Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Green Building Geography Across The United States: Does Governmental Incentives Or Economic Growth Stimulate Construction?, Darren Prum, Tetsuo Kobayashi

Darren A. Prum

As green building activity continues to rise across the country, some state governments decided to create incentives that would motivate developers to voluntarily pursue third party certification for their real estate projects in order to assist in meeting sustainability and environmental goals. Despite the growing number of studies in green buildings, the geography of green buildings and sustainable construction only includes a few studies, which emphasize the lack of green building research from the spatial perspective and their relevance to public policies the lack of green building research from the spatial perspective and their relevance to public policies. This study …

Environmental Justice And The Duwamish River--Updated October 2013, Jonathan Betz-Zall

Jonathan Betz-Zall

No abstract provided.

Unnatural Disasters: Rethinking The Distinction Between Natural And Man-Made Catastrophe, Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

Michael D. Cooper, Esq.

The distinction between “natural” and “man-made” disaster has grown increasingly difficult to defend. Our current conception conflates extreme natural events with the notion of disaster—an exclusively human construct. We define our cultural perception of “natural” disaster through three “man-made” constructs. First, our values alone characterize the scope and scale of loss. Second, our volition exacerbates otherwise benign natural hazards, exposes us to otherwise avoidable hazards, and, through technology, generates new and otherwise non-existent hazards. Finally, when natural hazards do unleash their destructive powers, pre-existing socio-economic inequalities manifest as vulnerabilities that ultimately determine both absolute and relative social outcomes and impacts. …

Socio-Environmental Considerations At The Usuma Reservoir In Abuja, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Mr, James Ikyernum Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Dr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

Reservoirs are Man’s attempt towards water re-distribution from regions/seasons of abundance/surplus to regions/seasons of scarcity. This study focuses on socio-environmental impacts of the Lower Usuma dam in Abuja, on its four surrounding communities. Stratified random sampling technique was employed in the administration of a questionnaire to 200 respondents. Using descriptive statistics and the student t-test for the analysis, the study discovered that: (i) there has been no significant improvement in infrastructure provision by Government; (ii) cases of water-borne diseases are high; (iii) the communities have lost land for cultivation; and, (iv) the communities believe that the resettlement scheme is not …

Analysis Of Land Use Changes And Its Hydrological Implication On River Niger, Lokoja, Nigeria, O O. Ifatmehin Phd, P A. Essoka Phd, A Ahmed

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

This study evaluates the impact of urbanization on Meme river catchment of 667,560.5Km2 area in the Lokoja urbanizing area of Kogi State. The emphasis was to examine the rate of urbanization, changes in land-use, and changes in meme river channel. Land-sat satellite imageries of 1987, 2001, 2006 and 2011 were processed to examine how land use change processes affects rate of urbanization and impacted on the stream. Hydrological map of Meme River was digitized using ARCGIS 9 software to extract the precise study area. It was discovered from multiple regression analysis that light vegetation (.92), built up area (.81), rock …

Book Review: Edward L. Glaeser, Triumph Of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, And Happier (The Penguin Press 2011), David J. Reiss

David J Reiss

It is always a bit unnerving to read someone else’s love letters, but even more so, when you have the same object of desire. Edward Glaeser’s TRIUMPH OF THE CITY is a love letter to cities and to New York City in particular. Glaeser provides a theoertical framework of the city, arguing that “Cities are the absence of physical space between people and companies. They are proximity, density, closeness.”

Glaeser prescribes three simple rules to protect the vitality of the urban environment: First, cities should replace the current lengthy and uncertain permitting process with a simple system of fees. Second, …

The Analysis Of Agricultural Landscape Change Using Gis Techniques. Case Study: Podoleni, Romania, Dan A. Chelaru, Adrian Ursu, Florin C. Mihai

Florin C MIHAI

The increasingly tensions rising between society’s need for resources and space on the one hand, and the capacity of the land to support these needs on the other hand lead to unprecedented changes in landscape configuration, and hence, to the environment. This paper analyzes changes in the agricultural landscape of Podoleni, Neamt County, Romania, in spatio - temporal terms, as a result of the modernization of the ground processing techniques, types of crops, and the degree of fragmentation of land parcels. The study was conducted using Geographical Information Systems techniques, the main materials used in the analysis are topographic maps …

