Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Estimating Potential Economic Net Carbon Flux From U.S. Agriculture Using A High Resolution, Integrated, Socioeconomic-Biogeophysical Model, Chad M. Hellwinckel

Doctoral Dissertations

Estimation of the carbon abatement potential of a national carbon market upon U.S. agricultural lands is needed by climate analysts, policymakers, and carbon market brokers. A high resolution, integrated, socioeconomic-biogeophysical model is developed in this research by linking the economics of land management with spatial data on soils and land use. The economic component of the model functions at the county level with biophysical data at the sub-county level of resolution.

The model is used to estimate changes in net carbon flux induced by incentives for conservation tillage on nine major crops. The economic potential reduction in net carbon flux …

Capturing Pre-Evacuation Trips And Associative Delays: A Case Study Of The Evacuation Of Key West, Florida For Hurricane Wilma, Melany Strike Noltenius

Doctoral Dissertations

The time it takes for the residents to evacuate an area is calculated as an evacuation time estimate (ETE). In theory, these time estimates are calculated based on a number of inputs, including clearance time, the impact of traffic management techniques, and the time for the public to prepare to evacuate (Dow, 2000). Evacuation models can calculate clearance times, as well as incorporate the temporal impact of traffic management techniques, like contra-flow traffic. However, these models do not include delays associated with pre-evacuation trips. Because these trips are not well represented in hurricane evacuation models, the evacuation time estimate may …

Crossing The Rubicon: The Demise Of Segregation And The Origins Of Divergence In South Africa And The American South, Kyle Thomas Rector

Doctoral Dissertations

South Africa and the American South have long shared historical and socioeconomic commonalities. Of these similarities, their histories of governmentally-mandated racial segregation are what most often led people to draw comparisons between the two areas. Likewise, South Africa and the American South for much of the 20th century were considered atypical or exceptional when compared to their geographically proximate neighbors. Hence, research by Fredrickson, Cell, Sparks, and others identify how these two areas, though halfway around the globe from one another, have mirrored and impacted one another.

With the demise of governmentally-mandated segregation in both areas, it is worth asking …

Middle To Late Holocene Environmental Change And Human Impacts In Seasonally Dry Neotropical Forest Of Northwestern Costa Rica: Sedimentary Evidence From Six Lakes, Martin R. Arford

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents evidence of long-term changes in climate, fire, and vegetation in northwestern Costa Rica, as revealed by sediment profiles from lakes on the seasonally dry, lower Pacific slope of Miravalles volcano in Guanacaste province (10.7^o N, 85.2^o W). Sediment cores were recovered for pollen and charcoal analysis from six lakes formed by volcanic activity approximately 8200 years ago.

Six regional pollen zones were delineated based on changes in pollen and sediments, and dated by AMS radiocarbon determinations on macrofossils. The basal pollen zone (Zone 6, prior to 8000 cal yr BP) comprises elastic sediments that correspond …

Canada’S Cultural Media Policy And Newfoundland Music On The Radio: Local Identities And Global Implications, Sara Beth Keough

Doctoral Dissertations

As our access to information increases with the aid of communication technologies, there is concern about cultural homogenization. Ironically, however, in the face of globalization in the media, the local often becomes increasingly important. This study explores how Canada’s cultural policy toward the media, known as the Canadian Content regulations, has both local and global implications. I examine how Canadian Content regulations apply to radio, and how these radio regulations influence broadcasting in the St. John’s, Newfoundland radio market. Interviews with radio station personnel (e.g. DJs, program directors, music librarians) and radio listeners show that radio stations in St. John’s …

Late-Holocene Environmental History In The Northeastern Caribbean: Multi-Proxy Evidence From Two Small Lakes On The Southern Slope Of The Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic, Chad Steven Lane

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents multi-proxy evidence of paleoenvironmental change preserved in sediment records recovered from two lakes on the southern (Caribbean) slope of the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic: Laguna Castilla (18^o47'51" N, 70^o52'33" W, 976 m) and Laguna de Salvador (18^o47'45" N, 70^o53'13" W, 990 m).

The Castilla and Salvador sediment records contain evidence of prehistoric forest clearance and agriculture, including abundant maize pollen, dating back to around A.D. 1060. These pollen grains constitute the earliest evidence of maize agriculture from the interior of Hispaniola, and represent some of the earliest …

Dendroclimatological Analysis And Fire History Of Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) In The Atlantic And Gulf Coastal Plain, Joseph P. Henderson

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to use longleaf pine trees at three major sites in the Southeastern Coastal Plain to: (1) determine how longleaf pine trees respond to climate, (2) reconstruct past climate conditions using long tree-ring chronologies, (3) determine the effects of atmospheric teleconnections on longleaf pine growth, and ( 4) reconstruct fire history from fire-scar data. The native range of longleaf pine and its associated communities extends from southeastern Virginia south and westward to the Trinity River in eastern Texas. I collected samples from living and remnant longleaf pine wood in coastal South Carolina, Eglin Air Force …

Urban Transit And The Working Poor: The Geography Of Welfare Reform, Jennifer Lynn Rogalsky

Doctoral Dissertations

American cities have changed from older high-density urban neighborhoods to sprawling automobile-oriented suburbs. Many of the urban poor find themselves distant from jobs and services on this landscape. For poor single mothers, the problems are exacerbated by childrearing responsibilities. In addition, most of the jobs that are accessible to the working poor are low paying and have non-traditional hours, making the challenges of this new urban landscape even more formidable.

