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Geography Form A: Discipline Summary 09/27/2006, Curriculum Committee

Curriculum Committee Reports

No abstract provided.

Geography Form B: Objectives And Requirements 09/27/2006, Curriculum Committee

Curriculum Committee Reports

No abstract provided.

Geography Multiple Course Revisions Form 09/20/2006, Curriculum Committee

Curriculum Committee Reports

No abstract provided.

Geology Form A: Discipline Summary 09/18/2006, Curriculum Committee

Curriculum Committee Reports

No abstract provided.

Toward A Feminist Theory Of The Rural, Lisa R. Pruitt

ExpressO

Feminists have often criticized law’s ignorance of women’s practical, lived experiences, even as they have also sought to reveal the variety among those experiences. This article builds on both critiques to argue for greater attentiveness to a neglected aspect of women’s situation: place. Specifically, Professor Pruitt asserts that the hardships and vulnerability that mark the lives of rural women and constrain their moral agency are overlooked or discounted by a contemporary cultural presumption of urbanism.

Professor Pruitt considers judicial responses to the realities of rural women’s lives in relation to three different legal issues: domestic violence, termination of parental rights, …

Understanding Political Ecologies Of Land Use Change Using Household Surveys In Mankweng, South Africa, Joshua Edward Rutkowski

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Mankweng, Limpopo, South Africa has experienced a large population growth since its inception in the late 1950s. The impacts of land use changes in the area are far reaching and have a wide range of influences. This paper documents the historical and political pressures affecting Mankweng as the township progresses into the 21st Century. Household surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006 in order to understand the geographic relationships of the area. This study found household surveys to be beneficial in understanding land use change.

Geographic Interpretation: The Role Of Spatial Knowledge In The Interpretation Of Natural Resources, Heidi Leigh Bailey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

A surge of interest in geographic information has stemmed from the recent proliferation of Geographic Information Systems, Global Positioning Systems, and web-based tools such as Google Earth. This growing interest in geographic information has many implications for natural resource interpretation. Visitor centers and interpretive centers have long been sources of geographic information---providing maps and exhibits depicting a site or region. Such displays come in all shapes and sizes and in a variety of media, including maps, models, projections, animations and dioramas. Yet missing from the field of interpretation is research on the effectiveness of these tools in conveying geographic information …

Across Arabia With Lehi And Sariah: “Truth Shall Spring Out Of The Earth”, Warren P. Aston

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Aston draws on his own research in Yemen and Oman as well as on the work of other scholars and researchers to explore two locations in the Book of Mormon account of Lehi’s journey through Arabia: Nahom and Bountiful. Preliminarily, Aston highlights Nephi’s own directional indications for each leg of the journey, considers the relevance of existing trade routes, and suggests relative durations of stops along the way. He reviews the research on the tribal area associated with Nahom, including the discovery of an altar dating to roughly 600 bc that bears the tribal name NHM—possibly the first archaeological evidence …

In Search Of Lehi's Trail—30 Years Later, Lynn M. Hilton

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Some critics of the Book of Mormon have suggested that Joseph Smith produced the book through a process known as “automatic writing,” a rapid flow of language claimed to be generated through paranormal means such as trance-like states or claimed communications with spirits. This paper presents an overview of some prominent claims of automatic writing and examines the historical and scientific evidence for the authenticity of at least some of these cases. After discussing the similarities between these works and the Book of Mormon, the paper outlines a number of features in the Book of Mormon that clearly differentiate it …

Latin America [9th Grade], Ruth Anderson

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

The students will recognize that where we live influences how we live. The students will know what important physical features of Latin America are and how Latin Americans have adapted to these various environments, how physical and human characteristics affect life in Latin America s rural regions, how the people of the Caribbean and Central America are affected by landforms and climate, what economic and environmental challenges the rainforests of Latin America face, how natural resources are utilized, how vertical climate zones affect agriculture, and in which ways Andean cultures have adapted to their physical environment. The students will recognize …

