Geography Commons^™

Foodways: An Ethnographic Analysis Of Cwu International Students’ Perception Of The Role Of Culturally Relevant Food In Their Sense Of Belonging, Joy Ihuka

All Master's Theses

International students face unique challenges adjusting to new academic environments, including developing a sense of homesickness and lack of belonging. Studies have shown that consuming culturally relevant food helps international students relieve homesickness, fostering a sense of belonging. Curiously, nonetheless, literature on student belonging rarely focuses on food. Within this gap, this thesis explores the significance of culturally relevant food in fostering a sense of belonging among international students at Central Washington University. Using ethnographic interviews, this research examines how culturally relevant food (including how food is prepared) or lack thereof may influence international students’ perceptions of belonging. This study …

Agricultural Groundcover Update December 2023, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

Summary

• About 96% of the grainbelt had adequate vegetative groundcover (more than 50%) to prevent wind erosion in December 2023.
• In the northern half of the grainbelt, a larger-than-average area has 51–60% groundcover, which is expected to decrease to below 50% over the summer.
• Just under 4% of the grainbelt (553,000 ha) had less than 50% groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion. West Midlands Ag Soil Zone had the highest risk of wind erosion and 11.4% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover.
• Less than 0.5% of the grainbelt had a high to very high risk of wind erosion …

Widespread Expansion Of Salt Marsh Pools Observed On Maine Marshes Since 2009 (Data Files), Katelyn Dewater, William Kochtitzky, Ruth Ellis, Paige-Marie Merrill

Geographic Information Systems Data Projects

Salt marshes contain standing water, which we refer to here as pools. We manually digitized salt marsh pools on 12 salt marshes in Maine (given as Name and corresponding ID number (see ID in Attributes)) in 2009 and 2021: Scarborough (1), Webhannet (2), Spurwink (3), Marshall Point (4), York River (5), Ogunquit (6), Brave Boat Harbor (7), Cousins River (8), Biddeford Pool (9), Little River (10), Goosefare Brook (11), Gooch’s Beach (12). Marsh extents were delineated with the Maine Natural Areas Program Current Tidal Marshes layer. All pools were digitized at a scale of 1:400 to 1:1000. Features were digitized …

Aboveground Biomass Density Estimation Using Deep Learning: Insight From Neon Ground-Truth Data And Simulated Gedi Waveform, Ashish Mahaur

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Accurately estimating Aboveground Biomass Density (AGBD) is crucial for managing Earth's carbon cycle and informing climate strategies. NASA's GEDI mission advances global forest mapping, but traditional linear models often yield less reliable AGBD estimates. This study enhances AGBD estimation using deep learning models with NEON ground-truth data and simulated GEDI waveforms. We compared 1D CNNs, LSTMs, and pre-trained CNNs to traditional models. The ResNet152 model outperformed linear regression, achieving an R² of 0.68, demonstrating a 17% improvement. Our experiments also demonstrate the importance of large, diverse datasets, particularly for training deep learning models.

Sauntering Spirituality: Walking Through Environmental History In Audio, Jamie E. Hinrichs

Eastern Sierra History Journal

Walking provides pathways into environmental history, and environmental history enriches our walking. Sauntering Spirituality is conceived as an audio documentary series that invites listeners into this intersection of perambulation and the past. Each episode would explore how walking – as “sauntering spirituality” – has shaped the American land ethic.

