Geography Commons^™

No. 51: State-Led Localization Of Food Provisioning And Food Security In Urban China, Taiyang Zhong, Steffanie Scott, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

Food localization has been extensively studied and advocated in Western countries, focusing on its oppositional stance to food system globalization, long food supply chains and agribusiness, the disconnect between producers and consumers, and a desire to reconnect urban consumers with small farmers in the hinterland of cities. More recently, these localization models have been taken up by international agencies and others and “exported” to the Global South. Rapid urbanization in the Global South has led to a major and growing crisis of food insecurity, which these models and approaches are ill-equipped to address. Hence, it is important to examine other …

No. 50: Food Security And Poverty Reduction Programmes In A Cape Town Community: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Duncan

Hungry Cities Partnership

Despite increased engagement with public programmes, low-income urban South African communities continue to experience high levels of food insecurity. More needs to be known about why progress in poverty alleviation and food security has plateaued (Shisana et al 2013). This discussion paper is based on a qualitative study that investigated how food insecure female-headed households in a Cape Town community made use of state (national) and local (government, NGO and community-led) poverty reduction programmes and social networks in their pursuit of food security (Duncan 2016). It revealed the study participants as skilled survivors who carefully navigated their environment, using both …

No. 52: Assessing Supermarket Patronage In Matola, Mozambique, Cameron Mccordic, Bruce Frayne, Naomi Sunu

Hungry Cities Partnership

As an indicator of a broader nutrition transition, the supermarketization of urban food systems in the Global South has become a growing area of research interest. While the rising dominance of supermarkets in urban food systems has been noted in several primate cities in the Global South, there have been few investigations into the spatial and demographic characteristics that may govern the patronage of supermarkets in smaller secondary cities. This paper assesses the supermarketization trend via an investigation of supermarket patronage in a secondary city through a 2014 household survey of Matola, Mozambique. Using a combination of descriptive statistics and …

No. 23: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Windhoek, Nambia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush, Tobias Shinyemba

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents the results of the first comprehensive survey of Windhoek’s rapidly-growing informal food sector. As such, it aims to shed light on the food system of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital and largest urban centre. The report is part of a research programme on food security in cities of the Global South by AFSUN and the Hungry Cities Partnership (HCP) and builds on earlier publications on Windhoek’s food system including:

- The State of Food Insecurity in Windhoek, Namibia (Pendleton et al 2012);

- The Supermarket Revolution and Food Security in Namibia (Nickanor et al 2017);

- Urban Informal Food …

No. 49: Urban Food System Governance And Food Security In Namibia, Jonathan Crush, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe

Hungry Cities Partnership

Namibia’s transition to an urban society is occurring extremely rapidly and with it has come a transformation of urban food systems, changes in diets and food consumption patterns, increased undernutrition and overnutrition, and the rapid growth of non-communicable diseases. This paper examines the policy response of the Namibian government to the nutrition transition and double burden of malnutrition with particular reference to urban centres and populations. The national government assumes responsibility for all food security and health-related programming, while local government’s mandate is largely confined to non-food related management issues such as housing, transport and sanitation. The paper shows that …

No. 46: Hunger, Anger, And Strangers: Precarious Status And Food Insecurity Among Refugees And Asylum Seekers In South Africa, Jennifer Kandjii

Hungry Cities Partnership

This discussion paper analyzes the impact of a multiplicity of actors, policies, and practices on the food security of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa’s urban spaces. Building on recent work that focuses on the legal production of illegality, institutionalization of precarity, and the reproduction of bordering practices by the state and citizenry, the paper reviews how South Africa’s migration governance processes coalesce with societal xenophobic tendencies to shape food security outcomes for forcibly- displaced populations. The discussion paper aims to fill a policy and research gap through understanding the experiences of displaced persons at the intersection of food …

No. 47: Urban Food Security And Household Shocks In Nairobi, Kenya, Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango, Jonathan Crush, Samuel Owuor

Hungry Cities Partnership

Even though urban poverty is a key component of the development agenda in Nairobi with a focus on job creation, provision of basic infrastructure (such as roads and clean drinking water), food security has traditionally been omitted by city planners and managers despite its centrality to people’s health and wellbeing. One of the consequences of the lack of integration of food security into development planning is that emergency food preparedness planning has not been viewed as a priority. Rather, emergency procedures are only enacted when a food emergency is already in progress. This discussion paper demonstrates that female-centred households, households …

