Geography Commons^™

Whose Histories Will A Genai Tool Generate? Prompting Chatgpt-4 For Diverse History Lesson Plans For The Cold War Space Race, Robert W. Maloy, Sai Gattupalli, Torrey Trust

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper explores strategies for teachers to use in prompting ChatGPT-4 to develop diverse history lesson plans for the Cold War Space Race. Prior research showed that when given a single, broadly phrased “design a lesson plan” prompt, chatbots are less likely to generate material about experiences of African Americans, women, and other historically marginalized groups. We tried two alternative prompting strategies: a) Change the wording of the prompt to incorporate James Banks’ Levels of Multicultural Content Model, and b) Change the source of the content for the prompt by using teacher-curated materials from an open online wikispace, resourcesforhistoryteachers that …

Teaching Inquiry: A Guiding Template Fosters Critical Thinking, Barbara D. O'Donnell, Abigail C. Schwent

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This article provides a supportive way to address the marginalization of social studies by teaching inquiry through the use of a template. Inquiry based learning encourages students to make real-world connections by engaging in problem solving and exploration through research. It fosters higher level skills like critical thinking, evaluation, and synthesis of knowledge through experiential learning (Bell, Urhahne, Schanze and Ploetzner 2009). Using inquiry to investigate social studies topics encourages the use of sources from diverse perspectives to understand the complete picture of the event being researched. Teaching social studies through inquiry is a daunting task due to multiple obstacles …

Tackling Mississippi’S Brain Drain: A Problem-Based Geographic Inquiry Approach For Social Studies Educators, James B. Howell, Lamont E. Maddox, J.O. Joby Bass, Benjamin H. Austin, Skye Morgan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

This paper offers an overview of brain drain as a social problem and shares insights on integrating problem-based geographic inquiry (PBGI) into classrooms. It aims to help social studies teachers: 1) understand brain drain and its geographic relevance, 2) explore how brain drain serves as an engaging public policy issue for PBGI, and 3) identify resources to support problem-based learning. Additionally, the paper provides practical recommendations on designing effective PBGI units, selecting relevant resources, and utilizing geographic tools to foster civic and geographic reasoning skills. Investigating human migration associated with brain drain using a public policy lens should help students …

From Fort To Prison: The Production Of Iloilo City, Ram Paulo A. Anayan

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

The foundation of colonial cities in the Philippines rests on violence. The Spanish policies of the reducción forced the natives to settle in pueblos where colonial power is ensured. The resistance of some natives brought about the divide between tagabayan (town dweller) and tagabundok (mountain dweller)—respective connotations of civilization and savagery (Lumbera and Lumbera, 36). This paper examines how this centripetal-centrifugal force of simultaneous identity-production and displacement is echoed in the metonymy of the fort on which the origins of Iloilo City stand. I navigate how this movement manifests in the consciousness of the city across historical periods represented by …

Urban Heat Islands In Mountain West Cities, 2024, Mia Tschan, Krish Sharma, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data on Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) in six cities across five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are derived from the 2024 Climate Central report, “Urban Heat Hot Spots in 65 Cities,” which includes data on how UHIs boost temperatures in 65 major cities across the United States. This fact sheet focuses on UHIs in six Mountain West cities: Albuquerque, NM; Denver, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; and Tucson, AZ.

Urban Political Ecology And Informal City: Using The Capabilities Approach In Co-Designing With Slum Communities, Patrick Vance S. Nogoy

Philosophy Department Faculty Publications

Slum communities which compose an informal city offer a serious challenge to urban metabolism approaches that promise to be inclusive in confronting environmental injustice. In particular, urban political ecology (UPE) frameworks critically examine power structures and relational dynamics in the environment where objectionable injustices are identified and corrected. However, Holifield (2009) finds UPE limiting as it excludes marginalized communities and other important factors. The main reason Holifield highlights is the dominance of Marxist UPE frameworks that interpret environmental injustices narrowly as results of uneven social power relations and dynamics driven primarily by neo-liberal capitalist behaviors, institutions, and activities. Alternatively, he …

How Students’ Geographical Area Influences Their Level Of Interest In Engineering After Participating In The Epic Program, Cristina Ruiz

