Digital Commons Network^™

Urban Heterogeneity Drives Dissolved Organic Matter Sources, Transport, And Transformation From Local To Macro Scales, Rebecca L. Hale, Kristina G. Hopkins, Krista A. Capps, John S. Kominoski, Jennifer L. Morse, Allison H. Roy, Shuo Chen, Annika Quick, Andrew J. Blinn, Liz Ortiz Muñoz, Gwendolynn Folk

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urbanization reshapes dissolved organic matter (DOM) sources, transport, and transformations through changes in vegetation, hydrology, and management of waste and water. Yet the impacts of urbanization on DOM are variable within and among cities. Predicting heterogeneous responses to urbanization is challenged by diverse human activities and underlying biophysical variation along stream networks. Using data from the 486 largest urban areas in the continental United States and seven focal cities, we identified macro and local scale urban gradients in social, built, and biophysical factors that are expected to shape DOM. We used these gradients and the literature to develop hypotheses about …

The Geography Of Rock Glaciers In The American West, Allison Reese Trcka, Andrew G. Fountain, Bryce Allen Glenn

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rock glaciers are relatively common in conterminous United States west of the 100° meridian, yet their distribution and number are not well known. Using aerial and satellite imagery, we inventoried the population of rock glaciers, yielding 2,257 rock glaciers totaling 234.28 km² with an area of uncertainty of 7 percent. Of these, 1,561 (155.44 km²) are considered intact (moving) and 696 (76.84 km²) relict. Based on published estimates of ice content, total water-equivalent volume is roughly 2.52 km³. Rock glacier elevations increase from the northwest (Washington) to the southeast (Colorado), following a spatial …

Map Marker Accuracy: Evaluating Spatial Data Quality In A Simplified Mapping Survey, Christopher Sean Ghormley

Masters in GIS Practicum Reports

Collecting spatial information using maps is a recurring need in research and policy (Evers, 2020; Gottwald et al., 2016; Hitchins, 2018; Tang & Liu, 2016). Survey participants frequently abandon map-based surveys at the first mapping task (Poplin, 2015). In his survey of wildfire risk management personnel, Evers (2020) applied a simplified web-mapping interface that uses circles as the sole input geometry for all spatial representations. The current project examines an updated version of this web map. An anonymous survey gathered data from participants who completed six mapping exercises within Portland, Oregon, and provided feedback on the survey experience. A working …

Displaced: Distinguishing Housing Outcomes From Judicial Outcomes In Oregon’S Eviction Cases, Colleen Carroll, Minji Cho, Lisa K. Bates

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

In an eviction case, the tenant’s housing outcome refers to whether the tenant remains in their home (the unit) at the end of the eviction process. At the end of the eviction process, either the tenant remained in the home or was displaced. Unfortunately, housing outcomes are not systematically recorded as part of the eviction process. In some cases, the tenant’s housing outcome is recorded in the case records or court documents, but this is not always consistent. To address this, we developed three categories of housing outcomes—remained, displaced, and undeterminable—to measure the outcomes of eviction cases filed in Multnomah …

Using Geographic Interviews To Conduct Community Assessments—Insights For Msw Pedagogy, Danielle Maude Littman, Denae J. Cook, Amie Thurber

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social work is predicated as a person-in-environment profession, but few tools presently exist for students to operationalize person-in-environment through assessment and systematic understanding. Geographic interviews, which combine spatial mapping and qualitative go-along interviews, are one possible tool with promise for application in the social work classroom. This teaching note describes the process of integrating geographic interviews as one data collection method MSW students could utilize in a community assessment assignment. We share learnings from student assignments (N = 8) and instructor focus groups (N = 4). We found that while there was a high level of student and instructor interest, …

Supporting Holistic Health And Gestational Diabetes Mellitus Risk Reduction Among Young Native Females Prior To Pregnancy: A Qualitative Exploration., Sarah A. Stotz, Luciana E. Hebert, Lisa Scarton, Kelli Begay, Kelly L. Gonzales, Heather Garrow, Melanie Charley, Melanie Aspaas, Denise Charron-Prochownik, Spero M. Manson

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

AI/AN communities are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Decreasing the risk of GDM can interrupt the intergenerational cycle of diabetes in AI/AN families, and can decrease diabetes-related health disparities. The goal of this study was to explore ways of supporting holistic health and reducing the risk of GDM among young American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) females prior to pregnancy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adult AI/AN women (>18 years) who had GDM or who have young female relatives (e.g., daughters) (n = 41), AI/AN females between 12 and 24 years (n = 18), …

