Geography Commons^™

Water And Mining Conflicts In Peru, Anthony J. Bebbington, Mark Williams

Geography

Impacts on water quality and quantity are among the most contentious aspects of mining projects. Companies insist that the use of modern technologies will ensure environmentally friendly mining practices. However, evidence of the negative environmental impacts of past mining activity causes local and downstream populations to worry that new mining activities will adversely affect their water supply. We report on one mine site in Peru where water has become a: particularly conflictive issue. We then provide a detailed proposal for a monitoring plan to recover trust among stakeholders. A welldesigned and executed monitoring plan for water quantity and quality is …

A Cartographic Journey Through Las Vegas History: Tracing The Las Vegas Landscape Through Maps Pt. 2, Su Kim Chung, Katherine Rankin

Library Faculty Research

An interesting set of historical maps of Nevada and the Las Vegas area.

Gregory Veeck, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

Dr. Gregory Veeck, professor of geography, has completed extensive international research specializing in economic geography, agriculture, rural development and rural environmental/ecological issues in the United States, China, Japan, and Korea. Veeck has been conducting field research for 29 years.

Gregory Veeck's website

Analysis Of Spatial Distribution Of Hazardous Wastes In Semcog Region, Michigan, Junfang Chen

Masters Theses

This research is devoted to an increasingly recognized issue: environmental injustice, that is, the distribution of environmental risks and/ hazards are disproportionably distributed in the space in terms of the effects on the victims. Specifically, this thesis focuses on an analysis of the spatial distribution of hazardous materials from fixed incidents and the characteristics of neighborhoods living near the incident sites, so as to test the hypothesized relationships that poor people and minority people live near the incident sites. SEMCOG region, Michigan is chosen as the study area due to its frequent occurrence of incidents involving environmental hazards. It is …

Distribution Of Fluoride In Groundwater In Selected Villages In Northern Red Sea And Anseba Regions Of Eritrea, Filmon Tsegay Fisseha

Masters Theses

The aim of the study is to describe the fluoride concentration of water samples primarily from sources used for household needs in selected villages of Eritrea, with emphasis on the most severely affected parts of the country. Water sample quality data were collected from The Water Resource Department of Eritrea and water quality reports indicated that high levels of fluoride content were found for some villages' groundwater sources. The highest concentration was found in Aquar, 7.7 mg/L; Northern Red Sea region, above the 1.5 mg/L Maximum concentration recommended by The World Health Organization.

Waters with high fluoride concentrations occur in …

A Comparative Analysis Of Pixel-Based And Object-Oriented Image Analysis Methods Using Landsat Imagery, Jason Joseph Delisio

Masters Theses

Pixel-based and object-oriented image analysis methods are two popular techniques for classifying satellite imagery. Pixel-based analysis is typically used for coarser resolution imagery while object-oriented analysis is ideal for high resolution imagery. However, the ability of object-oriented image analysis to segment images based on factors such as shape, color, texture, and spatial attributes suggest that it can perform as well or better than pixel-based analysis in classifying medium resolution imagery. A comparative analysis of the two methods was performed using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery from September 2006 to classify grassland quality and land cover in Da'erhanmaoming'an (DaMao) Banner, Inner …

Abundance Of Immature Anopheles And Culicines (Diptera: Culicidae) In Different Water Body Types In The Urban Environment Of Malindi, Kenya, Daniel E. Impoinvil, Joseph Keating, Charles M. Mbogo, Matthew D. Potts, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, John C. Beier

Geography

In this study we 1) describe the abundance of Anopheles and culicine immatures in different water body types in urban Malindi, Kenya, 2) compare Anopheles immature density in relation to culicine immature density, and 3) identify characteristics that influence the likelihood of water bodies being co-colonized by Anopheles and culicines. Entomological and environmental cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2001 and 2002 were used in the analysis. A total of 889 Anopheles and 7,217 culicine immatures were found in diverse water body types in 2001 and 2002. Car-track pools (n=45) and unused swimming pools (n=25) comprised 61% (70 of 115) of all …

Components Of Information For Multiple Resolution Comparison Between Maps That Share A Real Variable, Robert Gilmore Pontius, Olufunmilayo Thontteh, Hao Chen

Geography

This paper presents quantitative methods that allow scientists to compare the patterns in two maps that show a shared real variable. Specifically, this paper shows how to budget various components of agreement and disagreement between maps. The components are based on the separation of a map's information of quantity from its information of location. The technique also examines how variation in resolution influences the measurement of the components of information. The manner in which the measurements change as a function of spatial resolution can be more important and interesting than the results at any single particular resolution, because the results …

