Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Social Media Activism In Achieving Good Water And Sanitation In Ghana, Inusah Mohammed

Communication ETDs

This thesis examined the role of social media activism in ensuring good water and sanitation in Ghana. The study conducted a thematic analysis of Facebook posts (403) from March 2020 to December 2022 and found seven themes on how social activists are presenting issues concerning water and sanitation in Ghana. The study also found outcomes of the activism and also found theoretical implications of activism on social media usage in Ghana.

Impacts Of Urban Renewal On Community Identity And Sense Of Place In Las Cruces, New Mexico, Savannah Lorraine Quintana-Eddins

Geography ETDs

Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico which has experienced exponential growth in the last three decades. The city has been cultivated by a rich history of Native populations, Spanish colonialism, and American democratic government. The culmination of these influences on Las Cruces had much influence on the Mesquite Historic District, the original townsite of Las Cruces. This area is home to many generational families and is adjacent to the downtown Main Street corridor. Downtown was built from the destruction of the Mesquite Historic District caused by waves of urban renewal projects. Through organizing, legislative action and …

Beyond All Drought: Improving Urban Water Conservation In The West Through Integrative Water And Land Use Policy, Benjamin Longbottom, Alexandria Gordon

Natural Resources Journal

Although droughts have long plagued the western United States, rapid population growth and climate change are making the American West increasingly water insecure. In some western states, including Arizona, Colorado, and California, decisionmakers are responding to these changes with innovative water conservation-focused land use policies. In other states, however, water and land use policies are lagging decades behind. Improving water security in western cities is an enormous task, requiring extensive social, legal, and policy reform. Additional federal funding for western water security initiatives could do much to drive that reform, but state and local governments should also play a leading …

Seeking To Be 'Like Water': Plastic Regulation In The People's Republic Of China, Dr. Gerry Nagtzaam, Dr. Elena Karataeva

Natural Resources Journal

China is one of the biggest producers of both virgin plastic and plastic waste. In order to tackle its growing plastic pollution crisis, China has recently made a number of significant legislative reforms directed at minimizing the use of disposable plastics, increasing the production of degradable plastic items and cutting off its reliance on imported plastic waste for recycling feedstock to boost its own recycling efforts. However, relying on recycling and degradable plastics as solutions to the plastic waste crisis may not be sufficient. China’s approach highlights an inherent contradiction in minimizing plastic pollution whilst simultaneously increasing plastic production.

Book Review: Up To Heaven And Down To Hell: Fracking, Freedom, And Community In An American Town Written By Colin Jerolmack, Abigail Lutz

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Pathways To Sustainability: Industry, Development, Business, Agriculture, Economy, And Politics, Andreas Hernandez, Pablo Arias-Benavides, Dayana C.M. Machada, Ousmane Pame, Alice Main, Per Moller

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In this chapter we examine six compelling on-the-ground experiences, which are demonstrating pathways to sustainability, resilience and regeneration. Each case opens a pathway to sustainability in a key sphere of human activity: industry, development, business, agriculture, economy and politics. These experiences are creating new social imaginaries embodied in the practical forms of new politics and economics aimed at profound democratizations of human life, and towards a creative realignment of humans with the rest of the web of life. These social imaginaries are both open and encompassing. They are open in the sense that they can be filled with new possibilities …

Sensitivites Of Dryland Mammals To Mean And Variance In Aridity, Jessica C. Johnson

Biology ETDs

An important component of evaluating the consequences of climate change is to understand not only how climate trends, such as warming, affect species abundance but also how increasing climate variability will change population abundances. Studies on species' sensitivities to interannual variability are rare because they require long-term data collected either over naturally variable climate conditions or within direct manipulations of year-to-year variability. Physiology, functional traits, and diet composition related to resource acquisition or reproduction may be valuable predictors of species sensitivities to changes in both climate mean and variability. We predicted that species with certain physiologies, such as large body …

Minimizing Surface Run-Off, Improving Underground Water Recharging, And On-Site Rain Harvesting In The Kathmandu Valley, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal's political institutions and administrative units were thoroughly restructured in 2015 with the promulgation of the new Constitution. Several rural areas were combined to meet the definition of urban threshold criteria to classify rural areas into urban categories. Accordingly, over 3,900 local political and administrative units were amalgamated into 753 units, of which, 293 units are classified as urban. Within these newly defined urban areas, many natural environments have been converted into impervious surfaces such as paved roads, sidewalks, and building roofs. These impervious surfaces have drastically increased the amount of surface run-offs-often termed as "urban floods"--under increasing precipitation caused …

