Environmental Studies Commons^™

Individual Exposure Potential Assessment For Livestock Based On Spatial-Temporal Analysis Of Gps Data And Behavior Patterns Classification In Cove Wash Watershed, Arizona, Zhuoming Liu

Geography ETDs

This thesis examined the geospatial and temporal grazing patterns of domesticated livestock to model individual-level exposure potential to abandoned uranium mine (AUM) waste in a tribal community in the Southwest United States. Lotek Litetrack Global Positioning System (GPS) collars collected data at 20-minute-intervals for 2 flocks of sheep and goats during the Spring and Summer of 2019. Depending on the flock and individual animals, tracking time ranges from 10 days to four months. This research developed a GIS-based exposure potential framework that built on existing methodologies in time geography, GIS, and exposure mapping. This thesis aims to: 1) classify GPS …

A Fused Radar–Optical Approach For Mapping Wetlands And Deepwaters Of The Mid–Atlantic And Gulf Coast Regions Of The United States, Brian T. Lamb, Maria A. Tzortziou, Kyle C. Mcdonald

Publications and Research

Tidal wetlands are critically important ecosystems that provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, storm surge mitigation, water filtration, and wildlife habitat provision while supporting high levels of biodiversity. Despite their importance, monitoring these systems over large scales remains challenging due to difficulties in obtaining extensive up-to-date ground surveys and the need for high spatial and temporal resolution satellite imagery for effective space-borne monitoring. In this study, we developed methodologies to advance the monitoring of tidal marshes and adjacent deepwaters in the Mid-Atlantic and Gulf Coast United States. We combined Sentinel-1 SAR and Landsat 8 optical imagery to classify marshes and …

Consumption Behavior Of Algerians During The Period Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis, Kamel Chikhi

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This Dialogue contribution is a reflection on the impact of crises and in particular that of Covid-19 on the behavior of Algerian consumers: before, during and post-crisis. It is recognized that during crises, consumers adopt unusual and more rational behaviors: buy basic necessities; save more to deal with possible difficult situations; place more importance on nutrition, health, food quality characteristics, price, psychological and socio-demographic characteristics; have purchasing and consumption intentions based on their cultural background and prefer to adopt planned behaviors. Observed events during the Covid-19 pandemic allows us to illustrate the evolution of consumption behavior of Algerians and to …

Plant Biodiversity In Residential Yards Is Influenced By People's Preferences For Variety But Limited By Their Income, Allison Blanchette, Tara L.E. Trammell, Diane E. Pataki, Joanna Endter-Wada, Meghan L. Avolio

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Residential yards are a unique component of the urban environment and harbor high cultivated plant biodiversity; however, why and how people create yards with so many plant species is not well understood. To investigate this pattern, we studied the relationships between residents’ preferences, income, and yard plant biodiversity in the Salt Lake Valley, Utah, USA where most of the urban vegetation is intentionally cultivated. We conducted in-person interviews, distributed written surveys, and inventoried the biodiversity (i.e., genus and species richness) of ornamental herbaceous flowering plants and lawn plants in residential yards located in neighborhoods across income levels. We found that …

Quantifying The Impact Of Urbanization On The Fourche Creek Watershed, Little Rock, Arkansas, Zachary Smith

Theses and Dissertations

The Fourche Creek Watershed is an urban watershed in Central Arkansas, serving as the primary drainage basin for most of metropolitan Little Rock. As land surrounding streams is developed, the risk of negatively impacting water quality through the addition of contaminants like metals, sewage, and pesticides increases. The objective of this project is to introduce a novel method of quantifying the impact of urbanization on streams using a multi-pronged approach including mixing and spatial analyses, dissolved loads, and 87Sr/86Sr ratios throughout the Fourche Creek Watershed to discern specific contributions of baseflow and urban materials into the drainage basin. Generally, Coleman …

The Contribution Of Mining Sector To Sustainable Development In Saudi Arabia, Mourad Zmami, Ousama Ben-Salha, Sultan O. Almarshad, Houyem Chekki

Journal of Sustainable Mining

The mining sector development is among the priorities of the Saudi Vision 2030. There is currently a lot of interest in the role of the mining sector in Saudi Arabia. This research contributes to this debate by empirically assessing the effects of mining on sustainable development in Saudi Arabia during the period 1980-2018. Unlike many previous studies, the three sustainable development dimensions, namely economic, social, and environmental, are jointly considered. The cointegration analysis, based on the ARDL, Gregory-Hansen, and combined cointegration tests, confirms the existence of long-run relationships between mining and all sustainable development dimensions. Furthermore, the findings lend substantial …

