Environmental Studies Commons^™

Morrison Soundscape, Ellie Morrison

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

I am staying in an apartment in the Museum District of Philadelphia, so I went to the courtyard in the middle of the property. I took some snacks with me, took the elevator to the ground floor, then walked outside and chose a white Adirondack chair in the middle of the grass. Being in a big city, I heard much more man-made, urban sounds than I did clean, natural sounds.

The first thing I noticed was the low, almost throaty, rumble of motorcycles on the freeway not even 200 yards away. It came in non-metrical bursts for the first minute …

Leszczynski Soundscape, Joseph Leszczynski

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

Sitting outside of the Fisher Student Center, on black lacquered chairs, was the location of my soundscape experience. Being outside and an epicenter of activity, the amount of noise there was abundant. I was still outdoors, thus explaining the neutral noise of the environment. Some of the natural, non-human sounds I heard were from insects. A distinct, crescendo buzz came from above in the trees. The timbre was brash, like a trumpet that hit a high pitch note with vibrato. In addition, there were occasions where dried leaves would hit the ground from falling off a branch. This noise was …

Donlan Soundscape, Christopher Donlan

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

To capture the soundscape, I spent some time on the patio behind my apartment building and was able to identify a number of sounds, both natural and manmade. The location I was at sits right along the Blackstone River however, so the sound of the running water generates lots of white noise. While not changing in rhythm or pitch, the water produced a smooth and subtle tone that slightly masks the other sounds.

The most prominent sound I heard was the chirping from crickets. Their sound has a very fast paced rhythm that occurs in a steady pattern, however the …

A Typical Afternoon In The Hustling Streets Of Mumbai, Ishan Mehta

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

This soundscape activity is going to give you an experience of a typical afternoon in the hustling streets of Mumbai. I live on the 18^th floor of an apartment building in a suburb called Versova. One may think that staying at a higher floor would mean that there would be less sound, but in reality sound travels up through the building and you can hear everything. Since I could not go out of the house I walked around in my balcony which faces the ocean and right under is the main street, this is what I could hear. As …

Quarantine Adventures, Sarah Ragnauth

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

“Quarantine Adventures'' is a museum made entirely out of objects brought back from travels abroad…. before Corona hit. The pieces are from the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jordan, and Istanbul. The museum is broken up into two main parts. The first part contains pieces that were brought back from the Caribbean, while the second part features work from the Middle East. Each piece has a different story to tell.

The mission of this museum is to provide a little sunshine during this dark time. Being quarantined …

The Choata Mandir Museum - Lord Buddha, Ryan Kilcoyne

Bryant University Undergraduate Journal

The mission of The Choata Mandir Museum is to embrace the aesthetic quality in Hindu art while bringing peace an offering to anyone who visits. We respect the viewpoints of all religions while guiding artistic appreciation through Hindu religion.

“Lord Buddha is a prince, and he was my favorite prince to worship when I was a child. Buddha is one of the most famous lords in the world, even in common American culture.

My sisters and I would follow the many teaching of Buddha and take time in our daily life to reflect with Buddha to become better Hindus. I …

Information Perception And Climate Change Adaptation, Ji Won Sung

Undergraduate Economic Review

Despite 97% of scientists believing that climate change is occurring, a far smaller proportion of ordinary citizens agree with this statement and the proportion of those who do greatly diverge by political affiliation. This paper lays out a dynamic information updating model with adaptation choice as the final outcome, linking information perception, belief perception, and behavioral implementation. Furthermore, this paper examines how various behavioral and environmental factors affect the agent’s adaptation choices by means of such cognitive processes. This research has implications for further research on climate change preference formation and effective communication strategies, such as informative or normative nudges.

A New Agent-Based Model Provides Insight Into Assumptions In Modeling Forest Management Under Deep Uncertainty, Garry Sotnik, Robert M. Scheller, Brooke Alyce Cassell, Matthew Joshua Duveneck

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Context: Exploratory modeling in forestry uses a variety of approaches to study forest management questions. One key assumption that every approach makes is about the degree of deep uncertainty—the lack of knowledge required for making an informed decision—that future forest managers will face. This assumption can strongly influence simulation results and the conclusions drawn from them, but is rarely studied.