Feasibility Assessment For Tourism Development In Persian Gulf (A Case Study Of Hendourabi Island), Mohammad Hossein Imani Khoshkhoo

university of science & culture

Today, tourism industry is one of the fields that give diversity to the countries’ economy. Whereas, according to investigations of the Global Tourism Organization, tourism is a key to development in many developing and less developed countries. On the other hand, a brief review of the economical planning of our (Iran’s) neighbors and their general focus on tourism as one of the most important sectors of economy, further confirms the need to pay more strict attention to this competitive market. Therefore, it seems necessary to expand the tourism market of these islands and remove their deprivations via canonizing facilities and …

Innovation Cooperation: Energy Biosciences And Law, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This Article analyzes the development and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies that can address climate change. Climate change poses catastrophic health and security risks on a global scale. Universities, individual innovators, private firms, civil society, governments, and the United Nations can unite in the common goal to address climate change. This Article recommends means by which legal, scientific, engineering, and a host of other public and private actors can bring environmentally sound innovation into widespread use to achieve sustainable development. In particular, universities can facilitate this collaboration by fostering global innovation and diffusion networks.

Cancun Climate Negotiations, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, held from November 29 to December 11, 2010, in Cancún, Mexico, relaunched the United Nation's multilateral facilitation role.

Tribes As Essential Partners In Achieving Sustainable Governance, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Indigenous peoples have modeled sustainable development around the world. Incentivizing the innovation and instillation of wind, solar, and other renewable energy sources can come in the form of public funding, including renewable portfolio standards, feed in tariffs and green tag programs. This article analyzes ways in which tribal communities are helping to expand cooperative good governance.

Contemporary Issues In Infrastructural Development And Management In Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, David Okoro Ogbonna, Salihu Danlami Musa, Adesola Ogidiolu

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

No abstract provided.

An Analysis Of Temperature Variations Using Remote Sensing Approach In Lokoja Area, Fanan Ujoh Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Mr, Sunday Ishaya Mr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

This study investigates the thermal variations of the different land use/cover types in urban Lokoja town retrieved from Landsat TM imagery of 1987. Band 2, 3, 4 and 6 of the imagery were used in the classification, estimation of NDVI, land surface emissivity values, and satellite sensor temperature. The Qin et al’s mono window algorithm was employed to obtain the land surface temperatures of the different land use/cover types classified. The results indicate that there is a significant variation in temperatures among the different land use/cover types in Lokoja. The built up area and the vacant area have the highest …

China In Context: Energy, Water, And Climate Cooperation, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Climate resilient communities can be achieved with the support of global research, development, deployment, and diffusion of environmentally sound low GHG emission technologies and processes. Technology cooperation should lower emissions remaining mindful of biodiversity, ecosystem services and livelihoods. China and the United States need to respond effectively to both economic and climate crises and can do so in part by cooperating on environmentally sound technology that transforms the global use of energy.

Collaborative Community-Based Natural Resource Management, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

This article analyzes the importance of increasing civil society actor access to and influence in international legal and policy negotiations, drawing from academic scholarship on governance, conservation and environmental sustainability, natural resource management, observations of civil society actors, and the authors’ experiences as participants in international environmental negotiations.

Emerging Law Addressing Climate Change And Water, Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

Prof. Elizabeth Burleson

The World Economic Forum recognizes that while restrictions on energy affect water systems and vice versa, energy and water policy are rarely coordinated. The International Panel on Climate Change predicts that wet places will become wetter and dry places will become dryer. Transboundary water, energy and climate coordination can occur through international consensus building.

