2024-03-28T21:29:18Zhttps://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/oai/requestoai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/122892020-10-08T14:23:00Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Zung, Ashley B.
2013-09-29T17:53:10Z
2013-09-29T17:53:10Z
2013-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12828
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12289
The Great Plains, U.S.A. lack quantitative paleoclimatic data for the late Quaternary largely because two common sources of paleoclimatic data, tree ring and pollen records, are rare in the region. Sequences of buried soils, however, are commonly preserved in eolian and alluvial sediments on the Great Plains and have the potential to enhance the region's paleoclimate record. This research presents a study of buried soils preserved in the Caddo Canyons of central Oklahoma to highlight opportunities and considerations for using buried soils to reconstruct past climate. Results indicate that sequences of buried soils dating to the mid- and late-Holocene are commonly preserved in the canyons. Canyon geomorphology dictates the nature of the fill contained in the canyons, and the effect of geomorphology and microclimate on soil formation must be carefully considered when interpreting the buried soil and stable carbon isotope record from the canyons. In an effort to capitalize on the rich paleoenvironmental record that buried soils can provide, this study presents the Buried Soil Reconstruction Model (BuSCR), a method for reconstructing paleoclimate based on properties of buried soils. The model was developed based on a study of modern analogue soils and climate on the Great Plains. BuSCR reconstructs mean annual precipitation (MAP), moisture index (Im), and mean annual temperature (MAT) with statistically significant results (r2 = 0.4, p < .0001) and low mean average errors. While error increases on the edges of the Great Plains climate envelope, application of BuSCR to a series of buried soils across the Great Plains, including soils from the Caddo Canyons, shows that it corroborates both paleoenvironmental reconstructions using other proxies (e.g. dune activation histories) and model-simulated hindcasts. In particular, BuSCR reconstructions corroborate model simulations of a -25% MAP anomaly during the Medieval Warm Period and a drastic reduction in MAP and Im across the Great Plains during the Altithermal. These results indicate that the BuSCR model, with further testing and if applied widely to buried soils across the Great Plains, could provide quantitative reconstructions of past climate that fill a current hole in the North American paleoclimate database.
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Physical geography
Paleoclimate science
Geomorphology
Buried soils
Great plains
Late-quaternary
Paleoclimate
Paleoenvironmental reconstructions
Stable carbon isotopes
RECONSTRUCTING CLIMATE ON THE GREAT PLAINS FROM BURIED SOILS: A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/218842018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Overstreet, Kelly
2016-11-10T23:08:46Z
2016-11-10T23:08:46Z
2016-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14639
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/21884
This project presents survey of municipal climate plans in the United States to determine the existing relationship between climate adaptation planning and understandings of social justice, environmental justice, and vulnerability. The results indicate that while justice and vulnerability considerations are not absent in US municipal climate planning, the current framework for discussing and strategizing for justice and vulnerability is wanting, and lead me to provide the following conclusions: First, the type of plan can impact how policymakers frame and consider justice and vulnerability; Second, planning for climate change is more a function of who is at the decision-making table than city-characteristics like demographics; and Lastly, vulnerable populations and their representatives must be more strongly integrated into the planning process to ensure they are not rendered absent from the plans entirely. The article concludes with suggestions for future research on this rapidly growing and increasingly important topic. Climate change is the single largest challenge of our, and future generations’ time. In not fully addressing issues of equity and justice, these plans do not adequately prepare their communities to be resilient or sustainable in the face of climate change.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Climate change
Environmental justice
Area planning & development
climate adaptation
climate governance
local government
social justice
Changing Climate, Static Society? A survey of equity, justice and vulnerability in U.S. Municipal Climate Plans
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/122522020-10-14T13:29:21Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Chen, Shu
2013-09-29T16:39:54Z
2013-09-29T16:39:54Z
2013-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12675
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12252
Abstract Previous studies on the synoptic forcing of high elevation areas of central Greenland have mostly relied on ice cores, snow pits, mesoscale models, and climate models. In this study, a radar-measured 118-year annual snow accumulation record (1889-2006) along a 375 km traverse between NGRIP and NEEM ice camps in Greenland is used. A Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) algorithm is applied to a reanalysis forecast model (20th Century Reanalysis Data Version 2 (1870 to 2008)) to identify recurring patterns in the sea level pressure (SLP) field that impact meteorological processes and explain annual variations of accumulation over North-Central Greenland for the 118 year period. The SOM algorithm identified 36 representative daily SLP patterns over the North Atlantic region. Synoptic weather patterns shown in these SLP patterns include cyclone splitting, cyclone-blocking, and cyclone tracks indicating changes in cyclone position and cyclone intensity. Based on radar-measured annual snow accumulation, common SLP patterns for wet years (more accumulation) over North-Central Greenland are characterized by low pressure systems surrounding Greenland or cyclones approaching the west coast of Greenland, conveying moisture through a topographically lifted onshore flow; these patterns are mostly associated with negative/neutral NAO index. In dry years (less accumulation), prevailing patterns are characterized by cyclones positioned a long distance away in the Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland, which are mainly associated with a positive NAO index. Extreme wet year prevailing patterns of NGRIP-NEEM traverse southern portion show a distinct departure from the above described North-Central Greenland general patterns by having more frequent positive-NAO days, which is similar to dry and extreme dry years. Model precipitation amounts over North-Central Greenland from the 20th Century Reanalysis Data are found to be overestimated by up to 10 cm/year.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Greenland
Nao
Sea level pressure
Snow accumulation
Synoptic forcing
Synoptic Scale Weather Patterns Associated with Annual Snow Accumulation Variability in North-Central Greenland
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/313762024-01-16T16:42:58Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Tomkins, Laura M
2021-02-07T20:33:28Z
2021-02-07T20:33:28Z
2019-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16749
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31376
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7357-9397
Large, abrupt clearing events have been documented in the marine stratocumulus cloud deck that resides over the subtropical Southeast Atlantic Ocean. In these events, clouds are rapidly eroded along a line hundreds–to–thousands of kilometers in length that generally moves westward away from the African coast. Because marine stratocumulus clouds exert a strong cooling effect on the planet, any phenomenon that acts to erode large areas of low clouds may be climatically important. Previous satellite-based research has suggested that the cloud-clearing events may be caused by westward-propagating atmospheric gravity waves rather than simple advection of the cloud boundary. The gravity waves are hypothesized to be excited by an interaction between offshore flow from the African continent and the stratocumulus-topped marine boundary layer. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to explore the nature of the offshore flow, which is a fundamental physical mechanism behind the dramatic clearing events. Results are presented from two series of week-long simulations driven by ERA–Interim reanalysis in the month of May when cloud-clearing boundaries exhibit maximum frequency. One series covers a period containing multiple cloud-clearing episodes (active period), and the second series covers a period without any cloud-clearing episodes (null period). Synoptic analysis, Hovmöller diagrams, and passive tracers are used to assess the character of the diurnal west-African coastal circulation. Our results indicate that the active period regularly experiences offshore flow from the continent above the boundary layer overnight, whereas the null period is associated with predominantly onshore flow along the coast particularly in the afternoon. The offshore flow overrunning the boundary layer can extend hundreds of kilometers westward of the coast. We document 900-hPa disturbances in each period, which influence the coastal flow of the region. Additionally, we find that the boundary layer height is higher in the null period than in the active period, suggesting that the active periods are associated with areas of thinner clouds that may be more susceptible to cloud-clearing events.
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openAccess
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Atmospheric sciences
atlantic
cloud
mesoscale
Regional flow conditions associated with stratocumulus cloud-clearing events over the southeast Atlantic
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/195402018-01-31T20:07:54Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Kotlinski, Nicholas
2016-01-03T03:25:28Z
2016-01-03T03:25:28Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14169
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19540
Peru’s Amazon region is one of the newest fronts in a growing national and international interest in oil palm production. State legislation and market incentives have accelerated the growth of the industry by promoting large-scale investment and land acquisition. Based on an examination of the opposing discourses of available environmentalist and developmentalist videos and texts, I trace environmental conflict created by the establishment of a large-scale plantation in the Caynarachi-Shanusi Valley, on the San Martin-Loreto border. In addition, while area farmers make up a small fraction of land converted to oil palm, they represent a significant force in the future of oil palm development in the Peruvian Amazon, as the supposed benefactors of development, but also as keepers of diverse cropping systems and forest resources. As such, environmentalist and developmentalist discourses either over-simplify, or ignore smallholder oil palm development. Using ethnographic methods, this study examines the social and environmental perceptions of smallholders, community members, and activists in the region regarding the legacy of oil palm plantation establishment, and the changing economic, social and ecological realities of smallholders, both internal and external to the oil palm economy.
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Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Amazonia
Oil Palm
Peru
Political Ecology
A Political Ecology of Oil Palm in the Peruvian Amazon
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/122902020-10-05T14:08:12Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Birdling, Emmanuel Awidau
2013-09-29T17:54:12Z
2013-09-29T17:54:12Z
2013-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12823
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12290
This dissertation is a story of the evolution of the domestic sphere of the Margi ethnic group of northeastern Nigeria. The evolution started with round huts and fences that were constructed mainly with pieces of stones while living in the Mandara Mountain enclaves and with mud huts surrounded with thatch mats while living on the plains and then evolved to a contemporary, but a hybrid structure, as a result of their contact with westerners. Based on fieldwork, interviews, and critical archival analysis of missionary and colonial papers, my narrative traces the historical, geographical, spatial, architectural, and developmental perspectives of the infrastructure changes in the Margi built environment in precisely 52 Margi towns, villages, and neighborhoods. This includes: roads, residential structures, and components of modernity such as schools, churches, mosques, hospitals, and stores (the term stores is used to account for markets, bars, convenient stores, and restaurants). I concentrate on the type of structure, the time it was built, the changes made to the structure, and the types of material used. I also examine individual group interests and activities by three separate groups who exchanged ideas with each other that helped start the change on which this dissertation is built. Along the way, and many times, these separate group interests clashed. The groups are: the colonial authorities, the missionaries, and the Margi.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Architecture
Change
Cities
Colonization
Development
Margi
Urban
The Evolution of the Built Environment of the Margi Ethnic Group of Northeastern Nigeria
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/180892018-12-17T20:45:40Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Cai, Lei
2015-06-17T03:47:11Z
2015-06-17T03:47:11Z
2014-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13671
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18089
A dynamical downscaling framework is adopted to explore historical (1950-1999) and projected (2050-2099) behavior of extreme precipitation (PR), maximum temperature (TMAX) and minimum temperature (TMIN) events within the contiguous United States. Compared to reanalysis data, simulations represent temperature better than precipitation, and the model performs better east of the Rocky Mountains than over the mountainous west. Extreme events are defined according to exceedances of percentiles of the distribution of precipitation and temperature variables (typically the 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles), as well as the actual magnitudes corresponding to the percentiles. After applying a bias-correction to all three variables, extreme percentile thresholds show broadly higher values for all three variables in the projected simulation compared to the historical simulation. Precipitation extremes show no systematic trends of frequency or intensity in either the historical or the projected simulations. Trends of TMAX and TMIN have frequency and intensity that are consistently positive in the historical simulation, but the positive trend patterns are somewhat different in the projected simulation. In the projected simulation, all climate zones exhibit consistent increases in PR and TMAX extremes, and a decrease in TMIN extremes, both in the frequency and intensity. Northern zones such as Dfa and Dfb exhibit more changes of extremes in the projected simulation compared to other zones. On the other hand, the patterns of extreme frequency and intensity in all zones suggest their dependence on regional climatologies (e.g., B class zones have more frequent TMAX and less frequent PR than other zones, while D class zones have lower TMAX and TMIN intensity than other zones). In the projected simulation, PR intensity increases more significantly than frequency, while frequency increases more than intensity for TMAX and TMIN. The projected heat waves (defined as high temperature events lasting multiple days) are more severe in both number and duration, which results predominately from the increasing of the mean TMAX.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Climate change
bias correction
climate classification
dynamical downscaling
extreme events
heat waves
Extreme events over the contiguous United States portrayed in a CESM-WRF dynamical downscaling framework
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/59832020-07-29T12:16:37Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Xu, Tingting
2010-03-18T04:46:04Z
2010-03-18T04:46:04Z
2009-12-11
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10662
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5983
Cartographic modeling (also known as map algebra) is a powerful set of operations for manipulating raster geographic data. Zonal operations are one type of cartographic modeling operations where the spatial scopes of the operations are defines by zones. The conventional zonal operations only work with raster data and lack the capability of performing spatiotemporal analysis. This research developed zonal operations for spatiotemporal analysis where spatiotemporal zones can be defined in the vector data model. The zonal operations were used to extract watershed hourly or daily precipitation for use in non-point source pollution models and to explore the effects of antecedent precipitation on water quality samples. The case studies demonstrated the usefulness of the operations. A software tool, NexTool was also developed to process and build NEXRDA precipitation database, which was used in the case studies.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Geotechnology
Cartographic modeling
GIS
Nexrad
Spatiotemporal analysis
Zonal operation
Vector Zonal Operations for Spatiotemporal Analysis
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/70172020-07-29T13:34:39Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
McDermott, David Thomas
2011-01-03T05:05:06Z
2011-01-03T05:05:06Z
2009-11-09
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10603
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7017
Definitions of the extent of the Loess Hills of the Missouri River valley have become smaller over the last century. The reduced extent of the Hills, as represented in both promotional and scientific literature, no longer accurately reflects the physical landform or public perception of its size. In addition, the diminished definition undermines efforts to develop effective public policy to protect the Hills. This study proposes a new boundary for the landform based on both physical evidence and survey research with people who live in and near the Hills. It explores the history of how the accepted definition of the Hills came to be reduced in size and how park and public land policy evolved in the region.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Natural resource management
Environmental history
Geosophy
Loess hills
Parks
The Naming, Identification, and Protection of Place in the Loess Hills of the Middle Missouri Valley
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/257962018-01-31T23:29:56Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Bishop, Prescott Ramsey
2018-01-30T02:55:19Z
2018-01-30T02:55:19Z
2017-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15192
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/25796
The nocturnal transition (beginning around sunset) of the turbulent structure within the stratocumulus-topped boundary layer in the Southeast Pacific is simulated using near-LES model framework and sounding data from the Variability of American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS) Ocean–Cloud–Atmosphere–Land Study Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) as the initial conditions. In addition to the control simulation, 4 sensitivity analyses are conducted by varying the longwave radiative flux (ΔFn) across the boundary layer, thereby varying the maximum permitted radiative cooling. These radiative cooling values are constrained through a radiative-transfer calculation using all the VOCALS sounding data and liquid water path retrievals. The magnitude of radiative cooling is shown to impact boundary layer properties such as stability, cloud-top height, cloud-cover, and precipitation. For all simulations, the top-down mechanism of radiative cooling dominates over the first few hours, as downdrafts penetrate lower and lower and destabilize the boundary layer to deep-layer circulations, which in these simulations are largely surface-based cumulus-like updrafts. The simulations with stronger ΔFn undergo this transition sooner and exhibit higher cloud-top heights, stronger overall turbulence, increased precipitation, and a better-sustained cloud cover. Increases in precipitation with stronger radiative forcing arise largely through increases in precipitation area rather than intensity of drizzle cells. Simulation behavior of the transition is found to be broadly consistent with the VOCALS sounding composites and exhibits similar self-limiting drizzle behavior found in the observations.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Atmospheric Modeling
