Geography Commons^™

Climatic And Spatial Variations Of Mount Rainier's Glaciers For The Last 12,000 Years, Michael Leslie Hekkers

Dissertations and Theses

Regional paleoclimatic proxies and current local climate variables and were analyzed to reconstruct paleoglaciers in an effort to assess glacier change On Mount Rainier. Despite the dry and generally warm conditions (sea surface temperatures (SST) -0.15°C to +1.8°C relative to current temperatures), the previously documented McNeeley II advance (10,900 - 9,950 cal yr B.P.) was likely produced by air temperature fluctuations. The average SST record and the terrestrial climate proxies show cooling temperatures with continued dryness between McNeeley II and the Burroughs Mountain advance (3,442 - 2,153 cal yr B.P.). The paleoclimate during the Burroughs Mountain advance was both cool …

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 …

Impacts Of Climate Change And Urban Development On Water Resources In The Tualatin River Basin, Sarah Praskievicz

Dissertations and Theses

Potential impacts of climate change on the water resources of the Pacific Northwest of the United States include earlier peak runoff, reduced summer flows, and increased winter flooding. An increase in impervious surfaces, accompanied by urban development, is known to decrease infiltration and increase surface runoff. Alterations of flow amount and pathways can alter water quality through dilution or flushing effects. I used the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) modeling system to investigate the relative importance of future climate change and land use change in determining the quantity and quality of …

Ethnic Place Making: Thirty Years Of Brazilian Immigration To South Framingham, Massachusetts, Laura Aldea Skorczeski

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past thirty years, Massachusetts has become a hub of Brazilian immigration. Within Massachusetts, the town of Framingham has the highest concentration of Brazilian residents; one census tract in the southern part of this Boston suburb is an astounding 57.4 percent Brazilian. The presence of the Brazilian population in downtown Framingham, also referred to as South Framingham, has transformed the area into a landscape of Brazilian ethnicity.

When Brazilians began arriving in South Framingham in the early 1980s, the downtown Central Business District was a blighted landscape. This thesis analyzes how Brazilian identities have become imprinted on the landscape …

The Effects Of Climate Change And Urbanization On The Runoff Of The Rock Creek Basin, Jon J. Franczyk

Dissertations and Theses

Climate changes brought on by global warming are expected to have a significant affect on the Pacific Northwest hydrology during the 21^st Century. Current research anticipates higher mean annual temperatures and an intensification of the hydrological cycle. This is of particular concern for highly urbanized basins, which are considered more vulnerable to changes in climate. Because the majority of previous studies have addressed the influences of either climate or urban land cover changes on runoff, there is a lack of research investigating the combined effect of these factors. The Rock Creek basin (RCB), located in the Portland, OR, metropolitan …

Quantifying Twentieth Century Glacier Change In The Sierra Nevada, California, Hassan J. Basagic

Dissertations and Theses

Numerous small alpine glaciers occupy the high elevation regions of the central and southern Siena Nevada, California. These glaciers change size in response to variations in climate and are therefore important indicators of climate change. An inventory based on USGS topographic maps (l :24,000) revealed 1719 glaciers and perennial snow and ice features for a total area of 39.l5 ±7.52 km². The number of 'true' glaciers, versus non-moving ice, is estimated to be 118, covering 15.87 ± 1.69 Km². All glaciers were located on north to northeast aspects, at elevations >3000 m. Historical photographs, geologic evidence, …

"Questions About Stuff You Don't Normally See On A Map:" A Study Of Sixth-Graders' Abilities To Understand Quantitative Thematic Maps, Stephanie Lynn Gaspers

Dissertations and Theses

Middle school students work with many types of maps in school, however most maps they use are qualitative thematic maps that only show differences in kind as compared to quantitative thematic maps that show differences in amounts. This thesis investigates sixth-grade students' abilities to analyze three types of thematic maps: dot maps, choropleth maps, and graduated circle maps. Two hundred and two Oregon sixth-graders were tested on their abilities to interpret map symbology, make inferences from the data, categorize values into regions, and ask geographic questions concerning data distributions. The results indicate that students can understand these three quantitative thematic …

