Geography Commons^™

Finding Nature In Your Neighborhood: A Field Mapping Protocol For Community Based Assessment Of Greenspace Access, James Bryant, Mark Cordell, Garry Deihl, Abel Gebrezgi, Tamara Layden, Thomas Arenas Marshall, Kathryn Newman, Amy Pitts-Lore, Leah Sobieck

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

The Audubon Society of Portland and PSU Capstone students developed the Greenspace Access Point Field Mapping Protocol during the summer of 2013. The protocol was developed as a tool for a community-based approach to inventorying open space access points and to generate more accurate information on open space access in the Portland-Metro region.

Understory Diversity And Succession On Coarse Woody Debris In A Coastal, Old-Growth Forest, Oregon, Shannon Lee Mcdonald

Dissertations and Theses

This research examines the relationship between understory plant diversity and logs in a Pacific Northwest (PNW) Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)-western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) old-growth, coastal forest. These forests are renowned for their high forest productivity, frequent wind storms, and slow log decomposition rates that produce unmatched accumulations of coarse woody debris (CWD) yet few studies have examined the relationship between CWD and understory vegetation ecology. My research addressed this topic by comparing understory plant census data between paired fallen log and forest floor sites (n=20 pairs). My objectives were to: 1) determine the influence of substrate type on community composition …

Mapping Human-Environment Connections On The Olympic Peninsula: An Atlas Of Landscape Values, Rebecca J. Mclain, Lee Cerveny, Diane Besser, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Stephanie Rohdy, Corinna Kimball-Brown

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 7

The advent of computerized mapping has land managers’ ability to map the biophysical services provided by forested ecosystems. However, mapping the cultural services of those systems is more challenging. Human ecology mapping (HEM), which provides spatially-explicit depictions of the complex connections between humans and their environment, is an approach that can be used to improve understandings of the cultural services associated with landscapes. This atlas provides an overview of what HEM is and draws on experiences with a pilot project on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington to illustrate what HEM data looks …

Urban Water As A Coupled System: Interactions And Feedbacks Among Climate, Land Cover, Water Governance, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation focuses on the changes in urban water systems and includes information on the relationship between water quality and property value, changes in land cover and dissolved oxygen, spatial variations of water temperature, and the need for integrative water and land planning.

Aging In Our Communities: Six Case Studies Of Neighborhood Walkability In Clackamas And Washington Counties, Oregon And Clark County, Washington, Reema Alhamidi, Edelina Naydenova, Katherine Dahlin, Jason Rush, Margarita Gonzales, Kevin Ryan, Laura Harmon, Marcel Schaeffer, Bianca Iliesi, Laura Silverman, Brady Jones, John Todoroff, Megan Mulsoff Brown, Adrian Wells

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

The focus of this project was to evaluate the age-friendliness of the communities surrounding assisted living facilities in Clark, Clackamas, and Washington counties. Two facilities were selected in each of the aforementioned counties and researchers from our team surveyed the pedestrian environmental features of the surrounding area within a quarter-mile radius of the each facility. The survey data from each site was then distributed among two groups for qualitative and quantitative analysis. Quantitative analysis consisted of a compiling process that took the measures of quantifiable features (e.g. number of sidewalk breaks, abandoned lots, etc.) gathered in the field and standardized …

Portland Region Parks: Measuring Equity In Access, Harold Shields, Sindre Fredsvik, Jonah Horn, Robert Kalei Miller, Cameron Hill, Anna Petry, Daniel Mogelinski, Stephen P. Kyle, Jenna Knobloch, Jonah Horn, Henrich Biorn, Andew Wyatt, James Bedell, Evan Kent, Adrien Young

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

The goal of this Capstone project is to examine equity as it applies to the Portland region. CLF defines equity as “the right of every person to have access to opportunities necessary for satisfying essential needs and advancing their well-being” (CLF, 2007). Equity as it relates to parks is a difficult concept to define. Our project specifically focused on cataloging the amenities of ninety-three newly developed parks and making observations about park access in an effort to build a better picture of what equity looks like in the Portland region.

Making Sense Of Human Ecology Mapping: An Overview Of Approaches To Integrating Socio-Spatial Data Into Environmental Planning, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe, Kelly Biedenweg, Lee Cerveny, Diane Besser, Dale Blahna

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Ecosystem-based planning and management have stimulated the need to gather sociocultural values and human uses of land in formats accessible to diverse planners and researchers. Human Ecology Mapping (HEM) approaches offer promising spatial data gathering and analytical tools, while also addressing important questions about human-landscape connections. This article reviews and compares the characteristics of three HEM approaches that are increasingly used in natural resource management contexts, each focused on a particular aspect of human-environmental interactions. These aspects include tenure and resource use (TRU), local ecological knowledge (LEK), and sense of place (SOP). We discuss their origins, provide examples of their …