College of Engineering Summer Undergraduate Research Program

The purpose of this study was to look at how a student’s location can shape their interest in engineering after taking part in the EPIC program. My research question asked: How do students’ geographical area influences their level of interest in engineering after participating in EPIC? To answer this, I compared students from different income groups: higher, middle, and lower, which was determined by using ZIP code data tied to average income and education levels. I also did a closer look at students from the Santa Maria region. Many of these students were connected to the Migrant Education Program, which …

Validation And Trend Analysis Of Satellite-Derived Surface Water Temperature Observations Over Adirondack Lakes, Marzi Azarderakhsh, Carolien Mossel, Abdou Rachid Bah, Aisha Malik, Fahmeda Khanom, Jonathan Borrelli, Pete Mcintyre, Hamidreza Norouzi, Kevin Rose

Publications and Research

This study aims to validate and evaluate satellite remote sensing observations from the Landsat series over 135 lakes in the Adirondack State Park, located in upstate New York, and to examine their surface temperature trends over the past 40 years. It utilizes data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), along with Landsat 5 and 7. Park-scale results were derived by extracting MODIS surface temperatures within the park boundary, while lake-scale results were estimated using Landsat 5 (1984-2012) and Landsat 7 (1999-2023) observations. In addition, field observations were utilized to perform a comprehensive validation and evaluation of satellite-based surface temperature …

Dominican Population Decline In New York City After 2020, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

The Dominican population of New York City has experienced a significant decline since reaching its peak of 761,333 in 2021, falling by nearly 13% to 663,169 by 2024. This decline does not appear to be driven by reduced immigration from the Dominican Republic, as yearly arrivals have remained at relatively high levels between 2011 and 2023.

This Latino Data Project Report suggests that there has been an important emigration of Dominicans away from New York City to other areas of the United States. It is likely that the Dominican population of New York City will continue to decline into the …

The Economic Impact Of The Soda City Market In Columbia, Sc, Sarah E. Lillard

Senior Theses

This study examines the role of Soda City Market in the economic and social revitalization of Columbia, South Carolina’s Main Street district. Since relocating downtown in 2012, the market has evolved from a small farmers market into a major cultural and entrepreneurial hub attracting more than 300,000 visitors annually. To evaluate its impact, the study integrates two primary methods: a vendor survey capturing business characteristics and an IMPLAN input–output model estimating the market’s economic effects within Richland County. Survey results from 25 vendors reveal a diverse and culturally representative business community in which Soda City serves as both an incubator …

A Debt To Whom? The Nature Questions In Sino‑Sri Lankan Development Narratives, Orlando Woods, Kanchana Ruwanpura, Loritta Chan, Barnabas Mah

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This chapter critically examines dominant narratives around Sri Lanka’s debt and development in the context of Sino‑Sri Lankan relations and the Belt and Road Initiative, questioning assumptions about “debt‑trap” explanations and highlighting how narratives about development, nature and agency shape understanding of the country’s economic and ecological futures.

Montana Folk Festival 2025, Butte, Montana, Rachel Baer, Ava Worbets, Kika Bradford

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This study was conducted for the Montana Folk Festival to provide insight into the characteristics of attendees of the 2025 Montana Folk Festival. 968 attendees from the event completed the survey. Results show that 80% of respondents were residents of Montana, of which 37% were from Butte-Silver Bow County. Out-of-county respondents spent an average of 4.5 nights in Montana, reporting a total spending of $263,194.25, mostly in hotel/motel/bed and breakfasts and restaurants/bars. Results provide event organizers with useful data for future event planning, making improvements to the event, event marketing/promotion, and understanding the visitor spending associated with the event.

Montana Resident Report: Consumer Confidence And Expectations For Income, Travel, And Recreation Over The Next 12 Months, Q2 2025, Carter Bermingham, Megan Schultz

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This report is a summary of Montana residents and their expectations related to spending, personal income, travel, and recreation over the next 12 months. ITRR conducted similar studies in 2019 and 2022, with this current effort aimed at continuing a long-term study to track consumer sentiment over time.

