Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Reflection: Reducing The Environmental Impact Of Architecture Through Biomimetic Design, Keenan Doricent

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This project studies how typical building projects contribute to our environmental issues today and possible ways to reduce that contribution moving forward. In my literature review, I discuss the potential of biomimetic design as a possible solution for more environmentally considerate architecture techniques. Building operations and the construction process are two of the leading contributors to energy consumption and our growing ecological footprint as an industry. Everything from sourcing materials, to site preparation, and ultimately building occupation, factor into the effect of a structure’s life on the environment. The embodied and operational energy use of our expanding infrastructure continues to …

The Revitalization Of Lalibela’S Heritage Site Through The Establishment Of A New Visitor Center, Endale Tesfay

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

ABSTRACT

Revitalizing the heritage site of the rock-hewn church of Lalibela is counted as revitalizing a city because the site is the biggest heritage site. It is found in the Amhara region of north Ethiopia, and the properties were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1978. Eleven churches were found at the site, and all of them were carved out of the living rock in the 12th century, not constructed traditionally. The churches are grouped into three and connected by a walking trail, tunnel, and trench. Groups of churches have interior and exterior spaces, and their floors, roofs, walls, …

[Re]Mapping Resilience: Reimagining Urban Waterfronts In The Face Of Climate Change, Brandon Bernard

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

By the year 2100, southern-Florida is projected to experience a 1-2 meter rise in sea level, resulting in the lower portion of the state becoming almost completely submerged under a new watertable.[14] During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city of Miami developed rapidly and the community and economy inevitably became intertwined with the water and its ecology. Due to the growing population and economy, urban developments soared and led to low-lying areas being filled in, open space along waterways were claimed for commercial and residential buildings, and man-made islands such as the venetian islands were constructed. As a result, …

Port City Revitalization: Reconnecting The City Of Charleston To Its Historic Waterfront, Riley Ransom

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

From fortified settlements to bustling epicenters of production and commerce, port cities have pioneered the course of urban sprawl throughout history. Yet, as port specialization advances and new infrastructure emerges, the once vibrant historic port sites are left neglected. The disconnect is reflected in three dynamic relationships between the city and the port, the city and the water, and the land and the water. The city has grown away from the port, the port infrastructure has been regionalized, and as a result the two have become separate entities. In this process the city is now isolated from the water as …

Re-Offense To Re-Integration, Re-Imagining The West County Detention Facility, Madison Frei

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

ABSTRACT

In the United States today, the incarceration experience has become entirely barbaric and inhumane. Basic needs are neglected, drug smuggling runs rampant, and the mental health crisis within the system is worse than ever before. The re-offense rate for formerly incarcerated people is one of the highest in the world. These issues stem from poor design choices meant to provide minimal social interaction between inmates, little to no privacy, and limited access to programmatic uses that contribute to the betterment of mental health. Building prisons better suited for rehabilitation instead of punishment will not only lower this statistic, but …

“Haiti Is My Heart”: Exploring Return Migration Experiences Among The Haitian American Diaspora, Semline Singleton

Dissertations

The dissertation explored the return migration experiences among first- and second-generation Haitian diaspora members in the United States. The study aimed to fill gaps in the existing literature and provide a deeper understanding of the individual experience of return migration through a social and cultural lens. While previous research has focused on the political and economic aspects of return migration, this study examined the personal narratives of return migrants. It explored the causes, impacts, and individual experiences of return migration. To achieve the study's objectives, in-depth interviews were conducted with identified Haitian diaspora members who had returned to Haiti. The …

Deluge [ Proof ]: A Design Resilience Study, Nia A. Mcgann

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Rising sea levels, a consequence of climate change, pose a significant and escalating threat to coastal communities worldwide. Projections indicate that by 2050, sea levels may rise by an estimated 1 to 2 feet, potentially affecting not only coastal but also inland communities. The ramifications of rising sea levels encompass heightened risks of flooding, erosion, and saltwater intrusion. These impacts have multifaceted consequences, ranging from evident transportation disruptions and damage to underground and ground-level structures to more subtle yet equally critical effects on infrastructure, ecosystems, potable water reservoirs, community displacement, and economic activities.