Atmospheric Science
Boundary Layer Meteorology
Marine Meteorology
Meteorology
Stratocumulus
The influence of longwave cloud-top cooling on marine stratocumulus cloud transitions
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/279402019-08-27T18:10:28Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Turner, Dillon Seaber
2019-05-12T19:33:44Z
2019-05-12T19:33:44Z
2018-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15920
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27940
Observations from commercial aircraft through the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) automated weather reports provide a higher frequency sampling of the lower atmosphere than the twice daily radiosonde launches performed by the National Weather Service. In the San Francisco Bay area, the number of profiles from flights arriving or departing San Francisco International Airport (SFO), Oakland International Airport (OAK), and San Jose International Airport (SJC) have increased dramatically from 2001 to 2016. Low-level features in the coastal margins are difficult to simulate, so AMDAR opens up new possibilities to investigate coastal phenomena. This study uses AMDAR measurements from 2001-2016 in the bay area and focuses on three main objectives: (1) understanding the AMDAR climatology of the lower atmosphere in the bay area, (2) examining the effectiveness of AMDAR data to identify and quantify precursors to wind reversals along the central California coast, and (3) use the quantified magnitudes of the precursors to forecast wind reversals. A limiting factor in past studies of wind reversals was the lack of long-term monitoring of the lower atmosphere. While soundings from the aircraft at OAK and SFO were similar and more influenced by the marine environment, SJC had more continental features. Significant anomalies of temperature and wind occurred more than 24 hours ahead of the passage of a wind reversal. A forecast metric was developed using the anomalies, but the metric was not skillful.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
AMDAR
Diurnal Cycle
Marine Layer
MBL
Southerly Surge
Wind Reversal
Climatology of the San Francisco Bay and the Initiation of Wind Reversals along the Western United States Coast Determined from AMDAR Data
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/258012018-01-31T23:29:56Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Cleary, Andrew
2018-01-30T03:03:26Z
2018-01-30T03:03:26Z
2017-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15096
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/25801
Federal reservoirs in Kansas are presently undergoing infill at varying rates and represent a growing concern, as these features are integral to the state’s infrastructure and projected dredging required to restore capacities are substantial. Kansas exhibits a unique hydrography by having some of the highest densities of small impoundments in the United States. Previous studies have highlighted the potential of impoundments to act as significant sinks for sediment. However, their significance within Kansas reservoir drainages and potential service in mitigating downstream reservoir sediment yields is not well understood. This thesis seeks to improve understanding of small impoundments distributions and significance in relation to reservoir sediment yield through two stages. Chapter 2 applies elevation-based methods of impoundment identification using newly available LiDAR-derived Digital Elevation Models (DEM) in order to enhance Kansas reservoir drainage inventories relative to relying solely on the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The two DEM-based methodologies resulted in the identification of features absent in the NHD, and accuracy testing showed both DEM-based methodologies produce more accurate surface area geometries. In turn, the two approaches can be used to update and improve accuracy of inventories relative to using the NHD exclusively. Chapter 3 delineates small impoundment catchment areas within nine eastern Kansas reservoir drainages and compares erosion-related traits in the context of impoundment catchment and direct runoff. The majority of sediment presently infilling Kansas reservoirs has been noted as originating from channel-bank erosion sources, not overland sources. Since impoundments are potentially positioned in the path of channel-bank eroded material, better understanding both their distribution and their potential sediment trapping is an important aspect of reservoir drainage yield modeling and management. By investigating erosion-related factors for reservoir drainages and addressing impoundment catchment, several possible trends were observed. For example, contrasting impoundment size distributions were observed in the highest and lowest drainage sediment yields. Impoundments tend to be more abundant in reaches and grassland areas, while they decrease in abundance closer to reservoirs and in cropland areas. Additionally, average catchment area for small impoundments in the region is much smaller than previous estimates, which may suggest smaller sediment loads reaching impoundments. This thesis demonstrates new approaches to investigating potential trends relating to reservoir sedimentation and suggests several avenues for further research. As LiDAR-derived DEMs become increasingly available, methods such as those demonstrated in Chapter 2 are particularly valuable. Not only does this project highlight potential inaccuracies of the NHD, but it presents automated and easily repeatable methods to enhance NHD-based inventories in other regions. Chapter 3 considers the significance of small impoundments when investigating potential sources of difference in Kansas reservoir drainage yields, which is a component often absent in drainage scale erosion modeling. Given the abundance of small impoundments for the region and the projected costs of reservoir restoration, this study provides insight into the significance of small impoundments in connection to a growing concern. By better assessing the factors responsible for differing rates of infill among reservoir drainages, reservoir drainage management may make more informed decisions. Additionally, this project also capitalizes on the growing abundance of LiDAR-derived DEMs, and demonstrates their value in delineating small impoundment catchment to better understand their role as mitigators of downstream sediment yield.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geographic information science and geodesy
Water resources management
GIS
Impoundments
LiDAR
National Hydrography Dataset
Sedimentation
Geoprocessing Approaches to Delineate Impoundments and Characterize Subcatchments within Kansas Reservoir Drainages
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/217002018-01-31T20:07:50Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Elfarnouk, Nouri Abuhmaira
2016-10-12T02:47:22Z
2016-10-12T02:47:22Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14384
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/21700
As a developing country, Libya has been dominated by a high rate of urbanization since it became an independent state in 1951, with vast improvements in all aspects of life. This phenomenon brought domination of some cities, such as Tripoli and Benghazi. Therefore, in a country with multiple large cities that “pull” migrants in, people have more than one choice of a final urban destination. Where urban primacy exists, this puts additional strain on that single primate city, encouraging people to migrate, often before the necessary infrastructure is in place. As a result of that movement, Tripoli has experienced the appearance of informal areas, and particularly squatter settlements, since the late 1980s. This phenomenon has had many negative impacts for Tripoli and its vicinity. This phenomenon has evolved to become a chronic problem. As a response to this problem, governmental efforts have been made to address and mitigate the situation through conducting planning schemes and housing policies and strategies. Despite those efforts and strategies, the success rate has been low, due to many factors. The ambition of this dissertation is to identify insights concerning the factors that led to the incidence and the prevalence of the squatter settlements. In this dissertation, a critical qualitative method included face to face interviews. The analysis pointed out the presence of multiple potential factors that contributed in the emergence and prevalence of the phenomenon. These factors are represented in the weakness of planning institutions in applying the planning policies, failure of planning schemes, corruption and bureaucracy, administrative instability, intensive state intervention, political transformation, and socioeconomic changes. All combined factors accelerated the incidence and thus manifested the prevalence of this phenomenon. In addition to the qualitative analysis, I performed quantitative analysis of multi-temporal Landsat images. Unsupervised image classification was performed in order to provide insight about unlawful urban sprawl that spread outside the planned areas due to limited arable land. Finally, this dissertation gives several recommendations for creating sustainable planning and finding an urgent appropriate solution to reduce the impact of the phenomenon.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
Geographic Information System (GIS)
Region
Sub Region
Agglomeration
Remote Sensing (RS)
Squatter Settlemnts
Urbanization Phenomenon
Urban Sprawl
SQUATTER SETTLEMENTS IN TRIPOLI, LIBYA: ASSESSING, MONITORING, AND ANALYZING THE INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE OF URBAN SQUATTER AREAS IN THE PERI-URBAN FRINGE
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/269012020-10-13T13:43:22Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Penner, Will Hays
2018-10-22T16:00:07Z
2018-10-22T16:00:07Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15604
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26901
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2722-3998
For decades, the global food security strategy has operated on the assumption that poverty and hunger result from a state of underdevelopment, which can be alleviated through the distribution of technology to increase farm-level productivity. In more recent years, transnational corporate involvement within food security has led to a global imposition of intellectual property rights over seed and agriculture science, thus catalyzing a process of accumulation by dispossession. Those who have been dispossessed of their seed, knowledge, food cultures, and social relations of production, however, have not stood idly by. NGO, peasant and human rights organizations have galvanized around food sovereignty, a radical-rights based alternative to the business as usual approach of food security. Broadly defined, food sovereignty is the peoples’ right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It has also been described as ‘repossessing the commons’, or taking back those aspects of life, like seed, which have been commodified through corporate/neoliberal projects. One fall back to this approach is that it does not address the crucial difference between having a right and doing what is right. The thesis explores this topic by reviewing the meaning of rights for both food security and food sovereignty. Then, using Robert Sack’s theoretical framework, the thesis suggests that we may use intrinsic geographic judgments to know whether the rights we promote actually lead to intrinsic progress, or a heightened awareness of the real and the good. Lastly, an empirical case study in Guatemala is explored to reveal how the power of place affects the sort of progress food sovereignty can achieve.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
Sustainability
Food Security
Food Sovereignty
Instrumental Progress
Intrinsic Progress
Place
Power
Food Sovereignty: A Critical Case
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/64202020-08-03T13:41:51Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Dunbar, Matthew D.
2010-07-25T22:13:36Z
2010-07-25T22:13:36Z
2010-04-27
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10880
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6420
The threat of landmines and other explosive remnants of war is a serious concern around the world. While landmines demand attention due to the thousands of civilian casualties they cause each year, perhaps even more shocking is the fear they instill in local populations, inhibiting movement and denying access to thousands of square kilometers of land in more than 80 countries. Humanitarian demining seeks to rid the world of landmines and return local populations to their displaced land. To meet this goal, surveys of hazardous areas, describing their location and contents, are used to produce threat maps for a given location and secure adequate funding from donor organizations for clearance operations. The focus of this study is a mobile GIS system, developed by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), which allows rapid, accurate, and completely digital collection of these demining surveys. Using data collected during local evaluations of the demining Survey Tool at the University of Kansas campus and on foreign field deployments in Chile (2004), Albania (2004), Ecuador (2004), and Lebanon (2006), a fit-for-use analysis was performed on each component of the Survey Tool. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the accuracy of its GPS and laser rangefinder mapping devices, and methods for improving that accuracy were investigated. The system was well received by all of its users and gauged to be twice as fast, require half the personnel, and provide higher levels of accuracy than traditional methods for collecting demining surveys. Even though the system was deemed fit for use, suggestions for improving all components of the device resulted from user feedback and observations of the system in the field. The system's GPS receiver was predicted to provide 5 m accuracy 50 % of the time and 10 m accuracy 95 % of the time. If GPS positions were averaged for 1 minute, the 95% accuracy improved to 7.5 m, and if positions were averaged for 4 minutes, the 95% accuracy improved to 5.6 m. The two types of laser rangefinders used by the system were found to have a mean accuracy of 2.7 m when shooting at a location on the horizontal bare earth and a mean accuracy of 1.1 m when shooting at a well defined vertical target. Rangefinder accuracy varied due to level of user experience with rangefinders or other sighting equipment, and thus proved the value of training with these devices. Also, significant errors in bearing measurements with the rangefinders caused by magnetic interference from one user's eye glasses indicated that this issue requires considerable attention by all users of laser rangefinder devices. General themes that were found to be extremely important to the success of the demining system, such as the value of training, the need for system flexibility to match traditional field methods, and the complexities of GIS data collection in the field, should be a focus of any mobile GIS field program.
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Geographic information sciences
Demining
Global positioning systems
Handheld computing
Mobile GIS
Rangefinder
Mobile Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Humanitarian Demining
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/145222018-01-31T20:07:56Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Kozak, Stephanie L.
2014-07-05T16:08:43Z
2014-07-05T16:08:43Z
2014-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13316
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14522
This dissertation examines gentrification in Pittsburgh, PA to determine if the process is reducing the amount of affordable housing for low-income groups. There has been considerable debate regarding the merits and consequences of gentrification for the economic development of cities and this research contributes to the discussion by uncovering how housing is affected in a Rust Belt city. The deindustrialized cities of the American Rust Belt have been largely ignored within the gentrification literature because of the population loss and economic slumps these metros have faced due to global restructuring of manufacturing industries. There are signs that many of these urban areas are making the shift to a postindustrial city and that people and capital may soon be returning to their downtowns. In light of the various development projects that have been implemented in places like Pittsburgh, it is important to understand how the urban form is restructured through the process of gentrification. I use various regression models, including OLS, spatial regression, and geographically weighted regression (GWR) to measure the effect of gentrification on affordable housing for three levels of low-income households. This research shows that gentrification is reducing the availability of affordable housing in the Pittsburgh metro, despite the presence of a soft housing market caused by high vacancy rates within the central city. Regression models show that the vacancy rates are likely reducing the reduction of affordable housing in various neighborhoods of the city, but that buffer of a soft housing market will most likely disappear as data show an increasing interest in moving into the city. The Pittsburgh metro area already has a shortage of extremely low-income affordable units and steps must be taken in Pittsburgh to ensure that low-income households can have affordable access to the city in the future.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
Affordable housing
Gentrification
Geographically weighted regression
Pittsburgh
Post-industrial cities
Rust belt cities
From Section 8 to Starbucks: The Effects of Gentrification on Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/59422020-07-29T15:48:16Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Nakazawa Ueji, Yoshinori Jorge
2010-03-18T03:44:29Z
2010-03-18T03:44:29Z
2009-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10551
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5942
Species distributions are composed by those places in which the environmental conditions are suitable for the species to survive and maintain populations; where the interactions with other species are adequate; that have been accessible given species' dispersal capabilities. Biodiversity patterns have been explained by: environmental heterogeneity, latitudinal gradients, system energy, and biogeographic history among others. Several attempts have been made to replicate biodiversity using spatially and environmentally explicit null models with different degrees of success, but they do not analyze individual effects of factors involved in the production of such patterns. Here, I use artificial species that mimic environmental granularity in combination with three other variables involved in shaping species' distributions (physical barriers, seasonality, and climatic history), to study: (1) environmental granularity, physical barriers (i.e., rivers), and seasonality as shaping factors for species' distributions (2) Janzen's ideas about the role of seasonality for the creation of biodiversity in South America; and (3) the effect of recent climatic history (135,000 years ago) in shaping present day patterns of biodiversity via the analysis of environmental stability through time. I analyzed the patterns obtained through scatter plots that relate the distribution ranges of the species and the richness of the sites of the study area (range-diversity plots). Results from this analysis show that: (1) only when seasonality was included, it was possible to replicate general patterns of biodiversity; (2) predictions derived from Janzen's ideas were amply supported; (3) changes in climate since the last interglacial period had been more drastic in Africa than in South America; therefore (4) more environmentally stable areas were found in South America which could have facilitated the persistence of species during this period of time; (5) general support for the existence refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum; and (6) each of the analyzed factors have different effects on the patterns of biodiversity. The study of the factors included in this work helped the understanding of their particular role in shaping biodiversity patterns and species distributions; however, many other factors are left to be studied in more detail.