Analyzing Sea Level Rise Scenarios Impact On The Mobility, Infrastructures, Environment Of Abu Dhabi And Defining Solutions By Creating A Digital Twin Using Gis And Game Engine, Justine Sylviane Lucie Sarrau

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the potential impact of future sea level rise (SLR) scenarios on the city of Abu Dhabi. With climate change, many coastal towns are at risk of experiencing this type of natural hazard. Currently, no precise scenario simulations have been developed, mainly due to the use of low spatial resolution elevation data. Additionally, the difficulty in understanding the real impacts persists when analyses rely solely on traditional cartography and GIS methods. This dissertation aims to advance the field by offering a new approach, which involves creating a comprehensive dynamic 3D simulation with dynamic flowing water. This model, defined …

Can Singapore Be A City That Bounces Back And Gives Back?, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In a commentary, SMU President Professor Lily Kong called for a widened definition of sustainability in city-making. She proposed that cities must be resilient, regenerative and restorative (3Rs) — able to withstand shocks, replenish ecosystems, and restore human well-being. Prof Kong cited Singapore’s Draft Master Plan 2025 as an illustration of balancing technical innovation with inclusive engagement, stressing that trust is the “invisible infrastructure” of resilience. She also emphasised the role of universities as conveners of dialogue and innovation, spotlighting SMU’s co-convening of the City Dialogues in Vienna and its hosting of the Lee Kuan Yew Global Business Plan Competition, …

Near Real-Time Monitoring Reveals Extensive Recent Forest Disturbance In Ghana’S Protected Areas, Luofan Dong, Xiaojing Tang, Foster Mensah, Bashara Ahmed Abubakari, Kelsee H. Bratley, Pontus Olofsson, Curtis E. Woodcock

Faculty Scholarship

The Protected Areas (PAs) in Ghana play a critical role in preserving the abundant biodiversity of the West Africa Green Belt. But recent changes in policies and regulations have facilitated logging and mining activities, which have accelerated forest disturbances. While there is a consensus that PAs are undergoing destructive change, the extent, rate, and locations of forest disturbances are undocumented. In this study, we applied the fusion near real-time (FNRT) algorithm that utilizes Landsat, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2 data and sampling to monitor forests in the PAs of Ghana. The results reveal that 704.74 (±177.24) km2 of forest in the PAs …

Land Struggles, Resistance, And Mutual Protection Along The Colorado-New Mexico Border: The Sacred Right Of Self-Preservation, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

Mutual protection societies proliferated in the American Southwest during a period of rapid social change, 1870-1930, coincident with significant changes in the region’s political economy and increased competition for land and water resources. To resist encroachment and protect their natural resources, hispano communities in Colorado and New Mexico organized mutual benefit and protective associations known as mutualistas, with a large number concentrated in the San Luis Valley of Colorado as well as in many rural counties of northcentral New Mexico. The Costilla Valley of New Mexico is a prototypical hispano settlement initially established as part of the expansive Sangre …

"Our River Is Full Of Trash And Many Fish Die" Children's Voices From Pasuruan, Indonesia: Discursive Strategies In Positive Discourse Analysis For Sustainability, Bambang Prastio, Ahsani Maulidina, Agung Rinaldy Malik, Achmad Tantowi Azis

The Qualitative Report

Addressing river pollution and understanding the role of children in environmental conservation are essential for maintaining ecosystem health and sustainability. This study used positive discourse analysis to explore children's discourse about river pollution in Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. Data were collected using walk-and talk ethnographic interviews with 15 children aged 7 to 11 years. The findings reveal that these children employed five discursive strategies: (1) nomination: metaphor, comparison, and cultural practices; (2) predication: positive attitude in the forms of disposition and behavior; (3) argumentation: contrast and parallelism; (4) perspectivisation, involving a type of religious representation that includes references to the …

The Effect Of Mesoscale Frontal Waves On Landfalling Atmospheric Rivers And Their Associated Precipitation Over The Green River Watershed, Washington, Joseph Michael Riedl

Dissertations and Theses

In this study, the effect of mesoscale frontal waves (MFWs) on extreme precipitation (EP) in the Upper Green River Watershed (UGRW), Washington is investigated. 205 EP days (>95th percentile) are identified in the UGRW between the years 1980 and 2021. To characterize the range of large-scale meteorological conditions associated with EP days, the self-organizing map (SOM) approach is used to cluster daily integrated water vapor transport (IVT) on EP days. To further diagnose the meteorological drivers, composites of several other diagnostic fields are constructed for each SOM node and the preceding days. Together, these results illustrate common orientations of …