In response to this pressing challenge, a …

From Silence To Thriving: Architecture As A Voice For The Wayuu Tribe, Angie Son Pulido

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

This research explores how stories, music, and patterns intersect to shape the built environment, with an emphasis on spotlighting the Wayuu tribe, a resilient culture facing extinction in the arid desert of La Guajira, Colombia. The Wayuu people have endured centuries of adversity, including colonialism, exploitation, drug trafficking, and internal conflict. In this place, water and food are scarce, and child mortality rates are very high. Despite hardships, they preserve a culture of resilience thanks to their tradition of oral storytelling. Drawing from the tradition of storytelling, the works of writer Gabriel García Márquez, particularly his Magical Realism, serve as …

Reproductive (In)Justice In Contemporary Dystopian Fiction: A Critical White Feminist Analysis Of The Handmaid’S Tale (2017–) And Future Home Of The Living God (2017), Kaelyn Ireland

Master's Theses

This thesis employs a critical white feminist lens to analyze themes of human migration in two contemporary feminist dystopian texts: the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale and Louise Erdrich’s 2017 novel Future Home of the Living God. This work draws from fields and frameworks such as reproductive justice, migration studies, and Indigenous studies to create a nuanced critique of both texts and interrogate the ways whiteness impacts the feminist dystopian heroine’s story and, potentially, audience reception. I assert that HMT and FH can best be understood as a mirror for the current state of …

Charleston Horse Power: Equine Culture In The Palmetto City, A Blake Denton

The Southeastern Librarian

Christina Rae Butler Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2023 ISBN: 9781643364025 248 p. $27.99 (Pbk)

The Cuban Sandwich: A History In Layers, Austina Mcfarland Jordan

The Southeastern Librarian

Andrew T. Huse, Bárbara C. Cruz, & Jeff Houck Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2022 ISBN: 9780813069388 180 p. $24.95 (Pbk)

Enhancing Teachers’ Tpack And Self-Efficacy Through Content-Based Technology Professional Development, Chloe Wilson

Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to examine the impact of content-based instructional technology on teacher’s TPACK, specifically the technology related knowledge domains, and instructional technology self-efficacy. Demographic data was compared for correlations with TPACK or self-efficacy ratings. Additionally, the professional development model was evaluated by gathering teacher perceptions. A pre- and post-intervention survey was conducted to gather TPACK, self-efficacy, and perceptions of professional development. Findings were consistent and built upon previous research. Teachers experienced growth in all TPACK technology knowledge domains and displayed increased instructional technology self-efficacy ratings. Additionally, suggestions from previous research regarding best practices for …

Teaching A Credit-Bearing Library Course For Graduate Students: From Proposal To Postmortem, Jill Cirasella

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

For years, library faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York had fantasized about some day offering a credit-bearing course to our master’s and doctoral students. In 2021, we finally transitioned from idle dreams to directed discussion. As we explored how to get a library course on the books at an institution that had never before had one, we had to rethink and rework our plans several times, in unexpected but not unreasonable ways.

For example, we had believed that a one-credit course would be most appropriate—and most palatable to the institution—but we learned that only …

Toward Energy-Efficient Deep Neural Networks For Forest Fire Detection In An Image, Yali Wang, Chuulabat Purev, Hunter Barndt, Henry Toal, Jason Kim, Luke Underwood, Luis Avalo, Arghya Kusum Das

The Geographical Bulletin

Forest fires cause huge losses and are a serious problem facing many countries worldwide, including the USA, Canada, Brazil, Siberia, and Indonesia, to name a few. Automatic identification of forest fires in an image is thus an important field to research in order to minimize disasters while also helping in mitigation planning and designing rescue tactics. Artificial Intelligence technologies, especially deep neural networks, have emerged recently with promises to detect fires with better accuracy from an image. However, the massive energy consumption of deep neural networks thwarts their widespread adoption, especially when it comes to onsite detection of fire utilizing …

Gis-Based Spatial And Temporal Analyses Of Motor Vehicle Crashes In The Atlanta Metropolitan Region 2017-2021, Heyward Stober, Jeong C. Seong

The Geographical Bulletin

Motor vehicle crash analysis is among the most insightful metrics for public safety officials, researchers, and drivers. In this article, geographical information systems (GIS) tools were used to study the spatial and temporal trends of traffic crashes and fatal crashes. The methodology involves collecting spatial crash data over time and using computer-based analysis to overlay the road data against various spatial and temporal parameters in the Atlanta metropolitan region. Results show major crash hotspots in the region, such as the cites of Marietta, Kennesaw, and College Park. Hotspots tend to form on interstate highways, while smaller state highways have fewer …

