Geography Commons^™

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Portfolio For Soci 346: Environmental Sociology, Gwendwr Meredith

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Environmental sociology, SOCI 346, is the study of how social systems interact with ecosystems. As such, it is a very broad course that is tasked with understanding complex and often controversial questions about the social causes, consequences, and responses to environmental disruption. In this teaching portfolio, I enumerate how I use a backward design for crafting assessments that cater to my specific teaching goals and learning objectives for the course. In the first stage of this process, I reflected on what learning outcomes I wished to achieve and determined that structuring the course in modules aligned with the learning objectives …

Reintegration Of Return Migrants In Northern Ghana And Their Remigration Decisions: A Qualitative Study, Benzies Isaac Adu-Okoree Rev. Dr., Daniella Delali Sedegah Dr., Philippa Jilly Joel Premkumar Dr., Prize Fourthson Mcapreko Dr.

The Qualitative Report

A political discussion has recently erupted over the return of migrant kayayei (head porters) from Northern Ghana. Return migrants were studied meagrely with regard to their reintegration process, skills acquired at their destinations, and chances for productive engagement. These chances allow the return migrants to pursue socially desirable goals. This study attempts to answer the questions pertaining to why migrants remain at home in terms of their experiences in the reintegration process and the reasons for re-migration. The purpose of this study was to explore how the socioeconomic environment of home communities aids the reintegration of return migrants from Ghana's …

A Guide For The Everyday Woman Surfer: How Surf Culture's Patriarchy Marginalizes Ocean Lovers, Alexis S. Di Stefano

Women's, Gender and Queer Studies

Humans are naturally drawn to the water by wind and tide. It is a place of solace that we have a desire to know deeply, yet we have kept one another from experiencing it through biases that perpetuate inequality. White-supremacist hegemony has historically kept communities of color from coastlines, women from lineups, and queer communities from participating in surf culture. As more people from all social groups return to the water through surfing in the 20th century, surf culture needs to adapt to become more inclusive. This paper outlines surf culture's historical transition into whiteness and how female beauty standards …

Utility Of Daily 3 M Planet Fusion Surface Reflectance Data For Tillage Practice Mapping With Deep Learning, Dong Luo, Hankui K. Zhang, Rasmus Houborg, Lina M.N. Ndekelu, Maitiniyazi Maimaitijiang, Khuong H. Tran, John Mcmaine

GSCE Faculty Publications

Tillage practices alter soil surface structure that can be potentially captured by satellite images with both high spatial and temporal resolution. This study explored tillage practice mapping using the daily Planet Fusion surface reflectance (PF-SR) gap-free 3 m data generated by fusing PlanetScope with Landsat-8, Sentinel-2 and MODIS surface reflectance data. The study area is a 220 × 220 km2 agricultural area in South Dakota, USA, and the study used 3285 PF-SR images from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021. The PF-SR images for the surveyed 433 fields were sliced into 10,747 training (70%) and evaluation (30%) non-overlapping time …

Platforms And/As Urban Communication: Mediums, Content, Context, Agnieszka Leszczynski

Geography & Environment Publications

This paper brings an urban communication lens to bear on the geographies of platformisation in cities. It does so by drawing on three select instances of platformised materialities in Toronto and Vancouver that represent familiar contours of urban platformisation: mobility (bike and car sharing), last‐mile logistics (on‐demand delivery), and labour (gig work). These examples are worked through Aiello and Tosoni's heuristic of cities as constituting the mediums, content, and contexts of urban communication, respectively. As mediums, platformised materialities in the form of street signs designate exclusive uses of public space by mobility platforms, communicating the spatial conditions of platform urbanism. …

Socio-Ecological Challenges Of Hydroelectric Dams Among Ethnic Minorities In Northern Laos, Saleh Ahmed, Paige Liquin

Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Globally, hydroelectric dams are increasingly considered to be a sustainable source of renewable energy. Many countries have invested in hydroelectric projects to boost the local and national economies. The findings of recent hydroelectric projects are mixed. Even though the construction of these dams has provided immediate benefits to surrounding communities, long-term negative implications of hydroelectric development have called into question the true sustainability of hydroelectric projects. These negative impacts of hydroelectric dams include the resettlement of marginalized communities, in addition to significant alterations to the local environment and economy. Taking both the positive and negative impacts of hydroelectric development into …

The Role Of The Armed Forces Of The Philippines (Afp) In Disaster Response And Adaptation Strategies To Climatic Disasters In Manila, Edmundo Nicolas Jr.

