Geography Commons^™

Global Portraits From A Changing Climate: The Influence Of Environmental Storytelling On The Climate Narrative, Alexandra Welch

Capstone Collection

Environmental Storytelling can influence the climate narrative and serve as a catalyst to structurally alter how individuals think about the environment. The medium of the “Eco-film” allows viewers to create intimate connections with the natural world, and in turn alter how individuals engage and perceive issues like climate change. To combat climate denialism this project showcases different hopeful stories in a deliverable video collection, called “Global Portraits from a Changing Climate”. Two of these videos will be filmed in Germany, featuring the Waldrapp Team Research and Conservation project. One of the videos from Waldrapp Team will touch on the social …

Living Dead Forests: Assessing Detrital Services In Puget Sound Pseudotsuga Menziesii Ecosystems, Forrest Becker

Capstone Collection

Coarse woody debris (CWD), the detrital result of down wood recruitment, contributes to wildlife habitat, nutrient cycling, morphological processes like soil formation, and each forest’s sense of place but if undermanaged can fuel wildfires or obstruct stakeholder use. Despite its ubiquity in Puget Sound Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests in Washington, USA, few studies quantify the exact ecosystem services which down wood provides. This study seeks to understand how forest managers can estimate the ecosystem services of down wood and how human communities perceive down wood management between community, public, and private Douglas fir (P. menziesii) …

Watching The Paris Olympics From France, Jean Lavigne

Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reflections And Revelations In Autoethnography: A Review Of Meaningful Journeys Of Quest And Identity Transformation, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

In this review of—Meaningful Journeys: Autoethnographies of Quest and Identity Transformation, edited by Alec Grant, Ph.D., and Elizabeth (Lizzie) Lloyd-Parkes, Ph.D., I have made an effort to offer my evaluation that explores the autoethnographies of quest and identity transformation (Grant & Lloyd-Parkes, 2024). The book presents a curated anthology of personal ethnographic narratives, each grounded in the foundational concepts, philosophical insights, and linguistic roots of “journeying,” “questing,” and both ancient and contemporary interpretations of “pilgrimage.” As an autoethnographer, even during the different phases of life—personal and professional—I have been through the different roots of transformation, and now, at …

Fibersheds: Textiles As The Basis For A New World, Rebecca John

Theses and Dissertations

The Fibershed movement seeks to develop bioregional fiber systems to cultivate natural fibers through regenerative agriculture. Through this, it seeks to revive domestic textile production as an alternative to the global textile industry. This thesis investigates the Fibershed movement at national and regional scales, and assesses how they position themselves as an alternative economy.

Gps Accuracy Of Smartphones For Crowdsourcing Research, Derron L. Dike

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

ABSTRACT GPS Accuracy of Smartphones for Crowdsourcing Research Derron Dike Utilizing crowdsourcing with smartphones as a method for field data collection can contribute an array of data for scientific studies and land management applications. This study used crowdsourcing to examine smartphone built-in GPS performance for providing location-specific information with potential forestry applications. The usability of smartphones for GPS data collection in forestry studies or other practical applications is dependent on the level of accuracy required for those applications. A Smartphone Accuracy Trial was designed to test the GPS accuracy performance of current smartphones. Participants used the ArcGIS Field Maps application …

Aerialformer: Multi-Resolution Transformer For Aerial Image Segmentation, Taisei Hanyu, Kashu Yamazaki, Minh Tran, Roy A. Mccann, Haitao Liao, Chase Rainwater, Meredith Adkins, Jackson Cothren, Hoang Le

Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

When performing remote sensing image segmentation, practitioners often encounter various challenges, such as a strong imbalance in the foreground–background, the presence of tiny objects, high object density, intra-class heterogeneity, and inter-class homogeneity. To overcome these challenges, this paper introduces AerialFormer, a hybrid model that strategically combines the strengths of Transformers and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). AerialFormer features a CNN Stem module integrated to preserve low-level and high-resolution features, enhancing the model’s capability to process details of aerial imagery. The proposed AerialFormer is designed with a hierarchical structure, in which a Transformer encoder generates multi-scale features and a multi-dilated CNN (MDC) …

