Geography Commons^™

Mapping Human-Environment Connections On The Olympic Peninsula: An Atlas Of Landscape Values, Rebecca J. Mclain, Lee Cerveny, Diane Besser, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Stephanie Rohdy, Corinna Kimball-Brown

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 7

The advent of computerized mapping has land managers’ ability to map the biophysical services provided by forested ecosystems. However, mapping the cultural services of those systems is more challenging. Human ecology mapping (HEM), which provides spatially-explicit depictions of the complex connections between humans and their environment, is an approach that can be used to improve understandings of the cultural services associated with landscapes. This atlas provides an overview of what HEM is and draws on experiences with a pilot project on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington to illustrate what HEM data looks …

The Development Of An Electronic Data Collection Tool And Comparison Of The Electronic And Manual Methods Of Land Use Inventory, Wesley M. Catanzaro

Master's Theses

An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information …

Lone Parents, Leisure Mobilities And The Everyday, Bernadette Quinn

Books / Book chapters

This chapter highlights the importance of the ordinary as a site for enquiring into how people make sense of their worlds. The primary intention is to highlight the spatiality of everyday leisure practices and to unravel some of the connections that link these to the occasional leisure practice of holidaying. Empirically, the study focuses on a group of female lone parents of dependent children living on low incomes in Dublin. In Ireland as elsewhere, lone parent families constitute a sizeable, growing but marginal societal group. For the women studied, leisure constituted informal, unstructured and modest activities that were stitched into …

Using Remotely Sensed Data To Detect Tamarisk Along Colorado’S San Miguel River, William E. Johnson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Tamarisk, an invasive tree native to Eurasia, has become widespread in river corridors across the southwestern United States. Accused of excessive water consumption and degradation of native habitats, it has been the target of extensive eradication and restoration efforts. Identifying its ever-changing distribution and extent benefits natural resource managers tasked with planning and prioritizing invasive plant management activities.

The use of GIS tools and remotely sensed data offers the potential to speed and improve our ability to locate tamarisk distributions. This project searches for tamarisk by classifying land cover vegetation (including tamarisk) based on spectral reflectance values from three-band natural …

A New View On Ski Maps, Greg Schonberger

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Traditional ski area trail maps have remained mostly unchanged for many decades. Since the earliest maps were produced, they have shown picturesque panoramic views of the ski mountain nestled in with its the surrounding peaks. Trees individually painted on the slopes, pristine and snow-covered, the runs marked as a winter wonderland. These maps are each an individual work of art, painstakingly created by skilled artists but they are not quality maps. This project will present a new view on the ski area map, creating a more traditional topographic map depicting ski runs, elevation contours, and shaded topography. The project will …

The Value Of Proximity To External Amenities And Mountain Views In The Metropolitan Denver Residential Housing Market, Tabatha Rose Waldron

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This research examines how natural amenities, such as views of Colorado’s Front Range mountains and proximity to lakes, parks and recreational areas, as well as proximity to community amenities such as hospitals, active wastewater treatment plants, fire and a police stations impact residential housing prices in Adams, Arapahoe and Denver Counties using a hedonic pricing model. Views of the mountains produced the most impact on home sale value in 2000 followed by proximity to a lake of 250 feet. These results demonstrate the importance of environmental amenities to single-family home buyers and can be used to inform parties involved in …

Mobile Gis: An Economical Approach To View And Edit Gis Data, Daniel Faulk

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Faulk’s capstone project provides specific instructions for the implementation of the My Maps Editor app that allows the city of Taylorsville, Utah employees and residents the ability to view, create, upload, edit, and share their own geographic data on an iPad or iPhone. The project consists of identifying the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) needs, researching existing GIS capabilities, selecting and installing an app, and providing instructions for system maintenance. The selected app offers many benefits including practical application, functional capabilities, financial feasibility, time saved, and aid in emergency preparedness.

