Geography Commons^™

West Virginia Waterscapes: Surface And Mineral Owners’ Perspectives On Groundwater Contamination Due To Natural Gas Extraction, Bethani Turley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In the past decade, northwest West Virginia has experienced increasing natural gas extraction from the Marcellus shale. Because water usage for natural gas extraction is high and increasing, there has been a proliferation of concerns about gas extraction’s impacts on surface and groundwaters, especially how hydraulic fracturing and drilling impacts residents’ access to safe household well water. This issue is particularly salient in rural West Virginia, where many residents rely on groundwater wells for household uses. This thesis, based on 30 in-depth interviews with surface and mineral owners, explores resident perspectives and lived experience of natural gas extraction’s impacts on …

Richwood, West Virginia After The 2016 Flood: Place, Devastation, And Hope In An Appalachian Community, Christine Elizabeth Witt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

How does a community cope with a crisis that threatens its identity or even its existence? This is the question facing the town of Richwood, West Virginia, after a devastating flood that impacted much of the town in 2016. Some of the consequences of the 2016 flood were the loss of the high school building, followed by difficulties receiving the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money to rebuild the school, and a loss of additional FEMA money for other critical issues due to alleged corruption. How do community residents cope emotionally with devastation? How do they understand the causes of …

A Deep Dive Into The Land Development Dynamics Of A Complex Landscape, Pariya Pourmohammadi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Land development is a complex and dynamic process simultaneously interacting with numerous environmental, cultural and economic procedures. In this research we studied past, present and future of land transformation in Appalachia. This dissertation is organized in three-essay format and each essay is focused on one aspect of land development processes in a sub-region in the Appalachian region. In the first essay, deep learning techniques are used to build predictive models for the land development. This study presets deconvolutional neural networks models in predicting land development. On the second essay, spatial data analysis and remote sensing are used to investigate the …

Multidimensional Analysis Of Vulnerability: Methodological Advances And A Case Study From Malawi., Park Mcmillan Muhonda

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Since 1990s rural households in Malawi, constituting 85% of the population, have experienced deepening livelihood vulnerability, often manifested as persistent food insecurity. Livelihood crises have since been blamed on or attributed directly to weather perturbations/climatic shocks i.e. El-Nino induced climate variability/drought conditions. This study revealed that persistent livelihood crisis in rural Malawi cannot be attributed to or squarely blamed on weather shocks alone, rather it is at the intersection of various livelihoods shocks that rural livelihood vulnerability in Malawi is exacerbated i.e. worsening and deepening.

Thus, rural livelihood vulnerability to climate shocks in Malawi is manifest not in isolation but …

Reconciling The Dissonance Between Historic Preservation And Virtual Reality Through A Place-Based Virtual Heritage System., Danny J. Bonenberger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study explores a problematic disconnect associated with virtual heritage and the immersive 3D computer modeling of cultural heritage. The products of virtual heritage often fail to adhere to long-standing principles and recent international conventions associated with historic preservation, heritage recording, designation, and interpretation. By drawing upon the geographic concepts of space, landscape, and place, along with advances in Geographic Information Systems, first-person serious games, and head-mounted Virtual Reality platforms this study envisions, designs, implements, and evaluates a virtual heritage system that seeks to reconcile the dissonance between Virtual Reality and historic preservation. Finally, the dissertation examines the contributions and …

Terminal Illness: The Political Ecology And Political Economy Of The Millennium Bulk Coal Export Terminal, Longview, Wa, Paige Mcnorvell

All Master's Theses

The declining demand for coal in the United States (U.S. Energy Information Administration [EIA] 2016) has led to a push by the coal industry for the construction of export terminals in the Pacific Northwest that would supply coal from the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming to Asia. Though none of the proposed terminals have been approved for construction, the Millennium Bulk Coal Export Terminal in Longview, Washington remains a potentially viable option pending decisions in state and federal courts. In this thesis, I critically analyze the Millennium Bulk Terminal permitting process through a mixed-methods qualitative approach that uses …

