Geography Commons^™

Information Technology Approaches To Forest Management, Mary Snow, Richard Snow

Publications

The majority of the world’s forests occur where there is a dry season long enough to affect a seasonal change in the forest community. The seasonal forest may include evergreen, semi-deciduous, deciduous trees, or some combination of these. Local differences in soil or other site characteristics often determine which community persists. Since the seasonal forests exist where there is seasonal precipitation, the character of the forest is closely associated with the length of the rainy season. As the length of the rainy season decreases, the density of the canopy decreases. If the global climate system warms and prolonged drought gives …

Utilization Of Landsat Imagery To Assess The Impacts Of Oil And Gas Extraction On The Tazovsky Peninsula, Siberia, Nicholas B. Kline

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climatic warming of the Arctic is leading to landscape change through cascading biophysical feedbacks; development, such as oil and gas exploration and extraction, can accelerate or worsen these impacts. Due to restricted access to oil and natural gas fields, in situ environmental impact studies are only allowed in some regions. Satellite imagery analysis provides a mean for assessing impacts in areas with limited access. The Yamburg oil and gas field in western Siberia serves as a case study to assess the effects of infrastructure on an Arctic landscape.

This project quantifies the land-cover disturbance that occurred during the development and …

Contesting The Generic Refugee: Siv Identity, Community, And Agency During Resettlement, Benjamin J. Sylvester

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the complexity of identity and community formation by Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders during resettlement in Columbia, South Carolina. It explores the ways in which identities coalesce around various themes, such as religion, gender, and military service, how these identities serve to create, expand, and claim membership in communities, and how SIVs exercise agency throughout these processes. Through semi-structured interviews with 9 SIVs in Columbia, SC, this qualitative study highlights the unique, highly individualized ways in which a select group of refugees experience resettlement, how they negotiate their placement within socio-economic hierarchies, and exercise agency to obtain …

Urban Accessibility Measurement And Visualization — A Big Data Approach, Yuqin Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility measurement has always been an important question in different areas including transportation, urban planning, politics, and sociology. However, how to measure transportation accessibility in different areas have been limited to data availability and technology. Recently, with increasing availability in public transportation data, we found a gap between current methods and large volume of data now available. This thesis developed a new method to measure multi-mode transportation data, including taxi, bus, and subway. Based on this measurement, we can visualize and understand the spatiotemporal patterns of accessibility in New York City (NYC). With historical travel records and public transit schedule, …

The Role Of Weather In The Social And Economic Lives Of Plantation Owners In Antebellum Beaufort District, South Carolina, Jennifer A. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

Weather can determine social, agricultural, and economic impacts on a society. There has been a lot of contemporary research on adaptation and experiences in severe weather events. However, there is a lack of historical research. This study uses primary sources, such as journals, newspapers, and maps, to look into the impact that weather has on people during a study time. Primary sources, like Thomas Chaplin’s Tombee Plantation Journal, provide more than a physical description of the event that occurred. These historical sources present various perspectives, such as personal and emotional, of people in South Carolina’s Beaufort District and its sea …

Cocoa And Carbon: Remedying Forest Governance Through Community Participation In A Redd+Pilot In Ghana, Manali Baruah

Theses and Dissertations

Global loss and degradation of forests are well documented, and the potential role of forests in climate change mitigation is widely recognized. While forests are key to human well-being, forest resource management in the developing world is fraught with governance challenges. Despite policy discourses that emphasize the importance of local participation in the management of forest resources, it is rarely practiced. Many national governments and non-governmental organizations have set up efforts around the collaborative management of forest resources with local communities to tackle forest loss. However, the operationalization of participatory principles and the effectiveness of these collaborative initiatives are not …

Climate Change (Mal)Adaptation As Governmentality: The Case Of The Ada Sea Defense System In The Volta River Delta Of Ghana, Kwame Ntiri Owusu-Daaku

Theses and Dissertations

River deltas are complex natural environments that represent a confluence of many physical, biological and human processes vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The likely biophysical impacts of climate change on deltas have received substantial attention. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which the different stakeholders of deltaic environments frame the vulnerability of residents of deltas to climate change. The Volta River Delta (VRD) of Ghana is a compelling site in which to conduct such an examination because of the clear climaterelated changes taking place in the Delta, and the fact that like many …