Women's Livelihood Strategies In Diverse Contexts: Constructing Feminist Topographies In Appalachia And South Africa, Amy Danielle Pratt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation investigates the livelihoods of women heading households in rural parts of Appalachia and South Africa and develops a conceptual and methodological framework for transnational, comparative feminist research. Situated within a feminist geographical framework that is informed by feminist materialism and livelihoods analyses, it focuses on both historical and contemporary socioeconomic, cultural, and political forces at various scales of analysis that either enable or restrict women's ways of 'making due' in the two regions. The study focuses on five counties in northern West Virginia in the Appalachian region and Limpopo, including the former bantustan of Venda, in South Africa …

Modeling The 100-Year Flood Using Gis: A Flood Analysis In The Avon Park Watershed, Alan Stephen Booker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using hydraulic modeling and Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the 100-year flood was delineated for the municipality of Avon Park located in Highlands County, Florida. A detailed and rigorous approach was undertaken to first collect and develop an extensive spatial database to store the data collected that is pertinent to the model. This analysis combined ArcGIS version 8.3 and the Interconnected Channel and Pond Routing (ICPR) model version 3.02 to develop hydraulic models that assigned regulatory flood elevation within the watershed. The model results were post processed and brought into GIS to delineate the 100-year flood.The steps outlined in this …

Quantifying Chlorophyll A Content Through Remote Sensing: A Pilot Study Of Utah Lake, Tiana Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Utah Lake is a really large but shallow lake located in the arid environment of the Western United States. Due to a variety of factors it is listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as an "impaired water body" and must be closely monitored. Because of its large extent and shallow depth the water quality is heterogeneous and can change rapidly. This means that traditional water quality monitoring methods, which require large investments in field personnel, equipment, and water sample analysis, cannot produce a model that is truly representative of the entire water body. This thesis examines the feasibility of using …

Race And Place: Social Space In The Production Of Human Kinds, Ronald Sundstrom

Philosophy

Recent discussions of human categories have suffered from an over emphasis on intention and language, and have not paid enough attention to the role of material conditions, and, specifically, of social space in the construction of human categories. The relationship between human categories and social spaces is vital, especially with the categories of class, race, and gender. This paper argues that social space is not merely the consequent of the division of the world into social categories; it is constitutive of social categories. To put it more bluntly, if who we are is bound up with place, then not only …

The Study Of Urban Form In Canada, Jason Gilliland, Pierre Gauthier

Geography & Environment Publications

This paper examines contributions to the study of urban form in Canada by French and English researchers working in a variety of disciplines, especially architecture, planning, geography, and history. Instead of discussing contributions purely along traditional linguistic or disciplinary lines, the authors use a novel classification scheme to identify and categorize significant works according to their particular epistemological perspective, before describing noteworthy contributions of various academic disciplines by key authors and research themes. The most significant contributions to the study of urban form in Canada have come from two largely isolated camps: first, architects/planners, mostly from Québec, who examine form …

Coherent Structures And Aeolian Saltation, Jean Taylor Ellis

Faculty Publications

Aeolian sand transport models, widely employed by coastal scientists and managers, assume temporal and spatial homogeneity within the saltation field. This research questions that assumption by demonstrating that the saltation field is event-driven, therefore indicating that the saltation field is not temporally steady. The findings from this research may explain a portion of the conclusions from previous studies that indicated inequalities between model-estimated and field-measured aeolian sand transport. The relationship between unsteadiness in a turbulent wind field and pulses in a sand transport field was investigated on a beach near Shoalhaven Heads, New South Wales, Australia. Microphone-based saltation sensors, “miniphones,” …

Topographies Of Home And Citizenship: Arab American Activists, Lynn A. Staeheli, Caroline R. Nagel

Faculty Publications

Home and citizenship carry contradictory and ambiguous meanings for immigrants as they negotiate lives ‘here’ and ‘there’. We use the concept of topography to analyze the ways in which activists in the Arab-American community draw connections between homes in the United States and in the Middle East. In intensive interviews, we ask activists about how their understanding of home influences their activism and positioning as citizens within the United States. Activists often bring to their work conceptualizations of home and citizenship that are open, and that connect home to broader forces operating at various scales and in more than one …

Shoeprint Analysis: A Gis Application In Forensic Evidence, Michael Anthony Walnoha Jr.

