Cultural And Environmental Change In A Period Of Westernized Tourism: Bali, Indonesia,
2024
University at Albany, State University of New York
Cultural And Environmental Change In A Period Of Westernized Tourism: Bali, Indonesia, Barbara Buck
ALL - Honors Theses
Dutch colonizers opened Bali for tourism at the beginning of the 20th century, and since that time tourism has led to changes in Bali’s culture, environment, and local resources. In the late 1900s, tourism grew to a new level, which resulted in a shift of industry control away from Balinese people. This project examines the problem of tourism from a social and environmental science lens. By compiling literature and science from various fields of study, this project aims to illustrate the complexity of Bali’s tourism problem in an interdisciplinary way. The lack of local control over tourism perpetuated and exacerbated …
Evaluating And Enhancing The New York State Mesonet (Nysm) Snow Accumulation Estimation,
2024
University at Albany, State University of New York
Evaluating And Enhancing The New York State Mesonet (Nysm) Snow Accumulation Estimation, Christopher Gilberti
ALL - Honors Theses
This research project aims to examine and enhance the performance of the New York State Mesonet (NYSM) Snow Accumulation Estimation. The NYSM is a state-of-the-art network of 126 standard weather stations located across the state of New York, collecting high-quality meteorological data to improve forecast accuracy, reduce uncertainty, and mitigate harm. All NYSM standard stations measure snow depth with Campbell Scientific’s SR50A ultrasonic distance sensor. This acoustic sensor measures the distance from the sensor to a rigid snowboard if there is no snow on the ground or the top of snow layer. A reference distance and a temperature correction are …
Categorizing The Societal Impacts From Extreme Rainfall In The New York City Metropolitan Area,
2024
University at Albany, State University of New York
Categorizing The Societal Impacts From Extreme Rainfall In The New York City Metropolitan Area, Evan Belkin
ALL - Honors Theses
Numerous studies have shown that the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events have increased significantly across the contiguous United States (CONUS) over the past several decades associated with warming global temperatures. This surge in extreme rainfall has resulted in the loss of life and property within vulnerable communities due to widespread river and flash flooding. For example, 11 of the 14 fatalities in New York City associated with Tropical Cyclone Ida’s remnants in September 2021 occurred in flooded basement apartments. The creation of a scale to differentiate extreme rainfall events with higher societal impacts from those with lower impacts …
Diurnal To Seasonal Hurricane Variability And Predictability,
2024
University at Albany, State University of New York
Diurnal To Seasonal Hurricane Variability And Predictability, Jeremiah Otero Piersante
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Prediction of tropical cyclone (TC) impact extends across a range of forecast lead times. At shorter timescales, radially outward-propagating, diurnal pulses in TCs are associated with TC intensity and structure changes. At weekly periods, synoptic-scale Rossby waves influence the direction of TC tracks. At seasonal timescales, climate modes affect the overall (in)favorability of TC activity. The research shown in this dissertation seeks to improve the understanding and predictability of TC variability across these scales using numerical weather prediction, reanalysis fields, and storm track observations.Diurnal pulses associated with cloud-top cooling, so-called cooling pulses (CPs), pose a risk for hazardous weather because …
Examining The Performance Of The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Model During Clear, Isolated, And Widespread Convective Days In The New York State Capital Region,
2024
University at Albany, State University of New York
Examining The Performance Of The High-Resolution Rapid Refresh Model During Clear, Isolated, And Widespread Convective Days In The New York State Capital Region, Rachel A. Eldridge
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
Forecasting can be more challenging in areas of complex terrain, such as in and around the valleys and mountains of Upstate New York. Biases in numerical weather prediction models, related to the lack of resolution of the terrain and errors in physical parameterizations, can affect forecasts. The main goal of this research is to assess biases in the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model that could contribute to deficiencies in forecasts for days with and without convection. We investigate how the HRRR model performed in the New York Capital Region for 4 clear days, 4 isolated convective days, and 4 widespread …
Blade Design And Validation Of Hydrokinetic Turbine To Harvest Water Current Energy,
2024
University of New Orleans
Blade Design And Validation Of Hydrokinetic Turbine To Harvest Water Current Energy, Setare Sadeqi
LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
The innovative aspect of this research lies in the careful integration of cutting-edge technologies throughout the entire process of designing, fabricating, and testing the carbon fiber propeller for the 3-bladed horizontal axis ocean current turbine (OCT). SolidWorks software played a pivotal role in the initial design phase, enabling a meticulous and precise modeling of the propeller's geometry. The utilization of SolidWorks allowed for a detailed exploration of various design parameters, ensuring that the propeller's structure and form were optimized for performance in ocean current conditions. Moving beyond the realm of virtual design, the choice of carbon fiber as the fabrication …
Evaluating Novel Approaches For Improving Anadromous Fish Passage In Coastal Rivers,
2024
Clemson University
Evaluating Novel Approaches For Improving Anadromous Fish Passage In Coastal Rivers, Aaron Bunch
All Dissertations
Few of the world's rivers remain free-flowing for over 1000 km, significantly impacting anadromous fish populations due to dam-induced habitat fragmentation. Three partial migration barriers (low-head dams) on North Carolina's Cape Fear River (USA)—lock and dam 1 (LD1), lock and dam 2 (LD2), and lock and dam 3 (LD3)—impact American shad Alosa sapidissima, Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, and striped bass Morone saxatilis populations. Mitigation strategies to pass fish upstream have included conservation locking, nature-like fishway construction, and environmental flows (e-flows). This study introduced a novel e-flow (dam submergence flow), tested acoustic double-tagging techniques for tracking American …