Cartographies Of Black Diaspora And Foster Care Diaspora: Arguments Toward Abolition In The Aftermath Of Partus Sequitur Ventrem, Alicia Boyce

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation I argue that global foster care and adoption systems should be abolished because they are trauma inducing and grief producing state apparatuses that cyclically act to destabilize Black and “Other” subaltern populations from one generation to the next. Global foster care and adoption systems have become as common sensical as enslavement and chattel slavery all were as these systems are considered widely socially acceptable, common modes of domination and methods for controlling Black and “Other” populations. I coin a diaspora of community and cultural destabilization called the foster care diaspora (FCD), a theory and framing device that …

Earliest Ancient Maya Salt Production In Southern Belize: Excavations At Jay-Yi Nah, Heather Mckillop, Cory Sills

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Salt works along the Yucatan coasts of Mexico and Belize provide a record of salt production for inland trade during the height of Late Classic Maya civilisation (AD 550–800). At the Paynes Creek Salt Works in Belize, production focused on the creation of salt cakes by boiling brine in pots supported over fires in dedicated salt kitchens. Underwater excavations at the Early Classic (AD 250–550) site of Jay-yi Nah now indicate there was a longer and evolving tradition of salt making in the area, one that initially employed large, incurved bowls to meet local or down-the-line trade needs before inland …

Recovering The Nium Trail: A Journey Through Collaboration And Multidisciplinary Mapping, Crystal West

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study explores and maps an ancient, historic, and contemporary travel corridor that follows the San Joaquin River in the Central Sierra Nevada of California. It is called the Nium or People’s Trail by the North Fork Mono Tribe, the French Trail in historic archives, and the Mammoth Trail on contemporary US Forest Service maps. When I agreed to the request by Chairman Ron Goode of the North Fork Mono Tribe to map the Nium Trail, I was saying yes to a different, more broad and inclusive approach than I had previously taken as an archaeologist documenting archaeological sites and …

Climate Change And Critical Agrarian Studies, Ian Scoones, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Amita Baviskar, Marc Edelman, Nancy Peluso, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat to humanity today and plays out as a cruel engine of myriad forms of injustice, violence and destruction. The effects of climate change from human-made emissions of greenhouse gases are devastating and accelerating; yet are uncertain and uneven both in terms of geography and socio-economic impacts. Emerging from the dynamics of capitalism since the industrial revolution — as well as industrialisation under state-led socialism — the consequences of climate change are especially profound for the countryside and its inhabitants. The book interrogates the narratives and strategies that frame climate change and examines the …

Tiny Houses (Revisited): Geography Of Tiny House Villages For The Homeless In The United States, Yetimoni Kpeebi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The increasing adoption of tiny house villages as a solution to homelessness in the United States (US) underscores the need for comprehensive tracking and documentation of their locations, physical attributes, and social characteristics. This is vital to assess their effectiveness, providing advocates and policymakers with the information needed to optimize outcomes, and ensure these initiatives truly benefit the homeless population. While initial efforts were made in 2019 to establish a database for these villages (Evans, 2020), this study represents an improvement by presenting an updated database that reflects the growing popularity of tiny house villages for the homeless. Building upon …

Glacial Deposits, Vol. 48, 2024, Department Of Geography, Geology, And The Environment

Glacial Deposits

Newsletter of the Department of Geography, Geology, and the Environment

De Aquí, Y De Allá: Education, Culture, And Identity Development Of Transnational Latinas, Elizabeth Harris-Medina

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

De Aquí, y De Allá: Education, Culture, and Identity Development of Transnational Latinas This ethnographic case study examines the experiences of three transnational Latina women, descendants of families from Degollado, Jalisco, Mexico, exploring how their migration history and educational backgrounds influence their life trajectories. Focusing on these three women, the study aims to better understand their challenges and inform the development of resources to support their success in the U.S. education system. Using ethnographic interviews and Ecological Systems Theory, the research highlights how places and social systems shape views and life paths, offering insights into how best to support these …

Medium Range Prediction Of U.S. Severe Convective Storms, Robert Fritzen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Severe convective storms (SCSs) are responsible for billions of dollars of losses in the United States each year through hazards such as large hail, damaging convective wind gusts, and tornadoes. While techniques for forecasting these SCSs have improved over the years, a majority of these improvements focus on short term forecasting and nowcasting techniques. Little work has been done to analyze the recent advances in numerical weather prediction techniques, and to leverage these advances to the prediction of SCSs at the medium range (defined herein as lead-day 4--8). The primary objectives of this dissertation research are to: 1) explore the …