A Portrait Of Post-Industrial Portland, Oregon, Madelyn Vander Veen, Mark D. Bjelland

Summer Research

Overlay of contemporary and historic land use maps allowed us to identify former industrial districts that have been redeveloped for new uses. Portland’s Pearl District and South Waterfront are the city’s best examples of post-industrial areas that have been transformed into thriving mixeduse neighborhoods. These two post-industrial districts offer a valuable lens through which to view the changing inner city. Places of physical labor have been transformed into spaces where a new class of knowledge workers live, work, and play. The rising importance of the city’s culture, education, and health care sectors is exemplified in these two post-industrial districts. Here …

Assessing The Variations Of Educational Attainment At National And Subnational Levels Using Hierarchical Linear Models, Bingxin Qi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education is a human right, and equal access to education is not only crucial for an individual’s well-being, but also essential for eradicating poverty, ensuring long-term prosperity for all, transforming the society, and achieving sustainable development. Measuring education development, especially the variations of educational attainment, in a timely and accurate manner can help educators, practitioners, scientists, and policymakers compare and evaluate various education indicators at both subnational and national levels. This research presents an approach that combines multi-source and multidimensional data including population distribution, human settlement, and education data to assess and explore educational attainment trajectories at both national and …

Informing Sustainable Urban Forestry Policy With Carbon Sequestration Analysis, Ellen Danford

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Urban forestry is an environmental solution for an increasingly city-centered world. The ecosystem services that trees provide in natural settings, including carbon sequestration, oxygen production and aesthetic beauty, also apply in urban settings. Every tree in the Western Kentucky University (WKU) urban forest provides these services and each tree was measured to determine how much carbon they sequestered a year on average between 2015 and 2020. With an interactive map of the forest and its carbon sequestration, the condition of the forest and change over the five year period was analyzed. Comparing the welfare of the forest with the plans …

Using Citizen Science Data To Evaluate The Breeding Distribution Of Merlins, Falco Columbaris, In Michigan, Emilia Shokoohi, Andrew Vander Tuig, Andre Kapteyn, Abigail Liebetreu, William L. Miller

Summer Research

• Merlins are medium-sized falcons found in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Merlins pairs nest near forest edges or open water. These open areas allow them to more easily hunt and capture prey.
• Merlin sightings during the breeding season are relatively rare in Michigan, and the breeding range of merlins has historically been restricted to the Upper Peninsula.
• Merlins are listed as a state threatened species in Michigan, due in part to their restricted breeding range in the state.

Sediment Characteristics Of The Upper Units Of Landslide-Prone Bluffs Along The Southeast Shoreline Of Lake Michigan, Onyinyechi Iheme, Melinda C. Higley

Summer Research

During the glacial periods, the melting and freezing of glaciers created sediment layers that now compose the shoreline sediments of Lake Michigan. Fast forward to the present, and the rise and fall of Lake Michigan levels has increased the eroding of the shoreline. This starts with the undercutting of the land which causes the topmost layers to fail and produces landslides[2]. Additionally, mass movements tend to favor locations of interlayered sand and clay[2]. It helps develop perched groundwater systems where weak lacustrine clay/silt fails to support the weight of overlying soil[2]. My research goal is to determine the interlayered sediments …

Looking For Better: A History Of Black Southern Migrations, Selena Sanderfer Doss

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

A broad overview of migrations affecting black southerners is presented, including the Atlantic slave trade, the domestic slave trade, colonization movements to Sierra Leone and Liberia, the Exoduster movement, the Great Migration, and the Return South migration. Emigrants convey their experiences and motivations through testimonies and personal accounts. Surviving the trauma of forced migrations, black southerners organized numerous migration movements both outside and within American polities in search of better opportunities. In the late 20th century, black southerners also initiated a return migration to the American South and have since achieved notable socioeconomic and political progress.