Welfare reform initiatives have established time limits for assistance; the aim is to remove millions from welfare and make them self-sufficient. However, the immediate result was to push many into …

Spatio-Temporal Patterns Of Geomorphic Adjustment In Channelized Tributary Streams Of The Lower Hatchie River Basin, West Tennessee, Mary A. Boulton

Doctoral Dissertations

The processes involved in fluvial geomorphic adjustment to human-induced change are not well understood, despite an increasing and global prevalence of human disturbance to rivers. This doctoral dissertation research examines spatial and temporal patterns of geomorphic adjustment processes in three tributary streams of the Lower Hatchie River Basin, in west Tennessee, which are adjusting to historic land clearance and channelization. This dissertation examines (1) the types and spatial pattern of geomorphic adjustment processes in a total of 34 tributary reaches located in Richland, Jeffers, and Dry Creeks, (2) the applicability of an existing model of geomorphic adjustment for use in …

A Watershed Classification System Based On Headwater Catchments In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee-North Carolina, Martin Dietrich Lafrenz

Doctoral Dissertations

Headwater areas in the southeastern U.S., as well as elsewhere, have received little attention from researchers, even though headwater catchments comprise over 70% of the land area in the southeastern highlands. The small, low-order streams that drain these catchments are greatly affected by hillslope processes within their watersheds. As such, there exists a strong link between upland landscape history and a headwater stream’s condition, including its channel morphology, habitat, and water quality. I employ this tight connection between landscape-scale attributes and reach-scale morphology in order to develop a headwater catchment classification system for Great Smoky Mountains National Park that describes …

Temporal Gis Design Of An Extended Time-Geographic Framework For Physical And Virtual Activities, Hongbo Yu

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent rapid developments of information and communication technologies (ICT) enable a virtual space, which allows people to conduct activities remotely through tele-presence rather than through conventional physical presence in physical space. ICT offer people additional freedom in space and time to carry out their activities; this freedom leads to changes in the spatio-temporal distributions of activities. Given that activities are the reasons for travel, these changes will impact transportation systems. Therefore, a better understanding of the spatial and temporal characteristics of human activities in today’s society will help researchers study the impact of ICT on transportation. Using an integrated space-time …

A Socio-Spatial Analysis Of Rural Poverty In East Tennessee, Margaret D. Foraker

Doctoral Dissertations

The incidence of poverty in rural areas is actually higher than that in urban places. This study fills a gap in geographic research by examining poverty in rural and small town communities in east Tennessee using the 1990 census. A cluster analysis of high poverty block groups identifies different categories of poor. Just as “who is poor?” varies across the United States, “who is poor?” in east Tennessee varies. The identity of the poor in rural east Tennessee is found to be contrary to popular images of povery in Appalachia.

The massive reorganization of rural economies in recent decades is …

Changing Governance, Business Elites, And Local Regulation In Nashville, Ola Johansson

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I explore how power and governance in Nashville is related to economic and institutional change on a national and global scale—the transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. By investigating the political and social institutions of the city, it is my objective to understand how the elites are operating to control and direct development. The study is an in-depth look at the activities of local business and how they decide to respond in a situation of change and uncertainty. Here I stress the importance of collective action among the business elite, which is equally meaningful to explore as the …

The Social Construction Of Tourism In Cuba: A Geographic Analysis Of The Representations Of Gender And Race During The Special Period 1995-1997, Michael W. Cornebise

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to critically examine race and gender as they intersect with tourism development in Cuba during the Special Period in a Time of Peace (Special Period), a government imposed austerity program that followed the loss of important Soviet subsidies in 1989.

I hypothesize that tourism development in Cuba during the Special Period betrays the Revolution in that it reconstitutes discriminatory practices along lines of race and gender and hence does not deliver benefits to average Cubans. Indeed, I argue that tourism as presently constructed may subvert the well being of ordinary Cubans.

I draw from …

Effects Of Urbanization On A Small Perennial Stream: Second Creek In Knoxville, Tennessee, Judith Laing Grable

Doctoral Dissertations

Little is known about the coarse load carried by streams in urban areas or the length of time needed for stream channel adjustments to urban conditions. In this study, I examine the history of urbanization in the basin of Second Creek, the status of the channel, and the sediment load of the creek in recent years.