Enhancing Remote Sensing For Agriculture Using Small Unmanned Aerial Systems: San Diego, Ca, As A Test Case, Colin Kubera

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The development of small Global Positioning System (GPS) antennas and microprocessors has propelled the advancement of affordable Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUASs), which will dramatically expand the remote sensing field, making timely, high-resolution imagery readily available. The low cost and simple operation of SUASs makes them an attractive option for agriculture. Flying a SUAS 400 ft above ground level (AGL) in a flight path that allows for significant image overlap can yield sub- 5cm resolution imagery, which in turn can be mosaicked and used for multispectral imagery analysis. With results rivaling the most advanced commercial imaging sensors, SUASs can be …

Water Efficiency Devices And Conservation Practices, Juan A. Gonzalez

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Southern California has a special and unique Mediterranean climate that is rare and only shared with a few countries around the world. In the last few years, the Southern California region has experienced unpredictable periods of both wet and dry weather, and it is likely that it will continue to experience these types of disruptions as a consequence of climate changes in the future (West Basin Municipal Water District [WBMWD]). Water supply agencies in the region have pressed for strong regulations in order to promote water conservation. The study will focus on a small water agency, Rancho California Water District. …

Wind Energy Opposition In Vermont: Perspectives On The State's Energy Future, William R. Pitkin Iv

Pomona Senior Theses

Due to its high levels of concern and awareness of environmental issues, rural character, and sparse population, Vermont would at first glance appear to possess the ideal recipe to become a national leader in renewable energy development. Renewable initiatives have focused primarily on wind energy, as over a dozen wind farms have been proposed in the last few years across the state. However, in spite of the widely held belief in Vermont’s wind energy future, its proponents have run into vehement opposition at every proposed site, often successfully impeding the planned developments.

This report develops a wide-level framework of the …

Uses And Perceptions Of The Neighborhood Open Space, Romain Cheynet

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the uses and perceptions of the population of the East Carrollton Area in New Orleans so as to evaluate the possible outcomes of urban design intervention and policy changes. Using GIS, field notes, structured interviews and a population survey, this research evaluates how much the built environment influences the uses of the neighborhood open space. Subsequently, it evaluates how the neighborhood open space is perceived as a place as opposed to a transportation infrastructure.

Overall, the built environment affects the experience of the residents when they perform leisure activities in the neighborhood open space. Major deterrents to …

Urban Water As A Coupled System: Interactions And Feedbacks Among Climate, Land Cover, Water Governance, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This presentation focuses on the changes in urban water systems and includes information on the relationship between water quality and property value, changes in land cover and dissolved oxygen, spatial variations of water temperature, and the need for integrative water and land planning.

Rural Renaissance: The Redevelopment Of Rapid City, South Dakota, Callie S. Tysdal

Geography Honors Projects

By many quantitative measures set by the United States Census and academic literature, Rapid City, South Dakota is an urban settlement. However, Rapid City is a thriving example of how a city and its residents willfully and overtly ascribe to a rural identity. This rural character is very present in local discussions, events, lifestyles, and institutions in Rapid City. As recently as 2012, the previously fading downtown of Rapid City has undergone a renewal that cannot escape notice. Main Street Square, a new downtown attraction that provides outdoor gathering spaces for entertainment, recreation, and cuisine, has brought new life to …

The Painted City: Public Art, Placemaking, And Communities In The Twin Cities, Lora Marie P. Hlavsa

Geography Honors Projects

Over the last century, mural painting has become an increasingly prominent fixture within the urban landscape. Decorating the walls of urban streets throughout American cities, mural paintings can be considered powerful tools within urban communities because of their ability to create place through inspiring meaningful relationships between populations and space, represent marginalized populations and provide a means for expression for communities. Using the case studies of Northeast Minneapolis, the West Side of Saint Paul, and Lake Street, this paper examines the purpose of mural artwork within urban communities, focusing on spatial and contextual analysis to determine the impact of this …

China's 80后 And 90后: The Next Generation Of Leaders In The World's Next Superpower, A Students-Teaching-Students Course, Patrick Slavin

Senior Honors Projects

In light of China’s recent reemergence as a global superpower, it is becoming increasingly important for westerners to understand its history and culture. For current college students, the culture of China’s youth is particularly pertinent.

In this project, a course, HPR 107: Chinese Youth Culture, was designed and taught through the Students-Teaching-Students program, which provides senior Honor’s Program students the opportunity to design and teach their own Honor’s Program course. The HPR 107 course focuses on China’s 80后 and 90后 generations, those born in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively.