Environmental Scarcity And Water Development In The Eastern Nile Basin, Kennan Wright

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

"Sustainable Development": Critical Concepts In Geography, Tyler Vick

Geography Masters Research Papers

This paper reviews significant geographic contributions to academic literature in the arenas of conservation, environmental thought, and "sustainable development", in order to understand why geographers have not been more central contributors to the sustainable development movement. A review of geographic literature reveals no lack of understanding on the "sustainable development" concept. However, the disciplines' contributions are lacking in numbers relative to published articles and in developing research and practical methods for directly benefiting the "sustainable development" movement. In fact, only a handful of geographers have made multiple literary contributions on the topic of "sustainable development."

The discipline of geography is …

Comparing Pixel- And Object-Based Classification Methods For Determining Land-Cover In The Gee Creek Watershed, Washington, Tyler Vick

Geography Masters Research Papers

This study analyzes land-cover types in the Gee Creek Watershed of southern Washington using the pixel-based and object-based image analysis approaches. Landsat imagery has traditionally been used for pixel-based classification and change detection in land-cover studies. In recent years, the availability of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery have enabled for land-cover classification to occur at scales not possible using traditional Landsat imagery. High-resolution aerial imagery of 1 meter or greater has become readily available for free. Yet, commonly found black and white (or panchromatic) aerial imagery is without the multiple spectrum bands found in Landsat imagery, thereby limiting the accuracy …

Darfur: Rainfall And Conflict, Michael Kevane, Leslie C. Gray

Economics

Data on rainfall patterns only weakly corroborate the claim that climate change explains the Darfur conflict that began in 2003 and has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than two million persons. Rainfall in Darfur did not decline significantly in the years prior to the eruption of major conflict in 2003; rainfall exhibited a flat trend in the thirty-years preceding the conflict (1972-2002). The rainfall evidence suggests instead a break around 1971. Rainfall is basically stationary over the pre- and post-1971 sub-periods. The break is larger for the more northerly rainfall stations, and is less noticeable for En …

Small-Hold Alternatives For Land Redistribution Projects In The Western Cape, South Africa: A Case Study, Megan Grinde

Geography Honors Projects

After the official end of apartheid in South Africa, land reform was one of the most highly prioritized items on the new ANC government's agenda, both as a matter of economic restructuring and redressing past injustices. Although numerous land reform programs and initiatives have been implemented since 1994, they have largely failed to reach any of the redistribution goals set forth for them. There is a high rate of failure among land redistribution projects, which are often managed by up to one hundred people. This complicated group management situation is necessitated by the combination of the small grant size available …

Habitat Selection By A Rare Forest Antelope: A Multi-Scale Approach Combining Field Data And Imagery From Three Sensors, Lyndon Estes, G. S. Okin, A. G. Mwangi, H. H. Shugart

Geography

It can be difficult to further scientific understanding of rare or endangered species that live in inaccessible habitat using traditional methods, such as probabilistic modeling based on field data collection. Remote sensing (RS) can be an important source of information for the study of these animals. A key advantage of RS is its ability to provide information over an animal's complete range, but models incorporating RS data are limited by RS's ability to detect important habitat features. In this study, we focus on the rare, poorly-understood mountain bongo antelope (Tragelaphus euryceros isaaci) which survives in the wild in isolated pockets …

Radiative Forcing Over The Conterminous United States Due To Contemporary Land Cover Use Albedo Change, Christopher Barnes, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

Recently available satellite land cover land use (LCLU) and albedo data are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000 on surface albedo and radiative forcing for 36 ecoregions covering 43% of the conterminous United States (CONUS). Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snowfree broadband albedo values are derived from Landsat LCLU classification maps located using a stratified random sampling methodology to estimate ecoregion estimates of LCLU induced albedo change and surface radiative forcing. The results illustrate that radiative forcing due to LCLU change may be disguised when spatially and temporally explicit data sets are not used. …

Automated Vector-To-Raster Image Registration, Boris Kovalerchuk, Peter Doucette, Gamal Seedahmed, Robert Brigantic, Michael Kovalerchuk, Brian Graff

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

The variability of panchromatic and multispectral images, vector data (maps) and DEM models is growing. Accordingly, the requests and challenges are growing to correlate, match, co-register, and fuse them. Data to be integrated may have inaccurate and contradictory geo-references or not have them at all. Alignment of vector (feature) and raster (image) geospatial data is a difficult and time-consuming process when transformational relationships between the two are nonlinear. The robust solutions and commercial software products that address current challenges do not yet exist. In the proposed approach for Vector-to-Raster Registration (VRR) the candidate features are auto-extracted from imagery, vectorized, and …