From The Ocean To Our Kitchen Table: Anthropogenic Particles In The Edible Tissue Of U.S.. West Coast Seafood Species, Summer D. Traylor, Elise F. Granek, Marilyn Duncan, Susanne Brander

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Microplastics (MPs) and other anthropogenic particles (APs) are pervasive environmental contaminants found throughout marine and aquatic environments. We quantified APs in the edible tissue of black rockfish, lingcod, Chinook salmon, Pacific herring, Pacific lamprey, and pink shrimp, comparing AP burdens across trophic levels and between vessel-retrieved and retail-purchased individuals. Edible tissue was digested and analyzed under a microscope, and a subset of suspected APs was identified using spectroscopy (μFTIR). Anthropogenic particles were found in 180 of 182 individuals. Finfish contained 0.02–1.08 AP/g of muscle tissue. In pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani), the average AP/g was 10.68 for vessel-retrieved and …

Re-Indigenizing And Collaboratively Tending Urban Greenspaces, Divinity Nnenne Adewale

University Honors Theses

This work details the active process of land tending with the intention of re-Indigenization in the Pacific Northwest at several Portland sites; The Native American Student Community Center, PSU Oak Savanna, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Land tending is an intuitive process, one rooted in love and respect for life of all forms as well as becoming the perpetual student; land tending is not a skill to be mastered, only practiced. Unlike environmental management, tending cannot be done separate from the earth, in a classroom or otherwise. Connections are what tending is built on top of: the foundation; effort …

Schools Apart: Curricular Stratification Across School Socioeconomic Compositions And Implications For Educational Inequality In The Us, Daniel Mackin Freeman

Dissertations and Theses

Motivated by longstanding sociological theories and utilizing the most current, large, and nationally representative data, this dissertation aims to describe and add nuance to our understanding of how the curriculum US youth are exposed to is stratified by the socioeconomic composition of the schools they attend. All three empirical chapters suggest that school SES contributes to substantial differences in school structure, as evidenced by differences in course-taking patterns and how course-taking relates to academic achievement in high school and beyond. The first study suggests that the relationship between curricular intensity in secondary school and postsecondary achievement is variable depending on …

Identifying Opportunities For Nature-Based Solutions With Geospatialized Life Cycle Assessments And Fine-Scale Socioecological Data, Gabriela Shirkey, Annick Anctil, Ranjeet John, Venkatesh Kolluru, Leah Mungai, Herve Kashongwe, Lauren T. Cooper, Ilke Celik, Joshua B. Fisher, Jiquan Chen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As we increasingly understand the impact that land management intensification has on local and global climate, the call for nature-based solutions (NbS) in agroecosystems has expanded. Moreover, the pressing need to determine when and where NbS should be used raises challenges to socioecological data integration as we overcome spatiotemporal resolutions. Natural and working lands is an effort promoting NbS, particularly emissions reduction and carbon stock maintenance in forests. To overcome the spatiotemporal limitation, we integrated life cycle assessments (LCA), an ecological carbon stock model, and a land cover land use change model to synthesize rates of global warming potential (GWP) …

Piloting A Zero-Emission Delivery Zone In Downtown Portland, Art Pearce, Sarah Pullman, Jacob Sherman

PSU Transportation Seminars

The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) was awarded a nearly $2 million Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) Grant by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) in Fall 2023 to pilot the country’s first regulated Zero-Emission Delivery Zone in downtown Portland and test digital infrastructure tools. This project will test an innovative set of incentives and regulations to better understand what technology and strategies municipalities can use to support and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the freight sector.

While other cities in the United States have piloted voluntary Zero-Emission Delivery Zones (ZEDZs) to encourage the transition of commercial fleets to …

Organizational Factors Enabling Augmented Analytic And Bi 4.0 Implementation Success, Randy A. Williams, Gazi Murat Duman, Elif Kongar, Nasir J. Sheikh

Engineering and Technology Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

The implementation of modern Business Intelligence (BI) 4.0 and Augmented Analytics solutions is drastically influenced by organizational factors, which are widely recognized as significant drivers of success. Many researchers endeavor to understand critical success factors of BI implementation using various models, most all of which include Organizational components, along with others. Earlier studies have suggested components within the Organizational perspective play a critical role in driving overall BI implementation success. However, the research on organizational factors that focus on the advanced version of BI and augmented analytics is not well established. Addressing this need, the current work focuses on filling …