This multi-faceted project includes: subject matter research, course development, pedagogy development, …

Overcoming Barriers To Teaching Action-Based Environmental Education: A Multiple Case Study Of Teachers In The Public School Classroom, Terry Rachael Adams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

As the human population increases, it becomes increasingly more important for society to understand the impact of humans on the environment. Preserving fixed resources by engaging in sustainable practices is necessary to ensure those resources are available for future generations. Since the early 1960s, policy makers and educators alike have sought to ensure that students graduate environmentally literate. Previous research has identified a multitude of barriers that limit classroom teacher’s ability to integrate environmental education into their curriculum. The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers overcome those barriers that restrict the integration of action based environmental education …

Bosnian Immigrants: An Analysis Of The Bosnian Community's Influence On The Cultural Landscape Of Bowling Green, Ky, Nathan Jess Cary

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Diasporas have been occurring for thousands of years, and today globalization has facilitated the quick rate at which diasporas occur on a global scale. Diasporas entail the mass movement of refugees across international borders, and diasporic peoples today now find themselves journeying across oceans and continents to the safety of host cities in a matter of weeks or days. My research analyzes the effects that Bosnian immigrants have had on the cultural landscape of Bowling Green, Kentucky. When people move, they bring their cultures with them, and this type of cultural diffusion impacts the landscape of the host cities. As …

Understanding Colombian Violence Through Geographic Information Systems And Statistical Approaches, Brandon Fowler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In 2002, Colombia had the highest homicide rate of any Latin American country(Berkman, 2007). The origins of this violence, however, are complex and difficult to identify. It would be sensible to argue that it cannot be explained by any one particular factor, but rather an assortment of many factors that wholly represent the social, economic, and political conditions of Colombia. By better understanding the origins of Colombian violence, policy makers can more effectively address and alleviate this prolonged issue. This study examines the geographic nature of municipal homicide rates for Colombia in 2005. The purpose of this study is to …

Gardens Are A Physical Manifestation Of Culture: Postmodern Public Parks Of The Twenty-First Century Will Be Built On The Infrastructure Of The Industrial Age, Steven W. Grant

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

Gardens are not simply arranged trees, lawns, walkways, fountains and ponds. They are a physical expression of the values and beliefs of culture. Adapting industrial age infrastructure into public parks is a reflection of culture in the postmodern age as much as the cloister garden expressed theology in the middle-ages, the sensuous garden expressed the humanism of the Renaissance, the Baroque garden expressed autocratic power, the neo-classical garden expressed reason, and the picturesque garden expressed awe of nature. The postmodern postindustrial public park of today is being built on the infrastructure of the industrial age; it is an expression of …

Cycle, Nichole Annette Howard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cycle is the exhibition of a year-long project that experiments with growing food and medicinal herbs. Alongside an exploration of plant growth, I transfer iconic cultural objects of daily life from plastic to ceramics. Using material culture as a physical and conceptual platform, this re-contextualization of objects offers a radically different view of use and meaning. I transform the soda-filled, plastic Big Gulp cup into a terra planter filled with new life.

My working method involves making molds of Big Gulp plastic cups and transferring the form into a traditional plant growing material, terra cotta. I then germinate seeds inside …

Water Politics: Governance, Conflict, And Vulnerability In Andean Peru, Flavia Rey De Castro Pastor

Geography and the Environment - Theses

Peru is facing serious social and environmental water challenges. Experts and policy makers are trying to better understand the social and economic impacts of an increasing rate of glacial melt and a consequential prospect of water scarcity. Currently there is a great deal of strain put on the water resources originating from Andean glacial melt because these sustain most economic and social growth taking place at the coastal desert. At the same time, the country's neoliberal development policies are changing the management of resources such as water. The gradual expansion of extractive industries along with the growing influence of non-state …

Sustaining And Realizing The Promise Of Telemedicine, Rashid L. Bashshur, Gary Shannon, Elizabeth A. Krupinski, Jim Grigsby

Geography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Karst Hydrogeology Of The Haney Limestone, South-Central Kentucky, Sarah Marie Arpin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