Food, Security, And Sustainability: "Soil, Struggle And Justice: Agroecology In The Brazilian Landless Movement", Latin American And Iberian Institute

LAII Events

This film examines a cooperative of the Brazilian Landless Movement (MST) in the South of Brazil, which struggled for access to land and then transitioned to ecological agriculture, or agroecology. This MST cooperative is demonstrating the possibility of an alternative model of flourishing rural life, which provides thriving livelihoods for farmers, produces high quality and low cost food for the region, and rehabilitates the earth. Introduction by Andreas Hernandez, Ph.D. Dr. Hernandez will moderate a discussion immediately following the screening.

Rock Climbing And Conservation In Land Management: Can They Coexist?, Marissa Heller

Geography ETDs

As participation in outdoor recreation is growing in the U.S., a dilemma is presented for conservation planners and land area managers who must manage the increasing demand for recreation while simultaneously working to protect species. Rock climbers and other outdoor recreationalists have asserted that a relationship exists between recreation and the conservation of public lands. However, mounting evidence suggests that rock climbing continues to cause a multitude of negative impacts to ecosystems. Here, I investigate the extent to which land management practices allow for rock climbing and conservation to coexist, and how it is that well developed plans protect ecologically …

The Changing Urban Forest In Gallup, New Mexico: Contextualizing Urban Tree Programs And Planning Processes, Joseph A. Scala

Geography ETDs

Tree plantings are often proposed as a solution to a variety of urban problems. The purpose of this project is to investigate the historical formation of urban tree cover in Gallup, New Mexico, and the extent to which urban tree plantings can benefit areas with inequitable urban tree distribution. To do this, I employ a mixed methods approach that includes correlation analysis, historical analysis, and analysis of urban tree canopy change from 1972-2005. The findings from this study indicate that Gallup’s history of tree plantings is heavily influenced by its history of economic development. Additionally, the findings demonstrate that if …

The Nature Of Environmental Planning In The Carnué Land Grant, Desiree Loggins

Geography ETDs

In 1819, the Spanish Crown established Cañón de Carnué land grant as a buffer between the colonial settlement of Albuquerque and raids from Plains Apache and other nomadic tribal nations. Upon entering the U.S. period of Manifest Destiny, Carnué land grant heirs lost much of the land they stewarded as a collective to the Cibola National Forest. While the state generates laws and policies that complicate the prioritization of subsistence land uses by land grant communities, Carnué’s presence is felt as grantees reform relationships to their environment and assert their personal stake in stewardship and care. I argue that Carnué’s …

The Consequences Of Climate Change For Native Bee Assemblages, Melanie R. Kazenel

Biology ETDs

Recent declines in terrestrial arthropod biodiversity highlight the need to pinpoint which taxa and ecosystem services are most threatened, and why. But, for most of the world’s ~20,000 bee species, we lack robust evidence of population trends, and the role of climate change remains surprisingly little studied. I used long-term bee monitoring data from the Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Program (Socorro, NM, USA), along with complementary experimental and observational data, to examine how climate relates to bee abundance and diversity patterns over time and space, and to identify the traits that govern bees’ climate sensitivities. Under climate change, drylands worldwide …

A Review Of Environmental Vulnerabilities Related To Nepal’S Graduation Process From Least Developed To A Developing Country Status, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai, Basu Sharma

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal has long aspired to graduate from the Least Development Country (LDC) to Developing Country category as defined by the United Nations system. Nepal had met two of the three graduating criteria and could have technically graduated from the LDC status in 2015. However, based on the Nepal government’s request to defer the review, the new 2021 assessment by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy (CDP) recommended that the country should graduate from the LDC status by 2026. The graduation requires not only meeting pre-defined development-related thresholds, but also maintaining sustained improvements in at least two consecutive assessments in …

Neutrosophic Sets And Systems, Vol. 47, 2021, Florentin Smarandache, Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Said Broumi

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Statistical Development Of The Neutrosophic Lognormal Model With Application To Environmental Data, Zahid Khan, Adnan Amin, Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Gulistan

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.

