Geography Commons^™

Kompa As A Lesson In Value Or A Semi-Voyeristic Appreciation Of The Bamboo Basket In Dolpa, Maxwell Shaw-Jones

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This “study” explores two central topics: 1.) The logistics and details of basket weaving as both a skill and a business in Dolpa and 2.) The cultural value of the woven bamboo basket, also in Dolpa. My fieldwork started in lower Dolpa, (Dunai and Bysagar), peregrinated north into the Tarap Valley, and then returned back down to Dunai. From my research I attempt to provide an insight into the way people, of all walks of life in Dolpa, think and relate to this tool (kompa), and then attempt to derive larger moral implications from what I have observed. …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2011-2015 Summary Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Christopher J. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Program and Fire Effects Program have been monitoring vegetation in Agate Fossil Beds National Monument for over 18 years. While methods have changed slightly, this report summarizes data from over 80 locations from 1998-2015. We use these data to explore status and trends in upland and riparian plant communities, the occurrence of rare plants, and the effects of the Fossil Hills trail installation on the surrounding vegetation. A summary of the current condition (2011-2015) and trends (based on 1998-2015) in plant communities at Agate Fossil Beds NM (AGFO) is found in …

They Come Like The Clouds: Governing The Mountainous Periphery, Jared Sousa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper addresses the extension of governmental power into the mountainous periphery of the village of Dho Tarap in the Dolpa District of Nepal. New technologies, new markets, and new social dynamics are penetrating the Himalaya and reshaping the connections that mountain people have to the outside world. In this context of connectivity and modernity, the people of Dho Tarap are also being thrust into far closer proximity to the Nepali government. After a series of geopolitical moves in Nepal and China in the 1960s, Dho Tarap as part of an isolated border region has been a part of a …

Balancing The Local And The Global: Understanding Alternative Education In Modern Ladakh, Hannah Ryde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For nearly thirty years, the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) has addressed the shortcomings of the education system in Ladakh (la dwags), a mountainous region under the rain-shadow of the Himalayan Range in Jammu and Kashmir State of Northern India, through education reform in government schools and the creation of alternative education programs. These programs attempt to support students who have failed in, and been failed by, the Ladakhi government education system and are designed to fill in gaps in the curricula of mainstream schools through supplemental academics and skill-based learning, while simultaneously building confidence …

Carbon, Cookstoves, And Kitchens: Case Studies Of Fuelwood Use And The Potential For Ethanol Substitutability In Rural India, Vietnam, And Tanzania, Monica V. Ogra, Alyssa L. Bosold, Jessie M. Pierce, Quinn M. Heist

Environmental Studies Student Conference Presentations

Fuelwood constitutes the primary domestic cooking fuel in many rural communities throughout the Global South. Unsustainable levels of fuelwood consumption, however, contribute not only to local forest degradation but also to global climate change through the release of black carbon and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Moreover, as a driver of indoor air pollution, it also negatively affects human health. Indoor air pollution linked to cooking smoke is among the leading causes of preventable respiratory disease, and negatively impacts women and children through disproportionate and repeated exposure. While many "cleaner" and "more efficient" alternate stove designs have been developed for …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2011-2015 Summary Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Christopher J. Davis

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Program and Fire Effects Program have been monitoring vegetation in Scotts Bluff National Monument for over 18 years. While methods have changed slightly, this report summarizes data from over 80 locations from 1998-2015. Below, we list the questions we asked using these data and provide a summarized answer. For more details see the full report. A summary of the current condition (2011-2015) and trends (based on 1988-2015) in plant communities at Scotts Bluff is found in Table ES-1.

1. What is the current status of plant community composition and structure of …

Air Quality Related Values (Aqrvs) For Northern Great Plains Network (Ngpn) Parks, Effects From Ozone; Visibility Reducing Particles; And Atmospheric Deposition Of Acids, Nutrients And Toxics, Timothy J. Sullivan

United States National Park Service: Publications

Summary

This report describes the Air Quality Related Values (AQRVs) of the Northern Great Plains Network (NGPN). AQRVs are those resources sensitive to air quality and include streams, lakes, soils, vegetation, fish and wildlife, and visibility. This report also describes air pollutant emissions and air quality in NGPN, and their effects on AQRVs. The primary pollutants likely to affect AQRVs include nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) compounds (nitrate [NO₃^-], ammonium [NH₄⁺], and sulfate [SO₄^2-]); ground-level ozone (O₃); haze-causing particles; and airborne toxics.