The Short-Term Effects Of Interstate Highways On Small Rural Communities: A Case Study Of I-39, I-49 And I-72, 1990 To 2000, John Paul Metelko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The presence of interstate highways in rural areas improves access to nearby rural

communities and changes those communities’ spheres of influence. Research into

understanding how improved access from interstate highways affects rural communities

is needed. This case study was designed to investigate how rural communities changed

on the basis of population, vacancy, median home value, and median contract rent in the

short term after an interstate highway was completed nearby in the early 1990s.

The communities included in this study are incorporated cities, towns, villages

and census-designated places in non-metropolitan counties with at least one incorporated

city, town, village and …

A Climatology Of Quasi-Linear Convective Systems In The U.S., Jacob Adam Strohm

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Quasi-linear convective systems, or QLCSs, are a common, organized thunderstorm mode in the U.S. Over the last fifty years, severe weather research has focused on the supercell, but, recently, QLCSs have become an increasingly important area of study. Researchers and operational meteorologists realize that this morphology is difficult to forecast and may be responsible for a large proportion of the severe weather reports in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. This study seeks to determine the degree to which QLCSs threaten humans and their assets by, first, assessing their climatology and, second, measuring their contribution to the severe report record. …

Long-Term Urban Forest Cover Change Detection With Object Based Image Analysis And Random Point Based Assessment, Raoul Blackman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The urban forest provides various ecosystem services. Urban tree canopy cover measurement is the most basic quantification of ecosystem services. There have been few studies focused on long-term high-resolution urban forest change analysis. Further, few if any of these studies have compared object based image analysis (OBIA) and random point based assessment for determination of urban forest cover. The research objective is to define the urban forest canopy area, location, and height within the City of St Peter, MN boundary between 1938 and 2019 using both the OBIA and random point based methods with high spatial-resolution aerial photographic images and …

Utilization Of Various Methods And A Landsat Ndvi/Google Earth Engine Product For Classifying Irrigated Land Cover, Andrew Nemecek

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Methods for classifying irrigated land cover are often complex and not quickly reproducible. Further, moderate resolution time-series datasets have been consistently utilized to produce irrigated land cover products over the past decade, and the body of irrigation classification literature contains no examples of subclassification of irrigated land cover by irrigation method. Creation of geospatial irrigated land cover products with higher resolution datasets could improve reliability, and subclassification of irrigation by method could provide better information for hydrologists and climatologists attempting to model the role of irrigation in the surface-ground water cycle and the water-energy balance. This study summarizes a simple, …

Adaptation Under The Canopy: Coffee Cooperative And Certification Contributions To Smallholder Livelihood Sustainability In Santa Lucía Teotepec, Oaxaca, Meghan C. Montgomery

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The collapse and reorganization of global coffee markets associated with the “coffee crisis” have had profound, negative impacts on smallholder producer livelihoods throughout the world. In Mexico, the collapse of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) coincided with withdrawal of government support for agriculture, which devastated producers dependent on coffee for their livelihoods. Smallholders responded by shifting livelihood strategies to diversify income, migrating, and converting primary forest cover to subsistence crops and pasture to support household livelihood security. In some instances, producers also joined or formed cooperative organizations to access specialty certifications that offer higher priced markets, extension information, and other …

Geospatial Analysis Of Care And Mortality In The 2014 Liberia Ebola Outbreak, Marion Carlton Kinkade

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 to 2016 had more than 28,000 suspected, probable, and confirmed cases. It was the largest Ebola outbreak in history. Of the 28,000 cases in the three Ebola-affected countries, Liberia had 10,000 cases with almost 5,000 deaths. The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) entered Liberia along the border of Guinea and moved to the capital city of Monrovia where the virus spread. Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) were constructed throughout the response in locations where there were available facilities versus distance to care challenges. This study examined the association of distance from villages to ETUs …

