Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Future Drought Scenarios In Rangpur, Bangladesh Using Cmip6 Climate Projections And Drought Indices, Mijanur Rahman, Hossain Al Mahbub, Mst Sanjida Alam, Janifer Alam, Nusrut Sharmin, Md Naim Molla

Student Publications [Scholarly]

Climate-induced drought has become a growing concern across South Asia as rising temperatures and monsoon variability intensify hydroclimatic stress. This study evaluates historical (1979–2014) and future (2015–2100) hydroclimatic conditions in Rangpur using observed data and CanESM5 projections for three CMIP6 scenarios (SSP1-1.9, SSP2-2.6, SSP5-8.5). Multi-scale Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) were applied to detect droughts, while Tmax and Tmin Z-scores quantified heat anomalies and compound drought–temperature events. Historical records show strong rainfall variability with no significant long-term trend, but significant warming particularly in Tmin indicating increasing evaporative demand. Future projections reveal moderate precipitation increases (+ …

Math Presentations Highlight Communities Of Practice, Jenni Breems

Staff Work

No abstract provided.

Quality Reveals What Quantity Conceals: Deceptive Equity Patterns In Urban Green Space Distribution, Zheng Xian, Yoshiharu Suzuki, Kun Liu, Clive E. Sabel, Naoki Nakaya, Atsushi Hozawa, Tomoki Nakaya

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Equitable provision of urban green space depends on how green space exposure is measured, yet aggregate, quantity-focused metrics can mask disparities in quality. We introduce the concept of deceptive equity, in which apparent distributional fairness conceals substantive inequality, and test it across 344 postcode areas in Sendai, Japan. Across three dimensions — ecological (NDVI), perceptual (Green View Index) and service provision (accessible park count) — we paired a quantity indicator with a quality indicator. A quantity–quality divergence emerged in every dimension: wherever a quality indicator showed a significant socioeconomic gradient it favoured affluent areas, whereas the corresponding quantity indicators were …

Mapping The Impact Of Hurricane Katrina On The Health Sciences Literature: A Pilot Scoping Review, Elizabeth H. Holt, Sharon Duffy, Matthew Folse, Rowan Marye, Chandler D. Smith

Library Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: LSU Health New Orleans Libraries are conducting a scoping review to map the health sciences literature written on the topic of Hurricane Katrina for inclusion in an institutional archive. A pilot review was first conducted by the team to become more familiar with the process and gain better knowledge of the existing literature.

METHODS: Articles by LSU Health New Orleans-affiliated authors were retrieved from the LSU Health Digital Scholar Hurricane Katrina Archive and health sciences literature databases. Impacts on medical education, health sciences research, healthcare delivery, long term impacts on all dimensions of health, and accounts of personal experiences …

Program Review Report 10-13-26, Angela Brock

Program Review Committee

No abstract provided.

Ucc Minutes 10-13-26, Angela Brock

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Landscaping And Sustainability Education On A College Campus: A Case Study In Place-Based, Collaborative Ecosystem Science, Christine S. O'Connell, Shannon Hahn, Evelyn Jauregui, Michael V. Frazier, Anika R. Bratt, Mary A. Heskel, Megan Butler, Christie M. Manning

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Sustainability education on college campuses can leverage interdisciplinary collaborations between facilities services, sustainability offices, environmental studies researchers, and students to provide hands-on opportunities for place-based learning. In an effort led by student researchers that could be replicated in academic practice at other academic institutions, we collaborated across campus groups to improve campus landscaping and turfgrass management. Turfgrass is an ideal cover for high-traffic areas and recreation, but is energy intensive to maintain, inefficient at carbon sequestration, and requires fertilizing which contributes to nutrient pollution. Here, we outline a student-led research effort that combined experiential learning, using a college campus as …

Volume Cxlvi, Number 3, October 9, 2026, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Buffeted By Change, Researchers Seek Continuity And Investment: Results From The Ithaka S+R Us Researcher Survey, Chelsea Mccracken, Dylan Ruediger, Ruby Macdougall

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Executive summary

The research enterprise in the United States, established after the second world war, is experiencing massive disruption. US colleges and universities are grappling with federal and state disinvestment and intervention at a time when AI and other technologies are reshaping how research is conducted and its findings are communicated. As a result, researchers at US higher education institutions are operating in an unstable environment. Against this backdrop, the findings from our survey of 4,003 researchers, fielded in late 2025, demonstrate that they remain committed to carrying out essential work and that they are doing so in innovative ways—through …

Mapping St. Louis History: Slavery, Redlining, And The May 16th Tornado, Safa M. Altamimi, Aster Horbanova, Riley J. Bearden, Vivian B. Rhodes, Bridget Ragan

Undergraduate Research Symposium

For this project, our group members are traveling across St.Louis to areas that are affected by the May 16th tornado. We will be taking pictures and using ArcGIS survey123 to input data connecting the tornado to historical forces such as Redlining and Slavery. Using this data, we will be creating an ArcGIS StoryMap and presenting our findings.