Estimating Trail Use And Visitor Spatial Distribution Using Mobile Device Data: An Example From The Nature Reserve Of Orange County, California Usa, Noah E. Creany, Christopher A. Monz, Ashley D'Antonio, Abigail Sisneros-Kidd, Emily J. Wilkins, Jordan Nesbitt, Milan Mitrovich

Environment and Society Student Research

Monitoring visitor use in parks and protected areas (PPAs) provides essential information for managers of PPAs to evaluate aspects of the visitor experience and balance the ecological disturbance that use creates. Traditional methods for quantifying visitation and spatial use of PPAs are resource intensive and thus are conducted infrequently or at cost-effective intervals which may fail to capture the dynamic nature of modern visitor use trends. This paper provides an addition to a growing literature using mobile-device data to quantify visitation and spatial density of use of urban-proximate PPAs in Orange County, California, USA using the analysis platform Streetlight, Inc. …

Contested Landscapes, Disputed Realities: An Investigation Of Socio-Environmental Conflict From Mining In Northern Ecuador: An Honors Thesis, Ian F. Hirons

Student Works

For decades, Ecuador has been one of the preeminent petrostates in South America. However, in response to recent drops in global demand and pricing for oil products, the country has made serious commitments to further develop its mineral resources. By opening a new natural resource sector, Ecuador has firmly cemented itself as a primarily extractivist nation. In the process, the national government has frequently come into conflict with activist and community groups who protest the encroachment of extractive industry. This thesis explores the various dimensions of socio-environmental conflict created by large-scale mining projects in northern Ecuador with specific attention to …

Wrack Lines Volume 21, Number 1, Born Out Of Crises: Responses, Research And Reflections On A Better Future, Lynn Bonner, Robert J. Klee, Robert Pomeroy, Judy A. Benson

Wrack Lines

Articles in this issue explore various actions taken in response to different crises: lessons about the environment from the COVID-19 pandemic; how seafood sellers in the CT and Southeast Asia responded to the challenges of the pandemic; how the challenges of rising seas and developed coasts are being dealt with through managed retreat, buyouts and other actions in NC and CT; and research on the long-term effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on dolphins led by CTSG Director Sylvain De Guise.

The Economic Value Of America’S Estuaries: 2021 Report, Tracy Rouleau, Charles S. Colgan, Jefferey Adkins, Castelletto Anthony, Dirlam Patty, Shannon Lyons, Hilary Stevens

Publications

This study builds on the work completed in 2009, “The Economic and Market Value of Coasts and Estuaries: What’s At Stake?,” a report by NOAA in collaboration with the Center for the Blue Economy and the Ocean Foundation, at the request of Restore America’s Estuaries. Like the 2009 study, the 2021 update uses the same data sources (Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis and NOAA), and looks in detail at the same five major sectors of the U.S. economy (fisheries, energy infrastructure, marine transportation, real estate, and recreation) from 2009-2018.

The 2021 update includes the economic …

Warming Enabled Upslope Advance In Western Us Forest Fires, Mohammad Reza Alizadeh, John T. Abatzoglou, Charles H. Luce, Jan F. Adamowski, Arvin Farid, Mojtaba Sadegh

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Increases in burned area and large fire occurrence are widely documented over the western United States over the past half century. Here, we focus on the elevational distribution of forest fires in mountainous ecoregions of the western United States and show the largest increase rates in burned area above 2,500 m during 1984 to 2017. Furthermore, we show that high-elevation fires advanced upslope with a median cumulative change of 252 m (−107 to 656 m; 95% CI) in 34 y across studied ecoregions. We also document a strong interannual relationship between high-elevation fires and warm season vapor pressure deficit (VPD). …

Development Of A Human Health-Centered Climate Resilience/Vulnerability Framework For The Mexico City Region, Alex Stever

Sustainability and Social Justice

With climate change impacting every corner of the globe, the health and well-being of all humans is threatened, especially in heavily populated areas such as the Mexico City Region (MCR). With this threat continuously growing it is important to not only be aware of the problem and its complications but have a framework and process that will allow for rapid and well-rounded analyses of how at risk the residents of certain areas are to the threats of climate change. However, with analyzing the impacts of climate change on any sector, including human health and well-being, three conundrums arise: the socio-ecological …

Evaluating Global Environmental Changes From 1979 To 2019, To Identify Priority Conservation Areas For Birds, Qihui Wang

Sustainability and Social Justice

Nowadays, global warming is unignorable. In response, climate changes have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans, which means that global species' distributions, populations, and other activities are highly affected by climate change (AR5 Synthesis Report, n.d.). Therefore, studying environmental changes to identify priority protected areas is of significance to species protection. In this study, 19 global bioclimatic variables from 1979 to 2019 were developed and used to evaluate temporal trends. The variables include annual averages, seasonality, and climatic extremes. As these variables are known to limit species physiological performance, changes in these …