Geography Masters Research Papers

This study described the roles of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) in Metro Manila and how climate-induced hazards impact the role of the military. It used a qualitative approach, which involved semi- structured interviews among AFP officers and barangay leaders with expertise and experience in DRRM and an analysis of selected policy documents and military doctrine. These methods revealed that: (1) the military acts as a political first-aid, since they are the first responders – thus, the face of the local government – in climactic disasters during peacetime; (2) the military is …

Slow Speed Rail: The Social, Psychological And Environmental Benefits Of Long-Distance Train Travel, Vincent Gragnani

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Long-distance train travel in the United States is slow, inefficient and woefully underfunded. Trains are routinely delayed for freight traffic. Many major cities are served in the middle of the night, or not at all. And the cost of a sleeping compartment is far out of reach for most Americans. This is all in stark contrast to the reliable services offered across Europe and parts of Asia. But for the 3.5 million people who ride Amtrak’s long-distance trains every year, the experience can be a fulfilling one. This web-based project, slowspeedrail.com, explores these benefits, namely, an intimacy with the landscape …

A Multifaceted, Non-Militarized Approach To Security Dynamics In Protected Areas: From Foot Patrols, To Tourism, And Local Communities, Monique Sosnowski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A wide range of interventions have been implemented to reduce wildlife poaching incidents across the globe. These include community-based strategies, such as the development of alternative livelihoods; legal strategies, such as the development of legal frameworks at local, regional, and international levels; and wildlife law enforcement efforts, such increasing patrolling efforts. While community-based and legal strategies generally attempt to reduce the motivating factors surrounding the commission of crimes, wildlife law enforcement further attempts to prevent crimes from happening, assuming that someone will always be inclined. Given this inevitability, the question is raised regarding how to best reduce the occurrence of …

Cropland Mapping In Tropical Smallholder Systems With Seasonally Stratified Sentinel-1 And Sentinel-2 Spectral And Textural Features, Manushi B. Trivedi, Michael Marshall, Lyndon Estes, C.A.J.M. De Bie, Ling Chang, Andrew Nelson

Geography

Mapping arable field areas is crucial for assessing agricultural productivity but poses challenges in sub-Saharan agroecosystems because of diverse crop calendars, small and irregularly shaped fields, persistent cloud cover, and lack of high-quality model training data. This study proposes several methodological improvements to overcome these challenges. Specifically, it utilizes long-term MODIS data to stratify finer Sentinel-2 reflectance and Sentinel-1 backscatter image features on a per-pixel basis. It also incorporates texture features and employs a machine learning approach with over 300,000 samples. The eastern region of Ghana was stratified into seven seasonal strata exhibiting distinct vegetation seasonality, capturing diversity in crop …

Squeezed Out By The Market, Seeking Strength In The Network: Makeshift Temples And The Spatio-Affective Logics Of Survival In Singapore, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper offers an understanding of the spatio-affective workings of religious organisations – and the marketplaces they operate in and through – that go beyond capitalist logics. We do so by examining how makeshift temples representing various forms of ‘Chinese religion’ survive in Singapore. Capitalist logics fail to explain how such marginal and precarious religious organisations, which might be ‘squeezed out’ by the market, nonetheless manage to survive amid competition. Moreover, scarce attention has been paid to how religion as a social-affective system might mediate the functioning of a religious market. This paper fills the lacuna by bringing an understanding …

Montana Travel Region & Counties - Economic Contribution Of 2021/2022 Averaged Nonresident Travel Spending, Kara Grau

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

Nonresidents now spend over $5 billion in Montana each year. This report looks at the distribution of spending across Montana's six travel regions, as well as 18 of the 56 counties with the highest spending based on an average of 2021 and 2022 spending data.

