Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Drinking Water Governance For Whom? An Institutional Analysis Of Rural Drinking Water Systems In New Mexico, Tucker Colvin

Geography ETDs

Rural community drinking water systems in New Mexico are facing many challenges, including a lack of personnel, deteriorating infrastructure, lack of funds, overly burdensome and confusing regulation, environmental concerns, and concerns over water rights. Governing agencies are creating vulnerability by making managers prioritize some issues and neglect others. Water systems designated a Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Associations are especially problematic because they are small and managed by volunteers but have as much regulatory burden as larger municipalities. I use the theory of institutional work to explain how an institution that was originally designed to help low-income and rural communities is …

Climate Change And Seed Security Among Smallholder Farmers In Northern Ghana, Michael Biwalib Madin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smallholder agriculture is highly susceptible to climate variability and change. According to recent projections by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this sensitivity would likely increase in the coming decades, with more erratic rainfall, prolonged dry periods, shorter growing seasons, and seed germination failures. In the African context, the mechanisms through which these ecological stressors would affect seed security are poorly understood. Drawing upon a case study of semi-arid Ghana, this study examines climate change impacts on seed security among smallholder farmers. It adopts a mixed-methods approach with intensive fieldwork in two farming communities. Conceptually, the study uses a political …

Tropical Cyclone Vulnerability Of Atlantic Coastal Counties In The United States, Zachary Alexander

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

1. Abstract

   Coastal populations along the Atlantic Coast of the United States face a persistent threat of tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones of any strength can cause significant damages and losses to both life and property. As coastal populations continue to rise in a changing climate, the power of knowing which communities are the most and least vulnerable to future tropical cyclone events can assist in mitigating some of the losses. This paper explores the factors that make a coastal community more or less vulnerable to tropical cyclones based on prior natural hazards research and creates a relative index that will tell …

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Change Is The Only Constant: A Snowpack Retention Analysis And Climate Vulnerability Road Map For The Skalkaho Creek Sub-Basin, Zachary Freeman Goodwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is impacting the whole of North America, although the impacts differ depending on regional geography. In the Intermountain West, climate change is contributing to lower overall snowpack totals and diminished late season streamflows. These changes will likely contribute to vulnerabilities in how much water is available to irrigators, municipalities, and fisheries dependent upon a consistent yearly flow of meltwater. This paper explores how snowpack retention has changed via the NASA dataset Daymet, which provides gridded estimates of weather parameters including Snow Water Equivalent in the Bitterroot River Basin of western Montana. This analysis showed that snowpack retention from …