Recovery Of Microtopography Following Prairie Restoration: Implications For Biodiversity Monitoring, Karli Cich, Scott Powell

The Geographical Bulletin

Tallgrass prairies are often restored from agricultural fields where the natural microtopography has long since been removed. Therefore, our study investigates the degree to which restored prairies recover microtopography. Differences in microtopography were measured using precise elevation data collected from LiDAR to compare differences in microtopography between crop fields, fallow fields, newer restored prairies, and older restored prairies. We also compared plant biodiversity indices between newer and older restored prairies using nested plot vegetation sampling. Our first research question is how microtopography differs between the sites. Our results show that older restored prairies had the most microtopographic variation, followed by …

Modeling The Impact Of Ocean Temperature Increases On The Distribution Of Seagrasses Around The Korean Peninsula Using A Machine Learning Technique, Jina Jang, Seohyeon Kim, Jeong Seong

The Geographical Bulletin

Seagrasses are important resources which form a vital part of the ocean ecosystem. They are also considered blue carbon because of their capability of sequestrating carbon. Seagrass distribution can be affected by many factors including ocean temperature. It is highly likely that recent climate change may increase ocean temperature significantly in East Asia and consequently alter seagrass distribution patterns. This study aims at predicting the impact of ocean temperature increases on seagrass habitats around the Korean Peninsula. Using the Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) Model, seagrass habitat distributions were modeled when sea temperature rises by 1°C, 2°C, 3°C, and 4°C. Results show …

Predicting Cloud Fraction With Instantaneous Direct And Diffuse Shortwave Solar Irradiance, Jamison Lerma, Emily K. Blackaby, Maosi Chen, Sasha Madronich, Wei Gao

The Geographical Bulletin

The purpose of this study is to compare the different performances of three commonly used models (i.e., linear regression, random forest regression, and deep neural network (DNN)) to predict cloud fraction (CF) using ground-based shortwave solar radiation measurements and analyze the importance of the input features. The CF data are obtained from the Surface Radiation Budget (SURFRAD) and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) and the irradiance data from the USDA UV-B Monitoring and Research Program. The study finds that CF of opaque and total clouds can be best predicted using both Random Forest Regression and DNN with the validation R2 …

Prediction Of Traffic Congestion Using A Time-Series Model And Spatiotemporal Data: A Case Study Of The Atlanta Downtown Connector, Yunsik Kim

The Geographical Bulletin

Traffic congestion poses significant socio-economic challenges, and many urban commuters experience time and cost burdens due to traffic jams. Effectively managing and predicting traffic congestion is crucial for contemporary urban planning and operations. This study aims to predict congestion using time-series deep learning models, focusing on a chronically congested road section. The research area is the Atlanta Downtown Connector, a heavily trafficked route passing through the heart of the city of Atlanta. To address issues often associated with sensor and GPS-based data collection, traffic data was obtained from an open-source online map service, Google Maps. A multivariate time-lagged LSTM model …

A Remote Sensing Investigation Of The 2022 Invasion Of Eastern Ukraine On Agricultural Landcover, Michael S. Agbozo, Luke J. Marzen, Chandana Mitra

The Geographical Bulletin

Ukraine-Russian political relations over the years have alternatively experienced periods of tranquility and turmoil with violent conflicts since 1917, including the events of the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 Russian invasion of the entirety of Ukraine. These conflicts remain developmental threats and their assessment requires multi-perspective analysis. Understanding the spatial dimensions of such conflicts and their consequences on physical and social spaces at varying scales could provide credible scientific impetuses on which targeted post-conflict remediations could be built. This preliminary study therefore takes advantage of the capabilities of satellite remote sensing, to provide quick and effective spatiotemporal analysis …

Open-Source Based Change Pattern Analysis Of Urban Green Spaces Using Landscape Metrics, Mohammad Anwar Alattar

