Geography Commons^™

Stomatal Distribution And Post-Fire Recovery: Intra-And Interspecific Variation In Plants Of The Pyrogenic Florida Scrub, Genevieve Triplett, Aaron S. David

Faculty Publications

Premise

Amphistomy, the presence of stomata on both leaf surfaces, can increase photosynthesis yet is uncommon across vascular plants. The relative infrequency of amphistomy is often attributed to high costs, such as transpirational water loss. The Florida scrub—a hot, dry, shrub-dominated habitat—historically has experienced frequent fire, yet decades of anthropogenic suppression coupled with the reintroduction of prescribed burns has led to varied fire regimes. In this study, we investigated the links between amphistomy and fire with regard to the presence of the trait across species in this pyrogenic habitat and within-species variation before and after experimental fire and across a …

Effects Of Climate Change On Stream Temperature And Salmonid Habitats In A Cascades River Basin, Michael Krochta, Kara Anlauf-Dunn, Dave Bugni, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rising stream temperatures pose significant challenges to aquatic ecosystems, particularly for coldwater-adapted organisms like salmonids. This study examines the effects of climate change on stream temperatures and salmonid habitats in the Clackamas River Basin, Oregon, USA. Using spatial stream network models and CMIP6 climate projections under SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios, we project mid- (2045-2074) and late-century (2075-2100) stream temperature changes. These projections are then integrated with thermal tolerances and intrinsic habitat metrics to assess future habitat suitability for key species, including steelhead, coho, Chinook, and bull trout. Stream temperature trends from 1991 to 2023 reveal basin-wide warming, with high-elevation tributaries …

Development Of Stem-Based Virtual Microscope Module In Fundamental Geology Course, Bigharta Bekti Susetyo, Dipo Caesario, Yulia Hanoselina, Helfia Edial, Intan Lestari Mulyaning Tyas, Ahmad Syauqi Hidayatillah, Alfyananda Kurnia Putra, Salem Amer Sayma

Jurnal Pendidikan Geografi: Kajian, Teori, dan Praktek dalam Bidang Pendidikan dan Ilmu Geografi

This research aims to develop a STEM-based virtual microscope module. It follows a 4D development model, comprising define, design, develop, and disseminate stages. Interview were employed as the primary data collection techniques. The data analysis techniques utilized both descriptive and quantitative methods. The feasibility of developed module validated by expert validators in material content, language, and learning design. Field testing was conducted with Geography Education Study Program students from Class of 2023 in the Fundamental Geology Course. The STEM-based virtual microscope module was deemed suitable for learning activities, receiving validation scores in the "good" category with minor revisions required. Student …

Analyzing Land Cover And Use In Bichi, Kano, Nigeria With Google Earth Data, Kabiru Abdullahi Abdulhamid, Adi Wibowo, Muhammad Junaid

Jurnal Pendidikan Geografi: Kajian, Teori, dan Praktek dalam Bidang Pendidikan dan Ilmu Geografi

The research investigates land cover and land use change trends in Bichi, Kano State, Nigeria, between 2003 and 2023, with a focus on the impacts of agricultural expansion and urbanization. Google Earth Pro's high-resolution satellite imagery was used to assess trends in agricultural land, forest cover, and settlement areas. The findings reveal a drastic reduction in agricultural land from 60 hectares in 2003 to 40 hectares in 2023 and the decline of forest cover from 30 hectares to 20 hectares. On the other hand, built-up settlement areas increased from 10 hectares to 40 hectares. All these processes have resulted in …

El Presidio Hispano-Colonial: Estudio Del Discurso Moderno De Fortificación Del Imperio Español A Traves De Planos Y Mapas, Javier E. Astorga Villarroel Ph.D.

Latin American Studies ETDs

This dissertation project delves into the processes of ideation, design, projection, and knowledge-transfer around the Presidio, an iconoclastic fortification system deployed by the Spanish Empire while projecting its colonial power toward the Transatlantic region. Based on Bruno Latour’s classic theory on the agency of networks of meanings (also known as new materialism) applied to historical cartography, my investigation examines the production of techno-military knowledge around the presidios as they were depicted through plans, maps, and manuals while mapping out border areas over North America and the Caribbean, from the 17th to the 19th centuries. With archival research work performed at …

Gis And The 1944 U.S.–Mexico Treaty: Rethinking Transboundary Governance Under Climate And Demographic Stress, Pedro L. Sarabia

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the structural limitations of the 1944 U.S.–Mexico Water Treaty in the context of intensifying climate stress and growing population demand. Using GIS-based raster analysis of precipitation from 1981 to 2024, it maps hydrological trends in treaty-bound basins—particularly the Rio Grande and Lower Colorado—which exhibit persistently low and variable precipitation. These conditions, coupled with institutional rigidity, threaten the sustainability of binational water management. In addition to quantitative analysis, the study includes a qualitative assessment of transboundary governance dynamics, highlighting how institutional fragmentation and policy contention impede adaptive responses. The Treaty’s current surface-water-only framework excludes groundwater management, real-time data …

