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 …

Hydropower As A Feasible Option Of The University Of Richmond, Gershom Ejoni

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

As the University of Richmond moves forward in achieving its sustainability goals, it made a decision to invest into a solar array in Spotsylvania, VA in order to offset their energy consumption with renewable energy. However, this solar array has been controversial for many of the residents in Spotsylvania. My senior seminar class has tasked itself with investigating all aspects of the University’s decision to partner with sPower. This paper will analyze the potential alternative energy sources that the University can possible consider, in particular, hydropower; thereby, determining if hydropower is a potential viable option the University of Richmond can …

The Most Environmentally Beneficial Option: An Analysis On Spower’S Solar Project In Relation To The Endangered Species Act, Victoria Williams

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Today, the current impacts of high greenhouse gas emissions due to energy production have been widely discussed in scholarly literature. In 2018, the University of Richmond (UR) announced a goal to match 100% of the campus' electricity demand with solar energy to decrease its carbon footprint. UR partnered with sPower to construct a 500-megawatt solar array in which UR will receive the 20-megawatts worth of energy from the site in Spotsylvania, Virginia. sPower’s solar project engendered various environmental concerns surrounding Fawn Lake and the endangered species found in the proximity of the project. Acknowledging the environmental concerns, the objective of …

Spotsylvania Solar Farm: Watershed Environmental Analysis: Material And Chemical Impacts, Colby Prokop

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

The purpose of this compiled review is to answer the research question: What are the implications of the materials being used in the Spotsylvania sPower solar farm and the impacts of any contributing chemicals? I will approach this question using a theoretical framework to investigate the public participation (PP) process (Munch-Petersen, 2017) in the preliminary environmental analysis research done by sPower (in accordance with their special use permit [SUP]). This will be a context-specific framework, in which I will navigate the discrepancies between the environmental SUP information and citizen concerns about the chemicals and materials used in the sPower solar …

Spotsylvania Solar: A Stakeholder Analysis Of Corporate Involvement, Merissa Shebell

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This report investigates the major corporations that hold a stake in sPower’s 500-Megawatt Spotsylvania Solar Project through the framework of corporate social responsibility. The major corporations include the investors in the project, Microsoft, Apple in collaboration with Akamai, Etsy, and Swiss Re, and the University of Richmond, as well as the energy provides and distributors, Dominion Energy and PJM Interconnection. Through an evaluation of the investors’ sustainability and environmental reports, the motivations behind their agreements with sPower can be attributed to a desire to meet their renewable energy goals. By purchasing a portion of the electricity generated by the solar …

Maintaining Productive Efficiency Of Solar Arrays, Grant Woods

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

With the onset of climate change people are demanding better business behavior. As a result, many companies seek to diversify their public presence by acquiring technologies and behaviors that ultimately strive toward a goal of reducing environmental impacts. One particular focus of this transition has been the acquisition of clean energy technology. Solar photovoltaic arrays are one such technology that companies and homeowners continue to adopt to meet their environmental goals whether those goals are specific, measureable, impactful or whether they are more for self satisfaction and peace of mind. Administration and the Office for Sustainability at University of Richmond …

Natural Gas: Analyzing The Relationship Between The University Of Richmond's Corporate Social Responsibility And Natural Gas As An Alternative Energy Source, Sophia M. Tailor

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

On April 9, 2019, the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors approved a permit to begin construction on a 500 megawatt solar array managed by Sustainable Power Group (sPower) in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. A roughly $615 million project, sPower’s solar array will cover almost 6,300 acres of Spotsylvania County and is set to be the largest such project east of the Rocky Mountains (Shenk, 2019). Alongside big players such as Microsoft and Etsy, the University of Richmond also has a stake in the project. 20 MW of the Spotsylvania solar array will be designated for the University of Richmond and is …

Analyzing Nuclear Power And Its Present And Future Role As A Low Carbon Emissions Energy Source, Maria Seitz

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

This report takes look at nuclear power and its current use around the world and its potential as a key player in the current global climate crisis. Through the analysis of surveys, articles, and research papers, this essay explores how nuclear power plants compare to other low emission energies and how their use can lead to global reductions in carbon emissions. It examines the pros and cons of nuclear and its ultimate role in helping to reduce global carbon emissions.

Paper prepared for the Environmental Studies Senior Seminar.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. David Kitchen

Assessing Woody Species In The Philadelphia Urban Forest: Foraging Potential Versus Actual Practices, Sarah Becker

Environment and Sustainability Presentations

No abstract provided.