Objectives: Our objective was to measure the degree of deep uncertainty within a forest management simulation to compare alternative modeling approaches and improve understanding of when a specific approach should be applied. Methods We first developed a method for measuring …

University Role In Developing The Environmental Awareness Among Najran University Students, Muhammad Yahya Hussein Al-Maafa

Journal of the Association of Arab Universities for Research in Higher Education مجلة اتحاد الجامعات العربية للبحوث في التعليم العالي

The present study aimed to identify students' environmental awareness level and the role of Najran University in developing it. The descriptive analytical approach was used. The sample consisted of (560) students about (34%) of the study population who were all studying at varied colleges at Najran University. Moreover, a scale of (30) items distributed to four main aspects for the environmental awareness was developed. In addition, a questionnaire of (20) items about the university role in developing students' environmental awareness was developed and applied to participants. Results indicated that the level of university students' environmental awareness was low in each …

The Feasibility Of Renewable Natural Gas In New Jersey, Anneliese Dyer, Amelia Christine Miller, Brianna Chandra, Juan Galindo Maza, Carley Tran, Justin Bates, Vicky Olivier, Amy Tuininga

PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies Publications

With traditional natural gas being one of the top options for heating in the United States and the present threat of climate change, there is a demand for an alternative clean fuel source. A Renewable Natural Gas Implementation Decision-Making Conceptual Model was created to provide a framework for considering the feasibility of renewable natural gas (RNG) projects and applied to New Jersey, specifically investigating landfills and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Data from the US EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program and New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection Sewage Sludge databases were used to identify seven landfills and 22 WWTPs as possible …

The Lodge In The Wilderness: Ecologies Of Contemplation In British Romantic Poetry, Sean M. Nolan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that contemplation is often overlooked in studies of British Romantic poetry. By the late 1700s, changing commercial and agricultural practices, industrialism, secularization, and utilitarianism emphasizing industriousness coalesced to uproot established discourses of selfhood and leisure, and effected crises of individuation in Romantic poetry and poetics. Closely reading poems and writing about poetry composed between the 1780s and 1830s by William Cowper, George Crabbe, Robert Bloomfield, Charlotte Smith, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Stuart Mill, I probe the relationship between aesthetic, ethical, and emotional responses to depictions of toil, idleness, and leisure. I argue that ecologies …

The Material Culture Of Temperature: Measurement, Capital And Semiotics, Scott W. Schwartz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Temperature was invented in the 17th century. While cosmologists affirm that fluctuations in heat are as old as the universe, the intensive quantified scale marking these fluctuations has a relatively short history. This dissertation analyzes why temperature developed when it did and what temperature does for and to its users. I demonstrate that the ubiquitous and quotidian epistemological artifact temperature epitomizes capitalized methods of seeing, measuring, and knowing. At its broadest, the concern of this dissertation is the material culture of knowledge production among capitalizing populations—those that believe in and practice the perpetually accelerating asymmetrical growth of wealth.

In this …

Protocol For Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates Of Small Streams In The Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network, Version 2.1, David E. Bowles, Michael H. Williams, Hope R. Dodd, Lloyd W. Morrison, Janice A. Hinsey, J. Tyler Cribbs, Gareth A. Rowell, Michael D. Debecker, Jennifer L. Haack-Gaynor, Jeffrey M. Williams

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) is a component of the National Park Service’s (NPS) strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. The purposes of this program are to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring and provide information for park managers to evaluate the integrity of park ecosystems and better understand ecosystem processes. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of various monitoring approaches to assess stream water quality. Freshwater streams in network parks are threatened by numerous stressors, most of which originate outside park boundaries. Stream condition and …

Cultivating Historic Farms: A Study Of Late-Nineteenth Century Maryland Farms, Sarah N. Janesko

