Geography Commons^™

An Integrated Approach For Developing Adaptation Strategies In Climate Planning: A Case Study Of Vulnerability In Dukes County, Massachusetts, Jonathan Pollak

Master's Theses

Climate Action Plans (CAP’s) are recent innovations in policy that have been catalyzed by a need to adjust the relationship between human activity and the Earth’s climate system. CAP’s often are composed of methods to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in addition to adaptation strategies. Research indicates, however, that many plans focus on mitigation strategies while adaptation policies related to predicted changes caused by climate change are often overlooked. This thesis presents an integrative framework for locating areas that are in need of adaptation strategies through a GIS based decision support system that visualizes vulnerability. It is operationalized through an empirical …

Disaster Vulnerability Of University Student Populations, Jamie Lynn Auletta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student populations at Gulf Coast universities and colleges are subjected to multiple forces working together making them an especially vulnerable sub-group to hazards. Research has suggested that college students represent a segment of the population that hazards research has frequently overlooked and maybe not fully appreciated in university emergency planning. Most prior research has focused on university disaster experiences, highlighting what went wrong, and what should be done but little research focuses on what is actually taking place. The primary intent of this research was to gain better insight into university emergency planning and identify areas universities have neglected with …

Sub-Pixel Classification Of Forest Cover Types In East Texas, Joey Westbrook, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger, Yanli Zhang

Faculty Publications

Sub-pixel classification is the extraction of information about the proportion of individual materials of interest within a pixel. Landcover classification at the sub-pixel scale provides more discrimination than traditional per-pixel multispectral classifiers for pixels where the material of interest is mixed with other materials. It allows for the un-mixing of pixels to show the proportion of each material of interest. The materials of interest for this study are pine, hardwood, mixed forest and non-forest. The goal of this project was to perform a sub-pixel classification, which allows a pixel to have multiple labels, and compare the result to a traditional …

The Paleoecology Of A Morrowan Fossil Bed, Washington Mountain, Fayetteville, Arkansas, Steven Hamlin

Geosciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study began with a general survey of Washington Mountain that identified the stratigraphic units outcropping. While doing so, the Wedington Member of the Fayetteville Shale and the Pitkin Limestone were both found on the north face. Both units had been previously mapped as pinching out further south. The discovery of a fossil bed in the upper portion of the Cane Hill on Washington Mountain provided a rare opportunity to study the ecology of early Pennsylvanian fauna. Though the sandstone bed was poorly preserved, 14 separate genera were identified and their ecological niches were compared in an effort to establish …

Liberty-Booker T Washington District Timeline Of Major Sites And Leaders, Catherine Lovin, Meredith Duke, Joyce Wade, Rafael Torres, Robert Williams

Columbus Community Geography Center

The report contains a map of the Liberty-East Commons District, along with a timeline of major sites and leaders.

Neighborhoods Of The East Highland District, Amanda Rees, T.J. Rice

Columbus Community Geography Center

This is a map of the East Highland neighborhood in Columbus, Georgia. It shows the construction periods and eras and named subdivisions.

Slope Stability Monitoring Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Omar Alberto Conte Robles

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the past six years the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD) has spent over nine million dollars repairing slope failures that have occurred in the state of Arkansas. Specifically, higher than average precipitation in 2004 and 2008 led to large quantities of slides, all of which were repaired. Two highways, within the state of Arkansas, with known historical movements along or across the highways are being monitored using traditional surveying techniques and advanced remote sensing techniques. These slides, both of which are located in fill slopes. One a 500-foot long slide located north of Chester, Arkansas, within the …

Recreation Capital: Natural Resources, Amenity Development, And Outdoor Recreation In Bend, Oregon, Brent Olson

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

This dissertation examines the production of recreational resources associated with amenity development. I argue that recreational resources are produced along lines similar to the production of timber, water, or mineral resources. Their production depends on the material characteristics of the resource, infrastructures of development, institutional arrangements, and the cultural symbolic value of rural and natural spaces. Scholars of amenity development have glossed over both the material elements of recreational resources and the history of resource development related to amenity landscapes. As a result, these scholars have overlooked insights concerning the production of resource spaces and evolving relationships between the city …

Reappraising The Land Behind Baghdad: Using Corona Satellite Imagery To Reassess The Archaeological Landscape Of The Diyala Plain, Iraq, James Henry Wesolowski

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High-resolution low-cost declassified CORONA spy satellite imagery is used to detect archaeological sites and relict canals in the Diyala Plain to the east of Baghdad, Iraq. This project seeks to improve upon the ground survey conducted there in the 1950s by providing better geographic control and discovering sites and canals that were not included in the original survey. CORONA imagery provides a sub-2-meter spatial resolution and was acquired shortly after the original ground survey was conducted, providing an excellent medium for comparison. CORONA imagery is subject to significant spatial distortions because of its camera technology and the LPS package for …

To Build A Nation: An Assessment Of Post-Development Thought And The Example Of Bolivia, Samantha Leuschner

Geography and Planning

No abstract provided.

