Geography Commons^™

Agricultural Groundcover Update March 2024, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

• In March, over 10% (1,577,000 ha) of the arable farmland in the south-west of Western Australia had less than 50% vegetative groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion.

• The northern grainbelt had the highest risk of wind erosion and over 20% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover.

• About 1.3% (191,000 ha) of arable land had a high to very high risk of wind erosion because groundcover was less than 30%.

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 …

Assessing Urban Tree Coverage Along The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Gis Analysis Of Paso Del Norte, Melanie Escobar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, researchers have extensively studied the spatial distribution of social demographics and urban tree canopy (UTC) in urban cities, but very few, to this date, address U.S.-Mexico border cities. To date, there is no research that assesses the distribution of urban tree canopy (UTC) in the city of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, along the U.S.- Mexico border. Leveraging advanced mapping techniques and GIS tools, the study performs comparisons between countries (Juárez vs. El Paso urbanized areas and intra-country (within each country). It compares land cover classifications, assesses variations in UTC distribution across census tracts and …

Microwave Emission Model Parameter Tuning For Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval Using Uav-Mounted Dual Polarization L-Band Radiometer, Santiago Hoyos Echeverri

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Surface soil moisture retrieval from L-band brightness temperature has been developed for the past decades due to multiple beneficial characteristics of 1-2 GHz frequency bands for remote sensing of the environment. Numerous microwave emission models have been proposed for tower and satellite-based operations with successful retrieval of surface soil moisture and vegetation water content. As a result of the development of cost-effective and low-mass microwave L-band radiometers such as the Portable L-band Radiometer (PoLRa), surface soil moisture surveying traditionally developed by satellite missions SMOS and SMAP can now be developed at local scales, bringing these operations to commercial small unmanned …

A Sensor-Based Simulation Method For Spatiotemporal Event Detection, Yuqin Jiang, Andrey A. Popov, Zhenlong Li, Michael E. Hodgson, Binghu Huang

Faculty Publications

Human movements in urban areas are essential to understand human–environment interactions. However, activities and associated movements are full of uncertainties due to the complexity of a city. In this paper, we propose a novel sensor-based approach for spatiotemporal event detection based on the Discrete Empirical Interpolation Method. Specifically, we first identify the key locations, defined as “sensors”, which have the strongest correlation with the whole dataset. We then simulate a regular uneventful scenario with the observation data points from those key locations. By comparing the simulated and observation scenarios, events are extracted both spatially and temporally. We apply this method …

The Machine In The Rice Field: A Spatial Analysis Of Mechanized Rice Processing Infrastructure Along The Cooper River, 1780 - 1830, Jacob Hockenberry

All Theses

This thesis examines the spatial and physical characteristics of mechanized rice processing infrastructure along the Cooper River in South Carolina’s Lowcountry between 1780 and 1830. Historic rice plantation plats and modern geospatial data provided new information regarding the location of rice processing machines in relation to other plantation landscape features. This research analyzed seven rice plantations that contained these machines. Each plantation plat was georeferenced using ArcGIS Pro to support a detailed spatial analysis of these processing sites. While literature has extensively detailed the social, economic, environmental and enslaved aspects of rice culture in the Lowcountry, little research has specifically …

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 …

Soil Moisture Profile Estimation By Combining P-Band Sar Polarimetry With Hydrological And Multi-Layer Scattering Models, Anke Fluhrer, Thomas Jagdhuber, Carsten Montzka, Maike Schumacher, Hamed Alemohammad, Alireza Tabatabaeenejad, Harald Kunstmann, Dara Entekhabi

Geography

An approach for estimating vertically continuous soil moisture profiles under varying vegetation covers by combining remote sensing with soil (hydrological) modeling is proposed. The approach uses decomposed soil scattering components, after the removal of the vegetation scattering components from fully polarimetric P-band SAR observations. By comparing these with hydrological simulations, soil moisture profiles from the soil surface until a soil depth of 30 cm (assumed average P-band penetration depth) are estimated. Here, the hydrological model HYDRUS-1D, as a representative of any soil hydrological model, is employed to simulate an ensemble of realistic soil moisture profiles, which are used for a …