Hazard Adaptations Along The Ohio River: A Case Study Of Bushman's Lake, Clark County, Indiana, Jennifer L. Lathem

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hazard researchers define a hazard as a threat to people and their belongings (Cutter 2001). An adaptation, for the purposes of this research, is any alteration, physical or behavioral, made by a person in which the person is better able to survive in their "hazardous" natural environment. The challenge facing individuals and communities is the ability to adapt to these hazards so as to continue with normal everyday life. People living near a waterway are faced with flooding, which becomes a hazard when it alters everyday social structures. The purpose of this study is to identify flood hazard adaptations in …

Integration Of Remote Sensing And Census Data For Land-Use And Land Cover Classification And Population Estimation In Indianapolis, Indiana, Guiying Li

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing population and economic growth has resulted in rapid urban expansion in the past decades. Timely and accurately mapping urban land-use and land-cover (LULC) and associated population dist1ibution are often required for many applications such as urban management and planning, and environmental monitoring and assessment. Although many techniques have been developed, urban LULC classification is still a challenge based on remote sensing data. This research explored the integration of Landsat ETM+ image and census data for improving urban LULC classification accuracy, focusing on the distinction of different densities of residential use. The housing data were examined for use at three …

Human–Wildlife Conflict And Gender In Protected Area Borderlands: A Case Study Of Costs, Perceptions, And Vulnerabilities From Uttarakhand (Uttaranchal), India, Monica V. Ogra

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) is a growing problem for communities located at the borders of protected areas. Such conflicts commonly take place as crop-raiding events and as attack by wild animals, among other forms. This paper uses a feminist political ecology approach to examine these two problems in an agricultural village located at the border of Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal), India. Specifically, it investigates the following three questions: What are the “visible” and “hidden” costs of such conflict with wildlife? To what extent are these costs differentially borne by men and women? How do villagers perceive any such …

Geography, Poverty, And Development Policy In The New African Millennium: Monitoring The Millennium Development Goals Through Human Development, Joseph Tamba Koroma

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV I AIDS, ensure environmental sustainability, and develop a global partnership for development. The eighth goal (MDG 8), aims to develop and strengthen a global partnership for development between rich and poor countries. Three main components of the latter (MDG 8) aim to accelerate the infusion of official development aid (ODA), liberalize international trade, and introduce information and communication technologies (ICT) in the hope of creating a conducive …

Overfishing And Environmental Justice In Marine Fisheries, Kristin Novak

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis focuses on the depletion of marine fisheries, as a resource, from a geographical perspective. The decline and collapse of abundant fisheries worldwide has serious, though largely unaddressed, social implications, and should be considered as an issue of environmental justice. I analyze the processes that have lead to fisheries collapses all over the world, as well as the governance structures, management strategies, and political and economic forces involved. This is examined through two case studies: one, the collapse of cod stocks in Newfoundland and New England in the 1990s after centuries of intensive fishing, and two, the currently stressed …

Bicycle Space And The American Urban Landscape: Re-Thinking Distance And Mobility In The City, Katie (Kathleen) Gill

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Since its arrival in the United States, the bicycle’s place in public space has influenced, and been influenced by not only road improvements and infrastructure investments but also by the social production of what it means to be mobile and to circulate throughout the city. Drawing upon the theory of “Time- Space Compression” posited by the geographer David Harvey, I propose that the bicycle can compress time and space in urban environments where time-space compression is occurring for motorists and their automobiles. But yet, bicycles (and their riders) have been consistently and systematically excluded from the American urban landscape; keeping …

Agricultural Transformation And Livelihood Struggles In South Africa's Western Cape, Michaela B. Palchick

Geography Honors Projects

Agricultural Transformation and Livelihood Struggles in South Africa’s Western Cape South Africa’s post-Apartheid land reform programs redistribute previously white-owned farmland to a small percentage of blacks, and provide these new farmers with agricultural extension services that promote large-scale agriculture. Due to the national legacy of racial oppression and an international pressure for neoliberal development policies, there is scant infrastructural support for small-scale agriculture. Despite the government’s vision, most black farmers produce for local consumption because competing internationally is unfavorable, especially since the removal of agricultural subsidies in 1994. The shortcomings of the agricultural transformation program are apparent in the village …

Geographies Of Indigenous-Based Team Name And Mascot Use In American Secondary Schools, Ezra J. Zeitler

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation identifies the geographic locations and characteristics of high schools using Native American nicknames and, through the examination of Indigenous-based iconography, analyzes the portrayal of Indigenous peoples in these learning environments. Primary and secondary data collected from archives, newspapers, yearbooks, directories, school websites, and fieldwork are utilized in various ways, including cartographic and quantitative analyses of 1,368 school locations and their attributes, numerous case studies highlighting concocted histories and stereotypical depictions of Native Americans, and a content analysis of Indigenous-based imagery photographed in 125 schools with predominately white student bodies.