Analyzing The Foodshed: Toward A More Comprehensive Foodshed Analysis, Meara Butler

Geography Masters Research Papers

Foodshed Analysis is a tool used by researchers to measure the feasibility of providing more local food to a community. That there are economic, environmental, and societal benefits provided by eating locally produced food is a central assumption of Foodshed Analysis research. These benefits, however, are not inherent to a localized food system, but instead are goals that local food system participants must work to achieve. Foodshed Analysis may be a helpful tool that can be used to advise food system reform to the benefit of a community’s economy, environment, and society, but, in order for this tool to be …

Top-Down Nationalism In Post-Soviet Kazakhstan, Annie M. Scriven

Geography Masters Research Papers

Kazakhstan was the most multi-ethnic country to emerge from the former Soviet Union and the only one to have its titular ethnicity as a minority. This paper examines the top-down nationalism that has occurred since independence in 1991. The government of Kazakhstan has used elements of the theories of nationalism and territoriality in their effort to build a strong and unified post-Soviet national identity. The role of language, treatment of minorities, changing demographics, and the multi-ethnic nature of Kazakhstan make this a difficult task.

An Evaluation Of Data Collected By Middle School And College-Level Students In Stream Channel Geomorphic Assessment, Martin D. Lafrenz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project tested the accuracy and repeatability of geomorphic stream channel assessments conducted by two different middle school classes from the Walt Morey Middle School in Troutdale, OR and college students from Portland State University in Portland, OR. Each group surveyed the same three cross-sections in Fairview Creek, a tributary to the Lower Columbia River, in order to assess stream channel geometry, discharge, composition of the bed material, and water quality. The three student groups were all able to accurately document the stream channel geometry, including stream width and mean depth, indicating that these data can be successfully collected by …

Investigating The Holocene History Of Eliot Glacier, Mount Hood, Oregon, Nadia Sittara Jones

Dissertations and Theses

This research documents the Holocene glacial history of Mount Hood, Cascade Mountains, Oregon by analyzing a set of three lateral moraines abutting Eliot Glacier, the largest glacier on the mountain. This study seeks to: 1) establish the relative ages of these lateral moraines and 2) determine if these features represent distinct glacial advances. The hypothesis is that the lateral moraines for Eliot Glacier represent three distinct periods of glacial advance based on their position relative to the current glacier and other diagnostic indicators. Soil profiles of three positions (shoulder, backslope, and footslope) on the distal side of each lateral moraine …

A Novel Tool For Assessing And Summarizing The Built Environment, Gretchen L. Kroeger, Lynne C. Messer, Sharon E. Edwards, Marie Lynn Miranda

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: A growing corpus of research focuses on assessing the quality of the local built environment and also examining the relationship between the built environment and health outcomes and indicators in communities. However, there is a lack of research presenting a highly resolved, systematic, and comprehensive spatial approach to assessing the built environment over a large geographic extent. In this paper, we contribute to the built environment literature by describing a tool used to assess the residential built environment at the tax parcel-level, as well as a methodology for summarizing the data into meaningful indices for linkages with health data. …

Making Lives, Changing A Landscape: An Environmental History Of The Tualatin Valley, Washington County, Oregon, Camille A. Cope

Geography Masters Research Papers

Sheltered by mountains on all sides, the 724-square mile Tualatin Valley has been home to successive groups of people who have shaped the landscape based on their needs, tools, and ideas about the human relationship to nature. Thousands of years of indigenous burning practices and cultivation of native plants, followed by two centuries of European-American fur trapping, agriculture, logging, and urbanization have created the Tualatin Valley landscape of today. Understanding how a history of changing land use has affected the region is integral to building an environmentally sustainable future.

Myths And Measures: The Cultural Performance Of Portland’S Strip Club Identity, Wayne Coffey

Geography Masters Research Papers

Identities of place develop through a multitude of perceptions. Place myths guide much of this perception. Portland, Oregon’s identity has evolved in particular around a much quoted but unchallenged statistic regarding the volume of nude dancing venues. This paper focuses on the literature specific to both nude dance venues and place identity; Portland’s legal history that contributed to this phenomenon; and some of the cultural and spatial variables pertinent to this issue. Two initiatives, aimed at restructuring the state constitution specifically to deal with nude dance venues and other adult entertainment, are analyzed.

