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The Importance Of Coastal Wetland Restoration In Old Lyme, Ct: The White Sands Beach Salt Marsh Restoration Project, Hanna Lloyd

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

In New England, coastal wetlands are rapidly drying up from widespread droughts, eroding from sea level rise, or being overrun by invasive species. Old Lyme, Connecticut relies heavily on the environmental and economic benefits of wetlands. In the last decade however, many coastal homes in Old Lyme, like the summer cottages of White Sands Beach, have been threatened by a lack of resilient wetlands surrounding them, and the coastal biodiversity of the town has decreased. The White Sands Beach Salt Marsh Restoration Project restored over an acre of coastal wetland at White Sands Beach through integrated marsh management strategies.

Employment And Industry Implications Of The Offshore Wind Projects In Rhode Island, Sarah M. Benoit, Anna Dwyer, Andrew Senecal, Aidan Tucker, Michael Keating

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

Offshore wind farms will have beneficial long-term effects on Rhode Island's industry and employment. While locals have expressed mixed opinions about the wind farm projects, fishermen have been the most concerned. Many of their fears are not founded in the reality of offshore wind farms. Impacts on the fishing industry could be slightly negative during construction with disruption from the pipeline (Becker 2024). After implementation, they should increase biodiversity with the artificial reef effect (Gill et al. 2020; Perry and Heyman 2020; Van Hoey et al. 2021). In the long-term, the fossil fuel industry has and will be more harmful …

Energy Claims For The Wind Farm Off Newport’S South Coast, Karen J. Figueroa, Megan Trafford, Emma Wilson, Ava Brunnock, Casey Maeve Bermingham

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

Revolution Wind will be constructing a Wind Farm off of Newport's South Coast. The community is extremely mixed on their reaction to the project, but there is a lot of misinformation concerning the project and wind turbines in general. The main focus is to address community concerns while informing the public of wind farms and wind turbines, with a specific focus on the energy aspect.

Optimization Of A Low-Cost Corona Dielectric-Barrier Discharge Plasma Wastewater Treatment System Through Central Composite Design/Response Surface Methodology With Mechanistic And Efficiency Analysis, Yiting Xiao, Yang Tian, Yuanhang Zhan, Jun Zhu

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water pollution, which is intensified by the release of hard-to-degrade pollutants, poses severe threats to ecosystems, human health, and economic development. The existing advanced oxidation processes often involve high operational costs and can potentially result in secondary pollution, highlighting the necessity for innovative and more sustainable solutions. To address these challenges, our study introduces a cost-effective and eco-friendly corona dielectric-barrier discharge for wastewater treatment. Using the central composite design/response surface methodology, a high decolorization rate of 98% of methylene blue (MB) was achieved within 10 min by optimizing parameters such as pH and voltage. Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying the generation …

Environmental Sustainability, Healthcare Workers And Healthcare Students: A Literature Review Of Attitudes And Learning Approaches, Pamela R. Mccauley, Kavita Mathur, Reza Kamali Miab, Nina Cohen, Kedena Henriques-Thompson, Jyo Gopinath

Health Professions Education

Purpose: Today, increased attention has been placed on the healthcare industry and its workers in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Increases in facemask production, personal protective equipment, and the number of patients admitted into hospitals have resulted in a sharp rise in medical waste and environmental concerns. This has led to a greater interest by the research community to study the type of training and education that healthcare workers and students receive which could facilitate the implementation of sustainability activities during their work.

