Geography Commons^™

Review Of Trailblazers: The Lives And Times Of Michael Ewanchuk And Muriel (Smith) Ewanchuk. By John Lehr And David Mcdowell., Denis Hlynka

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Belonging to the genre of local history, Trailblazers explores the lives of two Canadians in the province of Manitoba spanning the 20th century. They were, as the introduction states, ordinary people, just like us. There is much here to interest the casual reader and the serious historian alike. Readers of Great Plains Research may need to be reminded that while the geographic designation "Great Plains" extends into the western Canadian provinces, the term is purely American. Canadians use the generic term "prairie." Michael Ewanchuk was a teacher, a principal, and finally a school inspector for 23 years; Muriel was a …

Great Plains Research, Volume 22, Number 2, Fall 2012 (Complete Issue)

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Reconsidering National Park Interpretation of the Great Plains and TransMississippi West • Robert Pahre

Evaluating the Role of Latinidad and the Latino Threat in the State of Missouri • Joel Jennings and J.S. Onesimo Sandoval

The Right Call: Baseball Coaches' Attempts to Influence Umpires • Kevin Warneke and Dave Ogden

Documenting Change at Upper Hamburg Bend: Nebraska's First SideChannel Restoration • Brandon L. Eder and Gerald E. Mestl

Initial Changes in Species Cover Following Savanna Restoration Treatments in Western Iowa • David A. McKenzie, Thomas B. Bragg, and David M. Sutherland

Monitoring Standing Herbage of the Sands and Choppy Sands …

Amazonian States Map Threatened Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Jorge Vela Alvarado, Bertha Balbin Ordaya

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Recently, the Regional Initiative to Integrate South America has begun promoting a transboundary road that would bisect the forested borderlands and connect the two largest cities in the region, while the state governments seek to promote a direct ecological railroad alternative. Both transportation initiatives promise to alter forests and rivers and transform economies and cultures, but these projects also lack the base geographic information necessary to understand their potential transboundary impacts and benefits.

Multi-Temporal Analysis Of Crop Biomass Using Selected Environmental Variables And Remote Sensing Derived Indices, Nwakaku M. Ajaere

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Measuring biomass in crops is important for yield prediction, nutrient management and analysis of carbon sequestration. Studying crop phenology via biomass can also provide insight into not only the state of the ecosystem but also environmental factors which may affect crop growth. Remote sensing techniques, as an alternative to traditional in-situ sampling methods for biomass assessment, provide potentially more efficient data acquisition and cost-effective procedures. Numerous vegetation indices (VI) have been developed which use spectral reflectance data to measure plant biophysical characteristics. The first objective of this research was to examine the correlation between crop biomass and selected environmental variables …

La Vista Desde Arriba: El Uso De Cartografía Participativa Para Empoderar A Las Comunidades Y Promover La Conservación Del Medio Ambiente Los Mapas Como Herramienta En El Proyecto De Cacao Silvestre En Baures, Beni, Lily Alexander

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

El tema de este proyecto es la aplicación de la cartografía participativa con cinco diferentes comunidades de recolectores del cacao en la región de Baures, Bolivia. La investigación explora los elementos de esta metodología, cómo se implementa este proceso y el papel que los mapas pueden tener en el empoderamiento de la gente local de gestionar sus propios recursos naturales en una manera más sostenible. A través de mapas parlantes dibujados por las comunidades, reuniones con la gente local, coordenadas de GPS y digitalizaciones de la geografía de la región, he producido una variedad de mapas que representan el conocimiento …

Willem Blaeu's 'Asia Noviter Delineata': Expressions Of Power Through Naval Might And Natural Knowledge In Dutch Mapmaking, Joshua W. Poorman

Student Publications

This paper situates Dutch mapmaker Willem Blaeu’s Asia noviter delineata—part of the Stuckenberg Map Collection in the Gettysburg College Special Collections—within the larger framework of Renaissance thought and a shifting colonial balance of power. The map’s pictorial marginalia expresses a Dutch quest for empirical knowledge that echoed contemporary cabinets of curiosities throughout early modern Europe. Similar to these cabinets, Blaeu’s map can be seen as a cartographic teatro mundi, used to propagate Dutch hegemony through both a robust naval presence and an expanding geographic and natural knowledge of the world.