Examining Psilocybin And Lsd Consumption Through A Geographical Lens, Nicole Sarah Caruana

Geography ETDs

n recent years, the study of psychedelic science has reemerged across a variety of fields. Psilocybin and LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) are two psychedelic substances receiving an influx of attention for their success treating issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress, and addiction. Psilocybin and LSD are still widely used despite their classification as illegal Schedule I substance. This study aims to learn more about current users with the following questions guiding this research: What are barriers limiting psilocybin and LSD consumption? What are the motivations behind use? What impacts are psilocybin and LSD having on users lives? I used Qualitative …

Nuanced Networks: How Social Relationships And Power Influence Participation In Private Lands Conservation Programs, Ellen Loechner

Geography ETDs

Because the majority of land in the Midwestern United States is privately owned, the responsibility for creating and maintaining space for wildlife conservation falls upon private landowners. Numerous state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) host private lands conservation programs that offer landowners financial and technical support to complete conservation projects on their property (Echols, Front, and Cummins 2019). While the individual motivations and priorities of a landowner may inform how they use and manage their property, a landowner’s ability to connect with the agricultural and conservation communities may determine if they have the opportunity to participate in these …

Evaluation Of Thermal Infrared Imaging From Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles For Arboreal Wildlife Surveillance, Blair Mirka

Shared Knowledge Conference

An important component of wildlife management and conservation is monitoring the health and population size of wildlife species. Monitoring the population size of an animal group can inform researchers of habitat use, potential changes in habitat and the resulting behavioral adaptation, individual health, and the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Arboreal primates are difficult to monitor as their habitat is often poorly accessible and most primate species have some degree of camouflage, making them hard to observe in and below the tree canopy. Surveys conducted using uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with thermal infrared (TIR) cameras can help overcome these limitations …

Estimating Tea Plantation Area Based On Multi-Source Satellite Data, Yanhong Huang

Shared Knowledge Conference

Tea is a characteristic cash crop native to China, mainly distributed in the south of the Yangtze River. Estimating the planting area and spatial distribution of tea gardens is of great significance to improve the economic and ecological benefits of tea. In this paper, a method for extracting tea plantation area based on multi-source remote sensing satellite data was proposed. We collected the Landsat 8 OLI, Sentinel-2, HJ-1A/B, and GF-1 WFV data from 2017 to 2018 in Huzhou City, China. After data pre-processing, we calculated the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and spectral characteristics of each dataset. We also obtained …

Towards Creating Smart Cities In Nepal, Ambika P. Adhikari, Keshav Bhattarai

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Many urban centers in the world are seeking to become smart cities. Nepali city leaders are also aspiring to make their cities smart. A smart city basically has clever improvements made in three sectors of its operations: technological, human, and institutional. Globally, many cities have recently made impressive enhancements in at least one or more of these areas. Nepal’s National Planning Commission (NPC) in 2016 had released a concept paper on smart cities for Nepal, defining smart cities as sustainable, information and technology-based, with high quality services and replicable (NPC 2016). As most Nepali cities still operate with limited infrastructure, …

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol. 46-C, No. 8, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

Anniversaries

George Jackson's Struggle & Death

Attica Prison Uprising

En Apoyo A Cuba

Wall City Nuestra Msion - producida por: San Quentin News escrito por prisioneros - avanzando en la justicia

Intensive Management Unit Challenge

Diversity Accepted: Pride Celebration

UC Davis Books to Prisoners [as published in The Fire Inside of the CCWP, #64]

CA Coalition for Women Prisoners

Weedy Relations: Narratives Of Invasion And Intimacy With Tamarisk In The Chihuahuan Desert, Shannon S. Pepper

Geography ETDs

Tamarix spp., also known as salt cedar or tamarisk, is a shrub that has garnered a notorious reputation in North America as an invasive plant, with widespread policy and research advocating for its eradication in the Southwest U.S. and Northern Mexico. This study examines both governmental conservation documents and news articles to investigate narrative trends on tamarisk in the Southwestern U.S. and Northern Mexico as a contiguous region (the Chihuahuan Desert), expanding on current research to include transborder effects on the perception and management of introduced species. This paper asks: In the last 25 years, how has the movement, …

In Pursuit Of Comparability: Evaluating Influence And Interaction Among Components Of The Home Range Estimation Process In Chimpanzee Datasets, Jillian J. Rutherford