Building On Strengths: A Collaborative, Asset-Focused Approach To Teaching Critical Information Literacy Skills, Rebecca B. Penrose, Kristi J. Chavez

Communications in Information Literacy

This article showcases an instructor–librarian collaborative model for teaching critical information literacy (CIL) skills in a higher education course by incorporating interactive workshops into a sequence of required course assignments. Using an asset-focused design, this assignment sequence allows students to first demonstrate their existing research strategies and then evaluate those strategies during workshop activities, applying the CIL principles they are learning. In this way, the approach recognizes students’ existing strengths and builds upon them, while emphasizing self-reflection opportunities and an intentional research focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation. Results from our one-year study are also highlighted. The suggested instructional …

Scale-Dependent Effects Of Urban Canopy Cover, Canopy Volume, And Impervious Surfaces On Near-Surface Air Temperature In A Mid-Sized City, Carson Ralls, Anne Y. Polyakov, Vivek Shandas

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cities are significantly warmer than their surrounding rural environments. Known as the ‘urban heat island effect’, it can affect the health of urban residents and lead to increased energy use, public health impacts, and damage to infrastructure. Although this effect is extensively researched, less is known about how landscape characteristics within cities affect local temperature variation. This study examined how tree canopy cover, canopy volume, and impervious surface cover affect daytime near-surface air temperature, and how these effects vary between different scales of analysis (10, 30, 60, 90 m radii), ranging from approximate street corridor to city block size. Temperature …

Economic Foundations Of Contraceptive Transitions: Theories And A Review Of The Evidence, Mahesh Karra, Joshua Wilde

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

We review the foundations of the economic development–contraception nexus, focusing on the pathways through which economic factors drive contraceptive adoption and change. We investigate the channels through which the relationship between economic development and contraceptive dynamics is mediated. Using global data, we document the correlations between economic development and contraception transitions over time and across geographies. We briefly examine the evidence of the role of fertility, both desired and realized, as a central pathway through which the relationship has been historically theorized and empirically verified. We also discuss a range of mechanisms through which economic development drives contraceptive use independently …

¡Viva Puerto Rico! How Puerto Rico's Political And Economic Status Has Affected Its Vulnerability To Natural Hazards, Mystique Quintana

University Honors Theses

Using Hurricane Maria as a case study, this thesis examines Puerto Rico's vulnerability to natural disasters and explores the intersections between colonial history, political status, and socioeconomic inequalities. Undertaking the island's susceptibility to environmental crises based on centuries of colonial exploitation and dependence, along with restrictive U.S. policies. It is argued that policies like the Jones Act, Operation Bootstrap, and PROMESA perpetuate systemic neglect and undermine disaster preparedness. Due to these structural vulnerabilities, intensified by climate change, Puerto Rico is ill-equipped to recover from hurricanes. During Hurricane Maria, systemic governance failures, inadequate infrastructure, and insufficient federal aid exposed these deep-rooted …

Predicting Cloud-To-Ground Lightning In The Western United States From The Large-Scale Environment Using Explainable Neural Networks, Dmitri A. Kalashnikov, Frances V. Davenport, Zachary M. Labe, Paul C. Loikith, John T. Abatzoglou, Deepti Singh

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Lightning is a major source of wildfire ignition in the western United States (WUS). We build and train convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to predict the occurrence of cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning across the WUS during June-September from the spatial patterns of seven large-scale meteorological variables from reanalysis (1995-2022). Individually trained CNN models at each 1° × 1° grid cell ( = 285 CNNs) show high skill at predicting CG lightning days across the WUS (median AUC = 0.8) and perform best in parts of the interior Southwest where summertime CG lightning is most common. Further, interannual correlation between observed and predicted …

Foreign Funding Of U.S. Higher Education Relates To Sanctioning Of Scholars And Antisemitism, Michael Bass, Alexander Reid Ross, Ben Wolfson, Joel Finkelstein, Sonia Yanovsky, Danit Finkelstein, Sean T. Stevens, Nathan Honeycutt, Pamela Paresky, Ayal Feinberg, Multiple Additional Authors