Cultivating The City: Urban Agriculture And Agrarian Questions In Brooklyn, New York, Evan Weissman

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

Driven by social and environmental criticism of the conventional agro-food system, food is now highly politicized. In this context, urban agriculture enjoys renewed interest as a primary space to engage the politics of food. In this dissertation, I explore urban agriculture as a window into food politics. Using the contemporary period of urban agriculture expansion in Brooklyn, New York as a case study, I investigate the ways in which urban agriculture is working to challenge the problems produced by conventional agro-food, and the engendered contradictions that arise in the tensions between the goals of urban agriculture and its practice in …

A Tale Of Three Cities: An Evaluation Of Urban World Heritage Management In Mexico, Claudia Ruth Asch

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

UNESCO's World Heritage list aims to protect tangible and intangible World Heritage of "universal value." Mexico ranks third worldwide, surpassed only by Italy (16) and Spain (12), with ten World Heritage cities, an accomplishment frequently touted in official rhetoric and tourism promotion. This dissertation seeks to shed light on the "World Heritage experience;" the designation history, what occurs after the designation, in relation to long-term planning, investment, and how do local, state, and federal government infrastructure cope with the pressures and obligations of preservation. Drawing on newspapers, official government reports, and interviews with officials, civil servants, and tour guides, I …

Role Of Vegetation And Environmental Characteristics On Slope Stability In Northwest Arkansas, Michael Maguigan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Slope failure continues to pose risks to society because knowledge of environmental factors and their interactions are unclear and possibly misunderstood. This misunderstanding leads to generalizations about slope failure susceptibility mapping, despite knowing that slope failures are likely the result of an extensively complex set of interactions among a number of environmental, edaphic, and geomorphic characteristics. Therefore a series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of slope, soil texture, vegetation cover, bedrock permeability, and compaction,. A wooden flume with a slope face 1 m wide by 1.5 m long with a 10 cm toe was constructed to contain …

Empowerment By Design?: A Case Study Of Women Living In New Urbanist Neighborhoods, Charlotte C. Fagan

Geography Honors Projects

Post-World War II suburban developments are often designed with a strict division between the private and public spheres, and are often characterized as placeless, lifeless, and an intellectual void. Since suburbia is often defined as a feminized space, these stereotypes frequently fall on women. New Urbanism, as a design school, is a push-back against placeless suburbs, and attempts to integrate the public and private spheres. This case study examines two New Urbanist developments in the Twin Cities area with the intent of understanding how women interact with their built environment in suburban neighborhoods that are designed differently than traditional subdivisions. …

Arsenic Contamination In Groundwater In Vietnam: An Overview And Analysis Of The Historical, Cultural, Economic, And Political Parameters In The Success Of Various Mitigation Options, Thuy M. Ly

Pomona Senior Theses

Although arsenic is naturally present in the environment, 99% of human exposure to arsenic is through ingestion. Throughout history, arsenic is known as “the king of poisons”; it is mutagenic, carcinogenic, and teratogenic. Even in smaller concentrations, it accumulates in the body and takes decades before any physical symptoms of arsenic poisoning shows. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the safe concentration of arsenic in drinking water is 10 µg/L. However, this limit is often times ignored until it is decades too late and people begin showing symptoms of having been poisoned.

This is the current situation for Vietnam, …

Predicting How Adaptation To Climate Change Could Affect Ecological Conservation: Secondary Impacts Of Shifting Agricultural Suitability, Bethany A. Bradley, Lyndon D. Estes, David G. Hole, Stephen Holness, Michael Oppenheimer, Will R. Turner, Hein Beukes, Roland E. Schulze, Mark A. Tadross, David S. Wilcove

Geography

Aim: Ecosystems face numerous well-documented threats from climate change. The well-being of people also is threatened by climate change, most prominently by reduced food security. Human adaptation to food scarcity, including shifting agricultural zones, will create new threats for natural ecosystems. We investigated how shifts in crop suitability because of climate change may overlap currently protected areas (PAs) and priority sites for PA expansion in South Africa. Predicting the locations of suitable climate conditions for crop growth will assist conservationists and decision-makers in planning for climate change. Location: South Africa. Methods: We modelled climatic suitability in 2055 for maize and …

Interim Report On The East Highlands District, Columbus Ga, Amanda Rees, T. J. Rice

Columbus Community Geography Center

The East Highlands district is located on the raised bench above the flood plains of the Chattahoochee River in Columbus, west-central Georgia. The district lies approximately 1 mile east of the river.

Plastic Bags: Hazards And Mitigation, Jessica Sutton, Brittany Turner

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (Tek) And Modern Natural Resource Policy In China: Pathways For Integration, Lauren Elizabeth Nyman

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Excavation Of Transect 4 At The Eleanor Betty Site, A Submerged Classic Maya Salt Work, Belize, Taylor Aucoin

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.