This project will examine the major wind farms in both Texas and California. California was in the number …

Enhancing Interest In Stem At Nw Indiana Middle And High Schools Through Balloon Launches And Tracking, Mark Spychala, Raymond Finzel

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

Our vision with this project is to develop and implement a research project led by undergraduates from Valparaiso University (VU) that would involve the participation of local middle and high school students in innovative balloon payloads . Under the guidance of Dr. Gary Morris, two VU undergraduate students will develop their designs, then present and test their system at local schools to help instill excitement about STEM in curious young minds. All students (college, middle, and high school) gain knowledge, experience, and confidence in STEM-related areas. The primary goal of this project is to provide competency-building education and research opportunities …

Dendroclimatology And Streamflow In Utah County, Nathan Gill, Dr. Matthew Bekker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study was the first step in a larger effort by the Wasatch Dendroclimatology Research (WADR) group, consisting of researchers at Brigham Young University and Utah State University, to develop a better understanding of hydroclimatology in northern Utah. Our specific goals were to develop preliminary reconstructions of streamflow beyond the historical record for the Provo and Weber Rivers and Big Cottonwood Creek, all important contributors to the water resources of the heavily urbanized Wasatch Front.