Geography Commons^™

Out In "The Numbers": Youth And Gang Violence Initiatives And Uneven Development In Portland's Periphery, Dirk Kinsey

Dissertations and Theses

Incidence of youth and gang violence in the Portland, Oregon metro area has increased dramatically over the past five years. This violence has recently become more spatially diffuse, shifting outwards from gentrified, inner city neighborhoods, towards the city's periphery. These incidents exist within the context of a shifting regional political economy, characterized by a process of gentrification associated displacement and growing, and distinctly racialized and spatialized, inequalities. While gang researchers have long argued a corollary between the emergence of gangs and economically and culturally polarized urban landscapes, the ongoing suburbanization of poverty in American cities suggests a new landscape of …

Spring Temperature Variability Over Turkey Since 1800 Ce Reconstructed From A Broad Network Of Tree-Ring Data, Nesibe Köse, H. Tuncay Güner, Grant L. Harley, Joel Guiot

Faculty Publications

The meteorological observational period in Turkey, which starts ca. 1930 CE, is too short for understanding long-term climatic variability. Tree rings have been used intensively as proxy records to understand summer precipitation history of the region, primarily because they have a dominant precipitation signal. Yet, the historical context of temperature variability is unclear. Here, we used higher-order principle components of a network of 23 tree-ring chronologies to provide a high-resolution spring (March–April) temperature reconstruction over Turkey during the period 1800– 2002. The reconstruction model accounted for 67 % (Adj. R 2 = 0.64, p < 0.0001) of the instrumental temperature variance over the full calibration period (1930–2002). The reconstruction is punctuated by a temperature increase during the 20th century; yet extreme cold and warm events during the 19th century seem to eclipse conditions during the 20th century. We found significant correlations between our March–April spring temperature reconstruction and existing gridded spring temperature reconstructions for Europe over Turkey and southeastern Europe. Moreover, the precipitation signal obtained from the tree-ring network (first principle component) showed highly significant correlations with gridded summer drought index reconstruction over Turkey and Mediterranean countries. Our results showed that, beside the dominant precipitation signal, a temperature signal can be extracted from tree-ring series and they can be useful proxies in reconstructing past temperature variability.

No. 07: The Urban Food System Of Mexico City, Mexico, Guénola Capron, Salomón Gonzalez Arellano, Jill Wigle, Ana Luisa Diez, Anavel Monterrubio, Héctor Hidalgo, Jesús Morales, José Castro, Cristina Sánchez-Mejorada, María Concepción Huarte T., María Teresa Esquivel, René Flores

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report provides an overview of Greater Mexico City and its food system. The city’s history, demographic characteristics, geography and economy are first discussed. The city’s urban food system and urban food security are then examined with a particular focus on formal and informal food retail, food expenditure patterns, and policies to combat hunger and food insecurity. Meeting the daily food demands of Mexico City’s over 20 million inhabitants requires the agricultural production of Mexico’s rural areas, its fishing industry and food imports. Food products arrive in the city from around the country in a combination of traditional and highly …

Subset Data From The Nauru 1999 And African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (Amma) 2006 Cruise And Matlab Code For Generating Plots For The Paper: Wong And Minnett (2017): The Response Of The Ocean Thermal Skin Layer To Variations In Incident Infrared Radiation., Elizabeth Wong

Supplementary Data and Tools

Data in this collection is largely comprised of subsetted data from two research cruises, the Nauru cruise held from June to July 1999 and the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) cruise held from May to July 2006. The data subset is limited to night conditions under low wind speeds of < 10 m/s and consists of the surface fluxes, radiance measurements from the Marine Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (M-AERI), the retrievals of the skin sea surface temperatures and skin sea surface temperature profiles from the M-AERI's radiance spectral measurements. Also included are line-by-line-radiative transfer simulations provided by Dr. Goshka Szczodrak, transmission coefficient spectra obtained from the HITRAN database, and wind speed data from the Special Sensing Microwave Imager (SSM/I) version 6. provided by Dr. Chelle Gentemann. Matlab code is provided which reads the datafile (DATA.mat) and outputs the figures illustrated in the paper Wong and Minnett (2017) (https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JC013351).