The Geographical Bulletin

A growing number of studies have been conducted on urban green spaces (UGSs), given their essential role in mitigating urbanization externalities. The current available methods for acquiring and analyzing UGSs data suffer from several limitations. For example, free satellite imagery exhibits pixel distortion and fails to account for fine-grained structure such as accurate geometry or size. Moreover, official UGSs datasets are typically updated periodically, not continuously. This work provides a Python-derived open-source based analysis for acquiring, modeling and analyzing UGSs change patterns using landscape metrics. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, it is applied on the New York …

Evaluating The Use Of Unpiloted Aerial Systems To Detect And Monitor Beech Bark Disease In New England Forests, Isabelle Lopez, Benjamin T. Fraser, Russell G. Congalton

The Geographical Bulletin

The American beech (Fagus grandifolia) plays a key role throughout eastern North American forests. However, beech bark disease (BBD) causes widespread mortality of beech trees. We investigated whether imagery collected using an unpiloted aerial system (UAS) could differentiate beech tree health. Reference data were collected from 140 beech trees in New Hampshire and were visually classified as having “no/trace damage,” “moderate damage,” or “heavy damage.” Multispectral imagery was collected from a UAS, and 44 image features were derived for each beech crown. We used machine learning to identify the importance of each feature in distinguishing between the three health classes …

High-Mountain Hazards In The Indian Himalaya: An Assessment Of The Causes And Effects Of The Chamoli Flood In 2021, Christina M. Salzmann, Sarah J. Halvorson, Anna E. Klene

The Geographical Bulletin

On 7 February 2021, a devastating flood severely impacted the Ronti Gad, Rishiganga, and Dhauliganga River Valleys in the northwestern District of Chamoli, India. The flood washed away two hydropower projects and caused more than 200 fatalities. This study assessed some of the causes and effects of this catastrophic flood event and aims to provide further documentation that the event was not caused by a glacial lake outburst flood, as many reports initially indicated. Analysis of high-resolution satellite imagery, digital elevation model (DEM) differencing, and precipitation and temperature data showed that an ice-rock avalanche was released as a result of …

Editors' Note, Jc Seong

The Geographical Bulletin

Editors' Note

Front Matters, Nancy Pullen-Hoalst

The Geographical Bulletin

Front Matter

Volume 64-2 Complete Issue, Nancy Pullen-Hoalst

The Geographical Bulletin

Complete Issue

Rfid Key Fobs In Vehicles: Unmasking Vulnerabilities & Strengthening Security, Devon Magda, Bryson R. Payne

KSU Proceedings on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

No abstract provided.

The Course Of Empire: An Analysis, Devyn Woodard

Emerging Writers

This essay delves into the themes of and motivations for Thomas Cole’s series of paintings, The Course of Empire. Through an analysis of the different rhetorical appeals and fallacies employed by Cole in the series of paintings, the deeper meaning behind the works comes to light. This analysis serves as a bridge between the environment the paintings were created in almost two hundred years ago, and the contemporary global landscape, which is still in need of its lessons, even so many years later.

“This Is The Psychology We Need”: Maya Immigrant Views On Mental Health Treatment, Robin Chancer

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This paper engages the theme of psychological-physical-spiritual health among displaced Maya communities. To pursue knowledge about the communities’ visions for thriving in the United States, I worked with Maya leaders in Ohio to coordinate a series of dialogues utilizing a Participatory Action Research paradigm. Participants exposed ways in which Western institutions (including hospitals, mental health providers, and schools) reenact elements of colonialism and fail to offer culturally sensitive care. The participants emphasized a key missing element in their well-being: renewing the relationship with the Earth that they lost through colonization and forced migration. To separate physical/mental health from these elements …

Castillos En La Arena. Turismo, Desigualdad Laboral Y Reproducción Cultural En Torno A Tulum-Pueblo, Quintana Roo, Alejandro Martinez

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

El presente artículo busca reflexionar acerca de las consecuencias de los procesos de poblamiento y turistificación que repercuten en la explotación territorial y cooptación de mano de obra en las últimas décadas en la llamada Riviera Maya de Quintana Roo, México. A pesar de la migración interna y la desigualdad laboral, algunos jóvenes mayas aún desean conservar ciertos elementos rituales al ser descendientes de los combatientes durante la Guerra de Castas de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. A partir del trabajo de campo realizado entre 2021 y 2023 con los músicos y organizadores del culto a las cruces sagradas, …