Measuring Building Height Using Point Cloud Data Derived From Unmanned Aerial System Imagery In An Undergraduate Geospatial Science Course, David L. Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel R. Unger, Reid Viegut, Yanli Zhang

Faculty Publications

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), also known as drones is increasing in geospatial science curricula within the United States. Within the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) at Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas, seniors in the geospatial science program complete capstone projects to evaluate current geospatial technology to investigate complex ecological, social and environmental issues. Under the umbrella of a student initiated and designed senior project, students designed a study to estimate height of buildings with UAS data incorporating UAS data, LP360 and ArcScene programs, and Pictometry web-based interface. Results from a statistical analysis of …

Spatial Thinking, Gender And Immaterial Affective Labour In The Post-Fordist Academic Library, Karen P. Nicholson

FIMS Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to use spatial thinking (space-time) as a lens through which to examine the ways in which the socio-economic conditions and values of the post-Fordist academy work to diminish and even subsume the immaterial affective labour of librarians even as it serves to reproduce the academy. Design/methodology/approach – The research question informing this paper asks, In what ways does spatial thinking help us to better understand the immaterial, invisible and gendered labour of academic librarians’ public service work in the context of the post-Fordist university? This question is explored using a conceptual approach …

Bed Particle Displacements And Morphological Development In A Wandering Gravel-Bed River, Ryan Mcqueen, Peter Ashmore, T Millard, N Goeller

Geography & Environment Publications

Bed particles were tracked using passive integrated transponder tags in a wandering reach of the San Juan River, British Columbia, Canada, to assess particle movement around three major bars in the river. In-channel topographic changes were monitored through repeat LiDAR surveys during this period and used in concert with the tracer data set to assess the relationship between particle displacements and changes in channel morphology, specifically, the development and re-working of bars. This has direct implications for virtual velocity and morphologic based estimates of bedload flux, which rely on accurate estimates of the variability and magnitude of particle path lengths …

No. 48: Covid-19 And Emergency Food Security Policies In Urban China, Taiyang Zhong, Jonathan Crush, Zhenzhong Si, Steffanie Scott

Hungry Cities Partnership

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to spread worldwide, threatening people’s health as well as their food security. Yet, empirical research investigating its impacts on food security is scant. Limited attention has been paid to the local food security management implications of an infectious disease pandemic. To narrow these gaps, this study investigated the development of emergency food policies in Wuhan and Nanjing in China and households’ food security, based on a combination of online surveys of household food security and policy document analysis. This study shows that COVID-19 and associated quarantine measures caused many households to experience food insecurity. There …

Influence Of Grain Size And Soil Moisture On Ground Penetrating Radar At Dunes 1 And 2, P. J. Hoffmaster State Park, Caitlyn Bott, Melinda C. Higley

Summer Research

The shoreline of Lake Michigan is constantly adjusting to changing lake levels and forces like waves and groundwater movement. However, the geology of the shoreline is heterogenous and each area reacts to change differently, therefore it is important to understand the subsurface geology of specific shoreline environments. At P. J. Hoffmaster State Park, near Muskegon, Michigan, the subsurface of the beach area and dune scarp at locations “Dune 1” and “Dune 2” were studied to understand the sediments in detail. Transects along dune scarps and beach sediment were collected using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to “see” the sediment layers in …

How To Name A Place? A New Populated Place Map Of Liberia, Addison Arendt, Jason E. Vanhorn

Summer Research

Maps have been used to visualize the unknown and the otherwise distant for millenniums. Today with the power of digital platforms, mapping aids society in various ways. Some examples are, real time travel directions to reach destinations, being pinnacles in vast online retail logistic ecosystems and consulted within the realms of urban planning and disaster relief. Good decisions are made when they are formed collaboratively with an in-depth understanding of the problem being solved. Maps are important because they give a problem a geography, a physical place where people exist.

A 3d Point Cloud Deep Learning Approach Using Lidar To Identify Ancient Maya Archaeological Sites, Heather Richards-Rissetto, David Newton, Aziza Al Zadjali

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems allow archaeologists to capture 3D data of anthropogenic landscapes with a level of precision that permits the identification of archaeological sites in difficult to reach and inaccessible regions. These benefits have come with a deluge of LIDAR data that requires significant and costly manual labor to interpret and analyze. In order to address this challenge, researchers have explored the use of state-of-the-art automated object recognition algorithms from the field of deep learning with success. This previous research, however, has been limited to the exploration of deep learning processes that work with only 2D …