Environmental Policy Commons^™

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

No More Shade: Deforestation And Rural-Urban Migration In Nigeria, Kambre Sims

Master's Theses

Some of the most well-documented motivating factors of migration in Nigeria include education, employment opportunities, and cultural conflicts. However, as the deforestation crisis has not improved and Nigeria has maintained its spot as the country with the most deforestation on Earth, access to critical forest resources may be in danger. In light of this crisis, this paper attempts to determine if deforestation has become a new motivating factor for migration as those in rural communities seek other avenues of obtaining those vital resources. Subsequently, Nigeria is also experiencing a housing crisis within its rapidly growing urban centers; obtaining and keeping …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

Effectiveness Of Plastic Ordinances In Santa Monica, Ca: Do Regulations At The Municipal Level Reduce Plastic Waste?, John W. Hayes

School of Public Policy Capstones

Plastic is a cheap, robust and versatile material with numerous practical uses that contribute to the convenience of modern day life. However the very same properties that make it uniquely diverse and hardy also contribute to the hazards it poses to the ecosystems and human health. If current consumption and manufacturing practices remain unchanged, there will be hundreds of millions of additional tons of plastic introduced into the environment over the coming decades. To mitigate this issue, some cities, such as Santa Monica, have implemented ordinances and policies directly aimed at this growing problem, albeit with ambiguous results. To better …

A Comparative Analysis Of Energy Policy And Markets In Ohio, Iowa, And Minnesota And Respective Impacts On Renewable Energy Development, Sara Honeck

Honors Projects

With the climate crises worsening it is important that governments adopt effective policies to support renewable energy development. This is imperative considering the greenhouse gas emissions that fossil fuels, the conventional energy sources, emit. With a lack of direction from the federal government since the early 2000s, the states have been mostly left to support renewables with their own policy development. Between the three midwestern states of Iowa, Ohio, and Minnesota, Ohio lags far behind in terms of renewable energy growth while Iowa and Minnesota are national leaders. A state such as Ohio has likely seen less growth due to …

Bears Ears And Outdoor Recreation In San Juan County, Jordan Smith, Emily Wilkins, Anna B. Miller

All Current Publications

The creation and subsequent downsizing of Bears Ears National Monument has been one of the most publicized and politicized land management decisions within the state over the past decade. However, relatively little research has been conducted to determine if, and to what extent, the creation of the monument impacted outdoor recreation and recreation-related industries. Now, more than three years after the monument was created, there are sufficient data to take a retrospective look at the influence of the monument. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the influence of Bears Ears National Monument on outdoor recreation and its related …

Can’T Bear It! Employing Culturally Sensitive Initiatives To Reduce Bear Bile Demand In Northern Vietnam, Alicia Ngo, Shannon Randolph

EnviroLab Asia

Over the past 30 years, the combination of over-hunting, habitat loss, and increased bear bile demand has caused significant declines in Asiatic black bear (aka moon bear; Ursus thibetanus) and sun bear (Helarctos malayanus) populations. In Eastern medicine, bear bile is extracted from the gallbladders of bears and is then used to treat a wide range of inflammatory, liver, and degenerative ailments. However, the use of bear bile has had significant impacts on bear populations. Given that communities in Northern Vietnam have a lengthy history of using bear bile and bear bile is easily accessible, merely advocating …

Wpa News 114 (2021), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Spring 2021), number 114

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Assessing And Mapping The Spatial-Temporal Change In Forest Phenology Of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Using Moderate Resolution Satellite, Bailey Ytterdahl

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study focuses on coastal forests in Kenya that have some of the highest variety of flora and fauna, specifically Arabuko Sokoke Forest. Arabuko Sokoke Forest is located 110 miles north of Mombasa and 18 kilometers south of Malindi. This forest is known to be a worldwide biodiversity hotspot that is home to endemic and rare plants and animals. Within the Arabuko Sokoke Forest ecosystem, there are two main issues that challenge the conservation of the area. First, there has been more competition for land, primarily for agriculture and development. Second, there is an increase demand for forest resources due …

The Solution To Plastic Pollution: A Dissection Of The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, Nadine M. Snyder

