Environmental Studies Commons^™

The Financial Climate And Economic Mechanisms That Facilitated The Usa And Ur’S Shift Towards Solar Power, Monica Stack

Geography and the Environment Capstone Projects

The University of Richmond (UR) has been committed to sustainability and environmental innovation for many years. However, in the pursuit of carbon neutrality they have had had to weigh economic interests with their commitment to environmentalism. Due to a shifting national energy climate and the emergence of financial mechanisms by which an entity can participate in the renewable energy market, UR was recently able to invest in a 20MW portion of a nearby solar array to offset emissions from 100% of their purchased electricity. This report details the financial forces which have made solar prominent and affordable. It then explains …

Erosion And Storm Water Runoff: Spower Solar Farm Project: Watershed Environmental Analysis, Stanford Lee

Geography and the Environment Capstone Projects

The University of Richmond has announced their partnership with sPower’s Spotsylvania Solar Energy Center that is to be developed in the next two years to contribute to their 2050 carbon neutrality goals. The university is supposed to have 20 MWs of the 500 MW solar development, which should produce enough energy to account for 100% of the electricity usage on campus. This will make the University of Richmond the first institution of higher education in the southeast to match 100% of its electricity needs with solar energy and will decrease the university’s greenhouse gas emissions by 60% (University of Richmond …

Incorporating Community Solar At The University Of Richmond To Reach Sustainability Goals, Maribel Sabino

Geography and the Environment Capstone Projects

An analysis of the scale pertaining to sustainability efforts by the University of Richmond concerning the solar farm in Spotsylvania and alternative solar options is imperative to understanding and encouraging sustainability at the University of Richmond. Solar energy as a renewable energy has high potential to help institutions of higher education reach sustainability goals. Considering solar power at various scales will help understand if solar is a viable option to reach these goals. This project examines community solar under a lens of sustainability as a potential contender to meeting the sustainability and carbon neutrality goals of the University of Richmond. …

Understanding The Stake Of The Government And Government Officials In The Spotsylvania Solar Farm Project, Haley Neuenfeldt

Geography and the Environment Capstone Projects

The Spotsylvania Solar Farm Project is a proposal to build a 500 megawatt solar farm in Livingston in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. The project is managed by Spower with various investors such as Dominion, the University of Richmond, Microsoft, Apple, Etsy, Swiss-Re, and Akamai. However, there are many stakeholders outside of the main investment groups. These stakeholders include the citizens in Spotsylvania where the solar farm will be located, climate activists advocating for increased renewable energy usage, and local, state, and federal government representatives. Across the scale of government representatives, there have been initiatives to increase, decrease, and regulate solar power …

Assessment Of Barrier Island Restoration Planning And Management In The Terrebonne Basin, Louisiana, Sean Russell Williams

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana holds the majority of the contiguous United States’ coastal wetlands by area, providing significant benefits to users in the form of ecosystem services. Climate change, relative sea level rise, and coastal sediment budget deficits among other anthropogenic processes impact the resilience and sustainability of Louisiana’s coastal systems. Since the implementation of the Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) to restore coastal wetlands in the United States, multiple barrier island restoration projects have taken place in the greater Terrebonne Basin. Amassing a catalog of case studies elucidates the social, ecological, and economic frameworks behind barrier island restoration and …

Review Of Environmental Humanities And Theologies: Ecoculture, Literature And The Bible, By Rod Giblett, Sam Mickey

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This is a review of Rod Giblett's Environmental Humanities and Theologies: Ecoculture, Literature and the Bible, published by Routledge in 2018. The review notes Giblett's contributions to the field in tracing wetlands iconography through theological and literary discourses in landmark works in the Anglo-American tradition, Judeo-Christian doctrine, and Australian Aboriginal myth.

Shadow Over Mount Barren, Bronwyne J. Thomason Dr

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

A short story that captures scenery of the Fitzgerald National Park and relates it to life-affirming principles of the natural Australian Bush.

Zemlja And Pioneer Day, Natalie D-Napoleon

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Poems: Zemlja and Pioneer Day by West Australia born author Natalie D-Napoleon.

Snorkel Virgin, Emma J. Young

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Snorkel Virgin

Plunging Down Under, Ian Smith

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Plunging Down Under

Forest-Walks – An Intangible Heritage In Movement A Walk-And-Talk-Study Of A Social Practice Tradition, Margaretha Häggström

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This article seeks to understand and extend current understandings of intangible heritage and particularly forest-walks as such. The study is related to Swedish conditions and has been conducted in Sweden. The research is grounded in social practice theory – and the perspective of practice architectures in particular – and it draws on the work of Stephen Kemmis. Further, we view practice theory entangled with the phenomenological life-world concepts of intersubjectivity and historicity. The data are based on 12 walk-and-talk interviews conducted in the forest with individuals who willingly walk in the forest on their leisure time. The analysis takes its …

“‘The Strata Of My History’: Reading The Ecological Chronotope In Wendell Berry’S That Distant Land”, Ellen M. Bayer

