Digital Commons Network^™

A Novel Approach To Updating Municipal Tax Parcel Impervious Surface Calculations, Patrick D. Muradaz

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Accurate impervious surface calculations are important to many municipalities due to the high volumes of surface rainwater runoff caused by high impervious surface density. Municipalities must deal with this runoff through the establishment and maintenance of drainage facilities. To help offset the added cost of these facilities, many municipalities impose taxes and fees on privately owned impervious surfaces such as homes, driveways, and patios. Currently, in order for a city like Harrisonburg to calculate tax parcel impervious surface density, aerial images must be manually digitized or mapped using computer-based classification techniques using predictive models. These methods of impervious surface calculations …

Canvas Totes And Plastic Bags: The Political Ecology Of Food Assistance Effectiveness At Farmers' Markets In The Twin Cities, Sophia Alhadeff

Geography Honors Projects

In June of 2019, the Trump Administration proposed a policy that could result in three million people losing access to food stamp benefits. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly food stamps, is a governmental food aid program designed to help low-income individuals and families combat food insecurity across the country. According to Minnesota Hunger Solutions, in 2017, 9.5% of Minnesota households were food insecure. In the Twin Cities, SNAP benefits have been accepted at a selection of farmers’ markets since 2003 in order to improve accessibility of fresh, local produce. This paper utilizes a mixed method approach, including qualitative …

Measuring Progress Toward Urban Sustainability: Do Global Measures Work For Arctic Cities?, Matthew Berman, Robert W. Orttung

ISER Articles

The International Organization for Standardization recently responded to a growing global interest in cities by developing an index for measuring urban sustainability (ISO 37120). We address how well this standard applies to Arctic cities, and potential modifications that might improve its performance. After briefly discussing the goals of sustainability indicators, we examine the extent to which Arctic cities’ remote location, cold and changing climate, and thin, largely resource-based economies may create different sustainability challenges. We then critically examine the content of ISO 37120 and the context in which it was created. We place the index within a broader discussion of …

Alumni News | Seebald Working To Contain Covid-19 Address Healthcare Disparities, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

The Geography Of Creative Clusters And Firm Productivity: Empirical Evidence From 20 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (Msas) In The United States, Tahereh Granpayehvaghei

Public Affairs Dissertations - Archive

The burgeoning research on creative clusters and an increased rate of municipal investment in creative policymaking are becoming dominant global trends. Yet, the factors that help foster creative-friendly communities and how much they relate to creative firm productivity remain insufficiently understood. This dissertation is a step forward in our knowledge of the geography and typology of creative clusters and their association with productivity in the United States. In this research, creative clusters refer to meaningful and statistically significant agglomerations of creative firms. This research demonstrates that creative clusters have an “urban nature” in most cases, meaning that there is a …

Learning To Love Bats, Bethany J. Lawson

Honors Theses

Throughout history, bats have often become entangled in various myths and legends that have negatively influenced human perceptions of bats. Media outlets often sensationalize the relationship of bats to novel diseases, which also creates negative perceptions of bats in the human imagination. Bats are beneficial to our ecosystems and provide pollination services, seed dispersal, and insect control. However, bats are currently facing a variety of life-threatening issues, such as habitat destruction, fatalities at wind energy sites, climate change, and most notably, white-nose syndrome – a disease that has killed millions of North American bats in the past decade. With bats …

Surface And Satellite Perspectives On Precipitation Variability Across San Salvador Island, Bahamas, Christana Landress

Theses and Dissertations

Located in the subtropical central-eastern Bahamas, San Salvador Island is impacted by both synoptic-scale weather systems as well as local features and the North Atlantic Subtropical High. This study explores rainfall variability via one year of daily rain gauge observations in relation to daily weather patterns identified from 18 UTC surface analyses. Satellite-derived rainfall estimates are then compared to gauge observations to look at days when gauge data was missing. Though non-synoptic classifications comprised 61.1% of the days and synoptic classifications comprised 38.9% of the days, more rainfall was produced by synoptic days. Unlike other studies done on San Salvador, …

Zarembka Awarded The Ron Isaac Award By Geography, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Connolly Named Outstanding Undergraduate Scalia Scholar, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Van Hook Awarded Elizabeth Llewellyn Robe Scholarship By Geography, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Thigpen Awarded David Keirns Public Service Award In Meteorology, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Uhl Awarded Hubert And Constance Wilhelm Scholarship, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

10 Geography Students Named Outstanding Graduating Seniors, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Four Geography Students Awarded Scholarships Honoring Bloemers, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Clark Named Outstanding Graduate Scalia Scholar, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Abbiw Johnson Named Outstanding Teaching Assistants In Geography, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Six Geography Students Awarded Olive Emler Ross Scholarships, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Two Geography Students Awarded Joe Ferguson Memorial Scholarship, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Tashkent In The Valuable Written Heritages Of Past. “Tarixi Jadidayi Tashkent”, F. Khusainova

Review of law sciences

The article analyzes the history of Tashkent, one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, based on written sources. There is also an analysis of topography of Tashkent based on the historical book “Tarixi Jadidayi Tashkent” by Muhammad Salih.

