Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Core Of It All: From The Forest To The Concrete Jungle, Ayo Andra J. Deas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Core of It All is a component of principle within Fasaha. The mission of Fasaha is to implement programming directed toward development of one’s Core through self-actualization. Self-Actualization is defined as bringing forth the total essential qualities of one’s own consciousness, character, and identity through positive behavior. Throughout this manuscript, principle is defined as the standard of natural essential qualities determining intrinsic consciousness, character and identity. Programming is defined as providing with intrinsic instructions for the automatic performance of a task.

Fasaha is a support service that enhances the existing organization’s service. Throughout this dissertation, it will be apparent …

Low Elevation Coastal Zone (Lecz) Population Social Vulnerability And Risk: A Spatial Analysis Based On The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (Nfhs-4) Of India, Paradorn Wongchanapai

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background & Problem Statement:

This study assessed social vulnerability and risk to hydroclimate hazards of Indian urban and rural populations in the Low Elevation Coastal Zone (LECZ), a contiguous coastal area with elevations less than 10 meters. The LECZ is considered an at-risk area as hydroclimate hazards tend to be heightened. Moreover, being the most populous country in the world, any hydroclimate hazards that hit the LECZ would disproportionately impact a large number of Indian populations. Understanding the social vulnerability and risk of the LECZ populations can help mitigate and prevent potential adverse outcomes for the populations.

Importantly, this study …

Towards Sociobiogeochemistry: Critical Perspectives On Anthropogenic Alterations To Soil Nitrogen Chemistry Via U.S. Urban And Suburban Development, Christopher D. Ryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ecological impacts of changes to land use are relevant to concerns about climate change, eutrophication of waterbodies, and reductions in biodiversity. As a foundational component of ecosystem functioning, changes to soil biogeochemistry have significant effects on overall ecosystem health. With cities continuing to grow and develop in extent, the impacts of urbanization and suburbanization on soils are of particular concern. Despite a wide range of natural climatic and geologic conditions, several factors have driven similar patterns of land transformation and management across the United States. In particular, federal initiatives including the Home Owners Loan Corporation, the Federal Housing Administration, …

Weird Winter Weather In The Anthropocene: How Volatile Temperatures Shape Violent Crime, Christopher Thomas, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

Purpose: Current evidence suggests volatile temperatures are becoming more common because of climate change and can be expected to become even more frequent in the future. By focusing on recent temperature variability, we attempt to estimate one important dimension of the impact of climate change on violent crime. We also explore whether sudden upward temperature anomalies have stronger positive impacts on violent crime in the coldest months of the year, as routine activities are likely to change more drastically during this period.

Methods: This study explores the association between sudden temperature anomalies (both upward and downward) and the daily incidence …

Pakistan, India And The Indus River Basin, Muquadas Ilyas

Dissertations and Theses

Water is a fundamental need of all living things. The right to clean water is classified as a human right under United Nations Resolution 64/292.As such it is the responsibility of governments to ensure its citizens are not deprived of this essential resource. In doing so, effective water management is crucial to provide clean water that is accessible to everyone regardless of any challenges such as geographical constraints or political disputes. This thesis explores the water management efforts of Pakistan and India. These countries are facing a water crisis, whereby numerous citizens have died due to dehydration and diseases contracted …

Secondhand Shopping Is Now The Coolest Way To Get Your Clothes, Camryn Quick

Capstones

Shopping secondhand has experienced an uptick in popularity in the past few years. There are a few reasons for this, all of which are examined in the project. One reason for the increase in secondhand shoppers is the daunting news about the state of our environment. Another reason, perhaps even more powerful than the fear of environmental collapse, is that thrifting has become a fashion phenomenon showcased and distributed throughout social media apps like TikTok. Essentially, shopping secondhand has become cool. This project explores these driving forces behind the thrifting boom, as well as the possible impacts, including "thrift store …

Systematic Review Of A Ramsar Wetland And Unesco Biosphere Reserve In A Climate Change Hotspot (Ichkeul Lake, Tunisia), Sabrine Sahbani, Béchir Béjaoui, Sihem Benabdalla, Rachid Toujani, Afef Fathalli, Noureddine Zaaboub, Jalel Aouissi, Zeineb Kassouk, Nabil Hamdi, Nabiha Ben Mbarek, Hechmi Missaoui, Leila Basti, Reginald Blake, Hamidreza Norouzi