Snowmobile Recreation In Western Montana, Liam Harry, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report is a summary of recreation snowmobilers in Western Montana regarding their visitor characteristics and demographics. The Institute forTourism and Recreation Research (ITRR) conducted surveys of snowmobilers to understand the profile and general characteristics of this user group.

2022 Resident Visitation: Yellowstone National Park & Glacier National Park, Carter Bermingham, Megan Schultz, Matthew Pettigrew, Glenna Brown

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This particular study was conducted to better understand resident visitation to the national parks in the state, and to also understand some of the obstacles that may have prevented residents from visiting the parks in 2022. This report includes information on monthly visitation to both Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, as well as the number of respondents who were deterred by the flooding in Yellowstone and the ticketed-entry system in Glacier.

Volume 64-1 Complete Issue, Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, Mark W. Patterson

The Geographical Bulletin

This is the complete volume 64, issue 1 of the Geographical Bulletin.

Marginal To Whom? Reflections On Gow’S "Purús Song", Magnus Course

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper constitutes a personal exploration of the impact of the work of Peter Gow on my own attempts to think through specific ethnographic problems, both in the Mapuche communities of Southern Chile and the Gaelic communities of Western Scotland. I focus in particular on how Gow’s lesser-known essay “Purús Song” inverts received wisdom about the relationships between center and periphery, and between nation-state and Indigenous people. I see this as one iteration of Gow’s broader aim of letting ethnographic realities transform theoretical complacencies.

Indigenous Transformations In The Comunidad Nativa: Rethinking Kinship And Its Limitations In An Expanding Resource Frontier, Evan Killick, Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In Of Mixed Blood, Peter Gow sets out an account of the transformations of kinship and the construction of social relations among Indigenous, mainly Yine (Piro), people of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the early 1980s, when Peru’s “Comunidades Nativas” (“Native Communities”) were receiving their new official titles. We revisit Peter’s proposition by comparing it our more recent ethnographic engagements with Indigenous Asháninka/Ashéninka communities in the region. While tracing continuities from his observations, we also show how social relations now play out in different ways, as certain important resources have become scarcer and the need for …

An Amazonianist And His History, Victor Cova, Juan Pablo Sarmiento

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

‘One Piro Man I Knew Well’: A Brief Commentary On An Amazonian Myth And Its History, Leif Grunewald

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This is a book review for An Amazonian myth and History, to the special volume to honor Peter Gow.

Civilized Elders And Isolated Ancestors: The Multiple Histories Of Contemporary Amazonia, Casey High

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article I consider the impact of Peter Gow’s writing on indigenous histories as a key area of research on Amazonia. Building on his study of kinship as history on the Bajo Urubamba (1991) he presented a regional perspective on the dynamic social categories by which Amazonian people understand their relations with various “others.” Focusing on indigenous agency and modes of thought, Gow challenged certain lines of historical thinking that dominated anthropology at the time. I explore how his ethnographic approach to history has influenced a generation of regional scholarship, including my own work on memory and social transformation …

Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article is concerned with the relationships through which children have been born, raised, and made into Amahuaca people over the past 75 years, and within contemporary Native Communities on the Inuya River since their formation beginning in the 1980s. The process of making children into kin among Amahuaca people is similar to that described throughout much of lowland South America. The production, preparation, and sharing of proper food (manioc, plantains, fish, and game) as well as manioc beer are central aspects of sociality and the formation of specific kinds of bodies. While the processes of sharing substances, demonstrating care, …

Review: Of Mixed Blood, Luis Felipe Torres

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The review revises the most inportant concepts of the book Of Mixed Blood.

