Geography Commons^™

Spatial Marginalization Of Emotional Support: Understanding Animal-Human Dynamics Of Care On College Campuses, Aleksandra Craine

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In 2015 Kearny-Nebraska court case determined that student campus housing is considered a dwelling and is therefore covered by housing antidiscrimination laws. Since then, increasing numbers of students across U.S. campuses applied to bring an emotional support animal to live with them. Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as “trained or untrained animals that do work, perform tasks, provide assistance, and/or provide therapeutic emotional support for individuals with disabilities.” Persons requesting ESA accommodations usually must provide documentation from a medical provider or therapist. ESAs remain a legally and socially contested category …

Sinking City To Breakthrough City: A Political Analysis And Evaluation Of Indonesia's Capital City Relocation From Jakarta To Nusantara, Yuji Jones

CMC Senior Theses

This paper analyzes Indonesia’s national decision to move its capital city from Jakarta to Nusantara. Indonesia is facing a dire catastrophe in its most populous city. The land surrounding Jakarta is sinking, and without significant mitigation efforts, the streets will be submerged by 2045. This is a slow-motion disaster coming for Indonesia and Jakarta. This left the country with a crucial decision: to save the capital city. In response to this environmental crisis, Indonesia’s government has committed to making a nationwide and ambitious decision to move the capital to Nusantara, a smaller city bustling with tropical forests 1,000 kilometers away, …

The Future Of U.S. Higher Education: Equity Implications Of Shifting Immigration Policies, Research Institute For Social Equity Rise

Research Institute for Social Equity

This report examines the impact of U.S. immigration policies on higher education and international students from 2000 to 2025. It traces five major policy eras, from the post- 9/11 security overhaul and Obama-era expansion to the restrictive turns of 2017–2020 and 2025, and analyzes how shifting regulations have influenced enrollment patterns, economic contributions, and student well-being. Despite hosting more than 1.1 million international students in 2023–2024, the U.S. share of the global student market has fallen from 20% to 16%, underscoring how policy volatility and restrictive measures weaken national competitiveness. Drawing on federal data, scholarly research, and institutional reports, this …

Regional Oceanographic Controls On Water Column Nitrogen Fixation In Northern Australian Waters, Douglas G. Capone, Ajit Subramaniam, Yubin Raut, Joseph P. Montoya, Margaret R. Mulholland, Rachel Ann Foster, Miles Furnas, Edward J. Carpenter

OES Faculty Publications

Large blooms of the diazotrophic cyanobacteria, Trichodesmium, have been re-ported along the north coast of Australia and are readily evident in remote sensing images. During a research cruise in November 1999, we sampled from Townsville to Broome, examined Trichodesmium population densities and their rates of carbon and N₂ fixation alongside microscopy-based cell counts of them and other cyanobacte-rial diazotrophs. Additionally, we also enumerated the picophytoplankton community using flow-cytometry, measured bulk chlorophyll concentrations, carbon and N₂ fixation rates, and water column hydrography, enabling comparison of diazotrophic and picophytoplankton functional groups across the system. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering analysis of physicochemical oceanographic …

Remote Sensing Of Particulate Organic Carbon And Phytoplankton Carbon In The Northern South China Sea, Xiaoju Pan, Tung-Yuan Ho, George T. F. Wong, Jen-Hua Tai, Lijuan Nie

OES Faculty Publications

Surface concentrations of particulate organic carbon (POC) and phytoplankton carbon (C_phy) in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) have been assessed successfully by remote sensing with appropriate regional tuning. Match-up comparisons between satellite derivations and field observations showed uncertainties of ± 28.5% for POC and ± 37.0% for C_phy. The satellite-derived climatological distributions are consistent with previous reports. In the open NSCS where phytoplankton growth is controlled primarily by the convective overturn, both POC and C_phy are higher in winter, associating with the effect of stronger northeast monsoons and surface cooling, than in summer, when …

Systematics Of Disk-Winged Bats (Thyroptera), Courtney L. Klumpp

Capstone Showcase

This thesis investigates the evolutionary relationships among disk-winged bats in the genus Thyroptera, a small group of Neotropical bats known for the adhesive suction disks on their wings and feet that allow them to roost inside tightly rolled leaves. The distinctive morphology and behavior of these bats have not been extensively documented, and their phylogenetic relationships remain only partially resolved. The goal of this research is to better understand how these species are related to one another and to determine whether the five recognized species of Thyroptera form a single monophyletic group. To address this question, morphological and genetic …

Improving Flood Risk Mapping By Incorporating Local-Scale Calibration Data Derived From Stakeholder Input, Jennifer M. Holifield, Wei Wu, Patrick D. Biber, Margo Posten, Dennis Mcgrury, Stephen C. Deal, Alexandria Hancock

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Globally, flooding is the most frequent and costly natural hazards, disproportionately affecting populations based on environmental, social, and economic factors. Understanding the spatial variability of flood risk as well as the respective flood drivers is essential for informing cost-effective mitigation strategies and enhancing community resilience. Here we mapped flood risk that combines flood hazards and vulnerability in an under-resourced coastal community prone to compound flooding. Our approach integrates stakeholder engagement with GIS-based analysis using open-access datasets.