The Environmental, Social, And Economic Benefits Of Blue Green Infrastructure In An Urbanized Area, Joseph L. Oguns

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

At present, it is evident that there is a shift from rural to an urban settlement which results in high demand for residential buildings and other urban infrastructure. Blue – Green Infrastructure (BGI) is a system of using blue (water) and green (nature) to address urban and environmental challenges. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic benefits of blue-green infrastructure in an urbanized area in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The study involves the utilization of Geographic Information System (GIS) to determine water quality level resulting from nonpoint source pollution through acquiring elevation data; watershed; and …

Super-Localizing Food As Tourism Development™: Producing The 30 Mile Meal™ In Athens, Ohio, Jed Debruin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Geographers have played a leading role in the theorization and critique of local food initiatives, raising critical questions about why they are advanced, how they work, and who benefits. Central to geographic critique of local food initiatives is how “the local” is framed, valued, and fetishized. The 30 Mile Meal™ (30MM) is one of these local food initiatives that seeks to rebrand local food in Appalachia through tourism development, as well as expand this model to other communities. In this paper, I explore how the 30MM is distintinctive in relation to other local food initiatives, how the 30MM constructs and …

Middle To Late Holocene (7200-2900 Cal. Bp) Archaeological Site Formation Processes At Crumps Sink And The Origins Of Anthropogenic Environments In Central Kentucky, Usa, Justin Nels Carlson

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Though some researchers have argued that the Big Barrens grasslands of Kentucky were the product of anthropogenic land clearing practices by Native Americans, heretofore, this hypothesis had not been tested archaeologically. More work was needed to refine chronologies of fire activity in the region, determine the extent to which humans played a role in the process, and integrate these findings with the paleoenvironmental and archaeological record. With these goals in mind, I conducted archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations at Crumps Sink in the Sinkhole Plain of Kentucky. The archaeological record and site formation history of Crumps Sink were compared with environmental …

การประยุกต์ใช้ภาพถ่ายจากอากาศยานไร้คนขับเพื่อการทำแผนที่การปกคลุมแหล่งหญ้าทะเลและประมาณค่ามวลชีวภาพแหล่งหญ้าทะเล: กรณีศึกษา หมู่บ้านร็อคการ์เด้นท์ จังหวัดระยอง, ปิยะพร ประกอบผล