No. 25: Responses To Covid-19 By Internal Migrants In South African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Maria Salamone, Zack Ahmed

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper explores the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on internal migrants in the urban centres of Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Focusing on the socio-economic and livelihood challenges faced by this population, the research utilizes a survey conducted in 2023 to investigate how the pandemic exacerbated existing vulnerabilities. Results highlight significant disruptions in employment, increased economic hardship, and heightened health risks among migrants, particularly those living in low-income neighbourhoods. Despite the hardships, very few migrants intended to permanently return to their rural origins, indicating a complex interplay between economic necessity and pandemic-induced constraints. The findings underscore the unique challenges …

No. 24: Food And Health Security Among Burmese Migrant Domestic Workers In Singapore Amid Myanmar’S ‘Triple Crisis’, Brenda Yeoh, Franchesca Morais, Theodora Lam, Kristel Acedera, Bittiandra Chand Somaiah

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

Migrating overseas to work as domestic workers is an increasingly important livelihood strategy for capital-poor women in Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar. However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest in Myanmar has highlighted the entrenched precarities and uncertainties attached to this migration strategy. The health crisis has further heightened the importance of remittances and food security for migrants and their sending households. Food production, food systems and access to food supplies in the country have been especially hit by political instability, the energy crisis and inflation. This paper explores issues concerning the food and health security of female …

No. 26: Pandemic Precarities And Remittance Narratives In The Global South, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

The COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as a great disruptor of global migration leading to a crisis of immobility caused by public health lockdowns, closed borders, and the suspension of visa processing. Layoffs and retrenchments of migrant workers led to widespread hardship and an intensification of pre-pandemic precarity, as well as disrupted remittance channels and flows. Against this backdrop, the paper provides an overview of current debates about the relationship between COVID-19 and international migration in the context of South-South migration. We assess how pre-pandemic South-South migration flows were disrupted by the pandemic and the evidence for a crisis …

Introduction To The Special Issue

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 26, Issue 2 (Special Issue) -- Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Dengue And Climate Change: Assessing Potential Future Areas Of Concern For Transmission In The United States, Matthew Beer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Global climate change severely impacts human life, particularly health, as rising temperatures and extreme weather affect physical and mental well-being. Climate change can also alter the risk factors and epidemiology of infectious diseases, notably vector-borne diseases (VBDs), including those transmitted by mosquitoes. The Aedes mosquito, responsible for dengue, poses a significant threat due to its prevalence vector. Dengue prevention lacks effective methods beyond vector control, and the current vaccine has limitations, emphasizing the need for intensified research and prevention strategies to mitigate the expanding dengue burden worldwide. The goal of these studies was to establish a novel risk index …

A Study Of The Impact And Mitigation Strategies For Community-Defined Historic Places At Immediate (Within Three Decades) Risk Of Sea Level Rise, Isaac Quaye

All Theses

The rising sea level casts formidable threats on community-based historic places within coastal communities. These community-defined historic places derive their meaning from local values and are more recognized within the local community. Unlike recognized iconic historic places, these resources are confronted with inadequate resources to address the impacts of punctuated climate events. This study investigates the imminent threats posed by sea level rise (SLR) to community-defined historic places within the next three decades (2025) and explores mitigation strategies proposed by stakeholders. The study used a GIS-based (enhanced bathtub model) to model the impact of coastal inundation on three historic places …

Transforming Grassland Conservation: Challenges And Opportunities Across Law, Policy, And Human Dimensions, Conor D. Barnes