The Archaeology Of Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Edward B. Jelks

CRHR Research Reports

This is an archeological study of the McGee Bend Reservoir (Sam Rayburn Reservoir) area of eastern Texas as revealed through the analysis of 14 sites that were excavated there between 1956 and 1962. The reservoir, currently under construction on the Angelina River near Jasper, will be some 50 miles long when completed in 1965, with major arms extending up Ayish and Attoyac bayous. The lake will be named for the late Sam Rayburn.

Most of the archeological work was done during extended field seasons in the fall months of 1956, 1957, and 1960; a brief season in the fall of …

Multi-Year Modis Active Fire Type Classification Over The Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome, David P. Roy, S. S. Kumar

GSCE Faculty Publications

The Brazilian Tropical Moist Forest Biome (BTMFB) spans almost 4 million km² and is subject to extensive annual fires that have been categorized into deforestation, maintenance, and forest fire types. Information on fire types is important as they have different atmospheric emissions and ecological impacts. A supervised classification methodology is presented to classify the fire type of MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire detections using training data defined by consideration of Brazilian government forest monitoring program annual land cover maps, and using predictor variables concerned with fuel flammability, fuel load, fire behavior, fire seasonality, fire annual frequency, proximity …

Development And Environmental Injustice In Malaysia: A Story Of Indigenous Resistance In Sarawak, May Tay '17

EnviroLab Asia

In 2008, the Federal Government of Malaysian announced an initiative to build 20,000 megawatts of mega dams along a 320km corridor in Sarawak. Named the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), the scheme would create one of five regional development corridors throughout Malaysia, and was part of the government’s strategy to make the state of Sarawak ‘developed’ by 2020 through industrialization and renewable energy development (Recoda). Of the mega dams planned for construction by 2020, three have been completed, with construction for the others underway and the construction process frequently delayed by resistance from local indigenous communities. Indigenous tribe members …

Considerations Of Development In Malaysian Borneo, Zayn Kassam

EnviroLab Asia

Given Malaysia’s vast natural resources, the country has embarked on an ambitious set of development projects capitalizing on the opportunities afforded by extractive industrialization. Global and national demand for oil palm products, timber, and hydropower resources coupled with a governmental development agenda guided by neoliberal market principles has led to both economic growth and social and environmental injustice. This chapter argues for an alternative development model along the lines suggested by Escobar in addressing Malaysia’s path to development and fiscal well-being in a manner that safeguards its cultural and natural resources.

Hydropower, Oil Palm, And Sustainability, Fernando Salud '17

EnviroLab Asia

This reflection touches on the writer’s experiences during the EnviroLab Asia Clinic trip in early 2016 to Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore. The reflection involves two events: a visit to a blockade protesting the construction of a hydroelectric dam and a meeting with the sustainability department of Wilmar, one of the world’s leading palm oil producers. The first event comments on the tension between the need for renewable energy and the destruction of the natural environment and communities due to the particular energy generation technology chosen. This event highlighted the importance of understanding the societal constraints a technology is being installed …

Beyond Textbooks And Statistics, Jahnavi Kocha '19

EnviroLab Asia

This essay reflects the author’s discovery of what makes studying a subject worth it. The clinic trip to Borneo brought textbooks to life and also enabled us to see beyond the numbers to a more human experience. As someone who grew up in a business family and with a certain mindset, Jahnavi the global and cultural perspectives that make studying the environment more tangible. A small surprise follows the short prose piece.