Streamflow Analysis And A Comparison Of Hydrologic Metrics In Urban Streams, Matthew Lawton Wood

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the hydrologic effects of urbanization in two Portland, Oregon streams through a comparison of three hydrologic metrics. Hydrologic metrics used in this study are the mean annual runoff ratio (Qa), mean seasonal runoff ratio (Qw and Qd), and the fraction of time that streamflow exceeds the mean streamflow during the year (TQmean). Additionally, the relative change in streamflow in response to storm events was examined for two watersheds. For this investigation urban development is represented by two urbanization metrics: percent impervious and road density. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to evaluate the relationship between the hydrologic …

Public Policy And Sexual Geography In Portland, Oregon, 1970-2010, Elizabeth Morehead

Dissertations and Theses

Drawing on the concept of sexual geography, this study examines the social and political meanings of sexualized spaces in the urban geography of Portland, Oregon between 1970 and 2010. This includes an examination of the sexual geography of urban spaces as a deliberate construct resulting from official and unofficial public policy and urban planning decisions. Sexual geographies, the collective and individual constructions of sexuality, are not static. Nor are definitions of deviant sexual practices fixed in the collective consciousness. Both are continuously being reshaped and reconstructed in response to changing economic structures and beliefs about sex, race and class. Primary …

Future Flooding Impacts On Transportation Infrastructure And Traffic Patterns Resulting From Climate Change, Heejun Chang, Martin Lafrenz, Il-Won Jung, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Rolando Melgoza, David Ruelas, Deena Platman, Cindy Pederson

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study investigated potential impacts of climate change on travel disruption resulting from road closures in two urban watersheds in the Portland metropolitan area. We used ensemble climate change scenarios, a hydrologic model, stream channel survey, a hydraulic model, and a travel forecast model to develop an integrated impact assessment method. High-resolution climate change scenarios are based on the combinations of two emission scenarios and eight general circulation models. The Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System was calibrated and validated for the period 1988-2006, and simulated for determining the probability of floods from 2020-2049. We surveyed stream cross sections at five road crossings …

Pdx Streetverve: Examining Portland Neighborhoods, Kale Brewer, Teresa Hanna, Brian Slaughter, Krystle Alconcel, Zoe Richerson, Kevin Mcgowan, Ryan Bueler, Yolanda Sanchez, Andy Landolt, Scott Flodin, Jonathan Albano, Brandon Christensen, Jesse Crofutt

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

The goals for this project entailed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data about selected neighborhoods in Portland. The quantitative data included photo documentation of all buildings and lots (e.g. parking lots or vacant lots) within the study areas. Other empirical data collected included the address(es) of the buildings, the number of stories and/or mailboxes, land use categories such as commercial or residential (including exclusive as well as mixed use categories), the name and type of business, and the spatial coordinates of the building (latitude/longitude). This data was collected in order to provide an objective "picture" of the neighborhood at a …

People In Action For Change: Photovoice Project, Will Anderson, Ian Bonham, Jason Christensen, Robin Davis

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

This project was undertaken by Portland State University Senior Capstone Students in cooperation with the Rose Community Development Corporation and Leander Court. The Rose Community Development Corporation sponsored a group of Leander Court residents and youth in a photovoice project that sought to empower community members to take action to improve their individual, family and community health. The Portland State University Capstone project partnered with Rose CDC in order to provide a relevant and measurable spatial context for the photovoice project using the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Healthy Development Measurement Tool and the Pedestrian Environmental Quality Survey. The …

The American Community Survey And The 2010 Census, Robert Lycan, Charles Rynerson

Publications, Reports and Presentations

A presentation focusing on the 2010 Census redistricting data, the American Community Survey (ACS), analysis and use of census data. Describes the differences between the ACS and the census, and explains where and how this information may be accessed. The presentation also discusses imputation errors present in the census.

Model Lessons To Use With The Student Atlas Of Oregon, Jane Bennett, Marilyn Soares, Zack James, Robert Wegner, Misty Connor, Elaine Nelson, Kerrie O'Brien, Heidi King, Elli Sussman, Kayla Mooney, Amanda Perrigo, Megan Wiltermood, Magda Abarca, Jonalee Vercher, Kaila Lamarche, Jason Manring, Kenneth Prowse, Aimee Saddler, Nick Clawson, Tony Ramos, Joyce Coskey, Katie Willey, Pam Salmons, Theresa Egan, Dezire Clarke, Beth Essex, Mark S. Walls, Erin Rhodes, Brianna Kibby, Margarita Herrera, Brittney Byrne, Courtney Shimabuku, Chrisa Collins, Brenda Victorio, Jacy Nerz, Mary Cordle, Katherine Bodi

Instructional Materials

Model lessons for teachers to use with The Student Atlas of Oregon.

