Sustainability Commons^™

Sensuous Knitting: Making Practice That (Re)Members Ecological Entanglement, Sarah Manion

Masters Theses

Conceptualizing the climate crisis as a system of broken relationships calls for a broader understanding of entangled ecological interrelationality. Developing deep and effective responses relies on a stamina for complexity grounded in a recognition and acknowledgement of the way ecological entanglements are revealed to us. Within this frame, practice may provide unique opportunity for the development and promotion of this attuned awareness. To explore this possibility, the personal practice of sensuous knitting is used in this thesis as a way to demonstrate the intersections between intellectual modes of understanding and embodied forms of knowing. Using elements of autoethnographic narration of …

Mobility Justice And Social Capital In Strawberry Mansion And Kensington, Philadelphia Pa, Rebecca Fruehwald

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the theoretical and practical relationship between mobility justice and social capital. A literature review establishes the theoretical relationship through an overview of history and policy. The relationship is then explored through a case study of Strawberry Mansion and Kensington neighborhoods in Philadelphia. These sections are then connected by considering how they are both impacted by the larger system of capitalism. The real-world example of gentrification is given for how all these elements interact and affect each other, and the practical relationship between mobility justice and social capital is established. Finally, policy implementations and paths for possible future …

Exploring Multimedia Storytelling As A Novel Tool To Inspire Americans To Participate In Wildlife Conservation, Megan Brief

Masters Theses

Human and nonhuman animal lives are intimately entangled. In the age of the Anthropocene, it is imperative to reexamine our proximity and kinship with nature. Human-wildlife conflict can evolve into coexistence through conservation efforts marked by creativity and compassion. To inspire conservation action among North American audiences, we must enact novel ways of disseminating scientifically technical concepts. Multimedia storytelling can encourage equitable involvement among lay participants in conservation spaces. When inclusive of Indigenous knowledges, and conscious of damage narratives, such innovative stories can empathetically communicate wildlife degradation and injustices, as well as animate vulnerable human and nonhuman communities.

Growing Quelites In The City: Exploration On Memory And Food Sovereignty In Mexico City, Paola Valeria Ramirez Ensastiga

Masters Theses

In Mexico, as in the world, the number of people living in urban areas is increasing. In addition, urbanization directly generates a fragmentation of the natural habitat and causes the loss of biodiversity. Native edible crops are also being threatened by a constant decline in biodiversity, causing negative ecological, economic and even cultural impact. Until now, the main guardians of the edible biodiversity have been indigenous peoples. Several authors agree that the way in which indigeous people relate to nature may shed some light on how to face the ecological and climate crisis that we are experiencing today. I argue …

Tree Canopy Effects On Roof-Harvested Rainwater In East Texas, Kimberly Gamez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nine experimental metal roofs with rainwater harvesting systems were constructed and water quality parameters were measured in 2016-2017 in order to evaluate the effects of arboreal overhang on roof-harvested rainwater quality collected in East Texas. Three treatments were evaluated: Rainwater collected from roofs without any overhanging tree vegetation, rainwater collected from roofs under predominantly Southern yellow pine tree cover, and rainwater collected from roofs under predominantly hardwood tree cover. Rainwater was collected from these roofs for one year. The effects of canopy cover on water quality parameters, comparison to drinking water standards, first-flush efficiency, and seasonal effects were evaluated.

Significant …

The Bay Area Rail System: A Sustainable Network Or A Social Equity Phenomenon?, Whitney Libunao

Master's Projects and Capstones

Sustainable transportation, as it relates to sustainable development, aims to achieve economic stability, social equity, and environmental preservation via transit projects. However, gentrification processes and transit-oriented developments or TODs have attracted more households inward toward reinvested transit-centric areas. The San Francisco Bay Area, California has continued to see positive economic growth, with that, higher-income households inhabiting more centralized locations. Native low-income residents have started to feel displacement pressures on both a social and economic scale. Over time, displacement risk inevitably leads to residential displacement where low-income families are forced to relocate to distant, more affordable neighborhoods. As more distance separates …

The Wonders Of The Galapagos Islands: Experiential Learning Is Deep Learning, Paul Ax Bologna