Publications and Research

Tunisia's Ichkeul Lake is among the most productive ecosystems in the Mediterranean, with a great regional value thanks to its diversity of habitats. It is an important overwintering area for waterfowl species. It is a RAMSAR wetland, a National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage, and a Biosphere Reserve. This review paper provides a broad overview of the climatic, hydraulic, biogeochemical features, bio-resources, and bio-productivity of the Lake. The interconnectivity between the different environmental components of the lake is presented, highlighting the main characteristics of this vital ecosystem. Its ecosystem consists of a permanent lake bordered by temporary marshes. It is …

A Decade Review Of Disease Surveillance Research Trends In The International Journal Of Health Geographics (2009 To 2018), Rose Jimenez, Paradorn Wongchanapai

Publications and Research

The field of health geographics is rapidly growing in its methods and epistemologies. This is a review of the open-source journal International Journal of Health Geographics, and the trends in disease surveillance over ten years (2009-2018). Drawing from research review methodologies, we wrote a Python script to quantify research trends within the field of geographic disease surveillance, finding many articles focusing on population health, techniques of GIS, qualitative techniques, and geospatial technology for health monitoring. This was foundational in conducting an in-depth qualitative lexical analysis of article content and epistemologies. Overall, we concluded that over the time period, the …

Investigating The Mechanisms Driving Mercury Reduction And Emissions In Soil, Hamil Patel

Student Theses

The water-induced emission of mercury from soil has been studied, but a complete understanding of the mechanisms driving mercury reduction and emission in soil has not been reached. The current understanding is an immediate expulsion of soil gaseous mercury upon water treatment and an upward transport of dissolved soil ionic mercury as the water evaporates. We analyzed emissions from several types of samples using various methods to further our understanding on the mechanisms involved. Light-induced emissions from aqueous samples of humic acid (HA) spiked with mercury (II) chloride (HgCl₂) showed that at higher concentrations of HA, less mercury …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

A Framework For Near-Real Time Monitoring Of Diversity Patterns Based On Indirect Remote Sensing, With An Application In The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, Andrea Paz, Thiago S. Silva, Ana C. Carnaval

Publications and Research

Monitoring biodiversity change is key to effective conservation policy. While it is difficult to establish in situ biodiversity monitoring programs at broad geographical scales, remote sensing advances allow for near-real time Earth observations that may help with this goal. We combine periodical and freely available remote sensing information describing temperature and precipitation with curated biological information from several groups of animals and plants in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest to design an indirect remote sensing framework that monitors potential loss and gain of biodiversity in near-real time. Using data from biological collections and information from repeated field inventories, we demonstrate that …

Characterizing Changes In Extreme Ozone Levels Under 2050s Climate Conditions: An Extreme-Value Analysis In California, Bradley Wilson, Mariah Pope, Jeremy R. Porter, Edward Kearns, Evelyn Shu, Mark Bauer, Neil Freeman, Mike Amodeo, David Melecio-Vazquez, Ho Hsieh, Maggie Tarasovitch

Publications and Research

Ground-level ozone has a well established climate penalty associated with changing meteorological conditions under future climate change, but most existing research focuses exclusively on ozone-temperature relationships defined at specific locations. Using an extreme-value theory approach, we model relationships between temperature, humidity, and vapor pressure deficit and maximum daily 8 h ozone concentrations (MDA8) across California using a combination of ozone station network data and Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling System (CMAQ) model output from 2008 to 2017. We use a spatial regression with time varying bias coefficients to fuse station observations and modeled output into a spatially explicit gridded ozone …

Tectonic And Geotechnical Review Of Bengal Basin For Seismic Risk Assessment In Bangladesh, Mir Fazlul Karim, Jnana Ranjan Kayal, Daya Shanker, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Arif M. Sikder, M Zillur Rahman, Muhammad Qumrul Hassan

Publications and Research

Four major geotectonic provinces of the basin are recognized: 1) the continental slope to the west of the Hinge Zone, 2) the stable shelf, 3) the deep central trough (Sylhet-Hatiya) and 4) the Chittagong-Tripura fold belt to the east. The ~300 km long Dauki Fault demarcates the elevated Shillong Plateau, part of the Indian Shield to the north and the deep basin to the south. The basin experienced three strong to major intraplate earthquakes: a) 1885 Bengal earthquake (rev. Mw 6.8) close to the Hinge Zone, b) 1918 Srimangal earthquake (rev. Mw 7.1) on the Sylhet (trough) fault and c) …

Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …

21st Century Ecopoetics And Ecotheory, Robert Balun

Open Educational Resources

Ecopoetics is the study of literature that is concerned with ecology and nature. However, beyond just literature about nature, this course will examine how ecology and nature have become complicated in the 21st century, the age of the Anthropocene, the age of the climate crisis and the 6th mass extinction (don’t worry, we will define these and other key terms).

