Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding Combined Sewer Overflow (Cso) And Green Infrastructure Interaction In New Jersey : An Economic Analysis, Taylor J. Wieczerak

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

New Jersey, as a coastal area, has historically struggled with a variety of problems stemming from stormwater runoff, which have only grown more prevalent and harmful as urbanization and climate change have taken their toll. One such issue that has emerged in recent years is the prevalence of combined sewer overflows (CSOs). These sewer systems are common in urban areas in the United States and abroad, and increased urbanization has them not only obsolete but a persistent danger, as their discharges can contaminate waterways and affect human health. While municipalities across the United States are beginning to move towards mitigating …

Turtle Island (North America) Indigenous Higher Education Institutions And Environmental Sustainability Education

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

(Un)Subjugating Indigenous Knowledge For Sustainable Development: Considerations For Community-Based Research In African Higher Education

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Addressing Transportation Equity By Comparing In-Service Performance Of Roadside Safety Devices Through Machine Learning Modeling, Hanzhen Wang

Theses (2016-Present)

Transportation equity plays an important role in modern communities, and a fair distribution of transportation infrastructures is vital as an integral part of transportation planning process. The In-Service Performance Evaluation (ISPE) satisfies transportation safety requirements by identifying the problems of roadside safety devices during installation and maintenance process with proper solutions, and the performance results reveal the current statue of target devices in specific areas. Although several studies have been conducted to emphasize transportation equity, there is still a lack of equity research specifically focusing on the deploying of roadside safety devices associated with ISPE results. With proper comparison of …

Assessing Transit Accessibility In African American Communities. A Case Study Of The Houston Metropolitan Area, Mckenzie Darnell Jones-Channel

Theses (2016-Present)

Transportation is the pulse that keeps today’s society moving. The movement of people, places, and things all rely on some form of transportation. There are various ways to move people; mass public transit, personal vehicles, and private transit entities are just a few ways that people move. Access to viable transportation is essential in the quality-of-life aspect of today’s society; in many cases, African American populations lack access to viable transportation. Work, school, and shopping are just a few activities that almost always require some form of transportation. Houston, Texas, is known for its diverse culture. Ordinarily, residents in the …

Environmental Rhetoric And An Ecology Of Transcendence: A Rhetorical Criticism Of Awake, A Dream From Standing Rock, Alyssa Kahn

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My project blends Burkean theory with Indigenous rhetoric to argue that the counter- story of Awake proposes an ecology of transcendence to make sense of human-nature relationships. I wanted to analyze Awake A Dream From Standing Rock. The documentary is explicitly about Indigenous peoples. This documentary tells the story of the peaceful protests and resistance led by Native people at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation or Lakota Tribe in North Dakota. The activists were protecting the water otherwise known as water protectors/warriors from the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The assembly of DAPL is intended to carry perforated …

Independent- Aug. 1, 2021, Independent Staff

The Independent (1988-present)

No abstract provided.

Black And Indigenous Theoretical Considerations For Higher Education Sustainability

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Decolonization And Transformation Of Higher Education For Sustainability: Integrating Indigenous Knowledge Into Policy, Teaching, Research, And Practice

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Decision Support System To Select The Most Effective Strategies For Mitigating The Urban Heat Island Effect Using Sustainability And Resilience Performance Measures, Bahareh Bathaei

Theses and Dissertations

As climate change continues to alter the temperature of the cities, various urban heat island mitigation strategies (UHIMSs) are now needed to be employed to mitigate the effects of increasing temperatures. However, to ensure their resilience and sustainability, the effectiveness of such strategies should be evaluated using a set of criteria. According to a review of the literature, there is a need for a comprehensive model and performance assessment tool that considers the various characteristics and features that are significant in assessing whether the chosen strategies are viable candidates for minimizing the effects of urban heat island (UHI). As a …

Analysis Of Environmental Law Scholarship 2019-2020, Michael P. Vandenbergh, Stefan J. Berthelsen, Bryan Davidson, Linda K. Breggin