Spatial And Morphological Change Of Eliot Glacier, Mount Hood, Oregon, Keith Michael Jackson

Dissertations and Theses

Eliot Glacier is a small (1.6 km²), relatively well-studied glacier on Mount Hood, Oregon. Since 1901, glacier area decreased from 2.03 ± 0.16 km² to 1.64 ± 0.05 km² by 2004, a loss of 19%, and the terminus retreated about 600 m. Mount Hood's glaciers as a whole have lost 34% of their area. During the first part of the 20th century the glacier thinned and retreated, then thickened and advanced between the 1940s and 1960s because of cooler temperatures and increased winter precipitation and has since accelerated its retreat, averaging about 1.0 m a^{-1 …}

Once Upon The North Pole, Regina Anne Roselli

Dissertations and Theses

The North Pole can be imagined in two ways. The first, the Magnetic North Pole, is based on the Earth's magnetic field, which is in constant flux. It is a general area of the Arctic that isn't affixed to a specific geographic location but moves to where the lines of magnetic force enter and exit the earth vertically. The second, the true North Pole, refers to its actual physical and fixed geographic location, 90° N. It lays below miles of the Arctic Ocean's water, hundreds of miles from the nearest land.

The North Pole has fueled man's imagination for centuries. …

Regeneration Patterns And Facilitation Following Blowdown In A Self- Replacing Lodgepole Pine (Pinus Contorta) Stand In Central Oregon, Jennifer Michelle Karps

Dissertations and Theses

Nurse plant and object facilitation is an important factor mitigating abiotic stress, improving seedling recruitment, and shaping the fine-scale spatial patterns of many plant communities. I investigate the role of facilitation on lodgepole pine regeneration following blowdown in central Oregon. My objective is to examine the importance of nurse objects on seedling recruitment under varying stand conditions. I base my analysis on 1) the mapped locations and attributes of seedlings, saplings, trees, shrubs, snags, stumps, and sound and decomposed logs in each of five, 500 m² circular plots, 2) water holding capacity estimates of woody and leafy litter and …

Deer-Vehicle Accident Hotspots In Northwest Clackamas County, Oregon, Linda K. Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

Road-kill of wildlife is common on Portland, Oregon's suburban fringe where development has increased road densities and traffic volume in rural areas. I identify the spatial and temporal patterns of black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) deer-vehicle accidents (DVA) at the suburban/rural interface of developing northwest Clackamas County using deer carcass pickup reports for county maintained roads for 1997-2004 and Oregon Department of Transportation deer-vehicle accident reports for 1996-2004. No black-tailed deer DVA models exist in the literature.

DVA increased 121% from 1997 to 1999 followed by a 26% decline by 2004. The initial DVA increase appears related to …

Oxygen Demand Trends, Land Cover Change, And Water Quality Management For An Urbanizing Oregon Watershed, Michael Karl Boeder

Dissertations and Theses

In-stream aquatic habitat depends on adequate levels of dissolved oxygen. Human alteration of the landscape has an extensive influence on the biogeochemical processes that drive oxygen cycling in streams. Historic datasets allow researchers to track trends in chemical parameters concomitant with urbanization, while land cover change analysis allows researchers to identify linkages between water quality trends and landscape change.

Using the Seasonal Kendall's test, I examined water quality trends in oxygen demand variables during the mid-1990s to 2003, for twelve sites in the Rock Creek sub-watershed of the Tualatin River, northwest Oregon. Significant trends occurred in each parameter. Dissolved oxygen …

Lives, Livelihoods, And Landscapes: A Study Of Land Use And Social Change In Northeastern Nepal, Jennifer Leigh Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the forces of change in lives and landscapes that have altered the Lamosangu-to-Everest route in northeastern Nepal and shows how a transect in photographs and conversations across the east-central Himalaya allows us insight and a greater understanding into the processes and consequences of this change.