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The overall intent of this study is to illustrate how GIS and crime mapping methods can be applied to forensic evidence to better understand and comprehend spatial patterns that exist in these data. This study bridges common crime mapping principles such as hot spot mapping, exploratory data analysis, and spatial statistics to spatial forensic evidence investigation. In particular, forensic shoeprint evidence is examined and spatial relationships are analyzed using both exploratory and confirmatory statistical analysis. It is found that crime mapping principles can be indirectly related to shoeprint evidence mapping. Exploratory spatial data analysis is extremely helpful in breaking up …

Finding Meaning In Sustainability And A Livelihood Based On Tourism: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Rural Citizens In The Aysen Region Of Chile., Trace E. Gale

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Development. Livelihood. Sustainability. Tourism. The post-positivistic approach of this study helped to illuminate the complexity that underscores these four simple words. It helped to fill knowledge gaps through exploration of the lived experience of tourism-based livelihoods within the Aysen region of southern Chile. With an understanding of this lived experience, the identification of more feasible and meaningful development interventions and policies becomes more likely. Results were organized around seven key areas of focus: (1) shaping factors for tourism-based livelihoods, (2) how tourism-based livelihood strategies added meaning, (3) the role that alternative forms of tourism played, (4) tourism livelihood tactics, (5) …

A Political Ecology Of The Chipko Movement, Sya Kedzior

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The Indian Chipko movement is analyzed as a case study employing a geographically-informed political ecology approach. Political ecology as a framework for the study of environmental movements provides insight into the complex issues surrounding the structure of Indian society, with particular attention to its ecological and political dimensions. This framework, with its focus on social structure and ecology, is distinct from the more traditional approaches to the study of social movements, which tend to essentialize their purpose and membership, often by focusing on a single dimension of the movement and its context. Using Chipko as a case-study, the author demonstrates …

Geog 3251 Course Proposal 12/01/2005, Curriculum Committee

Curriculum Committee Reports

No abstract provided.

Lost And Found: The Imagined Geographies Of American Studies, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

In the days after September 11th, 2001, and continuing until now, the national guard and other military personnel fanned out around New York City. Automatic rifles slung over their camouflaged shoulders, they "guarded" New York City's transportation stations, vital corners and thoroughfares, marquee buildings, and each and every bridge and tunnel entrance. Their comportment was usually cordial and rarely vigilant. Exuding the antithesis of an urban sensibility, they complemented the beefy boredom of the police who usually stood nearby, with an almost surreal sense of incredulity; not just "Why am I here?" but a sort of bafflement that anyone would …

Water Resources Policy Issues In Illinois, Christopher L. Lant

The Simon Review (Occasional Papers of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute)

Illinois is uniquely blessed with fresh water resources. Hundreds of miles from the sea, it is in Illinois that the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway connects with the Mississippi-Ohio River system via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Illinois River through the heart of the state. The navigable Wabash, Missouri and Tennessee Rivers also border Illinois or terminate at its borders giving Illinois superb overall waterbased transportation access exceeded in tonnage shipped among U.S. states by only Alaska and Louisiana. Notwithstanding the serious drought Illinois is suffering in 2005, Illinois receives abundant and reliable precipitation, under the current climatic …

The Geography Of Climate Change Litigation: Implications For Transnational Regulatory Governance, Hari Osofsky