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The goal of this Comment is to highlight the results of the ELPAR article selection process and to report on the environmental legal scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year, including the number of environmental law articles published in general law reviews versus environmental law journals, and the topics covered in the articles. We also present the Top 20 articles that met ELPAR's criteria of persuasiveness, impact, feasibility, and creativity, from which four articles were selected to re-publish in condensed form with commentaries from leading practitioners and policymakers. Two additional articles received an honorable mention. Thus, this Comment provides an empirical …

Alienation, Modernization, And Animal Welfare: Human-Animal Relationships At The Farm, State, And Country Levels, Michael D. Briscoe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Our relationships with animals are important for us as humans, for the environment, and for the animals themselves. In this dissertation I look at the relationships between humans and animals at three scales: farm, U.S. state, and country. Specifically, I address how factors like economic growth, technological innovation, and globalization affect human relationships with animals. Understanding how these factors influence human-animal relationships is important for improving these relationships and deciding which directions will most contribute to sustainable outcomes. I address the social factors that influence human-animal relationships in three studies.

In the first study I surveyed and interviewed dairy farmers …

Green Criminology And Environmental Justice: An Exploratory Analysis Of Oil Spills In North America., Edidiong Mendie

Dissertations (2016-Present)

The underlying principle of green criminology is understanding environmental harms from a criminological lens, a variation from mainstream criminology's focus on street crimes. Environmental harms and contamination, such as oil spills, remain a growing concern for nations especially disadvantaged communities (low-income and communities of color). This dissertation analyzed the environmental pollution of 3 oil spills in North America to ascertain their impact on disadvantaged communities. This was achieved through secondary research inquiry using a case study analysis. This dissertation also highlighted the impact of forensic science and environmental forensics in oil spill cases. Using an independent sample t-test, this dissertation …

The Impact Of Air Pollution On Housing Prices., Zhonghua Jin

Dissertations (2016-Present)

Air pollution has been considered as an influential environmental factor affecting both local government policies and the general public’s decisions on housing within large metropolitan areas. In the past few decades, the United States achieved excellent results on a large scale. However, in some major industrial metropolitan areas, air pollution still stays at relatively high levels. In related environmental studies, environmental justice is often emphasized to eliminate or mitigate social imbalance among urban communities. However, fewer studies have adopted quantitative methods to assess the effectiveness of existing environmental policies. Taking the Houston region as an empirical case, this study examines …

Regeneration First, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Ryan Knowles Merrill

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

30 years of "corporate sustainability" has left our earth in a dire state. Biodiversity loss, planetary fever, floods, wildfires, droughts, melting ice caps, dying corals… the list goes on. We need a new approach. I’m sure you heard about a carbon footprint. It is the sum of all the actions we take that have a negative impact on the planet. We consume electricity, we drive to work, we fly to our holiday destination, we waste food and plastic and so on. All these actions create a negative impact that can be expressed in CO2 equivalent. The more CO2 ends up …

"Not In My Town": A Community's Response To Water And Soil Pollution, Karolina Staros

Dissertations

At the core of this dissertation is the acknowledgment that social movements are complex networks of people who face many obstacles in their efforts to achieve social change. One critique of social movements is that their goals and mission are limited to short term ideas and not long-term, systemic transformation. The lack of long term, systemic change can be observed when social movement groups mobilize for the same cause over and over again with what appears to be little progress over a period of time. The exact blueprint for a social movement’s success does not exist, but it is posited …

An Agenda For Research And Action Toward Diverse And Just Futures For Life On Earth, Carina Wyborn, J. Montana, N. Kalas, S. Clement, F. Davila, N. Knowles, E. Louder, M. Balan, J. Chambers, L. Christel, T. Forsyth, G. Henderson, S. Izquierdo Tort, Michelle Mei Ling Lim, Et Al

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Decades of research and policy interventions on biodiversity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of biodiversity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting biodiversity toward the goal of sustaining diverse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting biodiversity involves critically reflecting on past and present research, policy, and practice concerning biodiversity to inspire creative thinking about the future. The agenda was developed through a 2-year dialogue process that involved close to 300 experts from diverse disciplines and locations. This process was informed …