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This article examines Wendell Berry’s short story collection, That Distant Land (2004) through the lens of the ecological chronotope. Berry’s characters cultivate an intimate relationship with their physical environment, and the land, in turn, inscribes their history within it. Furthermore, it is through a shared sense of responsibility to the land that the characters foster a sense of community, shared history, and timeless connection with each other. My analysis of Berry’s fiction employs the notion of the ecological chronotope as a lens for understanding the environmental implications encountered at the intersection between time and place in That Distant Land. …

In The Name Of Profit: Canada’S Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve As Economic Development And Colonial Placemaking, Richard M. Hutchings, Marina La Salle

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Taking a critical heritage approach to late modern naming and placemaking, we discuss how the power to name reflects the power to control people, their land, their past, and ultimately their future. Our case study is the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve (MABR), a recently invented place on Vancouver Island, located in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Through analysis of representations and landscape, we explore MABR as state-sanctioned branding, where a dehumanized nature is packaged for and marketed to wealthy ecotourists. Greenwashed by a feel-good “sustainability” discourse, MABR constitutes colonial placemaking and economic development, representing no break with past practices.

Solastalgia, Nostalgia, Exhilarating, Immersive: Landscapes: Heritage Ii, David F. Gray

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Landscape: Heritage II presents the scholarly and creative contributions to Landscapes, Volume 9, Issue 1.

Issue Introduction By Icll Director Glen Phillips, Glen Phillips

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

General Introduction by ICLL Director Glen Phillips

Complete Issue 1, Volume 9

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

The complete issue 1 of volume 9, Landscapes Journal.

Analysis Of 2017 Multi-Agency Field Campaign Data For Wintertime Surface Pollution In The Cache Valley Of Utah, Gerardo Diaz Jr.

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Atmospheric motions resulting from rising airborne parcels help to scatter emissions, including PM, away from their sources, decreasing local pollution levels. However this pattern shifts during the wintertime, as cold air damming and inversion layers create stable conditions that limit the vertical transport of air masses. Both point and area sources of emissions currently dot the western United States and are responsible for the production of the vast majority of agricultural pollution in the region. At the same time, population-growth has resulted in an ever-increasing amount of urbansource emissions. The entrapment of PM, which are produced when a wide array …

Protocol Implementation Plan For Cave Water Quality Monitoring In The Northern Great Plains Network, Narrative Version 1.0, Isabel W. Ashton, Justin S. Mills, Marc Ohms, Daniel Austin, Michael Wiles, Kara Paintner-Green

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network includes thirteen park units located in five northern Great Plains states across six ecoregions. Two park units, Jewel Cave National Monument (JECA) and Wind Cave National Park (WICA), protect significant cave resources. These two caves are among the longest caves in the world and have an assortment of underground water resources ranging from drip sites to cave lakes. Subsurface water quantity and quality in the caves is a concern due to groundwater depletion and groundwater contamination from pesticides (aboveground applications), hydrocarbons (vehicle use and related activities), and wastewater effluent (sewage …

Geospatial Applications For Identifying Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (Cafos) And Impaired Streams In California, Jennifer B. Alford, Jocelyn Perez

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

The objective of this study is to identify and spatially illustrate the location of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in California, their proximity to impaired surface waters listed on the US Environmental Protection Agencies (EPAs) 303(d) list and communities defined as “Pollution Burden” (i.e. affected by and vulnerable to multiple pollution sources) by the CA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) CalEnviroScreen tool.

A Preliminary Study For The Future Translocation Of A Saimiri Sciureus Troop From Sumak Allpa To Yasuní National Park: Assessing The Habitat Use, Population, And Behavior Of A Common Squirrel Monkey Troop In Indillama, Kenia French

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Sumak Allpa, an organization specializing in primate rehabilitation, plans to introduce a Common Squirrel Monkey Troop ( Saimiri sciureus ), the Yasuní Troop, to the Indillama region of Yasuní National Park. This study analyzes the habitat use, population, and behavior of the Saimiri sciureus troop, referred to as the Indillama Troop, already existing in the region, from April 14th to May 4th, 2019. Focal and scan observation techniques were used to observe the troop’s behavior, and EasyTrails on an iPhone 7 was used to record GPS data. EasyTrails was also used to map the trail system in the Indillama region. …

The Impacts Of Warming Coffee: The Climate Change-Coffee-Migration Nexus In The Northern Triangle Of Central America, Connor Lynch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As climate change continues to threaten every corner of the world, one of the key features of the 21st century is migration, as a response to the myriad of effects related to a warming planet. This paper seeks to analyze the role of climate change as a motive for migration. The climate change-migration nexus is illustrated in this paper by revealing how slow-onset effects of climate change jeopardize the production of coffee in the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), a region that is particularly vulnerable to the many effects. Thousands of people who depend on coffee production around Guatemala, …

Twitter Use In Hurricane Isaac And Its Implications To Disaster Resilience, Kejin Wang

