Geography Commons^™

Plant Poetics And Politics Of The West Usambaras: Power And Memory Of Narrative Botanical Science In Kizanda, Sagara, And The Mazumbai Forest Reserve, Cameron Daddis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This is a story about people and plants. About the power of relationships between floral organisms and human lives. Using narrative botanical science as a methodological framework, this study highlights the power of local people’s ecological knowledge from the villages of Kizanda and Sagara in the West Usambara Mountains. Building from semi-structured interviews and personal conservations with thirty residents of these villages—voices of local healers, farmers, and forest guides—this work unfolds through a series of vignettes. Its aim is to identify both the precise yet diverse ways in which these people have developed botanical knowledge of their local environment. From …

Land-Use And Land-Ownership Changes In Usoma Village, Kenya, Ernest Tan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study attempted to find out how land-use activities and land-ownership patterns have changed since land adjudication in Usoma Village, a peri-urban community on the fringe of Kisumu City. The methods used were photo-observation and geo-tagging based on walkabouts onsite, documentary analysis of maps obtained from the Ministry of Lands, interviews with key authority figures, independent experts and community leaders, and interviews as well as focus-group discussions with community members. In terms of land ownership, it was found that subdivisions of land, both formal and informal, had been common over the period. Land transfers based on compulsory acquisition and investment …

Un Giro Ontológico En La Cosmovisión De La Naturaleza: El Papel Del Capitalismo Y Otras Influencias En El Cambio De Las Percepciones Tradicionales De La Naturaleza En La Comunidad Quechua De Paru Paru / An Ontological Turnover In The Cosmovision Of Nature: The Role Of Capitalism And Other Influences In The Change Of Traditional Perceptions Of The Nature In The Quechua Community Of Paru Paru, Jessica Pusch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En el contexto de la antropología ambiental y con un lente de ecología política, este informe analiza el papel del capitalismo en la degradación ecológica global a través de un estudio etnográfico específico y único. Este estudio ocurrió en el pueblo quechua Paru Paru, situada en las sierras andinas de Perú en la región de Cusco. El siguiente artículo incluye una examinación del aumento en las actividades económicamente capitalistas y la presencia de otros factores involucrados en el cambio de la relación y las percepciones sobre la naturaleza en el contexto de la cosmovisión. Había una pérdida clara de algunas …

Cuando La Vida Era Tranquila: Land Use And Livelihood Changes Following The Construction Of The Chan 75 Dam In Nance Del Risco, Bocas Del Toro, Patrick Mckenzie

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Ngobe are Panama’s most populous indigenous group. While the Ngobe that live in the comarca have land and resource rights, those that live immediately outside of it do not. This issue has been exacerbated by the creation of Palo Seco Forest Reserve which has removed all land rights from the Ngobe living within it. In order to meet its growing demand for energy, Panama is expanding its hydroelectric sector. One such hydroelectric dam built by AES is Chan 75. However, Chan 75 has had a controversial history, especially regarding its treatment of the Ngobe people of the corregimiento Nance …

Land Rights Of African Indigenous Groups: International Instruments And Main Issues, Anastasia Strouboulis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For indigenous peoples, land is more than an economic commodity, it has guided their way of life for generations. This notion is particularly prevalent in Africa, where many diverse indigenous communities exist, from desert regions to vast forests. However, without the recognition of international laws and standards that seek to preserve and uphold their land rights, the indigenous peoples of Africa continue to face socio-environmental and political issues. This research paper seeks to understand what actors, documents, and mechanisms exist to protect and promote the land rights of indigenous peoples in Africa and assess their effectiveness. This research question was …

Keyhole Gardens As The Key To Environmental Sustainability And Access To Fresh Produce In Samoa: A Case Study Of An Organic Keyhole Farm, Madeline Allen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Keyhole gardens represent one of the many ingenious adaptations that are currently being used in Samoa to combat climate change, promote environmental sustainability, and improve diet. Through their design, these gardens are built to withstand greater fluctuations in climate; utilize alternative water resources and conserve fresh water; and contribute towards a solution to the waste management problem in Samoa. Additionally, keyhole gardens increase access to fresh produce, and can be used as tools to educate the community about healthy eating. This is of great national importance due to the myriad of health concerns that accompany the current diet in Samoa, …

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Halal Food Sales And Consumption A Case Study Of The City Of Dearborn, Michigan, Sam Roodbar