In the 21st century, humans are now confronted with a growing awareness of their destructive impact on the earth, its environments, and its human and non-human inhabitants. In this class we will examine how ecology and nature have become complicated …

Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Benefit To Climate-Displaced And Host Communities, Gül Aktürk, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Climate change is borderless, and its impacts are not shared equally by all communities. It causes an imbalance between people by creating a more desirable living environment for some societies while erasing settlements and shelters of some others. Due to floods, sea level rise, destructive storms, drought, and slow-onset factors such as salinization of water and soil, people lose their lands, homes, and natural resources. Catastrophic events force people to move voluntarily or involuntarily. The relocation of communities is a debatable climate adaptation measure which requires utmost care with human rights, ethics, and psychological well-being of individuals upon the issues …

Investigating Water Usage Patterns Tied To California State Water Project, Xiaoqing Wu

Publications and Research

California (USA) is the largest agricultural producer and one of the populous states in the United State. As the population and agriculture grows, water consumption patterns become crucial to keep track of especially surface water. In this research project, we studied possible changes in water consumption patterns in different counties and water rights holders who obtain surface water supply from the State Water Project (SWP) in California. We conducted a time series analysis on the California Monthly Diverted Surface Water dataset through two different time series forecasting models. Our analysis indicates that the total diverted surface water presents a periodic …

International Migration From The Latin American-Caribbean Region: Taking Environmental Indicators Into Consideration, Chelsea Wepy

Student Theses and Dissertations

International migration, the act of leaving one’s country to permanently settle in another country, is driven by many socio economic/political factors, such as lack of economic opportunity, access to education, governmental corruption, and violence. These factors have proven to be the reason that many citizens within the Latin American-Caribbean region either choose or are forced to relocate internationally. While these factors are important to consider independently; these issues are often exacerbated by changes in the natural environment. The objective of my paper is to highlight the importance of considering changes in the natural environment. In doing so, I hope to …

Applying The Food-Energy-Water Nexus Approach To Urban Agriculture: From Few To Fewp (Food-Energy- Water-People), Silvio Caputo, Victoria Schoen, Kathrin Spect, Baptiste Grard, Chris Blythe, Nevin Cohen, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Jason Hawes, Joshua Newell, Lidia Poniży

Publications and Research

Many studies examine the correlation between the use of resources such as water, energy and land, and the production of food. These nexus studies focus predominantly on large scale systems, often considering the social dimensions only in terms of access to resources and participation in the decision- making process, rather than individual attitudes and behaviours with respect to resource use. Such a concept of the nexus is relevant to urban agriculture (UA), but it requires customisation to the particular characteristics of growing food in cities, which is practiced mainly at a small scale and produces not only food but also …

Nyc Communities Battle Flooding, But Not From Coastal Storms, Danielle C. Cruz

Capstones

A look at the impact high-tide flooding and inland flooding has on various communities in New York City. This article also looks into what city officials are doing and not doing to address the concerns of residents who have had to deal with recurring flooding in their community.

Link to Capstone: https://danielle-cruz.format.com/nyc-communities-battle-flooding

Integrating Digital Tools In Remote Learning To Enhance The Delivery Methods Of Technical Content In Undergraduate Geosciences, Ruslana Baker, Malek Shami, Nazrul I. Khandaker, Stanley Schleifer

Publications and Research

The global transition to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic was an extremely difficult task for both students and faculty in geological sciences. Technical courses, such as Structural Geology, Mineralogy, Petrology, and Invertebrate Paleontology, that require in-person lectures and laboratory sessions involving various rocks and mineral samples, fossils, maps, and models, were a major concern at the start. The challenge of delivering the technical content via Microsoft Teams, Skype, Webex, Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, Zoom, and other internet based platforms was not only a burden for the faculty to carry, as students were struggling to conceptualize outcrop-and-type-section-based information and link …

A Comparison Of Tribal Sovereignty, Self-Determination, And Environmental Justice At The Epa’S Onondaga Lake And Tar Creek Superfund Sites, Thomas Clark

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program mandates that Native American tribes are afforded the same treatment as states in the implementation of environmental remediation projects; however, the degree of coordination and consultation between the EPA and sovereign tribal governments varies widely between sites. Two of the Superfund program’s highest profile sites with Native American interest, northeast Oklahoma’s Tar Creek and central New York’s Onondaga Lake, are characterized by such a disparity in tribal participation. While Oklahoma’s Quapaw Tribe would ultimately enter into a number of cooperative agreements with the EPA for direct control over remedial projects, New York’s Onondaga Nation …