Unraveling Crop Nitrogen-Water Dynamics With Hyperspectral-Thermal Sensing In Northern Central Valley, California, Shahryar Fazli, Surendra Maharjan, Wenzhao Li, Joshua B. Fisher, Rejoice Thomas, Fernando Romero Galvan, Gabriela Shirkey, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Ensuring global food security in the face of climate change requires optimizing crop water use and nutrient management. This study investigates the relationship between canopy nitrogen (N) and evapotranspiration (ET) across sunflower, rice, walnut, alfalfa, and plum crops using advanced remote sensing technologies. High-resolution hyperspectral data from NASAs Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) and thermal multispectral data from the Landsat-based OpenET system were analyzed over 1,135 km² in California. Regression analysis revealed strong spatial association between canopy N and ET for sunflower (R² = 0.82), rice (R² = 0.71), and walnut (R² = 0.68), …

Probabilistic Intervals Around Population Forecasts: A New Approach With A Subnational Example Using Washington State Counties, David A. Swanson, Jeff Tayman

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Population forecasts produced by governments at all levels are used in the public sector, the private sector, and by researchers. They have been primarily produced using deterministic methods. This paper shows how a method for producing measures of uncertainty can be applied to existing subnational population forecasts while meeting several important criteria, including the concept of utility. The paper includes an assessment of the efficacy of the method by: (1) examining the change in uncertainty intervals it produces by population size and population growth rate; and (2) comparing the width and temporal change of the uncertainty intervals it produces to …

Understanding And Assessing Climate Change: Preparing For Nebraska’S Future, 2024 Climate Change Impact Assessment Report, Deborah J. Bathke, Eric Hunt, Heather Akin, Andrea D. Basche, Jesse E. Bell, Daniel R. Dileo, Ross Dixon, Martha Durr, Tonya Haigh, Francis John Hay, Kristina W. Kintziger, Nicholas A. Mcmillan, Hank Miller, Jerome Okojokwu-Idu, Crystal Powers, Tirthankar Roy, Zhenghong Tang, W. Ryan Wishart, Aaron R. Young, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Jonathan J. Spurgeon

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Contents

Report Team

Acknowledgments

Executive Summary

Introduction

Climate Change Contexts: Global, National, and State

Observed Changes in Nebraska's Climate

Projections of Nebraska's Future Climate

Water Systems

Energy

Ecosystems

Agriculture

Human Health

Communities and the Built Environment

Indigenous Peoples

Climate Justice and Equity

The Response of Faith Communities

Nebraskans' Perceptions of Climate Change

Next Steps and Future Work

Supplemental Report: Adaptation, Risks, and Impacts

About the Authors

Faith-based Communities Survey

Evaluated Plans and Assessments

References

Practitioners’ Perspectives On Preventing Environmental Gentrification In Chicago, Illinois, Usa, Tania Schusler, Amy Krings

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Pollution cleanup, green space creation, and other improvements to environmental quality in cities are important to urban sustainability. However, because they occur within a political economic context characterized by structural racism, urban greening initiatives can intentionally or unintentionally reproduce racial, economic, and social inequities through environmental gentrification. We explored possibilities for improving environmental quality without displacing or excluding long-term residents including people of color, the poor, and members of other marginalized groups. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with community organizers, environmental justice advocates, urban planners, housing specialists, and others who held deep expertise through their lived and professional experience in …

No. 45: Internal Migration, Climate Adaptation, And Food System Resilience In Namibia, Lawrence N. Kazembe, Ndeyapo Nickanor

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

As one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most arid countries, Namibia serves as a crucial example for studying the interactions between climate vulnerability, migration, and food systems. This study investigates how internal migration flows to Windhoek and northern towns (Oshakati, Ongwediva, Ondangwa) transform urban food networks while creating new patterns of risk and adaptation. Through household surveys, policy analysis, and stakeholder interviews, we uncover a paradox: despite escaping rural climate stressors, migrants often encounter new vulnerabilities such as precarious employment, inadequate housing, and unstable food access. However, they develop sophisticated adaptive strategies that span urban-rural divides: maintaining rural agricultural production through family …