Challenging Space Through Activism: Scaling Local And Global Issues At The 2012 London Olympic Games, Bridget Botelho

Master's Theses

This qualitative study focuses on issues of space created by the Olympic Games in London and the ways in which activists demonstrated against these issues by using space to their advantage. The Olympic Games is a phenomenon that scales local, national and international space in various ways, through its effects on global culture, identity, and economic processes. The games have a history of protest and activism, but the issues created by the games and struggles against them are not often discussed. My study aims to analyze the spatial effects of the Olympics on a local and global level through the …

The Right Call: Baseball Coaches' Attempts To Influence Umpires, Kevin Warneke, David C. Ogden

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

On-field conversations and confrontations between baseball coaches and umpires have long been a part of the game. An umpire's decision can alter the course of the game, but little has been written about the exchanges between a coach or manager and umpire, especially in relation to theoretical considerations. This study applies management and leadership theories in exploring the strategies baseball coaches use to contest an umpire's decision. By using leadership scholar John E. Barbuto's concept of influence tactics and the various types of social power discussed by sociologists John R. French and Bertram Raven, the study also tests the congruence …

Documenting Change At Upper Hamburg Bend: Nebraska's First Side-Channel Restoration, Brandon L. Eder, Gerald Mestl

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

In 1996 a side channel was excavated on 629 hectares of former agricultural land at Upper Hamburg Bend on the Missouri River in Otoe County, NE. This was the first side channel constructed on the Missouri River in an attempt to restore lost aquatic habitat. The initial design was for an approximately 4,200 m long side channel to be constructed with a 3 m bottom width. Development ofthe site was to be dependent on flows diverted from the main channel of the river with a final projected top width of 61 m. The side channel was completed in the spring, …

Monitoring Standing Herbage Of The Sands And Choppy Sands Ecological Vegetation Types In The Nebraska Sandhills, Daniel W. Uresk

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

A modified Robel pole with white and gray alternating bands (2.54 cm) was used to measure vegetation on sands and choppy sands ecological types in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Objectives were to determine the relationship between visual obstruction readings (VOR) and clipped standing herbage, develop guidelines for monitoring standing herbage, and provide sample size estimates. Visual obstruction measurements of standing herbage were linear, and regression coefficients were significant (P< 0.001) for 125 transects (R² = 0.60, SE = 496 kg/ha). Clipped standing herbage ranged from 293 to 4389 kg/ha with a mean of 1,559 kg/ha. A minimum of four transects (20 stations/transect with four …

Evaluating The Role Of Latinidad And The Latino Threat In The State Of Missouri, Joel Jennings, J.S. Onésimo Sandoval

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Growing Latino populations in midwestern cities of the United States are leading to the creation of contested ethnic spaces and urban landscapes. In this article we examine the historical, demographic, and social contexts associated with a growing sense of Latinidad and the countervailing Latino threat narrative in Kansas City and St. Louis, the two largest metropolitan areas in Missouri. Latinidad, or a notion of belonging based on ethnic identity in Missouri, is being challenged by nativist discourses that frame the growing Latino population as a threat. We highlight the different historical trajectories and geographical characteristics that have created distinct demographic …

Review Of Implementing The Endangered Species Act On The Platte Basin Water Commons. By David M. Freeman, Mary Bomberger Brown

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

David M. Freeman has written a landmark treatise on a landmark event-the development of the Platte River Habitat Recovery Program. The program's goal. is to integrate provisions of the Endangered Species Act and the· habitat needs of four imperiled species (interior least tern, piping plover, whooping crane, and pallid sturgeon) into river basin-wide water management policy. The process was formally initiated 209 in 1997 with the signing of a cooperative agreement between the states of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming and the U.S. Department of the Interior, but discussions had been under way since the 1970s. The process was completed in …

Review Of Together We Can: Pathways To Collective Leadership In Agriculture At Texas A&M.; By Edward A. Hiler And Steven L. Bosserman., Theodore R. Alter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Edward Hiler's leadership journey through a series of major administrative positions at Texas A&M is a story of collective leadership, as told by Hiler himself, and framed by organizational and leadership strategist Steve Bosserman. This brief, highly readable, and provocative book illustrates the philosophical and operational essences of collective leadership. The shifting demographic, economic, ecological, and sociopolitical realities of Texas and the Great Plains called for optimizing the contributions of Texas A&M and other institutions of higher education in addressing critical issues. Hiler, ever the visionary, saw the power of an inclusive, egalitarian, shared leadership style that allowed diverse constituencies …

