Environmental Policy Commons^™

Pakistan, India And The Indus River Basin, Muquadas Ilyas

Dissertations and Theses

Water is a fundamental need of all living things. The right to clean water is classified as a human right under United Nations Resolution 64/292.As such it is the responsibility of governments to ensure its citizens are not deprived of this essential resource. In doing so, effective water management is crucial to provide clean water that is accessible to everyone regardless of any challenges such as geographical constraints or political disputes. This thesis explores the water management efforts of Pakistan and India. These countries are facing a water crisis, whereby numerous citizens have died due to dehydration and diseases contracted …

Warehouses In The Inland Empire: Displacing Land And Life, Katherine Gelsey

Pomona Senior Theses

The Inland Empire in Southern California embodies unique spatial and social configurations as a consequence of how settler colonialism has manifested locally in the region since the Spanish Mission Period. This work uses GIS software to estimate patterns of land conversion for residential, agricultural, and warehouse land from 2012 to 2022. Preliminary analysis suggests that thousands of people have been displaced by warehouse expansion over the ten-year period. In the twenty-first century, the Southern California logistics industry continues processes of land dispossession and racialized labor exploitation through displacing agricultural and residential land, exposing disproportionately low-income Black and Latine communities living …

Teaching Agroecology: Preparing Students For Navigating Uncharted Territory, Charles A. Francis, Steve Gliessman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Agroecologists understand that farming and food systems are more complex than the aggregation of their components. This realization drives our choices of learning strategies and activities that will prepare students for complexity and uncertainty. Our quest for a just, sustainable, and nutritious food system adequate to equitably serve everyone on the planet today and into the future is an enormous challenge. An undertaking of this magnitude will be met only with major adjustments informed by thoughtful teaching and practicing problem solving skills through a new educational lens. The principles of agroecology help us focus this lens on the wicked problems …

Quantifying The Carbon Stored And Sequestered By The Trees On Pomona College’S Campus, Paola A. Giron-Carson

Scripps Senior Theses

We are experiencing a climate crisis that must be confronted with strategic mitigation. Pomona College contributes to the climate crisis through its emissions for which there is a baseline record. However there is no baseline record of the climate mitigation currently performed by the trees on Pomona’s campus through carbon storage. This study seeks to determine a current baseline quantity of carbon stored and sequestrated by Pomona’s trees as well as possible courses of climate mitigation for Pomona College to take. Initial information gathering was conducted through interviews with several stakeholders. This study was conducted using data collected prior to …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Environmental Sustainability And Human Mortality, Xingzhi Mara Chen, Andrew Sharma, Hua Liu

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Climate dictates the critical aspects of human environmental conditions. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather conditions due to human-induced climate change have alarmingly increased. Consequently, climate change directly affects environmental sustainability and human mortality in the short term and creates prolonged and complicated long-term indirect grave risks. This paper examines three-level environmental impact risks associated with climate change on human mortality. It proposes a conceptual framework for developing an empirical event-based human mortality database related to climate change and communication strategies to enhance global environmental adaptation, resilience, and sustainability.

Anticipating And Adapting To The Impacts Of Climate Change On Low Elevation Coastal Zone (Lecz) Communities, Lynn Donelson Wright, Thomas Allen, Kiki Caruson, Alain Hénaff, Jaia Syvitski

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

[Scholarcy Abstract] The rates of sea level rise in coastal Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay significantly exceed the global rate and weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation adds to the annual rates.

The original vision was to enhance future resilience of Low-Elevation Coastal Zone communities by advancing understandings and approaches to better anticipate and mitigate hazards to human health, safety and welfare and reduce deleterious impacts to coastal residents and industries. The goal of the thematic Research Topic has been to assemble interdisciplinary papers that contribute to better understanding of the couplings among physical, ecological, socioeconomic, management and policy …

Coastal Science For Resilience And Management At The Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Nc, Usa, Michael J. Flynn, Thomas R. Allen, Meaghan E. Johnson, David E. Hallac