Patterns In Macrofaunal Abundance And Biodiversity At Sites In The Florida Keys,
2024
Montclair State University
Patterns In Macrofaunal Abundance And Biodiversity At Sites In The Florida Keys, Cydney Wolff
Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects
Coral reef health in the Florida Keys, USA has been declining in recent years. To gain an understanding of the current state of macrofaunal abundance and biodiversity on these reefs, research was conducted to identify and count the macrofauna colonizing standardized settlement plates at two coral reef sites, one in the middle (Delta Shoal) and one in the lower (Pelican Shoal) Florida Keys. Plates were deployed for a one-month period in June 2023. At each site, the plates were placed at two heights: ocean bottom and 2 m above ocean bottom (two plates per height per site for a total …
Coastal-Ocean And Estuarine Acidification In Long Bay, South Carolina: A Comparison Of In-Situ Water Quality Monitoring With Measured Carbonate System Parameters,
2024
Coastal Carolina University
Coastal-Ocean And Estuarine Acidification In Long Bay, South Carolina: A Comparison Of In-Situ Water Quality Monitoring With Measured Carbonate System Parameters, Mary Olsen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
One of the major water-quality issues impacting our coast and estuaries is coastal-ocean and estuarine acidification. Due to a relative dearth of data in the southeastern United States it is increasingly difficult to determine the full extent and intensity of this problem. This study provides the first characterization of coastal-ocean and estuarine acidification in Long Bay, SC by attempting to leverage long-term water quality data sets at two coastal-ocean pier sites using in-situ YSI EXO sondes deployed at both the surface and bottom waters along with two estuarine sites sampled by volunteer monitors using Orion star multi-meters. Discrete samples (120) …
Understanding The Zonal Variability In Cmip6 Projections Of Sahelian Precipitation,
2024
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Understanding The Zonal Variability In Cmip6 Projections Of Sahelian Precipitation, Emmanuel Ogwuche Audu
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The uncertainty in model projections of future precipitation across the Sahel has persisted across many generations of Earth System Models (ESMs), with some models predicting drying and others moistening across this region. These discrepancies in future projections pose a challenge for stakeholders and decision makers. Many projections of Sahel precipitation found in the ESMs participating in the sixth phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) show a zonal dipole in precipitation trend, with moistening across the Central and Eastern Sahel and drying projected for the Western Sahel. Previous studies have connected precipitation variability across the Sahel to changes in various …
Polarimetric Radar Signatures In Significant Severe Left-Moving Supercells,
2024
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Polarimetric Radar Signatures In Significant Severe Left-Moving Supercells, Raychel Nelson
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Left-moving (LM) supercells, though rarer than right-moving (RM) supercells, may produce significant severe weather. However, there are very few existing studies on LM supercells, particularly polarimetric radar analyses. The upgrade of the nationwide Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) network to polarimetric capability and subsequent studies vastly improved understanding of RM supercells, but similar efforts have largely not been made for LM supercells. This study employs an automated polarimetric radar signature detection algorithm to examine a dataset of significant severe (hail ≥ 2.00”, wind ≥ 65 kts) LM supercells to quantify their polarimetric signatures. Comparisons are made with RM supercells to …
A Dual-Polarimetric Analysis Of A Large Sample Of Left-Moving Supercells,
2024
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A Dual-Polarimetric Analysis Of A Large Sample Of Left-Moving Supercells, Ben Schweigert
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Supercells have been researched extensively since they were first described over 50 years ago. They are prolific severe weather producers, responsible for the most severe hail, severe wind gusts, and tornadoes. These rotating thunderstorms require attention from forecasters to protect life and property from their threats, most effectively done with Doppler radars. While extensive amounts of radar-based investigations have been completed, they focused almost exclusively on right-moving (RM) supercells, resulting in a knowledge gap surrounding their counter-rotating (left-moving, LM) partners. This study works to fill the void by developing a dataset of LM supercells and analyzing the dual-polarimetric features observed …
A Compilation, Analysis, And Categorization Of 403 Atmospheric And Climate Science Misconceptions,
2024
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A Compilation, Analysis, And Categorization Of 403 Atmospheric And Climate Science Misconceptions, Haeli Leighty
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) has listed the inaccessibility of research related to misconceptions in atmospheric and climate science as a Geoscience Education Research Grand Challenge (Cervato et al. 2018). This project was a direct response to this call for research and consisted of three distinct steps: 1) data gathering, which included reviewing the literature for relevant misconception data, 2) a qualitative analysis, which included compiling, organizing, and categorizing the data collected, and 3) a quantitative analysis, which included determining the prevalence of each misconception across topic categories, demographic categories, and over time. A total of 403 misconceptions …
Resource Scarcity Caused By Environmental Changes: Driving Factor In Terrorism Attacks In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria,
2024
University of Texas at El Paso
