Subjectivity Of Solar Power: Using Q Methodology To Evaluate Perceptions Of Solar Energy Projects In The San Luis Valley, Aaron D. Russell

Geography ETDs

Renewable energy is on the verge of becoming a significant source of power generation and for many Americans, that will mean thinking and talking about energy technologies in new ways. Land intensive energies such as solar and green will compete more and more with aspects of our social world. This project focuses on the perception, acceptance, and discourse of renewable energy projects by examining the solar energy conversation in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado. This vast high-desert valley holds the excellent geographic conditions needed for the siting of large solar energy installations, but such projects continue to run …

Pavement Surface Distress Detection, Assessment, And Modeling Using Geospatial Techniques, Su Zhang

Civil Engineering ETDs

Roadway pavement surface distress information is essential for effective pavement asset management, and subsequently, transportation agencies at all levels dedicate a large amount of time and money to routinely collect data on pavement surface distress conditions as the core of their asset management programs. These data are used by these agencies to make maintenance and repair decisions. Current methods for pavement surface distress evaluation are time-consuming and expensive. Geospatial technologies provide new methods for evaluating pavement surface distress condition that can supplement or substitute for currently-adopted evaluation methods. However, few previous studies have explored the utility of geospatial technologies for …

The Cost Of Direct And Indirect Potable Water Reuse In A Medium Sized Inland Community, Jason Glenn Herman

Water Resources Professional Project Reports

In the face of increasing population, development pressures, and climate change, many regions around the world face freshwater shortages. Planned potable water reuse can improve sustainability and reliability of water supplies by providing drinking water from wastewater. Most potable reuse research has focused on large coastal communities with relatively high mean household incomes. However, the US Department of Interior predicts that “hot spots” of conflict over water in the arid West are “highly likely” in numerous small-to-medium-sized inland communities with low-to-moderate household income levels. Potable reuse options may be different for larger, wealthier coastal communities as compared to small-to-medium-sized inland …

Human Experience Of Fountain Spaces In Denver And Albuquerque, Susanna Diller L

Geography ETDs

Concerns about water have been at the forefront of public conversation over the last few years, in no small part driven by situations like the drought in California. The drought prompted cities like Los Angeles to turn off public fountains, even though fountains have a very low resource impact. This interaction is more about what a fountain represents; particularly in dry regions, fountains have been used to display power, affluence, and social importance. It has been researched and is now taken for granted that public fountains are a public good, improving microclimates, reducing stress, and adding to the overall quality …

Forests On The Edge: Forest Restoration And Concepts Of Nature In Northern New Mexico, Jordan W. Stone

Geography ETDs

Dozens of catastrophic forest fires have impacted New Mexican communities over the last two decades, threatening humans, property, and livelihoods. Ecologically, forest systems are stressed by historically unprecedented tree density, drought, increased temperature, and dwindling ecological diversity, further increasing fire danger. An increasingly common response to these threats is to actively manage New Mexico’s forests using mechanical tree thinning and prescribed fire, with a goal of “restoring” forests to a healthier ecological state. Restoring forests is both a scientific and cultural act. While the science is well studied, land managers often struggle to understand how human values impact forest restoration …

Geography 2017 Apr Self-Study & Documents, University Of New Mexico

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Geography APR self-study report, review team report, response to review report, and initial action plan for Spring 2017, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

Rethinking Water Governance: Moving Beyond Water-Centric Perspectives In A Connected And Changing World, Rob C. De Loë, James J. Patterson

Natural Resources Journal

From the “water-centric” perspective that is common within the world’s large and diverse water community, water is of central importance, and improving water governance is self-evidently essential. Some water problems can be addressed using watercentric approaches such as watershed management. Unfortunately, evidence is mounting that suggests that many other water problems cannot because their causes and drivers, at scales from local to global, are partly or wholly external to those traditionally considered within the water sector. Water governance in these cases needs to better account for a range of external connections that strongly influence water-related outcomes of concern and contribute …

Principles Of Stable Isotope Geochemistry, 2nd Edition, Zachary Sharp

Open Textbooks

Principles of Stable Isotope Geochemistry is written as a textbook to accompany a one semester course in Stable Isotope Geochemistry. There are 13 chapters, each dealing with a specific subtopic of the field. Other than Chapters 1 and 2 – introduction and definitions – most of the remaining chapters can be read without reliance on the preceding ones. It is also hoped that the book will serve as a general reference volume for researchers in the field.