Student Publications

Ever since the development of plastic in the 1900s, it has become one of the most commonly used materials in the world. Its flexibility and durability allow it to be used in a wide variety of materials from clothing to packaging to toothbrushes. However, plastic’s durability has caused environmental damage as well, as plastic particles have been found in everything from waterways to human bodies. This paper explains the history and science of plastic production and examines studies on the environmental and public health impacts of plastics. It then examines various policies that have been enacted to control plastic pollution …

Hard And Soft Law In The Paris Climate Agreement, Carter A. Hanson

Student Publications

This paper examines the effectiveness of contractual, facilitative, and hybrid legal models in international climate agreements from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) to the Paris Climate Agreement (2015). It begins with a review of the balance between hard and soft treaty law in international environmental treaties prior to the Paris Climate Agreement with an eye for how this translated into effectiveness in terms of compelling states to lower greenhouse gas emissions. It then investigates the structure and effectiveness of the Paris Climate Agreement, taking into account global political realities and limitations for international environmental law. The product …

Ecological Risk Assessment Of Managed Relocation As A Climate Change Adaptation Strategy, Aviv Karasov-Olson, Mark W. Schwartz, Julian D. Olden, Sarah Skikne, Jessica J. Hellmann, Sarah Allen, Christy Brigham, Danielle Buttke, David J. Lawrence, Abraham J. Miller-Rushing, Jeffrey T. Morisette, Gregor W. Schuurman, Melissa Trammell, Cat Hawkins Hoffman

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Changing climate and introduced species are placing an increasing number of species at risk of extinction. Increasing extinction risk is increasing calls to protect species by relocating, or translocating, them to locations with more favorable biotic or climatic conditions. Managed relocation, or assisted migration, of species entails risks to both the conservation target organisms being moved as well as the recipient ecosystems into which they are moved.

Recognizing this risk, calls have been made for practitioners interested in considering a managed relocation project to engage in a serious risk assessment prior to advancing a project. We engaged a …

Protocol For Monitoring Fish Communities In Small Streams In The Heartland Inventory And Monitoring Network, Version 2.0, Hope R. Dodd, David G. Peitz, Gareth Rowell, Janice A. Hinsey, David E. Bowles, Lloyd W. Morrison, Michael D. Debacker, Jennifer L. Haack-Gaynor, Jeffrey M. Williams

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Fish communities are an important component of aquatic systems and are good bioindicators of ecosystem health. Land use changes in the Midwest have caused sedimentation, erosion, and nutrient loading that degrades and fragments habitat and impairs water quality. Because most small wadeable streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) have a relatively small area of their watersheds located within park boundaries, these streams are at risk of degradation due to adjacent land use practices and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shifts in the physical and chemical properties of aquatic systems have a dramatic effect on the biotic community. …

Clean Energy Scorecard For Mountain West Cities, 2020, Eshaan Vakil, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

As climate change continues to affect the Mountain West, many cities are taking measures to reduce carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. This fact sheet reports the rankings of Mountain West municipal governments, based on efforts to improve energy efficiency and increase their utilization of clean energy. The rankings are collected from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) “2020 City Clean Energy Scorecard.”

The Biden Climate Plan, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

President Obama had an aggressive climate plan that included regulation of carbon emissions from power plants. Hillary Clinton would have continued with aggressive policies to slow and reverse global warming but was defeated by Donald Trump in 2016. President Trump sought to undo most of President Obama’s climate policies and pursued a fossil-fuel friendly energy and climate policy. The 2020 election of President Biden marks a resumption of ambitious policies to slow and ultimately reverse global warming. This newsletter identifies three major policies the Biden administration is expected to pursue and attempts to explain what policy implication might look like.