Resource Scarcity Caused By Environmental Changes: Driving Factor In Terrorism Attacks In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Amaris Bustamante
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Climate change, resource scarcity, and terrorist attacks are ever-growing crises that disproportionately impact different states. They are crises that can impact the stability and resilience of humanity in the following decades if they are not addressed and mitigated. This study addresses the impact of resource scarcity caused by climate change that can then serve as a driving force in terrorist attacks in climate-sensitive and conflict-prone states. The objective of this mixed-methods study is to identify the correlation between climate changes that lead to resource scarcity such as rainfall and surface temperatures with terrorist attacks when taking into consideration other demographic, …
The Impacts Of Wind On Coastal Trees,
2024
Clemson University
The Impacts Of Wind On Coastal Trees, Julian Halil
All Theses
Trees in hurricane-prone areas are exposed to severe winds and flooding. We studied the physiological and structural responses of forested wetland trees in relation to wind stress. We evaluated the windfirmness of two forested wetland tree species. Baldcypress was chosen because of high survival in post-hurricane studies. In contrast, laurel oak co-occurs with baldcypress yet resists hurricane-force winds poorly. In a static winching study, we quantified the critical turning moment (Mcrit) required to topple both species. Mcrit increased with trunk diameter at breast height (DBH) and crown size. Baldcypress and laurel oak demonstrated similar Mcrit, but regression models indicate baldcypress …
Bay Water Level Influences On Inundation And Morphological Changes Of A Semi-Connected Barrier Island During A Hurricane,
2024
University of South Alabama
Bay Water Level Influences On Inundation And Morphological Changes Of A Semi-Connected Barrier Island During A Hurricane, Sydney D. Goodman
Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)
This research aims to identify flooding and erosion changes along a semi-connected barrier island system due to varying bay water levels during storm conditions. The numerical model XBeach is used to simulate Hurricane Michael conditions and the resulting inundation and morphological change near Tyndall Air Force Base (Tyndall AFB). The installation is located 12 miles southeast of Panama City Beach along the panhandle of Florida and is vulnerable to flooding due to its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), Saint Andrew Sound and Saint Andrew Bay. A land bridge connects the barrier island to the mainland of Tyndall AFB …
A Statistical Fetch Model For Water Wave Glint Correction Using Worldview-3 Imagery,
2024
Florida Institute of Technology
A Statistical Fetch Model For Water Wave Glint Correction Using Worldview-3 Imagery, Amanda Jade Quintanilla
Theses and Dissertations
Sun glint in satellite imagery of the water surface contaminates the upwelling signal received by a detector. Many models exist that attempt to correct for this wave facet effect and phenomena. In this work a model for sun glint correction is created using the comparison of image transects between two nearly simultaneously collected images of the same area, although with differing sensor geometry. One image utilized in this research is almost entirely glint free while the other is contaminated by water wave facet glint. Although many models for removing sun glint exist based on various techniques, none are completely accurate, …
Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene–Holocene Transition,
2024
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene–Holocene Transition, Quentin A. Smith Jr.
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
We are experiencing biodiversity loss due to climate change and human impacts, which is not only harmful to the environment but can also alter the composition of communities and interactions among species. The late Pleistocene experienced a loss of large-bodied mammals which resulted in significant changes in community structure due to changes in body size, diet, and species associations. The impact of these changes on species interactions and community structure across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition remains poorly understood. Using a robust data set of species composition, stable isotopes, body size, and climate variables, we constructed and compared ecological networks of mammal …
Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques,
2024
University of South Alabama
Geomagnetic Substorms Prediction Model Using Combined Physics-Based And Deep Learning Modeling Techniques, Ruthba Yasmin
Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)
This thesis aims to develop a hybrid physics-incorporated neural network model (PINN) for classifying geomangnetic substorms in Earth's Magnetosphere. The model is trained using a comprehensive list of substorm onsets, ground magentometer data from a global network, and solar wind parameters from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite. Two different neural network architectures are used, and the physics model used for training is called WINDMI. The magnetic field components on the ground, which are a function of the ionospheric currents, are captured by the SML index. The methodology involves using 60-minute data segments preceding an event to train the hybrid …
Developing A Suitability Model And Feasibility Report For The Tennessee Mesonet,
2024
East Tennessee State University
Developing A Suitability Model And Feasibility Report For The Tennessee Mesonet, Tristan Holmes
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Mesoscale networks, also known as Mesonets, are advanced environmental monitoring systems that consist of multiple high-quality weather stations that collect meteorological data at frequent intervals (5 minutes or less). Tennessee currently lacks a Mesonet system, and this study identifies suitable and feasible locations for stations in all 95 counties. Layers needed to develop the suitability model included land cover, road centerlines, elevation, flood zones, building footprints, and hydrologic soil types. Geospatial analysis techniques were used to process and combine these layers to identify suitable areas. Once suitable areas were determined, a feasibility assessment that examined land ownership, accessibility, and cell …