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

หญ้าทะเลมีบทบาทสำคัญต่อระบบนิเวศทางทะเลและทรัพยากรชายฝั่ง เพราะหญ้าทะเลเป็นแหล่งอนุบาลสัตว์ทะเล เป็นแหล่งอาหารของสิ่งมีชีวิตในทะเล นอกจากนี้หญ้าทะเลช่วยให้มีการตกตะกอนจึงช่วยลดปัญหาการกัดเซาะชายฝั่งได้ อย่างไรก็ตามปัจจุบันพื้นที่หญ้าทะเลทั่วโลกกำลังลดลง การพัฒนาพื้นที่บริเวณชายฝั่ง ทำให้น้ำทะเลมีคุณภาพลดลงและส่งผลต่อการเจริญเติบโตของหญ้าทะเล การศึกษานี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อใช้ภาพถ่ายจากอากาศยานไร้คนขับในการจำแนกพื้นที่หญ้าทะเล ประเมินพื้นที่ปกคลุม และประมาณค่ามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินของหญ้าทะเล โดยมีพื้นที่ศึกษาอยู่บริเวณชายฝั่งทะเลหมู่บ้านร็อคการ์เด้นท์ จังหวัดระยอง ผลการศึกษาพบว่า การจำแนกประเภทข้อมูลแบบควบคุมด้วยเทคนิค Maximum Likelihood มีความถูกต้องโดยรวมสูงกว่าการจำแนกประเภทข้อมูลแบบไม่ควบคุมด้วยเทคนิค Iso Cluster เมื่อนำค่าการสะท้อนของช่วงคลื่นที่ได้จากภาพถ่ายจากอากาศยานไร้คนขับไปวิเคราะห์ถดถอยพหุคูณ โดยคัดเลือกตัวแปรแบบอิสระด้วยวิธี Stepwise เพื่อหาช่วงคลื่นที่มีความสัมพันธ์กับค่ามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินที่ได้จากภาคสนาม พบว่า ค่าการสะท้อนของช่วงคลื่นขอบแดง (Red Edge) มีความสัมพันธ์กับค่ามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินอย่างมีนัยสำคัญทางสถิติ จากนั้นจึงนำข้อมูลไปสร้างสมการเพื่อใช้ทำนายค่า พบว่า ค่ามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินที่คำนวณได้จากพื้นที่ 6.56 ไร่ คือ 3,363.76 kgDW ผลการศึกษาสรุปได้ว่า สามารถใช้ภาพถ่ายจากอากาศยานไร้คนขับในการจำแนก ประเมินพื้นที่หญ้าทะเล และประมาณค่ามวลชีวภาพเหนือพื้นดินของหญ้าทะเลได้ ผลการวิจัยนี้ สามารถนำไปใช้เป็นแนวทางในการพัฒนาการประยุกต์ใช้ภาพถ่ายจากอากาศยานไร้คนขับเพื่อติดตามการเปลี่ยนแปลงของหญ้าทะเลในพื้นที่อื่นที่มีลักษณะทางระบบนิเวศใกล้เคียงได้

การประยุกต์ใช้เครื่องสแกนเลเซอร์ภาคพื้นดินสามมิติเพื่อติดตามการชะล้างพังทลายแบบร่องธาร, จันทร์จิรา สารสำเร็จ

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยนี้ใช้เครื่องสแกนเลเซอร์สามมิติภาคพื้นดิน (3D Terrestrial Laser Scanner) ศึกษาติดตามการเปลี่ยนแปลงสัณฐานวิทยาของร่องธารและวิเคราะห์ความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างปัจจัยทางกายภาพกับการชะล้างแบบร่องธาร ผู้วิจัยติดตามการเปลี่ยนแปลงของร่องธารบนพื้นที่ลาดชันระหว่าง 30%-60% ในสวนปาล์มและสวนยางพารา ในอำเภอท่าแซะ จังหวัดชุมพร ทั้งสิ้น 6 ร่องธาร โดยใช้เครื่องสแกนเลเซอร์ภาคพื้นดินเก็บข้อมูลลักษณะสัณฐานของร่องธารแบบสามมิติ ครอบคลุมพื้นที่ 2 x 5 ตารางเมตร ระหว่างเดือนกรกฎาคม - ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2561 จำนวน 8 ครั้ง และนำมาสร้างแบบจำลองระดับความสูงภูมิประเทศเชิงเลข (Digital Elevation Model : DEM) ความละเอียดจุดภาพ 1 เซนติเมตร ผลการวิจัยพบว่าร่องธารในสวนยางพาราสูญเสียดินสุทธิมากกว่าร่องธารในสวนปาล์มน้ำมัน ร่องธารในสวนยางพารามีปริมาณการสูญเสียดินสุทธิเท่ากับ 1,234.17 (Rubber A), 1,508.02 (Rubber B) และ 1,290.05 (Rubber C) ลบ.ซม. ในขณะในสวนปาล์มน้ำมัน มีปริมาณการสูญเสียดินสุทธิเท่ากับ 1,244.07 (Palm A) และ 1,203.97 (Palm B) ลบ.ซม. และมี 1 แห่ง มีปริมาณดินสุทธิเพิ่มขึ้น 0.63 (palm C) ลบ.ซม. ร่องธารในสวนยางพารามีการสูญเสียดินมากกว่าในสวนปาล์ม เนื่องจากปาล์มมีระบบรากฝอยกระจายอยู่บริเวณผิวดินลดความรุนแรงของกระแสน้ำได้ต่างจากระบบรากแก้วของยางพาราที่มีขนาดรากใหญ่และลึกลงใต้ผิวดินเมื่อเกิดการไหลบ่าของน้ำหน้าดินจึงเกิดการสูญเสียดินมากกว่า นอกจากนี้ร่องธารที่มีการสูญเสียหน้าดินสุทธิสูงสุดเป็นร่องธารที่มีดัชนีกำลังการไหลของน้ำ (Stream Power Index: SPI) สูงสุดทั้งในสวนยางพาราและสวนปาล์ม และยังพบว่าปริมาณการสูญเสียหน้าดินสัมพันธ์เชิงบวกกับจำนวนวันฝนตก (r = 0.69-0.99) และปริมาณฝนรวม (r = 0.68-0.99) ค่อนข้างสูง ยกเว้นร่องธาร A ในสวนปาล์มที่มีขนาดใหญ่ที่สุดสัมพันธ์เชิงบวกกับความเข้มฝนสูงสุด (r = 0.98)

