Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Spatial Analysis Of Landscape Characteristics, Anthropogenic Factors, And Seasonality Effects On Water Quality In Portland, Oregon, Katherine Gelsey, Daniel Ramirez

REU Final Reports

Urban areas often struggle with deteriorated water quality as a result of complex interactions between landscape factors such as land cover, use, and management as well as climatic variables such as weather, precipitation, and atmospheric conditions. Green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) has been introduced as a strategy to reintroduce pre-development hydrological conditions in cities, but questions remain as to how GSI interacts with other landscape factors to affect water quality. We conducted a statistical analysis of six relevant water quality indicators in 131 water quality stations in four watersheds around Portland, Oregon using data from 2015 to 2021. Indiscriminate of station …

Food Waste Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behavioral Intentions Among University Students, Manar Arica Alattar, James Delaney, Jennifer L. Morse, Max Nielsen-Pincus

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

After policy change, educational programming has been cited as one of the most powerful tools for improving food systems and decreasing food waste. University students represent a population in which emerging habits, skills, and identity may be targeted easily and changed through on-campus educational programming. To understand how to best implement programming on impacts of food, food waste, and related issues, the factors that underlie students’ behaviors related to food waste must be understood. We analyzed factors that influence food waste–related behaviors within a university student population to understand the potential for improving targeted, school-based food waste diversion programming. Four …

Deconstruction In Portland: Summary Of Activity, Emma Willingham, Peter Hulseman, Mike Paruszkiewicz

Northwest Economic Research Center Publications and Reports

On October 31st, 2016, the City of Portland instituted an ordinance requiring the deconstruction of all residential homes and duplexes built prior to 1917 or possessing a historical designation. Deconstruction is a relatively new industry, and with this local regulatory encouragement, several new contractors became certified to participate in the expanded market. This report provides background on the industry, largely from the 2016 report researched and written by the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC) in anticipation of the requirement, and an examination of what has occurred in the year following the ordinance’s passage, using deconstruction and demolition permit data and …

Continental-Scale Homogenization Of Residential Lawn Plant Communities, Megan M. Wheeler, Christopher Neill, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay Darling, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Kristen C. Nelson, Laura A. Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Meredith Steele, Tara Trammell

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence …

Assessing The Homogenization Of Urban Land Management With An Application To Us Residential Lawn Care, Colin Polsky, J. Morgan Grove, Chris Knudson, Peter M. Groffman, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Laura A. Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Meredith K. Steele

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Changes in land use, land cover, and land management present some of the greatest potential global environmental challenges of the 21st century. Urbanization, one of the principal drivers of these transformations, is commonly thought to be generating land changes that are increasingly similar. An implication of this multiscale homogenization hypothesis is that the ecosystem structure and function and human behaviors associated with urbanization should be more similar in certain kinds of urbanized locations across biogeophysical gradients than across urbanization gradients in places with similar biogeophysical characteristics. This paper introduces an analytical framework for testing this hypothesis, and applies the framework …

The Eugene Water And Electric Board’S Mckenzie River Payment For Watershed Services Program: Research Findings On Ratepayers, Landowners, And Local Stakeholders, Max Nielsen-Pincus

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation focuses on the following research objectives:

• How much are ratepayers willing to pay and what effects that willingness?
• How much do landowners need to receive and what affects their interest?

School Learning Gardens As Multicultural Hubs For Sustainability: Psu-Pps Food Systems Partnerships In Outer Southeast Portland, Dilafruz R. Williams, Sybil Schantz Kelley, Leslie Blanchard, Brooke Hieserich, Jon Zintel

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation focuses on how garden-based learning can have a positive effect on children.