We first developed an initial flood hazard map using an equal-weight combination of factors commonly associated with flood occurrence/prevention, including upslope area, impervious surface …

Assessment Of Truck Parking Demand And Safety During Normal And Severe Weather Conditions In Nebraska, Nathan Huynh, Li Zhao, Zhenghong Tang, Aida Riahifar, Jahangeer Jahangeer

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This project examined truck parking capacity, demand, and utilization patterns along I-80 in Nebraska. The objectives were to (1) document the capacity of public and private truck parking facilities along I-80, (2) analyze spatial and temporal trends in parking demand, (3) develop models to predict occupancy at parking facilities, (4) identify clusters of undesignated parking during inclement weather, and (5) assess whether truck parking shortages contribute to truck-involved crashes. Within a one-mile buffer of I-80, 21 public facilities and 49 private facilities were identified. The spatiotemporal analysis of these public and private truck parking facilities using the National Agriculture Imagery …

Sangha: Displacement And Memory In Nikkei Dena, Isabella Rae Uriu

Honors Theses

Sangha: Displacement and Memory in Nikkei Dena explores how layered displacements have shaped the Nikkei (Japanese-American) community in Altadena and Pasadena (Dena), CA, and how Nikkei resist forces of displacement and ‘unbelonging’ through cultural practice, community care, and memory-work at the Pasadena Buddhist Temple. This thesis argues that these practices of place-making build belonging and sustain the Nikkei community across displacement; particularly, the forced removal and incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, freeway displacement during the mid-century, and most recently, the 2025 Eaton Fire, which has displaced tens of thousands of Denans, including a small, but …

Lake As Body: Ecofeminism And Animacy At The Great Salt Lake, Shae Barber

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Water shapes cultural, social, and ecological systems. Yet, dominant economic, political, and academic frameworks often treat water as a backdrop or passive resource, ignoring it as an active participant in meaning-making and relationship-building. Viewing water as “nonliving” obscures how it participates in and co-creates relationships, limiting understanding about impacts of and responses to climate change and environmental degradation.

This thesis takes a mixed-methods and participatory approach including semi-structured interview, photovoice, and participatory mapping to examine relational practices between environmental advocates and the Great Salt Lake, a desiccating saline lake in Utah, U.S. As the lake continues to decline, dominant Western …

Between A Rockpile And A Hard Place: Mapping The Folk-Hydronymy Of Southern New England, Amanda Gilmore

Open Access Master's Theses

Fishermen in Southern New England (SNE) utilize a wide variety of placenames to delineate areas of significance on the open ocean. This information provides new revelations not just about the way fishermen navigate the ocean, but also insight about overlaps between Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) and Fishermen’s Ecological Knowledge in the historically prolific fishing sector of Southern New England. Prior to this study, this collection of vernacular place names on the water, or folk-hydronymy, had never been documented or analyzed, as it was held almost entirely in cognitive maps and proliferated through communication with other fishermen. This project’s goal was …

Using Remote Sensing Technology To Develop A Framework For Improving Hydrologic Models, Marissa Cook

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

With increased storm intensity due to climate change and urbanization, flash flooding has become an increasingly significant issue globally and regionally. Although the factors influencing urban flash flooding are well-known, there is a growing need for technology to accurately and remotely predict the chance of a flash flood occurring from any given rain event to give people time to prepare. This study aims to use multispectral satellite imagery to provide a framework for improving near real-time flood predictions in an urban area of a high gradient, fourth order stream impacted by flooding. Specifically, we utilize satellite imagery to create the …

Gis Is A Tool, Not The Story: The Journey Towards An Ethnographically Informed Gis Analysis Of Frenchman Coulee, Eastern Washington, Joseph T. Gambino

All Master's Theses

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have seen increased use in ethnographic and archaeological studies over the last several decades. Though revolutionary in their ability to predict and document sites of archaeological or cultural significance, they remain limited in their capacity to communicate the full extent of potential values certain geographies offer to both cultural specialists and their communities. These limitations are amplified when attempting to represent how the landscape is experienced within GIS’s statistical framework. In this manuscript I present different approaches to GIS modeling that attempt to identify some of the advantages Frenchman Coulee could have offered to the Indigenous …