Mopping Up Or Turning Off The Tap? Environmental Injustice And The Ethics Of Plastic Pollution, Katharine A. Owens, Katie Conlon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Opinion article

Decades of scientific research confirm that plastic pollution poses a threat to many species, to water resources, and to economies around the world (Laist, 1997; Barnes et al., 2009; Gregory, 2009; Teuten et al., 2009; Chen, 2015; Newman et al., 2015; Rochman, 2015). Experts demonstrate that oceanic plastic pollution is increasing at astounding rates (Eriksen et al., 2014; Geyer et al., 2017). Research indicates harmful levels of toxicity in everyday plastic items (SCP/RAC, 2020). Scientists find this issue so important that they have recommended plastics …

Embodying Equity: Change Management Strategies For Addressing Racial Equity In Environmental Nonprofits, Brittany Jezouit

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Nonprofit Studies Capstone Projects

Recent social movements and the urgency of the climate crisis have heightened awareness of the exclusion of people of color within the environmental movement. While many environmental nonprofits are working to address racial equity within their organizations, they are often not well-equipped with the tools, tactics, and change management strategies to successfully execute their goals. Using data from case studies via qualitative interviews with local Richmond, VA environmental nonprofit leaders, this study aims to combine insights from nonprofit leaders doing racial equity work with key theories of change from the ProSci ADKAR model, John Kotter’s 8-Step Process for Leading Change, …

Reflecting On, And Revising, International Best Practice Principles For Eia Follow-Up, Angus Morrison-Saunders, Jos Arts, Alan Bond, Jenny Pope, Francois Retief

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Follow-up is a vital component of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), being essential for understanding assessment outcomes. Long-standing international best practice principles for EIA follow-up are reviewed, and revisions proposed, based on workshops with academics and practitioners, literature review and self-reflection. The proposed revision of EIA follow-up principles will feature an introduction with a simple definition and explanation of objectives for follow-up, and 15 principles. The revised principles address: objective; context; early establishment; project life-cycle; transparency; accessibility; accountability; performance criteria provision; enforcement; learning; adaptive environmental management; flexible or adaptive approach; tiering; cumulative effects and overall performance evaluation. Through publishing this proposal, …

Urban Agroecology For Food Sovereignty And Biodiversity: Are Urban Community Farms Or Gardens More Effective?, Heidi L. Giancola

Master's Theses

Industrial agriculture is accurately criticized for eliminating biodiversity and destroying food sovereignty. Urban agroecosystems, usually individual plots in community gardens, are promoted to restore ecological services and equity to food systems. Recently, collectively tended urban community farms have developed, with explicit social justice goals. This study directly contrasts the effectiveness of the urban community farm and garden models. Spatial analysis is used to confirm that community farms enhance geographic access for healthy food priority areas compared to gardens in the San Francisco bay area. An online survey of farm staff and gardeners from Marin to Santa Clara County resulted in …

Guest Editors' Introduction, Susan Pacheco, Ruth A. Etzel

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

No abstract provided.

“The Great Dissenter”: Ruth Bader Ginsburg And The Fight For Equality, Celeste Nunez, Jacqulyne R. Anton

History in the Making

No abstract provided.

A Pattern Language For Environmental Justice: Applying Interconnected, Evidence-Based Problem-Solution Sequences To Comprehensive Equity Analysis, Josh Rosa

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

This essay examines pattern language design as a method of comprehensive environmental justice analysis. First, the essay describes common limitations of conventional methods of analysis, finding the interconnected problem-solution sequences described as pattern languages address most limitations. Next, the essay examines the potential for pattern language design, when paired with other methods, to equip local communities to more intelligently evaluate the actual equity impacts of environmental choices.