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

National seashores are cherished public lands with rich environmental, cultural, and historic resources. The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is one such coastal asset that is both bountiful yet vulnerable, with historic lighthouses, critical habitats, and recreational amenities alike facing threats of sea-level rise and continual storm and climate change impacts. Over 3 million visitors to the Seashore in 2021 set an annual visitation record. Historic resources such as the Bodie Island Lighthouse and Ocracoke Lighthouse are among the most visited sites, yet these assets are also among those most vulnerable to flooding, compromised structural integrity, and reduced accessibility. Future challenges …

An Update On The Influence Of Natural Climate Variability And Anthropogenic Climate Change On Tropical Cyclones, Suzana J. Camargo, Hiroyuki Murakami, Nadia Bloemendaal, Savin S. Chand, Medha S. Deshpande, Christian Dominguez-Sarmiento, Juan Jesús González-Alemán, Thomas R. Knutson, I. I. Lin, Il- Ju Moon, Christina M. Patricola, Kevin A. Reed, Malcolm J. Roberts, Enrico Scoccimarro, Chi Yung Tam, Elizabeth J. Wallace, Liguang Wu, Yohei Yamada, Wei Zhang, Haikun Zhao

OES Faculty Publications

A substantial number of studies have been published since the Ninth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-9) in 2018, improving our understanding of the effect of climate change on tropical cyclones (TCs) and associated hazards and risks. These studies have reinforced the robustness of increases in TC intensity and associated TC hazards and risks due to anthropogenic climate change. New modeling and observational studies suggested the potential influence of anthropogenic climate forcings, including greenhouse gases and aerosols, on global and regional TC activity at the decadal and century time scales. However, there are still substantial uncertainties owing to model uncertainty …

Recommendations For Sustainable Tourism In Patagonia: An Exploratory Analysis Of Sustainable Tourism In Costa Rica, The Nordic Region, And Thailand’S Communities, Julia K. Lowery

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores different levels of governance and its role towards actualizing sustainable tourism in Patagonia. With the growing threat of climate change, international destinations such as Patagonia are looking to continue building their tourism industries in a sustainable way. Through analyzing case studies of national governance in Costa Rica, multi-national governance in the Nordic region, and community-based tourism in Thailand, we can better understand how each form of governance has the potential to create a sustainable tourism industry. With this understanding of successful governance in my case studies, as well as understanding the historical and political forces that have …

Decreasing Trash In Local Creeks: A Program Evaluation Of The City Of San Jose’S Direct Discharge Trash Control Program, Lakeisha Bryant

Master's Projects

The entire San Francisco Bay was once a navigable waterway in the 1850s during the Gold Rush era. Large amounts of sediment from upstream erosion and mining flowed to the bay resulting in the downsizing of the bay’s square miles (Environmental Protection Agency, 2022). As a result of intense development on the bay shores and adjacent lands, the bay faces several challenges that affect its water quality and threatens aquatic ecosystems. Pesticides, mercury, metals, and pathogens are just a few substances in the bay that cause unhealthy conditions for aquatic life and threaten human health. California’s Water Resources Control Board …

Drought Levels In Nevada Counties, 2022, Julianna Jovillar, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet synthesizes data on drought levels within Nevada counties from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) in 2022. The information presented in this document focuses on the breakdown of the number of Nevada residents affected by the droughts within each county and the drought experience in each county.

The Impact Of Policy Design On Willingness To Pay For Ecosystem Services From Prairie Strips, Karina A. Schoengold, Badri Khanal, Taro Mieno, Lisa Schulte Moore

Cornhusker Economics

Ecosystem services from farmland conservation are public good benefits. The value of these benefits is primarily measured using methods that determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for those benefits. Prairie strips, a farmland conservation practice, provide ecosystem services such as improved water quality, soil health, and biodiversity (Schulte et al., 2017). The state of Iowa is a major corn producer and contributes significant amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous to the Gulf of Mexico (Alexander et al., 2008). The development of conventional agricultural systems has also resulted in a significant loss of biodiversity, including a dominant land cover of tallgrass prairie. …

Implementing Just Climate Adaptation Policy: An Analysis Of Recognition, Framing, And Advocacy Coalitions In Boston, U.S.A., Jeffrey T. Malloy, Catherine Ashcraft, Paul Kirshen, Thomas G. Safford, Semra Aytur, Shannon H. Rogers