การประยุกต์ระบบสารสนเทศภูมิศาสตร์เพื่อจำแนกลำดับศักย์ของถนน: กรณีศึกษาจังหวัดพระนครศรีอยุธยา, สิทธิพงค์ กลิ่นกระจาย

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

พระราชบัญญัติทางหลวงแบ่งประเภทถนนในประเทศไทยตามหน่วยที่ดูแลรับผิดชอบเป็นหลัก แต่เนื่องด้วยประโยชน์การใช้งานมีความแตกต่างกันทั้งการบริการ การเคลื่อนที่ของการจราจร และการเข้าถึงพื้นที่ ซึ่งจะสะท้อนการใช้งานหรือประโยชน์ใช้สอยของถนนแต่ละสาย ส่งผลถึงการบำรุงรักษา การออกแบบ การวางผังคมนาคม และการกำหนดมาตรการควบคุมความเร็วที่เหมาะสมกับหน้าที่ของถนนแต่ละประเภท ดังนั้น การจำแนกถนนตามหน้าที่การใช้งานจริง จะช่วยให้การวางแผนงานเป็นไปอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพมากยิ่งขึ้น งานวิจัยนี้จึงศึกษาและจำแนกลำดับศักย์ของถนนตามหน้าที่การใช้งานจริง โดยใช้ระบบสารสนเทศภูมิศาสตร์ร่วมกับตรรกศาสตร์คลุมเครือ และกระบวนการลำดับชั้นเชิงวิเคราะห์ ผลการวิจัยพบว่าทางหลวงแผ่นดินมีหน้าที่การใช้งานจริงตามลำดับศักย์ทั้ง 4 ลำดับ ได้แก่ ทางสายประธาน ทางสายหลัก ทางสายรอง และทางสายย่อย โดยส่วนใหญ่เป็นทางสายหลัก (ร้อยละ 44) ทางหลวงชนบท มีการใช้งานจริงใน 2 ลำดับ ได้แก่ ทางสายรอง และทางสายย่อย โดยส่วนใหญ่เป็นทางสายย่อย (ร้อยละ 72) สำหรับทางหลวงท้องถิ่น มีการใช้งานจริงใน 3 ลำดับ ได้แก่ ทางสายหลัก ทางสายรอง และทางสายย่อย โดยส่วนใหญ่เป็นทางสายย่อย (ร้อยละ 98) ทั้งนี้ จากการจำแนกถนนทั้งหมดตามลำดับศักย์ของหน้าที่การใช้งานจริง พบว่าเป็นทางสายประธาน ร้อยละ 2 ทางสายหลัก ร้อยละ 5 ทางสายรอง ร้อยละ 9 และส่วนใหญ่เป็นทางสายย่อย ร้อยละ 84 ตามลำดับ