Modeling And Mapping In Support Of The Regional Conservational Strategy Framework, Theresa Burcsu, Thomas Albo, Joseph Bernert, Jennifer Dimiceli, James S. Kagan, Matthew D. Noone

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Prior to November 2010, when The Intertwine Alliance launched the Regional Conservation Strategy (RCS) and Biodiversity Guide (RBG) efforts for the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region, conservation priorities in the metropolitan region were identified at a broad regional scale that generally excluded urban areas (e.g., state conservation strategies and Willamette Synthesis); were regional but based solely on expert opinion (e.g., Natural Features); and consisted of localized priorities that abruptly ended at jurisdiction boundaries. The goal of the RCS was to fill in the gaps between broad and local scales of information related to conservation priorities. RCS members envisioned a data-driven approach that …

Pine Creek Conservation Area: 2013 Mapping And Monitoring Report, Eric M. Nielsen, Matthew D. Noone, James S. Kagan, Matthew T. Lee

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

Pine Creek Conservation Area (PCCA), just northeast of the John Day River in Wheeler County, Oregon, was acquired in 1999-2001 by the Confederate Tribes of Warm Springs with support from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), to mitigate for wildlife losses created by the large, hydropower Columbia River Dams, particularly the Bonneville, Dalles and John Day Dams. Many thousands of acres of grassland, shrub steppe and riparian habitats were lost due to inundation, and the objectives of the acquisition included restoration of similar habitats. As part of an interagency agreement created in 2002, the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center established a …

System Dynamics Implementation Of A Model Of Population And Resource Dynamics With Adaptation, Takuro Uehara, Yoko Nagase, Wayne Wakeland

Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We build and analyze a dynamic ecological economic model that incorporates endogenous innovation on input substitutability. The use of the system dynamics method allows us to depart from conventional equilibrium thinking and conduct an out-of-equilibrium (adaptation) analysis. Simulation results show that while improvement in input substitutability will expand an economy, this change alone may not improve sustainability measured by indicators such as utility-per-capita and natural resource stock. It could, however, be possible that in combination with other technological progress, improvement in input substitutability will contribute to sustainable development. Sensitivity analysis also indicates a possible complication with the use of exogenous …

The Solutions Generation, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The Arab Spring, and more recently the Occupy movement, are both indications of growing dissatisfaction with the world?s current plight, especially among the younger generation, who see diminished hope for the future. Anger and protests can be an effective way of bringing the current system into question, and even toppling the existing regime, but they do little by themselves to lead the way to a better future. For that, we need a compelling shared vision and a focus on real solutions.

A Fair Share Of The Information Commons, Ida Kubiszewski, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

In this chapter we discuss the special characteristics of information as a type of commons that needs special institutions to manage its production and use effectively and create greater overall economic efficiency, social justice and ecological sustainability. These methods include monetary prizes, publicly funded research from which the produced information is released into the public domain, and status driven incentive structures like those in academia and the open-source community.

Building A Sustainable And Desirable Economy-In-Society-In-Nature, Robert Costanza, Gar Alperovitz, Herman E. Daly, Joshua C. Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor, Peter A. Victor

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

This report is a synthesis of ideas about what this new economy-in-society-innature could look like and how we might get there. Most of the ideas presented here are not new. The coauthors of this report have published them in various forms over the last several decades, and many others have expressed similar ideas in venues too numerous to mention. What is new is the timing and the situation. The time has come when we must make a transition. We have no choice. Our present path is clearly unsustainable. As Paul Raskin has said, "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it is …

Needed: The Solutions Generation, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The author argues on the need for a shared vision and focus in solving fundamental problems facing the U.S. He suggests that people should design new political and economic systems that can create shared prosperity without increasing their demands on a finite environment. The author comments that people should vision a refocus on the goal of sustainable human well-being instead of maximizing conventional economic production and consumption.