The first chapter defines the dissertation topic and provides …

Mapping The Evolution Of 'Food Deserts' In A Canadian City: Supermarket Accessibility In London, Ontario, 1961–2005, Kristian Larsen, Jason Gilliland

Geography & Environment Publications

Background: A growing body of research suggests that the suburbanization of food retailers in North America and the United Kingdom in recent decades has contributed to the emergence of urban 'food deserts', or disadvantaged areas of cities with relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food. This paper explores the evolution of food deserts in a mid-sized Canadian city (London, Ontario) by using a geographic information system (GIS) to map the precise locations of supermarkets in 1961 and 2005; multiple techniques of network analysis were used to assess changing levels of supermarket access in relation to neighbourhood location, socioeconomic characteristics, …

Introduction: Cotton, Globalization, And Poverty In Africa, William G. Moseley, Leslie C. Gray

Environmental Studies and Sciences

This volume employs a modified commodity chain approach, focusing on the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of cotton production in Africa, and the links between this production and the global market. Individual chapters may examine one or multiple levels in the commodity chain and employ different theoretical approaches, from ethnography, to agroecology, to political ecology, to classic economic analysis. We want to acknowledge, however, that while the commodity chain is an important part of cotton dynamics, it is not the only force at work in African cotton. There are new and interesting developments outside the commodity chain that work for …

Cotton Production In Burkina Faso: International Rhetoric Versus Local Realities, Leslie C. Gray

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Voices ranging from the editorial page of the New York Times to organizations such as Oxfam and the presidents of Burkina Faso and Mali have argued that U.S. cotton subsidies depress world cotton prices and hurt African farmers. These policies deny West African countries their comparative advantage in cotton, which they can produce more cheaply and with lower environmental impacts than farmers in the United States. Some have gone as far as phrasing this as a national security issue; editorials in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have suggested that removing subsidies would have a strong auxiliary …

Conclusion: Hanging By A Thread: The Future Of Cotton In Africa, Leslie C. Gray, William G. Moseley

Environmental Studies and Sciences

Several broad themes emerge from the chapters in this volume. While declining world prices are a serious issue, the ability of farmers to weather declines in prices is often determined by national and local issues. These include government policy, institutions that provide marketing and supply services, access to resources such as land, labor, and agricultural inputs, and individual decision making. Despite declining world prices, some cotton growing economies have had success with cotton production while others have not fared well. In particular, the failure of cotton institutions in many countries is striking.Whether it comes to managing input distribution, new technologies, …

Mechanistic Home Range Models And Resource Selection Analysis: A Reconciliation And Unification, Paul R. Moorcroft, Alex Barnett

Dartmouth Scholarship

In the three decades since its introduction, resource selection analysis (RSA) has become a widespread method for analyzing spatial patterns of animal relocations obtained from telemetry studies. Recently, mechanistic home range models have been proposed as an alternative framework for studying patterns of animal space-use. In contrast to RSA models, mechanistic home range models are derived from underlying mechanistic descriptions of individual movement behavior and yield spatially explicit predictions for patterns of animal space-use. In addition, their mechanistic underpinning means that, unlike RSA, mechanistic home range models can also be used to predict changes in space-use following perturbation. In this …

Prospects And Limitations For Ecocultural Tourism In The City: Developing An Urban Heritage Water Trail On The Portage Creek, Eric Mark Kerney

Masters Theses

The decline in Michigan's economy and rapid loss of manufacturing jobs has forced communications to look towards new possibilities. The state's abundant water resources have potential to enhance regional economies and improve the quality of life. The Michigan Heritage Water Trails Program was initiated in 2002 by Michigan Public Act 454 in response to a lack of established routes in the state. The Portage Creek is located within the Kalamazoo River Watershed, which is being explored as a pilot project for a connected system of regional water trails. The study area of the Portage Creek is located entirely within the …