Second Creek is a small perennial stream whose 18.6 km² drainage basin is almost entirely contained within the City of Knoxville, Tennessee. Almost all of the drainage basin was developed more than 40 years ago, and is now urban and suburban in character. …

An Exploratory Data Analysis Approach For Land Use-Transportation Interaction: The Design And Implementation Of Transland Spatio-Temporal Data Model, Xiaohong Xin

Doctoral Dissertations

Land use and transportation interaction is a complex and dynamic process. Many models have been used to study this interaction during the last several decades. Empirical studies suggest that land use and transportation patterns can be highly variable between geographic areas and at different spatial and temporal scales. Identifying these changes presents a major challenge. When we recognize that long-term changes could be affected by other factors such as population growth, economic development, and policy decisions, the challenge becomes even more overwhelming. Most existing land use and transportation interaction models are based on some prior theories and use mathematical or …

Modeling The Highway Transportation Of Spent Fuel, Ivor Glen Harrison

Doctoral Dissertations

There will be a substantial increase in the number of spent fuel shipments on the nation's highway system in the next thirty years. Most of the spent fuel will be moving from reactors to a spent fuel repository. This study develops two models which evaluate the risk and cost of moving the spent fuel. The Minimum Total Transport Risk Model (MTTRM) seeks the efficient solution for this problem by finding the minimum risk path through the network and sending all the spent fuel shipments over this one path. The Equilibrium Transport Risk Model (ETRM) finds an equitable solution by distributing …

A Geographic Analysis Of The Characteristics And Development Trends Of The Non-Metropolitan Tourist-Recreation Industry Of Southern Appalachia, Jeffrey Wayne Neff

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the significance of actual place-to-place structural and organizational differences within the non-metropolitan tourist-recreation industry of southern Appalachia and to discover how these differences affected the industry's development and growth in selected locations.

Eight countries with statistically important tourist industries were used as case study areas, so that spatial variation or uniformity in the industry's characteristics could be identified and examined. Those counties were: Rabun, Georgia; Graham, North Carolina; Jackson, North Carolina; Swain, North Carolina; Watauga, North Carolina; Clay, Tennessee; Sevier, Tennessee; and Bath, Virginia. Field investigation and subsequent distribution of questionnaires to …

The Changing Control Of Economic Activity In The Gatlinburg, Tennessee Area, 1930-1973, Jerome Eric Dobson

Doctoral Dissertations

Among Government officials, planners, and citizens there is an almost universal belief that any economic growth will benefit the people of the area in which it occurs. This research tests that assumption through an analysis of resort development in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area from 1930 to 1973. Its purpose is to investigate the processes of change accompanying rapid economic growth with a particular emphasis on how indigenous land owners and entrepreneurs have fared as participants in the economic system.

A geographic approach is employed to examine the processes which shape the economic character of the area and affect indigenous participation. …

Debris Slides And Related Flood Damage Associated With The September 1, 1951, Cloudburst In The Mt. Le Conte-Sugarland Mountain Area, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Donald Joseph Bogucki

Doctoral Dissertations

Numerous debris slides and considerable flood damage resulted from the September 1, 1951, cloudburst over the Mt. Le Conte-Sugarland Mountain area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Over 100 individual slide scar heads were found in the study area, 41 of them in the Alum Cave Creek watershed, area of detailed field study.

The movement is thought to have been initiated by sliding at the head of the scar, with the mass of moving rock, soil, forest debris, and water developing flow characteristics downslope. Mt. Le Conte-Sugarland Mountain slide tracks may be divided into three sections: (1) the scar head, …

A Geographical Analysis Of The Production And Marketing Of Fresh Fruits And Vegetables In Florida, Georgia, And South Carolina, Sidney Roberts Jumper

Doctoral Dissertations

One of the more recent developments in the field of geography has been an interest in the marketing of agricultural and industrial products. A few geographers have made studies of a general nature in the realm of marketing and many business and economic experts have made careful inquiries into the costs of marketing various products. There have been few studies, however, of detailed investigations of the geographic aspects of the marketing of specific commodities.

Geographic Factors Influencing The Manufactural Industries Of Upper East Tennessee, Terry Elmer Epperson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study presents an inventory and analysis of the geographic and socio-economic factors influencing the location and development of manufactural industries in Upper East Tennessee. A combination of many determinants has gradually changed the basic economic structure of the area from that of a modified form of subsistence agriculture to one of manufactural importance within the state and in the United States. Integration of the physical and cultural complexities of the area shows causation for the present and continued position of manufactural prominence. Some of the elementary facts concerning the location of manufacturing which make this area prominent are: (1) …

The Resources Of The Cumberland Plateau As Exemplified By Cumberland County, Tennessee: A Geographic Analysis, George Willis Webb

Doctoral Dissertations

The Problem and Purpose of the Study: Possibly no other area in Anglo-America shows better the relation between man and a restrictive environment than the Cumberland Plateau. Certainly no other presents a more interesting social and geographic picture: here dwells [sic] some of the best racial stock in the United States (much of it pre-Revolutionary) and at the same time the largest number of illiterate and poverty-stricken people in the nation. What they are, no doubt, is more a matter of natural environment than of anything else. . . .

The above statement is the introduction by White and Foscue …