The 13 parks that are included in …

Park Management Gis Intern In New York City Department Of Park & Recreation, Dongjun Zhou 3125032

Sustainability and Social Justice

My park management GIS internship with New York City Department of Parks & Recreation took place during June and August 2015, where I primarily worked under the guidance of Terese Flores, the park manager for the borough of Manhattan. My internship responsibility was assisting the Park Manager with park improvement project that primarily involved asset mapping for park properties, field data collecting and entry, budget devising as well as park staff coordinating. According to the requirement of GISDE program at Clark University, the content of this report mainly covers three aspects of this internship: the introduction for the mission and …

Spatial Engagement With Poetry By Heather H. Yeung, Deborah C. Bowen

The Goose

Review of Spatial Engagement with Poetry by Heather H. Yeung.

The Conflicts Of Coexistence: Contested Meanings Of Carnivore Management And Conservation In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Hannah F. Jaicks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) encompasses urbanizing areas adjacent to essential conservation habitat with an inimitable capacity to support carnivore populations, including grizzly bears, wolves, and cougars. This geography has resulted in divisive social conflicts about these animals’ management as well as physical conflicts when they come into contact with people over the course of daily life in the region. Employing a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews, participant observation, wilderness treks, and archival work, this study examines the context, social processes, and decision-making processes that underlie the predator conflicts and produce management challenges in the GYE. This approach integrates theory …

Millets From The Margins: Value, Knowledge And The Subaltern Practice Of Biodiversity In Uttarakhand, India, Priya R. Chandrasekaran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Millets from the Margins: Value, Knowledge and the Subaltern Practice of Biodiversity in Uttarakhand, India analyzes what is at stake for small-scale, predominantly women, farmers as local varieties of rainfed food grains such as finger millet are being newly commodified and valued as a biodiversity resource. With support from a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, I conducted seventeen months of ethnographic research with farmers, activists, scientists, NGO leaders, government officials, transnational functionaries and agribusiness representatives in segregated yet interconnected realms ranging from a village in the Himalayan foothills to transnational institutions in Rome.

This work demonstrates …

The Late Prehistoric Of The East Fork Of The Trinity River, Wilson W. Crook Iii, Mark D. Hughston

CRHR Research Reports

Over the last 42 years, the authors have studied in detail the sites and archeological remains ascribed to the Late Prehistoric period of the East Fork of the Trinity River and its tributaries. This includes 20 major sites and a larger number of smaller campsites that occur within a 75 km by 15 km north-south corridor from Collin County in the north to northwestern Kaufman County in the south. As part of this study, we have accessed and examined all known extant collections from previous investigations with a combined artifact assemblage of nearly 32,000 specimens. In addition, we obtained access …

Turning On The Lights: Transcending Energy Poverty Through The Power Of Women Entrepreneurs, Leslie C. Gray, Alaina Boyle, Victoria Yu

Miller Center Fellowship

Solar lanterns offer affordable, high-quality lighting in developing countries. A number of organizations, including social enterprises, make solar lanterns available to rural households as an alternative to candles or kerosene lamps. One of the most successful of these organizations is Solar Sister.

Solar Sister, a social enterprise operating in Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria, is dedicated to eradicating energy poverty through the economic empowerment of women. In addition to economically empowering its women entrepreneurs, the business model of Solar Sister also cultivates sales networks built on trust in last-mile distribution methods.

While Solar Sister has previously conducted research regarding its many …

The Upper Peninsula As It Was: What The Europeans Encountered, Robert Archibald

Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region

This essay establishes a baseline for measuring environmental change caused by the influx of Europeans beginning in the seventeenth century. In it the author describes the natural forces including volcanism, sedimentation, geologic metamorphism, and glaciation as natural forces that shaped the landscape of the Upper Peninsula and created deposits of minerals. He uses survey notes, travel accounts and journals to describe flora and fauna prior to large-scale commercial exploitation

Late Holocene Expansion Of Ponderosa Pine (Pinus Ponderosa) In The Central Rocky Mountains, Usa, Jodi R. Norris, Julio L. Betancourt, Stephen T. Jackson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Aim: Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) experienced one of the most extensive and rapid post-glacial plant migrations in western North America. We used plant macrofossils from woodrat (Neotoma) middens to reconstruct its spread in the Central Rocky Mountains, identify other vegetation changes coinciding with P. ponderosa expansion at the same sites, and relate P. ponderosa migrational history to both its modern phylogeography and to a parallel expansion by Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma).

Location: Central Rocky Mountains, Wyoming and Montana, and Black Hills, Wyoming and South Dakota, USA.