Open / Close: Assimilating Immersive Spaces In Visual Communication, Anika Sarin

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in two spaces obverse to each other: open and closed. An open space develops organically based on how people inhabit it. Interacting with an open space is a dynamic, sporadic, multisensory, immersive, and subjective experience. In such spaces, we are confronted with an alternative aesthetic, one that is in conflict with the seamlessness of a closed space. A closed space is anchored on definite variables like structure, use and boundaries. While interaction between people and space is important, the space is tightly controlled and interaction is designed. Through this thesis project, I present a method that metaphorically …

Spatial Optimization Methods And System For Redistricting Problems, Hai Jin

Theses and Dissertations

Redistricting is the process of dividing space into districts or zones while optimizing a set of spatial criteria under certain constraints. Example applications of redistricting include political redistricting, school redistricting, business service planning, and city management, among many others. Redistricting is a mission-critical component in operating governments and businesses alike. In research fields, redistricting (or region building) are also widely used, such as climate zoning, traffic zone analysis, and complex network analysis. However, as a combinatorial optimization problem, redistricting optimization remains one of the most difficult research challenges. There are currently few automated redistricting methods that have the optimization capability …

The Economic Impacts Of Forest Timber Methods In Washington State: A Hedonic Approach, Kaleb Javier

All Master's Theses

Washington State is one of the nation’s leaders in timber production. This paper establishes literature gap regarding the economic impacts of forest timber management methods. In this research, I employ a data set of 170,141 home sales across eleven counties of western Washington to estimate the impact that even-age and uneven-age forest cutting methods have on the local real-estate market. I estimate two sets of hedonic fixed effect regression models to control for omitted variable bias and spatial autocorrelation. The results show statistically significant impacts on property values for both cutting methods, adding important information for forest managers.

การพัฒนาแบบจำลองเพื่อประเมินปริมาณการชะล้างตะกอนบริเวณลุ่มน้ำแม่สรวย (ตอนบน) จังหวัดเชียงราย, กัมปนาท ศิริเรือง

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อสร้างแบบจำลองทางคณิตศาสตร์เพื่อคาดการณ์ปริมาณการชะล้างพังทลายของหน้าดินในลุ่มน้ำแม่สรวยตอนบน จังหวัดเชียงราย ผู้วิจัยสร้างแบบจำลองโดยยึดแนวทางจากแบบจำลอง Daily Base- Morgan-Morgan Finney (DMMF) ในการอธิบายลักษณะของปริมาณน้ำท่า และแบบจำลอง Revised Morgan-Morgan Finney (RMMF) ในการจำลองปริมาณการชะล้างของตะกอน แบบจำลองสร้างขึ้นด้วยโปรแกรม PCRaster ซึ่งสามารถประมวลผลข้อมูลเชิงพลวัติ ในรูปแบบราสเตอร์ ผู้วิจัยใช้ข้อมูลปริมาณน้ำไหลในลำน้ำและปริมาณตะกอนแขวนลอยที่จุดออกของลุ่มน้ำในการปรับเทียบค่าพารามิเตอร์ที่เหมาะสมและประเมินประสิทธิภาพของแบบจำลองในการคาดการณ์ด้วยดัชนี Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) ผลการศึกษาพบว่าแบบจำลองมีความถูกต้องในการคาดการณ์ปริมาณน้ำท่าในเกณฑ์ที่ยอมรับได้ด้วยค่า NSE เท่ากับ 0.37 และ 0.46 ในปี 2558 และ 2559 ตามลำดับ และคาดการณ์ปริมาณตะกอนมีความถูกต้องในระดับต่ำ (ค่า NSE เท่ากับ 0.12 และ 0.26 ในปี 2558 และ 2559 ตามลำดับ) แบบจำลองมีประสิทธิภาพในการคาดการณ์สูงในกรณีที่มีน้ำท่าและตะกอนในลำน้ำในปริมาณที่ไม่มากนัก หากเป็นช่วงที่มีน้ำท่าและปริมาณตะกอนเกิดขึ้นจำนวนมาก แบบจำลองคาดการณ์ปริมาณน้ำท่าและตะกอนต่ำกว่าความเป็นจริงมาก การคาดการณ์ปริมาณตะกอนในลำน้ำมีความผิดพลาดมากกว่าปริมาณน้ำท่า การวิเคราะห์รูปแบบทางพื้นที่และความรุนแรงของการชะล้างตะกอน พบว่าพื้นที่ส่วนใหญ่มีความรุนแรงจากการชะล้างตะกอนในระดับต่ำ (0-2 ตัน/ไร่/ฤดูฝน) เนื่องจากพื้นที่ศึกษาส่วนเป็นพื้นที่ป่าผลัดใบ มีการเกิดน้ำไหลบ่าหน้าดินไม่มากนักจึงทำให้เกิดการชะล้างหน้าดินในปริมาณไม่มากนัก ในขณะที่พื้นที่เพาะปลูกพืชไร่และไร่หมุนเวียน มีความรุนแรงของการชะล้างตะกอนในระดับสูง (มากกว่า 20 ตัน/ไร่/ฤดูฝน) นอกจากนี้ผู้วิจัยยังพบว่าในบริเวณที่มีลักษณะเป็นพื้นที่รับน้ำขนาดใหญ่และมีความลาดชันสูง หรือเป็นพื้นที่ที่มีดัชนีกำลังไหลลำธาร (stream power index) สูง จะทำให้มีการชะล้างของตะกอนหน้าดินจากการกระทำของน้ำไหลบ่าหน้าดินในปริมาณมาก