Protocol For Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates Of Small Streams In The Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network, Version 2.1, David E. Bowles, Michael H. Williams, Hope R. Dodd, Lloyd W. Morrison, Janice A. Hinsey, J. Tyler Cribbs, Gareth A. Rowell, Michael D. Debecker, Jennifer L. Haack-Gaynor, Jeffrey M. Williams

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) is a component of the National Park Service’s (NPS) strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. The purposes of this program are to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring and provide information for park managers to evaluate the integrity of park ecosystems and better understand ecosystem processes. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of various monitoring approaches to assess stream water quality. Freshwater streams in network parks are threatened by numerous stressors, most of which originate outside park boundaries. Stream condition and …

Hydropower And Sino-Indian Hydropolitics Along The Yarlung-Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, Costanza Rampini

Faculty Publications, Environmental Studies

The Yarlung-Tsangpo-Brahmaputra (YTB) is one of the largest rivers in China and India. In the past decade, both countries have mobilised scientific and engineering capacities to speed up dam construction on their respective stretches of the river and harness its enormous hydropower potential. In the absence of a formal water agreement between the two superpowers, many have raised concerns regarding the intensification of Sino-Indian tensions over the YTB. This is particularly worrisome, given that the river crosses a disputed border between China and India, and dams along its course threaten to compound long-standing tensions over Tibet and China’s growing regional …

Wpa News 116 (2021), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (Winter 2021), number 116

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Grouse News 61-67 (2021-2024), Iucn/Ssc Galliformes Specialist Group

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

Issue 61 (May 2021)

From the Editor

From the Chair

News from the Galliformes Specialist Group

News from the Grouse Group Conservation News

Grouse in Estonia

Endangered Species Act Protections for Southern White-Tailed Ptarmigan Found to be Not Warranted

A Remarkable Return. The Attwater’s prairie-chicken is bouncing back

Research Reports

Fluctuations and trends in tetraonid populations of the “Bryansky Les” Nature Reserve (southwest Russia)

Evaluation of the durability and longevity of lesser prairie-chicken fence tags in Kansas and Colorado

Longevity of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken

Conferences

Conferences postponed

New Books

European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change

Recent grouse …

Missouri River Open Lands Preservation: A Great Falls Case Study, Leonard Patrick Ormseth

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

South of Great Falls, Montana, adjacent to the city lies a 72-acre undeveloped parcel of state school trust land. For decades, this land has been used by the community for recreation including mountain biking, dog walking, fishing, and wildlife viewing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these recreational values were especially pertinent as city attractions such as bars, restaurants, and other entertainment were shuttered or suffered from greatly reduced capacity. The community, while aware of this treasure, became especially attached as it served as a refuge from the throes of the modern world. When the Fox Farm neighborhood learned of the State’s …

Scottish Marine Renewable Energy: U.S. Approaches For Development Of Wave And Tidal Technologies, Stella Kathryn Fairall

Honors Theses and Capstones

Marine renewable energy, energy harnessed from various ocean resources such as waves, tides, currents, thermal gradients, and marine streams, has incredible potential in the United States. Several European countries have realized the potential of the resource in the North Sea and Atlantic and have created incredibly successful industries already. The United Kingdom, particularly Scotland, is the world leader because of the comprehensive policy, labor force, and markets it has established in order to make MRE a competitive energy source. In the United States, the industry is immature, underfunded, and lacks policy support. In order to establish itself as a world …

Twin Threats: The Short-Sighted Us Response To Global Climate Change And Pandemics, Bryan Williams

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the failure of the United States government to mitigate global climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing poor public reactions and governmental administration between the two threats. Using developmental constructs to serve as a framework for assessing public reactions to climate change and pandemics, this thesis implements a content analysis study of American news media from 2000 to 2020; it identifies the rhetoric embedded in communications that has directed the US public’s focus of attention and shaped public opinion on these issues. The results indicate significantly less focus of attention on human health issues than economic …

The Energy Transition And Mining: Reconciling The Growth Of Renewable Energy With The Need For New Mineral Development, Alexandra B. Klass, Allison J. Mitchell

Articles

Under the Paris Agreement, the global governmental signatories embraced the goal to hold global average temperature increase to “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” while “pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” Almost every country in the world signed on to the Paris Agreement, adopting the prevailing science that anthropocentric greenhouse gas emissions would result in rising global temperatures and catastrophic damages from climate change in the absence of immediate action. In pursuit of this goal, the signatories agreed that all member countries would work together to bring greenhouse gas emissions to zero within the …

Developing An Institutional Arrangement For A Whole-Of-Government And Whole-Of-Community Approach To Regional Adaptation To Sea Level Rise: The Hampton Roads Pilot Project, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, J. Gail Nicula, Burton St. John Iii, Meagan M. Jordan, Michelle Covi, Carol Considine, Marina Saitgalina, Joshua Behr