Sustainability Seminar Series

Experiential learning is one way of creating deep understanding of subject matter, as well as developing a passion for the field. I have been engaged in leading extended field experiences with students for almost 20 years to ‘immerse’ students in the natural world. In March 2020, Dr. Krumins and I led a group of graduate and undergraduate students to Ecuador to explore and learn about the incredible wildlife and the enduring legacy of revolutionary ideas that this region has generated. Our time in the Galapagos, while short, spanned centuries of scientific thought and millions of years of geologic history. The …

Puerto Rico’S Electric Power System: An Analysis Of Contemporary Failures And The Opportunity To Rebuild A More Resilient Grid, Including The Development Of A Utility-Scale Solar Farm On The Island Municipality Of Culebra, Federico Sotomayor

Sustainability and Social Justice

Puerto Rico’s grid was decimated in 2017 after experiencing back-to-back hurricanes – Maria and Irma. Although the hurricanes caused tremendous damage and hardship to the island, it also created the right circumstances for the local energy landscape to transition toward a more resilient and sustainable model. Through an analysis of recent challenges by the local electric utility PREPA, and subsequent fallout from the hurricanes, we see that they now hold a unique opportunity to redeem themselves by taking advantage of catalyzed resources to rebuild a better system. One region that could greatly benefit from an improved and reimagined grid are …

Environmental Hygiene For Covid-19: It's All About The Mask, Daniel B. Oerther, Mona Shattell

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Citric Acid On Slump, Compressive Strength, And Setting Time Of Belitic Calcium Sulfoaluminate Concrete, Israel Aguilar Rosero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Belitic calcium sulfoaluminate (BCSA) cement has well established advantages related to fast setting time, fast strength gain, long-term strengths, shrinkage, and sustainability. Due to its fast setting and hardening, this type of cement has historically been used to repair concrete structures, highways, and runways. This work provides much needed guidance on establishing mix design criteria for BCSA cement. Guidance is also given on the effects of set retarders on strength, slump, and setting times. Citric acid and a phosphonic acid-based admixture were tested as retarders for different concrete mixtures. Three studies were performed. In the slump study five different water …

Projected Impact Of Mid-21st Century Climate Change On Wildfire Hazard In A Major Urban Watershed Outside Portland, Oregon Usa, Andy Mcevoy, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Andres Holz, Arielle J. Catalano, Kelly E. Gleason

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Characterizing wildfire regimes where wildfires are uncommon is challenged by a lack of empirical information. Moreover, climate change is projected to lead to increasingly frequent wildfires and additional annual area burned in forests historically characterized by long fire return intervals. Western Oregon and Washington, USA (westside) have experienced few large wildfires (fires greater than 100 hectares) the past century and are characterized to infrequent large fires with return intervals greater than 500 years. We evaluated impacts of climate change on wildfire hazard in a major urban watershed outside Portland, OR, USA. We simulated wildfire occurrence and fire regime characteristics under …

Developing A Tourism Opportunity Index Regarding The Prospective Of Overtourism In Nepal, Susan Phuyal

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This research explores Nepal's overtourism scenario based on the capacity of a locality to manage sustainable tourism practices. Environmental degradation, local infrastructure degradation, negative tourist experience and local resident responses regarding visitors are the four main variables used in this study to analyze overtourism. In order to analyze the case study of overtourism, we select the three top touristic cities of Nepal, Kathmandu, Pokhara, and Chitwan based on the number of annual visitors. Nepal's case analysis of overtourism conditions reviews the overall threat of over-tourism and establishes a metric by which tourism can be viewed as potentially detrimental to sustainability. …

Fish And Macroinvertebrate Response To Restoration And Conservation Efforts, Madison C. Cogar

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Fish and macroinvertebrate response to restoration and conservation efforts varies in regards to the size and structure of the system (e.g. headwater streams in WV versus large rivers such as the Mississippi River). This project reviews fish and macroinvertebrate rebound in treated acid mine drainage (AMD) streams in WV as well as macroinvertebrate drift patterns in the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. AMD is a product of a chemical reaction resulting in an acidic water outflow from mining sites, which may harm aquatic life. As a response, passive AMD treatment systems have been installed. I tested the effectiveness of remediation by …