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Biology
Ecology
Geography
Artificial species
Biodiversity patterns
Biogeography
Environmental granularity
Pleistocene refugia
Species distributions
Environmental granularity, rivers and climate history as shaping factors for species' distribution and diversity patterns
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/183972018-01-31T20:07:49Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Gillette, Brandon
2015-09-07T21:33:39Z
2015-09-07T21:33:39Z
2014-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13744
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18397
During the last several decades, the nature of childhood has changed. There is not much nature in it anymore. Numerous studies in environmental education, environmental psychology, and conservation psychology show that the time children spend outdoors encourages healthy physical development, enriches creativity and imagination, and enhances classroom performance. Additional research shows that people's outdoor experiences as children, and adults can lead to more positive attitudes and behavior towards the environment, along with more environmental knowledge with which to guide public policy decisions. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the effect of middle childhood (age 6-11) outdoor experiences on an individual's current knowledge of the environment. This correlational study evaluated the following potential relationships: 1) The effect of "outdoorsiness" (defined as a fondness or enjoyment of the outdoors and related activities) on an individual's environmental knowledge; 2) The effect of gender on an individual's level of outdoorsiness; 3) The effect of setting (urban, suburban, rural, farm) on an individual's level of outdoorsiness and environmental knowledge; 4) The effect of formal [science] education on an individual's level of outdoorsiness and environmental knowledge; and 5) The effect of informal, free-choice learning on an individual's level of outdoorsiness and environmental knowledge. Outdoorsiness was measured using the Natural Experience Scale (NES), which was developed through a series of pilot surveys and field-tested in this research study. Participants included 382 undergraduate students at the University of Kansas with no preference or bias given to declared or undeclared majors. The information from this survey was used to analyze the question of whether outdoor experiences as children are related in some way to an adult's environmental knowledge after accounting for other factors of knowledge acquisition such as formal education, media, and free-choice learning. Though a statistically significant positive correlation was found between an individual's NES and their level of environmental knowledge as an adult, the relationship was weak (r= .112). One-on-one interviews also were conducted with 15 individuals selected from a random sample of the 382 participants. A post-survey focus group comprised of experts from the fields of environmental science and environmental education was also conducted to discuss results from the quantitative portion of the study and provide face validity to the questionnaire.
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Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Environmental education
Science education
environmental education
experiential learning
geography
outdoor education
science education
Relationships between middle childhood outdoor experiences and an adult individual's knowledge of the environment
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/129362020-10-19T15:01:50Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Demarest, Geoffrey
2014-02-05T15:26:57Z
2014-02-05T15:26:57Z
2013-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13113
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12936
The dissertation proposes a theoretical category of distance, risk distance, as a prompt for understanding outcomes in internal armed struggles. Geographers are familiar with cost distance -- conceiving distance according to the time or material resources needed to move people and things. Risk distance is closer conceptually to what strategists might recognize as the distance to the `culminating point', which is a theoretical point in space and time beyond which an armed force would run an imprudent risk to its survival (if it were to continue to pursue, attack, or remain in the same position, etc.). Combat leaders seek to lengthen the distances to their culminating points and shorten those of their opponents. Cost and risk distances are generally related inversely: risk distances can shorten as cost distances increase. In Colombia's internal conflict, a variety of geographic phenomena (rugged upslopes, international borders, urban slums, jungles) share effect on risk distance -- favoring a fugitive entity by disproportionately shortening the risk distances of its pursuers. Risk distance also applies to civilian activity. If the Euclidean distance from a rural community to a hospital maternity ward were 70 kilometers, the cost distance might be six hours and four thousand pesos. The rough ride or danger of attack along the way could lead expecting parents to perceive the risk distance as only thirty kilometers down the road or two hours of travel time. The distance to the feared point of too much risk makes their attempt to go to that hospital untenable. In Colombia, violent armed groups escape to areas beyond their rivals' reach, seeking routes (typically long-established smuggling routes) that help shorten the pursuers' risk distances. These routes and sanctuaries, created within armed rivalry, are often spatially coincident with rural population centers that also appear remote, that is, beyond many quotidian risk distances. This spatial coincidence (of conditions involving certain prosaic and violent rivalry risk distances) contributes to causing some rural communities to fall victim to or collaborate in organized violence; but the differential in rivals' risk distances is by itself more significant to the prolongation or outcome of internal conflict.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Colombia
Distance
Insurgency
Risk
Violence
Risk Distance: The Loss of Strength Gradient and Colombia's Geography of Impunity
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/76932020-08-07T16:34:36Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Muhajir, Makame Ali Haji
2011-06-21T20:27:58Z
2011-06-21T20:27:58Z
2011-04-26
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11543
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7693
This is a geographical study of urban planning focusing on the on-going neoliberal land reform practices introduced in Zanzibar since the end of the 1980s as a major effort to improve the land sector. Throughout the application of these reforms, the land and environmental management projects were unable to sustain their adopted sustainability agenda that was based on democratic, collaborative, and participatory principles. The government finds it difficult to simultaneously cope with the reform results characterized by multiple overlapping policy changes in the urban land development sector. Based on fieldwork, interviews, and critical archival analysis of government papers, my narrative explores how planning works in this reform era. In line with Habermas's (1984) theory of communicative action and its subsequent influence on collaborative and sustainability planning theories in works by Healey (2006), Forester (2009), and Myers (2010), among others, this dissertation also conceptualizes what is happening in formal and informal housing contexts during the last two decades. I am answering the question of whether the sustainability strategy, which lacks excitement among the targeted local people, has been able to break through state controlled planning practices. The culturally-inspired traditional patterns of the people's land and housing development operations keep on normalizing informal processes which risk repeating the limitations of previous strategies during the years before the reforms. Finally, I examine practical reasons for these identified limitations via case study examples. The case study findings have helped to understand the disjointed element of the sustainability model, based on theoretical, empirical, and local analyses, which can itself be a step forward for further research.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Africa
Housing
Reform
Sustainability
Urban planning
How Planning Works in an Age of Reform: Land, Sustainability, and Housing Development Traditions in Zanzibar
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/168482018-01-31T20:08:03Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Hu, Leiqiu
2015-02-25T17:24:34Z
2015-02-25T17:24:34Z
2014-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13570
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/16848
Satellite remotely sensed temperatures are widely used for urban heat island (UHI) studies. However, the abilities of satellite surface and atmospheric data to assess the climatology of UHI face many unknowns and challenges. This research addresses the problems and potential for satellite remotely sensed UHI climatology by examining three different issues. The first issue is related to the temporal aggregation of land surface temperature (LST) and the potential biases that are induced on the surface UHI (SUHI) intensity. Composite LST data usually are preferred to avoid the missing values due to clouds for long-term UHI monitoring. The impact of temporal aggregation shows that SUHI intensities are more notably enhanced in the daytime than nighttime with an increasing trend for larger composite periods. The cause of the biases is highly related to the amount and distribution of clouds. The second issue is related to model validation and the appropriate use of LST for comparison to modeled radiometric temperatures in the urban environment. Sensor view angle, cloud distribution, and cloud contaminated pixels can confound comparisons between satellite LST and modeled surface radiometric temperature. Three practical sampling methods to minimize the confounding factors are proposed and evaluated for validating different aspects of model performance. The third issue investigated is to assess to what extent remotely sensed atmospheric profiles collected over the urban environment can be used to examine the UHI. The remotely sensed air and dew-point temperatures are compared with the ground observations, showing an ability to capture the temporal and spatial dynamics of atmospheric UHI at a fine scale. Finally, a new metric for quantifying the urban heat island is proposed. The urban heat island curve (UHIC), is developed to represent UHI intensity by integrating the urban surface heterogeneity in a curve. UHIC illustrates the relationship between the air temperature and the urban fractions, and emphasizes the temperature gradients, consequently decreasing the impact of the data biases. This research illustrates the potential for satellite data to monitor and increase our understanding of UHI climatology.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Atmospheric sciences
Atmospheric profiles
Land surface temperature
Model validation
Remote sensing
UHI quantification
Urban heat island
AN INVESTIGATION OF REMOTELY SENSED URBAN HEAT ISLAND CLIMATOLOGY
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/41792020-07-21T14:51:37Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Cooper, Zachary L.
2008-09-15T03:55:45Z
2008-09-15T03:55:45Z
2008-08-04
http://dissertations2.umi.com/ku:2621
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4179
This thesis examines language and citizenship laws in Latvia to determine how they have been used to change Latvia's internal ethnic identity and external geopolitical relations. A discourse analysis of two of the region's major news sources is the central method for data analysis, allowing for a comparison of Russian and Latvian media portrayals of this situation. By examining newspapers from the region, my thesis considers how the Russian speaking population in Latvia is adapting to their situation. Secondly, the research explores how the Latvian government is and is not encouraging the merging of the ethnic Russian and Latvian speaking identities to form a new national identity. Language laws and educational reforms are important processes that help promote national identity, and both are examined in this research. The theoretical framework of this thesis draws from a combination of identity, geopolitical, and moral geography theories.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Latvia
Russians
Citizenship laws
Ethnic identity
Discourse analysis
Changing Demographics in Latvia by Changing Ethnic Law
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/129512020-10-19T14:59:43Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Kirk, Deborah Lyn
2014-02-05T15:57:25Z
2014-02-05T15:57:25Z
2013-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13025
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12951
In 1887, the Bureau of American Ethnology appointed James Mooney to work among the Eastern Band of Cherokee. From 1887 to 1916, Mooney documented the sites and stories of the Cherokee homeland as shared with him by members of the community. Mooney's working maps and field notes were recently discovered at the archive of the Smithsonian Institution. For this thesis, I combine Mooney's work with Cherokee collective memory to re-interpret the stories of the Cherokee homeland according to Duyuktv, a Cherokee theoretical framework and paradigm. Asking the question, "How can the Mooney archive be transformed into a digital map that will engage and inspire Cherokee youth to learn and explore the stories of their homeland?" I demonstrate what is possible when Cherokee perspective is synthesized with geospatial technologies to present the ancient stories of the Cherokee homeland in a way that weaves traditional and modern culture into its components.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Native American studies
Geographic information science and geodesy
Cherokee
Geospatial technologies
Historical gis
Indigenous geography
Indigenous methodology
Interactive mapping
Visualizing the Cherokee Homeland through Indigenous Historical GIS: An Interactive Map of James Mooney's Ethnographic Fieldwork and Cherokee Collective Memory
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/67192018-01-31T20:08:11Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Shinn, Jamie Elizabeth
2010-10-03T03:03:07Z
2010-10-03T03:03:07Z
2010-06-04
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10979
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6719
Many of Africa's coastal areas are experiencing alarming levels of degradation. In response, marine conservation efforts there are on the rise, many of which claim community empowerment as an essential goal. Researchers have begun to use theories of political ecology to study the ways in which conservation practices in Africa can negatively affect communities living near protected areas. However, much of this important research is focused on land-based ecosystems and has overlooked coastal regions. This thesis begins to fill that gap by using a political ecology-based approach to understand the complex historical, political, and environmental factors that affect issues of degradation and conservation in the Menai Bay Conservation Area of Zanzibar, Tanzania. This study combines fieldwork and a literature review to conclude that while the conservation area recognizes the importance of authentic community empowerment, it has yet to achieve that goal, thereby compromising the overall success of the project.
en
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
African studies
Environmental studies
Coastal conservation
Political ecology
Tanzania
Political Ecology and Coastal Conservation: A Case Study of Menai Bay Conservation Area, Tanzania
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/122252020-10-08T13:33:54Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Burke, Cristin
2013-09-29T15:25:40Z
2013-09-29T15:25:40Z
2013-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12902
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12225
Studies of territorial cohesion combine aspects of effective national territory and spatial inequalities, focusing on better integration of regions through balanced economic growth, reducing regional disparities, and inclusive policies toward all citizens. Lack of cohesion and instability result from poorly managed government expenditures, clan politics, and policies toward minority ethnic groups. I examine territorial cohesion in Kazakhstan, focusing on territorial efficiency, quality, and identity to evaluate how government policies play out across the country. Analysis of official statistics shows that there is improvement in territorial efficiency and quality for most citizens, with the greatest investment in the resource-producing areas and in the rural south. There is less investment in the more heavily-Russified north. Not surprisingly, there is greater territorial identity in the south than in the north, which feels increasingly disenfranchised. This analysis was borne out in a survey of 255 university students. Ethnic Russians from the north felt most disenfranchised due to lack of opportunities and discrimination, while ethnic Kazakhs were more likely to view the future of the country positively and believe that they had greater opportunities. This research suggests that a multi-pronged approach toward territorial cohesion can be most helpful for both the governments of newly independent countries and for external assistance.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Economic development
Kazakhstan
Social cohesion
Territorial cohesion
Power in Transition: The Spatial Variation of Territorial Cohesion in Kazakhstan
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/79972020-08-18T14:15:17Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Campbell, Gabriel Scott
2011-09-04T12:39:38Z
2011-09-04T12:39:38Z
2011-05-28
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11598
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7997
Drawing inspiration from numerous place image studies in geography and other social sciences, this dissertation examines the senses of place and regional identity shaped by more than seven hundred American television series that aired from 1947 to 2007. Each state's relative share of these programs is described. The geographic themes, patterns, and images from these programs are analyzed, with an emphasis on identity in five American regions: the Mid-Atlantic, New England, the Midwest, the South, and the West. The dissertation concludes with a comparison of television's senses of place to those described in previous studies of regional identity.
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Regional identity
Sense of place
Television
United States
PERFECTION, WRETCHED, NORMAL, AND NOWHERE: A REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN TELEVISION SETTINGS
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/241732018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Hubbard, Matthew Hubbard
2017-05-15T03:06:26Z
2017-05-15T03:06:26Z
2016-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15024
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/24173
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the historical membership patterns of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) on a regional and council scale. Using Annual Report data, maps were created to show membership patterns within the BSA’s 12 regions, and over 300 councils when available. The examination of maps reveals the membership impacts of internal and external policy changes upon the Boy Scouts of America. The maps also show how American cultural shifts have impacted the BSA. After reviewing this thesis, the reader should have a greater understanding of the creation, growth, dispersion, and eventual decline in membership of the Boy Scouts of America. Due to the popularity of the organization, and its long history, the reader may also glean some information about American culture in the 20th century as viewed through the lens of the BSA’s rise and fall in popularity.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
History
Boy Scouts of America
Mapping
Membership Patterns
Scale
Thiessen Polygons
A Cartographic Depiction and Exploration of the Boy Scouts of America's Historical Membership Patterns
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/279622019-08-27T18:10:28Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Burt, Dakota James
2019-05-18T18:27:00Z
2019-05-18T18:27:00Z
2018-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16134
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27962
The Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 Gilman Canyon Formation (GCF) is a unique stratigraphic unit prevalent throughout the Central Great Plains of North America and serves as an important underutilized archive of paleoenvironmental data. This study focuses on the GCF in central Kansas where it contains two cumulic paleosols and an intervening detrital unit, which have been radiocarbon dated ~46 ka to 24 ka, a period that spans most of MIS 3. Herein, newly obtained stable isotope, elemental, enviromagnetic, phytolith, particulate charcoal, particle size, color, and observational data from the GCF are used to generate the most comprehensive look at the MIS 3 environment in the Central Great Plains to date. In the distal portion of the Central Great Plains loess plume the GCF supported a moderately active soil community dominated by C4 grass prairies, suggesting a warm fairly dry climate prevailed during most of MIS 3.
