The Plague And The Parthenon: Crusade, Climate Change And Disease In The Early Modern Mediterranean,
2022
University of Southern Mississippi
The Plague And The Parthenon: Crusade, Climate Change And Disease In The Early Modern Mediterranean, John Mark Nicovich
Master's Theses
The present study examines the role epidemic diseases, specifically malaria and bubonic plague, played on the course of the Morean War (1684-1699). The Morean War was a major offensive by Christian powers, led by the Venetian Republic, against Ottoman controlled Greece. Christian victories during the war were widely celebrated across western Europe, but even in victory Christian forces took severe casualties from multiple disease outbreaks. First, this study seeks to explain the terrestrial and maritime networks the war was fought over, and how those networks either led the opposing forces into regions of endemic disease (malaria), or how they allowed …
Multi-Trophic Biodiversity Increases With Increasing Structural Complexity Of Forest Canopy,
2022
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Multi-Trophic Biodiversity Increases With Increasing Structural Complexity Of Forest Canopy, Ayanna St. Rose
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Understanding the effects of forest canopy structural complexity on multi-trophic diversity is critical for conserving biodiversity and managing land sustainably. But multi-trophic diversity is often ignored when making decisions about land management due to lack of cost- and time-effective methods to evaluate it. Here, we explored a new method based on widely available remote sensing data to quantify canopy structural complexity and its relationships with multi-trophic biodiversity at landscape scale using 32 forested sites of the National Ecological Observatory Network. We investigated the influence of vertical and horizontal structural complexity of forest canopy on multi-trophic (primary producers, herbivores (beetles), omnivores …
A Decade Of Car-Cyclist Collisions In Louisville: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis.,
2022
University of Louisville
A Decade Of Car-Cyclist Collisions In Louisville: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis., Elizabeth Ferguson Greenwell
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This thesis has considered factors of the built environment to discover if cay-cyclist collisions display any patterns that could be used to improve cycling safety. This thesis contains an introduction, a literature review, an overview of the study area and data, a description of the methods, results, and discussion and conclusion section. This thesis is significant because it has been the first study to consider cyclist volume as an explanatory variable of the spatiality of car-cyclist dependence for Louisville, Kentucky. Through descriptive and spatial statistics, trends in car-cyclists were identified. Collisions occur more frequently in the summer, during commute hours, …
Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model For Classifying Marginal Cropland In Nebraska Using Historical Crop Yield And Biophysical Characteristics,
2022
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Multi-Criteria Evaluation Model For Classifying Marginal Cropland In Nebraska Using Historical Crop Yield And Biophysical Characteristics, Andrew Laws
School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Marginal cropland is suboptimal due to historically low and variable productivity and limiting biophysical characteristics. To support future agricultural management and policy decisions in Nebraska, U.S.A, it is important to understand where cropland is marginal for its two most economically important crops: corn (Zea mays) and soybean (Glycine max). As corn and soybean are frequently planted in a crop rotation, it is important to consider if there is a relationship with cropland marginality. Based on the current literature, there exists a need for a flexible yet robust methodology for identifying marginal land at different scales, which …
Food Security And Dietary Diversity Among Conventional And Organic Tea-Smallholders In Central And Southern Sri Lanka,
2022
Macalester College
Food Security And Dietary Diversity Among Conventional And Organic Tea-Smallholders In Central And Southern Sri Lanka, Nethmi Bathige
Geography Honors Projects
In Sri Lanka, smallholder tea producers grow 70 percent of the country’s tea and bring in significant export earnings. However, when the country moved towards a more liberalized economy in the 1970s, growing cash crops such as tea for exports increased. As a result, there was a cut-back in food crop agriculture as farmers made space to grow more commercial crops. This research treats tea smallholder households as a unit of study. It looks at how economic status (average income and wealth rankings), level of crop diversity, and method of tea farming (organic or conventional) have influenced food security and …
Analysis Of Gentrification And Green Spaces In East Austin, Texas,
2022
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Analysis Of Gentrification And Green Spaces In East Austin, Texas, Carly Fordyce
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Gentrification, the urban process that results from uneven development within cities, can cause unjust displacement of traditional, low-income residents in residential neighborhoods, and inequitable access to community services and benefits. Because of the negative social impacts that gentrification can have, many local governments and agencies have been known to attempt to mitigate changes by initiating different types of planning policies. Such policies usually apply changes in housing or zoning rules to enable lower-income residents to have access to housing and community amenities in the area. Another aspect resulting from gentrification that local government will try to rectify is low access …
Assessing Urban Canopy Program In Redlands California,
2022
California State University, San Bernardino
Assessing Urban Canopy Program In Redlands California, Joseph Angel Rocha Iv
Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations
Climate change can cause major environmental and human health issues especially in lower income and minority communities (Ros et al. 2020; Bethel et al. 2022). Although studies note tree coverage alone cannot solve all climate related problems (Pataki, et al. 2021; Ross, 2021), tree coverage does provide alleviation for climate change related factors (Free-Smith, et al. 2004). Some ways trees can combat climate change is through improved air quality, improved water quality, and decreasing impacts of Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) (Nowak et al. 2018; Liu, Liu, 2021; Wang, Zhao, et al 2017). Although throughout the United States there is …