Geography ETDs

The home range (HR) is a fundamental manifestation of an animal’s spatial behavior, but its study has been limited by unclear, unreliable, and unstandardized methodological approaches for measurement. The lack of a comprehensive evaluation of the influence of components of the HR estimation process has hampered consensus over best practices for collecting and analysing movement data. This leads to wide variation in practice, thwarting direct comparability between HR estimates and curtailing the cohesive power of cross-study findings necessary for testing hypotheses and developing appropriate conservation and management strategies. In this thesis I explore the influence of and interaction between common …

Individual Exposure Potential Assessment For Livestock Based On Spatial-Temporal Analysis Of Gps Data And Behavior Patterns Classification In Cove Wash Watershed, Arizona, Zhuoming Liu

Geography ETDs

This thesis examined the geospatial and temporal grazing patterns of domesticated livestock to model individual-level exposure potential to abandoned uranium mine (AUM) waste in a tribal community in the Southwest United States. Lotek Litetrack Global Positioning System (GPS) collars collected data at 20-minute-intervals for 2 flocks of sheep and goats during the Spring and Summer of 2019. Depending on the flock and individual animals, tracking time ranges from 10 days to four months. This research developed a GIS-based exposure potential framework that built on existing methodologies in time geography, GIS, and exposure mapping. This thesis aims to: 1) classify GPS …

Assessing The Environmental Impacts Of Urbanization In Siddharthanagar, Nepal, Bishal Raj Khanal

Economics ETDs

Rapid and haphazard infrastructural expansion often contributes to large negative externalities in cities. Environmental problems like air pollution and degradation of quality-of-life elements in an urban settlement are attributed to urban sprawl. Evidence based planning tools need to be developed which can help manage the rapid urbanization that is taking place in the developing world. In this context, we examine the relationship between health outcomes and the different spatial- temporal aspects of an urban-built environment in Siddharthanagar Metropolitan City which is a major settlement in southwestern Nepal. We attempt to identify the aspects of built environment which are closely associated …

Assessing Drought Vegetation Dynamics At The Landscape Scale In Semiarid Grass- And Shrubland Using Mesma, Rowan Converse

Geography ETDs

New Mexico experienced substantial impacts of regional-scale drought from 2011-2014. Global climate change may make such events a new normal for the southwest: drought events are expected to increase in both frequency and severity over the coming century. While semiarid grasslands recover quickly from short-term drought, the cumulative impacts of climate change may reduce the resiliency of these systems over time. Remote sensing methods can allow efficient and cost-effective comparison of ecosystem recovery from drought events over time using long-running imaging systems like Landsat. We investigate the efficacy of using multi-endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) to quantify the impacts of …

Drinking Water Governance For Whom? An Institutional Analysis Of Rural Drinking Water Systems In New Mexico, Tucker Colvin

Geography ETDs

Rural community drinking water systems in New Mexico are facing many challenges, including a lack of personnel, deteriorating infrastructure, lack of funds, overly burdensome and confusing regulation, environmental concerns, and concerns over water rights. Governing agencies are creating vulnerability by making managers prioritize some issues and neglect others. Water systems designated a Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Associations are especially problematic because they are small and managed by volunteers but have as much regulatory burden as larger municipalities. I use the theory of institutional work to explain how an institution that was originally designed to help low-income and rural communities is …

Backyard Wildlife Refuges In Albuquerque, Nm: An Urban Land Ethic In Practice, Laurel E. Ladwig

Geography ETDs

In the urban setting, biodiversity conservation requires intentionally creating spaces humans and wildlife can share. An urban land ethic can guide this process. Developing and practicing this ethic requires asking questions that consider approaches from multiple disciplines and avoid anthropocentric framing. Both More-Than-Human and Critical Physical Geography bring multiple knowledges into conversation to make complex realities visible. This project explores these fields of scholarship as guides for reconciling the needs of the land community.

Sharing familiar spaces creates opportunities for developing ethical relationships between humans, non-humans, and natural systems. Wildlife gardening creates habitat in our residential and community areas, providing …

Climate Change Adaptation In Highland Ecuador: Intersections Of Gender, Geography, And Knowledge In Farming Communities, Dinka Natali Caceres Arteaga

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation uses a feminist political ecology perspective to explore the socioeconomic impacts of climate change in Ecuador, especially but not limited to the agriculture sector. It is based on the use of mixed methods that allowed the participation and validation of the local population, surpassing their role as beneficiaries to co-authors of this research.

The significance of this study relies on the position the local population holds in the fields of human geography, under a community local-planning perspective, as they attempted to collaborate in the process of adaptation to climate change by presenting analysis and calculation of an index …