Projecting Water Available For Irrigation Use And Identifying Water Supply Stress Under Climate Change Scenarios In Selected U.S. Fruit And Vegetable Production Regions, Andrew Shaw

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change affects water resources differently across geospatial regions in the United States (U.S). There is a concern of how water availability will be affected by changes in long-term temperature and precipitation patterns, specifically in major production regions for eight fruit and vegetable crops. The effects on surface water available for irrigation use and supply stress in five regions containing 31 Agricultural Statistics Districts (ASDs) were assessed. The Water Supply Stress Index Model was used and modified to project water available for irrigation use across nine climate scenarios driven by historical data, five General Circulation Models, two population scenarios, and …

7th Annual Sustainability Report, Saint Mary's College Of California

Sustainability Report

No abstract provided.

Corn And Soybean Response To Wastewater-Recycled Phosphorus Fertilizers, Shane Ylagan

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

The ability to recycle phosphorus (P) from wastewaters could provide a sustainable, continuous source of P that might also help protect surface water quality from P enrichment. The mineral struvite (MgNH4PO4·6H2O) is an understudied material that can be created from Pcontaining wastewater and has been shown to have agricultural fertilizer value. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of electrochemically precipitated struvite (ECST), chemically precipitated struvite (Crystal Green; CG), diammonium phosphate (DAP), monoammonium phosphate (MAP), rock phosphate (RP), and triple super phosphate (TSP) on corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max) response in a 79-day greenhouse pot …

Climate Change And Ecosystem Transformation: Plant Wax Evidence From Indian Ocean Drilling, Sarah Feakins

Sustainability Seminar Series

Plants – from lush rainforests to desert shrublands – map climatic differences on the landscape. The waxy molecules coating plant leaves are some of the most resilient biochemicals made by plants and they contribute to the sedimentary legacy of past environment, archived in deep sea sediments. The International Ocean Discovery Program has recently drilled the two largest submarine fans in the world, the Bengal Fan (Expedition 354) and Indus Fan (Expedition 355). These megafans yield thick deposits of dominantly terrestrial organic matter derived from the GangesBrahmaputra and Indus River systems respectively. In addition, legacy cores from the Gulf of Aden …

Modeling Biotic & Abiotic Drivers Affecting Biogeomorphic Coastal Foredunes, Bianca Charbonneau

Sustainability Seminar Series

Coastal dunes are exceptionally dynamic terrestrial habitats that will only grow increasingly vulnerable with climate change. A structured approach to protect and restore these and other coastal biogeomorphic interface habitats is needed to maintain their invaluable ecosystem services. Vegetation in these habitats acts as ecosystem engineers such that, to achieve this, one must understand and accurately forecast vegetation dynamics at the nexus of shifting abiotic conditions and drivers of change. We developed a process-based model for coastal dune vegetation ecology, specifically, growth, density, and colonization as it affects and is affected by shifting habitat topography and storm event impact. The …

Water Quality And Water Security Panel, Lameck Osinde

Africa-Western Collaborations Day 2020

8 graduate student/recent graduate presentations on the topic of water security and water quality. Moderated by Dr. Lameck Osinde. Reporting of panel done by current GHS students of the 2021 class. Abstracts can be found under "Africa-Western Collaborations Day 2020 Abstracts". Presenters as follows:

Thelma Zulfawu Abu et al., "When you Preach Water and you Drink Wine: Exploring the Implementation, Use and Management of WaSH in Healthcare Facilities in Kisumu County"

Katherine Butler, Eva Chang, "Western Heads East Remote Internship: Canada-Rwanda Partnership"

Josephine De Leon, Ryan Grilli, Yasmina Garber, Riddhi Nandola, Mofiyin Lawal, "Ecoland"

Maurice Dogoli et al., "Tackling Access …

Sustainability And The Evolution Of The Academic Library Ecosystem: Pressing Forward With The Greening Of Wcu's Presser And F.H. Green Libraries, Walt Cressler

Sustainability Research & Practice Seminar Presentations

No abstract provided.