Toward Global Localization Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Using Overhead Image Registration With Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks,
2022
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Toward Global Localization Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Using Overhead Image Registration With Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks, Rachel Linck
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Global localization, in which an unmanned aircraft system (UAS) estimates its unknown current location without access to its take-off location or other locational data from its flight path, is a challenging problem. This research brings together aspects from the remote sensing, geoinformatics, and machine learning disciplines by framing the global localization problem as a geospatial image registration problem in which overhead aerial and satellite imagery serve as a proxy for UAS imagery. A literature review is conducted covering the use of deep learning convolutional neural networks (DLCNN) with global localization and other related geospatial imagery applications. Differences between geospatial imagery …
Transforming Trees, Transcending Binaries: Gender In Augustan Poetry,
2022
College of the Holy Cross
Transforming Trees, Transcending Binaries: Gender In Augustan Poetry, Kendall Swanson
College Honors Program
Humans have been inextricably linked to nature since before the rule of Emperor Augustus in Ancient Rome. Nature feeds humans, it gives people the tools to build a society. Because of this relationship, it is no surprise that authors, both ancient and modern, incorporate various themes of the natural world into their works. Additionally, nature appears linked to human conceptions of gender, as seen in literature and real-world experience. According to the United Nations, one goal to accomplish in order to achieve sustainable development is gender equality in all countries. Gender and nature work together: when inequality exists, environmental degradation …
Unpacking The Environmental Movement In Megacity Dhaka: How Does The Resource Mobilisation Theory Explain Local Urban Complexity?,
2022
Boise State University
Unpacking The Environmental Movement In Megacity Dhaka: How Does The Resource Mobilisation Theory Explain Local Urban Complexity?, Saleh Ahmed
Global Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations
In the Global South, urban policies are heavily influenced by colonial heritages, and people often experience citizens-detached urban development initiatives. The environmental movement is seen as a new addition that might contribute to society’s efforts to achieve equal urban environmental opportunities. The geographical focus of this article is the megacity Dhaka, which is the social, political, and economic capital of Bangladesh. Unfortunately, this hyper-urbanised megacity suffers from a large poverty-stricken population, leading to a gap in environmental services between the poor and rich. In recent years, Dhaka has experienced a growing momentum with the environmental movement, demanding environmental rights and …
The Value Of Education: School Policy Decisions During The Covid-19 Pandemic,
2022
Macalester College
The Value Of Education: School Policy Decisions During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elika W. Somani
Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major Honors Project
During the COVID-19 pandemic, lacking national U.S. policies, wide variation and conflict over chosen public school policy decisions emerged. What factors and guidelines informed the decision-making process in K-12 public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and who were the key stakeholders? This study examines three school district types – a large city, medium city, and small-town – across Minnesota as case studies to unpack how policy decisions were made during the pandemic. Stakeholder interviews uncovered that the school decision-making process was a) connected to a district's political opinions, b) made by the superintendent and school board, c) primarily influenced by …
Composite Style Pixel And Point Convolution-Based Deep Fusion Neural Network Architecture For The Semantic Segmentation Of Hyperspectral And Lidar Data,
2022
Air Force Institute of Technology
Composite Style Pixel And Point Convolution-Based Deep Fusion Neural Network Architecture For The Semantic Segmentation Of Hyperspectral And Lidar Data, Kevin T. Decker, Brett J. Borghetti
Faculty Publications
Multimodal hyperspectral and lidar data sets provide complementary spectral and structural data. Joint processing and exploitation to produce semantically labeled pixel maps through semantic segmentation has proven useful for a variety of decision tasks. In this work, we identify two areas of improvement over previous approaches and present a proof of concept network implementing these improvements. First, rather than using a late fusion style architecture as in prior work, our approach implements a composite style fusion architecture to allow for the simultaneous generation of multimodal features and the learning of fused features during encoding. Second, our approach processes the higher …
Urban Forests And Their Potential To Combat Food Insecurity: Analyzing Street Trees In Baltimore, Md For Their Edibility,
2022
Ursinus College
Urban Forests And Their Potential To Combat Food Insecurity: Analyzing Street Trees In Baltimore, Md For Their Edibility, Victoria Bearden
Environment and Sustainability Honors Papers
Food insecure environments, in which residents lack consistent access to nutritious food materials, can occur in urban settings. Literature on urban forests suggests that trees can provide a range of provisioning ecosystem services, including edible uses. We consider this to determine if street trees in Baltimore, Maryland have the potential to provide nutritious food materials to address food insecurity in Healthy Food Priority Areas (HFPA), designated by Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. Our analysis utilizes the Plants For a Future database and the geospatial hotspot analysis tool in Esri’s ArcMap to determine the edible quality ratings (EQR) of …