Heating Up At The Plate: Relationships Between Temperature, Climate Type In Place Of Birth, And Mlb Batting Performance, Nathan M. Hitchens, Reuben J. Allen

The Geographical Bulletin

This study seeks to determine whether long-term heat acclimatization affects batting performance of Major League Baseball players based upon the climate in which a player was born. Each player with at least one at-bat from 1980–2018 was linked to a climate class and subdivision based on the Köppen-Geiger climate classification of their place of birth, and the ambient temperature at game time was determined for each game that took place. Games played in temperatures at least one standard deviation below and above the mean were categorized as cold- and hot-weather games, respectively. Common baseball metrics such as batting average, slugging …

Spatial Patterns Of Micromobility Ridership: A Multi-City Analysis, Mohammad Anwar Alattar, Mark Beecroft

The Geographical Bulletin

Lightweight, electricity-powered vehicles such as electric bicycles and scooters, known as micromobility, are expanding rapidly in urban areas worldwide. Micromobility holds a promising potential in improving transportation by a number of means, including filling public transportation gaps and reducing dependence upon the private car and thereby internal combustion engine emissions. As a result of the proliferation of micromobility sharing schemes around the world, ridership trajectories can be obtained. Through Ridereport (https://www.ridereport.com), datasets have been acquired from several cities (Santa Monica, California, USA; San Francisco, California, USA; Portland, Oregon, USA; Austin, Texas, USA; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), this …

Cover, Foreword, And Editor Note, Nancy Pullen-Hoalst, Mark W. Patterson

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 64-1 Cover, Forewords, Table of Contents, and Note from the Editors

A Seasonal Wind Climatology Of The Great Lakes Region Of The United States: 1990-2019, Anna Allen, Michael A. Davis

The Geographical Bulletin

The Great Lakes region has been the subject of numerous climate related research studies. The seasonal wind and circulation patterns are critical to understanding how weather patterns propagate as well as for potential wind energy generation. Furthermore, wind is a critical component in weather forecasting; thus, additional information on atmospheric circulation tendencies in this area can lead to improvements in weather forecasting. By utilizing monthly average wind speed data from 46 Great Lakes stations, augmented with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data (Kalnay, et al. 1996; Kistler, et al. 2001), the seasonal differences in wind speeds throughout the region can be analyzed. To …

Impacts And Perceptions Of Climate Variability On Shea (Vitellaria Paradoxa) And African Locust Bean (Parkia Biglobosa) In Burkina Faso, Joseph Yaméogo, Isidore Pawendkisgou Yanogo

The Geographical Bulletin

This article examines manifestations of climate variability and its impacts on tree species (shea, African locust bean) in agricultural fields through an analysis of the opinion of the field managers. The Likert-type survey form was prepared for this purpose for the collection of primary data in the field. A sample of 110 households out of a total of 480 was selected, and secondary data (rainfall, temperature and wind) were also collected through Burkina Faso’s national meteorological agency. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the primary data collected. The study revealed that 90% of agroforestry parkland managers perceive climate variability through …

Between Cocama And Modernity In The Ucamara (Peruvian Amazon), Marta Krokoszyńska

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the article extends Peter Gow’s re-reading of the ex-Cocama phenomenon in the Western Amazon. It argues that the foundation of the Amazonian Peruvian town of Requena at the beginning of the 20th century took place during an important historical moment in the region. Within the post-rubber boom context, schools became a particularly important idiom that enabled Requena’s growth as the centre of education and modernity. The paper investigates relations between the widespread desire for education in the Ucamara region, and Cocama descendants’ and other “ribereño” ex-Mainas peoples’ specific notions …

Contrasting Responses Of Atlantic And Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity To Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, Huanping Huang, William D. Collins, Christina M. Patricola, Yohan Ruprich-Robert, Paul A. Ullrich, Alexander J. Baker

Faculty Publications

This research assesses the influences of Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV) on global tropical cyclones (TCs) using two large ensembles of idealized global climate model simulations with opposite signs of AMV forcings superimposed (i.e., AMV+ and AMV–). We first detect TCs and then compare TC activity by basin in the two AMV experiments. We find contrasting responses of Atlantic and Pacific TC frequency to the AMV anomalies. Compared to AMV–, AMV+ significantly increases TC frequency in the North Atlantic, including those making landfalls. The increase is explained by warmer sea surface temperature, higher relative humidity, increased relative vorticity, and weaker vertical …