Who Owns The Wind: The Absence Of Community Wind Farms In California, Sky Berry-Weiss

Master's Projects and Capstones

Community ownership structures for wind farms have been around for decades, particularly in European countries, due to high socioeconomic benefits. Given these significant benefits, one might expect community wind to thrive in the United States—especially in a state like California, which prides itself on progressive climate policy and renewable energy leadership. Yet utility-scale community wind remains largely absent from research on California’s energy system, raising questions about its existence in the state. To pinpoint how many utility-scale community owned wind farms are in California, this study surveys every operational wind turbine in the state. After classifying each wind farm by …

Cannabis Impacts On Native Lands: On The Need For Inclusion Of Native Perspectives In Extension Work, Jeremy Sorgen, Seth Larosa, Jennifer Sowerwine, Van Butsic, Peter Nelson, Melanie Mccavour, Shasta Gaughen, Anna Starkey

Journal of Extension

This article highlights the need for Cooperative Extension to increase awareness of Tribal concerns around activities that impact land, natural resources, and water. A research team at UC Berkeley worked with a Tribal Advisory Committee to conduct a survey of Tribal representatives’ perceptions of cannabis impacts on Native lands and cultural resources. The results show that there is widespread concern among Native communities about the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation, especially to water quality, access, and availability. These concerns underscore the need to include Native communities in Extension’s agricultural and natural resource activities across all regions and sectors.

Framing The Future: A Community Health Analysis Of The Pee Dee Region, Stephen Borders, Jean Anton, Rian Fontaine, Donielle Phillips, Treyton Ringer, Jessica Robinson, Caitlin Thompkins

Public Health

This report presents a comprehensive, data-driven analysis of community health across South Carolina’s Pee Dee region, encompassing Florence, Darlington, Chesterfield, Marlboro, Marion, and Dillon Counties. Using tract-level data from CDC PLACES, the U.S. Census, and the National Provider Identifier registry, it assesses chronic health conditions, health behaviors, and social determinants of health. The analysis incorporates the South Carolina Healthy Communities Index (SCHCI) and a Suitability Analysis to identify the region’s most disadvantaged communities. The findings highlight persistent disparities, particularly in rural counties, where high rates of poverty, chronic disease, and unmet basic needs intersect with limited access to care. Despite …

Post-Fire Delayed Tree Mortality In Mesic Coniferous Forests Reduces Fire Refugia And Seed Sources, Alec S. Dyer, Sebastian Busby, Cody Evers, Matthew Reilly, Aaron Zuspan, Andres Holz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Context Ecological functions provided by fire refugia are critical for supporting conifer forest resiliency under increased fire activity across the western United States. The spatial distribution and persistence of fire refugia over time are uncertain as fire-injured trees continue to die over subsequent years post-fire. Objectives We examined how post-fire delayed tree mortality affects the spatial distribution and attributes of fire refugia at patch and landscape scales following high-severity wildfires. Methods To explore changes in fire refugia patch size, isolation, and fragmentation over time, we used high-resolution satellite imagery (3 m pixel size) following high-severity fires in Oregon’s western Cascades …

Passive Envelope Retrofits As Climate Justice Infrastructure Against Extreme Heat: A Gis-Guided Approach For Outdated Single-Family Homes In Urban California, Mert Oztekin Mr.

Master's Projects and Capstones

I examined the opportunities to enhance equity in energy performance, climate resilience, and environmental adaptation through climate-resilient envelope retrofitting and spatially guided implementation strategies (via mappings of the Urban Heat Island -UHI- and socio-economic vulnerability indicators). Passive envelope retrofits of attic insulation; high-performance windows; cool roofs; and green roofs / walls, are examined across multiple climate zones of California' aged single-family housing stock, focusing on the Disadvantaged Communities (DACs). Through spatial analysis, strong overlap between Urban Heat Island(UHI) exposure; pre-1980 housing; socioeconomic disadvantage, and thus the need for spatially-directed action is underlined. The policy landscape analysis provides confirmation of the …

Assessment Of Vegetation Dynamics After South Sugar Loaf And Snowstorm Wildfires Using Remote Sensing Spectral Indices, Ibtihaj Ahmad

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Wildfires are increasingly common in sagebrush ecosystems across the western United States, leading to vegetation loss and ecosystem restructuring. This study investigated vegetation recovery within two large Nevada burn scars, the Snowstorm Fire of 2017 and the South Sugar Loaf Fire of 2018. Landsat 8 surface reflectance imagery supplied multi temporal spectral data, and vegetation burn severity was mapped with the difference Normalized Burn Ratio. The research aimed to quantify how vegetation health spectral indicators respond over time across severity gradients and to detect shifts in land cover composition from pre fire to post fire conditions.Four spectral indices—NDVI, MSI, MCARI2, …