Model Data Of "Aerial Imagery Resolution Optimization And Machine Learning Model Comparison For Land Cover Classification", Jessica Suoja

Research Data Sets

Downloadable zip file contents:

• 1MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 8.5 KB)
• 1MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 81.4 MB)
• 2MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.6 KB)
• 2MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 20.8 MB)
• 5MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.1 KB)
• 5MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 2.4 MB)
• 50CentimeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.7 KB)
• 50CentimeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 333.3 MB)
• 75CentimeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.6 KB)
• 75CentimeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 147.0 MB)
• 1125MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.0 KB)
• 1125MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 65.8 MB)
• 125MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.6 KB)
• 125MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 53.1 MB)
• 1375MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.5 KB)
• 1375MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 44.1 MB)
• 150MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.0 KB)
• 150MeterPrediction.csv (CSV file, 37.0 MB)
• 175MeterModel.csv (CSV file, 9.6 KB)
• 175MeterPrediction.csv …

Model Data Of "Land Cover Classification Of A Desert Riparian Ecosystem Using A Basic Stacked Ensemble Modeling Approach", Jessica Suoja

Research Data Sets

Downloadable zip file contents:

• CARTscript.R (R script, 2.2 KB)
• ForModel.csv (CSV file, 9.5 KB) 
• ForPrediction.csv (CSV file, 44.1 MB)

Legibility Grabs: Contesting Hegemony And Water Governance In Western Bahia, Brazil, Rowan A. Compton, Gustavo De L.T. Oliveira

Geography

This article examines how irrigated agribusiness interests in western Bahia, Brazil, are capturing the infrastructure of water governance itself — the basin committees, digital monitoring platforms, and fee structures through which water becomes visible and governable. Drawing on Gramscian theories of hegemony and James Scott's analysis of state legibility, we develop the concept of ‘legibility grabs’ to describe how dominant actors appropriate not only resources but the institutional mechanisms that render those resources objects of governance. Based on documentary analysis and 48 interviews conducted during fieldwork in 2024–2025, we demonstrate how agribusiness has waged wars of position within participatory institutions, …

Improved Climate Services In Hawai‘I: The Collaborative Development Of Drought-Related Decision Support Tools, Ryan J. Longman, Derek Ford, Cherryle Heu, Jennifer Geis, Abby Frazier, Christian P. Giardina, James T. Potemra, Sean B. Cleveland, John J. Marra

Geography

Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and increasingly variable rainfall are negatively impacting natural and cultural resources and agricultural production systems in Hawai‘i. To effectively manage resources in the face of these changes, stewards and producers now require accurate, timely, and site-specific climate data and information. However, access to such data as well as the ability to interpret available data remain limited for many sectors. In response to various needs, a team of scientists working with the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange (PDKE) has developed two open-source decision-support tools (DSTs) through a collaborative, user-informed process aimed at closing longstanding gaps in local climate …

Perceptions And Metaperceptions Of Bison In The West, Riley Rush Comstock

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Effective coexistence between wildlife populations and the people that live with them requires an understanding of how people feel toward the species and their management. Bison occupy a unique place in conservation history and management. Once extirpated across nearly all of their range and only recently introduced to areas outside of large tracts of federal land, they are now a jurisdictionally challenged species, with varying management paradigms across a patchwork of landowners and managers. Recent research has shown how activating different social identities can distort people’s attitudes toward species. Here, I explore whether activating urban and rural identities distorts people’s …

The Online Atlas Of Illinois: Teaching The Geography Of The Land Of Lincoln, John C. Kostelnick, Jill Freund Thomas, Amy M. Bloom

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

From the introduction:

The state atlas, with a variety of thematic and reference maps, has an established history within cartography in part due to the convenience of using political boundaries to organize map content for presentation to wide audiences. Several US states have produced state atlases to highlight their unique history, physical geography, and human geography (e.g., Meacham and Allan 2003). Such atlases may be designed for general map enthusiasts, and they may play an important role in the teaching of regional geography and key concepts that students may find more relatable when presented in a familiar geographic context.

Atomic Sameness: Static Placemaking And Nuclear Dynamism, Rex J. Rowley

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Dozens of locations across the United States were impacted by the development and deployment of American atomic weapons. Some of these places continue to change along with the world around them. Other sites remain in intentionally static space. Using a cultural landscape approach, this paper analyzes two such places that represent two broad groups of static atomic landscapes: 1) atomic testing sites; and 2) remnant sites for containment of stored materials and byproducts from the processing and extraction for and scientific testing of atomic technology. Influencing the static nature of such landscapes is a combination of intentional government-led efforts to …