Resource Conflict Among Farmers And Fulani Herdsmen: Implications For Resource Sustainability, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Marietu Tenuche

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

This study describes the traditional relationship between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the incessant resource conflict witnessed in Kogi State, Nigeria and how it affects livelihood security of those involved and resource sustainability for the communities. These conflicts are most responsible for the unsustainable utilization of land and water resources as the trampling by the hooves of herds of cattle compacts the soil of farm land, destroy farm crops by the herdsmen, places restraint on effective utilization of arable farmland among other destruction of available resources. It is understood that these conflicts have their roots in the land tenure system, …

An Analysis Of The Changing Land Use And Its Impact On The Environment Of Anyigba Town, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Salihu Danlami Musa

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Urbanization is a process that always initiates the continual transformation of land from one use to the other. Land transformation is presently being experienced in and around fast growing towns, like Anyigba in Kogi State. This study used Remote sensing and GIS techniques to identify, mark, and measure the extent of the various land uses from the Land use map of 1995 and Nigeriasat 1 imagery of 2006. The study revealed that there have been tremendous transformation in the various land uses, with the built-up area expanding more than other land uses with 398.4%. Gaining 167 ha, 613.45 ha, 159.62 …

An Evaluation Of The Effect Of Land Use/Cover Change On The Surface Temperature Of Lokoja Town, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

This research integrated remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identified land use/cover types in Lokoja, including their temporal transformation and association with surface temperatures from the LandSat TM and LandSat ETM imageries of 1987 and 2001 respectively. As the built-up area increased in size (2667.6%) so was the surface temperature (6.48oC), vacant land (872%: 9.65oC), cultivated land (104.4%: 1.2oC) and water bodies (64.3%:0.94oC) while vegetation cover increased by 2.44oC while its area extent decreased (316.7%). These changes were responsible for the rise in the mean surface temperature from 38.39oC in 1987 to 42.61oC in 2001, indicating a 4.22oC …

An Assessment Of Malaria Risk In Koton Karfe Watershed Catchment, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

This study adopts ground survey and questionnaire administration to determine environmental and socio-economic factors contributing to malaria risk in Koton Karfe watershed catchment. A health facilty-based survey is carried out to assess tbe ratio of population to health facility. The study reveals that poverty is the overriding risk factor determining the high malaria incidence rate which ranges from 40/1000 per annum to 288/1000 per annum across watershed catchment and prevelant among infants and school age children. The nearest neighbour index of 1.48 suggests the randomness in the spatial distribution of health facilities. The increase in the burden of malaria on …

Application Of Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques In Mapping Fadama Farming Areas, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Sunday Ishaya

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

The importance and scarcity of fadama land as well as the needs for their sustainable development and management, mapping of potentials areas is likely to be the reliable step towards effective and efficient way in securing the food needs of the populace and as well as developing the rural areas in Nigeria. This study used Remote Sensing and GIS techniques to identify potential land use areas for fadama farming and then produce map. Four steps were followed in mapping these areas: (i) topographic map of the study area was scanned and imported into the ILWIS GIS software, which was then …

An Evaluation Of The Effect Of Land Use/Cover Change On The Surface Temperature Of Lokoja Town, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Mr, John Y. Magaji Dr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

This research integrated remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to identified land use/cover types in Lokoja, including their temporal transformation and association with surface temperatures from the LandSat TM and LandSat ETM imageries of 1987 and 2001 respectively. As the built-up area increased in size (2667.6%) so was the surface temperature (6.48oC), vacant land (872%: 9.65oC), cultivated land (104.4%: 1.2oC) and water bodies (64.3%:0.94oC) while vegetation cover increased by 2.44oC while its area extent decreased (316.7%). These changes were responsible for the rise in the mean surface temperature from 38.39oC in 1987 to 42.61oC in 2001, indicating a 4.22oC …

Using Indigenous Knowledge In Land Use Planning And Management: A Participatory Gis Approach, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

An increasing global concern that has been consistently facing the human population today is the declining natural resources especially land resources. Land resources are threatened by the increasing pressures exerted by the expanding human needs and economic activities, and thus impose adverse effect on the environment, biodiversity, and the global climate systems. Information describing the land resources of a region does forms the bases upon which sustainable development can be built. The local people perception of being local with a complex, diverse and uncontrolled problems and tied down to a livelihood that depends mainly on primary production system (utilization of …

The Use Of Computer Intelligent Processing Technologies Among Environmental Scientists In Nigerian Universities, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

This paper assesses the awareness and usage of a novel approach to data and information processing among scientists, researchers and students in the field of environmental sciences. In depth and structured interview was conducted, targeting a population who are working in a variety of environmental issues. The data generated were analysed using simple descriptive statistics. The results indicate that the level of awareness and responsiveness to this approach is very low (26.5%), and computer proficiency is also very low (30.8%). This suggests the need for a vigorous academic reorientation of all stakeholders through conferences, workshops and seminars.