Principles of Stable Isotope Geochemistry has been organized in such a way that major concepts are explained and accompanied by numerous examples. In …

December 5, 2017 Finance And Facilities (F&F) Committee Meeting, Senior Vice President For Finance And Administration

Finance and Facilities Committee

Documents related to the December 5, 2017 Board of Regents' Finance and Facilities Committee Meeting. (Agenda, Minutes, eBook, Notice)

Report Of The Faculty Senate General Education Task Force, Faculty Senate

UNM HLC 2018-19 Assurance Argument Evidence

Among other things, this Faculty Senate GE Task force report includes the task force's recommendation that GE assessment should happen on the program level (pg. 22). In general, this document shows one broad example of faculty involvement in concerns of curriculum.

Zacatecas Authorities Reject Protected-Area Designation In Mining Region, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Community & Regional Planning 2016 Apr Self-Study & Documents, University Of New Mexico

UNM Academic Program Review

UNM Community & Regional Planning APR self-study report, review team report, response report, and initial action plan for Fall 2016, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission.

University Of New Mexico Bioalgal Energy, Photosynthesis Rates Of Poplar Plants - Measurements With Tdl Machine (Enriched Co2 - Enriched-Exposed - Tray 1 - Play 2 - 2016/06/07), David Hanson

Energize New Mexico (NSF EPSCoR Track 1 IV)

Collect the photosynthetic rate of poplar plants under different isotopic compositions of CO2 with the TDL machine and with the Licor equipment.

Assessing Drought-Induced Change In A Pi\Xd1on-Juniper Woodland With Landsat: A Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis Approach, William Brewer

Geography ETDs

Piñon-juniper communities exist on mid-elevation mountain ranges throughout the southwestern United States. Drought adapted, these species have lived with climatic stochasticity since the end of the Pleistocene. However, increasing temperatures and drought within the last two decades have stressed this community beyond its adaptive limits. With increased drought-induced stress, piñon show greater vulnerability to die-off than juniper. Widespread piñon die-off occurred during 2002-2004 from extreme drought in northern New Mexico with minimal juniper die-off. This study quantified the differential piñon and juniper mortality during the 2010-2013 drought at a site in central New Mexico by performing multiple endmember spectral mixture …

Modeling The Timeliness Of Airborne Remote Sensing Data, Andrew Loerch

Geography ETDs

The model, “Remote Sensing Communication Model” (RSCM), which permits the estimation of the timeliness of remote sensing systems (RSS) is tested (Lippitt, Stow, & Clarke, 2014). This model conceptualizes RSS as having capacities that determine the timeliness of the systems, where a system is comprised of three segments, each with a capacity that determines the timeliness of that segment: acquisition capacity, transmission capacity, and receiver capacity (i.e., the capacity of a human and/or machine analyst to produce information) (Lippitt et al., 2014). Acquisition and transmission capacity analyses are run to aid in the optimization of a flexible time-sensitive remote sensing …

Abq Free Press, July 13, 2016, Abq Free Press

ABQ Free Press

No abstract provided.

Decolonizing The Body: Breast Cancer And The Environment In Toxic Times, Cynthia L. Martin

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation explores cultural narratives regarding the relationship between environmental toxins and breast cancer causation. It is not an analysis of current scientific research; grounded in Foucault’s theory of genealogy and archaeology, it evaluates cultural narratives on breast cancer causation that may be subsumed by the mainstream focus upon a cure for breast cancer, overlooking how people with breast cancer perceive illness causation, particularly as it relates to toxic exposure. Theories of place, space, and the neoliberal politics behind biotechnology support understanding the toxification of the human body as neocolonialism, and invite decolonizing methodologies as a means of understanding and …

Altitudinal Gradients Do Not Predict Plant-Symbiont Responses To Experimental Warming, Melanie R. Kazenel