Design/Methodology: We have conducted a literature review (2010 to 2024) on healthcare worker …

Circular Economy: The 4rs Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Recover, Kevin Hom

Publications and Research

This article summarizes the lecture presented at the Net Built 2024 conference. The lecture addresses the unsustainability of the current linear economy, characterized by the "take, make, dispose" model, in light of environmental challenges. The inefficiencies of this system lead to increased energy consumption, elevated CO2 emissions, and the exacerbation of climate change. It examines the current state of design and construction with respect to climate change and sustainable resource management. Additionally, the lecture introduces a methodology that integrates technologies and design philosophies capable of driving significant positive change. By advocating for a transformative approach to the expected lifetime of …

Climate Change And Critical Agrarian Studies, Ian Scoones, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Amita Baviskar, Marc Edelman, Nancy Peluso, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the …

Global, Regional, And National Burden Of Heatwave-Related Mortality From 1990 To 2019: A Three-Stage Modelling Study, Qi Zhao, Shanshan Li, Tingting Ye, Yao Wu, Antonio Gasparrini, Shilu Tong, Aleš Urban, Ana Maria Vicedo-Cabrera, Aurelio Tobias, Ben Armstrong, Dominic Royé, Eric Lavigne, Francesca De'donato, Francesco Sera, Haidong Kan, Joel Schwartz, Mathilde Pascal, Niilo Ryti, Patrick Goodman, Paulo Hilario Nascimento Saldiva, Michelle L. Bell, Yuming Guo

Articles

Background The regional disparity of heatwave-related mortality over a long period has not been sufficiently assessed across the globe, impeding the localisation of adaptation planning and risk management towards climate change. We quantified the global mortality burden associated with heatwaves at a spatial resolution of 0.5∘×0.5∘and the temporal change from 1990 to 2019. Methods and findings We collected data on daily deaths and temperature from 750 locations of 43 countries or regions, and 5 meta-predictors in 0.5∘×0.5∘ resolution across the world. Heatwaves were defined as location-specific daily mean temperature ≥95th percentiles of year-round temperature range with duration ≥2 days. We …

Regional Variation In The Role Of Humidity On City-Level Heat-Related Mortality, Multi-Country Multi-City (Mcc) Collaborative Network, Patrick Goodman

Articles

The rising humid heat is regarded as a severe threat to human survivability, but the proper integration of humid heat into heat-health alerts is still being explored. Using state-of-the-art epidemiological and climatological datasets, we examined the association between multiple heat stress indicators (HSIs) and daily human mortality in 739 cities worldwide. Notable differences were observed in the long-term trends and timing of heat events detected by HSIs. Air temperature (Tair) predicts heat-related mortality well in cities with a robust negative Tair-relative humidity correlation (CT-RH). However, in cities with near-zero or weak positive CT-RH, HSIs considering humidity provide enhanced predictive power …

The Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network An International Research Consortium Investigating Environment, Climate, And Health, Multi-Country Multi-City (Mcc) Collaborative Network, Patrick Goodman

Articles

Research on the health risks of environmental factors and climate change requires epidemiological evidence on associated health risks at a global scale. Multi-center studies offer an excellent framework for this purpose, but they present various methodological and logistical problems. This contribution illustrates the experience of the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network, an international collaboration working on a global research program on the associations between environmental stressors, climate, and health in a multi-center setting. The article illustrates the collaborative scheme based on mutual contribution and data and method sharing, describes the collection of a huge multi-location database, summarizes published research findings …

Breathing Hard In Beautiful Places, Lars Chinburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chinburg, Lars, M.S., Spring 2024

Breathing Hard in Beautiful Places, Abstract

In Breathing Hard in Beautiful Places, Lars Chinburg explores his connections to the people and places that have made him who he is in a collection of personal essays. The collection is inspired by the talents of many writers–Bill Bryson’s wry travel observations, Norman Maclean’s lyricism on the interplay of nature and family, Sigurd Olson’s gorgeous descriptions of place, and David Sedaris’ knack for drawing hilarity out of the prosaic, among many others.