Riverview Community Park Commoning Plan, Haley B. Keene

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Riverview Community Park began as an illegal DIY skatepark in the Maymont neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia. Now, although it is a city park, it is still entirely managed by volunteer community groups (skateboarders, the neighborhood Civic League, and a community garden) who view the park as a creative, experimental community-led spatial project. Due to a dearth of communication between the three groups, the park has suffered political strife between the groups and a chaotic physical atmosphere. This plan utilizes a commons governance framework and participatory, asset-based community design to usher in a new era of enhanced collaboration, common narratives, and …

Integrating Arcgis And Redux Using Middleware, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy Rapuru

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The integration of ArcGIS with Redux through middleware presents a novel approach to managing state in geospatial applications. This report outlines the process and benefits of combining ArcGIS’s robust mapping and analytics capabilities with Redux’s predictable state container for JavaScript apps. It begins with an introduction to both technologies, followed by a detailed discussion on the architecture design, focusing on the role of middleware as the linchpin in this integration[1]. The paper highlights the benefits, such as improved state management and application performance, and addresses the challenges encountered during the integration process. Implementation details are provided, including the setup of …

Optimizing Php Api Calls With Pagination And Caching, Parsharam Reddy Sudda

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Keweenaw Time Traveler (KeTT) project is devoted to mapping the historical and social landscapes of the Keweenaw Peninsula. During the project, it was discovered that the server-side performance needed improvement. To address this issue, the "Optimizing PHP API Calls with Pagination and Caching" initiative was launched. This initiative focused on refining API calls, implementing server caching and pagination, and fortifying security against common vulnerabilities. The project successfully mitigated risks associated with SQL Injection and XSS through meticulous code enhancements while improving error handling. Additionally, the introduction of Scroll-Induced Pagination optimized data delivery, significantly reducing response times, and elevating the …

Mapping Accessibility To Emergency Care Using Public Transportation, Bach Tran

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Intro: Public transit offers various advantages for both communities and individuals in terms of mobility and has the potential to serve as a practical alternative to private motorized transportation. Timely and convenient public transit becomes a lifeline for people who cannot access other types of transportation, especially when it comes to emergency care. Method: We built a private network analysis within ArcGIS Pro using coordinate data from hospitals and stand-alone emergency rooms as designated by the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) and public transit data from Orlando, FL. Establishing the accessible time as 30 minutes, we computed and visualized …

Whose Vote Is It Anyway? A Geospatial Analysis Of The California Voter's Choice Act Ballot Drop Box Criteria In Santa Cruz County, Judith Heher

Master's Projects

The way Californians vote is changing. While some of the laws surrounding these changes are close to a decade old, the events of 2020 surrounding the November Presidential Election and the COVID-19 pandemic both accelerated and expanded the adoption of contactless voting approaches such as vote-by-mail and the ballot drop box. Neither tool is new to California voters. Vote-by-mail was introduced to the state in 1962 (CA Secretary of State, unknown) and ballot drop boxes were first used in 2014 (Sherman, 2020). In 2016 California Senate Bill 450 (SB-450, 2016) was signed into law. Also known as the Voters Choice …

'We' Instead Of 'Me': How Buen Vivir Indigenous Cosmopraxes Allow Us To Conceive Security Differently And Face Insecurities Together, Juliano Cortinhas, Yara Martinelli, Ricardo Barbosa

Student Publications [Scholarly]

Although Critical Security Studies (CSS) has done much to advance security debates, some shortcomings remain. Its excessive focus on the individual - which we term 'me' - reduces CSS' capacity to propose solutions to current global security problems such as pandemics and climate change. This paper contributes to the emerging scholarship on the potential of relational ontologies in Security Studies by introducing Buen Vivir Indigenous cosmopraxes into the debate. Indigenous cosmopraxes such as Sumak Kawsay, Suma Qamaña, and Teko Kavi, we argue, can inform CSS by providing alternative considerations to the pluriverse of ideas that address security crises. These cosmopraxes, …