Masters Theses

With a population of 3.2 million and growing in the US, Arab Americans are an integral part of the economy and culture of the United States and the world. The southeast portion of the state of Michigan is home to more than 300,000 Arab Americans. One of the main agents of cultural maintenance and support for the Arab American community are their ethnic food traditions, specifically Halal food. Since the introduction of Halal food in the United States, the sales and consumption of Halal products has increased immensely. This research seeks to answer four related questions focused on the entrance …

Deviance Fluidity On The Urban Landscape: Graffiti And Street Art As Non-Normative Placemaking, Alyson M. Mabie

Masters Theses

Graffiti is recognized as an illegal deviant act. Sociologically, deviance is defined by the audience perceiving the act, rather than inherent in the act itself. In this context, deviance is subjective and fluid. This paper explores the spectrum of graffiti from criminal vandalism to celebrated art form in the context of its placement on the urban landscape. The fluidity of deviance is reflected in the concentration of different types of graffiti in different locations. The spatial distribution of graffiti writing, street art, and the equally illegal guerrilla marketing stickers, which mimic graffiti placement and street art styles, were collected in …

A Comparison Of Alternative Route Alignments For The North Country Trail Through Calhoun County, Mi, Whitney K. Lambert

Masters Theses

Recreational hiking trails are a popular destination for local residents and tourists, offering health, educational, and social benefits. The North Country Trail (NCT) provides a unique hiking experience because of the many landscapes through which it travels. Because it spans across seven states in the Midwest, a hiker can travel through the mountains of New York, the hardwood forests of upper Michigan, and the plains of South Dakota along one route. When completed, the NCT will be about 4,600 miles; however, there are currently 1,900 miles of undeveloped connector routes during which the route is often located along the road. …

Interannual Variations Of Snowfall In The Lower Peninsula Of Michigan And Impacts Of Local And Remote Meteorological Conditions, Nirjala Koirala

Masters Theses

Inter-annual variation of snowfall and its relation to climate indices will help clarify and improve the prediction of total snowfall in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (LPM). This study examines the trend and variability of annual snowfall (November- March) using 8 homogeneous weather stations in the LPM. The statistical relationship between snowfall and air temperature, Sea Surface Temperature (SST), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Maximum Ice Coverage(MIC) of Lake Michigan is calculated. The long-term trend in the snowfall data set from 1950 to 2015 is removed before any statistical correlation analysis is conducted. My analysis suggests …

Spatial Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) On Poverty Reduction In Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach, Mayra Alejandra Yat Aguilar

Masters Theses

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been identified as an important factor in stimulating economic growth and decreasing poverty. In particular, the relationship between FDI and economic growth has been extensively debated in the academic literature but with mixed results. Meanwhile, considerably less work has been done towards investigating the effects of FDI on poverty reduction. Evidence from the limited research linking on FDI and poverty levels is also mixed. Through a more comprehensive survey-based multi-scale method of assessing poverty, this empirical study investigates the contribution of FDI with respect to concurrent quantitative and qualitative assessment of changes in living standards …

On The Use Of Unmanned Aerial Systems For Environmental Monitoring, Salvatore Manfreda, Matthew F. Mccabe, Pauline E. Miller, Richard Lucas, Victor Pajuelo Madrigal, Giorgos Mallinis, Eyal Ben Dor, David Helman, Lyndon Estes, Giuseppe Ciraolo, Jana Müllerová, Flavia Tauro, M. Isabel De Lima, João L.M.P. De Lima, Antonino Maltese, Felix Frances, Kelly Caylor, Marko Kohv, Matthew Perks, Guiomar Ruiz-Pérez, Zhongbo Su, Giulia Vico, Brigitta Toth

Geography

Environmental monitoring plays a central role in diagnosing climate and management impacts on natural and agricultural systems; enhancing the understanding of hydrological processes; optimizing the allocation and distribution of water resources; and assessing, forecasting, and even preventing natural disasters. Nowadays, most monitoring and data collection systems are based upon a combination of ground-based measurements, manned airborne sensors, and satellite observations. These data are utilized in describing both small- and large-scale processes, but have spatiotemporal constraints inherent to each respective collection system. Bridging the unique spatial and temporal divides that limit current monitoring platforms is key to improving our understanding of …

Collaborative Poetic Processes: Methodological Reflections On Co-Writing With Participants, Susan M. Manning