Sundown In Indiana: A Midwest Story Of Racism, Exclusion, And Memory, Kelsey A. Snyder

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Sundown towns were a prominent aspect of the northern life from the early 1900s till in some places till the 1970s but they have been lost to history. These towns have been silenced and erased not just from the history books but from public memory. Indiana is my home state and the three towns that will be discussed have all had an impact on my personal development especially in understanding race. Decatur and Huntington places I have called home, both have been classified as sundown towns. The third, Marion was the location of the one the last known lynchings in …

Remotely Sensed High-Resolution Soil Moisture And Evapotranspiration: Bridging The Gap Between Science And Society, Jingyi Huang, Vinit Sehgal, Laura V. Alvarez, Luca Brocca, Shuohao Cai, Rui Cheng, Xinghua Cheng, Jinyang Du, Bassil El Masri, K. Arthur Endsley, Yilin Fang, Jie Hu, Mahesh Jampani, Md Golam Kibria, Gerbrand Koren, Lingcheng Li, Laibao Liu, Jiafu Mao, Hernan A. Moreno, Angela Rigden, Mingjie Shi, Xiaoying Shi, Yaoping Wang, Xi Zhang, Joshua B. Fisher

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

This paper reviews the current state of high-resolution remotely sensed soil moisture (SM) and evapotranspiration (ET) products and modeling, and the coupling relationship between SM and ET. SM downscaling approaches for satellite passive microwave products leverage advances in artificial intelligence and high-resolution remote sensing using visible, near-infrared, thermal-infrared, and synthetic aperture radar sensors. Remotely sensed ET continues to advance in spatiotemporal resolutions from MODIS to ECOSTRESS to Hydrosat and beyond. These advances enable a new understanding of bio-geo-physical controls and coupled feedback mechanisms between SM and ET reflecting the land cover and land use at field scale (3–30 m, daily). …

Disparate Patterns In U.S. Emergency Medical Services And Data Missingness As A Socio-Technical Determinant Of Health, Mary Elizabeth Helander

Dissertations - ALL

Understanding health disparities is fundamental to population health and is essential for design and promotion of health policies that protect individuals from inequitable access, unfair treatment, and discrimination. However, despite broad reliance on technology and digital data, missingness is a common issue in patient health records. This research aspired to increase understanding of health outcome divergence through the lens of emergency medical events in the United States. Retrospective study focused on outcome missingness in the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS) years 2017 through 2023, a voluminous public research dataset consisting of roughly a quarter billion patient events. Only …

The March Towards A Totalitarian Ecology: Making Sense Of 'Ecofascism' Through The Political Ecology Of German Nazism, Cassidy Glen Thomas

Theses - ALL

In recent years, the topic of ‘ecofascism’ has been increasingly engaged in both scholarly and popular contexts, but often with little clarity or consistency in how the term is defined—sometimes detaching the concept from historically-based understandings of ‘fascism’ altogether. This thesis intervenes on this front, thoroughly grounding the concept of ecofascism in fascism through an explication of the political ecology and economy of interwar and Nazi Germany. As this thesis shows, while it is inaccurate to speak of a cohesive ‘green-wing’ within the Nazi Party, the nascent German conservation movement played a key role in cultivating a range of ecologically-themed …

Understanding The Spatial Characteristics Of Urban Morphology And Its Application, Md Sohel Rana

Theses - ALL

Rapid urbanization due to the population boom in urban areas changes the physical layout and structures of cities including buildings, streets, open spaces, and amenities, which are collectively defined as urban morphology. Microclimate dynamics of urban environments, such as airflow, heat retention, and pollution dispersion, are profoundly affected by urban morphology. Although the roles of urban morphology at small spatial scales (e.g., single buildings, building complexes, or buildings within a block) in microclimate dynamics have been extensively studied, the scale-up effect of buildings at the city scale on microclimate dynamics is still not fully understood. In this thesis, I examined …

Volume 2 Complete Issue, James W. Gallagher

The Geographical Bulletin

Volume 2 Complete Issue

Cover And Forewords, James W. Gallagher

The Geographical Bulletin

Cover and Forewords

Geography In Service To The Community, Albert Redsun

The Geographical Bulletin

For many years geographers spent much of their professional efforts describing the landscape and man's activities. These were noteworthy, necessary, and valuable contributions. As we grew (just as all disciplines do) we searched for those meaningful relationships of man and land. We still search. Many relationships are obvious. Many that will be discovered in the future will someday be obvious. It is clear that we will need the continuing quest by researchers in our field. Researchers now seek to predict. The introduction of quantification techniques has allowed for more refined analysis and prediction. As researchers open more and more doors …