Three forces of change over the last twenty-five years dominated discussions with local informants: the rise of the "People's War"-Nepal's Maoist Insurgency beginning in 1996; the Democratic Revolution of 1990; and dependence on tourism for livelihood after the establishment of Sagarmatha National Park in 1976. Understanding the cultural-historical context for these forces …

An Assessment Of The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Upper Clackamas River Basin With A Distributed Hydrologic Model, David Graves

Dissertations and Theses

The Pacific Northwest is dependent on seasonal snowmelt for water resources that support a significant portion of its economy. Increased temperatures resulting from higher concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases may cause disruptions to these resources because of reductions in the annual snowpack and variations of the timing of snowmelt. This study reconstructs and applies a GIS-based distributed hydrologic model at a monthly scale to assess the effects of future climate change on runoff from the Upper Clackamas River Basin (located near Portland, Oregon). Historic flow data and snow measurements are used to calibrate and test the performance of the hydro …

Ambivalent Landscapes: An Historical Geography Of Recreation And Tourism On Mount Hood, Oregon, Ryan Franklin Mitchell

Dissertations and Theses

Mount Hood is an Oregon icon. The mountain has as long and rich a history of recreation and tourism as almost any other place in the American West. But contemporary landscapes on Mount Hood reveal a recreation and tourism industry that has struggled to assert itself, and a distinct geographic divide is evident in the manner in which tourism has been developed. Why? In this study I chronicle the historical geography of recreation and tourism on Mount Hood. I examine the evolution of its character and pattern, and the ways in which various communities have used it to invest meaning …

Fuel Model Development And Fire Simulation Analysis In The Wildland-Urban Interface: The Case Of Forest Park, Portland, Oregon, David Malcolm Kuhn

Dissertations and Theses

Forest Park, a 5,000 acre heavily-forested park within the city limits of Portland, Oregon was selected as the study area for performing a fire simulation analysis. A well-documented fire swept over a large area of the park in 1951, and provides both direct inputs, including the ignition point, and context for the present day fire simulations. The goal of the research was two fold. First, determine the difference between small area simulations using standard and custom surface fuel models. Second, determine if fire simulation can be an effective tool in assessing fire danger and behavior in a wildland-urban interface environment …

Visualizing Complexity : A Spatial Analysis Of Decorative Geometric Pattern In The Islamic World, 900-1400 Ad, Tracy Elizabeth Harrison

Dissertations and Theses

This study explores how the use of complex decorative geometric patterns in Islamic architecture spatially relates to advances in the fields of science and philosophy in the Islamic world between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. This project examines hypotheses developed by vario~s scholars on the forces that shaped the use of these patterns (known as the geometric mode) in Islamic architecture. The prevailing assumption that advances in mathematics contributed to the use of the geometric mode is used as a starting point for subsequent analysis.

For this study, two spatial databases were created. One contains over two hundred and twenty …

Forest Resource Use, Land-Use, And Ecotourism In The RíO PláTano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras, Christina Marie Friedle

Dissertations and Theses

The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a tropical rainforest reserve in the northeastern corner of Honduras, is home to several subsistence-based indigenous groups, including the Miskito, Pech and Garifuna, as well as the non-indigenous Ladinos. Communities within the reserve depend on forest resources, swidden agriculture, marine resources and/or small-scale ranching as the foundations for local economies. Regulations placed on these subsistence practices, after establishment of the biosphere reserve in 1980, have created unique and new pressures and resulted in a blend of traditional and innovative resource use. A notable result is the promotion of ecotourism as a solution for meeting the …

"Alberta Arts District" : Boundaries And Belonging Among Long-Time Residents In A Culturally Changing Neighborhood, Sammy Shaw