Faculty Publications

Cities face intersectional challenges implementing climate adaptation policy. This research contributes to scholarship dedicated to understanding how policy implementation affects socially vulnerable groups, with the overarching goal of promoting justice and equity in climate policy implementation. We apply a novel framework that integrates social justice theory and the advocacy coalition framework to incrementally assess just climate adaptation in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. Boston made an ambitious commitment to address equity as part of its climate planning and implementation efforts. In this paper, we evaluate the first implementation stage over the period 2016–2019 during which Boston developed coastal resilience …

Strengthening Ecosystem Management Is Helpful For Achieving The Carbon Neutrality Goal, Bojie Fu, Nan Lv, Yihe Lv

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Coordinate The Five-Pool Functions Of Ecosystem And Build Strong National Ecological Infrastructures—Ecological Construction Ideology, Tasks And Goals In The New Developing Era Of China, Guirui Yu, Meng Yang, Tianxiang Hao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Typical Pathway To Carbon Neutrality For Urban Smart Energy Systems—Case Study Of Macao Special Administrative Region, Yonghua Song, Hongcai Zhang, Ge Chen

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

China's ambitious goal "strive to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060" not only shows China's responsible attitude towards climate change, but also aligns with the upgrade requirement of China's economy and industries. Since cities occupy a dominant position in China's population, energy consumption, and carbon emissions, they are the main battlefield for achieving national carbon neutrality. This study first analyzes the challenges and requirements that cities' energy systems facing in order to realize carbon neutrality. Then, it takes Macao as an example to analyze the characteristics of cities' energy consumption and carbon emissions. Finally, it …

Research-Practice Collaborations To Address Equity Through Implementable, On-The-Ground Coastal Resilience Projects, Wie Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Summary. The discussion of research-practice collaborations to address equity through implementable, on-the-ground projects and programs converged around several interconnected themes that included: (1) prioritizing equity focus in defining and measuring projects’ success, (2) involving local communities in projects early on and through long-term monitoring, using interdisciplinary teams, and (3) incentivizing such projects through proper resourcing. Prioritizing equity in project measurement is only possible with the community’s involvement, and proper resourcing would ensure that community partners are resourced appropriately to support their resilience efforts.

Equity Concerns Underpinning Policy Analysis And Decision Making For Coastal Resilience, Wie Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Summary: Equity is increasingly becoming a consideration in resilience-focused policy. There is heightened interest in measuring how resilience policies, projects, and programs may impact equity. Equity may be advanced by a more inclusive policy process, well-developed communication channels, regular reference to the resilience research body of knowledge, and consultation with subject matter experts. There is need for increased clarity in the conceptual and operational definitions of equity, and consideration of the impact of resilience investments on a range of social and economic disparities.

Emergency Management For Equitable Coastal Resilience, Wie Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Summary: The discipline and practice of emergency management provide opportunities to promote equity in resilience. This may be accomplished by (1) expanding and deepening emergency management’s responsibilities to more explicitly incorporate mid-to-long-term recovery, and (2) advancing workforce diversity. Further, the prioritization of planning investments may promote more equitable recovery pathways for communities. Tracking of resilience investments and associated benefits across communities may provide opportunities to assess the equity of investments. Advancing resilience literacy and risk assessment among the citizenry may promote equity in resilience.

Coastal Squeeze, Climigration, And Equity Implications, Wie Yusuf

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Summary: Coastal squeeze is impacting communities across the United States. Agricultural lands are affected by groundwater salt intrusion, habitats are lost due to limited space for species to migrate inland, natural capital and flood protection values are impacted by reduction in undeveloped land for natural ecosystems, infrastructure such as transportation are affected by flooding, and insurance companies are withdrawing from covering properties in coastal communities experiencing sea level rise and flooding. Resulting ‘climigration’ is occurring, for example, in Puerto Rico residents moving off the island, and subdivisions in North Carolina and Virginia being turned over to conservation. Lower-income communities are …

Climate Change Impacts On Groundwater In Mapc Communities, Jayne F. Knott, Paul Kirshen, Ellen Douglas

School for the Environment General Publications

Groundwater is important for human health and the environment but has often been overlooked in the development of climate change adaptation strategies. This is because groundwater is rarely visible, and because changes in groundwater levels are not as dramatic as extreme flooding events, coastal storms, and storm surge. The importance of groundwater for drinking water, natural resources, and streamflow is well documented. Groundwater levels are also important considerations in the design of pavements, underground infrastructure, foundations, on-site wastewater treatment systems, and in the remediation of hazardous waste disposal areas. Groundwater is especially important in the wet northeast, where groundwater levels …