An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Climate Change On Food Security In The Albertine Rift Of East Africa, Malcolm Jacob

Sustainability and Social Justice

As one of the most densely populated regions on the continent of Africa, the Albertine Rift (consisting of parts of Rwanda, Uganda, and the eastern DRC) faces ongoing problems providing enough food for its people through crop production, livestock husbandry, and other forms of food production. Even more troubling for the future is that anthropogenic climate change is expected to significantly exacerbate food insecurity. This paper addresses one central question: how will climate change impact food security in the Albertine Rift? Based on an analysis of available data, this paper finds that policymakers should listen closely to local farmers and …

Characteristics Of Temporal And Spatial Variation Of Ndvi In Beijing And The Relationship With Urban Heat Island Effect, Wenye Liang

Sustainability and Social Justice

Vegetation is an important part of ecosystems, and the use of vegetation coverage as an indicator to study the spatio-temporal dynamics of regional vegetation is necessary for ecosystem health evaluation. The urban heat island effect can change the structure and functions of urban ecosystems, and affect the climate, hydrology, atmospheric environment, and energy metabolism of cities, as well as the health of residents. Using Beijing as a case study, this research generates vegetation coverage maps using remote sensing imagery from 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018. This study indirectly analyzes the urban heat island effect through spatio-temporal changes in vegetation …

Evaluation Of Existing Climate-Change Adaptation Plans For Municipalities In Mexico: Proposition Of A “Sustainable Mac-Water Framework” That Considers Vulnerability To Impacts On Water Resources, Tsanta Rakotoarisoa

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper presents a sustainable adaptive capacity framework for water management for municipalities, named Sustainable MAC-Water framework, after assessing the strengths and weaknesses of adaptive capacity in Mexico and its municipalities. It provides municipalities with an instrument to help them create sustainable adaptive capacity plans (Sustainable MAC plans) to prevent adverse impacts on water resources and related sectors. It is based on a study of policy instruments crafted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Government of Mexico, and literature on adaptive capacity, assessment, and planning. The Sustainable MAC-Water framework recommends the establishment of a Reactive Barriers …

Shifting The Industrial Food System Towards Sustainability: The Intersections Of Agriculture, Industrialization, & Health, Courtney Marchi

City and Regional Planning

This work traces the impact of the industrialization of corporate agriculture that has agglomerated globally. The aim of this paper is to discuss the major impacts and technicalities behind modern agricultural practices, and to draw attention to the intersections between industrialization, technology, health, and environmental concerns. This paper addresses the social and political implications associated with a global trade system and attempts to remedy some of them through environmentally and socially sustainable, and deconstructive, systemic approaches. There are several intersections between social equity, globalization, and agriculture that Urban and Regional Planners can work intimately with to improve overall food security …

Current Stormwater Practices And Future Implementation At Portland State University With The Uncertainty Of Climate Change, Evan Suemori, Alexandra Vargas Quiñones

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Stormwater runoff is one of the most critical environmental issues in urban areas and is only expected to worsen as climate change persists (EPA, 2016). When precipitation events occur, stormwater travels across impervious surfaces collecting soils and pollutants which can negatively impact water quality in receiving waters. Additionally, stormwater has human health impacts, specifically through flooding and the contamination of drinking water. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it has been determined that climate change will increase the frequency, intensity, and/or number of precipitation events in some regions, including the Pacific Northwest, and decrease in others (IPCC, …

Understory Species Increase Project: Investigating The Revegetation Of Native Herbaceous Species From Seed In Urban Forest Fragments, Erin Mcelroy

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Management of urban forest fragments often aims to reduce invasive species and promote native species abundance and diversity. Often, these environments lack natural establishment of native forest species, including herbaceous species that are especially sensitive to site conditions. While herbaceous understory species may represent a small proportion of forest biomass, they perform important functions within forest environments, including nutrient cycling, erosion and runoff control, and providing habitat for wildlife, as well as hosting the greatest biodiversity among other forest strata. However, many restoration projects focus primarily on the revegetation of dominant woody forest species, such as hardwood trees and shrubs. …

Influence Of Climate Change On Forest Fire Occurrence And Distribution Of Sri Lanka And Modeling Of Forest Fire, Mohan Heenatigala

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Forest fire is one of the main causes for forest degradation and deforestation which affect ecosystem services provided by the given landscapes. Weather variables like temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall, and relative humidity also govern the forest fire regime and vulnerability. On the other hand, forest fuel characteristics, human impacts, population density, forest canopy density, slope, elevation, road density, closeness to the human settlement areas are other factors that determine the forest fire impact and potential of damage. Annually, 100 to 2500 hectares of forest resources are damaged due to forest fires in Sri Lanka. From the past few …