Digital Commons Network^™

Textile Work And Its Interface With Climate Change For Quechua Communities In Peru, Esmeralda Torres-Martinez

Capstone Collection

English – Indigenous communities have argued that their knowledge, lived experiences, and representation are crucial to address the climate transition because their communities have adapted to past climatic changes. Although climate change and culture can be interconnected in ways that are unique to each community, little research is done on how cultural practices can be catalysts for climate action. In fact, communities around the world have sparked socio-political movements from within their cultural context to solve both local and global issues. Therefore, this research asks how the practice of traditional textile making and weaving assist Quechua communities with adapting to …

Shark Wildlife Tourism’S Influence On Conservation Efforts, Elizabeth C. Saraf

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Shark wildlife tourism has the potential to shape pro-environmental values and attitudes, fostering meaningful conservation behaviors. Understanding the influence of participating in shark tourism activities provides valuable insights into its effectiveness as a conservation tool. This study compared different intervention types related to wildlife tourism, including both direct (i.e., swimming with sharks) and indirect (i.e., viewing a related documentary) interactions with sharks. To evaluate the impact of these intervention events, participants were surveyed at three time intervals: before, immediately afterwards, and one month after the event. The surveys assessed respondents’ psychological constructs related to the environment, specifically their value orientations, …

The First Thirty Years Of Green Stormwater Infrastructure In Portland, Oregon, Michaela Koucka, Cara Poor, Jordyn Wolfand, Heejun Chang, Vivek Shandas, Adrienne Aiona, Henry Stevens, Tim Kurtz, Svetlana Hedin, Steve Fancher, Joshua Lighthipe, Adam Zucker

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the past 30 years, the City of Portland, Oregon, USA, has emerged as a national leader in green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). The initial impetus for implementing sustainable stormwater infrastructure in Portland stemmed from concerns about flooding and water quality in the city’s two major rivers, the Columbia and the Willamette. Heavy rainfall often led to combined sewer overflows, significantly polluting these waterways. A partial solution was the construction of “The Big Pipe” project, a large-scale stormwater containment system designed to filter and regulate overflow. However, Portland has taken a more comprehensive and long-term approach by integrating sustainable stormwater management …

The Impact Of The Mcgirt Supreme Court Decision On Federal Water Policy Within Shared Watersheds, Travis Alexander Younce

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation explored the following research question: What are the public policy implications of the McGirt Supreme Court decision on federal water policy and regulations governing shared watersheds between state, tribes, and federal control? Specifically, this study examined the changing freshwater availability within Oklahoma and Montana. Oklahoma is one of the nation’s most diverse water management lands, with over 85% of its water within tribal boundaries. Eleven lakes and reservoirs in central Oklahoma provide water to the increasingly urbanized population. This dissertation aimed to identify integrated regulations regarding water policy and impacts by examining requirements, use, clarity, and climatological data …

Perspectives On Water Policies And Alternative Land Uses Among Alfalfa Farmers In The Great Salt Lake Basin, Bryn Watkins, Stacia Ryder

Publications

Climate change threatens many resources necessary for life. In arid and semiarid regions like Utah, water represents one of the key climate-related conflicts (1,2). In Utah, a changing climate paired with human overconsumption has contributed to the drying of the Great Salt Lake. Rising temperatures will lead to greater evapotranspiration and decreasing headwater streamflow and groundwater storage, resulting in increasing dryness in the Great Salt Lake Basin regardless of human water consumption (3). This in turn threatens the ecosystems, economies, and cultures of the Great Salt Lake Basin, accelerating the local impacts of climate change (4).