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Geomorphology
Climate change
Central Great Plains
Gilman Canyon Formation
MIS 3
paleoenvironment
paleosol
A Paleosol-Derived Environmental Perspective on MIS 3 in the Central Great Plains
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/103152020-09-14T13:24:15Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Welch, Ivan
2012-10-28T17:01:48Z
2012-10-28T17:01:48Z
2012-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12109
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10315
Geography is a disciple of discovery and exploration. From earliest human endeavor until today, it remains the key to understanding human interaction with the landscape. A conceptual framework of geographic factors provides a holistic analytical approach to the complex systems experienced by humankind across the globe. Physical, Cultural, Economic, and Political variables combine to create the environment of individuals and nations. A holistic and comprehensive framework of geographical variables is needed for a systematic study of geostrategic issues for the purposes of policy making and strategic planning. Geographic scale, its impact on human action and incorporation into human culture, is pervasive. These factors of geography and their variables must be applicable at many scales of human interaction and experience. The complex system of human geo-strategic interaction demands this. Humans are a product of the natural environment, fundamentally a part of the planet. This basic context energizes the processes flowing within the geographic variables. Human nature, acting in the spatial context, is the engine of human generated change that moves through time and is measured on the landscape. It is possible to model this reality and study the interaction. This interaction is observable and informative. The purpose of this dissertation is to identify geographic variables that inform a systematic approach to the analysis of geostrategic issues. These geographic factors have been drawn from the legacy of geographic thought and imagination. The factors and their corresponding variables operate holistically in cycles of action measured across space and time. By use of basic statistical analysis, lines of enquiry can be identified for the expanded use of Agent-Based Models for the purpose of inferential predictive analysis. The unique contribution of this dissertation is a novel conceptual construct for analysis of complex systems in a geostrategic context. The contribution is four-fold: First the organization of geographic factors into a linked field of key variables. Second the creation of a multi-modal process of these variables through a nested set of operational imperatives. Thirdly the construction of the operational imperatives process cycle which informs the resulting fourth contribution of a predictive path of inquiry and analysis.
en
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This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Agent-based model
Culture
Economy
Geostrategic
Predictive
Geography: Critical Factors in the Analysis of Complex Systems
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/314492021-02-23T09:00:51Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Lash, Robert Ryan
2021-02-22T21:25:17Z
2021-02-22T21:25:17Z
2007-12-31
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31449
Understanding malaria's geographic occurrence throughout the world is amazingly complex. Jacques May wrote that "a whole atlas, comprising several dozens of maps, could justifiably be devoted to the cartographical representation of what we now know about malaria and its geographical significance." Three themes motivate this work: (1) renewed interest in the occurrence of malaria in Africa, (2) the popularity of research using a Geographic Information System (GIS) to estimate the economic burden of malaria, and (3) an appreciation for the challenges faced when mapping malaria. Selected malaria maps of the 20th century from the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Geographical Society (AGS), and others, are analyzed to identify the way maps are used to communicate information about malaria. Conclusions are drawn about the use of GIS for mapping malaria, and an argument for the importance of cartographically informed GIS users is made.
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Science history
Epidemiology
Managing malaria: Selected maps of the twentieth century.
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/78352020-08-13T14:11:17Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Allen, Andrew
2011-08-02T14:09:07Z
2011-08-02T14:09:07Z
2011-04-27
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11532
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7835
Knowing how, when, and where people moved into an area helps to understand past and present culture. Post office establishment dates can serve as a proxy of settlement if one considers a township settled once a post office is established within or adjacent to its boundaries. The resultant patterns, when mapped, reveal the relative importance of availability, productivity and accessibility of land to the settlement process. A plethora of land policies and laws were implemented to distribute land. With few exceptions, the widespread availability of land had little impact on the settlement patterns. Nebraska's image, which changed according to shifting climatic conditions, affected the speed of settlement. Transportation networks, particularly rivers and then railroads, were important considerations for settlers, too, as these affected access to market. A better understanding of the settlement patterns in Nebraska is achieved when considering these conditions and local history.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
History
Historical geography
Nebraska
Post offices
Settlement
Post Offices as a Measure of Nebraska's Settlement Frontier
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/59982020-07-29T15:50:28Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Day, Stephanie L.
2010-03-18T05:05:51Z
2010-03-18T05:05:51Z
2009-12-03
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10620
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5998
Truck stops provide a tie to place for mobile, long-haul drivers. Truckers rely on these businesses for necessities and help to shape their form and function with their perceptions and actions. An increasing domination of the industry by chain operations impacts these perceptions. Using interviews and field observations to determine drivers' sense of place, I find that, although feelings regarding truck stops vary, most drivers choose where to stop based on fuel, food, and restrooms.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Mobility
Sense of place
Truck stops
Home Away from Home: The Evolution and Meaning of American Truck Stops
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/223812018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Zautner, Eric
2017-01-02T21:18:24Z
2017-01-02T21:18:24Z
2016-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14871
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/22381
Desert varnish is a commonly occurring feature on surface rocks of stable landforms in arid regions. The objectives of this study were to investigate how desert varnish is related to the properties of the rocks on which it forms and how varnish is related to landform surface age and stability. To accomplish these objectives, approximately 350 varnished rocks from previously dated sites in the Mojave Desert were collected, photographed, converted to 3-D models, and analyzed to determine the extent, intensity, and patterns of desert varnish and how the desert varnish was related to land surface age and stability. Our results show a link between increasingly stronger varnish expression and both landform age and stability. We found a potential interaction between vesicular (V) horizons and the formation of the rubified ventral varnish. The rocks in this study showed a maximum varnish expression at a depth below the embedding plane that corresponded to the depth of V horizons when present and the lowest portion of the rock when absent. When V horizons were present, the varnish tended to be strongest near the lower boundary of these horizons. This interaction between the V horizons and location of maximum varnish expression on the rock may be due to the effect of V horizons on infiltration and the retention of water at those depths. The relationship between ventral rubification, rock size, and age shown in this study suggest that stable land surface environments (i.e., stable landforms and large surface rocks) create conditions needed for strongly expressed varnish. In the absence of traditional dating techniques, these relationships could be used to estimate the ages of Mojave Desert landforms.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geomorphology
Geography
color
photogrammetry
vesicular horizon
Surface Rock Controls on the Development of Desert Varnish in the Mojave Desert
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102712020-09-21T13:53:51Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Golon, Danielle Kristin
2012-10-28T15:37:18Z
2012-10-28T15:37:18Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12298
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10271
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5179-2093
The Galápagos Islands are known for their unique flora and fauna. These flora and fauna are what attract almost 200,000 tourists to the islands annually; as a result, tourism is the main economic force on the islands. It is important to remember that the Galápagos Islands have a population of 25,000 residents living on five islands. Through 97 surveys and interviews, this study peers into the life of the Galapagueños on San Cristóbal Island and what issues they believe are important there. The study found that residents do not believe that basic human necessities, such as water quality and health care, are being met on the islands. In addition, residents are also concerned about various social issues that are developing on the island, partially due to the tourism industry's presence.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Latin American studies
Recreation and tourism
Galapagos islands
Galapagueños
San Cristobal
Tourism
The Galápagos Perspective: Concerns about life on the Galápagos Islands from the perspective of residents of San Cristóbal
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/145782018-02-02T23:08:48Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Purdon, Kyle
2014-07-05T17:43:01Z
2014-07-05T17:43:01Z
2014-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13347
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14578
The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) at The University of Kansas has collected approximately 700 TB of radar depth sounding data over the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets since 1993 in an effort to map the thickness of the ice sheets and ultimately understand the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. In addition to data collection, the storage, management, and public distribution of the dataset are also one of the primary roles of CReSIS. The OpenPolarServer (OPS) project developed a free and open source spatial data infrastructure (SDI) to store, manage, analyze, and distribute the data collected by CReSIS in an effort to replace its current data storage and distribution approach. The OPS SDI includes a spatial database management system (DBMS), map and web server, JavaScript geoportal, and application programming interface (API) for the inclusion of data created by the cryosphere community. Open source software including GeoServer, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, OpenLayers, ExtJS, GeoEXT and others are used to build a system that modernizes the CReSIS SDI for the entire cryosphere community and creates a flexible platform for future development.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geographic information science and geodesy
Computer science
Web studies
Cresis
Cryosphere
Openpolarserver
Open source
Spatial data infrastucture
Web application
OpenPolarServer (OPS) - An Open Source Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Cryosphere Community
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/53932020-06-18T00:25:18Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
An, Nan
2009-08-07T22:29:19Z
2009-08-07T22:29:19Z
2009-01-26
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10181
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5393
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2452-1615
Aboveground Net Primary Productivity (ANPP) is indicative of an ecosystem's ability to capture solar energy and store it in the form of carbon (or biomass). Annual and interannual ecosystem variation in ANPP is often linked to climatic dynamics and anthropogenic influences. The Great Plains grasslands occupy over 1.5 million km2 and are a primary resource for livestock production in North America. The tallgrass prairies are the most productive of the grasslands of the region and the Flint Hills of North America represent the largest contiguous area of unplowed tallgrass prairie (1.6 million ha) (Knapp and Seastead, 1998). Measurements of ANPP are of critical importance to the proper management and understanding of climatic and anthropogenic influences on tallgrass prairie, yet accurate, detailed, and systematic measurements of ANPP over large geographic regions of this system do not exist. For these reasons, this study was conducted to investigate the use of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to model ANPP for the tallgrass prairie. Many studies have established a positive relationship between the NDVI and ANPP, but the strength of this relationship is influenced by vegetation types and can significantly vary from year-to-year depending on land use and climatic conditions. The goal of this study is to develop a robust model using the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) biweekly NDVI values to predict tallgrass ANPP. This study was conducted using the Konza Prairie Biological Station as the primary study area with data also from the Rannells Flint Hills Prairie Preserve and other sites near Manhattan, Kansas. The dominant study period was 1989 to 2005. The optimal period for estimating ANPP using AVHRR NDVI composite datasets is prairie 30 (late July). The Tallgrass ANPP Model (TAM) explained 53% (r2 = 0.53, r = 0.73) of the year-to-year variation. Efforts to validate the TAM results were frustrated by considerable variations among existing remote sensing based ANPP model estimates and in situ clipplot measurements of peak season tallgrass production. These findings support the conclusion that ecosystem specific ANPP models are needed to improve global scale ANPP estimates. The creation of 1 km x 1 km resolution ANPP maps for a four county (~7,000 ha) for years 1989 - 2007 showed considerable variation in annual and interannual ANPP spatial patterns suggesting complex interactions among factors influencing ANPP spatially and temporally. The observed patterns on these maps would be lost using the much coarser resolution ground weather recording stations.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Annual net primary productivity
AVHRR
NDVI
Tallgrass ecosystem
ESTIMATING ANNUAL NET PRIMARY PRODUCTIVITY OF THE TALLGRASS PRAIRIE ECOSYSTEM OF THE CENTRAL GREAT PLAINS USING AVHRR NDVI
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/60152020-07-29T14:55:06Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Baffa, Thomas W.
2010-03-18T13:43:04Z
2010-03-18T13:43:04Z
2009-12-18
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10697
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6015
This paper examines whether groundwater can provide adequate water supplies for land use change and future development in Garden Park, Colorado. A climatic water budget model was used to determine the amount and adequacy of the groundwater supply for future use in Garden Park, Colorado. The model was used to determine a baseline amount of available water during the years 1975 through 2000. The model was then applied to the drought period of the "Dust Bowl" (1930-1939) years to determine the water supply in Garden Park during that time period. Finally, the model was used to project water supply conditions in Garden Park in the future based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change temperature and precipitation projections during the period of 2080-2099 and applying the results to Garden Park. Future conditions in Garden Park are projected to be warmer than the baseline period with winter precipitation falling as rain.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Water resource management
Climate change
Garden park
Colorado
Water resources
Water Resources and Climate Change in Garden Park, Colorado
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/206702018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Bents, Timothy Carl
2016-04-11T16:12:54Z
2016-04-11T16:12:54Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14375
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/20670
This research explores the application of multistripe laser triangulation (MLT) three-dimensional scanning to better understand soil structural constraints and predict soil hydraulic properties. Study sites for this work were located in Northeast Kansas, and split between the University of Kansas Field Station and the Kansas State Konza Prairie Biological Station. At each site, descriptions were made, soils were sampled, and profiles were scanned in situ using MLT. This thesis addressed two questions. First, do physical properties constrain the expression of soil structure? Particle-size distribution, organic carbon, and coefficient of linear extensibility were the physical properties examined and each appeared to constrain various aspects of soil structure. Second, can the soil hydraulic properties of field capacity, permanent wilting point, inflection point, and saturation water contents, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and effective porosity be predicted from MLT-quantified metrics of soil structure? Soils were equilibrated to a range of pressure potentials to generate water retention data for each site and hydraulic parameters were estimated from curves fitted to the data. These parameters were regressed against soil structural metrics to create structure-based pedotransfer functions for hydraulic properties. Results indicated that soil structural metrics can be used to successfully and accurately predict soil hydraulic properties.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Soil sciences
Hydrologic sciences
Agriculture
3-D scanning
Hydrology
Mulstripe laser triangulation (MLT)
Physical geography
Soil science
Soil structure
UNDERSTANDING THE PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS OF SOIL STRUCTURE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOIL HYDRAULIC PROPERTIES
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/52392020-07-23T12:17:42Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Fertig, Christopher Jost
2009-05-31T22:15:11Z
2009-05-31T22:15:11Z
2008-01-01
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10109
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5239
Abstract. Geographers considering the subjects of tourism and tourist destinations have by in large focused on inherent environmental and economic impacts. Culturally, areas of leisure and recreation, termed "pleasuring places" by Wilbur Zelinsky, are often dismissed as artificial and being devoid of any real meaning. Precious little has been written that builds upon or is in response to Zelinsky's theory of voluntary culture regions. Contrary to the prevailing outlook, honest reflection reveals that such places have a great deal to say about current the attitudes and direction of modern society. Thus, areas centered upon pleasure and the therapeutic provide a critical lens for the examiner of culture, and are likewise, dynamic cultural phenomenon. Vail, Colorado, in particular, has transcended place into becoming a potent cultural icon, exemplifying the unique values of pleasuring places in its history, singularity in purpose and function, material culture, and sense of place.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Pleasuring place
Sense of place
Tourism
Vail
Colorado
Voluntary culture region
Vail, Colorado, as a Voluntary Culture Region
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39782018-01-31T20:08:15Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Freire, Sergio Carneiro
2008-07-21T23:11:38Z
2008-07-21T23:11:38Z
2007-12-20
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2347
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/3978
Most official population censuses release a total count of residents by census area, despite the fact that the distribution of population varies widely in space and time. Increasingly, better spatial representation of population distributions are required for many applications, especially at the local scale. Combining available statistical and physiographic data sets, a dasymetric interpolation approach was developed and tested to produce 2001 spatio-temporal representations of population distributions for the municipalities of Cascais and Oeiras in Portugal. This model was implemented within a geographic information system using streets as a spatial basis to allocate population. For each municipality, digital raster maps of nighttime, daytime, daytime residential, daytime worker and student, total daytime, and ambient population densities were produced at high spatial resolution. Quality assessment procedures confirmed that the method suits the objectives. However, the accuracy of results is mostly dependent on the quality of input data sets.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Population density
Dasymetric mapping
Areal interpolation
GIS
Cascais
Oeiras
MODELING DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME POPULATION DISTRIBUTIONS IN PORTUGAL USING GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/218072018-01-31T20:07:47Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Artman, Vincent Michael
2016-11-03T23:18:13Z
2016-11-03T23:18:13Z
2016-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14601
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/21807
Since becoming independent in 1991, Kyrgyzstan has endured two revolutions, ethnic violence, and economic decay. Against this tumultuous background have been ongoing attempts to construct a viable Kyrgyz nationalism and the “resurgence” of religion in the public sphere. In many respects, however, these phenomena have been conceptualized as being largely independent of one another. Similarly, religion – and Islam in particular – has sometimes been depicted as an ideological “alternative” to a congenitally weak and fractured Kyrgyz national identity, and as an autonomous force to be confronted, tamed, and instrumentalized by the state. This dissertation seeks to reassess the seemingly fraught nature of the relationship between religion, politics, and identity. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Kyrgyzstan in 2014, it argues that religious and political geographies should not be viewed as fundamentally alienated from one another. Rather, the territorial logic of the nation-state inevitably exerts a powerful influence on the religious imaginary, while religion in turn constitutes a crucial site for the formation of national identity and the legitimation of state power. This dynamic points to the enduring centrality of the nation-state during an era of continuing globalization, as well as the need for further attention devoted to understanding and acknowledging the critical importance of religious discourses in the constructing political identities and geographies.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Religion
Eurasia
Islam
Memory
Nationalism
Political Geography
Secularism
The State and the Sacred: Memory, Theology, and Identity in Kyrgyzstan
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/145312018-01-31T20:08:11Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Eck, Dennis V.