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Adaptation to sea level rise (SLR) requires coordination among local, state, and federal entities and collaboration across governments, nonprofits, businesses, and residents. This coordination and collaboration are reflected in institutional arrangements associated with a whole-of-government and whole-of-community approach to regional adaptation. This study analyzes the development of an interlocal agreement (ILA), the Hampton Roads Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience Intergovernmental Planning Pilot Project (the Pilot Project), as an example of such an arrangement. This study assesses how factors throughout three phases of ILA development (initiation, implementation, and execution) influence outcomes and effectiveness. Drawing upon participant observation, document analysis, survey …

A Transdisciplinary Analysis Of Just Transition Pathways To 100% Renewable Electricity, Adewale Aremu Adesanya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The transition to using clean, affordable, and reliable electrical energy is critical for enhancing human opportunities and capabilities. In the United States, many states and localities are engaging in this transition despite the lack of ambitious federal policy support. This research builds on the theoretical framework of the multilevel perspective (MLP) of sociotechnical transitions as well as the concept of energy justice to investigate potential pathways to 100 percent renewable energy (RE) for electricity provision in the U.S. This research seeks to answer the question: what are the technical, policy, and perceptual pathways, barriers, and opportunities for just transition to …

Impacts Of Forest Tax Programs On Property Tax Rates In Michigan's Upper Peninsula And Northern Wisconsin, Elsa Schwartz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Forest tax programs offer reduced property taxes to private forest owners as incentive to sustainably manage their forests and to encourage the provision of ecosystem services. They also protect forests from conversion to other land uses and ensure the viable supply of timber for forest products industries. Despite the benefits that these programs provide, they can negatively impact local municipalities by reducing the property tax base, which can then cause local governments to increase tax rates for non-preferential properties in order to maintain revenue needed to run their services. This shifts the tax burden from participating properties to nonparticipating properties. …

Green Inequities: Examining The Dimensions Of Socioenvironmental Injustice In Marginalized Communities, Akiebia S. Hicks, Zachary Malone, Megan A. Moore, Roslynn Powell, Austin Thompson, Patricia A. Whitener, Rowan Williams

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

In the realm of socioenvironmental justice, much discourse centers on equal access to green areas and on climate injustice in the United States. Marginalized communities, including Indigenous populations, are being excluded from current narratives surrounding the natural spaces that in many cases are historically tied to under-represented groups. This article aims to explore some of the many dimensions of environmental racism, green inequities, climate injustice, and access. The dimensions include but are not limited to racial gatekeeping, nature deprivation in low-income communities, green gentrification, light pollution, and access to clean water. The recommendations section serves as a guide during decisionmaking …

Greening The Economy While Centering Justice: A Case Study Of Green Business Incentives In Riverside, California, Vanessa Lincoln

Scripps Senior Theses

This applied research project proposes incentives the City of Riverside could implement to attract green businesses in a policy memo and analyzes whether these incentives are aligned with the principles of just transition. Centering on the intersection between justice and sustainability, this project examines challenges and contradictions in the promotion of sustainability initiatives and transformative environmental change through the case study of Riverside. Analyzing the incentives proposed for Riverside through the lens of justice reveals how green business incentive policies must be altered to achieve a regenerative economy, and expands upon existing green economy, business incentive, and just transition scholarships. …

Workshop Outcomes Report: 1st International Workshop On Seismic Resilience Of Arctic Infrastructure And Social Systems, Majid Ghayoomi, Katharine Duderstadt, Alexander Kholodov, Alexander Shiklomanov, Matthew Turner, Elham Ajorlou

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Interventions To Slums And Informal Settlements: A Case Study Of The Integrated Housing Development Program In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nathan Teklemariam

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid urbanization is currently taking place in developing regions that have yet to address already existing and persistent inequities within their urban centers. There is perhaps no urban policy issue more critical for governments of the global South than the elimination of slums and informal settlements, along with the development of equitable access to affordable housing for low-income residents. Ethiopia has taken on this challenge through its Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP), which incorporates slum clearance and resettlement through a government-led development of condominium housing targeting those displaced and other low and middle-income residents in the city.

Since the launch …