Reconsidering National Park Interpretation Of The Great Plains And Trans-Mississippi West, Robert Pahre

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The National Park Service has generally interpreted its sites in the Great Plains in terms of a Eurocentric narrative of westward expansion. Though some sites are changing (e.g., Little Bighorn), others are not (e.g., Scotts Bluff). Even those sites that have changed still retain important elements of traditional narratives, which often date to the 1930s or to the Mission 66 period (1956-66). The newest sites, such as Washita Battlefield, tell newer stories that resonate well with today's visitors. These provide a model for revising older sites. Giving greater attention to causes and consequences, aiming for a richer mix of disciplinary …

Review Of Wet Prairie: People, Land, And Water In Agricultural Manitoba. By Shannon Stunden Bower. Foreword By Graeme Wynn., Sterling Evans

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Wet Prairie is excellent environmental history that evaluates the human/nature relationship. Stunden Bower writes, "In grappling with the environment of their province, Manitobans confronted not only the environmental conditions, but also the political and social arrangements that bore on their lives." Though no easy task, she succeeds in showing these relationships in what is an important contribution to the geographical, environmental, political, and cultural history of the Prairie Provinces and to the Great Plains as a whole.

Review Of Birds Of Southwestern Nebraska: An Annotated Check-List Of Species In The North And South Platte River Valleys And At Lake Mcconaughy. By Mary Bomberger Brown, Stephen J. Dinsmore, And Charles R. Brown., Wayne Mollhoff

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Opening with a map of the region under study, Birds of Southwestern Nebraska proceeds, in its introduction, to a summary of the presettlement landscape and a description of the large-scale habitat changes occurring since then, along with avian responses to those changes. While crediting previous avian studies in southwestern Nebraska, often not readily available to the public, the authors note this area initially received little attention from ornithologists, who tended to focus on other biologically unique parts of the state, such as the Sandhills, forests, and Pine Ridge. The body of the book consists of a list of species reported …

Review Of The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives To Nonnative Flowers And Plants, An Illustrated Guide By Charlotte Adelman And Bernard L. Schwartz, Stephen L. Young

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Native plants are important for maintaining biodiversity and supporting birds, mammals, and insects in a particular region. The interaction of plants with other organisms is what makes up food webs, and a shift in one will result in change in the other, change that is often detrimental to both. Invasive plant species, which include many nonnative types, can alter ecosystems with lasting effects on hydrology, nutrient cycling, and habitat. Similar to other regions, the Central Plains is increasingly threatened by the establishment of invasive plant species. The reintroduction of native plant species not only in large natural areas, but also …

Review Of White Man's Water: The Politics Of Sobriety In A Native American Community. By Erica Prussing, Paul Spicer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Epidemiological evidence consistently emphasizes the challenges American Indian tribes of the Great Plains confront through excess alcohol consumption. Until Erica Prussing's recent book, however, we have lacked a detailed analysis of the social and cultural context in which these challenges unfold. With a focus on women's experiences across two generations, White Man s Water provides us with a careful description of the social and cultural world of contemporary Northern Cheyennes, coupled with an understanding of how individual experiences within the milieu vary, especially as a function of history.

White Man's Water is a truly significant book: the first book-length ethnographic …

Resolution Enhancement Optimizations For Hyperspectral And Multispectral Synthetic Image Fusion, Charles R. Bostater

Ocean Engineering and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Many sensor systems are available for sensing the earth surface from satellites as well as airborne and mobile platforms. Thus, fusing data from multiple sensors is becoming a common theme in earth remote sensing. A major goal of remote sensing image fusion is resolution enhancement. In this paper, optimization techniques are presented and discussed in order to help make an image fusion process a practical method for not only spectral signature based image analysis but also for algorithm development in remote sensing of water. The technique described and explored in this paper includes the identification of feature areas, stratified random …

Whose Islands Are These Anyway?, David J. Keeling

Earth, Environmental, and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty Publications

This opinion piece addresses Argentina's growing political rhetoric about its claims to the Malvians/Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.