The Qualitative Report

This article illustrates how the author engaged in a collaborative poetry-making process with two participants, Margaret and Mary, in this feminist qualitative research study exploring women’s experiences of displacement, as loss of sense of place, in Newfoundland, Canada. The author evaluates some of the key successes of this type of process, including credible representation of participants’ experiences and reciprocity in the research process, as well as some of the methodological and philosophical tensions surrounding co-writing with participants that emerged during the poetry process. This article will be of particular interest to researchers and students who are looking for ways to …

Africa's Urban Adaptation Transition Under A 1.5° Climate, Mark Pelling, Hayley Leck, Lorena Pasquini, Idowu Ajibade, Emanuel Osuteye, Susan Parnell, Shuaib Lwasa, Cassidy Johnson, Arabella Fraser, Alejandro Barcena, Soumana Boubacar

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

For cities in sub-Saharan Africa a 1.5 °C increase in global temperature will bring forward the urgency of meeting basic needs in sanitation, drinking water and land-tenure, and underlying governance weaknesses. The challenges of climate sensitive management are exacerbated by rapid population growth, deep and persistent poverty, a trend for resolving risk through relocation (often forced), and emerging new risks, often multi-hazard, for example heat stroke made worse by air pollution. Orienting risk management towards a developmental agenda can help. Transition is constrained by fragmented governance, donor priorities and inadequate monitoring of hazards, vulnerability and impacts. Opportunities arise where data …

Newwater Regimes: An Editorial, Alida Cantor, Jacque Emel

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This editorial is an introduction to the special issue of Resources on New Water Regimes. The special issue explores legal geographies of water resource management with the dual goals of providing critiques of existing water management practices as well as exploring potential alternatives. The papers in the special issue draw from numerous theoretical perspectives, including decolonial and post-anthropocentric approaches to water governance; social and environmental justice in water management; and understanding legal ecologies. A variety of themes of water governance are addressed, including water allocation, groundwater management, collaborative governance, drought planning, and water quality. The papers describe and analyze water …

Emily, Jamie Holcombe 986459

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Landscape and Trauma; Public Memorials and Conflict Histories, Dwelling, Belonging, Nostalgia, Solastalgia, Sense of Place

This image depicts an elaborate and clearly heartfelt roadside memorial to “Emily”, which is an extraverted display of sadness and loss that is an increasingly familiar contemporary lament. We know not who Emily was, nor what happened to her. The story is unclear if the tragedy unfolded on the road outside the house, or inside the house itself, thus the house could have been either witness or host to her demise. The composition directs, but most certainly does not invite us via the gate to …

The Beholder, Allan Lake

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

A poem on the effect of landscape on the emotions.

Review Of Taboo, By Kim Scott, Picador-Australia, 2017, Rashida Murphy

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Kim Scott's Taboo is a story about beginnings and endings.This novel reminds the reader of the circularity of stories, and how those stories are shaped by intent and weighed by landscape. Scott speaks of dispossession, abuse, colonialism, addiction and racism in lyrical and melancholy prose. The men and women who walk through these pages are startlingly aware of their failings and equally forgiving of those failings in others. There are no quick fixes and the story vacillates between despair and hope. Yet this is not a grim story. The lucidity of its prose lifts it beyond the despair in its …

The Legendary Topography Of The Viking Settlement Of Iceland, Verena Höfig

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

From the time of their earliest texts in the vernacular, Icelanders were interested in the semioticization of their landscape, the mapping of nature into culture by inscribing it with memories from the settlement of the island during the Viking Age. Such a de-scription and in-scription of landscape with meaning occurs most prominently in The Book of Settlements or Landnámabók, a thirteenth century prose text preserved in several versions. This paper focuses on Icelanders' myth of origin as presented in the various Landnámabók redactions, and explores how a largely fictional medieval text can assert ownership and control over territory, and ultimately …

Shifting Rurality American Gothic, Iowa Nice, Biotech And Political Expectations In Rural America, William D. Nichols 890252

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This paper traces the linkage between heritage landscape within the context of the election of Donal Trump. Trump's invocations of heritage riled certain regions of the US which had a distinct connection to Regionalism, both as a political idea and as an aesthetic practice. Focusing on Iowa, home to the quintessential American painting, American Gothic, the paper looks at modernity and agriculture, and how the two categories seem to rely on (but also negate) heritage. By examining what a genetically modified landscape might mean in relation to the historical image of the pastoral/provincial farmer, a network of frictions and …