Living With Water: Documenting Lived Experience And Social-Emotional Impacts Of Chronic Flooding For Local Adaptation Planning, Lindsay K. Campbell, Helen Cheng, Erika Svendsen, Dana Kochnower, Katherine Bunting-Howarth, Phoebe Wapnitsky

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

Coastal communities are threatened by extreme weather events in the form of storm surge and by frequent, chronic, or nuisance flooding. The physical damage of these events is vast and established in the literature; however, the social-emotional impacts are less well-documented. This pilot study sought to understand the impacts of tidal flooding on flood-prone communities in Queens, NY. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n=9) with civic science participants, we document flooding impacts, identify adaptations to flooding, and examine sources of information about flooding--including local networks and relationship to government. We found that participants are knowledgeable about and engaged with the processes, …

Elevating Mental Health Disparities And Building Psychosocial Resilience Among Bipoc Children And Youth To Broaden The Climate And Health Discourse, Surili Sutaria Patel, Katherine Robb, C. Pluff, Evelyn Maldonado, Grace Tatar, Tia Williams

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

The co-occurring crises of climate change, a global pandemic, and the social justice movement has put demands on psychosocial resilience. The country and global community has witnessed that those who contribute the least to climate change are the most impacted, and that black, indigenous, and people of color bear the health and financial burdens brought on by a changing climate. Given that eco-anxiety is on the rise amongst young people, such increases in awareness building have not yielded action at the speed and scale necessary to protect the most climate-sensitive among us: children and youth. Raising healthy children and youth …

Using Google Street View To Examine Urban Context And Green Amenities In The Global South: The Chilean Experience, Monica Haddad, Zachary Christman, Hamil Pearsall, Melinda Sanchez

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

This study evaluates the use of virtual, human-interpreted, field observations using Google Street View (GSV) to examine the presence of conditions that may be used to analyze green gentrification in the Global South. We propose that green gentrification is characterized by the introduction or improvement of green amenities (such as parks) as well as corresponding changes to the urban context (such as facade materials). While virtual field observations have been used to examine neighborhood context for other applications, this method has not yet been applied to the study of green gentrification, nor in the Global South. Using one urban park …

The Nexus Of Climate Change, Covid-19, And Environmental Justice On Children's Health, Emma Pennea, Laura Anderko, Caroline Moore, Ruth Mcdermott-Levy

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

Climate change poses a threat to children, who are increasingly vulnerable, depending on adults to protect them from the impacts of these changes including extreme weather events, poor air and water quality and risk to mental health. Children living in poverty carry additional burdens and risks, living in environments that consistently experience poor air and water quality from polluting industries, compounded by the effects of climate change. COVID-19 has placed additional challenges to children’s health and increases the complexity of addressing climate change and environmental justice. The intersection between climate change and COVID-19 exacerbates these existing disparities by impacting children's …

Informing Policy On Built Environments To Safeguard Children In Environmental Justice Communities: Case Study Of Five Aap Climate Advocates, Katie Durrwachter-Erno Md, Gredia Huerta-Montanez Md, Vivian Nguyen, Aaron A. Levy Do, Jennifer M. Lawson Md, Vi T. Nguyen Md

Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk

Climate change’s health effects are most strongly felt in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities which are predominantly people of color. This results in a disproportionate burden of climate change health effects on EJ communities. Climate change is a public health crisis, and more importantly to pediatricians – it is a pediatric public health crisis. We are five pediatricians who are part of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Climate Advocate Program representing four diverse regions; Colorado, California, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina. We are applied research practitioners, as we live in the world between academic research and clinical practice. We are …

Quantifying And Analyzing Synthetic Microfiber Pollution In Great Lakes Sediment Near Cladophora Mats, Antigone N. Wilson, Eathan Faust, Julie Peller

Summer Interdisciplinary Research Symposium

Microfiber pollution is ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Synthetic microfibers, a major class of microplastics, such as polyester, rayon, acrylic, and nylon, are present in clothing and other textile items, and are now viewed as contaminants of emerging concern. Routine laundering of synthetic fabrics has contributed to massive microfiber contamination in surface waters. In addition to its presence in water and sediment, previous microfiber research by our group showed that Great Lakes Cladophora, a common macroalgae, entangles and adsorbs microfibers in much greater amounts. This research aims to assess the role of the lake sediment below and near Cladophora mats …