Introduction, Char Miller

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents: Volume 1: Oil Palm In Southeast Asia: Culture, Politics, And Sustainability

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

Resisting Dams And Plantations: Indigenous Identity In Sarawak, Wan Ping Chua '17

EnviroLab Asia

The market and community are always intertwined, and sustained through economic power, social obligations and ideologies. In Sarawak, Malaysia, the expansion of land use for the development of cash crops and energy infrastructure has faced resistance from indigenous communities who depend upon land for subsistence lifestyles. In this encounter, values and cultures are reworked, and the ways in which the community and market rely upon each other in the community changes. The examination of the rice and wild foods sustenance lifestyle of the indigenous Kenyah in Sarawak, Malaysia, and resistance against land development projects, suggest that in the conflicts over …

What Does “Sustainable Development” Mean?, Grace Stewart '17

EnviroLab Asia

A recurring theme throughout the EnviroLab Asia clinic trip to Singapore and Malaysian Borneo was the concept of "sustainable development." In this essay, I explore my own thoughts and concerns regarding this phrase, such as the tension that exists between "sustainability" (the maintenance of resources) and the conventional concept of "development" (which consumes resources and can often wreak environmental destruction). I reflect on this tension within the context of environmental issues faced by the Dayak people in Sarawak--the building of the Baram Dam, and the prevalence of oil palm plantations.

Going Home, Johann Lim '18

EnviroLab Asia

In this reflection, Johann shares how the people he met on the trip (faculty, student fellows, activists and the indigenous people we lived with) furnished him with a lot of knowledge about his home country and the surrounding region and in the process shattered some misconceptions. He also contemplates how the experience prompted him to reevaluate his role as a consumer, activist, and future educator.

Landscapes Of Globalisation In Se Asia, Brian G. Mcadoo

EnviroLab Asia

As economies continue to expand in Southeast Asia, urban and rural landscapes are undergoing industrial-scale change at a staggering pace. A number of growing industries are responsible for these changes, from soil and biodiversity loss caused by palm-oil deforestation to rainforest flooded in the interest of “climate neutral” hydropower. To best understand the wide-reaching effects of these transformations, a radically interdisciplinary approach is needed to unravel the intersection between environmental degradation, economics and culture. Is the quest for biofuels and carbon-neutral energy to support burgeoning largely urban populations, sometimes in other nations, effectively shifting the environmental costs to rural communities? …

Transformation, Wallace M. Meyer Iii

EnviroLab Asia

Prior to leaving for Claremont Colleges’ Envriolab Asia trip to Malaysia and Singapore, I was conflicted by the question: Do we have the moral authority to interfere with resource extraction and oil-palm development in SE Asia? At that time, the trip seemed imperialistic. Why should people from Malaysia, Indonesia or any developing SE Asia country listen to a group of liberal arts college faculty from a city where widespread habitat modifications have led to significant loss of native habitats, declines in biodiversity, and changes in how these ecosystems function? Many observations transformed my opinion and have inspired me to advocate …

Adaptation And Power, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Academic knowledge of some of the inequities and injustices embedded in economic development was given greater depth and significance after the EnviroLab Asia clinic trip to Southeast Asia; the same was true result occurred after the group’s meeting with Dyack activists.

Re-Envisioning Sustainable Oil-Palm In Se Asia, Wallace M. Meyer Iii

EnviroLab Asia

In Southeast Asia, expansion of oil-palm agriculture, in combination with other industries (logging, fiber, and mega-dams), is transforming significant portions of the landscape threatening biodiversity, key ecosystem services, and human cultural diversity. While transformative answers to these multifaceted environmental issues seem daunting, the conservation biology literature provides a road map for effective techniques to mitigate environmental degradation while allowing for thoughtful, well-planned economic growth. I suggest that the lack of strict operational definitions and a holistic approach to sustainability are the two most critical factors hindering development of sustainable oil-palm agriculture. The task for environmental practitioners is to succinctly define …

The Impacts Of Logging And Palm Oil On Aquatic Ecosystems And Freshwater Sources In Southeast Asia, Isabelle Ng '17

EnviroLab Asia

The process of deforestation has large environmental implications on terrestrial as well as aquatic habitats. Palm oil plantations lead to sedimentation and agricultural runoff into streams and rivers. Such high nutrient inputs could lead to eutrophication, bioaccumulation, and toxic blooms, which could lead to changes in aquatic ecosystems as well as drinking water quality for surrounding communities. Pollutants from streams and rivers are furthermore, channeled down into estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems, thus negatively impacting those areas as well. One possible way to reduce the amount of runoff is by treating the waste produced by palm oil mills as well …