Northeast Historical Archaeology

This study examines late-19th century farmsteads in Anne Arundel County, Maryland to measure and explain changes in agriculture and the effect of farming strategies on the local landscape. Agricultural census data from 1850–1880 in the county’s First Election District are used to measure significant changes in crop production after the Civil War. From this local level analysis, one farmstead is analyzed to understand those agricultural changes at the household level. Results from exploratory statistics, two-sided independent t tests, and one-way analysis of variances demonstrate that mean production of tobacco, wheat, and corn decreased significantly in the decades after the Civil …

Wastewater Testing Shows That Pharmaceutical And Illicit Drug Use Are Higher In Places Where Covid-19 Is More Prevalent, Kerrie Marshall, Arik Palileo, Eric Schiff, Teng Zeng

Population Health Research Brief Series

Wastewater testing shows that pharmaceutical and illicit drug use are higher in places were COVID-19 is more prevalent.

Madurese Fishing Community Cultural Perception Of Coastal Litter, Habibi Habibi, I Gusti Putu Suryadarma, Insih Wilujeng

The Qualitative Report

Piles of litter on the beach polluting the sea have become one of the global problems at this time. Indonesia is an archipelago country whose coastline is inhabited by tribes who have been living as fishermen for hundreds of years. Therefore, it is important to understand what the cultural perception of the fishing community is regarding the litter problem. This study aimed to figure out the perception of the fishing community in Madurese culture regarding the litter on the beach. By adhering to the phenomenological paradigm, the researchers chose four fishing families in Madura, conducted semi-structured interviews and observations, as …

Eggs, Hair, Seeds, Milk, Patrick West

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

Short story

After Rain, Louise Boscacci

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

Amidst climate chaos, words gather as a tipping point in after-affect. On January 4, 2020, the massive Currowan bushfire in New South Wales crossed the Shoalhaven River and raced into the Wingecarribee district of the Illawarra region south of Sydney. After two weeks of emergency warnings, a new preternatural “catastrophic” danger rating, watch and act alerts, and heatwave temperatures, the fire front arrived on a blunt southerly gale in the evening. Climate breakdown had delivered locally and personally. The next day, light rain, more drizzle than shower, visited the home fireground.

Looking For Marianne North, John Charles Ryan

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

This poem reflects on the life of peripatetic botanical illustrator Marianne North (1830-1890) who travelled to Southwest Australia in 1880.

Critically Imagining A Decolonised Vision In Australian Poetry, Cassandra Julie O'Loughlin

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

Postmodern ecocriticism, given its broad range of perspectives, offers an agreeable platform for articulating a new, advanced and inclusive framework for a decolonising theorisation of literature and the environment. This article seeks to identify Australian Western decolonising poetry that sits in harmony with Indigenous aural and literary versions of communicative engagement with Country. The concept of human embeddedness in ecological relationships and biological processes as part of a complex matrix of interdependent things is embraced. In particular this article focuses on inclusivity and interconnectedness of all life forms to illustrate aesthetic and conceptual interfaces between Aboriginal Australia and Western poetics. …

Issue Introduction Volume 10, David Gray

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

Issue Introduction and Editorial for Volume 10, Issue 1.

Complete Issue 1, Volume 10, David Gray

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

Complete Issue 1, Volume 10

Exposing Nuclear Power Plants, Sophia Austin

Copley Library Undergraduate Research Awards

This paper will begin by outlining the eco-justice topic of nuclear power and its resulting nuclear waste, and then move on to examining and making claims about the justice (distributive, procedural, and recognition-based), evidence, and process behind the development and decommissioning of these plants. Through this, we will discover historical and present ties to racism - especially as we explore the relationship between nuclear power and the white racial frame, resulting in the objectification, oppression, and suppression of the voices of Indigenous communities and people of color throughout history and into the present moment. After addressing and reflecting on many …

The Impacts Of Small Business, Sandra Ataalla

Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

No abstract provided.