Methods To Compare Sites Concerning A Category’S Change During Various Time Intervals, Thomas Mumuni Bilintoh, Robert Gilmore Pontius, Aiyin Zhang

Geography

This paper presents new methods to analyze a category’s change through a time series of maps, even when the time intervals have inconsistent durations. The methods include an option to facilitate comparison among sites by expressing results as an annual percentage of each site’s unified size. A site’s unified size is the union of where the category exists at any of the site’s time points. The methods also specify gross losses, gross gains, eight trajectories, and three components: Quantity, Exchange, and Alternation. The illustrative application compares maps of the marsh category for three Long-Term Ecological Research sites: Plum Island Ecosystems …

Amazonia In Motion: Changing Politics, Development Strategies, Peoples, Landscapes And Livelihoods, Susanna Hecht, Marianne Schmink, Rebecca Neaera Abers, Eduardo Assad, Denise Bebbington, Eduardo Brodizio, Francisco De Assis Costa, Ana María Calisto Durán, Philip Fearnside, Rachael Garrett, Sebastian Heilpern, David Mcgrath, Gustavo Oliveira, Henrique Pereira, Miguel Pinedo-Vazquez

Geography

We review the often-invisible powerful processes that drive social and ecological change in Amazonia, and the diverse peoples who inhabit its landscapes. It explores large-scale development ideologies of modernization, and the policy tools that were deployed to carry them out. Outlining general periods of macro policy shifts, we show the evolution of the framework for today’s complex interactions between large-scale agroindustry, mining, and hydrocarbons, and diverse small-scale livelihoods, as well as the clandestine and illicit economies of land grabbing, gold, coca and timber, and their operation in globalized and regional economies. While Pan-Amazonian governments have oscillated between authoritarian and democratic …

Growing Up Sustainable? Politics Of Race And Youth In Urbanplan, Copenhagen, Max Ritts, Rebecca Rutt

Geography

This paper considers how racialized youth in Denmark negotiate sustainability amid contexts marked by intersecting forms of economic restructuring, progressive neoliberalism, white ethno-nationalism, and green urban planning. Urbanplan is a low-income, notoriously “troubled” Copenhagen neighborhood where we conducted fieldwork for 7 months (2019-2020) with fifteen male youth, aged 17-21. Using ethnography, policy reviews, and interviews with city social workers, we explore how intimate experiences of nature, group-identity, and place attachment here relate to and depart from the structural forces actively reshaping the neighborhood. Our analysis combines Cindi Katz's intersectional political economy approach with recent work on green gentrification, Critical Utopian …

Geopolitics And Geospatial Strategies: The Rise Of Regulatory Supply Chain Controls For Semiconductor Gpn In Japan, South Korea And Taiwan, Yuko Aoyama, Eunyeong Song, Shan-Yu Wang

Geography

In this article, we present an analysis of how East Asian states (specifically, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) are adapting to the emerging geopolitical contexts of the 'great powers competition' between the United States and China. To the extent that the previous literature on GPN/GVC governance included the state as one of the extra-firm actors, geopolitics has not been explicitly dealt with in its role in shaping GPN/GVC governance. We build on the existing research on GPN/GVC governance and propose a shift in perspective, from one of cost-driven to diplomacy-driven governance. Taking the case of the semiconductor industry, we conduct …

Essays On Public Finance And International Finance, Deepti Sikri

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The first chapter examines New York State's Fiscal Score Monitoring program to find the effect of two quality labels on school district outcomes: fiscal stress scores, reflecting the budget solvency, and environmental stress labels reflecting economic and demographic conditions. Using the NYS school district data from 2013-22, I employ the regression discontinuity design to find the effect of stress labels, in response to the political pressure on district finances, housing, and school outcomes. I find the effect of fiscal stress label is limited, leading to a decrease in the fund balance ratio and an increase in the tax rate. However, …