Learning The Trade-Off: Simulation-Based Sustainability Education In Marketing, Roisin Vize

Case studies: Digital Education

Digital transformation is reshaping higher education, yet gamified business simulations remain among its most widely used and least examined tools. This case study reports on the use of the HUBRO Sustainable Marketing Simulation, a Sage resource, in Marketing 1, a core first-year undergraduate module at TU Dublin. Sustainability in business education is typically reserved for final-year, postgraduate or elective modules. This intervention instead embedded Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles and balancing the triple bottom line from the first year of a four-year degree. Across two cohorts, 51 teams of three to four students ran a fictional jetpack venture over …

Economic Costs For Three Selected Water Quality Treatment Technologies, Dawoon Jeong, Debabrata Sahoo, Heather Nix, Sarah White

Forestry and Natural Resources

Maintaining water quality in surface waters, including ponds and irrigation reservoirs, is essential for safe water use and is challenging. Mitigating and reducing nutrient levels is critical for managing risks of harmful algal blooms for agricultural operations, municipal drinking water suppliers, stormwater managers, and other water resource professionals. This article presents economic information about three best management practices (BMPs) treatment technologies well-suited to improving water quality for agricultural operations and small pond owners.

A Deep Learning-Based Approach For Mapping Shrubs In Arctic Tundra From Very High-Resolution Imagery, Darko Radakovic, Mark Chopping, Bruce Cook, Aparna S. Varde, Stefan A. Robila

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Arctic shrub expansion is accelerating due to climate warming, but accurately mapping it at fine spatial scales remains challenging due to spectral overlap between shrubs and surrounding vegetation, heterogeneous tundra landscapes, and limited availability of very high-resolution imagery. This study presents a novel mapping and validation approach that integrates very high-resolution (< 1 m) QuickBird (QB) and WorldView (WV) satellite imagery across 12 North Slope sites, using deep learning architectures to map changes in shrub cover from 2002 to 2022. Deep learning models, including Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), ResNet, VGG, U-Net, and Vision Transformer, were trained on 4,100 3-channel pansharpened multispectral images (200×200 m). Two traditional machine learning models (Random Forest and Support Vector Machine) served as a control group. Leave-one-site-out cross-validation showed that all models performed well (AUC-ROC of 0.78–0.86, F1 at validation of 0.33-0.46) and had a moderate to strong agreement with field reference data (R2 = 0.76–0.87). The pretrained VGG and ResNet models achieved the strongest field-reference alignments for shrub cover prediction, while the difference with traditional models was small. Temporal trend analyses for July and August demonstrate a cover change of 0.06–0.45% yr-1 with unweighted mean area slopes and 0.01–0.92% yr-1 inverse-variance weighting. Growth rates were found to depend on the analytical design. Furthermore, the limiting factor in mapping shrub cover was not model complexity but the quality of the training data labels (annotation method explained ∼26% of the error variance). Per-scene cover error was seen across architectures (ρ = 0.67). Comparison with NASA Goddard's LiDAR, Hyperspectral and Thermal (G-LiHT)-derived Canopy Height Models revealed a weak-to-moderate relationship (R2 = 0.04–0.77), suggesting horizontal cover and vertical canopy structure capture complementary aspects of shrub abundance. These results demonstrate the potential of deep learning to map decadal shrub expansion at sub-meter resolution.

Assignment 3: Poster Campaign, Kylie E. Quave

Kylie Quave, First Year Writing: Food Archaeology for Civic Engagement

No abstract provided.