Dissertations and Theses

This study takes a cultural perspective in studying the "Alberta Arts District," a gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland in which bohemian cultural production/consumption has become the dominant and commodified vision of the community. Survey data demonstrates residents' general opinions and levels of participation in the changing neighborhood. Forty long-time residents, black and white, homeowners and renters, are interviewed in-depth regarding their perceptions of change. Long-time residents of gentrifying neighborhoods are often overlooked as a less powerful group that only has to negotiate rising rents and property values. This study approaches the meaning of neighborhood changes for long-time residents who have …

Risk Factors For Pre-Post Monsoon Cholera Epidemics In Bangladesh From 1992-1994, Rhonda Rae Robb

Dissertations and Theses

The primary objective of this thesis is to differentiate between the risk factors for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics in rural Bangladesh by analyzing the complex interaction between select environmental, cultural/behavioral, and socioeconomic variables over space and time. In rural Bangladesh, cholera epidemics correspond with the annual monsoon: the first, and smallest, occurs between March and June, while the larger cholera peak occurs between September and December. The differences between the spatial and temporal patterns of seasonal cholera are analyzed, and the risk factors are calculated for pre-and post-monsoon cholera epidemics.

The theoretical approach that underlies this medical geographical study is …

Comparing Twenty-Four Years Of Forest Change In Two Communities Of Mexico's Meseta PuréPecha Using Multi-Spectral Satellite Imagery, Kevin Scott Martin

Dissertations and Theses

The Meseta Purépecha, a volcanic plateau in the Mexican state of Michoacan, is home to one of the most species-rich pine forests in the world. Recent increases in demand for forest products has put added pressure on these resources. Though existing research has suggested significant deforestation in the Meseta, there is little information identifying specific areas of decline. This study focuses on two indigenous communities in the Meseta--Pichátaro and Sevina. Both communities have long relied on wood as an economic resource. However, the two communities have reacted differently to increased demand for forest resources. The purpose of this study is …

The Wilderness Problem: A Narrative Of Contested Landscapes In San Juan County, Utah, David Banis

Dissertations and Theses

Wilderness preservation has been at the center of debates about public land policy for almost half a century, and nowhere has the controversy been more intractable than in Utah. Despite its vast expanses of unsetded and undeveloped red rock desert, managed primarily by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Utah has less designated wilderness than in any other state in the West. In this study, I focus on San Juan County in southeast Utah to study the conflict over the designation of wilderness. The controversy pits local residents and state politicians against state and national environmental groups, with the BLM …

Transportation And Land Use Patterns: Monitoring Urban Change Using Aerial Photography, Portland, Oregon 1925-1945, Paul Hagen Fyfield

Dissertations and Theses

American urban neighborhoods are a patchwork; the spatial arrangement of types is a reflection of the dominant transportation technology at the time of their development. The earliest suburban areas were made accessible by fixed route systems such as the electric streetcar, followed by the widespread adoption of the automobile; each transportation epoch resulted in characteristic patterns of land use. This study uses aerial photographic coverage of Portland, Oregon from the years 1925, 1936, and 1945, a time of decline for the once popular trolley lines and dramatic increase in automobile usage, to monitor change within the residential areas of Portland's …

Forest Landscape Change Detection In The Meseta PuréPecha, MichoacáN, MéXico, John Malcolm Chase

Dissertations and Theses

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors converge in developing countries to stimulate high rates of deforestation. Forest conversion reduces biodiversity, contributes to carbon loading of the atmosphere, alters the global water balance, and degrades the quality of life for rural people. Mexico is the fifth most biologically diverse country in the world and temperate and tropical forests in Mexico are rapidly disappearing with environmental and cultural repercussions for people and ecosystems.