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

We examined relations between foreign funding of U.S. colleges and universities and campus political developments. Seven studies investigated associations between foreign funding and campus liberal democratic norms, specifically, deterioration of free speech and academic freedom, and presence of antisemitism. Study I found that 349 colleges and universities received a total of almost $18 billion from foreign sources between 2014 and 2019. Study II examined relationships of foreign funding to campus deplatforming of speakers and punitive actions for speech protected by academic freedom. Main results were: 1. overall foreign funding was not strongly related to campus speech outcomes; 2. higher levels …

Editorial: Advances In Ecological Environment Changes In Coastal And Estuarine Waters In Response To Hydrodynamic Variability, Jiayi Pan, Yeqiang Shu, Zhe-Wen Zheng, Adam T. Devlin, Majid Nazeer, Andrew M. Fischer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the past few decades, coastal and estuarine ecological environments have undergone significant and rapid transformations, driven by a range of factors, with the variability in hydrodynamic conditions being one of the most prominent (Elliott et al., 2019; Statham, 2012; Da et al., 2024). These dynamic forces influence water movement, sediment transport, and nutrient cycling, all of which are critical components affecting the health and stability of these ecosystems (van Vliet et al., 2023; Li et al., 2023). Consequently, understanding and interpreting hydrodynamic processes in coastal and estuarine waters are fundamental to unraveling the mechanisms behind ecological changes. This task …

Impacts Of A Short-Interval Severe Fire On Forest Structure And Regeneration In A Temperate Andean Araucaria-Nothofagus Forest, Paola Arroyo-Vargas, Sebastian Busby, Thomas T. Veblen, Mauro E. Gonzalez, Andres Holz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background:

Warmer climate conditions are altering fire regimes globally, eroding the capacity of forest ecosystems to resist and recover from natural disturbances like wildfire. Severe and rapidly repeated wildfires are promoting tree regeneration failure of obligate-seeders and/or fire-sensitive species in temperate forests of the Southern Hemisphere. We collected post-fire field data to evaluate whether forest structure and tree regeneration responses varied between two Andean forest study areas dominated by the threatened Gondwanan conifer Araucaria araucana and Nothofagus species (southern beeches) — one area burned once, the other reburned after 13 years.

Results:

Tree mortality was high across species after a …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet October 2024, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The October 7, 2024 monthly packet includes the October agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 7, 2024.

Critical Conversations On Teaching And Learning Decolonial Narratives: A Duoethnography Of Firekeeper’S Daughter, Erica England, Shain Wright, Dion Crommarty

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Exploring the role of diverse young adult (YA) literature in fostering social justice awareness, this paper focuses on the YA novel Firekeeper’s Daughter as a tool for understanding decolonization and our own individual privileges and responsibilities as they relate to colonization. Three researchers, each with differing positionalities and worldviews, employ a polyvocal methodology of duoethnography to examine the text's challenges to settler colonialism and its illumination of historical and systemic injustices. Through our dialogic exchange, we aim to contribute to a wider conversation about the potential of literature storytelling, and authentic, vulnerable conversations to inspire transformative change.

Projected Loss Of Rock Glacier Habitat In The Contiguous Western United States With Warming, Abigail C. Lute, John T. Abatzoglou, Andrew G. Fountain, Timothy C. Bartholomaus

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rock glaciers support alpine biodiversity and may respond more slowly to warming than snow or glaciers. While responses of snow and glaciers to climate change are relatively well understood, a robust assessment of rock glacier environmental niche, future distributions of rock glaciers and potential for development of rock glaciers from current glaciers is lacking. Using process-relevant, high-resolution environmental descriptors, we develop a species distribution model of the topographic, geologic and hydroclimatic niche of rock glaciers that provides novel estimates of potential rock glacier distributions for different climates. We identify mean annual air temperature and headwall area as the dominant controls …

The Water-Climate Nexus: Intersections Across Sectors, Thushara Gunda, Alida A. Cantor, Emily Grubert, Angela R. Harris, Yolanda J. Mcdonald

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water security and climate change are important priorities for communities and regions worldwide. The intersections between water and climate change extend across many environmental and human activities. This Primer is intended as an introduction, grounded in examples, for students and others considering the interactions between climate, water, and society. In this Primer, we summarize key intersections between water and climate across four sectors: environment; drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene; food and agriculture; and energy. We begin with an overview of the fundamental water dynamics within each of these four sectors, and then discuss how climate change is impacting water and …