Utahns’ Understanding & Support Of Environmental Equity & Justice, Dallin Johnson, Jordan Rowley, Stacia Ryder, Jennifer E. Givens, Avery C. Edenfield, Harley Thomas

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Utah faces its fair share of environmental problems. Top concerns among residents are issues of drought, air quality, and the drying of the Great Salt Lake (1). However, research suggests that the impacts of environmental issues like disasters, pollution, resource overuse and climate change are not shared equally across society (2). This is a challenge for environmental justice, which maintains the need for fair treatment and outcomes for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, and class, with respect to the enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies (3). Put more simply, everyone is entitled to a clean and healthy environment …

Ecological And Social Resilience In Wildfire-Prone Communities, Melissa Burnett

All Theses

Climate projections suggest extreme weather variability, introducing extremely wet years, followed by years with extreme drought. These weather conditions are creating fire weather conducive to increasing wildfires across the southeast over the next century, which can have extreme ecological consequences. The Appalachian Mountains historically had some of the highest fire frequencies in North America but have been subjected to decades of fire suppression and prevention policies, resulting in an environment subject to more high-severity wildfires. The fall of 2016 was one of the driest seasons on record in this region and resulted in intense and destructive fires in the southeastern …

Sustainability: Buzz Word Or Future Of Fashion? Measuring The Feasibility Of Outright Sustainability Among Fast Fashion’S Biggest Agents, Ryan Miller

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

The fashion industry is currently experiencing unsustainable rates of pollution within its supply chains. The rapid increase in demand for short lead times perpetrated by large-scale retailers has led to hazardous practices negatively affecting both the environmental conditions and working conditions of producing countries. With this increased pressure, relationships between brands and suppliers have become untenable. Limited transparency and imbalanced power dynamics at the hand of the industry’s leading retailers require restructuring in order to build more sustainable and equitable supply-chain practices. Further, governmental regulation is currently limited in its capacity to enforce sustainable business practices on a global …

Interdisciplinary Studies At Grand Valley State: Brooks College At Twenty, Eric Covey

Grand Valley Reports and Histories

This study, focused chiefly on academic programs, begins with a brief outline of the history of the Cluster Colleges at Grand Valley State University and then goes on to detail how the arrival of a new provost in 2002 revived and reshaped the idea of an independent college dedicated to interdisciplinary experiments. It was written partially to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies.

An Evaluation Of Key Components Of Natural Resource Camps, Undergraduate Persistence And Success In Natural Resources, Brandy Bishop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the key components that connect natural resource camps, undergraduate persistence, and overall success through gainful employment within the natural resource industry. The aim of this study was to assess early interest and attitudes towards natural resource career pathways and how education interventions shape students’ career outcomes thus leading to overall success. A longitudinal mixed method design was used combining Conservation Careers Camp survey data (n = 39) with institutional records for Forestry majors (n =655) in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. Quantitative data was analyzed through …

Critical Communication Pedagogy At The End Of The World, Tyler S. Rife

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This essay draws upon my experiences teaching the undergraduate course, “Communication at the End of the World,” to argue for an approach to critical communication pedagogy (CCP) contextualized by and reflexively responsive to planetary-scale ecological crises. I outline how five commitments have come to guide my classroom’s explorations through our topic of “end-times” communication: (1) Anthropocentrism and speciesism participate in the maintenance of social hierarchy; (2) environmental justice and social justice are intimately entangled projects; (3) ecological crisis is (re)made concrete, embodied, proximal, and implicative; (4) critique of language involves critique of humanism and humanist historicization; and, (5) ecologically just …

Adapting To Change In Amenity-Oriented Communities: Innovative Strategies For Shifting Social And Environmental Needs, Emma L. R. Epperson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Amenity-oriented communities are places with significant and desirable natural amenities that are highly visited and plentiful within the Intermountain West. These high rates of visitation create complex challenges such as congestion in recreation spaces and in towns and increase costs of living. These communities are typically rural and often do not have the resources, funding, or infrastructure to combat these challenges. Although tourists provide financial stability and other amenities to these towns, local wellbeing is highly impacted. Outdoor recreation and the nature connections derived from outdoor experiences are major contributors to wellbeing in amenity communities. This research investigates the changes …

The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum In Practice: A Classification Of Visitors And Sites In The Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado, Usa, Jessica Bruck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Researchers and public land managers continue to investigate what motivates visitors to recreate and how to best sustain environmental conditions to provide for these recreation demands and support conservation goals. Much recreation research has successfully identified visitor motivations at a single recreation area (spatial scale), but few studies broadly assess the manifestation of visitor motivations at an array of recreation areas that present unique recreation experience opportunities. Additionally, it is known that there are a diversity of visitor motivations and preferences, which presents a complex challenge to public land managers who must ensure that a diversity of recreation opportunities are …