การพัฒนาโปรแกรมประยุกต์ระบบสารสนเทศภูมิศาสตร์บนอุปกรณ์เคลื่อนที่สำหรับข้อมูลความเหมาะสมในการปลูกพืช, ขัตติยะ พรหมวาส

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้นำเสนอการออกแบบและพัฒนาโปรแกรมประยุกต์บนโทรศัพท์เคลื่อนที่แบบสมาร์ตโฟนที่ใช้ระบบปฏิบัติการแอนดรอยด์เพื่อรายงานข้อมูลความเหมาะสมในการเพาะปลูกพืชเศรษฐกิจประเภทต่าง ๆ บนพื้นที่ตามความต้องการของผู้ใช้ ผู้วิจัยพัฒนาโปรแกรมประยุกต์ด้วยภาษาจาวา ภายใต้สิ่งแวดล้อมการพัฒนาของ Android Studio 2.3 ในการใช้งานนั้น ผู้ใช้จะต้องระบุพื้นที่ เป็นจุดหรือเป็นรูปแปลง และระบุชนิดของพืชเศรษฐกิจที่ต้องการทราบความเหมาะสมในการเพาะปลูก จากนั้นโปรแกรมจะทำการสืบค้นข้อมูลความเหมาะสมในการปลูกพืชเศรษฐกิจนั้น ณ พื้นที่ที่กำหนด และแสดงผลลัพธ์เป็นแผนที่ระดับความเหมาะสม แผนภูมิสัดส่วนพื้นที่แต่ละระดับความเหมาะสม และรายงานคำแนะนำในการปลูกพืชชนิดดังกล่าวบนพื้นที่ที่กำหนด โปรแกรมประยุกต์นี้จะช่วยให้เกษตรกรสามารถตรวจสอบความเหมาะสมของพื้นที่ในการปลูกพืชเศรษฐกิจประเภทต่าง ๆ ได้ด้วยตนเอง และช่วยลดภาระของเจ้าหน้าที่ที่ให้บริการตรวจสอบข้อมูลในสำนักงาน

การประเมินปริมาณคาร์บอนของป่าชุมชน ด้วยเทคนิคอากาศยานไร้คนขับ: กรณีศึกษาป่าชุมชนบ้านบุตาต้อง ตำบลนากลาง อำเภอสูงเนิน จังหวัดนครราชสีมา, ธนวิทย์ ถมกระจ่าง