Geese Management At The University Of Richmond,
2022
University of Richmond
Geese Management At The University Of Richmond, Virginia Mead
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
Geese are a nuisance in all fifty states and particularly at the University of Richmond. For the most part, Canada Geese, Branta canadensis, have effectively stopped migrating which has led them to be a problem for the surrounding ecosystem (Handwerk, 2021). The university has taken some preliminary steps to discourage geese from inhabiting our campus, but none have proven to be effective in the long run. To answer the question of how to deter geese from hanging out on campus, I assessed various geese management practices with the intention that the university could potentially adopt one of the practices. Our …
Sharing Air: A Review And Application Of Effective Methods Of Communicating Temperature Data,
2022
University of Richmond
Sharing Air: A Review And Application Of Effective Methods Of Communicating Temperature Data, Claire A. King
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
One’s residence should not determine an individual’s health or lifespan. Further, if the environment where someone lives is detrimental to one’s health, that information ought to be shared with him or her. Surface heat exposure poses dangers to human health, and surface temperature is influenced by surrounding environmental factors. Surface temperature and related environmental data should be shared with communities in formats that best meet local needs. It is a matter of environmental and health justice. On July 15, 2021, a team of citizen scientists united under the Virginia Heat Watch project to collect surface temperature data in ten localities …
Down The Drain: Stormwater Management Effects On The Quality Of The Westhampton Lake,
2022
University of Richmond
Down The Drain: Stormwater Management Effects On The Quality Of The Westhampton Lake, Indya Woodfolk
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
This paper examines incidents of illicit discharges on the University of Richmond campus as outlined by the City of Richmond's MS4 permit. Illicit discharges contaminate the Westhampton Lake by flowing from our storm drains directly into the Westhampton Lake. I detected incidents of illicit discharges by performing visual inspections as guided by numerous scholarly articles. The visual inspections were done with a special consideration of land use on campus. Along with the visual inspections, I inspected the storm drains during a dry weather event to find whether there was any flow during this period. In this study, I found several …
The Green Passport Program: Proposing A Study Abroad Program To Encourage Sustainable Behavior And Offset Emissions,
2022
University of Richmond
The Green Passport Program: Proposing A Study Abroad Program To Encourage Sustainable Behavior And Offset Emissions, Suraya Souidi
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
The University of Richmond has a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and in order to do this, carbon offsets are likely a necessary component to implement in lieu of adequate technology to abate the usage of carbon from behaviors such as travel. The scope of this proposal focuses on the Office of International Education and study abroad travel, which accounts for a large amount of emissions in the University’s portfolio. The purpose of this study was to propose a program to the Office of International Education which oriented students towards sustainability while they engaged in a study abroad …
Our Air: Determining Ideal Locations For Tree Planting In Richmond, Va In Order To Deter Inequalities In Temperature,
2022
University of Richmond
Our Air: Determining Ideal Locations For Tree Planting In Richmond, Va In Order To Deter Inequalities In Temperature, Nina Vanatta
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
With the ever increasing effects of climate change, it is pertinent that an effective, efficient, and economic solution be reached in order to mitigate the extremity of urban heat islands. Since heat can contribute to a variety of health problems, it is very important that the unequal distribution of heat be minimized in order to promote the equal well-being within a city. One substantial and popular method of doing so is through the planting of trees, as there is research done to show that they reduce air pollution on top of reducing overall surface temperatures. This paper explores how and …
Red Wolf Reintroduction: Land Ownership And Protection Status Analysis,
2022
University of Richmond
Red Wolf Reintroduction: Land Ownership And Protection Status Analysis, Anna Frisbie
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
Red wolves (Canis rufus) are critically endangered, and currently the only wild population exists in northeast NC (“Red Wolf,” FWS, n.d.). Here, I use geospatial analysis to investigate the potential for another wild population to establish in the Delmarva Peninsula. I consider land ownership and protection status because these factors influence local public support (Nie, 2001; Naughton-Treves et al., 2003; Berger-Tal et al., 2020), as well as reintroduction success (Carroll et al., 2003; Wolf & Ripple, 2018). I compare the ownership and protection status of land in the Delmarva Peninsula to that in the Albemarle Peninsula, where the red wolf …
Testing The Waters: An Analysis Of Recent Nutrient Levels In Westhampton Lake And Their Implications For Water Quality Management,
2022
University of Richmond
Testing The Waters: An Analysis Of Recent Nutrient Levels In Westhampton Lake And Their Implications For Water Quality Management, Taylor Coleman
Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects
This investigation was undertaken to understand recent nutrient levels of Westhampton Lake and determine the implications of its water quality relative to the sustenance of aquatic life on campus at the University of Richmond. Nutrient data was obtained from the documentation of ongoing monthly sampling by a research team from Virginia Commonwealth University and consisted in the evaluation of total nitrogen, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrogen oxides, chlorides, and the bacteria, Escherichia coli between November 20, 2018, and December 9, 2021. Analysis of each individual nutrient included the comparison of its minimum, maximum, and mean level relative to recommended criteria provided …