From The Human To The Planetary: Speculative Futures Of Care, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

This is largely a theoretical, speculative essay that takes on the question of what ‘care’ looks like at a moment when climate change is increasingly taking center stage in public and political discussions. Starting with two new practices, namely, humanitarian care for nonhumans and One Health collaborations, I seek to determine what forms of political care can incorporate the well-being of future generations and future iterations of the earth. After an exploration of One Health as an approach to planetary care, I ask what its parts enable us to think, despite its limitations; I focus on the new human-nonhuman assemblages …

Recent Trends In The Frequency And Duration Of Global Floods, Nasser Najibi, Naresh Devineni

Publications and Research

Frequency and duration of floods are analyzed using the global flood database of the Dartmouth Flood Observatory (DFO) to explore evidence of trends during 1985–2015 at global and latitudinal scales. Three classes of flood duration (i.e., short: 1–7, moderate: 8–20, and long: 21 days and above) are also considered for this analysis. The nonparametric Mann–Kendall trend analysis is used to evaluate three hypotheses addressing potential monotonic trends in the frequency of flood, moments of duration, and frequency of specific flood duration types. We also evaluated if trends could be related to large-scale atmospheric teleconnections using a generalized linear model framework. …

Freshwater Reservoir Offsets And Food Crusts: Isotope, Ams, And Lipid Analyses Of Experimental Cooking Residues, John P. Hart, Karine Taché, William A. Lovis

Publications and Research

Freshwater reservoir offsets (FROs) occur when AMS dates on charred, encrusted food residues on pottery predate a pot’s chronological context because of the presence of ancient carbon from aquatic resources such as fish. Research over the past two decades has demonstrated that FROs vary widely within and between water bodies and between fish in those water bodies. Lipid analyses have identified aquatic biomarkers that can be extracted from cooking residues as potential evidence for FROs. However, lacking has been efforts to determine empirically how much fish with FROs needs to be cooked in a pot with other resources to result …

Hazmat Storage Near Nyc Waterways Endangers Communities, Brett E. Dahlberg, Nicole Acevedo

Capstones

New York City has 520 miles of shoreline--that’s more than Miami and Los Angeles combined. These waterfronts are home to some of the city’s most polluted sites because major part of it is zoned for industrial use. Dozens of industrial plants in this area store toxic chemicals in flood zones: substances that are hazardous to our health, like Benzene, which is used in rocket fuel, toluene, a paint thinner, and lead a neurotoxin. In a flood, these chemicals can easily get caught up in moving waters and pollute entire neighborhoods.

That’s exactly what happened when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Impact Of Urbanization On Temperature Variation In Big Cities: Measuring Health Risk While Targeting Vulnerable Population, Maryam E. Karimi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Densely populated cities are experiencing Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects and localized hotspots. Cities, such as New York can form heat islands all year round. This is primarily due to land surface modifications, radiative trapping in urban canyons and lack of cooling through evapotranspiration caused by displaced trees and vegetation. UHI refers to an increase in air and surface temperature in cities compared to surrounding suburban and rural areas. Large scale environmental forcing can cause subdivisions of UHI throughout a city. The combined of environmental forcing effects lead to the formation of hot pockets within the cities at micro-scale. The …

Land Change History Of Oil Palm Plantations In Northern Bengkulu Province, Sumatra Island, Reconstructed From Landsat Satellite Archives, Atsushi Tomita

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the history of land conversion to oil palm plantation in tropical Asia using multi-temporal satellite data. A new method was constructed with a newly developed computer model, Land Change Detection and Land Definition Model (LC/LD Model) to map out spatio-temporal distribution of land changes. A comprehensive, cloud-free Landsat dataset was created from all the available Landsat data from 1988 to 2015. The pixel-based dataset was converted into a polygon-based dataset by applying the multi-temporal image segmentation method. The representation of the spectral information was also reduced to a single index of IB45, …

A Green Oasis: What Makes Community Gardens Worth Saving? While Researchers Amass Evidence Of Benefits, Advocates Develop New Strategy To Prove Their Value., Joel Wolfram

Capstones

Green Valley Community Garden in Brownsville, Brooklyn, is one of about a dozen gardens on land owned by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development that are being uprooted by plans to build affordable housing. The gardeners are fighting back to prevent the garden’s destruction, saying that the food-producing green space is a source of healthy eating in a community with high rates of health problems, like diabetes and obesity. Researchers are attempting to tease out the public health benefits of community gardens as one metric of their value, but the science is still catching up with …