LSU Master's Theses

Disaster Resilience is the capacity of a community to ‘bounce back’ from disastrous events. Most studies rely on traditional data such as census data to study community resilience. With the advent of social media era, the new data source gives us an opportunity to explore the application of Twitter data to better understand disaster resilience. A research question is: does Twitter use correlate with disaster resilience? In other words, will communities with more Twitter users be more resilient to disasters, presumably because they are more likely to be better informed? The underlying issue is that if there are social and …

Redescription Of Anaschisma (Temnospondyli: Metoposauridae) From The Late Triassic Of Wyoming And The Phylogeny Of The Metoposauridae, Bryan M. Gee, William G. Parker, Adam D. Marsh

United States National Park Service: Publications

Metoposaurids are non-marine temnospondyls that are among the most common constituents of Late Triassic deposits, but despite their abundance, the evolutionary relationships of the group are poorly resolved and have not been fully addressed with modern phylogenetic methods. The genus Anaschisma is one of a number of poorly resolved metoposaurid taxa and was erected to describe two species from the Popo Agie Formation (Carnian) in Wyoming: Anaschisma browni and Anaschisma brachygnatha. Since being named, the genus has been repeatedly synonymized and separated with other taxa in the context of broader revisions of the Metoposauridae. At present, Anaschisma is considered …

Sacrifices For Development Or Thirst For Capital Accumulation? Case Study On The “El Diquís Hydroelectric Dam” In Costa Rica., Marco Mora

Sustainability and Social Justice

Costa Rica’s state-led model of energy generation based on large-scale investments in hydropower has given the country autonomy in generating its own energy as well as sovereignty over its natural resources. Successive governments have used nationalist and ecological discourses to support the continued expansion of hydropower as the path to economic development. In more recent decades however, a number of factors have been eroding the dominance of the state-led hydropower development model. Some of those elements are the national and international pressures to liberalize and privatize the energy sector, an increasing body of scientific evidence indicating that large-scale hydropower in …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2018 Data Report, Isabel W. Ashton

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2018 at Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire). This was the eighth year of combined monitoring efforts.

Crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots to collect data on the plant communities at SCBL. This work is part of a long-term monitoring effort designed to provide a better understanding of the condition of the vegetation community and how it changes over time. NGPN staff measured species richness, herb-layer height, native and non-native species abundance, …

Multivariate Analysis Of Hydrochemical Data For Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, And Surrounding Areas, Andrew J. Long, James B. Paces, William G. Eldridge

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota contain two of the six longest caves worldwide. These caves contain subterranean lakes that are important points of intersection between the water table of the Madison aquifer and the caves. During 2015 to 2017, several subterranean lakes were discovered in Jewel Cave, which previously was thought to be above the regional water table. The objectives of this study were to better understand the hydrology of the recently discovered subterranean lakes in Jewel Cave and to evaluate their relation or possible connection to similar lakes in Wind Cave. …

Exploring Local Environmental Factors Influencing Geographic Distribution Of Black-Legged Tick Questing Activity, Chong Di

Theses and Dissertations

The deer tick (Ixodes scapularis or I. scapularis), also known as the black-legged tick, is the primary vector that transmits Lyme Disease (LD) in Northeastern United States. To contain the geographic expansion of Lyme disease ticks across the US in recent decades, ecological studies have been conducted to understand the biotic and abiotic environmental factors affecting tick activity. We observed in preliminary surveys that the tick host-seeking activity varies across small local areas. The primary objective of this project is to identify the environmental factors that impact deer tick questing activities at the micro-geographic scale. From 2017-2018, we …

Bird Monitoring At Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa, Status Report 2009–2017, David G. Peitz, Lloyd W. Morrison, Kristen L. Mecke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

In 2009, the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) Network) initiated breeding bird surveys on Effigy Mounds National Monument (NM), Iowa, to address two objectives: (1) to monitor changes in bird community composition and abundance, and (2) to improve our understanding of relationships between breeding birds and habitat and the effects of management actions on such relationships. This report evaluates trends in the park’s breeding bird populations in the context of trends observed within the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s (NABCI) Prairie Hardwood Transition Bird Conservation Region, the bird conservation region in which the park is located. By doing …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2018 Data Report, Ryan M. Manuel

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2018 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Effects Program (NGPFire). This was the eighth year of field work conducted by NGPN at AGFO.

In 2018, crew members from NGPN visited six long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots, four legacy plant community monitoring (LPCM) plots, and NGPFire visited one additional PCM plot to collect data on plant communities at AGFO. This collaborative effort is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better …

Design For Living Complexities, Peter J. Taylor

Working Papers in Critical, Creative and Reflective Practice

Lectures from a 12-session course that addresses the intersection of design with critical thinking. Design in this course means intentionality in construction, which involves a range of materials, a sequence of steps, and principles that inform the choice of materials and the steps. Design also always involves putting people, as well as materials, into place. This happens by working with the known properties of people, as well as the known properties of material, and trying out new arrangements to work around their constraints (at least temporarily). Critical thinking, as I define it, involves understanding ideas and practices better when we …