2014-07-05T16:18:57Z
2014-07-05T16:18:57Z
2014-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13395
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14531
Soil structure is a fundamental property referring to the morphology of soil aggregates and the network of void spaces between them. Structure affects many pedogenic, hydrological, and other ecosystem service processes. While its importance is generally recognized, the tortuous nature of soil structure and its variable size and expression make this property difficult to quantify, especially at the pit scale. The absence of quantitative soil structure metrics also inhibits the ability to accurately model water flux. This research explores the application of multistripe laser triangulation (MLT) scanning to a soil profile in the field. MLT scan data were analyzed for their ability to quantitatively characterize soil structure. The study site was located near Lawrence, KS in a Grundy soil series with vertic properties, where soil moisture sensors were installed in a lysimeter next to an exposed profile. Several logistical problems concerning MLT field operations and data processing are addressed in this work including: ambient light, MLT scanner positioning in relation to the soil surface, and post-processing procedures for the resulting data. MLT scans capture the profile surface along with areas of missing data, termed surface scan gaps (SSGs), which represent preferential flow paths (PFPs) actually observed in the soil. Metrics describing SSGs were first studied to determine whether the digital data could be related to conditions observed in the field. These metrics were then examined in relation to soil hydraulic parameters, especially saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and water retention curve (WRC) parameters. Soil moisture data collected at the lysimeter, in conjunction with atmospheric data from an adjacent tower, were used as inputs for Hydrus 1-D to predict, then separately to verify hydraulic parameters that were obtained using quantitative soil structure metrics. Several close relationships were identified with WRC parameters such as α and n, as well as relationships with Ks. These connections, enabled by quantification of soil structure as a continuous rather than categorical variable through field-based measurements, present an opportunity to inform soil water flux models and advance the understanding of mechanisms underlying field-scale cycling of soil water.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Soil sciences
Physical geography
Hydraulic conductivity
Hydraulic properties
Lysimeter
Multistripe laser triangulation scanning
Quantitative metrics
Soil structure
Quantitative Metrics of Soil Structure and Relationships to Hydraulic Properties in a Vertic Argiudoll
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/250092017-12-13T20:31:04Zcom_1808_1815col_1808_14127
Vanderveen, Cornelis J.
2017-09-22T19:37:35Z
2017-09-22T19:37:35Z
2016-06-29
van der Veen, C. J.: Basal buoyancy and fast-moving glaciers: in defense of analytic force balance, The Cryosphere, 10, 1331-1337, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1331-2016, 2016.
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/25009
10.5194/tc-10-1331-2016
The geometric approach to force balance advocated by T. Hughes in a series of publications has challenged the analytic approach by implying that the latter does not adequately account for basal buoyancy on ice streams, thereby neglecting the contribution to the gravitational driving force associated with this basal buoyancy. Application of the geometric approach to Byrd Glacier, Antarctica, yields physically unrealistic results, and it is argued that this is because of a key limiting assumption in the geometric approach. A more traditional analytic treatment of force balance shows that basal buoyancy does not affect the balance of forces on ice streams, except locally perhaps, through bridging effects.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
openAccess
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Basal buoyancy and fast-moving glaciers: in defense of analytic force balance
Article
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/184052018-01-31T20:07:49Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Woodburn, Terri Lee
2015-09-07T21:49:28Z
2015-09-07T21:49:28Z
2014-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13802
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18405
This dissertation takes a multiple-proxy approach to a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Holocene--Pleistocene Transition represented by the Brady Soil in the central Great Plains. To better understand this dynamic time of climate change, and to overcome the limitations of previous analyses using stable carbon isotope data, this study employs phytoliths to provide specific information on paleovegetation communities and quantitative shifts of plant taxa. Climatic indices based on both short- and large-cell phytolith frequencies add needed data on shifts of relative temperature (C3:C4 Grassland Ratio), water stress on plants (Bulliform Index), and soil moisture (from a proposed Soil Moisture Index). Analysis of short cell phytoliths reveals quantitative plant taxa shifts from Pooideae (C3) dominant grasses, with relatively large numbers of arboreal dicot spheres and a few Cyperaceae (sedge) present in a savannah or open woodland setting in the Bølling-Allerød climatic period (~14.6 ka to 12.9 ka), to a mixed, open grassland of Chloridoideae (C4) and Pooideae (C3) in the early Holocene. Stipa-type Pooideae, a cool-season grass preferring drier soil conditions, marks the onset of the Younger Dryas (~12.9 ka to 11.7 ka), which was previously not revealed in δ13C analysis. Brady Soil bioturbation was examined to provide a new proxy for paleoenvironmental conditions in addition to determining the effect of bioturbation particular to this soil on sediment transportation through the profile. Through macro- and micromorphology, particle size, soil color, and phytolith signatures, it was determined that invertebrate activity (primarily by cicada nymphs (Cicadidae) or burrower bugs (Cydnidae) of the Naktodemasis bowni ichnotaxon) was highly localized (diffusive mixing). Similar modern burrowers tend to be correlated with woody vegetation necessary throughout their lifecycle. Increased activity of cicada within the Bkb horizon corroborates phytolith reconstruction, indicating savannah to open woodland conditions during this time of Brady Soil pedogenesis. Non-local (advective) mixing is also prevalent due to vertebrate activity. Burrow and chamber construction, size parameters, and scratch traces indicate activity by prairie dog (Cynomys sp.) or ground squirrel (Spermophilus sp.).
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Geology
micromorphology
paleoclimate
phytoliths
Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Brady Soil in the Nebraska loess uplands using biosilicate and bioturbation analyses
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/45312020-07-23T13:09:01Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Fusco, Audrey Corinne
2009-05-08T22:21:48Z
2009-05-08T22:21:48Z
2008-01-01
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10100
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4531
There is a tendency in food systems research and planning to associate sustainable and socially just food provisioning with the local scale. This thesis questions the assumption that food security and environmental sustainability are best achieved through small scales of organization. I examine the relationship between scale and food provisioning by applying scale and politics of scale theory to a case study of Cuba's food system. I analyze several historical periods leading up to and including the Special Period which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. During the Special Period Cuba's food system was focused on achieving national food security and environmental sustainability. Analysis of the Special Period focuses on changes that occurred at multiple scales. The thesis concludes with ideas about how to move beyond the argument for rescaling and forward to a discussion of how to actually create food provisioning systems that are sustainable and just.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Sociology
Social structure and development
Agriculture
Geography
Cuba
Food provisioning
Local food
Scale
Special period
Sustainable agriculture
Local Food, Sustainability, and Cuba's National Food Program
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/190112018-07-23T17:26:06Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Barve, Vijay V.
2015-12-02T23:38:35Z
2015-12-02T23:38:35Z
2015-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14003
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19011
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4852-2567
An ever-increasing need exists for fine-scale biodiversity occurrence records for a broad variety of research applications in biodiversity and science more generally. Even though large-scale data aggregators like GBIF serve such data in large quantities, major gaps and biases still exist, both in taxonomic coverage and in spatial coverage. To address these gaps, in this dissertation, I explored social networking sites (SNS) as a rich potential source of additional biodiversity occurrence records. In my first chapter, I explored the idea of discovering, extracting, and organizing massive numbers of biodiversity occurrence records now available on SNSs. I presented a proof-of-concept with Flickr as the SNS and Snowy Owls (Bubo scandiacus) and Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) as target species. The methods presented in this chapter can easily be used for any other SNS, region, or species group. These approaches are broadly applicable to animal and plant groups that are photographed, and that can be identified from photographs with some degree of confidence (e.g., birds, butterflies, cetaceans, orchids, dragonflies, amphibians, and plants). SNS thus offer a rich new source of biodiversity data. To understand the strengths and weaknesses of biodiversity data, we need effective tools by which to explore and visualize these data. I developed a suite of such tools in an R package called bdvis, which is described in chapter two. The package allows users to explore spatial, temporal, and taxonomic dimensions of biodiversity data sets to highlight gaps and identify strengths. In the third chapter, I explored Flickr further as a source of biodiversity data for the birds of the world, to assess the potential of augmenting the largest portal to biodiversity occurrence data, i.e., the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GBIF provides access to ~190 x 106 bird records, compared to ~7 x 106 that I could discover from Flickr, out of which only ~1.3 x 106 were geotagged. However, the Flickr data showed the potential to add to knowledge about birds in terms of geographic, taxonomic, and temporal dimensions, as Flickr data tended to be complementary to the GBIF-derived information. Finally, I developed a case study to investigate the quantity of records existing, and the quality of identifications by users on Flickr. I developed a detailed case study of Indian swallowtail butterflies, and implemented a crowd-sourcing platform to recruit identification expertise and apply it to butterfly photographs from the SNS. Results were encouraging, with 93% correct identities for records of this family of butterflies from across India.
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Geography
Biodiversity Informatics
data discovery
Data Visualization
Digital Accessible Knowledge
Primary Biodiversity Records
Social Networking Sites
Discovering and developing primary biodiversity data from social networking sites
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/64642020-08-03T16:32:21Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Overly, Thomas Buckmaster
2010-07-30T10:52:25Z
2010-07-30T10:52:25Z
2010-04-28
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10942
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6464
High vertical-resolution 0.5&mdash2 GHz frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar data collected near Summit on the Greenland Ice Sheet reveal continuous horizons connecting the GRIP and GISP2 deep ice cores. Traced radar horizons to 150 meters depth are compared to physical properties, age-depth relationships, and accumulation rates from ice cores near Summit. Having established the radar horizons as annual accumulation markers, a 350-year record of accumulation rate is derived and analyzed spatially and temporally. Accumulation characteristics such as spatial noise, long-term accumulation rate, and climate fluctuations are determined. Averaging accumulation across 1000&mdash2000 m eliminates most spatial noise associated with small-scale surface perturbations, providing a good approximation of the local accumulation rate. Overall, a detailed record of accumulation is gained, indicating that near-surface radar surveys can take the place of shallow ice cores for examining accumulation history, improving knowledge of spatial and temporal variability, spatial and temporal noise, and other accumulation characteristics.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Remote sensing
Physical geography
Geographic information sciences
Accumulation
Annual-layer horizons
Cryosphere
Greenland
Radar
Radio echo sounding
Assessing and Analyzing Near-Surface Radar Snow Accumulation Layers at Summit, Greenland
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/206692018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Andrzejewski, Kolbe D.
2016-04-11T16:10:03Z
2016-04-11T16:10:03Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14274
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/20669
River metamorphosis is a well-documented global phenomenon, particularly for the historic period. The Arkansas River in western Kansas is an example of a river channel that has undergone a major historical metamorphosis: the pre-1900’s channel was wide, shallow and braided, but subsequently transformed into a narrow, sinuous meandering system. This study establishes the relationship between the hydrology and dynamics of channel morphology, determined the period in which the metamorphosis occurred, and quantified the channel change. In order to document channel change along a reach of the Arkansas River within the Kansas High Plains this study used ArcGIS to evaluate aerial photography for seven discrete years within the past 75 years, USGS stream gages to document the historical decrease in discharge, Public Land Survey records to characterize early settlement channel widths, and lesser sources such as historical ground-based images and bridge construction plans to further document historical changes in channel morphology. Channel width and sinuosity were measured and recorded for each year of aerial photography to quantitatively determine the magnitude of change and to characterize progression of the historical metamorphosis. The river channel has narrowed by about 145 meters and increased in sinuosity from 1.22 to 1.46 since the acquisition of the first aerial photography (1939). Historical changes in the channel morphology have occurred because of many anthropogenic modifications including a dam, irrigation diversion canals, and groundwater pumping for center pivot irrigation systems. These anthropogenic influences have directly altered the hydrology of the river by decreasing mean annual discharge, reducing peak annual flows, and lowering the water table. The upstream part of the study reach, near the Colorado-Kansas border experiences sporadic flows and has a narrow sinuous channel, where the discharge is actively building and stabilizing the floodplain and channel banks. The downstream reach, below irrigation diversions, channel width increases and sinuosity decreases, where the surface flow is extremely rare, resulting in little or no channel change. Upstream reaches, near Syracuse, have high sinuosity values from riparian vegetation stabilizing point bars and cutbanks, whereas downstream reaches, near Garden City, have low sinuosity values due to minimal riparian vegetation. The character of the Arkansas River channel within the Kansas High Plains may continue its present trajectory as long as the present-day hydrologic regime is maintained and the prevailing climate is unchanged.
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Geomorphology
Geography
Geology
Arkansas River
Fluvial Geomorphology
River Channel Change
River Channel Morphology
River Metamorphosis
HISTORICAL METAMORPHOSIS OF THE ARKANSAS RIVER ON THE KANSAS HIGH PLAINS
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/298932021-03-05T16:53:01Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Nosshi, Maged Ikram
2020-01-17T22:56:00Z
2020-01-17T22:56:00Z
2019-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16386
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/29893
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-2384
While the most productive ecosystems on Earth, correspondingly the most diverse, function within limitations of energy and resource flows, the general approach of high-yielding agriculture, in contrast, has been to simplify and replace key ecosystem functions with non-renewable inputs. Restoring ecological processes in agriculture requires some understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Here, I explore a unifying framework regarding the coupling between ecosystem structure and function. Namely, that the capacity of water-limited ecosystems to optimize water use, or resist stress is a product of their life-form diversity. I apply this hypothesis to infer the response of structurally contrasting ecosystems at a wide range of scales: (i) At the plot scale, I test the role of resource complementarity (“niche-based” mechanisms) in a perennial grain-legume intercrop, using stable isotope analysis. (ii) At the sub-continental scale, I use satellite data to explore the response of one of the most variable terrestrial biomes, tropical savanna, to rainfall variability. I employ different approaches to demonstrate the degree of coupling between ecosystem response and the environmental forcing. The dissertation concludes by summarizing the key findings and outlining further work needed to explore the role of ecosystem structure on function in water-limited systems. I discuss the implications of niche complementarity on resource relationships of biologically diverse agroecosystems, emphasizing the need for a re-evaluation of the conceptual framework used to envision niche complementarity to account for alternative resource acquisition pathways. I explore the role of savanna hydrophenology as a stabilizing mechanism, relating patterns of synchrony to savanna structure and composition. The relevance of this work is directly linked to the loss of ecological function which manifests in agriculture’s growing dependence on fossil energy to mask diminishing returns from extractive use of land and water resources. Enriched knowledge of potential mechanisms, coupling structural diversity with ecosystem function, in both natural and managed ecosystems, will provide insight into the ecological basis for diversity driven processes in water-limited ecosystems.