Biology ETDs

Fungal symbionts, ubiquitous inhabitants of above- and belowground plant tissues, can play important roles in increasing plant tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress. Disruption of plant-fungal interactions may therefore have important consequences for plant responses to climate change. Both altitudinal gradients and warming experiments can be useful tools for understanding responses of symbioses to climate shifts, but the degree to which altitudinal patterns will predict species responses to warming has received little attention for plant-symbiont interactions. This study combined surveys along replicated altitudinal gradients with a long-term warming experiment at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Colorado, USA to …

A Comparison Of Presence Only Suitability Models To Accurately Identify Prehistoric Agricultural Fields In Western New Mexico Through Remote Sensing, Alissa Healy

Geography ETDs

This project aims to provide greater understanding of the agricultural practices of prehistoric cultures throughout the arid and semi-arid environments of western New Mexico by developing a remote sensing suitability model that will identify prime environments for a specific form of agricultural field, ak chin, that are often difficult to locate with standard field-based archaeological methods. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems methods were applied to develop suitability models that will identify ideal environments for ak chin style agricultural fields based on a small training data sample. Three models: Mahalanobis Technicality, Maximum Entropy (Maxent), and Multi-Criteria Evaluation Ordered Weighted Average …

Framework For Assessing Integrated Water Resources Management In Latin America: Case Studies Of Buenos Aires And São Paulo, Christina Kathryn Faris

Geography ETDs

This thesis examines the World Banks Latin America and the Caribbean Blue Water Green Cities (BWGC) urban water development initiative that began in 2009. This program attempts to create a comprehensive Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach for policymakers at both local and national levels, improving water management approaches and disseminating data on lessons learned. This thesis evaluates the success of the BWGC initiative by analyzing Buenos Aires and S\xe3o Paulo as case studies. Each city is analyzed through examination of the specific World Bank program and through application of a general assessment tool, the City Blueprint Framework (CBF), which …

Modeling Urban Growth And Land Use Change In Albuquerque Using Sleuth, Pankaj Bajracharya

Geography ETDs

This research examines the urban growth and land use pattern of Albuquerque in the next 20 years, for the year 2035, based on past urbanization and land use. Additionally, it compares possible urban growth and land use patterns for two scenarios i. Business as usual scenario, where urbanization pattern of Albuquerque is based on historic data without any explicit definition of areas specifically designated for development and ii. Expansion scenario, where three areas around Albuquerque specifically designated for development (Mesa del Sol, Volcano Mesa and Santolina) is explicitly defined in the model. The two scenarios are further examined based on …

The Scientific Conquest Of New Mexico: Local Legacies Of The Manhattan Project 1942-2015, Lucie Anne Genay

American Studies ETDs

In the initial scoping phase of this research project, the main question I used for guidance was "to what extent and how did the Manhattan Project impact New Mexico and New Mexicans?" My first objective was to assess the magnitude of the state's transformation before addressing the other questions that soon ensued from this original reflection. A brief historical review of the state's transformation will introduce these questions, and comparing pre-World War II and post-Cold War New Mexico will justify the term "revolutionized" I used above. This dissertation retraces the story of this scientific colonization from the point of view …

New Mexico Rock Glacier Inventory: Analysis Of Geomorphology And Paleogeography, Bryan Kinworthy

Geography ETDs

Rock glaciers are large masses of rock debris and interstitial ice that flow or have flowed downhill by permafrost creep. The formation and distribution of rock glaciers is restricted to climates conducive to permafrost development and lithology vulnerable to weathering for source rock. Subsurface ice is insulated from solar radiation, allowing rock glacier formation in lower latitudes and elevations than ice glaciers. Thus rock glaciers provide a useful geomorphic indicator of past and present climate change in regions absent of ice glaciers such as the U.S. Southwest. This study inventories 424 rock glaciers covering 18.36km2 in the state of New …

A Park For Everyone: The National Park Service In Urban America, Sarah J. Morath

Natural Resources Journal

This article examines the National Park Service’s past and future presence in urban America. Scholars, conservationists, and park administrators agree that urban park spaces and programming must be a focus of the National Park Service in its second century. This article explains the motivations behind the National Park Service’s first urban parks and describes the National Park Service’s recent emphasis on urban areas. From designations such as Pullman Park in Chicago, to initiatives like the Urban Agenda, the National Park Service is poised to engage urban America and create a new generation of park visitors.