Understanding Land Uses And Their Manifestations Across The Rural-Urban Continua Of Rangpu, Bangladesh And Louisville, Kentucky., Md Jakirul Islam Jony Prothan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid urban growth accelerates various features characteristic of rural-urban environments as they change from urban cores to rural areas. This study examines land use change along a rural-urban continuum for two different cities: Louisville, USA, and Rangpur, Bangladesh. Different key land use patterns are compared within and across these different city contexts from 2000 to 2020. Land use change and comparing its spatiotemporal factors are useful metrics to better understand the patterns of development, socio-demographic change, and the uniqueness of cities. Spatial and temporal patterns of sociodemographic and biophysical components of land use provide important information for identifying transition zones …

Water Quality Hotspot Analysis On Chlorophyll-A To Monitor Harmful Algal Blooms In Small And Medium Lakes Of North Dakota, Sae Young Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The water quality of recreational lakes degrades with Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs). HABs can block sunlight, lower oxygen levels, and may produce toxins. Industrial and domestic waste and fertilizer runoffs can enrich nutrients for HABs. Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) is a significant indicator for tracking HABs and has been monitored increasingly using remote sensing techniques. In search for significant trends in hotspots of Chl-a concentrations in small and medium lakes of northeastern North Dakota, Chl-a water samples were collected in summer and fall of 2023. The study lakes include: Fordville Dam Recreation Area, Larimore Dam RecreationArea, Homme Dam Recreation Area, and South …

Examining Context Dependency Of Invasion Hypotheses At The Continental Scale Using Riverine Fish Communities, Lily Thompson

All Dissertations

Many well-supported hypotheses seek to explain invasion dynamics, but evidence for common patterns among regions and taxa remains inconclusive and often contradictory. Invasion ecology is fundamentally linked to spatial scale, and discrepancies in results among invasion studies may be attributed, in part, to a failure to fully consider scale dependency. In this dissertation, I investigate the sources of inconsistencies across spatial scales and large geographic extents using riverine fish communities across the conterminous United States. To do so, I tested three main ideas. First, that cross-scale interactions contextualize estimated invasion mechanisms among regions. My results demonstrate that local empirical support …

The Demotechnic Index Of Nations (1980 - 2018) And Its Correlation With The Human Development Index (1990 – 2021), Camden Rainwater

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Demotechnic Index (DI) and the Human Development Index (HDI) are both useful metrics for assessing the development of nations, with each providing unique insights about a country’s standard of living. The DI, which uses energy consumption as a gauge, excels in capturing the impact of conflicts and economic disruptions. Additionally, its ability to be calculated based on different energy sources allows for evaluation of a nation's progress towards sustainable consumption patterns. Conversely, the HDI combines healthcare, education, and income dimensions, and uses them as a proxy that highlights human health crises, educational improvements, and economic growth, albeit with less …

Fire Potential In Arkansas Through The Lens Of The Keetch-Byram Drought Index, Charles Steward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vegetation fires are a complicated phenomenon to predict both the occurrence and intensity. In the United States, fire behavior has been widely studied in high-risk regions such as in the American West, but fires also occur regularly in states that receive greater levels of precipitation, such as Arkansas. Fires are an expensive and dangerous environmental problem. As climate trends caused by global warming continue to progress, quantifying the extent to which climate factors influence their occurrence in Arkansas would be useful for land management, public safety, public health, agriculture, urban development, and to advance the science of fire-climate dynamics in …

Evaluation Of The Extent Of Floods In 2022 In Different Land Cover And Land Use Classes In Sindh Province, Pakistan Using Sentinel-1 And Sentinel-2 Imageries, Alina Shrestha

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Floods are one of the most frequent and most devastating natural disasters, which cause widespread destruction and pose significant risks to human life, infrastructure, and the environment. Advancement in remote sensing technologies and methodologies have demonstrated their efficacy in disaster-related applications, such as the detection, monitoring, and analysis of floods. This study explores the utilization of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical imagery for flood extent mapping and studying the extent of flood over various land cover and land use classes in Pakistan's Sindh province, utilizing the cloud computing power of Google Earth Engine. The change detection method identified extensive …