Many of the essays touch on the power of play as a force for good and …

Cultivating Access: The Benefits And Challenges Of Using Community Land Trusts To Preserve Farmland And Support Farmers., Meghan Daly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agricultural land protected by community land trusts (CLTs) is more likely to remain in active production due to the CLT’s ability to enforce land use practices and select tenants committed to farming. While land tenure approaches vary among CLTs, protected agricultural lands typically utilize long-term leases with affordable rents (Ela and Rosenberg, 2020). Such leasing arrangements enable farmers to access land at prices unaffected by escalating land values (Schwartz et al., 2013). The CLT model not only safeguards farmland but also promotes active agricultural production, thereby ensuring local food supply and providing economic opportunities for farmers.

Despite the promising potential …

Unlocking The West: A Critique Of Previous Statutory Attempts And A Proposed Statutory Solution To Allow Access To Corner-Locked Public Land, Sawyer J. Connelly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Across the American West, 9.52 million acres of federal and state public lands are inaccessible to the public. The legality of accessing much of those public lands through corner-crossing is unclear in the law because, in the infinitesimal space where four corners of land meet in a checkerboard pattern, there is ambiguity; neither private landowners nor the public can assert an exclusive right or absolute control without infringing upon the rights of the other. This paper discusses the origins of landlocked public land, common law doctrines that inform legal actors in this space, and analyzes federal statute and state legislative …

Temporal And Spatial Connectivity And The Impacts Of Hydropower In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, Serena Lynn Butler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tropical regions hold untapped hydropower potential, but dam construction often adversely impacts multiple dimensions of connectivity in river systems, rigorous evaluation of which is often lacking. This study investigates temporal and spatial dimensions of longitudinal and lateral connectivity in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia, a region with ongoing and planned hydropower projects. Limited in-situ monitoring data is a common challenge in tropical rivers. To address this, we utilized satellite imagery from Landsat (via Google Earth Engine) and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) data. We examined alterations in the flow regime over time and relative to dam construction. We also …

Enhancing 5g Fixed Wireless Access In Rural Settings Via Machine Learning-Driven Resource Optimization, Maryam Amini

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Providing broadband access to rural communities continues to be an important societal problem whose solution would help to break down the digital divide. While 5G wireless networks may be used for rural broadband, a key challenge is the placement of base stations, which is exacerbated by the use of high frequencies in the millimeter-wave band. Such technology requires an unobstructed line of sight, demanding meticulous planning of the number, height, and location of base stations for optimal coverage. Conventional methods, such as ray-tracing to simulate signal propagation across varied terrain, are computational costly and not feasible for vast coverage areas. …

Data-Driven Approaches For Achieving Carbon Neutrality: Predictive Models For Reducing Co2 Emissions And Enhancing Industrial Sustainability, Farzana Islam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In response to the escalating challenges posed by climate change and industrial inefficiency, this thesis presents a comprehensive investigation aimed at advancing the predictive modeling of global CO2 emissions and enhancing operational efficiency in steel manufacturing through Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) temperature optimization. Leveraging a rich dataset sourced from the World Development Indicators database alongside a meticulously curated dataset specific to EAF operations, our study applies an innovative blend of econometric and machine learning techniques, including Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (Pooled OLS), Random Effects (RE), Fixed Effects (FE), and Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average with Exogenous Variables (SARIMAX) models. The …

Editorial Foreword Ijsls Volume 3 Number 2, Sulistyowati Irianto

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This edition of the journal presents three articles on environmental issues. The first article examines the impact of tourism policies in the Komodo National Park on the indigenous peoples who inhabit the region. The second article analyses the efforts of Jakarta residents to access justice for clean water, while the third article considers the water conservation efforts that have resulted in land conflicts in Manggarai, Nusa Tenggara. The remaining two articles address women's issues, specifically the representation of women in parliament and the phenomenon of electronic-based sexual violence.

Editors Bios, Editors Bios

Intertidal

No abstract provided.