Border Disorder: 'Irregular Bangladeshis', Xenophobia And Crimmigration Control In India, Sujata Ramachandran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In India, the crisis of migration tied to the entry, presence and assimilation of the so-called ‘irregular’, ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ is now an undisputed reality, seemingly affecting all geographical areas located within the national territories in multiple adverse ways. A decidedly strident xenophobic rhetoric attaches the presence of such migrants in an indiscriminate fashion to unending anxieties and urgent problems, whilst constantly drawing attention to the inefficacies of immigration enforcement and deficiencies of (interior and exterior) borders controls. This dissertation addresses key moments in the making and deepening of this national crisis and its management by state authorities over the …

Refugees From Syria Caught Between War And Borders: A Journey Towards Protection, Maissaa Almustafa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the global crisis of protection through the lens of the Syrian refugee crisis and the particular experiences of refugees’ journeys to Sweden.

In doing so, the dissertation challenges the dominant narratives that represent refugees either as victims who deserve aid in their regions, or as threats when they exert their agency and journey towards the global north. In the same vein, the dissertation problematizes the dominant narrative of the “European crisis of migration” and proposes that the “unauthorized” arrivals of refugees in Europe are reflections of a global crisis of protection, a crisis that develops as a …

Policy, Plans And Processes For Developing And Improving The Use Of Hazard Maps In Climate Change Adaptation For Yukon Communities, Stephanie Pike

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Climate change has quickly become one of the most commonly discussed topics in northern Canada. Communities located in Canada’s north are facing impacts to every aspect of life. Hazard mapping is one of the tools used to predict risk from climate change impacts and thus assist communities in adaptation planning. The Northern Climate ExChange in Yukon has developed hazard maps for seven communities across Yukon. While hazard maps are a useful tool, in order for them to reach their maximum potential, users need to be well educated and trained to use them. Capacity and communication are arguably the most significant …

The Social Construction Of A Disaster Typology To Enhance Operational Emergency Planning For K-8 Public Schools In Southern Ontario, Patricia Martel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation outlines the development of a disaster typology that could be used as a tool for developing operational emergency plans for K-8 public schools with the potential to be applied more generally to other facilities that host vulnerable groups. The theoretical framework used to inform this study is the theory of the social construction of disasters. This theory conceptualizes disasters as being the result of the interaction between social factors, such as risk perception and vulnerability, and the hazards.The author of this dissertation is an emergency management practitioner and brought a perspective informed by both theory and practice of …

The Legitimation & Networked Unification Of #Nodapl: Diverse Discourses Of Value Validate A Collective Identity, Jacqueline Marie Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

NoDAPL was, first and foremost, an Indigenous-led resistance against the construction of a pipeline in North Dakota. It was also a movement that built solidarity, bridging networks between international Indigenous peoples, Black Lives Matter activists, veterans, and feminists. This discourse analysis of social media and digital texts addresses the networked publics, collective identities, social capital, and intersectionality in applying Van Leeuwen’s (2007) understanding of legitimation. In doing so, the practice of reproducing and extending the values, themes, and images of various algorithmic imaginaries will be explored, as they relate to network homophily, identity construction, and mobilization. This study will argue …

Does Perceived Ecological Integrity Affect Restorative Health Outcomes? An Examination Of Visitor Experiences In Diverse Environments In An Ontario Protected Area, Catherine E. Reining

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The human health and well-being benefits associated with nature contact is well established. Parks and other forms of protected areas contribute significantly to these benefits by providing access to nature. However, limited research has been done on how different environments within protected areas (e.g., forests, coasts, areas being restored) and the perceived quality (i.e., ecological integrity) of these environments affect the health and well-being outcomes of visitors. This study builds on previous work to better understand how visitor experiences provided by diverse natural and built environments in Pinery Provincial Park affect perceived restorative outcomes as one aspect of health and …

@Yourlocation: A Spatial Analysis Of Geotagged Tweets In The Us, Ocean Mckinney

CMC Senior Theses

This project examines the spatial network properties observable from geo-located tweet data. Conventional exploration examines characteristics of a variety of network attributes, but few employ spatial edge correlations in their analysis. Recent studies have demonstrated the improvements that these correlations contribute to drawing conclusions about network structure. This thesis expands upon social network research utilizing spatial edge correlations and presents processing and formatting techniques for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) data.