South-central Kentucky has one of the world’s most intensively studied karst
areas, with most work focusing on the Mammoth Cave System and related caves and aquifers. However, slightly higher in the stratigraphic section than Mammoth Cave, the Haney Limestone is a locally important but less well studied carbonate aquifer. This research provides the most comprehensive synthesis to date of the karst hydrogeology of the Haney Limestone of south-central Kentucky, focusing on the distribution and controls on cave and karst features developed within. In contrast to drainage systems within the major limestones below, joints are the most dominant control on passage …

Archaeological Prospecting Using Historic Aerial Imagery: Investigations In Northeast And Southwest Arkansas, Emily Jean Bitely

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the potential of historic aerial photographs as a tool for archaeological site prospecting. Craighead and Mississippi Counties in northeast Arkansas and areas adjacent to the Red and Little Rivers in southwest Arkansas were chosen as study areas. These regions have undergone significant changes in the past few decades and were expected to yield visible types of archaeological sites. Historic aerial images of these areas were obtained through the U.S. Geological Survey's EarthExplorer database (http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/). These images were processed using Agisoft PhotoScan Professional to produce extensive regional orthoimages.

Using the Arkansas Archeological Survey's Automated Management of Archeological Site …

Missouri National Recreational River 2012 Resource Brief, Isabel W. Ashton, Michael Prowatzke, Kara Paintner

United States National Park Service: Publications

Includes brief information on plant community monitoring, water quality monitoring, and weather and climate monitoring for the Missouri National Recreational River in the United States for 2012.

The Territorialization Of The 'Republican Law': Judicial Presence In Seine-Saint-Denis, France, Joaquin Villanueva

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the presence of the courts in the spaces of everyday life in social housing estates located in Seine-Saint-Denis (northeast of Paris). Since the 1990s the judiciary has actively sponsored the territorialization of the courts (la territorialisation de la Justice) as the most adept measure to respond to a series of problems often understood as essentially "local": crime, revolts, "incivilities," and insecurity. The dissertation examines the proliferation of new judicial structures in crime-prone areas, and the increasing involvement of judges in local partnerships to more efficiently fight crime and prevent collective violence among youths from immigrant origins. More …

A Gis-Based Analysis Of The Environmental Predictors Of Dispersal Of The Emerald Ash Borer In New York, Renee Huset

Geography and the Environment - Theses

After going undetected for roughly a decade, the emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis)--an invasive beetle native to Asia--was first detected in North America near Detroit, MI, in the summer of 2002 where it has continued to decimate native ash trees (Fraxinus species) and increase its footprint ever since. The beetle's ability to disperse via human-facilitated mechanisms as well as biological means has resulted in an alarming pace of infestation, with the first positive EAB identification in the state of New York taking place in 2009. Using geographic information systems technology, logistic regression, and maximum entropy modeling (Maxent), this project …

What We Talk About When We Talk About Local Food: Alternative Food Networks In Syracuse, Ny And Class Identity Formation, Leanne Abraham

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The goal of this study was to investigate how alternative food networks exist in Syracuse, what participation in these networks means for the individuals who choose to be involved in them, and what this means for the way that participants conceptualize their class, their consumption patterns, and their community in terms of their personal identity construction. In order to answer this question, the researcher interviewed four participants in alternative food networks in Syracuse, New York. Two of these participants were farmers who served the greater Syracuse area with their CSA farms, and two of the participants were employees of the …

Education For All: An East African Example, Alyssa Ierardo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Education for All (EFA) movement to end global educational disparity is a multilateral initiative led by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Initiated in 2000, the EFA movement represents the commitment of 164 nations to the Dakar Framework for Action which outlines six goals that seek to redress issues of social disparity and to improve access to and quality of education worldwide by 2015. In this report, the progress of the EFA movement in the United Republic of Tanzania serves as a proxy for evaluating the global potential of EFA initiatives. Failed post-colonial education reform efforts …

Does Menstruation Hinder Women's Empowerment? Working Toward Social Change In South India, Sarah Walton

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

With so many challenges facing education today, it is difficult to think about any more potential problems kids around the world have to deal with. However, as I came to realize during a semester abroad in South India – one problem might be messier than all the rest. And, it only affects girls. Menstruation often limits a girl’s ability to go to school for a variety of reasons. This paper documents some of those challenges girls face in regard to cultural taboos and social stigmatization, a lack of knowledge or historical misunderstanding, as well as the fact that for many …