British Government Information Resources, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Creative Materials

Provides an overview of British Government information resources. Contents include basic British economic and political background and information from British Government websites including the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Brexit related material produced by British government agencies such as the Department for Exiting the European Union,, the Ministry of Defence, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the Home Office Visas and Immigration Section, the Office of National Statistics, Her Majesty's Treasury, the British Parliament including parliamentary committees and research agencies, the website of Member of Parliament (MP) Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative-North East Somerset), a webcast of House …

Creating Low-Carbon Communities: Evaluating The Role Of Individual Agency And Systemic Inequality In San Jose, Ca, Erin Jessica Ronald

Helene Lafrance Library Undergraduate Research Award

Following a scholarly need to test compelling community level sociodemographic representations of environmental behaviors and outcomes, a sequential mixed method approach was used to evaluate the connections of human agency and systemic inequalities with carbon footprints. Statistical analyses of the 2016 SDG San Jose Dashboard data of city blocks and 2009 - 2013 ACS survey data were supplemented with interviews with eight climate action-oriented community engagement professionals in the South Bay. Boundary limiting socioeconomic conditions for systemic inequalities and human agency, dimensions of Gidden’s Structuration model, were specified. Partially supporting structural inequality theories, socioeconomic resources, primarily, and to a lesser …

Foundation For Measuring Community Sustainability, Pamela A. Mischen, George C. Homsy, Carl P. Lipo, Robert Holahan, Valerie Imbruce, Andreas Pape, Joe Graney, Ziang Zhang, Louisa M. Holmes, Manuel Reina

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

In order to understand the impact of individual communities on global sustainability, we need a community sustainability assessment system (CSAS). While many sustainability assessment systems exist, they prove inadequate to the task. This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on existing sustainability assessment systems; offers a definition of a sustainable community; provides a multi-scale, systems approach to thinking about community; and makes recommendations from the field of performance measurement for the construction of a CSAS.

Reduced-Impact Logging For Climate Change Mitigation (Ril-C) Can Halve Selective Logging Emissions From Tropical Forests, Anand Roopsind

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Selective logging causes at least half of the emissions from tropical forest degradation. Reduced-impact logging for climate (RIL-C) is proposed as a way to maintain timber production while minimizing forest damage. Here we synthesize data from 61 coordinated field-based surveys of logging impacts in seven countries across the tropics. We estimate that tropical selective logging emitted 834 Tg CO₂ in 2015, 6% of total tropical greenhouse gas emissions. Felling, hauling, and skidding caused 59%, 31%, and 10% of these emissions, respectively. We suggest that RIL-C incentive programs consider a feasible target carbon impact factor of 2.3 Mg emitted per …

Fostering University Collaboration And Building Capacity To Respond To Coastal Resilience Challenges In Virginia: Findings From The Rotating Resilience Roundtables Workshop Spring 2019, Wie Yusuf, Michelle Covi, Anamaria Bukvic, Tom Allen, Taiwo Oguntuyo

Presentations, Lectures, Posters, Reports

[from Background and Overview]

Communities in coastal Virginia, particularly in the urban region of Hampton Roads and the rural Eastern Shore peninsula, are experiencing the impacts of climate change as part of everyday life. Among the most apparent impacts are sea level rise and associated flooding, but increasingly residents of the region are observing changing ecosystems, health impacts and complex social challenges are made more difficult. The region is experiencing the fastest rate of relative sea level rise on the U.S. east coast due to interactions between ocean currents, global sea level rise, high-water tables and ground subsidence (Adapt Virginia …

Warhols Wake, Tiffany Gilliam

Communication Theses

The world of visual art has devolved into a commercial enterprise. Part of the decline in visual art arises from artist' surrender to media environment influence, as an exploration of the life and work of noteworthy artist Andy Warhol reveals. This study terms such artist surrender Warhols Wake and elucidates its features. However, by examining, through an interpretive biographic method, the life and work of 4 other artists who responded to media environment influence differently, we gain insight into how creative consciousness can gainfully resist Warhols Wake, in a move that Marshall McLuhan calls "anti-environmental."