The Future Of International Climate Change Litigation, Heloise S. Evins-Mackenzie

Honors Theses

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are increasingly seeking justice from international courts to address their significant climate change impacts, which are disproportionate to their minimal historical emissions. The Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), an internationally recognized legal body, has requested an advisory opinion on the obligations of all member states to protect and preserve the marine environment and prevent pollution related to climate change and its impacts. The present study aims to predict the future landscape of climate litigation if the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) specifies that states’ …

Northern Shrimp In The Gulf Of Maine And The Impacts Of Climate Change, Alicia Hober

Honors Theses

Northern Shrimp (Pandalus borealis) populations within the Gulf of Maine collapsed in 2011 following the first year that sea surface temperature surpassed 10ºC. The population collapse resulting in a moratorium in 2014. The waters of the Gulf of Maine have been rising at a rate of 0.045ºC per year, changing predator distribution, prey distribution, as well as Northern Shrimp biological variables. There has been very little recovery to the Northern Shrimp stock despite the fishing moratorium and the answers behind the collapse and lack of recovery remains enigmatic. Therefore, this two-chapter study includes a literature review and a …

Reviving Caribbean Scleractinian Corals: Medication In Ex-Situ Care, Christopher E. Cho

Honors Theses

The Caribbean basin is facing an unprecedented decline in coral reef health, with factors such as coral disease, climate change, and algal overgrowth contributing to the deterioration of these vital ecosystems. In response, land-based facilities have emerged to aid in coral conservation and restoration efforts. One aspect of these conservation efforts involves the treatment of coral ailments, which is still an emerging field within coral conservation. By medicating corals, researchers aim to combat diseases and alleviate stressors that threaten coral health. This practice holds promise for preserving genetic diversity and supporting future repopulation initiatives. This study evaluates the effectiveness of …

Mapping With The Land: Co-Developing A Cumulative Impact Monitoring And Land Stewardship Framework With Sambaa K’E First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada, Michael S. Mcphee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, Indigenous populations are striving to achieve effective environmental protection, whilst navigating complex methods, policies, and research relationships within co-management contexts. This thesis seeks to identify how differing cultural systems, environmental change, and fractured partnerships may be unified to align with the needs of the Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a remote Dehcho Dene community. Indigenous methodologies guided co-development of research questions with SKFN leadership which yielded objectives a) develop a GIS-based method to manage, organize and mobilize cultural and environmental data; b) develop a new stewardship monitoring procedure so that users can apply the …

Carry-Over Effects Of Climate On Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria Citrea) Feather Quality, Alyssa N. Spasic, Dan Albrecht-Mallinger, Lesley Bulluck

Undergraduate Research Posters

Avian species have inspired numerous studies on ornamentation, exploring its role in intra- and intersexual selection as a marker for individual quality. Male birds have been the focus of most of these studies while females, which can also display ornamentation, have been studied less. Coloration achieved through molt, particularly carotenoid-based pigments, requires energy derived from food resources. As climate affects insect abundance, there may be a link between climate conditions during molt and feather quality the following season. We assessed the relationship between temperature and precipitation during molt and female Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) breast and crown feather reflectance metrics …

Understanding The Dynamics Of Food And Economic Development In The Community Of Kakisa, Northwest Territories, Canada, Laura Rodriguez Reyes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

For Indigenous Peoples, the land embodies a source of cultural and spiritual well-being that is linked to their way of life and identities through divine and traditional connections. Unfortunately, colonial powers, the global food system, socioeconomic inequalities and environmental degradation are impacting northern Indigenous lands and food systems, leading to food insecurity. Nevertheless, communities are still thriving in the face of adversity. In the Northwest Territories, on the lands of Ka’a’gee Tu First Nations (KTFN) in the community settlement of Kakisa, people are growing food through vegetable gardens and greenhouses to support their vision of a resilient food system.