The Geography Of Crime: Placing Geographers In The Space Of Criminologists, Anthony Wv Piscitelli

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Geography of Crime consists of five articles. The first article, Exploring opportunities for geographers to explain the spatial distribution of crime, serves as a key conceptual link between each of the other four articles. This paper provides a broad introduction to the dissertation showing what gaps in the crime literature exist, especially those ripe for analysis by geographers. Three primary directions emerged as a focus of this dissertation: overarching theoretical contributions, specialized geographic quantitative techniques, and qualitative approaches centred on the concept of place.

The second article, Connecting social disorganization theory to broken windows and routine activities proposes …

Unbundling Property In Boston’S Urban Food Commons, Oona Morrow, Deborah Martin

Geography

Households and community organizations are involved in the creation, use, care, and management of urban spaces, including through food practices such as planting, foraging, harvesting, weeding and pruning at the ambiguous edges of public and private property. Drawing on case studies in Boston, Massachusetts, we examine how commons are articulated through these practices, particularly in relation to multiple dimensions of property rights. Specifically, we ask how food practices can open urban spaces to negotiations around access, responsibility, care, and ownership, especially when (property) ownership is not an end-goal, but a circumstance shaping other practices. Using interviews and participant observation of …

Residential Household Yard Care Practices Along Urban-Exurban Gradients In Six Climatically-Diverse U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Dexter H. Locke, Colin Polsky, J. Morgan Grove, Peter M. Groffman, Kristen C. Nelson, Kelli L. Larson, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, James B. Heffernan, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Sarah E. Hobbie, Neil D. Bettez, Sharon J. Hall, Christopher Neill, Laura Ogden, Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne

Geography

Residential land is expanding in the United States, and lawn now covers more area than the country’s leading irrigated crop by area. Given that lawns are widespread across diverse climatic regions and there is rising concern about the environmental impacts associated with their management, there is a clear need to understand the geographic variation, drivers, and outcomes of common yard care practices. We hypothesized that 1) income, age, and the number of neighbors known by name will be positively associated with the odds of having irrigated, fertilized, or applied pesticides in the last year, 2) irrigation, fertilization, and pesticide application …

The Erosion Of Democracy: Gerrymandering In The United States, Matthew P. Ruiz

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Every ten years in the United States, we redraw our congressional districts that elect the 435 members of the House of Representatives after the decennial census data has been collected and organized. Politicians around the country have taken to using these map revisions for their party’s own political gains and have been doing so since the time even before the United States Constitution was ratified. This process where politicians draw district lines to favor their own party and expand their political power is called gerrymandering (Trickey, 2017). The purpose of this mixed method study is to understand the impact gerrymandering …

Analysis Of A Paleoglacier Reconstruction Model For Valley Glaciers Of The Wind River Range, Wyoming, Taylor Rae Garton

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Various approaches, ranging from in-field morphological reconstructions to more technology-based modelling practices allow us to reconstruct and understand the long-term geomorphic evolution of landscapes. The study of paleo-environments by reconstruction can also give us profound insight into paleo-climate. A new model, GlaRe (Glacial Reconstruction), has been introduced into the alpine glacier modeling community to facilitate glacier reconstruction. In this research the mathematical equations representing the basal shear stress parameter are tested to determine the applicability of the GlaRe model to alpine glaciers in the American West. Known ages and extents of past glacier advances were used to test the reconstructions …