ExpressO

ABSTRACT: This article aims to forward the dialogue about transnational corporate regulation by mapping the power dynamics that infuse litigation over energy production’s externalities and their implications for sovereign regulatory authority. The piece’s core argument is that appropriately constraining the externalities of energy production demands a nuanced, spatial understanding of the relationship among governmental regulatory entities, corporations, and the other actors that influence them. Part II begins by considering the multi-layered regulatory dilemmas posed by the transnational energy production process, the uncertain status of corporations under international law, and the law and economics debate over appropriate and effective environmental regulation …

Bringing Down The Mountains: The Impact Of Mountaintop Removal Surface Coal Mining On Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970--2004, Shirley L. Stewart Burns

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While surface mining began in West Virginia during WWI, the practice did not expand until WWII. Used to fuel the war effort, surface mining would become the industry-preferred means of mining coal and gained a permanent place in West Virginia's coal mining industry. Mountaintop removal surface coal mining began on Fayette County, West Virginia's, Bullpush Mountain in 1970. An extreme version of strip mining, during mountaintop removal the tops of mountains are removed via blasting in order to reveal the coal seams below. The last thirty-four years has seen an escalation in this mining method from forty-four permits covering 9,800 …

Participatory Gis For Growth Management In The Cheat Lake Planning District Of Monongalia County, West Virginia, Timothy L. Hawthorne

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Participatory Geographic Information Systems (PGIS) can be an effective methodology for collecting public input in local land use planning and smart growth management. PGIS-based approaches provide residents with an opportunity to discuss and map their priority land use issues and to identify land use hotspots in a way that is not typically possible in a general public meeting. This thesis research explores how community qualitative information about land use can be incorporated into a PGIS for the Cheat Lake Planning District of Monongalia County, West Virginia. The research presented in this thesis demonstrates how qualitative information strengthens land use planning …

A Richer Harvest [Toward A Regional Strategy For Portland Area Farmers Markets], John Chambers, Christopher Clancy, Aaron Deggs, Brandon Fessler

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

A senior capstone course is the culmination of the University Studies Program at Portland State University. The emphasis of a capstone course is to take students out of the classroom and into the field. Students bring previous knowledge and skills to work on a community project. They work together as a team, utilizing resources and collaborating with faculty and community leaders to find solutions for important issues.

Evaluating G-Portal For Geography Learning And Teaching, Chew-Hung Chang, John G. Hedberg, Yin-Leng Theng, Ee Peng Lim, Tiong-Sa Teh, Dion Hoe-Lian Goh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes G-Portal, a geospatial digital library of geographical assets, providing an interactive platform to engage students in active manipulation and analysis of information resources and collaborative learning activities. Using a G-Portal application in which students conducted a field study of an environmental problem of beach erosion and sea level rise, we describe a pilot study to evaluate usefulness and usability issues to support the learning of geographical concepts, and in turn teaching.

Regional Geographic Influence On Two Khmer Polities, Chad Raymond

Faculty and Staff - Articles & Papers

This paper examines the effects of Cambodian geography in two Khmer polities: Funan, an empire that occupied the southeastern portions of modern-day Cambodia and Vietnam during the early centuries A.D., and Democratic Kampuchea, a Cambodian state that existed from April 17, 1975, until the Vietnamese invasion of December 25, 1978. In the construction of a national identity, a community must possess a tradition of a territory that the community regards as its ancestral home. The tradition of a territory provides a chronological anchor for the supposed authentic and pristine origins of the nation. As demonstrated by myth, propaganda, and policies, …

Mystery Writers In Foreign Settings: The Literary Devices And Methods Used To Portray Foreign Geographies, Amy Kimball Engar

Theses and Dissertations

A sense of place is important to the construction, believability and success of regional mystery novels. Authentic representation of place is challenging if an author is not originally from the area being portrayed. Despite this, some authors are able to depict foreign places more comprehensively and realistically than others. Professor Gary Hausladen of the University of Nevada, Reno identifies: narrative description, dialogue, iconography, and attention to detail as the basic literary devices that convey sense of place. This thesis questions the manner in which successful mystery novelists writing about foreign places meet Hausladen's model. Specifically, do they use all four …