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

Stephanie Heckman is a visual artist who attended the Glasgow conference. “I attended COP26 as a visual storyteller,’ she says. “Visual storytelling (known also as graphic recording) involves the use of graphics, drawings and hand lettering to capture the essence of collective conversation. It is a tool for live notetaking and sense-making; it stimulates participants to engage with each other and complex subject matter, and makes the outcomes more memorable, engaging and accessible to others not present at these conversations.”

Stephanie was an accredited observer delegate at COP26 and a “civic participant” in the many events happening around Glasgow at …

Visual Report Of Cop26, Stéphanie Heckman

New England Journal of Public Policy

As a visual practitioner my job is to draw people’s thoughts, and in so doing, help people make sense of them. The visual summaries I create live during conferences aim to capture more than just the dry content, but also the dynamic, the mood and the unspoken. It is a tool more aligned with how our associative, sensory-fed brains work, for coping with the deluge of information that faces us these days. And it’s a tool that can help overcome language, learning and other barriers to access.

When I discovered in January 2020 that the next Conference of the Parties, …

Implementing Green Port Strategies In Saudi Ports To Achieve Environmental Sustainability, Saleh Mohammed Alzahrani

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Accelerate Construction Of New Pattern Of Ecological Protection In Northwest China, Qi Feng, Guangzu Bai, Zongxing Li, Bao Wang, Lijuan Chen, Penglong Wang, Tengfei Yu, Hongfei Meng, Wen Liu, Zhixiang Lu, Tingting Ning, Chengqi Zhang, Meng Zhu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Based on a profound understanding of the great significance of constructing an ecological protection pattern in Northwest China, this paper systematically summarizes the achievements, new problems and new trends of ecological protection in Northwest China, and accordingly, puts forward an overall spatial arrangement for the ecological protection under "two regions (watersheds)-six zones (core ecological function zones)-multiple points (key ecological points)". In addition, a key path to construct a new pattern of ecological protection in Northwest China is expounded in order to make more contributions to the acceleration of the harmonious co-existence between human and nature. The path is mainly based …

Climate Change And The Threat To U.S. Jails And Prisons, Laurie L. Levenson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Strength Of Climate Goals And Results In Regions: A Comparative Study Of The Basque Country And Scotland And Their Respective Nations, Oviya Kumaran

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research paper looks to find if regions have stronger climate initiatives to reduce more greenhouse gas emissions than their nation states and if so why does this occur. To investigate this, I will use the Basque Country of Spain and Scotland in the United Kingdom (U.K), and study their greenhouse gas emission and renewable energy targets, and their greenhouse gas emission data and renewable energy use. I will then compare the data from the regions to their respective countries and find if they are achieving more or less on these climate initiatives. A majority of this study is based …

The Politics Of Water: The Jordanian Water Crisis And The Future Of Refugee Migration In The Middle East, Ruhama Bekele

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The rise of water-related conflicts around the world has challenged the norms of international relations as environmental developments have transboundary effects that threaten the security of sovereign states and have the potential to destabilize regions. Furthermore, water-related conflicts are more dangerous in countries like Jordan that suffer from extreme water scarcity and have high populations of refugees as a consequence of political instability in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. The following research investigates the role of water in relation to geopolitical factors such as refugee migration, Israel’s diversion of the Jordan River, and the construction of Syrian dams on …

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

Theoretical Thinking Of Artificial Ecosystem For Modern Marine Ranching, Dewen Ding, Anning Suo

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Based on the systematic review of the conceptual evolution process of marine ranching and its development of practice, this paper pointed out the problems existing in the construction of marine ranching in China, such as lack of theoretical support, lack of ecological engineering technologies, and lack of ecological management. It then proposed the concept of marine ranching artificial ecosystem. In addition, the paper analyzed the structural principle of marine ranching artificial ecosystem from the viewpoint of cultivating key functional communities and habitat construction for the marine ranch fishery resources. Finally, the paper discussed the theoretical framework of the modern marine …