Deterministic Global 3d Fractal Cloud Model For Synthetic Scene Generation, Aaron M. Schinder, Shannon R. Young, Bryan J. Steward, Michael L. Dexter, Andrew Kondrath, Stephen Hinton, Ricardo Davila

Faculty Publications

This paper describes the creation of a fast, deterministic, 3D fractal cloud renderer for the AFIT Sensor and Scene Emulation Tool (ASSET). The renderer generates 3D clouds by ray marching through a volume and sampling the level-set of a fractal function. The fractal function is distorted by a displacement map, which is generated using horizontal wind data from a Global Forecast System (GFS) weather file. The vertical windspeed and relative humidity are used to mask the creation of clouds to match realistic large-scale weather patterns over the Earth. Small-scale detail is provided by the fractal functions which are tuned to …

Food Policy Council, Alexandra G. Winn, Kirsten Hannah Jaquish, Shelby Lynn Davis, Alexandra N. Ehlers, Joshua Lohnes

Undergraduate Scholarship

Nourishing Networks is a workshop that promotes the development of Food Policy Councils, which are a group of community members that advocate for the Right to Food in their community. Through conversation surrounding food access barriers and strategies in their community, the workshop aims to educate participants on how they can improve food access in their community. This research project sought to conduct Nourishing Networks meetings in a variety of West Virginia counties with the intention of accompanying local community members and organizations to create a Food Policy Council for their region. Using a standardized organization process, curriculum, and reporting …

Ethnic Minority Owned And Serving Grocers In Morgantown And Solidarity Economies, Bane B. Clements-Smart, Rissell L. Velarde Vila, Cameron G. Rishworth

Undergraduate Scholarship

This project sought to build off previous research within the Center for Resilient Communities on grocers and solidarity economies, by learning about grocers owned by minority ethnic groups and that serve minority ethnic groups through offering products for cuisines and cooking unavailable through large, mainstream grocery chains such as Walmart, Kroger, or Giant Eagle. These stores also offer a cultural space where people from minority ethnic groups can connect and build community through a sense of home and familiarity provided by these spaces, not easily found elsewhere in Morgantown.

Reclaiming Housing For Sustainable And Equitable Development, Ethan Harner, Gabrielle Fraizer, Bradley Wilson

Undergraduate Scholarship

Across West Virginia, Appalachia, the South, and other regions which have borne the historic brunt of extraction, capital flight, and systemic lack of opportunity, cooperative and community-based solutions to economic challenges have historically and presently been found in and amongst marginalized communities. As a critical component of community wellbeing, development, and prosperity, we situate housing as a necessary component to the understanding of cooperative, grassroots, and solidarity forms of economic organization. In this we explore the ways community-based housing solutions contribute to senses of community and solidarity both within housing structures and the broader community. We place these findings in …

Water Equity And Planning: Acid Mine Drainage In Deckers Creek Watershed, Brooke O. Waters, Lennon Jewell Auvil, Grace Dever

Undergraduate Scholarship

When mines close, they simply do not disappear. They cannot be buried or forgotten about. The implications of mining leave a lasting history and impact not only on our lands but on the people as well. Abandoned mine lands are areas of our community and environment that have been destroyed due to the extraction of coal and other minerals. Mining results in the destruction of landscapes, contamination of waterways, and the emission of harmful chemicals to our communities.
Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is a resultant water pollutant that is derived from mining practices, active or abandoned. This pollutant forms from …

Towards Accessible Futures: Re-Imagining Space And Inclusion In Higher Education, Cecelia Kaufmann

Geography Honors Projects

Since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an increased number of people with disabilities have participated in higher education, yet their experiences continue to differ from their able-bodied peers. This thesis considers these differences utilizing Dolmage’s academic ableism, Foucault’s theory of Biopower, and Lefebvre’s theory on the Production of Space. This research shows how physical infrastructure and levels of power reproduce instances of academic ableism. Utilizing a case study of a private college in Minnesota, this research draws on interviews with stakeholders, offering guidance to correct the broader social and physical exclusions created that people with disabilities encounter in higher …