Migration As Adaptation: Place-Based Vulnerability Near The Drying Great Salt Lake, Dallin Johnson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The drying of the Great Salt Lake presents a complex and evolving threat to Utah residents, with wide-ranging environmental, economic, and health implications. This study explores the individual and structural factors impacting Utahns' ability to utilize migration as a form of adaptive capacity in response to these threats, using mobility justice and cumulative advantage and disadvantage theory as guiding frameworks. Drawing on survey data, a multilevel logistic regression model identifies key structural factors, including age, income, and gender, that influence perceived migration ability. Additionally, a 2x2 typology categorizes distinct profiles of vulnerability to the Great Salt Lake based on different …

Health And Weather In Unfavourable Environments: Exploring The Historical Dynamics Of Colonial Medical Meteorology In Nineteenth-Century Tropical Asia, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Medical meteorology had a long precedent in medical thought across Eastern and Western traditions. This article considers the tradition of medical meteorology that was favoured by Western doctors in the nineteenth century, which was often applied within colonial contexts to the understanding of new climates and how they might impact on human health. Looking at British-held tropical and sub-tropical colonies of the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong respectively, medical meteorology was stimulated by the new pathological and atmospheric conditions that European explorers and settlers now inhabited in the name of the British Empire. They brought with them concepts of disease …

Technoscientific Imaging And The Territorialization Of Ocean Depth, João Afonso Baptista, Pedro Figueiredo Neto, Irus Braverman, Philip Steinberg, Gabriella Palermo, Stefan Helmreich, Melody Jue, John Childs

Journal Articles

Once the last unclaimed solid expanse on Earth, the ocean floor has become one of the most contested spaces in contemporary geopolitics. The data-imagery produced by technoscience serves as the ultimate tool for nations asserting sovereignty in this territorial race. This symposium gathers diverse perspectives on the ongoing expansionist drive on the seabed, drawing inspiration from Abissal——a film-article featuring the Portuguese modern odyssey on the ocean floor that serves as the symposium’s centerpiece. Aligned with modern ocean law, technoscience strives to render ocean depth visible to politics and territorializable for coastal states. However, the submerged prolongations and divisions it proffers …

Indonesia In Brics: A Realist Perspective, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Kotchaphop Kornphetcharat, Juan Pablo Sims

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

Indonesia’s 2025 accession to BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) appears at odds with the country’s long-standing bebas-aktif (“free and active”) tradition of non-alignment. This article explains the move through a layered realist approach and a purely theoretical, deductive method. First, the study integrates structural, offensive, and neoclassical realism to clarify four key mechanisms external balancing, hedging, relative gains, and status-seeking. It then maps propositions about what BRICS can offer Indonesia and tests them against existing realist scholarship on middle powers and emerging-power clubs. Analysis shows that BRICS chiefly serves as an external-balancing instrument, reducing Jakarta’s reliance on …

The Impact Of Green Finance, Trade Openness, And Fossil Fuel Subsidies On Renewable Energy Consumption: A Global And Asia-Pacific Perspective, Alya Ryanti Fitjriyah, Inayati Nuraini Dwiputri

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Fossil fuels are the major source of global emissions, with the Asia-Pacific region being the climate biggest polluter. Despite the global efforts to shift to cleaner energy, fossil fuels still dominate the energy mix. Therefore, renewable energy adoption needs to be encouraged more to improve economic sustainability. The Glasgow Climate Pact emphasises the importance of helping developing countries in addressing the climate change issue through financial support, capacity building, and technology transfer. Hence, this study examines the influence of green finance, open trade, and fossil fuel subsidies on renewable energy adoption in 38 countries from 2017 to 2023. By using …

Environmental Impacts Of Land Use Change In Industrial Areas, Dwi Nowo Martono, Aruminingsih Aruminingsih