Application Of Geoninformatic Technology In Evaluating Urban Agriculture And Urban Poverty In Lokoja, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin, Salihu Danlami Musa

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

The role of urban agriculture in the food supply of cities and towns, as a complement to rural agriculture is becoming an important issue in a globalizing world economy. The developing countries see it as a way to alleviate urban poverty. Remote sensing and GIS techniques were used to assess areal extent of urban agricultural land in Lokoja. Questionnaires were also used to evaluate the contributions to urban agriculture to food security and income generation among the urban poor in Lokoja. The result revealed that urban agricultural land had increased, thereby implying that urban agriculture is supporting many urban poor …

Suitability Mapping Of Sesame Cultivation In Nigeria, Charles Alegbe

Charles Alegbe

Nigeria as a microcosm of the sub-Saharan Africa has agriculture as her mainstay which provides employment and source of livelihood for the increasing population. Sesame also known as beniseed, which is a very sensitive cash-crop to environmental factors such as rainfall, temperature and soil types; is not an exception as it has become one of the foreign exchange earners for Nigeria. The objective of this project is to use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as a decision making tools to solving the spatial problems of sesame suitability mapping in Nigeria. Basic GIS operations ranging from spatial to aspatial search, reclassification and …

An Application Of Geoinformatics For Estima Ting Surface Temperature In A Rapidly Developing Urban Area Of Kogi State, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

This study used remote sensing techniques to estimate surface radiant temperature of Lokoja town from LandSat ETM satellite imagery of 2001. The research was conducted in the phases of Pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post fieldwork. Data generated from the field and satellite imagery were integrated, analysed, interpreted in a GIS environment. The result indicated that built-up area (336.14 K) and vacant land (321.63 K) exhibit the highest surface radiant temperature, while vegetated surfaces (301.23 K), water bodies (303.06 K) and cultivated land (307.56K) recorded the lowest radiant temperature respectively. Specifically, the resulting land surface temperature was 313.06K. Generally, this approach was …

Geostatistical Approach To The Control Of Typhoid Fever In A Part Of Kogi State, Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Typhoid fever is a common ailment affecting many resident especially the inhabitants of Anyigba. The problem is spatially related to the lack of portable water. The Human Health Risk Analysis methods of SADA (Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance) software was used to evaluate the health impact of water source. Maps of Anyigba were converted into digital form using Idrisi GIS software and the resulting coverages included hydrological Features, wards, population and environmental pollution in Anyigba. The Water sources were categories into A and B based on the cumulative scores < 5 for A and > for B based on the perceived vulnerability to various contamination. T-test …

A Satellite Remote Sensing Based Land Surface Temperature Retrieval From Landsat Tm Data., Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Land Surface Temperature (LST) of Lokoja town were retrieved from LandSat TM imagery of 1987. The NDVI and land emissivity were estimated from visible and near infrared bands, while the effective satellite temperature was estimated from the thermal infrared band. The Qin et al's mono-window algorithm was employed to obtain the land surface temperatures of the different land use/cover types in Lokoja town. The result indicated that vacant land and built-up have the highest LST values of 331.13K and 329.82K, and vegetation, water bodies and cultivated land having the least with 294.03K, 296.76K and 306.06K respectively. The average retrieved LST …

Remote Sensing And Gis Applications In Urban Expansion And Loss Of Vegetation Cover In Kaduna Town, Northern Nigeria, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin

Anthropogenic drivers such as the urbanization and economic dependence have being a major force shaping various landscapes. Kaduna town is no exception of such landscapes. This study uses remote sensing and GIS techniques with survey to identify the various land uses, their various transformations over the a period of 11 years (1990-2000)and to measure the rate of urban expansion and loss of vegetation cover in the study area. The study revealed that built-up area is expanding at about 167.86 hectares annually vegetation covers declining at a faster rate of 297.5 hectares annually. It also revealed that bare land a component …