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การวิจัยครั้งนี้ผู้วิจัยมีแนวคิดที่ประยุกต์ใช้อากาศยานไร้คนขับ (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle : UAV) เพื่อประเมินปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บของป่าชุมชนบ้านบุตาต้อง ตำบลนากลาง อำเภอสูงเนิน จังหวัดนครราชสีมา โดยการใช้ข้อมูลกลุ่มจุดสามมิติ (Point Could) ที่ได้จากการประมวลผลของภาพถ่ายทางอากาศที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับ เพื่อนำมาสร้างแบบจำลองความสูงสิ่งปกคลุมพื้นผิวเชิงเลข (Digital Surface Model : DSM) และแบบจำลองความสูงภูมิประเทศเชิงเลข (Digital Elevation Model :DEM) จากนั้นทำการหาความสูงของต้นไม้โดยการหาค่าต่างระหว่างของแบบจำลองดังกล่าว นอกจากนั้นผู้วิจัยได้ทำการกำหนดแปลงตัวอย่างถาวรขนาด 40 × 40 เมตร จำนวน 10 แปลง เพื่อสำรวจเก็บข้อมูลขนาดเส้นผ่านศูนย์กลางเพียงอกและความสูงต้นไม้ เพื่อใช้ในการประเมินความถูกต้องของข้อมูลที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับ ในการหามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินผู้วิจัยใช้สมการแอลโมเมตรี (allometric equations) ประเภทป่าเต็งรัง ผลการวิจัยพบว่าความสูงที่ได้จากข้อมูลอากาศยานไร้คนขับมีความสัมพันธ์กับภาคสนามโดยมีค่า R2 อยู่ที่ 0.715-0.898 และมีความคลาดเคลื่อนของความสูงต้นไม้อยู่ที่ 0.50-0.66 เมตร ปริมาณคาร์บอนทั้งพื้นที่ศึกษามี 1.54 ตัน/ไร่ ซึ่งเมื่อเปรียบเทียบกับปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บในแปลงตัวอย่างพบว่ามีความคลาดเคลื่อนอยู่ที่ร้อยละ 13-59 ซึ่งความคลาดเคลื่อนดังกล่าวมาจากความคลาดเคลื่อนในการประมาณขนาดเส้นผ่านศูนย์กลางเพียงอกจากข้อมูลความสูงต้นไม้ที่ได้จากอากาศยานไร้คนขับเนื่องจากความสัมพันธ์ดังกล่าวไม่มีความชัดเจน จากนั้นผู้วิจัยได้ทำการหาขนาดพื้นที่ที่เหมาะสมในการหาปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บพบว่าขนาดพื้นที่มากกว่า 25×25 เมตรมีความเหมาะสมสำหรับกรหาปริมาณคาร์บอนกักเก็บในพื้นที่ศึกษา

Climate Change Adaptation For Southern California Groundwater Managers: A Case Study Of The Six Basins Aquifer, Frank Lyles

Pomona Senior Theses

Groundwater has been very important to the economic development of Southern California, and will continue to be a crucial resource in the 21st century. However, Climate Change threatens to disrupt many of the physical and economic processes that control the flow of water in and out of aquifers. One groundwater manager, the Six Basins Watermaster in eastern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino Counties, has developed a long-term planning document called the Strategic Plan that mostly fails to address the implications of Climate Change, especially for local water supplies. This thesis presents an in-depth analysis of the Six Basin Watermaster’s …

Using Geospatial Analysis For High School Environmental Science Education: A Case Study Of The Jane Goodall Institute's Community-Centered Conservation Approach, Madison G. Vorva

Pomona Senior Theses

Given my experiences as a young conservation advocate, I saw a need to teach students the importance of interconnectedness, cultural awareness and systems-thinking skills through a spatial lens. I believe these skills are required for holistic, equitable and sustainable conservation decision-making in local and international contexts. This thesis uses geospatial tools to teach conservation ecology vocabulary and concepts from high school environmental science curriculum in two online resources. The purpose of my lesson plan is to show students how conservationists address complex conservation and land-use challenges using the Jane Goodall Institute’s community-centered conservation approach as a case-study. My hope is …

Remote Sensing Of World War Ii Era Unexploded Bombs Using Object-Based Image Analysis And Multi-Temporal Datasets: A Case Study Of The Fort Myers Bombing And Gunnery Range, Bryan Byholm

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

During World War II, United States Army and Navy pilots trained on several hundred bombing ranges encompassing more than 12 million acres of land, leaving behind crater-scarred landscapes across the country. Post-war estimates suggest that 10-15% of aerial bombs used failed to detonate as intended, so these areas today are contaminated by a large number of dangerous unexploded bombs (UXB) which remain under the surface. Until recently, detecting UXB has been a tedious and expensive process done in three stages: (1) identifying and mapping general areas of concentrated bomb craters using historical air photos and records; (2) intensely searching these …

Evaluating The Potential Of A Geospatial/Geostatistical Methodology For Locating Rain-Derived Infiltration And Inflow Into Wastewater Treatment Systems In The Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, Usa, Vinson Aaron Williams