The Encyclopedia Of Neutrosophic Researchers - Vol. 1, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This is the first volume of the Encyclopedia of Neutrosophic Researchers, edited from materials offered by the authors who responded to the editor’s invitation. The authors are listed alphabetically. The introduction contains a short history of neutrosophics, together with links to the main papers and books. Neutrosophic set, neutrosophic logic, neutrosophic probability, neutrosophic statistics, neutrosophic measure, neutrosophic precalculus, neutrosophic calculus and so on are gaining significant attention in solving many real life problems that involve uncertainty, impreciseness, vagueness, incompleteness, inconsistent, and indeterminacy. In the past years the fields of neutrosophics have been extended and applied in various fields, such as: …

Distortion And Revolution In Texas U.S. Congressional Redistricting Politics: 1972-2014, Willard B. Hunter

Geography ETDs

Over 42 years and 22 US congressional elections between 1972 and 2014, Texas evolved from a state controlled by the Democratic Party since Reconstruction to one dominated by the Republican Party. This thesis examines the relationship between measures of district compactness and changing demographics (decreasing non-Hispanic White percentage and increasing Hispanic percentage) on a measure of electoral bias, as measured by a metric called distortion during this transition. Distortion is the difference between the percentage of seats won by a party with the percentage of votes it received in a statewide congressional election. Using a general linear regression model, the …

Constraints On Distributions And Diversity Of Birds And Mammals Over Variable Environments, Trevor S. Fristoe

Biology ETDs

The distributions of species are determined by intrinsic factors such as physiological tolerances as well as extrinsic factors of the environment such as the availability of resources. While physiological tolerances generally change over evolutionary time scales, changes in environmental productivity due to processes such as succession or seasonal progression often occur over ecological times. I address both physiology and resource availability as drivers of the distributions and diversity of endothermic birds and mammals using a macroecological approach and a metabolic perspective. Migratory birds, altering communities over seasonal cycles, provide a unique opportunity to investigate the drivers of distributions and diversity …

Root Associated Microbes: The Mediators Between Plants And Soil, Sarah Livingston Dean

Biology ETDs

Globally, increasing human populations have either caused or accelerated several types of environmental change. Symbiotic microbes have powerful effects on plant fitness, yet little study has been done on how microbial-plant relationships are affected by environmental changes. In two different ecosystems I explore how either nitrogen (N) pollution or drought can alter root associated microbe (RAM)-plant relationships using Next Generation Sequencing. In moist-meadow alpine tundra at Niwot Ridge, CO, I examine the relative contribution of host identity, N enrichment, and plant neighborhood on RAM diversity and community composition in two co-dominant plant species; Geum rossii and Deschampsia cespitosa. In New …

Too Wet For Frogs, Too Dry For Lizards: Role Of Changing Precipitation On Tropical Frogs And Arid Lizards, Mason J. Ryan

Biology ETDs

During the course of the Anthropocene, humans have modified the landscape and atmosphere resulting in increased global temperatures and intensification of the hydrologic cycle over the last 100 years. Amphibians and reptiles are especially vulnerable to climate change because of their ectothermic physiology and sensitivity to changes in water availability. The role of moisture or precipitation in ectotherm responses to climate change has not been well studied, but moisture plays a vital role in all aspects of the lives of lizards and frogs. It is exceedingly difficult to study the ecological effects of changing precipitation patterns due the stochastic nature …

Unm Latin American & Iberian Institute, 2015-16 Annual Report, Office Of Academic Affairs

UNM HLC 2018-19 Assurance Argument Evidence

A 2015 report from the Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII), detailing its various services and programs. As stated in the About the LAII section of the report (pg. 6), the institute “was founded to coordinate Latin American programs on campus.” The report goes on to detail its outreach efforts among communities external to the university (pg. 8), its relationship to Latin American Studies (pg. 28), and other facets of the institution.