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Great Plains social-ecological systems are facing growing pressure from complex, ‘wicked’ problems. Addressing these problems will require integrating ecological resilience and complex systems thinking concepts into our legal framework in order to better reflect the changing ecological reality of the Great Plains and promote flexibility and adaptability in the face of that change. In this dissertation, I examine how past and present policy priorities have affected social-ecological systems on the Great Plains, and how ecological resilience and complex systems thinking might be applied to grassland management policy. In Chapter 2, I examine the rapid progress made in the adoption of …

Remotely Sensed Early Warning Of Algal Blooms In An Eastern Nebraska Reservoir: A Comparison Of Temporal And Spatial Indicators, Mercy Kipenda

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CyanoHABs) detrimentally affect human, animal, and ecosystem health. Remotely sensed early warning systems for cyanoHABs in inland lakes could contribute to more proactive water quality monitoring and help mitigate negative impacts. Advances in freely available remote sensing imagery, with finer spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, present new opportunities for the development and comparative analysis of methods to detect sudden deterioration in lake water quality. In this thesis, I compared and tested for temporal and spatial early warning signals of cyanoHABs in field-based and remotely sensed datasets from 2019 to 2023 in Pawnee Lake in southeast Nebraska, …

Assessing, Restoring, And Centering Social–Ecological Relationships For Advancing Social–Ecological Resilience In The Northern Great Plains Grasslands, Katia Pilar Carranza Bernal

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Northern Great Plains grasslands are social-ecological systems that were shaped by evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships. European colonization disrupted many of these interactions, including the coupling of fire and grazing, and degraded social-ecological resilience, shifting these grasslands to a new state. For those reasons, my research focused on assessing, restoring, and centering evolutionary and Indigenous social-ecological relationships for advancing social-ecological resilience in the Northern Great Plains grasslands. I first performed a study in the Nebraska Sandhillls assessing the potential of patch-burn grazing to support grassland resilience by comparing its effects to those of rotational grazing. Through vegetation and bird …

Sensitivity Of Present And Future Seasonal Precipitation Over Central United States To The Representation Of Rocky Mountain Topography, Ranasinghe Disanayakalage Sherly Shelton Ranathunga

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Precipitation change across the Central United States (USA) is of great interest to the research community. Studies using global climate simulations suggest that the “100^th-Meridian”, which separates the “dry west” from the “moist east” will shift to the east as the climate responds to future emissions pathways. However, these simulations are run at relatively coarse resolutions, which do not accurately represent topography. Here, we perform regional simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to explore the sensitivity of present and future precipitation patterns across the central USA to the representation of the Rocky Mountains (RM). We …

Making Waves In The Snow World: Microwave Remote Sensing And Infrasound Interactions With Seasonal Snow, Zachary Marshall Hoppinen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Snow has profound impacts on our globe, economies, and ecosystems serving as a vital reservoir for drinking and irrigation water, renewable hydroelectric power, and as a natural hazard. However, effectively monitoring snow and snow water equivalent (SWE) presents challenges due to interannual variability, with SWE fluctuating by over 500 mm between years and peak snowmelt timing varying up to a month. These challenges will be further exacerbated by the non-stationarity of these snow and avalanche patterns in a changing climate requiring new spatially and temporally expansive remote sensing.

In this dissertation, we explore the potential of two evolving remote sensing …

Paths Of Least Resistance: A Geospatial Analysis Of The Integration Of Mississippian Communities In The Northwest Arkansas Ozarks, Joseph Jilek

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

During the Mississippi period (ca. AD 1050-1500), native groups occupying bluff shelters in the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks constructed three similarly sized mound-and-plaza centers: Goforth-Saindon (3BE0245), Collins (3WA0001), and Huntsville (3MA0022). Similarities in size and number of mounds suggests none rose to a position of power over the other and each integrated a separate community. Previous research hypothesizes that communities in emergent complex societies such as these are best defined by those who you interact with regularly, with mound centers less than a day’s travel from each other likely integrating the same communities. This study uses least-cost analysis, generating likely travel …