(De)Centralized Water Futures: Key Dimensions Of Infrastructure, Governance, And Operations, Alicia Dailey Cooperman, Jenny Linder Rempel, Ellis Adjei Adams, Alida Cantor, Manuela Muñoz Fuerte, Jeremiah Osborne-Gowey, Nicole J. Wilson, Cassandra L. Workman, Melissa Beresford, Leila M. Harris, Multiple Additional Authors

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water system centralization and decentralization have variously been promoted as key to achieving household water security and Sustainable Development Goal 6.1. We argue that the lack of specificity with which scholars and practitioners use the terms centralization and decentralization limits our understanding of different water system configurations and their impacts. In this Primer, we provide a framework for thinking about levels of (de)centralization across three linked system dimensions: infrastructure, governance, and operations and maintenance. We encourage those analyzing water systems to characterize (de)centralization with respect to these multiple dimensions, as well as the system's broader political-economic and hydro-climatic contexts. Emphasizing …

Spectral–Spatial Transformer With Multiscale Convolutional Attention For Hyperspectral Image Classification, Junde Chen, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Hyperspectral image (HSI) classification plays a vital role in remote sensing by leveraging rich spectral and spatial information for accurate material recognition. However, existing methods, particularly Transformer-based approaches, still face challenges in effectively modeling multiscale spatial–spectral features, preserving local details, and maintaining robustness to noise. To mitigate these limitations, we propose TMCANet, a spectral–spatial Transformer with multiscale convolutional attention, designed to effectively leverage both local and global contextual dependencies for HSI classification. Our design is guided by three core strategies: first, a convolutional feature extraction module, consisting of four convolutional layers, to learn hierarchical spectral multiscale representations and enhance local …

Performing Piety, Commerce, And Community In The Medieval Italian Town, John D. Treat

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper explores the characters and set–like aspects of the Italian medieval town where much of the drama of the emergence of the modern individual and economy played out and examines the various changes in the presentation of the human body within Christianity and the evolution of the façades of the buildings of the medieval Italian street.

Climate-Induced Redistribution Of People Is Not Inveitable, Ingird Boas, Harald Sterly, Carol Farbotok, Mike Hulme, Hélène Benveniste, Kerilyn D. Schewel, Giovanni Betini, Marion Borderon, Roman Hoffmann, Kees Van Der Geest, David Durand-Delacre, Jan Selby, David J. Wrathall, Andrew Baldwin, Ailín Benítez Cortés, Kaderi N. Bukari, Simon Bunchuay-Peth, Simona Capisani, Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Ruben Dahm, Camelia Dewan, Huub Dijstelbloem, Sonja Fransen, François Gemenne, Michele Dalla Fontana, Dorotha Hilhorst, Monica V. Iyer, Maggi W H Leung, Bishawjit Mallick, Kasia Paprocki, Meg Parsons, Patrick Sakdapolrak, Alex De Sherbinin, Farhana Sultana, Tearinaki P P Tanielu, Merewalesi Yee, Caroline Zickgraf

Geography and the Environment - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Estimating Historical Age-Sex Distributions Of A Tribal Population: A Case Study Of The Hopi, 1900 To 1940, David Swanson, Jeff Tayman

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Historical information on tribal populations in the United States is scattered and discontinuous. A significant part of the discontinuity is the gap between 1900 and 1970. This paper describes a process that may partially fill this gap by developing decennial age-sex data from 1900 to 1940. Where temporally consistent, we compare these estimates to those done by others. This work provides a point of departure for generating more demographic information about the Hopi from 1900 to 1940 and, ultimately, beyond 1970, a critical turning point regarding the increased availability of American Indian data from the U.S. Census Bureau. It also …

From The Great Recession To The Post-Covid 19 Pandemic U.S. Municipal Fiscal Condition: “Austerity Urbanism,” “Pragmatic Municipalism” And On-Going Explanatory Challenges, Mark Davidson, Kevin Ward

Geography

How much did the Great Recession change U.S. municipal budgetary and fiscal governance? According to an academic literature that subsequently emerged, the period saw a combination of both change and continuity. The work offered two distinct ways to explain and understand the emerging context: austerity urbanism and pragmatic municipalism. This paper reviews these explanations with the goal of showing how and why they developed contrasting conceptualizations. We argue differing epistemological approaches underpin the two competing approaches. Understanding these differences is, we argue, critical for moving forward. The COVID 19 pandemic saw another round of changes to U.S. municipal budgetary and …