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Ecology
Climate variability
Ecosystem Function
Ecosystem Structure
Life Form Diversity
Resource Partitioning
Savanna Hydrophenology
Structural diversity and ecosystem-resource relationships in tropical savanna and a legume-cereal intercrop
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/41122018-01-31T20:08:08Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Woodburn, Terri Lee
2008-09-07T23:51:02Z
2008-09-07T23:51:02Z
2008-05-13
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2428
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4112
Historical channel change for the Wakarusa River in east-central Kansas was assessed for both temporal and spatial transformations. Re-measurement of selected section-line channel crossings from the federal land surveys of 1855 and 1856 revealed significant channel widening occurring both immediately above and below Clinton Reservoir. Narrowing in the uppermost headwater region and in the lowest reaches of the Wakarusa River is indicated, but is not statistically significant. Aerial photographic evidence indicates that spatial channel position change between pre- and post- reservoir construction has been minimal. Prior work in Douglas County by Dort (n.d.) and comparisons of federal land surveys to modern aerial photography in Shawnee County indicates that there was a much more active channel between the time of Euro-American settlement and the 1950s when agricultural conservation practices were in affect.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Wakarusa river
Anthropogenic influence
Channel change
Historical Response of the Wakarusa River Channel to Anthropogenic Influences
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/64312020-08-03T15:46:50Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Dobbs, Kevin Edward
2010-07-25T22:39:48Z
2010-07-25T22:39:48Z
2010-04-27
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10894
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6431
The Kansas Biological Survey has developed a library of modeled flood inundation extents, using the FLDPLN model, for major streams across Kansas that can be accessed in near real-time to provide valuable information to disaster responders. This research 1) examines the USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) and evaluates the affects of errors in the elevation data on flood inundation extent estimation and 2) evaluates the capabilities and limitations of the FLDPLN model for inundation extent estimation. Results showed that, although the accuracy of pre-LiDAR NED is better than published figures, modeled flood extents vary significantly when using LiDAR-derived vs. pre-LiDAR NED elevation data inputs. Comparison of modeled flood extents for HEC-RAS, HAZUS, and FLDPLN models for both hypothetical and empirical floods events showed greater correspondence at high flood stages. Improved elevation data and empirical low flood data would offer improved flood extent estimates and more robust model evaluation.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Geographic information sciences
Hydrology
Fldpln
Flooding
Floodplain
Hazus
Hec-ras
Modeling
Evaluation of the Usgs National Elevation Dataset and the Kansas Biological Survey's FLDPLN ("Floodplain") Model for Inundation Extent Estimation
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/168622018-01-31T20:08:15Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Fish, Carly Sue
2015-02-25T20:01:27Z
2015-02-25T20:01:27Z
2014-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13606
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/16862
Low − level clouds have a significant influence on the Earth's radiation budget and it is thus imperative to understand their behavior within the marine boundary layer (MBL). The cloud properties in the Northeast Atlantic region are highly variable in space and time and are a research focus for many atmospheric scientists. Characterizing the synoptic patterns in the region through the implementation of self-organizing maps (SOMs) enables a climatological grasp of cloud and atmospheric fields. ERA – Interim and MODIS provide the platform to explore the variability in the Northeast Atlantic for over 30 years of data. Station data comes from CAP – MBL on Graciosa Island in the Azores, which lies in a strong gradient of cloud and other atmospheric fields, offer an opportunity to incorporate an observational aspect for the years of 2009 and 2010.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Atlantic
characterizing
low-level clouds
self-organizing maps
stratocumulus
synoptic
Characterizing synoptic and cloud variability in the Northern Atlantic using self-organizing maps
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/278922020-10-12T14:36:59Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Mohammed, Aoesta Khalid
2019-05-12T18:05:56Z
2019-05-12T18:05:56Z
2018-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15900
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27892
Soil particles are often arranged into repeating patterns of aggregates with similar shapes, sizes, and degrees of expression. These repeating aggregates, known as ‘peds,’ are currently described using qualitative and subjective categories for type, size, and grade as follows. Peds are assigned a type class (e.g., platy, granular, prismatic, etc.) based on overall ped shape. Peds are classified into size categories (e.g., fine, medium, and coarse) based on quantitative ped width and thickness criteria. Peds are assigned a grade class (e.g., weak, moderate, or strong) which describes the degree of expression. Soil structure develops as a result of complex interactions with climate, organisms, relief, parent material, and time. However, our understanding of these interactions is limited by the categorical and subjective nature of ped descriptions and the lack of datasets that include a wide range of variability in the factors responsible for the development of soil structure. Therefore, the first objective of this dissertation was to develop a method to quantify soil structure using morphometric indices for ped shape by analyzing previously published digital photographs of soil profiles and structural specimens. The second objective of this dissertation was to assemble an easily-accessible, two-dimensional data matrix containing laboratory and field-based measurements of soil properties across the USA and integrate topographic, climatological, and ecological data to, ultimately, explore the response of soil structure to exogenous and endogenous factors in both surface A horizons and subsurface B horizons. To those ends, we assembled two databases: the Ped Shape Digital Morphometric (PSDM) database and the University of Kansas Research Dataset of Soils (KURDS). The PSDM database was used to develop new morphometric indices of ped silhouettes quantitatively describing ped shape. These morphometric indices were applied to a subset of KURDS and used in conjunction with multinomial logistic regression and decision tree analyses of qualitative ped data to explore endogenous and exogenous controls on the development of soil structure. We found that the exogenous factor, climate, exhibited the greatest control over ped shape and size whereas clay content (endogenous) was the most important factor predicting ped grade. The finding that climate exhibits control over the evolution of soil structure represents an unexplored avenue for understanding how global climate change will affect morphological properties that control soil hydrology. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the possibilities of describing peds in terms of quantitative variables and analyzing continental-scale databases of soil structure.
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Soil sciences
Development of soil Structure
Digital Morphometric
Genesis of Soil Structure
Quantifying Soil Structure
Soil Geography
Soil Structure
QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERIZATION AND PEDOGENIC DEVELOPMENT OF SOIL STRUCTURE
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/168592018-01-31T20:08:15Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Garity, Erin
2015-02-25T19:53:44Z
2015-02-25T19:53:44Z
2014-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13502
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/16859
Dependents of U.S. Army military personnel struggle with place perception and connection. These individuals lead nomadic lives relocating every two to three years. The majority of the literature on sense of place stresses the concept of rootedness. Here I focus on how geographic mobility alters place identity for individuals who grew up within the Army. Using open-ended interviews, I talked with twenty such dependents, exploring their views on the concept of home and how mobility has affected them. Major findings include: ways in which career-focused movement lessens place attachment, a sense of place Army people find in the concept of mobility itself, and the intentional process of place creation on military bases. My study expands knowledge of how sense of place operates. Mobility, after all, is rapidly increasing for nearly everybody in today's world.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
home
military
mobility
place
sense of place
An Ephemeral Experience of Place: Growing Up In The Army
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/66332020-08-04T13:46:29Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Petrie, Matthew D.
2010-09-03T03:20:12Z
2010-09-03T03:20:12Z
2010-04-28
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10791
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6633
The nonlinear interaction of climate forcings and ecosystem variables is instrumental in creating the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of grasslands. Ecosystem processes are a product of these interactions and vary in sensitivity to them across time. How forcings aggregate and shape ecosystem responses is an important aspect of grassland states and defines how they respond to changes in environmental conditions. Characterizing the relationship between climate drivers and ecosystem variables helps sharpen analysis of ecosystem flux dynamics during the growing season and identifies likely deviations from mean functioning. To address the question of how climate forcings and ecosystem variables interact to shape seasonal water and carbon dynamics in grasslands, this thesis is split into two analysis chapters. The first (Chapter 3) is a characterization of water and carbon flux responses to variable precipitation timing and magnitude. Particular focus is placed on temporal sensitivity to inputs, seasonality in water flux dynamics, and the linkage between precipitation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and potential evaporation. Chapter 4 extends International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC A1B) regional climate scenario projections for the Central Plains of the United States to assess mesic grassland responses. The specific focus is assessing the ecosystem response to increased precipitation variability, increased potential evaporation, and earlier growing season onset. Effects of these forcings are shaped by simulations of constant and seasonally-varying water-use efficiency to assess the role of vegetation on grassland carbon assimilation, and also to explore species-specific responses at the Konza Prairie in North Central Kansas, USA. Results from both chapters show variation in seasonal sensitivity of fluxes to precipitation, with varying relationships between drivers, variable conditions, and fluxes. This research provides for a better understanding of ecosystem processes and provides assessment of the magnitude and extent that forcing variation has on grassland function. Results from the second chapter show increased seasonal water and carbon flux variability and increased frequency of water stress conditions. Vegetation responses suggest climate change will impact species and habitat compositions through changing environmental conditions and partitioning of carbon assimilation periods. This illustrates potential effects to grassland functioning and growing season dynamics.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Biophysics
Biology
Ecology
Climate change
Ecohydrology
Konza
Low-dimensional modeling
Nonlinear interactions
Climate forcings and the nonlinear dynamics of grassland ecosystems
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/191682018-01-31T20:07:54Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Zong, Cheng
2015-12-11T22:20:25Z
2015-12-11T22:20:25Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14165
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19168
Over the past 120,000 years global sea level has fluctuated through multiple cycles of rises and falls, ranging from a few meters above current level to 139 meters below. This thesis analyzes the resulting distributions of terrestrial and submerged lands at regular intervals of 1,000 years. Global mean sea level change is derived from 12 in situ database interpolated temporally with various fitting models. Some sea levels are based on single in situ observations at specific time windows. The fitting models including Fourier series, sum of sine, smoothing spline, and central tendency measurements are used for predicting data curves. Two methods, employed to see if a trend exists throughout the past 120,000 years, are linear regression and TFPW Mann-Kendall trend test. An animation about terrestrial vs. submerged land change is made to show global changes in the extent of aquaterra, defined as the lands that were alternately exposed and inundated as ice sheets advanced and retreated over the last 120,000. From ETOPO1 data and sea level values, the total land area and land distribution change with time was calculated by spherical geometry using Matlab (matrix laboratory, a multi-paradigm numerical computing environment). The greatest change in aggregate terrestrial land area occurred between 23.5° N and 66.5° N (12.6%), and 23.5° S to 23.5° N (15.6%). Over 56% of the aquaterra is located between equator and 66.5° N.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geographic information science and geodesy
land distributions
late pleistocene
sea level change
Late Pleistocene Sea Levels and Resulting Changes in Global Land Distributions
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/76262020-08-07T14:09:07Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Folker, Geoffrey Patrick
2011-06-21T15:54:16Z
2011-06-21T15:54:16Z
2010-12-08
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11236
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7626
There are over 233 million hectares (ha) of nonfederal grazing lands in the United States. Conventional field observation and sampling techniques are insufficient methods to monitor such large areas frequently enough to confidently quantify the biophysical state and assess rangeland condition over large geographic areas. In an attempt to enhance rangeland resource managers' abilities to monitor and assess these factors, remote sensing scientists and land resource managers have worked together to determine whether remotely sensed measurements can improve the ability to measure rangeland response to land management practices. The relationship between spectral reflectance patterns and plant species composition was investigated on six south-central Kansas ranches. Airborne multispectral color infrared images for 2002 through 2004 were collected at multiple times in the growing season over the study area. Concurrent with the image acquisition periods, ground cover estimates of plant species composition and biomass by growth form were collected. Correlation analysis was used to examine relationships among spectral and biophysical field measurements. Results indicate that heavily grazed sites exhibited the highest spectral vegetation index values. This was attributed to increases in low forage quality broadleaf forbs such as annual ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.). Although higher vegetation index values have a positive correlation with overall above ground primary productivity, species composition may be the best indicator of healthy rangeland condition. A Weediness Index, which was found to be correlated with range condition, was also strongly linked to spectral reflectance patterns recorded in the airborne imagery.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Remote sensing
Geographic information science and geodesy
Natural resource management
Aerial imagery
GIS
Rangeland condition
Species composition
Weediness index
ASSESSING THE USE OF REMOTELY SENSED MEASUREMENTS FOR CHARACTERIZING RANGELAND CONDITION
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/70062018-01-31T20:08:09Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Thelen, Austen
2011-01-03T04:11:58Z
2011-01-03T04:11:58Z
2010-06-14
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11019
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/7006
The dynamic landscape and historical legacies of the North Caucasus make it one of the world's most diverse and interesting regions. Throughout the region's history, its changing political geographies have worked to influence local constructs of identity and place. The younger generation today inhabits the North Caucasus in the context of Russian Ethno-Federalism, providing a variety of meanings regarding ethno-national groups and their territories. My aim is to explore how place factors into the construction of ethno-national identity by examining the concept of "homeland" (rodina) and the meanings associated with several place-based and traditional identity factors among young adults in Stavropol Krai and Karachay-Cherkessia. I utilized statistical analyses of survey data and a cognitive mapping exercise to identify significant differences regarding conceptions of place and ethno-national identity among groups of participants based on nationality, religion, and other factors. Using interview data and theory, I explain why these differences exist.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Regional studies
Caucasus
Homeland
Mental maps
National identity
Place and identity
Russia
Ethno-National Identity in the North Caucasus: Examining Place and Homeland in the Identity Constructions of the Young Generation
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/248352018-01-31T20:07:47Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Campbell, Joshua Stewart
2017-08-13T22:31:49Z
2017-08-13T22:31:49Z
2015-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14114
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/24835
The MapGive initiative is a State Department project designed to increase the amount of free and open geographic data in areas either experiencing, or at risk of, a humanitarian emergency. To accomplish this, MapGive seeks to link the cognitive surplus and good will of volunteer mappers who freely contribute their time and effort to map areas at risk, with the purchasing power of the United States Government (USG), who can act as a catalyzing force by making updated high resolution commercial satellite imagery available for volunteer mapping. Leveraging the CyberGIS, a geographic computing infrastructure built from open source software, MapGive publishes updated satellite imagery as web services that can be quickly and easily accessed via the internet, allowing volunteer mappers to trace the imagery to extract visible features like roads and buildings without having to process the imagery themselves. The resulting baseline geographic data, critical to addressing humanitarian data gaps, is stored in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) database, a free, editable geographic database for the world under a license that ensures the data will remain open in perpetuity, ensuring equal access to all. MapGive is built upon a legal, policy, and technological framework developed during the Imagery to the Crowd phase of the project. Philosophically, these projects are grounded in the open source software movement and the application of commons-based peer production models to geographic data. These concepts are reviewed, as is a reconception of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) called GIS 2.0.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Geographic information science and geodesy
Remote sensing
crowdsourcing
Humanitarian Information Unit
imagery
MapGive
openstreetmap
volunteer mapping
Imagery to the Crowd, MapGive, and the CyberGIS: Open Source Innovation in the Geographic and Humanitarian Domains
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/239642018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Messner, Claire Anna
2017-05-08T00:57:30Z
2017-05-08T00:57:30Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14263