The Social Dynamics Of Protected Area Centered Ecosystems, Ryan Tarver

Student Research Symposium

In the United States many of these protected areas have been designated as national parks and are managed by the National Parks Service. The jurisdictional boundaries of National Parks rarely cover an entire ecosystem. Therefore, the activities that take place beyond the park boundaries must be considered when trying to understand the ecosystem at a landscape scale. Furthermore, when it comes to land stewardship, it is important to realize the social dynamics that influence the larger protected area centered ecosystem (PACE). A PACE includes various public agencies and private land owners that make up a management mosaic. Land management jurisdictions …

The Role Of Tourism Impacts On Cultural Ecosystem Services, B. Derrick Taff, Jacob Benfield, Zachary D. Miller, Ashley D'Antonio, Forrest Schwartz

Environment and Society Student Research

Parks and protected areas are recognized for the important ecosystem services, or benefits, they provide society. One emerging but understudied component is the cultural ecosystem services that parks and protected areas provide. These cultural ecosystem services include a variety of benefits, such as cultural heritage, spiritual value, recreation opportunities, and human health and well-being. However, many of these services can only be provided if people visit these parks and protected areas through tourism opportunities. However, with this tourism use comes a variety of inevitable resource impacts. This current research connects potential impacts from tourism in parks and protected areas to …

‘‘Can You Take The Heat?’’ Heat-Induced Health Symptoms Are Associated With Protective Behaviors, Emily D. Esplin, Jennifer R. Marlon, Anthony Leiserowitz, Peter D. Howe

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The risks associated with extreme heat are increasing as heat waves become more frequent and severe across larger areas. As people begin to experience heat waves more often and in more places, how will individuals respond? Measuring experience with heat simply as exposure to extreme temperatures may not fully capture how people subjectively experience those temperatures or their varied impacts on human health. These impacts may also influence an individual’s response to heat and motivate risk-reduction behaviors. If subjectively experiencing negative health effects from extreme heat promotes protective actions, these effects could be used alongside temperature exposure to more accurately …

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 …

Đổi Mới Diy: Tactical Ruralism And Tangible Modeling In The Mekong Delta, Phillip Fernberg

LSU Master's Theses

In recent years, the integrity of the Mekong Delta has been put at risk by a combination of environmental and institutional factors. Understanding that the degradation of the Delta would have far-reaching socioeconomic implications for both Vietnam and the Indochinese Peninsula, The World Bank has responded to the situation by implementing initiatives for climate-smart planning tools and improved water management practices throughout the lower Mekong basin. Seeing the potential for tangible modeling as a participatory planning tool, the Bank has hired a team of consultants from Louisiana State University to introduce a methodology called Tangible Landscape to its climate resilience …

Preventing Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis In Salmonid Fish Along The Columbia River Basin, Whitney L. Wright

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV) is a member of the Rhabdoviridae family and causes infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) disease in many salmonid species during the juvenile or “fry” stage of life. IHNV is endemic to Western North America and occurs in the Columbia River Basin, where Steelhead and Chinook salmon are the most abundant IHNV-vulnerable species. IHNV can cause an epidemic in wild or farmed stocks, killing 90-95 percent of the fish it infects. Transmission is currently understood to occur by direct exposure through the gills, and the virus is shed typically from asymptomatic or clinically ill carrier adults at …

The Dollar Is Green, And American Banks Should Be Too; Clean Energy Finance And Its Circulation Through Green Banks, Erin C. Moore

Honors College Theses

The earth is at risk for irreversible damage if the carbon footprint of humans is not drastically reduced immediately. The power of financial institutions to initiate change has been utilized by countries around the world against climate change. Financial systems known as green banks mitigate the risks associated with financing environmental projects. Through an examination of the financial performance of major green banks in the United States and the green energy superpowers, the paper discovers Green Banking is not only socially responsible by supporting a clean environment, but also produces a profitable fiscal environment. In this paper, I will explore …

Climate Services Can Support African Farmers' Context-Specific Adaptation Needs At Scale, James Hansen, Catherine Vaughan, Desire Kagabo, Tufa Dinku, Edward Carr, Jana Körner, Robert Zougmoré

Sustainability and Social Justice

We consider the question of what is needed for climate services to support sub-Saharan African farmers' adaptation needs at the scale of the climate challenge. Consistent with an earlier assessment that mutually reinforcing supply-side and demand-side capacity constraints impede the development of effective climate services in Africa, our discussion of strategies for scaling up practices that meet farmers' needs, and opportunities to address long-standing obstacles, is organized around: (a) meeting farmers' climate information needs; (b) supporting access, understanding and use; and (c) co-production of services. A widespread gap between available information and farmers' needs is associated with entrenched seasonal forecast …

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