Sequential Environmental Control And Perceived Comfort In Virtual Post-Occupancy Evaluation Of Educational Spaces, Rund Hiyasat, Alreem Almemari, Laurens Luyten, Lindita Bande, Alyazia Alameri

All Works

Purpose – Comfort discrepancies frequently persist in operational educational buildings despite compliance with indoor environmental quality (IEQ) standards. This study examines how perceived comfort evolves across sequential environmental configurations in immersive virtual reality (VR) when limited environmental control is introduced and subsequently withdrawn. Design/methodology/approach – A repeated-measures experiment was conducted with 81 university students performing an identical spatial task across three conditions within the same virtual classroom: baseline, user-choice (selection of one IEQ dimension: sound, thermal, or lighting), and programmed reversion to baseline. Overall perceived comfort was assessed after each exposure. Findings – Comfort increased significantly following the introduction of …

Methodological Variations In Environmental Justice Screening Tools And Their Impact On Disadvantaged Community Designations, Thomas Robbins, Qingran Li, Stephen Bird

Faculty Publications

Government agencies in the United States have developed environmental justice screening tools (EJSTs) and designations to promote equitable distribution of benefits from environmental policies to disadvantaged communities (DACs). However, the methodological choices embedded in these tools, including the selection, weighting, and aggregation of environmental justice indicators, vary across EJSTs, and their implications for DAC designation outcomes are poorly understood. Here we systematically compare four EJSTs at the federal and state levels and show that these tools produce substantial variation in the DAC census tracts, with some tools emphasizing socioeconomic burdens while others prioritize environmental risks. Using quantitative regression models, we …

Program Review Report 9-15-26, Angela Brock

Program Review Committee

No abstract provided.

Ucc Minutes 9-15-26, Angela Brock

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

From Disaster To Resilience: Developing Smart Settlements In The Himalayas, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s catastrophic 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi–Trishuli flood should be understood not only as a humanitarian tragedy but also as a potentially major turning point in updating national settlement and reconstruction policy. Engineers and scientists have described the floods as a glacier–bedrock collapse that triggered an ice-rock avalanche and debris flow. As per the live updates on September 7, 2026, the total death toll was 1,355, and 4,996 people were missing (The Hindu, 2026). Indian and Nepali rescuers worked urgently to locate and rescue people buried under hydropower tunnels, buildings, mud, and landslide debris.

UN News reported on September 3, …

From Himalayan Catastrophe To National Resilience: Lessons From The 2026 Bhote Koshi And Trishuli River Floods In Nepal, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

On the morning of 26 August 2026, the mountains above Nepal’s northern frontier delivered a disaster of almost unimaginable speed and scale. A massive mass of ice, rock, and sediment detached in the high Himalayan terrain near the Nepal–Tibet border, descended roughly 1,200 metres, interacted with the Lhende Khola system, and generated a debris-rich flood that surged through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river corridors, destroying settlements, markets, roads, bridges, hydropower facilities, and an international border crossing and transforming them into fields of mud, boulders, and wreckage within minutes (ICIMOD, 2026b; Reuters, 2026a). Satellite analysis indicates that a substantial section …

Fastest-Warming States And Cities In The Mountain West, 2025, Maisoon Faris, Kahlen Coss, Kevin Yang, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data published by Climate Central on the change in average annual temperatures for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah and 15 Mountain West cities from 1970 to 2025. City-level data are derived from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), state-level data are derived from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

On The Passing Of Wendell Berry, Gayle E. Doornbos, Jeff Ploegstra, Danielle Wyenberg, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Berry’s literary contributions are vast and multifaceted, but the central messages carry an invitation into a more intentional life, one that prioritizes people, land, communities, and the joy of good work."

Posting about Wendell Berry's passing and literary legacy ­­­­­­­­from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

On the Passing of Wendell Berry

Abcflux V2: Arctic-Boreal Co2 And Ch4 Monthly Flux Observations And Ancillary Information Across Terrestrial And Freshwater Ecosystems, Anna Maria Virkkala, Isabel Wargowsky, Judith Vogt, Simran Madaan, Tiffany Windholz, Kyle A. Arndt, Evan S. Kane, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Measurements of surface-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes have been relatively sparse across the Arctic tundra and boreal biomes, causing significant uncertainties in carbon budget estimates from the region. While the availability of Arctic-boreal carbon flux data has increased substantially over the past decade, the data have remained spread across different repositories, scientific articles, and unpublished sources, making it difficult to leverage. Here we present a new dataset of monthly Arctic-boreal carbon fluxes (ABCFlux v2) across terrestrial (wetlands and uplands) and freshwater (lakes and rivers) ecosystems compiled from previous syntheses including the Arctic-boreal CO2 flux database (ABCFlux v1), …

Research Priorities For Robust Climate Assessments In The United States, Melissa A. Kenney, Robert E. Kopp, Constantine Samaras, Marina Alberti, Sonia Y. Angell, Jennifer Burney, Richelle L. Winkler, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Scientific assessments play a critical role in synthesizing evidence to support evidence-based decision-making in many sectors and topics. For climate change, large-scale assessments like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United States (U.S.) National Climate Assessment (NCA) reports help many different users—from national government to local governments, Indigenous Peoples and communities, the private sector, the social sector, and the scientific community itself—navigate the complex field of climate risks, impacts, and integrated solutions. While co-creation with users is essential to developing actionable assessments, this paper lays the groundwork for future processes by identifying many advancing and emerging areas …

