Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Risk Perception And Response Among International Students Of The University Of Southern Mississippi, Elida Lopes Souza Rocha

Master's Theses

Given the exposure of university campuses to hazards, disaster mitigation is a critical element of higher education policy. Although U.S. higher education institutions are leaders in the global education market, emergency warning systems give little consideration to how international students perceive risk, prepare for hazards, or access warning technologies available to them. This poses several questions regarding the suitability of hazards mitigation practices and the welfare of international students.

This thesis investigates the relationship between USM international students and natural hazards. Responses from online surveys and semi-structured interviews data were analyzed through qualitative and quantitative methods to document the extent …

Spatial Proximity Matters: A Study On Collaboration, Arianna Salazar Miranda, Matthew Claudel

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

As scientific research becomes increasingly cross-disciplinary, many universities seek to support collaborative activity through new buildings and institutions. This study examines the impacts of spatial proximity on collaboration at MIT from 2005 to 2015. By exploiting a shift in the location of researchers due to building renovations, we evaluate how discrete changes in physical proximity affect the likelihood that researchers co-author. The findings suggest that moving researchers into the same building increases their propensity to collaborate, with the effect plateauing five years after the move. The effects are large when compared to the average rate of collaboration among pairs of …

Forced And Unforced Permafrost Changes In The Northern Hemisphere During 1901-2100, Hong Guo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Permafrost regions are very sensitive to rapid changes in climate and environment. In recent decades, there has been growing interest to better understand the permafrost degradation over the Northern Hemisphere in the context of human-induced climate change. Understanding permafrost dynamics is not only important for infrastructure but also for environmental protection in cold regions. In-situ permafrost measurements are important for assessing permafrost conditions. However, direct permafrost observations are sparse and asymmetrical in both spatial and temporal coverage. Active layer thickness (ALT) modeling is another approach that can overcome many of these limitations, but the models have large uncertainty in predicting …

Market-Driven Rice Farming And Water Use Change In Mbarali District From The Mid-1980s To The 2010s, George K. Ambindwile

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines the effects of market-driven rice farming on the use of water in Mbarali District from about the mid-1980s to 2010s. It specifically traces the development of both peasant and state rice farming and their subsequent effects on water use in the district. The study is essentially qualitative, although in some cases it uses quantitative data to validate its arguments. Thus, it adopts political economy and historical ecology theories to understand changes brought by market-driven rice farming; and the ways peasants struggled to accommodate those changes in their agricultural practices. The area of study included six villages, namely …

Assessment Of The Relationship Between Heavy Metal Concentrations In Soil And Tea Leaves Grown At Amani In Tanga Region By Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (Edxrf), Mohamed Mazunga, Masasi Kamanyola

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Determination of the concentration of heavy metals in tea leaves is important in assessing its quality for human consumption. This study aimed to assess the relationship between the concentration of heavy metals in soil and tea leaves at Kwamkoro tea plantation in Amani, Tanga. The soil and tea leaves samples were analysed by using the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry. The results of heavy metals mean concentrations in soil were Cr (185.65 ± 27.91 µg/g), Mn (341.15 ± 24.41 µg/g), Ni (25.6 ± 3.27 µg/g), Cu (21.71 ± 2.33 µg/g), Zn (41.29 ± 5.27 µg/g), As (1.25 ± 0.17 µg/g), …

The Danov Archive, Victor Fet, Alexander Kogan

Books Published by MU Libraries in MDS

This memorial volume compiles materials about Rostislav Dаnov (1941—1993) of St. Petersburg (Russia), a naturalist, artist, and snake-hunter, who worked for many years in Turkmenistan (West Kopetgagh Mts). The book celebrates Dаnov’s 80th birthday. It includes previously unpublished artwork and scientific illustrations by Dаnov as well as his texts, research papers, various memoirs, biographic information, and unique photographs. The book is intended for everyone who is interested in history of science and conservation in Central Asia and the USSR.

Фет В, Коган А, составители. Дановcкий архив. Библиотека Университета Маршалла, Хантингтон, Западная Виргиния, 2021. 494 с. Этот том содержит материалы о …

Empowering The Human-Nature Bond, Lightning Talk (7 Min), Valeria Widjaja

GIS Day

What is land? Is it dirt, the Earth, property, a resource? But rarely we ask who is land? When we change the question, it changes the way we think about land. It transforms the way we make decisions about how we might protect land. Through the Deshkan Ziibi Conservation Impact Bond, this story map explores how Carolinian Canada, Chippewas of the Thames First Nations, VERGE Capital, Ivey Business School, Thames Talbot Land Trust, and 3M are striving to heal the landscape. Overall, this story map visualizes both the human-nature and human-human relationships being facilitated by the bond. Learn the about …

Examining The Effectiveness Of “Turn Around Don’T Drown”, Chance D. Bryant

LSU Master's Theses

Extreme heat is the deadliest weather hazard in the U.S. Flooding is the second worst, and flash flooding is the deadliest form of flooding. The nature of these flood deaths contains a human element that deserves greater study. Since 2004, the National Weather Service has attempted to educate the public with its slogan, ``Turn Around Don’t Drown". Vehicle related mortality rates in Texas since 1996 were examined to answer the question of whether ``Turn Around Don’t Drown" has been effective. The slogan has a large footprint on the social media platform Twitter, with most of the Tweets coming from private …

2021-22 Title Iii, Bruce Scovill

Title III Professional Development Reports

No abstract provided.