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A significant issue facing municipal wastewater treatment infrastructure (WWTI) is how to manage infiltration and inflow (I/I). I/I of rain and ground water permeate into WWTI after precipitation events, periods of groundwater table rise, and percolation from surrounding surface waters. This can create discharges above the infrastructure's flow capacity, increase costs for processing the wastewater and add undesired stress to aging wastewater networks. In an attempt to assess this problem cost and time inefficient approaches have commonly been applied. This study utilizes a new and more radical methodology to try and make WWTI management more efficient. This study applies ArcGIS …

Advancing High Spatial And Spectral Resolution Remote Sensing For Observing Plant Community Response To Environmental Variability And Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Sergio Armando Vargas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Arctic is being impacted by climate change more than any other region on Earth. Impacts to terrestrial ecosystems have the potential to manifest through feedbacks with other components of the Earth System. Of particular concern is the potential for the massive store of soil organic carbon to be released from arctic permafrost to the atmosphere where it could exacerbate greenhouse warming and impact global climate and biogeochemical cycles. Even though substantial gains to our understanding of the changing Arctic have been made, especially over the past decade, linking research results from plot to regional scales remains a challenge due …

An 'Answer To Hopes And Dreams': Utopianism, Progressivism, And The American Spatial Tradition In The New Deal Resettlement Community Of Greenhills, Ohio, Jared M. Berg

Senior Independent Study Theses

The purpose of this project is to explain what historical forces led to the construction of Greenhills, Ohio. The goal is to show that Greenhills is one example in a very long line of planned residential communities in American history which have been designed in order to solve contemporary societal issues. This has been done by examining how Americans have constructed space in preceding planned communities. Upon examining these examples, it is clear that Greenhills is very much part of what I identify as an American spatial tradition, a community which especially borrows from the utopian and progressive elements of …

Ecological Homogenization Of Residential Macrosystems, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Neil D. Bettez, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Susannah B. Lerman, Dexter H. Locke, James B. Heffernan, Jennifer L. Morse, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Tara L.E. Trammell

Geography

Similarities in planning, development and culture within urban areas may lead to the convergence of ecological processes on continental scales. Transdisciplinary, multi-scale research is now needed to understand and predict the impact of human-dominated landscapes on ecosystem structure and function.

The available download on this page is the author manuscript accepted for publication. This version has undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process.

Ideas And Perspectives: How Coupled Is The Vegetation To The Boundary Layer?, Martin G. De Kauwe, Belinda E. Medlyn, Jürgen Knauer, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

Understanding the sensitivity of transpiration to stomatal conductance is critical to simulating the water cycle. This sensitivity is a function of the degree of coupling between the vegetation and the atmosphere and is commonly expressed by the decoupling factor. The degree of coupling assumed by models varies considerably and has previously been shown to be a major cause of model disagreement when simulating changes in transpiration in response to elevated CO2. The degree of coupling also offers us insight into how different vegetation types control transpiration fluxes, which is fundamental to our understanding of land-atmosphere interactions. To explore this issue, …

The Database Of The Predicts (Projecting Responses Of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) Project, Lawrence N. Hudson, Tim Newbold, Sara Contu, Samantha L.L. Hill, Igor Lysenko, Adriana De Palma, Helen R.P. Phillips, Tamera I. Alhusseini, Felicity E. Bedford, Dominic J. Bennett, Hollie Booth, Victoria J. Burton, Charlotte W.T. Chng, Argyrios Choimes, David L.P. Correia, Julie Day, Susy Echeverría-Londoño, Susan R. Emerson, Di Gao, Morgan Garon, Michelle L.K. Harrison, Daniel J. Ingram, Martin Jung, Victoria Kemp, Lucinda Kirkpatrick, Callum D. Martin, Yuan Pan, Gwilym D. Pask-Hale, Edwin L. Pynegar, Alexandra N. Robinson, Katia Sanchez-Ortiz, Rebecca A. Senior, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in …

Captive: Zoometric Operations In Gaza, Irus Braverman

Journal Articles

“We are the only people in this world who are living under such total occupation. Israel sees us as being equal to our animals, and sometimes they even value us less than our animals.” This quote, from the founder of the Gaza Zoo, demonstrates both the significance and the complexities of human-animal relations in Gaza, especially at times of siege and war. My article draws on ethnographic encounters and investigative analysis to relay how Gaza’s spatial confinement generally, and the Israeli incursion into Gaza of summer 2014 in particular, has lent itself to a radicalized discursive interplay between the animalization …