Preliminary Data: Old Trails Fire--Field Reconnaissance (Rpd1195), Rapid, University Of Washington

Spokane Wildfire Academic Consortium Repository

The .ZIP file contains preliminary field reconnaissance findings from the Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington, including geospatial datasets and the source code used to support the project's interactive web map. The data and observations reflect work completed through September 4 and should be considered preliminary. As additional analysis and information become available, updates will be published as new records in the Wildfire Consortium Repository.

Access the interactive map: https://designsafe-ci.github.io/rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance/

Access the DesignSafe-CI rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance GitHub repository: https://github.com/DesignSafe-CI/rapid-fire-field-reconnaissance/

Ai Slop, Jessica Silbey, Woodrow Hartzog

Faculty Scholarship

The term “AI slop” has become popular to describe the output of generative AI systems seen as voluminous, low quality, or the result of little effort. When AI-generated music and videos flood platforms, they are called slop. Peer-reviewed journals and legal tribunals are drowning in low-quality and low-reliability AI slop submissions.  Employees are seen to be producing mountains of slop in their reports and communications with each other. The term has inertia and heft, and the phenomenon has significant consequences. Most of them are not good.

But the boundaries of “AI slop” and its usefulness in policy discussions are not …

Research Priorities For Robust Climate Assessments In The United States, Melissa A. Kenney, Robert E. Kopp, Constantine Samaras, Marina Alberti, Sonia Y. Angell, Jennifer Burney, Colin Cunliff, Elliott T. Gall, J. T. Duffy-Anderson, Multiple Additional Authors

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Scientific assessments play a critical role in synthesizing evidence to support evidence-based decision-making in many sectors and topics. For climate change, large-scale assessments like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United States (U.S.) National Climate Assessment (NCA) reports help many different users—from national government to local governments, Indigenous Peoples and communities, the private sector, the social sector, and the scientific community itself—navigate the complex field of climate risks, impacts, and integrated solutions. While co-creation with users is essential to developing actionable assessments, this paper lays the groundwork for future processes by identifying many advancing and emerging areas …

Legal Geographies Of The Public Trust Doctrine, Alida Cantor, John P. Casellas Connors, Elizabeth Carlino

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Public Trust Doctrine (PTD) is a legal principle that recognizes a duty of the government to hold certain natural resources in trust for public benefit. The doctrine has been extended within the United States to address issues of water, coastal access, wildlife conservation, and climate change. Its implementation is spatially uneven and subjective, however, raising geographic questions around scale, power, and political economy. This article uses a legal geographic approach to understand the PTD. Focusing on water, wildlife, and atmospheric resources, we analyze themes of scale and jurisdiction, property and commons, and legal and environmental subjectivity. We argue that …

Concepts For Supporting Indigenous And Tribal Information And Research Needs, Sharon Hausam

Faculty Publications

This is a working paper produced as part of National Science Foundation project #2115169, “Transforming Rural-Urban Systems: Trajectories for Sustainability in the Intermountain West,” known as the “Intermountain West Transformation Network” (TN), led by the University of New Mexico with institutional partners at three additional universities in New Mexico, two in Arizona, and one each in Utah, Colorado, and Washington. The TN’s Indigenous and Tribal engagement was supported through a contract with Dr. Sharon Hausam, additional work by Aaron M. Canter, coordination with Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie, and an Advisory Committee on Indigenous Information Needs primarily comprised of Indigenous representatives in …

Trustworthy Ai At The Air Quality-Health Nexus: A Systematic Review Of Federated Learning, Distributed Ledger Technologies, And Explainable Ai, Nadia Dahmani, Imen Ben Salem, Syed M Salman Bukhari

All Works

Abstract Air quality (AQ) related health risks are increasing globally, creating urgent demand for artificial intelligence (AI) systems that are privacy-preserving, transparent, and auditable. Although Federated Learning (FL), Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), and Explainable AI (XAI) are widely recognized as core components of trustworthy AI, existing research remains divided across technical and application domains. This study conducts a computational, multistage systematic review (SR) of scholarly literature records published between 2011 and 2025 using the Semantic Scholar Graph API with intersection and union search strategies. A total of 13 458 records were retrieved and refined into a research-grade corpus of 7 …