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Industrial development in Indonesia has been predominantly concentrated on Java Island, particularly in Karawang Regency, West Java Province. Covering an area of 175,327 hectares, Karawang has been identified as a strategic region for national food security. The Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning designated 95,667.45 hectares of rice fields as protected agricultural land. However, the expansion of industrial and residential areas within the regency poses a significant threat to its role as the national rice granary and to broader food security. As industrial land occupancy increases, the environmental capacity to support rice production and ensure national food security declines. …

Experienced Latinx Urban Gardeners In San Jose, Ca, Offer Strategies For Climate Justice And Resilience, Claudia S. Damiani Fontana

Master's Theses

Low-income and underinvested communities will be disproportionately affected by climate change due to limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient support systems. Urban gardeners are responding to the need to adapt to new climate conditions while sustaining their food sources and cultural practices. Many have adapted thanks to local interventions led by the government and non-profit agencies. For this study, I partnered with La Mesa Verde (LMV), a gardening and food justice program that works with low-income Latinx families in San José, and I documented the contributions of experienced Latinx gardeners, especially those with agricultural backgrounds, to climate-resilient gardening in San …

Advancing Interactive Web Cartography Through Designing And Developing An Open-Source, Data-Driven Framework For Accessible Geovisualization Of Geospatial (Big) Data, Sarigai Sarigai

Geography ETDs

The growth of geospatial big data has intensified the demand for open-source, accessible tools for interactive spatial exploration. This dissertation introduces a modular web mapping framework and details its design, extension, and evaluation to advance geovisualization through user-centered, transferable design. The first study presents the original framework, named dciWebMapper, establishing foundational cartographic and information visualization principles, with a focus on modularity and extensibility. The second study extends dciWebMapper with advanced capabilities—such as diverse map types, bivariate visualizations, temporal filtering, spatial querying, and hotspot analysis—and demonstrates its broad transferability across domains. The third study offers a structured usability evaluation of …

Citizen Science Helps Monitor Urban Biodiversity: An Interactive, Data-Driven, And Open-Source Perspective, Katie Slack

Geography ETDs

Story maps, a powerful tool for communicating environmental narratives, are often commercial and lack many interactive functions. We integrate a data-driven and interactive geovisualization within an open-source story map created from high-attribute citizen science datasets. This story map creates a backend programming infrastructure for accessible, open-source science communication tools. Our story map intuitively communicates the findings from our web map application (app) portion of the story map to the public and helps reveal findings from the iNaturalist datasets. Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States is a demonstrative case study, but our tools can be flexibly adapted to other cities. Geovisualizations revealed …

Nitrogen Fixation In Pampinifervens, A New Species-Rich Genus Of Aquificaceae That Inhabits A Wide Ph Range In Terrestrial Hot Springs., Marike Palmer, Nancy O. Nou, Lara A. Turello, Carolyn E. Power, John C. Ong, Jonathan K. Covington, Dengxun Lai, Xavier Mayali, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Yan-Ling Qi, Jeremy A. Dodsworth, Yitai Liu, Multiple Additional Authors

Center for Life in Extreme Environments Publications

Members of the Aquificota play important roles in hydrogen, sulfur, and carbon cycles in geothermal systems as ubiquitous and abundant chemolithoautotrophs; however, their roles in the nitrogen cycle are poorly defined. Here, we show that Aquificaceae isolate T-2 from Tengchong, China, fixes nitrogen based on growth with dinitrogen as the sole nitrogen source and incorporation of N atoms when grown with N. We further show evidence that suggests its nitrogen fixation (nif) genes are transcribed in situ in a nearby spring. We propose the name Pampinifervens diazotrophicum gen. et sp. nov., with strain T-2 (= JCM 35475 = DSM 116324) …

Soft Power: Brics Cultural Diplomacy And The Rebalancing Of Global Narratives, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Kotchaphop Kornphetcharat, Juan Pablo Sims

International Review of Humanities Studies

BRICS has broadened its agenda beyond finance to cultivate soft power through coordinated cultural diplomacy. Examining official statements, press releases, and scholarly commentary on the bloc’s flagship film, sports, and ministerial initiatives, this article shows that cooperation is advancing from one-off spectacles toward structured, recurring institutions. Findings indicate two simultaneous dynamics: outwardly, BRICS venues amplify Global-South perspectives that diversify international cultural flows; inwardly, member states use the same platforms to signal national prestige, revealing persistent status competition. The result is an early but uneven cultural architecture—one that counters Euro-Atlantic narrative dominance yet has not crystallized into a fully coherent BRICS …

