Geography Commons^™

Assessing Human-Environmental Impacts On Colorado's 14,000- Foot Mountains, Jon J. Kedrowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research focuses on documenting and analyzing the factors that affect mountain climbing in the state of Colorado and assessing the potential environmental impacts caused by the growing number of climbers visiting the Fourteeners—the 58 mountain peaks located within the Rocky Mountains exceeding an elevation of 14,000 feet. Key objectives were to: 1. identify factors that have a significant effect on mountain climbing frequency; 2. collect information from physical trail and route evaluation to develop an interim classification index; 3. combine relevant variables to formulate a composite Fourteeners Environmental Degradation Index (FEDI) and use it to evaluate, rank, and compare …

Modeling Community Risk And Vulnerability To Multiple Natural Hazards: Hillsborough County, Florida, Christopher T. Emrich

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multiple hazard risk and vulnerability are two topics that are at the forefront of hazards research that looks at the hazardousness ofplace. However, no definitive framework that encapsulates measures o f both risk and vulnerability into hazards theory has been developed. Indeed, risk and vulnerability have been used interchangeably. Consequently, populations often encounter high risk environments with little understandingofwaystolimitvulnerability. Thesituationisaggravatedbyincreasing populations and concomitant development ofhigh risk areas. Hillsborough County, Florida, is perhaps the archetype ofthis problem, having experienced rapid urban growth while giving scant attention to the hazardousness ofthe environment.

This research, therefore, looks at the hazardousness of place, focusing …

Habitat Disturbance Within An Urban Forest Fragment, Tampa, Florida, John Forest Turbiville Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of forest fragmentation on a forest fragment in south Tampa, Florida. To determine these effects, several research objectives are defined, which include: (1) an historical analysis of the development and fragmentation of the study area; (2) documentation of the effects of fragmentation on the site; and (3) development of a management policy relating to site-specific fragmentation effects.

Forest fragmentation and its attendant human impacts have altered many of the natural physical and biological processes associated with the three ecosystem types present within this forest fragment. These ecosystems include pine flatwoods, …

Analysis Of Lead In Soils Adjacent To Interstate 275 In Tampa, Florida, Mark R. Hafen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analysis of two hundred and twenty-four soil samples collected at logarithmic intervals on perpendicular transects adjacent to Interstate Highway 275 in Tampa, Florida revealed that thirty-five percent of the samples contained health-threatening levels of lead (greater than 500 ppm), although the pattern of contamination was not predictable. Twenty-two of the thirty-two transect locations extended toward residential areas and, of these, twenty contained soil lead values dangerous to humans. This analysis also revealed that soil lead does not decrease logarithmically with distance from the highway, as shown in other studies. Soil lead at 3, 9, 27, 81, 243, 729, and 2187 …