Ecosystem Health And Ecological Engineering, Robert Costanza

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem health is a desired endpoint of environmental management and should be a primary design goal for ecological engineering. This paper describes ecosystem health as a comprehensive, multiscale, measure of system vigor, organization and resilience. Ecosystem health is thus closely linked to the idea of sustainability,whichimplies theabilityofthesystemtomaintainits structure(organization)andfunction (vigor) over time in the face of external stress (resilience). To be truly successful, ecological engineering should pursue the broader goal of designing healthy ecosystems, which may be novel assemblages of species that perform desired functions and produce a range of valuable ecosystem services. In this way ecological engineering can achieve its …

The Theory And Practice Of Genetically Engineered Crops And Agricultural Sustainability, David E. Ervin, Leland L. Glenna, Raymond Adelard Jussaume

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

The development of genetically engineered (GE) crops has focused predominantly on enhancing conventional pest control approaches. Scientific assessments show that these GE crops generally deliver significant economic and some environmental benefits over their conventional crop alternatives. However, emerging evidence indicates that current GE crops will not foster sustainable cropping systems unless the negative environmental and social feedback effects are properly addressed. Moreover, GE crop innovations that promote more sustainable agricultural systems will receive underinvestment by seed and chemical companies that must understandably focus on private returns for major crops. Opportunities to promote crops that convey multi-faceted benefits for the environment …

Interview With Jessica Beckett, Free Geek, 2011 (Audio), Jessica Beckett

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jessica Beckett by Thomas Yarbrough at Free Geek Portland, Oregon on August 10th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Christian Ettinger, Hopworks, 2011 (Audio), Christian Ettinger

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Christian Ettinger by Scott Demming at Hopworks SE Portland, Oregon on August 10th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Adam Boesel, Green Micro Gym, 2011 (Audio), Adam Boesel

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Adam Boesel by Teresa Celestine at Green Micro Gym Portland, Oregon on July 29th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Mapping Conservation Opportunity Areas For The Intertwine's Regional Conservation Strategy, Theresa Burcsu, James S. Kagan

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

As part of efforts to develop the Regional Conservation Strategy (RCS) for the greater Portland-Vancouver region, Oregon State University’s Institute for Natural Resources (INR) was asked to use spatial modeling to identify conservation opportunity areas (COAs). To complete the project, INR analysts proposed a strategy that would map high value areas using a landscape approach that is focused on relatively high spatial resolution data sets available for the whole metropolitan region. The approach creates 2 main metrics: one focused on terrestrial organisms and the other focused on aquatic and riparian organisms. These are combined to create a map of highly …

Interview With Franklin Jones, B-Line, 2011 (Audio), Franklin Jones

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Franklin Jones by Grant Russ at Portland, Oregon on May 31st, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Jim Labbe, Portland Audubon Society, 2011, Jim Labbe

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jim Labbe by Tony Smith on March 11th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Jane Pellicciotto, Allegro Design, 2011 (Audio), Jane Pellicciotto

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jane Pellicciotto by Nigel Peltier on March 7th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Jim Middaugh, Metro, 2011 (Audio), Jim Middaugh

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jim Middaugh by Teddy Messan on February 25th, 2011.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Farhad Ghafarzade, Green Drop Garage, 2010 (Audio), Farhad Ghafarzade

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Farhad Ghafarzade by Jeff Howard in SE Portland, Oregon on August 6th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Steve Jones, Us Forest Service, 2010 (Audio), Steve Jones

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Steve Jones by Scott Swenson at Hood River, Oregon on May 25th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Judy Combs, Kaiser Permanente, 2010 (Audio), Judy Combs

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Judy Combs by Nazer Frias at Clackamas, Oregon on May 17th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Jeff Luebbers, Us Forest Service, 2010 (Audio), Jeff Luebbers

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Jeff Luebbers by Chelsea Saurman on May 13th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Interview With Michael Burri, Us Forest Service, 2010 (Audio), Michael Burri

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Michael Burri by Jeff Pullen-Sayles at Sandy, Oregon on May 9th, 2010.

The interview index is available for download.

Genetically Engineering Crops For A Sustainable Agriculture, David E. Ervin, Rick Welsh

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article examines the role of genetically engineered (GE) crops in fostering a more sustainable agriculture. An overview of the National Academy of Sciences metal study of the impacts of GE crops on farm sustainability in the U.S. is given. The two types of GE crops are discussed, one which produces its own insecticide called insect resistant (IR) crops and the other is engineered to resist particular herbicides. An explanation for sustainable agriculture is also presented.