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/23964
Sand dunes record paleoclimatic change within their stratigraphy as they respond to climatic shifts through sequences of activation and stabilization. Developing chronologies documenting periods of dune activity and stabilization can thus provide information about past climatic conditions. Consequently, the need for accurate chronological determinations of aeolian features has stimulated the advancement of dating techniques. In Alaskan sand dune settings, radiocarbon dating of organic material and optical dating of quartz grains have proven to be problematic due to insufficient organic material and a weak optical signal, respectively. In such cases, feldspar grains can be dated using Infrared Stimulated Luminescence (IRSL) dating, but are often avoided due to inherent anomalous fading that results in age underestimation. The lack of a viable dating technique has resulted in a paucity of chronostratigraphic Alaskan dune studies, particularly within central Alaska. This research tests the use of a post-infrared (pIR) IRSL protocol, specifically designed to limit the effects of anomalous fading, on the Nenana dune field within the Tanana River Lowlands of central Alaska. Results indicate that dune activity occurred as far back as ~16 ka for the Nenana dunes, as deglaciation of the surrounding area provided an influx of sediment into glacial streams throughout the Tanana River Lowlands. IRSL ages indicate a switch from sand to silt accumulation between 11 ka and 10 ka and stabilization of the dune field that is likely tied to the spread of boreal forest throughout the region around this time. These IRSL ages align with regional proxy data indicating similar timing of activation and stabilization of aeolian features during the transition between the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This research represents one of the first IRSL sand dune studies of central Alaska and supports further use of a pIR IRSL protocol to expand aeolian research within Alaska.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geomorphology
Physical geography
aeolian research
Alaska
geomorphology
IRSL
luminescence dating
post-IR
Post-IR IRSL Dating of the Nenana Dune Field in the Tanana Lowlands, central Alaska
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/216822018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Tappan, Taylor Adams
2016-10-12T01:42:06Z
2016-10-12T01:42:06Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14426
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/21682
In the geographically isolated Honduran Muskitia region, schools have represented a contested space through which both the Honduran government and Miskitu communities have struggled for territorial identity. Schools are functional spaces through which social interaction strengthens Miskitu cultural boundaries, norms, and identities. The historical development of education in this isolated indigenous region is paradoxical in that early state initiatives were designed to provide education for Miskitu communities while simultaneously excluding their indigenous cultural identities. However, schools’ historical impact on Miskitu territoriality has received little attention from scholars. The primary objective of this research is to understand 1) the origin and diffusion of schools in the Muskitia region; and 2) the impact of schools on Miskitu territoriality. This thesis brings into question whether the geographic inaccessibility of Muskitia and recurrent state failures to provide baseline education there ultimately contributed to the preservation of Miskitu language and territorial identity. My research aims to fill a gap in existing cultural historical scholarship by examining schools as contested spaces of linguistic identity through which the Miskitu v. state territorial struggle has taken place. Archival research, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews were my primary methodological approaches to understand the historical geography of schools and their impact on Miskitu territoriality.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Latin American studies
Honduras
indigenous
Miskito
Miskitu
Mosquitia
Schools
A Cultural Historical Geography of Schools in the Honduran Muskitia
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/45022018-01-31T20:08:04Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Way, Henry Alexander
2009-04-28T03:40:27Z
2009-04-28T03:40:27Z
2008-01-01
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10152
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4502
This dissertation first examines the role of geography in Kansas state politics, focusing on the years 2005 to 2008. A "spatial dialectics" is seen in the politics and policy-making process. This insight drives a process-oriented, critical interpretation of the cultural geopolitics. Four legislative issues are stressed: school funding, immigration, gambling, and the Holcomb power plant. New insights are offered into each of these, as well as the prevailing discourses of Kansas that can be taken from such analysis. The second part of the dissertation uses the sense of place and representative qualities of legislators to construct a cultural geography of contemporary Kansas. In this, dialectical and oppositional dimensions could be seen in the perception of place. In particular, place-by-place differentiation and rivalry, and schools, were identified as central to the cultural construction of places in Kansas.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Cultural geography
Kansas
Place
Politics
THE CHIMERA OF KANSAS: AN EXPLORATION OF PLACE, POLITICS, AND CULTURE
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/279452020-10-12T13:38:47Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Wesley, Elizabeth Jane
2019-05-12T19:40:07Z
2019-05-12T19:40:07Z
2018-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15881
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27945
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9366-0478
To investigate the relationship between greenspace pattern and UHIs we conducted a multi-resolution wavelet analysis of land surface temperature (LST) to determine the dominant length scales of LST. We used these scales as extents for calculating landscape metrics on a high-resolution landcover map. We built regression models to investigate whether, controlling for the percent vegetated area, patch size, fragmentation, shape, complexity, and/or proximity can mitigate UHIs. We found that more and complex patches of greenspace and dispersed rather than clustered greenspace can effectively mitigate UHIs. We also found that the negative relationship often reported between patch size and LST is an artifact of the relationship between increased percent vegetated and LST. By using the dominant length scales of LST we demonstrate that aggregation and shape complexity are important configuration factors to consider in designing urban greenspace and provide a methodology for robust biophysically-based analysis of urban landscape pattern.
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openAccess
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Physical geography
Urban planning
Remote sensing
configuration
greenspace
landscape metrics
land surface temperature
urban heat island
wavelet
EFFECTS OF GREENSPACE CONFIGURATION ON THE URBAN HEAT ISLAND: A STUDY OF THE KANSAS CITY METROPOLITAN AREA
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/268962020-10-13T14:29:49Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Smith, Paula I.
2018-10-22T15:52:25Z
2018-10-22T15:52:25Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15599
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26896
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5300-4465
My thesis examines the Indigenous Sámi’s “right to the cold” in northern Norway based on the developing concept of Indigenous climate sovereignties. The right to the cold favors the inclusion the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples to retain and balance necessary knowledge and cultural integrity for future generations. Indigenous climate sovereignties is used to describe the complex nature of the impacts of climate change on Indigenous sovereignties to build and maintain self-determination and traditional knowledge. Indigenous People throughout the world seek greater control over their own affairs. However, often their ability to control is challenged by government and other organizations, unregulated mining, loss of access to natural resources, and climate change. Therefore, Indigenous climate sovereignties include Indigenous voices and ways of research that inform policy by merging with Indigenous knowledge of a changing environment from a geographic perspective. This study focuses on Indigenous people across the arctic, specifically the Sámi, experiencing change in their political, cultural and economic livelihood during the current period of climate change. The Arctic is experiencing climate change, as documented by scientific measurements and as observed by local people through changes in temperatures and precipitation, snow cover, sea ice, and extreme weather events.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Climate Change
Indigenous Sami
Northern Norway
Reindeer Herding
Sovereignty
Challenges to Sámi Indigenous Sovereignty in an Era of Climate Change
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/59622020-07-29T15:46:20Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Gray, Angela M.
2010-03-18T04:11:56Z
2010-03-18T04:11:56Z
2009-09-15
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10578
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5962
In response to calls for increased understanding of and solutions to the issue of protracted refugee situations, this dissertation examines the social and spatial implications of a long history of refugee-hosting in Eastern Province, Zambia. In order to broaden our understanding of displacement and place-making, I pay particular attention to refugee and host community interaction in and around the former refugee settlement in Ukwimi, Zambia. Established in 1987, Ukwimi Refugee Settlement hosted over 20,000 Mozambicans for nearly a decade. After the repatriation of Mozambican refugees, Ukwimi evolved into a government-run agricultural resettlement scheme until it's re-opening as a refugee camp for Angolan refugees in 2001. Through theoretically-grounded fieldwork in eastern Zambia, I explore refugee-hosting as a dynamic interaction between and among refugee relief organizations, development initiatives, host communities, and refugee populations. In doing so, I analyze how refugee and host community relationships operate, and shift, within particular political, gendered, and historical contexts, thereby creating distinct cultural landscapes of refugee-hosting and resettlement which are constantly "in motion" and emplacing displacement.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Africa
Displacement
Landscape
Refugees
Zambia
Emplacing Displacement: Cultural Landscapes of Refugee-hosting in Ukwimi, Zambia
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/145802018-01-31T20:08:11Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Klopfenstein, Scott
2014-07-05T17:45:51Z
2014-07-05T17:45:51Z
2014-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13295
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/14580
Understanding the pedogenic effects of average annual precipitation on loess-derived soils provides insight to past climate scenarios based on buried paleosols, as well as the ability to better predict future soil morphological changes due to projected climate forcings. This study explains variability in soil morphological properties in surface loess along a precipitation gradient in the Central Great Plains of the United States. Soil cores were collected from undisturbed portions of seven pioneer cemeteries to a depth of 50 cm across the transect spanning northwest Kansas into western Missouri. Pioneer cemeteries were selected due to the likely undisturbed nature of the soils in unused portions of the cemeteries. Soil cores were cut into 2.5-cm intervals, which were prepared and analyzed for bulk density (BD), color (CIELAB 1976 color space), organic carbon (OC) obtained from a modified Walkley-Black method, and aggregated and disaggregated particle-size distributions (PSD) from laser diffraction. The predictor variables--annual precipitation, depth, and PSD--were used in multivariate analyses to explain the distribution of the pedogenic indicators: color, OC, BD, and complexed organic carbon (COC). Lightness (L*), OC, BD, and COC--an indicator of soil physical quality--were all significantly explained by average annual precipitation. A proxy for microaggregation, geometric mean shift (GMS), was developed for this study deriving the difference between the geometric mean of the untreated and pretreated PSD results. Microaggregation occurred below an OC to clay ratio of 0.163 in the upper 50 cm of the loess-derived soils analyzed in this study. Among the morphological variables considered, COC had the highest coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.871) and BD was best explained by average annual precipitation. These findings indicate any future climate forcings resulting in precipitation changes may have an effect on soil physical quality of loess-derived soils.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Physical geography
Soil sciences
Geomorphology
Climosequence
Loess
Microaggregation
Precipitation gradient
Soc
Soil morphology
Pedogenesis along a Climosequence in Loess-Derived Soils of the Central Great Plains
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/52502020-06-18T01:39:41Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Long, Joshua
2009-06-18T20:06:12Z
2009-06-18T20:06:12Z
2008-07-30
http://dissertations2.umi.com/ku:2611
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5250
An increasing number of North American cities are demonstrating vocal resistance to perceived homogenization and corporatization of the urban landscape. In Austin, Texas, a grassroots movement has emerged as a form of resistance to these cultural and economic changes. "Keep Austin Weird," a slogan that has evolved from grassroots cultural movement to rallying cry for local business, is now being appropriated by numerous cities experiencing similar growth patterns (i.e. Boulder, Louisville, Albuquerque, and Portland, Oregon). This particular research is investigated in light of recent studies of the "Creative Class." Austin has been dubbed a Creative City success story by scholar Richard Florida and others, but is experiencing many challenges and externalities typical of growth in so-called Creative Cities. Ultimately, this research explores the inherent interconnections between sense of place, urban governance, and popular resistance. It also questions the potential sustainability of creative strategies for growth and the importance of civic participation. Keywords: Creative Cities, Sense of Place, Localization, Urban Landscape.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Urban and regional planning
Weird City: Sense of Place and Creative Resistance in Austin, Texas
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/191942018-01-31T20:07:54Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Chatfield-Taylor, William
2015-12-12T00:00:14Z
2015-12-12T00:00:14Z
2015-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13971
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19194
This study aims to better understand the factors that contribute to Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus l. lherminieri) nesting sites on islands across the Caribbean region. Using locational presence and absence data of their breeding colonies a Geographical Information System (GIS) is used to determine the proximity and presence of a variety of marine (SST, bathymetry and derived bathymetry data) and terrestrial (elevation derived statistics) environmental variables that may influence nesting locations. For each location in the dataset, a set of nearshore (within 50 km) and offshore (50 and 300 km) metrics are calculated. Each selected variable is tested for statistical significance both in the nearshore and offshore locations. Logistic regression analysis is used to predict the presence and absence of sites. It is determined that a combination of bathymetry, sea surface temperature (SST), and ocean front proxies are the best variables for predicatively modeling Audubon’s Shearwater nesting locations. A different subset of SST metrics and SST front proxies predict colony presence and absence when considering the offshore data. Both models have a predicative accuracy of 62.72%, with a degree of uncertainty arising from the quality of the presence and absence data. It is likely the relative success of both nearshore and offshore logistic regression analyses is linked to the respective, and differing, ecological roles that males and females play in the pre-laying exodus in this species. Despite the difficulty of detecting true absence data for this study, the results suggest that there is a great need to better understand the differential sex roles of Audubon’s Shearwater and their breeding behavior to assist in future conservations efforts of the species.
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openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Biology
Audubon's Shearwater
breeding distribution
GIS
logistic regression
pre-laying exodus
An Assessment of Factors Affecting the Spatial Distribution of Audubon’s Shearwater (Puffinus l. lherminieri) throughout the Caribbean
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/102502020-09-21T13:30:29Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Gilbreath, Aaron Hastings
2012-10-28T15:01:04Z
2012-10-28T15:01:04Z
2012-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12307
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10250
Most of the major drugs of abuse in the Untied States have a relatively uniform distribution. Their use may cluster in cities, for example, but that general pattern tends to repeat itself in every region of the county. This is not true of the stimulant methamphetamine, which today shows a decidedly uneven distribution. Confounding the matter more is the fact that, because it is a synthetic drug, it is theoretically possible to make methamphetamine anywhere. But it is not made everywhere. In fact, for much of its history, the drug has been concentrated in the American West. Further complicating our understanding is the public's general amnesia regarding methamphetamine's long history in the United States. Without that knowledge, it is impossible to explain the drug' present geography. This dissertation traces the evolution of the various networks that have coalesced around the production and distribution of methamphetamine and finds that much of the drug's current geography can be traced to the manner in which these various groups responded to official attempts to stem the supply of the precursors necessary to produce it.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
History
Commodity networks
Methamphetamine
Mexico
North America
Organized crime
From Made in America to Hecho en Sinaloa: A Historical Geography of North American Methamphetamine Networks
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/186722018-01-31T20:07:49Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Chang, Woojin
2015-10-13T04:38:09Z
2015-10-13T04:38:09Z
2014-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13732
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18672
Prior to 1965, only small numbers of Korean people lived in the United States, mostly in Hawaii and on the West Coast. That year, however, the immigration restriction for Asians was abolished and a mass movement of Koreans began. Soon, new ethnic communities were established in most major American cities and smaller groupings in military towns and near universities. Although the experiences of Korean immigrants to the U. S. generally have been similar to those of other recently arrived Asian groups, a strong desire to find locales for business has produced an especially wide distribution. In addition, Korean-Americans established a number of major trends for Asian-American society as a whole, including military-tied family chain migration, an emphasis on family-owned small businesses, and active student migration.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Asian American studies
History
Asian American geography
Korean American
Korean American geography
A Historical Geography of the Korean Experience in America
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/80552020-08-18T14:42:07Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Chloupek, Brett R.