Cultural Resources Investigation Report Of The Proposed City Of Jefferson 48-Inch Rcp (Pipeline) Drainage Improvements Along Valve Street In Marion County, Texas, James S. Belew, Michael Ryan

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Sphere 3 Environmental, Inc. (Sphere 3) conducted an intensive pedestrian cultural resources survey of approximately 0.12 hectares (0.29 acres) of land designated as the Project Area/Area of Potential Effects on September 16 and 17, 2020, in response to the proposed pipeline replacement in Jefferson, Texas. The City of Jefferson retained Sphere 3 to conduct a cultural resources survey of the proposed pipeline replacement location. The cultural resources survey was conducted to identify properties eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) or worthy of listing as a State Antiquities Landmark (SAL). A total of 12 shovel tests …

Cultural Resources Survey For The Proposed Dam No. 101 Project Within The Upper Brushy Creek Wcid, Williamson County, Texas, Steve Ahr, Patricia Hutchins, Tanya Mcdougall, Beth Reed

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

AECOM was contracted by the Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District (UBCWCID) to conduct a cultural resources survey for the proposed Dam No. 101 project, located in Williamson County, Texas. AECOM evaluated a 189-acre area of potential effects (APE), which includes the conceptual dam footprint plus a 150-foot (ft) buffer, the inundation area, and any additional areas that could be potentially affected by key construction activities. The project is bisected by O’Conner Drive on the north side of State Highway 45 and partially overlaps the existing Dam No. 9. AECOM conducted an intensive cultural resources survey within the …

The Intensive Cultural Resources Survey For The Tceq Npdes Permitted Location On The Canyon Ranch Tract Comal County, Texas, James J. Hill

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Gram Vikas Partners, Inc. (Sponsor) is proposing the development of the approximate 400-acre Canyon Ranch Tract (Project) in northwest Comal County, Texas. The Project would occur approximately eight miles northeast of Spring Branch, Texas along Farm to Market Road (FM) 306. The Project will consist of a mix of both residential and commercial properties, associated roads, utilities and a wastewater treatment facility. As part of the development, an approximate six-acre wastewater treatment facility will be constructed in the west-central portion of the Project area, approximately 0.9-mi northwest of FM 306 and County Road (CR) 401 intersection.

Under the Memorandum of …

Archaeological Monitoring For The Buena Vista Corridor Project, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, Leonard Kemp

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Between July 11, 2018, and February 28, 2020, The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Center for Archaeological Research (CAR), in response to a request from the City of San Antonio (COSA), intermittently conducted archaeological monitoring for the Buena Vista (BV) Corridor project in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. The project goal was to foster pedestrian traffic by sidewalk, lighting, and aesthetic improvements on Buena Vista Street between S. Leona and S. Santa Rosa streets. The COSA department of Transportation and Capital Improvements (TCI; now Public Works Department) administered the BV Corridor project with the COSA Office of Historic …

Intensive Archaeological Survey For Asphalt Package 2020-2 (Upin 21103n3045-30001), Harris County, Texas, Tiffany M. Lindley

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Raba Kistner, Inc. (RKI) was contracted by Harris County Engineering Department (CLIENT) to conduct archaeological investigations in support of road improvements along 5.35 miles (8.6 kilometer [km]) of existing road along House Road, Bauer Hockley Road, Becker Road, Kickapoo Road, and Badtke Road, located in northwestern Harris County, Texas. The purpose of this investigation was to identify any surface-exposed or shallowly buried cultural deposits within the limits of the proposed undertaking and, if possible, assess their significance and eligibility for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and for formal designation as State Antiquities Landmarks (SALs). As the …

Intensive Archaeological Survey For Asphalt Package 4, Precinct 3 (Upin: 21103n3044-30001), Hockley, Harris County, Texas, Adam T. Birge

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Raba Kistner, Inc. (RKI) was contracted by Harris County Engineering Department (CLIENT), to conduct archaeological investigations in support of road improvements along 7 miles of existing road along Botkins, Roberts, AJ Foyt, Nichols, and Becker Roads, located in northwest Harris County, Texas. The purpose of this investigation was to identify any surface-exposed or shallowly buried cultural deposits within the limits of the proposed undertaking and, if possible, assess their significance and eligibility for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and for formal designation as State Antiquities Landmarks (SALs). As the project will be conducted on publicly-owned land …