Federal Land-Use Policy And Resettlement In The Great Plains: An Experiment In Community Development During The New Deal Years, 1933–1941, Theresa Glanz

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 1933, the United States federal government authorized the National Industrial Recovery Act to help the country recover from the Great Depression. Section 208, Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act authorized the creation of subsistence homesteads to aid in the recovery of destitute rural families and the urban unemployed. Between 1933 and 1941, the United States federal government authorized the construction of 207 rural and urban resettlement communities to house impoverished farm families and unemployed urban workers. The projects were located throughout the United States, including in the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin …

Race And Urban Development Of Arsenal Hill, Sc, Samira Nematollahi

Senior Theses

This thesis is a study on the Columbia neighborhood Arsenal Hill. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Columbia, but most of the neighborhood’s history is largely erased. In this paper, I studied the progression of change in Arsenal Hill with the goal of assessing who wielded power and to what extent race played a role in the neighborhood’s development. I find that race was the fundamental mover of change and that all other decisions and factors revolved around it. The initial decline of the neighborhood stemmed from its racial heterogeneity which then progressed into developers seeing Arsenal Hill …

Kitchen Chronicles And Crude Expectations: Understanding Everyday Life In The Upper Ecuadorian Amazon, Emily A. Babb

Senior Theses

My thesis examines the everyday life of my Ecuadorian, Kichwa host family in an attempt to better understand how, if at all, they interact with and think about oil companies on a regular basis. In this way, I attempted to supplement the current literature, which tends to focus on the large, contentious interactions between indigenous people and the petroleum industry. It was my hope to expand the understanding of their identities both within and outside the context of oil and to show the complexity of their relationship with petroleum companies.

Creating A Distribution Model Of Invasive Rusty Crayfish (Faxonius Rusticus) In Michigan Streams Using Publically Accessible Data, Robert C. Homan

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to create a predictive model of habitat suitability for the invasive rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) throughout the state of Michigan. F. rusticus often outcompete and extirpate native crayfish species, so understanding their habitats of success is instrumental in monitoring vulnerable ecosystems. Michigan State University and the Michigan DNR conducted extensive field surveys across 461 streams sites from 2014-2016. This project compares this field data set to data from publicly available national datasets with the purpose of revealing the ecosystems most vulnerable to the introduction of F. rusticus. The pattern of F. rusticus …

Testing A New Photovoice Model: A Meta-Analysis On Participatory Action Research Methodologies In Geographical Research, Nolan Bergstrom

Masters Theses

Photovoice was developed in the early 1990s for use in public health studies evolving from participatory action research (PAR) and photographic methods. It attempts to mitigate the power dynamics between researcher and researched by allowing participants to be the primary knowledge producers. The Photovoice methodology has left open methodological avenues to implement Photovoice as a research tool in many fields. This research aimed to modify the Photovoice methodology to include mobile technology, social media to create a new model of Photovoice.

This research was conducted in K.I. Sawyer, MI, a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over a …

Wise-Practice Use Of Visual Primary Sources: Towards A More Interactive Presentation Of Content, Lamont E. Maddox, James B. Howell, Cory Callahan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Modern citizens are often confronted by visual social media seeking to persuade or influence their opinion on public issues. In order for students to develop civic competence, they must be able to evaluate visual data. An interactive slide lecture using four to five strategically-chosen visuals holds promise for developing students’ interpretive skills, but this strategy can be difficult to implement. In this article, we share a collaboratively designed educative primer or teacher scaffold created in response to the challenges experienced by “Amelia” as she implemented an interactive slide lecture with 7^th grade students. Our intent in sharing the primer …

Geography Students Help Campus With Stormready Certification, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Jokisch Fosters Scholarly Connections, Leads Conference Of Latin American Geographers, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Muncy Clark Win American Meteorological Society Research Awards, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Canceled Geofest 2020 Student Awards Celebration, April 21, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.

Canceled 11th Annual Meteorological Symposium, March 21, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

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No abstract provided.