El Atlas De Oregón Para Estudiantes, Teresa L. Bulman, Gwenda H. Rice, Center For Spatial Analysis And Research. Portland State University, David Banis, Anamaria Esparza

Instructional Materials

Un atlas para los estudiantes de primaria y secundaria

Places For Races: The White Supremacist Movement Imagines U.S. Geography, Barbara Perry, Randy Blazak

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increasingly, scholars are acknowledging that racial and other forms of animus assume a spatial dimension. Not only does intercultural hostility take different forms depending on location, but so, too, does the concomitant bias-motivated violence imply “places for races.” The very intent and motive of hate crimes are grounded in the perceived need of perpetrators to defend carefully crafted boundaries. While these boundaries are largely cultural, they may also take on a real, physical form, at least from the perpetrator’s perspective. Nowhere is this more evident than in the geographical imagination of the White Supremacist movement. This paper will trace the …

Modeling Acoustic Scattering From The Seabed Using Transport Theory, Jorge Quijano, Lisa M. Zurk

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Radiative Transfer (RT) theory has established itself as an important tool for electromagnetic remote sensing in parallel plane geometries with random distributions of scatterers, and most recently it has also been proposed as a model for the propagation of elastic waves in layered ocean sediments. In this work the capabilities of this model are illustrated, as the RT method is used to predict backscattering strength from laboratory models of random media. The RT model is characterized by its flexibility on accommodating scatterers in a broad variety of sizes, shapes, and acoustic contrast relative to the background media. Additionally, this formulation …

Beyul Khumbu: Sherpa Constructions Of A Sacred Landscape, Lindsay Ann Skog

Dissertations and Theses

Khumbu, part of Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park in eastern Nepal and an UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to the Sherpa people, ethnic Tibetan Buddhists who migrated to the region more than 500 years ago. Sherpas animate the landscape with localized water, tree, rock, and land spirits, identify sacred mountains, mainly associated with the Bönpo and Tibetan yullha traditions, and some view the landscape as a beyul, a sacred place and hidden valley protecting Buddhist people and beliefs in times of turmoil and need. These beliefs protect the natural environment through religious practices and taboos against environmentally harmful …

Arts And Culture Asset Mapping, Haley Buckbee, Sara Busco, John Chavers, Henry Cook

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

A senior capstone course is the culmination of the University Studies Program at Portland State University. The emphasis of a capstone course is to take students out of the classroom and into the field. Students bring previous knowledge and skills to work on a community project. They work together as a team, utilizing resources and collaborating with faculty and community leaders to find solutions for important issues. Our project partner, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, works to enhance arts education and cultural awareness among youth, makes culture accessible and affordable to Multnomah county residents, supports diverse cultural activities and organizations, and …

Examining The Effects Of Climate Change And Urban Development On Water Demand: A Multi-Scale Analysis Of Future Water Demand In Hillsboro, Oregon, Lily Arielle House-Peters

Dissertations and Theses

In the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, suburban cities such as Hillsboro are projected to grow as people seek affordable housing near a rapidly growing metropolis. This thesis examines the combined impact of climate change and urban development on both neighborhood and municipal scale residential water demand in Hillsboro, Oregon. I use two models, a surface energy balance model, Local-scale Urban Meteorological Parameterization Scheme (LUMPS), and a system dynamics model, CCDomestic, to investigate changes in residential water demand in the 2040s at two distinct spatial scales, the neighborhood and the municipality. I calibrate and validate each model to the reference period …

Science And Practice Of Integrated River Basin Management : Lessons From North And Central American Unesco-Help Basins, Heejun Chang, Anne Browning-Aiken

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) program, a cross-cutting component of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP), has as its goal to facilitate dialogue among hydrologists, social and economic scientists, water resource managers, water lawyers, policy experts, and river basin stakeholder communities in setting a research agenda driven by local management and policy issues. HELP seeks to improve the benefits to society by applying the principals of integrated water-resources management to complex, interdisciplinary issues within catchments.

This Monograph is the culmination of a workshop held in 2010 in which the managers from the six North American basins …

Influence Of Wetland Landscape Structure On Duck Nest Success At Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Oregon, Daniel Robert Craver

Geography Masters Research Papers

The decline of waterfowl populations and their requisite wetland habitats remains a concern. Because migratory bird refuges are often artificial landscapes of actively managed wetlands, and wildlife populations experience their greatest change during the breeding season, refuges should be designed to maximize breeding habitat. While past nest success studies have focused on at-nest variables, new approaches are needed to evaluate the effect of composition and configuration of plant communities at the landscape scale. This study aims to quantify landscape patterns within individual refuge management units to determine influence upon historical nesting success averages of ducks at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge …

The Transnational Networks Of Cultural Commodities: Peruvian Food In San Francisco, Kelsey Ann Brain

Dissertations and Theses

In a setting of increased movement, communication, and flows across space, commodity chain networks bring valued cultural commodities to transnational communities. This research examines the networks bringing foreign cuisine ingredients to Peruvian transnational communities in San Francisco, California. It seeks to answer three inter-related questions: 1) What are the origins and transportation networks bringing Peruvian food items to San Francisco; 2) Who controls and benefits from the movement of this food and resulting capital; and 3) How do networks vary for different classes of end consumers?

Chefs of ten Peruvian restaurants and ten Peruvian migrants in the San Francisco area …