"Going The Distance So Our Food Doesn't Have To": Case Studies Of Creative Public Procurement At Canadian And Uk Universities, Lori Stahlbrand

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation explores three efforts to develop sustainable local food systems at public universities in Canada and the UK. One is a partnership between the Canadian non-profit, Local Food Plus (LFP), and the University of Toronto (U of T). The other two are partnerships between the UK non-profit, the Soil Association (SA), and two British universities – Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and the University of the Arts London (UAL). In all three cases studies, a formal certification program to support the transition to more sustainable local food systems was a central feature. The author of this dissertation was the founder …

The Political Ecology Of Water Justice: A Case Study Of Tripoli, Lebanon, Fatima Sidaoui

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite the continuous efforts of the international community to address water scarcity, millions of people continue to lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. Water problems are often explained as natural phenomena or the result of technical failures, overlooking the fact that in many cases, water crises are those of socio-political inequalities rather than of scarcity. Examining water inequities, as political ecologists maintain, requires paying attention to the underlying power structures that perpetuate those injustices, and the agency available to people. My case study, located in Tripoli, Lebanon, attempts to understand those dynamics, specifically in relation to the …

Understanding Community Character As A Socio-Ecological Framework To Enhance Local-Scale Adaptation: An Interdisciplinary Case Study From Rural Northwest Connecticut, Joanna Wozniak-Brown

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Around the world, municipalities are facing new challenges, not the least of which is climate change. This is especially true for rural communities that, for a variety of reasons, will be disproportionately affected by the climatic changes and accompanying policies or programs.

This dissertation, written in manuscript-style, integrates climate change and social-ecological scholarship to address the unique character of rural communities, to communicate the complexity of rural identity through the term "rural character"; and to empower rural communities to incorporate adaptation strategies into their daily municipal operations and planning.

Specifically, this dissertation seeks to answer the following questions: What is …

The New North: Patents And Knowledge Economy Analysis In Alaska, Salma Zbeed

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the last few years, Alaska's economy suffered as world oil prices plunged to very low levels, and the analysts predicting that Alaska output will continue to dwindle in the years to come. As a result of Alaska's dependence on oil economy, the state now faces a budget deficit. Modern economic development theories suggest searching for ways to manage northern frontiers. Investment in a knowledge –based economy seems to be new one of the appealing alternatives, and investing the human capacities is necessary. There is enough evidence from both central and peripheral regions that geographic proximity between the people and …

Rock Glacier Hydrology In The San Juan Mountains, Colorado, Emilio Ian Mateo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rock glaciers are unique geomorphological features located in alpine environments and are found in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. There has been little research done on rock glaciers compared to their ice glacier counterparts. Most rock glaciers are located on the northern slope aspect in mountainous areas (Janke 2007), however, there are multiple in southwest Colorado with different aspects. This research project asks how slope aspect influences the hydrological processes of streams sourced from rock glaciers in the San Juan Mountains. This project focused on three basins that are adjacent to each other and share a common peak, Gilpin …

Experimental Evaluation Of Several Key Factors Affecting Root Biomass Estimation By 1500 Mhz Ground-Penetrating Radar, John C. Bain, Frank P. Day, John R. Butnor

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Accurate quantification of coarse roots without disturbance represents a gap in our understanding of belowground ecology. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has shown significant promise for coarse root detection and measurement, however root orientation relative to scanning transect direction, the difficulty identifying dead root mass, and the effects of root shadowing are all key factors affecting biomass estimation that require additional research. Specifically, many aspects of GPR applicability for coarse root measurement have not been tested with a full range of antenna frequencies. We tested the effects of multiple scanning directions, root crossover, and root versus soil moisture content in a …

A Landscape Of Water And Waste: Heritage Legacies And Environmental Change In The Mesabi Iron Range, John Baeten

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation explores the intersection between mining technology, industrial heritage, and environmental history, using iron mining in the Mesabi Range of the Lake Superior Iron District as its core case study. What impact did technological shifts in iron mining and ore processing have on the environment of the Lake Superior basin? How did the environmental changes wrought from low-grade iron ore mining and processing, such as the expansion of open-pits and the production of tailings, affect different communities in Minnesota’s Mesabi Range? And finally, how have the environmental legacies of iron mining been remembered and memorialized, or ignored and forgotten?