Assessment Of Spatial Distribution Patterns And Infestation Risk Over Time Of Spotted Lanterfly (Lycorma Delicatula) In New York State, Alanna Richman

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) is an invasive treehopper native to Asia. It was first introduced to Pennsylvania in 2014, and as of 2020 it has expanded to New York state. Their preferred host tree is the invasive tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), but they will feed on over 173 different plants worldwide. Preferred host species in New York state include agricultural vegetation such as grape vines and fruit trees. Positive Spotted Lanternfly site data collected by the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets and iMapInvasives were analyzed using ArcGIS Pro to assess spatial distribution patterns. …

Architects Of War: The Economic And Industrial Strategies Of The Third Reich And United States Under Albert Speer And William Knudsen, Spencer David Taylor

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a chronological narrative that delves into the economic and industrial underpinnings of the Second World War, focusing on the contrasting war machines of Germany and the United States. By examining the strategic decisions and outcomes shaped by two central figures, Albert Speer of Germany and William S. Knudsen of the United States, this study highlights how their approaches to war production profoundly influenced the overall trajectory and outcome of the war. Knudsen’s embodiment of the American industrial spirit and Speer’s manipulation of Germany's constrained resources illustrate the crucial roles that economic strategies played alongside military operations. The …

Investigating Flash Flood Occurrence Using Negative Binomial Models In Maryland, United States Of America, Zainab O. Akinsemoyin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Globally, as extreme weather patterns intensify, flash floods have emerged as one of the most destructive and immediate environmental threats. In Maryland, flash floods are particularly concerning due to its diverse topography and increasing urban development, which exacerbates runoff and overwhelms drainage systems. The state has experienced significant flash flood events, highlighting the need for effective models to manage risks and inform mitigation strategies. While regression models such as the Negative Binomial (NB) and Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) are commonly used for count data analysis, their application to flash flood modeling in the USA, including regions like Maryland, remains limited …

Road Extraction On Remote Sensing Imagery: Historical Mapping Of The Brazilian Amazon, Jonas Paiva Botelho Jr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This work proposes an artificial intelligence model based on U-Net architecture to map road networks in the Brazilian Amazon. Over the years, the Amazon region has been heavily exploited, leading to increased deforestation rates, contributing to CO2 emissions, amplifying global warming, and causing a disturbance in local fauna and flora. The expansion into the forest by illegal miners, loggers, and land grabbers can be tracked down by the construction of roads, which we can refer to as the arteries of deforestation. Previous works on the matter proposed algorithms that use high-resolution imagery to map roads precisely. However, this work approach …

Regional And Landscape Scale Examination And Attribution Of Vegetation Changes To Social-Environmental System Drivers In Kazakhstan, Venkatesh Kolluru

Dissertations and Theses

Kazakhstan (KZ) experienced widespread changes in ecosystem structure and function. The country is a climate and land cover/use change “hotspot” owing to political reforms, intensified grazing, and extreme climatic events. Despite their importance, there is a lack of consensus about vegetation changes, trends, and drivers in KZ. Addressing this knowledge gap is crucial for effectively managing and restoring grassland ecosystems. However, a pressing challenge is discerning anthropogenic-driven vegetation changes from climate variability and decomposing the responses to the complex human-environmental forcings. Motivated by these challenges, I employed statistical and machine learning algorithms to detect and attribute vegetation changes to social-environmental …

Baaf: Bishop Airfield’S Contribution To The ‘Greatest Generation’, Jack Fisher

Eastern Sierra History Journal

The Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack changed everything in America including the Owens River Valley where most of its landing fields became sites for pilot training. One of these was the Bishop (CA) Air Field, leased by the Army from Inyo County effective June 10, 1942. It was was designated a tactical military facility and its history, hitherto untold, forms the basis of this article.