Methods: Plant macrofossils were analysed in …

40 Trees: The Quest To Save Whitebark Pine On The Flathead Indian Reservation, Andrew S. Graham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

When it comes to managing natural resources in the face of global climate change, sometimes localized action is best. Rick Everett spent a lot of time in western forests - first as a ski patroller and logger and then as an ecologist - before landing as a professor at a tribal community college on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Now he faces a challenging new question: How do you save a tree species that is ecologically valuable to the forest and culturally valuable to Native American tribes, but is being pushed toward extinction by forces varied, deadly and driven by climate …

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall, Travis W. Reynolds

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …

Missing The Trees For The Forest: The Socioecological Significance Of Dispersed Farmland Trees In Northern Ethiopia, Jacob A. Wall

Honors Theses

Scattered trees are prominent features in the agricultural landscape of the Ethiopian highlands. The dry Afromontane forests of the Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia have faced centuries of deforestation - the FAO estimates only 3% of the region is forested today. The remaining landscape has been largely converted into agricultural and grazing lands, with the exception of some limited government-protected lands, as well as thousands of small forest fragments left around Orthodox Churches (“church forests”). But while a growing body of scholarship has highlighted the ecological and cultural importance of church forests and other natural forest fragments, the roles of …

3d Tool Evaluation And Workflow For An Ecological Approach To Visualizing Ancient Socio-Environmental Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Shona Sanford-Long, Jack Kerby-Miller

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Architectural reconstructions are the centerpieces of ancient landscape visualization. When present, vegetation is relegated to the background, resulting in underutilized plant data—an integral data source for archaeological interpretation—thus limiting the capacity to take advantage of 3D visualization for studying ancient socio-environmental dynamics. Our long-term objective is to develop methods of 3D landscape visualization that have value for examining changes in land use and settlement patterns. To begin to work toward this objective, we have (1) identified 3D tools and techniques for vegetation modeling and landscape visualization, (2) evaluated the pros and cons of these tools, (3) investigated biological and ecological …

Sustainable Safari Practices: Proximity To Wildlife, Educational Intervention And The Quality Of Experience, Ryan Devine Tarver

All Master's Theses

This research examines the perceived quality of experience for safari tourists in relation to wildlife viewing proximities and the potential of educational interventions as a management strategy to mitigate adverse impacts of safari participant crowding. Crowding emanates from the safari tourist preferences to obtain close proximity to animals, particularly large mammals. Recognizing these preferences and associated impacts to animal behavior defined in previous research, we develop and deliver a survey instrument designed to measure the perceived quality of experience of the safari tourist while controlling for the viewing proximity variable. The survey instrument involves responding to stock photos selected to …

Ballot-Box Environmentalism Across The Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand For Environmental Public Goods, William Skyler Lewis

Pomona Senior Theses

In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, …

Assessing Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions In European Medium And Large Cities: Methodological Considerations, Peter Marcotullio, Andrea Sarzynski, Jochen Albrecht, Niels Schulz, Jake Garcia

Publications and Research

Policymakers need clear, consistent, and reliable information about the location of greenhouse gases and drivers of emitting activity in order to design appropriate mitigating strategies. At the urban scale, there have been challenges in developing consistent and reliable emissions inventories. This chapter examines selected methods to determine greenhouse gas emissions at the urban scale. We describe the various criteria considered when constructing an urban greenhouse gas protocol including the definition of urban, the gasses that are measured, the source they come from, the scope of analysis and how the measurements are undertaken. We then present results for European medium and …

All’S Whale That Ends Whale: How Correctly Identifying Antarctic-Feeding Grounds Of Oceania Humpbacks Could Save An Endangered Population, Davey Holmes

Pomona Senior Theses

Although major whaling practices have ceased, increasing human involvement and influence in the world’s marine ecosystems continue to adversely effect global whale populations. It is a major concern throughout Antarctic waters, where endangered Oceania Humpback Whales (Megaptera novarangliae) annually feed. This study analyzes the extent to which a proposed marine protected area within the Ross Sea may indirectly harm the last remaining endangered population of Humpbacks. Using current satellite tracks of southern Humpback migrations, this model maps the effects of displaced Toothfish fisheries, and suggests further conservations efforts, based on New Zealand’s Precautionary Approach, to protect these vulnerable whales.

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (Mcda) For Agricultural Sustainability Assessment, Byomkesh Talukder

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Multi Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and Elimination methods of Multi-Criteria Decision analysis (MCDA) are tested to assess and compare the sustainability of different agricultural systems. Indicators and composite indicators are derived from data gathered using the agricultural sustainability categories of Productivity, Stability, Efficiency, Durability, Compatibility and Equity (PSEDCE).