Assessing Climate Vulnerabilities In Rural And Low-Income Regions: A Case Study Of The Western Upper Peninsula, Mercedes Asamani, Chelsea Schelly

Michigan Tech Publications

Low-income and rural regions may be more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because they face challenges in accessing resources and systemic exclusion from climate planning coupled with other geographical, geological, and social factors. Climate vulnerability assessments (CVAs) offer a logical framework for assessing the potential impacts of climate change on socio-ecological systems and provide a scientific basis for developing adaptation strategies. Using secondary data from scholarly papers, online publications, government documents, official reports, and relevant news items, the study investigates Michigan’s Western Upper Peninsula’s (WUP) vulnerability to climate change and climate variability. The study is guided by a …

Service-Learning At The Meso-Level: Integrating A Course On Sustainable Development With National Service Requirements, Mark Anthony D. Abenir, Helena Roxanne A. Indigne

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Higher education institutions have been leveraging service learning (SL) to enhance the effectiveness of sustainable development education within their curriculum and pedagogical practices.

Financial Policy For A Green Economy In A Resource-Rich Emerging Economy, Arlyana Abubakar, Prayudhi Azwar, Riris Shanti, Salman Fathoni, Noer Aida Triandini

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This paper analyzes policies aimed at fostering a green economy in a resource-abundant, megadiverse nation such as Indonesia. This study use Delphi and Analytic Network Process methodologies, grounded in the perspectives of regulators, academics, experts, and practitioners in the green economy, to identify the determinants of green financial policies, revealing that fiscal instruments are of paramount importance. Furthermore, both the case and the respondents are Indonesian. This underscores the necessity of instituting incentives in environmentally sustainable sectors and disincentives in carbon-intensive industries. Therefore, the suitable allocation of green budgets within fiscal policy is essential for addressing market failures and expediting …

Understanding Socio-Environmental Concerns About Bear Lake: Findings From A Community-Engaged Teaching Study, Stacia Ryder, Alexander Theophilus, Charlotte Emelia Williams, Elizabeth Brunner, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed, Zubair Barkat, Nowrin Fatema, Jordan Rowley

Transforming Communities

In the western U.S., climate change is exacerbating already difficult situations in many lake systems, including Bear Lake, which spans the Idaho-Utah border and faces several environmental issues and a new wave of recreational development. In this research note, we discuss preliminary findings from community-engaged research aimed at assessing different concerns that scientists, residents, and community organizations have for Bear Lake and the surrounding communities. To do so, this project connects student research across three courses. Data collected through archival and interview research provides important insights into the socio-environmental concerns related to 1) ecological threats, 2) water management, quality, and …

Aviation Procurement And Sustainability, Kyle A. Paddack

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

This Study investigates the relationship of procurement practices on sustainability performance within the aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations utilizing Aeroman - El Salvador's leading MRO provider - as the center of the case study. Utilizing the Triple Bottom Line framework, the research maps out the current sourcing model used, identifying pressures toward single sourcing agreements, expedited logistics, and vague supply chains. a qualitative approach combines data from industry leaders, direct company information, and ESG document analysis form a three-dimensional assessment matrix that evaluate the economic, environmental, and social indicators for the company. Throughout the TBL framework will be …

The People's Rivers: Early Environmental Regulation And The Oregon State Sanitary Authority, Avery Morgan Fischer

Dissertations and Theses

The environmental movement in Oregon can trace its origins to the turn of the twentieth century, where citizen activism and initiative led to the creation of an early environmental regulatory agency, the Oregon State Sanitary Authority. This creation established that the State of Oregon had a duty to preserve, not just the navigability or usability of rivers and waterways, but the quality and purity of its water. The Oregon State Sanitary Authority played an active role in maintaining and protecting the environment as a mandate of the people, and throughout its thirty-year existence battling industrial polluters, reluctant municipalities, and disinterested …