Historical Redlining, Contemporary Gentrification, And Severe Maternal Morbidity In California, 2005-2018, Xing Gao, Rachel Morello-Frosch, Amani M. Nuru-Jeter, Jonathan M. Snowden, Suzan L. Carmichael, Mahasin S. Mujahid

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Importance Historically redlined neighborhoods may experience disinvestment, influencing their likelihood of gentrification, a process of neighborhood (re-)development that unequally distributes harms and benefits by race and class. Understanding the combined outcomes of redlining and gentrification informs how the mutually constitutive systems of structural racism and racial capitalism affect pregnancy outcomes. Objective To examine if historical redlining and contemporary gentrification is associated with increased severe maternal morbidity (SMM) odds. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study used data from a statewide population-based sample of all live hospital births at 20 weeks’ gestation or more between 2005 and 2018 in California. Analysis …

Reporting Gunshots: Prevalence, Correlates, And Obstacles To Calling The Police, Kris Henning, Joshua Carmony, Somalia Johnson Calloway, Christian Peterson

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Accurately documenting where and when firearms are discharged is a critical first step in gun violence prevention. Many cities rely on police calls for service as their primary source for this information. Recent studies find, however, that citizens underreport gunshots. This has led some communities to invest in gunshot detection technology (GDT) as an alternative data source. GDT remains an expensive and often controversial solution with limited evidence for long-term benefits. This underscores the need for additional research on third-party reporting of gunshots. The current study, conducted in Portland Oregon, surveyed 1,240 residents in 23 neighborhoods with above-average firearm discharges. …

The Nexus Of Resistance And Neoliberalism In Social Work And Social Welfare: A Scoping Review, Kevin Cherry, Sandra Leotti

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study intervenes in a growing scholarly dialogue about neoliberalism in social work and social welfare by addressing the undertheorized concept of resistance. We conduct a scoping review of 54 articles published from 2008–2023 to answer two questions: how is resistance discussed in relation to neoliberalism, and what are the practice elements of resistance? Findings highlight resistance as a diverse phenomenon enacted in relation to context-specific manifestations of neoliberalism. A range of actors engage in resistance, including individual practitioners, social service organizations and collective action entities, among others. Resistance occurs across all scales of practice and takes many forms, from …

Climate Hazards And Human Migration: Literature Review, Anna Ivanova, Deepti Singh, Pronoy Rai, Claire Richards, Hugo Vasconcelos, Michael Goldsby

International & Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Human populations are migrating as a result of climate change. We conducted a systematic literature review examining the relationship between several climate hazards and migration flows. We reviewed 58 empirical studies between 2010 and 2023 that examined current and future migration related to acute and long-term climate hazards. The results indicate that the relationship between climate hazards and migration is diverse and depends on a range of socio-economic factors. Droughts and rising temperatures have a major impact on both international and domestic migration. Our review also reveals that multiple climate hazards collectively tend to intensify domestic migration toward urban areas, …

The Foodpunk City: Advancing Portland's Food Security Through A Shared Ideology Of Adaptation & Resistance, Nickolas Hash

Dissertations and Theses

Food injustice is a form of violence perpetrated by state and corporate actors against a constituency under their governing power, particularly impacting marginalized and impoverished communities. It denies individuals access to nutritious food, perpetuating cycles of poverty, inequality, physical health risks, and social exclusion. Grassroots movements have emerged to challenge dominant paradigms and advocate for food sovereignty, agroecology, and food anarchy. In Portland, the movement represents a nontraditional approach to food security that closely resembles the reactionary ideology of urban "punk" culture. Both groups prioritize community autonomy over food systems, sustainable agricultural practices, and resistance to oppressive structures that perpetuate …

Post-Wildfire Water Quality Dynamics: A Multiscale Examination And Predictive Modeling Of Stream Temperature And Turbidity In Western U.S. Watersheds, Junjie Chen

Dissertations and Theses

Wildfires, exacerbated by climate change and human activities, pose significant threats to water-related ecosystem services in forested watersheds. This dissertation investigates the multifaceted impacts of wildfires on stream temperature and turbidity, two critical water quality parameters essential for maintaining aquatic ecosystem health and human water uses. By integrating a comprehensive literature review, empirical data analysis, and advanced machine learning techniques, this research provides a nuanced understanding of how wildfires affect hydrological processes across various temporal and spatial scales.

The findings reveal significant regional variability and the complex interplay between climatic, geographic, and anthropogenic factors. For instance, the literature review highlights …