Through …

Making The Pluriverse Visible: World-Making On The Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula, Lauren Judge

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation argues that visual artists who live and work on the Saugeen (Bruce) Peninsula, in Ontario, Canada, are co-creating artworks with non-humans, which is evidence of more-than-human world-making. Such co-creative experiences are the result of, and catalysts for the kinds of enchantment our human worlds need to form meaningful and holistic connections with non-humans, effectively creating a more inclusive pluriverse. After reviewing interdisciplinary literature in posthuman studies, creative geography, arts-based practices, environmental humanities, Indigenous knowledges, and political ontology, I designed my research to include a combination of qualitative methodologies and methods, including autoethnography and research-creation, to investigate fourteen visual …

Restoration Is Repairing Relationships: Bridging Indigenous And Western Sciences To Assess The Socio-Ecological Restoration Of Wild Rice (Zizania Palustris) On Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Homelands, Cassandra M. Reed-Vandam

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Manoomin (wild rice, Zizania palustris) is an ecologically and culturally significant plant relative for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC). Historically, manoomin was present across much of the Great Lakes, however, their presence has declined since the early 1900s and, by 1990, virtually disappeared within KBIC homelands. Employing ethnography, surveys, focus groups, and conversations with Ojibwa knowledge holders, this research defined successful manoomin restoration for KBIC and developed socio-ecological attributes and indicators to assess restoration presented in the Medicine Wheel Framework for Manoomin Restoration. Surface water, sediment, and pore water samples at six different manoomin sites were analyzed to …

Hydrologic Pathways Of A Northern Hardwood Catchment In The Great Lakes Basin Using End Member Mixing Analysis, Cory C. Burkwald

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study investigated the seasonality of hydrologic pathways, the role of wetlands in streamflow generation, and how hydrologic pathways affect the export of nutrients by streamflow in the Sturgeon River using endmember mixing analysis. The results indicated that streamflow consists of three main components: shallow subsurface water from wetland soils, shallow groundwater, and surface runoff from precipitation. Snowmelt plays a dominating role in regulating stream water chemistry (~80% volume at peak) during the snowmelt season and likely also after that. Wetland soils store snowmelt, together with rainwater though the fraction is unknown, and then gradually release through summer in the …

Sediment Carbon Storage In Subtidal Beds Of The Invasive Seagrass Halophila Stipulacea Along An Extreme Water Depth Gradient, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Demian A. Willette, Kelsey M. Vaughn, Allie Durdall, Marilyn Brandt, Sophia Costa, Kristin Wilson Grimes

Biology Faculty Works

Blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds are found globally and are fundamental to fisheries production, storm surge protection, and carbon sequestration. The contribution of seagrass ecosystems to global carbon stocks is still not well understood, including in the United States Virgin Islands (USVI). No study has been published to-date assessing the sediment carbon density (SCD) in seagrass beds in the USVI. This study focused on the carbon storage ability of the invasive species, Halophila stipulacea, which is compact in size compared to common native seagrasses and has spread rapidly to become a dominant seagrass in …

Geographies Of Storage, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Resource storage has long played a key role in the production of socio-ecological arrangements and economic relations. Even so, storage as a concept has remained somewhat marginal within geographical scholarship, often obscured by an analytical focus on the dynamics of movement. Reviewing recent works from geography, science and technology studies, and anthropology that center sites and practices of storage, this essay elaborates the diverse ways in which storage arrangements mediate resource circulation and the production of space. This literature demonstrates that thinking systematically with storage can illuminate a range of novel temporal, material, and value entanglements in-the-making, pointing to potentially …

Developing Resources To Foster Farmed Animal Agency In Sanctuary Education, Emily Tronetti

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Farmed animal sanctuaries provide lifelong care to formerly farmed animals. Many strive to educate their community about farmed animals and promote more compassionate lifestyles, such as veganism. Important to this is cultivating empathy and concern for the well-being of individual farmed animals. Essential to well-being is agency, which is the capacity of a living being to engage with their environments and to make choices for themselves. Farmed animals outside of sanctuaries have had their agency systematically suppressed and denied. Sanctuary educators can bring awareness to this and inspire alternative, agency-centered relationships with not only farmed animals but all living beings. …