Hispanic Demographics In Cobb County, Ga, Cole Thompson

Symposium of Student Scholars

This research was part of the Direct Applied Research (DAR) GIS: 4100 course. This research was in partnership with the Marietta Museum of History. The objective was to display Hispanic Demographics in Cobb County. Areas focused include education, population, and community. The analysis concluded similar trends in all three topics. Hispanic enrollment has gradually increased in Cobb County public high schools since 2011. High schools with the highest percentage of Hispanic enrollment were located close to interstates or in the southern region of Cobb. The population analysis concluded that zip codes 30008 and 30060 had the highest percentage of Hispanics …

Gis Map Report Of The Robert Porter Allen Natural Area At The Sylvan Dell Environmental Center, Matthew Semeraro

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

On Aqueducts And Anxiety: Water Infrastructure, Ruination, And A Region-Scaled Anthropocene Imaginary, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper explores popular expectations for and meanings of the U.S. West's environmental future, as articulated through recent artistic representations of the Los Angeles's expansive water provision network. Weaving together material from participant observation and readings of creative works, I show how infrastructural imagery is used to index anxieties about a future of water scarcity. Presenting familiar, currently functional water infrastructures as ruins-in-the-making, these artists use the physical stuff of water provision networks to advance critiques of longstanding modes of development and the material basis of urban-rural relations in the U.S. West. Doing so, these imagined ruins draw the global-scale …

How Do Environmental Factors Affect Drivers’ Gaze And Head Movements?, Arash Tavakoli, Vahid Balali, Arsalan Heydarian

Mineta Transportation Institute

Studies have shown that environmental factors affect driving behaviors. For instance, weather conditions and the presence of a passenger have been shown to significantly affect the speed of the driver. As one of the important measures of driving behavior is the gaze and head movements of the driver, such metrics can be potentially used towards understanding the effects of environmental factors on the driver’s behavior in real-time. In this study, using a naturalistic study platform, videos have been collected from six participants for more than four weeks of a fully naturalistic driving scenario. The videos of both the participants’ faces …

Geolocation Of Monitoring Wells Using Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Joel Deyoung

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater monitoring wells are commonly installed on a property as part of an environmental investigation to observe hydrological subsurface conditions, facilitate the collection of groundwater samples, and predict the flow of groundwater across a site. In addition to their installation, monitoring wells should be surveyed or mapped as accurately as possible. Traditional surveying techniques have employed the use of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) technologies or other surveying equipment. A common surveying approach is to use real-time kinematic (RTK) GNSS to accurately measure the coordinates of each monitoring well on the site.In recent years, drones, or small unmanned aircraft systems …

Machine Learning & Big Data Analyses For Wildfire & Air Pollution Incorporating Gis & Google Earth Engine, Abdullah Al Saim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The climatic condition, the vegetation type, and the landscape of the United States have made it susceptible to wildfires. This research is divided into two parts based on the analysis of two different aspects of wildfires of two distinct regions. The first part of the study investigates the wildfire susceptibility in Arkansas. Arkansas is a natural state, and it is heavily dependent on its forest and agricultural resources. During the last 30 years, more than 1,000 wildfires occurred in Arkansas and caused more than 10,000 acres of burned areas. Therefore, identifying wildfire-susceptible areas is crucial for ensuring sustainable forest and …

Butte Reclamation Evaluation System Field Manual, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Weather And Crime: New York State, Yuna Kim

Student Theses

The present study assesses the degree to which temperature affects the crime rates in all 62 counties in the State of New York. Five different crimes (i.e., robbery, aggravated assault, burglary; larceny, and motor vehicle theft) for the year 2019 were selected from the Division of Criminal Justice Services of New York to be examined. The current study examined whether the rate of these crimes was associated with the changes in weather, with the assumption that higher weathers would lead to higher property and violent crimes, when controlling for the effect of various control variables. The findings suggest that the …

Composite Analysis Of Mendenhall Glacier Interannual Glacial Health Decline, Hailey Marie Cantrell

Masters Theses

Glacial health in Alaska, USA is demonstrating an interannual declining trend. Repetitive years have suffered an imbalance between winter seasonal ice accumulation and summer seasonal ice loss. Increased ice loss has commonly been attributed to warmer Arctic summer temperatures, which contribute to greater calving events and amplified ablation. Study of the unique climatic influences by different variables is ongoing and at the forefront of climate-glacier interaction research.

This study is designed to quantitatively evaluate correlations between changes in Alaskan climatic patterns and an interannual trend of declining glacial health for Mendenhall Glacier by combining analysis of Landsat satellite imagery, teleconnection …

Contemporary Human Displacement: A Comparative Analysis Of Syria, Yemen, Honduras, And Venezuela, Rav Carlotti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What is causing the surge in human displacement around the world? Large-scale displacement in Syria, Yemen, Honduras, and Venezuela has generated unprecedented humanitarian crises in Latin America and the Middle East as millions of displaced people end up as refugees or immigrants. Humanitarian organizations like the UNHCR and host countries have had their resources overextended by these ongoing crises, and there is no end in sight. This thesis shows that contemporary human displacement is rooted in the increasing inability of governments to manage their societies amid great political demands and socio-economics strains. These causes are difficult to tackle because they …

Environmental Cues And The Sociospatial Imaginary: An Examination Of Spatial Perception And Meaning-Making In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Todd Levon Brown

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What could be more ordinary or pedestrian than two people walking down an urban street and talking about what we see and what we make of it? Yet this simple, quotidian act of walking a street—seeing, perceiving and experiencing physical spaces, places and objects—and making meaning of what is encountered, is the basis of my dissertation. It is also my basis for claiming that I have learned a great deal—and much unexpectedly—about how differently different people see and interpret the urban streetscape. What are the various environmental cues that stand out to different individuals? What are the psychosocial imaginaries that …