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors converge in developing countries to stimulate high rates of deforestation. Forest conversion reduces biodiversity, contributes to carbon loading of the atmosphere, alters the …

Low-Income Homeownership In Portland's Albina Community: A Comparative Analysis Of Housing Quality In Market-Rate And Subsidized Houses, Carolyn Emily Collopy

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to detem1ine which of these two options, market-rate or subsidized, offer higher quality affordable housing to low and moderate-level income households. Through field observation and GIS analysis, the study compared the structural, block, neighborhood amenity, crime, and proximity to CBD characteristics of affordable market-rate and subsidized houses in Portland's Albina Community. The study samples were approximately 100 houses per sample; market-rate houses consisted of houses that sold during 2000 for $125,000 or less, and subsidized houses were selected from housing created by three local non-profit development agencies.

General characteristics of the two samples revealed …

The Neoglacial History Of Mt. Thielsen, Southern Oregon Cascades, Martin Dietrich Lafrenz

Dissertations and Theses

Little Ice Age (LIA) deposits are recognized on Mt. Tbielsen, southern Oregon Cascades (43° 9' N, 122° 3' W), based on particle morphology and relative position. The initial advance, Lathrop 1, created a sharp-crested moraine and a protalus rampart within 200 m of the headwall. The retreat of the glacier and recent ice movement, Lathrop 2, is recognized by the deformation of the moraine and a mantle of "protalus till" creating a polygenetic "push-deformation'' moraine. Both the moraine and the protalus rampart have sparse vegetation, no lichens, and a lightly weathered Cox/C soil. This sequence is correlative with LIA Phase …

Gis Enhancements Using Gps Technology, Marc R. Beckel

Dissertations and Theses

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is a viable tool for the collection and creation of Geographic Information System (GIS) databases. Organizations have turned their attention to using this tool to develop new databases for their existing GIS. The integration of these new GPS derived databases with older existing databases leads to both technical and organizational repercussions. With the integration of GPS derived data, an organization's existing GIS requires enhancements to GIS databases and the organization must be prepared to manage the integration.

This thesis examines the technical issues that occur due to integration and conflation of GPS data in an …

The Effects Of An Outdoor School Program On 6th-Graders’ Empathy And Attitudes Towards Nature, Carolyn Ann Occhipinti

Dissertations and Theses

Past research in environmental psychology and education has shown that outdoor experiences such as wilderness adventure camps and environmental education programs may result in increases in participants' self-esteem, sense of connectedness to the natural world and environmental awareness. Developmental research has suggested a link between high self-esteem and increased levels of empathy.

The present study was intended to explore possible effects of nature experiences on empathy development, and to add to our understanding of the relationship between people and the natural environment by measuring four aspects of children's subjective experiences: empathy, self-esteem, sense of connectedness to the natural world, and …

An Examination Of Commercial Medicinal Plant Harvests, Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon, Shannon Michelle Campbell

Dissertations and Theses

During the past fifteen years, non-timber or special forest products have become an important economic resource in the Pacific Northwest. These products are primarily derived from understory species and contribute approximately $200 million to the regional economy. Medicinal plants are a little researched component of the non-timber forest product industry that relies on cultivated and wildcrafted (or wild-collected) medicinal plant species. This study examines the commercial extraction of wildcrafted medicinal plants from Mount Hood National Forest. Specifically, this study documents the medicinal plant species extracted from Mount Hood National Forest, their annual yield amounts, harvesting methods, and the changes in …

Cooking In Eden: Inventing Regional Cuisine In The Pacific Northwest, Amy Jo Woodruff

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines how regional cuisine is being self-consciously constructed in the Pacific Northwest and discusses the ways in which it contributes to identity in the region. I identify the characteristics--foods, dishes, and culinary practices--of this "new" Northwest cuisine, as well as social and cultural values associated with it, and explore how together they create a sense of regional distinctiveness and loyalty. Because this type of regional cuisine is closely associated with the professional cooking community, I look to restaurants in Portland, Oregon that self-identity as representative of the Pacific Northwest and to regional cookbooks, in order to pinpoint the …