Agricultural systems around the world face challenges from current agricultural practices, over-exploitation of natural resources, population growth and climate change. As a result, understanding agricultural sustainability has become a global issue. Assessment is a first step in benchmarking and tracking agricultural sustainability and …

Understanding The Influencers Of Second-Hand Apparel Shopping Behavior, Robyn Hobbs

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Shopping for second-hand apparel is rapidly growing and has become a notable segment of the retail market. The purpose of this study is to determine what influences consumers when shopping second-hand for apparel products in-store and online. According to the existing literature, a number of key factors play significant roles for second-hand apparel shopping consumer decisions. They include: social, costs, trends and environmental influencers. Past research has not concentrated in-depth on the hedonistic and social influences of second-hand apparel shopping, financial factors, and time spent shopping for second-hand apparel. This study has observed the socio-demographic profile of second-hand shoppers, what …

Which Came First, People Or Pollution? A Review Of Theory And Evidence From Longitudinal Environmental Justice Studies, Paul Mohai, Robin Saha

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

A considerable number of quantitative analyses have been conducted in the past several decades that demonstrate the existence of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the distribution of a wide variety of environmental hazards. The vast majority of these have been cross-sectional, snapshot studies employing data on hazardous facilities and population characteristics at only one point in time. Although some limited hypotheses can be tested with cross-sectional data, fully understanding how present-day disparities come about requires longitudinal analyses that examine the demographic characteristics of sites at the time of facility siting and track demographic changes after siting. Relatively few such studies …

Art Education In My Backyard: Creative Placemaking On An Urban Farm, Jodi Kushins

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

An art educator describes how she used her knowledge and experience of artistic and educational initiatives that forefront collective activity in real world settings to transform her backyard into an urban farm with the help of friends and neighbors. She combines an autoethnographic account of her experiences, including original photographs, with research on conceptual artists, participatory culture, and creative placemaking to position her work as participatory environmental art education. The paper is organized around the major steps one undertakes in planting a garden – siting, amending, seeding, tending, and harvesting - to draw parallels between the processes of maintaining a …

Prescribed Fire Monitoring Report, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve 2014 (Iqcs Fire Number 285382, 285383, 266782, 285677), Sherry A. Leis, Sarah E. Hinman

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

In 2014, the preserve’s federal and NGO partners conducted prescribed fires during March, April, and October that encompassed 8129.8 acres of Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR). This was a unique burn year in that prescribed burns occurred in the spring, the traditional burn season, and the fall. Fall burns were conducted to support needed archaeological surveys as part of the environmental compliance for a symphony event scheduled for June 2015 at the preserve. Burns at TAPR were coordinated with local US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and various units of the National Park Service.

Burns …

Delta Narratives: Saving The Historical And Cultural Heritage Of The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Steve Boilard, Robert Benedetti, Margit Aramburu, Gregg Camfield, Philip Garone, Jennifer Helzer, Reuben Smith, William Swagerty, Marcia Eymann, Tod Ruhstaller, David Stuart, Leigh Johnsen, Dylan Mcdonald, Michael J. Wurtz, Blake Roberts, Margo Lentz-Meyer

College of the Pacific Faculty Reports

From August 2014 through July 2015, the Delta Narratives project, on contract to the Delta Protection Commission, addressed two questions. First, in what ways does the historical experience of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta contribute to an understanding of key themes in regional and American history? Second, how might Delta stories gain wider appreciation within the region, throughout Northern California, and among people in the rest of California and beyond?

Scholars on the project team documented ways the history of the Delta illustrates trends in land management and reclamation, technological shifts in transportation and agriculture, the impact of ethnicity and labor …

Review Of Developing Quantitative Literacy Skills In History And The Social Sciences: A Web-Based Common Core Approach By Kathleen W. Craver, Victor J. Ricchezza, H L. Vacher

Numeracy

Kathleen W. Craver. Developing Quantitative Literacy Skills in History and Social Sciences: A Web-Based Common Core Standards Approach (Lantham MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., 2014). 191 pp.
ISBN 978-1-4758-1050-9 (cloth); ISBN …-1051-6 (pbk); ISBN…-1052-3 (electronic).

This book could be a breakthrough for teachers in the trenches who are interested in or need to know about quantitative literacy (QL). It is a resource providing 85 topical pieces, averaging 1.5 pages, in which a featured Web site is presented, described, and accompanied by 2-4 critical-thinking questions purposefully drawing on data from the Web site. The featured Web sites range from …