2011-09-22T01:37:45Z
2011-09-22T01:37:45Z
2011-07-13
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11682
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/8055
This paper focuses on the development and utilization of a conceptual framework for studying religion from a spatial perspective, drawing on themes and methodologies from human geography. The goal of this research is to help reconnect the geography of religion as a subdiscipline with broader themes in the discipline. Through an examination of Catholicism in Slovakia between 1948 and 1989, it examines how the Church utilized and organized geographic space, how it crafted a Catholic sense of place, and how the Communist government in Slovakia competed with the Church for authority and control within these spatial 'realms.' Examining issues of territoriality, power relations, and identity formation at a number of spatial scales, ranging from the local to the international, the paper attempts to show their interrelation. This project draws on a collection of primary documents obtained from state and ecclesiastic archives in Eastern Slovakia.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
European studies
Religion--history
Catholicism
Communism
Kosice
Place
Slovakia
Territoriality
Territory, Place, and Identity in Slovak Church-state Conflict: 1948-1989
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/278712019-08-27T18:09:08Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Bergervoet, Michael Paul
2019-05-12T17:34:47Z
2019-05-12T17:34:47Z
2018-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15724
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27871
The stone cairns of Red Wing, Minnesota, USA, have been cloaked in mystery for centuries. Small in number, densely concentrated and originally built upon high, untimbered hilltops, the identity of the builders remains unknown to both researchers and Native people alike. Local Dakota people do not claim authorship but refer to these monuments as “hekti”, a “lodge of time and space”, and recognize them as places “where holy works were done.” Unfortunately all of the stone cairns have been dismantled since Euro-Americans first encountered them and the significance of their hollow architecture was never culturally examined. These unique stone features are presumed to be mortuary features and are therefore protected by Minnesota Statute 307.08 from any further molestation. After collecting and generating both quantitative and qualitative information, and by utilizing a mixed-methods approach, it is contended the stone cairns of Red Wing were constructed by the Spring Creek Oneota between AD 1300 – 1400. Furthermore, the stone cairns are principal components of a larger ritual landscape and quite possibly demarcate a physical and spiritual sanctuary during a period of significant environmental and/or social change across the continent. Based upon current evidence, the construction of the stone cairns was most likely overseen by an elite class of ritual leaders blessed by Thunder. Moreover, both Thunderbird and Water Spirit clans exert increased socio-political influence in Siouan village life during the late pre-contact period. Archaeological evidence in close proximity to the stone cairns confirms their presence. From an ethnographic perspective, the stone cairns of Red Wing function as sacred altars/conduits between the Above and Below worlds. This assertion is based upon Siouan interpretations of their placement, architecture, and significance of materials used in their construction. These interpretations, in combination with the juxtaposition of their original architectural profile with contemporary Ioway cosmological belief, illumine the original purpose and function(s) of the stone cairns. These results suggest the stone cairns of Red Wing stand as witness to the cultural crescendo of the Oneota tradition in this locality and/or they are an initial expression of Ioway ethnicity and tribalism in southeastern Minnesota.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Archaeology
Cultural anthropology
Archaeology
Cairn
Ethnography
GIS
Landscape
Native
Lodges of Time and Space: the Stone Cairns of Red Wing
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/122642020-10-15T13:36:29Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Wilson, Cassandra J.
2013-09-29T16:59:08Z
2013-09-29T16:59:08Z
2013-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12967
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/12264
As the global climate is influenced by increased warming, the frequency of climate extremes will likely become more variable. The United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) station data from 1900-2011 is used to quantify trends in daily extreme heat events, daily extreme cold events, and extreme daily precipitation within the contiguous United States. Climate data was spatially aggregated into respective Koeppen-Geiger climate zones where the 3 main zones are; arid, warm temperate and snow. Results show a gain or loss of 20 extreme temperature events and a gain or loss of 4 extreme precipitation events. The arid zone exhibited a loss of extreme minimum temperature a gain of extreme maximum temperature and a mixed result for extreme precipitation. The warm temperate zone indicated that the eastern region follows the exact same temperature trends as the arid zone but exhibits an overall loss of extreme precipitation. The western portion of the warm temperate zone exhibits a loss in extreme temperature events, a gain in extreme minimum temperature events and a gain in extreme precipitation. The trends in the snow zone reveal a mixed signal for extreme maximum temperature, a decline in extreme minimum temperature and a gain in extreme precipitation. Paired t-test results indicate statistically significant shifts in the magnitude of extreme weather events in each of the 3 main climate zones (arid, warm temperate and snow). This spatiotemporal analysis highlights how daily trends in extreme heat, extreme cold, and extreme precipitation have changed in the last 100 years in the context of specific climate zones. In order to understand the impact regional climate has on extreme events, trends in teleconnection patterns were examined in conjunction to daily weather. Teleconnection patterns that directly impact US weather are El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). The use of wavelet analysis, including the continuous wavelet transform, the wavelet cross wavelet transform and the wavelet transform coherence provide insight into the timescales of influence from ENSO and PDO on extreme weather events. The power spectra results from each wavelet analysis have been averaged across Koeppen-Geiger zone. Results indicate that extreme precipitation events have significantly different power spectras than normal events across all timescales. Specific patterns at the annual scale and shorter are found the arid zone for extreme maximum temperature, where results for minimum temperature trends vary.
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openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Climate change
Enso
Extreme weather
Koeppen-geiger
Pdo
United States
Spatial and Temporal Variability of Extreme Weather in The United States
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/268982020-10-12T15:03:18Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Shofi, Shofi Ull Azum
2018-10-22T15:55:43Z
2018-10-22T15:55:43Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15595
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26898
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1131-078X
This study focuses on analyzing bike route safety in Lawrence using road geometry, infrastructure, and traffic characteristics. Bike crash incidence has been considered as a measure of bike route safety in this study. The independent variables considered for the bike route safety analysis are the number of lanes, route slopes (average), traffic volume (dummy variable based on functional road classification), the availability of bike routes, and posted speed limits. Bike crash data (the dependent variable), and Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data were collected from city of Lawrence. For the study purpose, streetwise bike route facilities, and traffic lane numbers have been updated based on city of Lawrence database. Finally, the average slope for each street in Lawrence has been calculated from DEM raster using ArcMap. As the data were characterized by over-dispersion and zero inflation, conventional negative binomial and zero inflated negative binomial models generate statistically significant variable coefficients. Interestingly, coefficients from both model have produced near identical bike compatibility maps for Lawrence. The study has found that bike route safety decreases with the increase of the traffic volume and lane numbers. In other words, collector and arterial roads are not the safest option for bicyclists in Lawrence, but the local neighborhood level streets are more suitable for biking. The route slope has no significant impact on bike route safety and the speed is negatively related with bike crash incidence. The unavailability of actual bike count data and bike speed data result in some flaws in the outcome of bike compatibility map. In a nutshell, complex statistical analysis adds some values in the current understanding of bike safety with the data available.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
Transportation
ArcGIS
Bike safety
Over-dispersion
Road geometry
Traffic characteristics
zero inflated negative binomial
An Empirical Analysis of Bike Safety in Lawrence Using Road Geometry and Traffic Characteristics
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/279062020-10-08T15:43:45Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Chai, Rodney M
2019-05-12T18:53:14Z
2019-05-12T18:53:14Z
2018-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15888
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27906
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6482-7144
Satellite images offer continuous spatial and temporal coverage of surface temperature, thus allowing us to transcend limitations of in-situ measurements and giving us a powerful tool to understand the Urban Heat Island (UHI). This study uses MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) at 1 km to examine the relationship between urban morphology and UHI. Using the Kansas City metropolitan area as a case study, we examined MODIS LST data during the summer months of 2002-2017. We found that LST anomalies increase exponentially from 1.5°C at the 90-95 percentile to 3.5°C at the 95-100 percentile. In particular, natural land cover LCZ classes are found to have higher LST anomalies than built-type LCZ classes by up to 5°C. Results suggest that the higher LST anomalies over outlying areas are not due to suburban development during the most extreme heat episodes. We also examined the utility of the LCZ scheme during extreme heat events. We found that the LST response is not statistically different between the various LCZ classes and that the local built environment is not as important in predicting the LST response to increasingly extreme heat events. However, the LST response by most LCZ classes as a function of distance from downtown is statistically significant, with values ranging from -0.08°C/km to -0.01°C/km. The results show that the distance from the city center plays a more important role in helping predict LST response than knowledge of the LCZ class.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Remote sensing
Meteorology
Urban planning
Extreme heat events
Land Surface Temperature
Local Climate Zone
MODIS
Urban Heat Island
Urban morphology
Relating Urban Morphology and Urban Heat Island During Extreme Heat Events in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/69922018-01-31T20:08:09Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Buck, Tyler
2011-01-03T03:30:14Z
2011-01-03T03:30:14Z
2010-07-30
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:11087
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6992
Using the eddy covariance technique, the impact of land cover variability on carbon and water cycling was examined at three different grasslands in Northeast Kansas. One site 8 km north of Lawrence, Kansas at the Nelson Environmental Study Area (NESA) experiences woody-encroachment and is burned every three years. The remaining two sites are located at the Konza Prairie Biological Station, 8 km south of Manhattan, Kansas. KZU is located in an annual burned, non-grazed watershed in an upland area. K4B experiences woody encroachment and has prescribed burns every four years. Water-use efficiency was used to examine how the carbon and water cycling of these ecosystems respond to land cover change. Analysis suggest that the two grasslands experiencing woody-encroachment (NESA and K4B) show more efficient water use values than the grassland that is not (KZU). This may be due to a possible difference in rooting depth between woody-vegetation and grasses.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Eddy covariance
Grasslands
Land cover change
Water-use efficiency
Woody encroachment
The impact of land cover change on carbon and water cycling in the US Central Plains grasslands
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/191612018-01-31T20:07:51Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Viera, Aida Ramos
2015-12-11T22:06:50Z
2015-12-11T22:06:50Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14265
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19161
This research analyzes the relationship between the environmental and social elements in Mexico’s Payment for Environmental Services (PES) program in the Huasteca Potosina region from 2003-2011. Both the regional and local scales are examined to understand patterns of deforestation and identify the factors influencing community forest conservation. The multi-scale approach to deforestation on social properties is based on GIS analyses of land tenure and forest change in 613 agrarian nucleos, or social properties, from 1980 to 2010. At the community scale, a sample of 43 agrarian nucleos in 12 municipios was selected to explore the potential correspondence between implementation of the PES program, the National Forest Comission (CONAFOR) prioritization scheme, deforested areas and extreme poverty. To assess the PES’ impact on raising social awareness about the environment and decreasing deforestation and to analyze the potential linkages between poverty, land tenure systems, and forest management a combined methodology including GIS analysis, participant observation, questionnaires and interviews with participants and stakeholders involved in the program at different levels were used. The research shows that poverty and the lack of certified property rights have not been the major triggers of deforestation as forest conservation policy-makers in the country have claimed. The analysis of forest coverage from 1980 to 2010 points to different factors leading to changes in deforestation rates. Although it is true that forest conversion into agricultural lands has been the leading cause of deforestation, it has been strongly promoted by government programs, especially during the first decade of study for valley forests (as opposed to mountain forests). In comparison, the last two decades showed a significant decrease in the deforestation rates, mainly because few remnants of forest remained in the valleys. The land reform of the 1990s altered deforestation rates differently according to which agrarian nucleos participated and how. From the 613 nucleos examined in the Huasteca Potosina region, the majority, 76 percent, certified their properties at the individual parcel level, 13 percent certified only the perimeter of their boundaries along with a few communal parcels like school plots, and the remainder either stayed uncertified or privatized some or all of their individual plots under dominio pleno (meaning full domain of the property). On the whole, forest coverage decreased by a little less than seven percent during the first decade of the certification process from 1990 to 2000; however, there were important variations depending on types of land tenure chosen. The nucleos with dominio pleno lost 24 percent of their forest, and nucleos that certified individual parcels saw a six percent decrease. Contrary to predictions, the uncertified nucleos and those that certified only the perimeter of their territories lost virtually no forest (two percent). Over the last decade deforestation rates have decreased, and nucleos that certified their perimeters, those that certified all individual parcels, and those remaining uncertified even saw increases in forest coverage by three percent, one percent, and less than one percent, respectively. Those with dominio pleno continued to experience deforestation by two percent. Still, when taking into consideration how land availability, population, and traditions have influenced deforestation before, during, and after the certification process, the results show that the certification program has had little impact in increasing or decreasing forest coverage over the decades. In regard to the Payments of Environmental Services (PES) program, intended to prevent deforestation on social properties, the economic impacts were low, as seen in the lack of land use diversification and forest under communal lands. A marked geographical variation can be seen, however, between the more successful northern mestizo area dominated by temperate forest, and the less successful southern indigenous areas dominated by shade-grown coffee in more tropical forests. Despite the different economic impacts, PES projects proved to be sustainable where community organization and land use traditions were stronger.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Environmental studies
Natural resource management
Cultural Ecology
Forest Conservation Policies
Huasteca Region
Land Reform
Mexico
Payments for Environmental Services
Forest Conservation Policies and the Neoliberal Land Reform in Mexico: A Cultural Ecology Approach to the Payments for Environmental Services in the Huasteca Potosina Region
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/64142020-07-30T15:55:38Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Chang, Woojin
2010-07-25T22:06:21Z
2010-07-25T22:06:21Z
2010-04-26
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10830
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/6414
The Chinese contribution to the development of the American West is far greater than most people suspect. This is especially true for the early years of Idaho and Montana. The Idaho and Montana Chinese were active in assimilating themselves into mainstream society and contributed greatly to the placer mining of the region. Some of them also owned their own businesses, such as laundries, and interacted regularly with locals. This thesis uses census data, newspaper accounts, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, and a city directory to uncover these Chinese contributions.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
United States--history
Chinese American
Idaho
Montana
Cultural Geography of Early Chinese Americans in Idaho and Montana, 1865-1900
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/249032017-12-08T21:45:28Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Davis, Kurt Wiley
2017-09-07T13:20:56Z
2017-09-07T13:20:56Z
2003
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/24903
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer water reserves in Western Kansas
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/209192018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Kelly, Meghan
2016-06-03T18:12:14Z
2016-06-03T18:12:14Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14292
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/20919
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) calls the ongoing Syrian conflict “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.” Since 2011, violence has led to nearly 220,000 lives lost, 6.5 million Syrians have been internally displaced, and over 4 million have fled across borders into Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt. Western media have documented Syrian border crossings and stories through riveting journalism, interviews, photography, and maps. While the written and photographic reporting of Syrian stories uses captivating imagery and testimonials to convey the traumatic experiences of individuals, the expression of these experiences in the accompanying cartographic coverage is limited. Western media cartographic practices commonly aggregate refugees into flow lines and proportional symbols and simplify border experiences into homogenous black lines. These and other mapping conventions silence the experiences of individual Syrians, and negate the emotions, perils, and geopolitical issues inherent to border crossing experiences, while ignoring the multitude of non-traditional borders that refugees encounter in addition to the international border. I ask the following research question: How can the cartographic portrayal of Syrian peoples’ border crossings be improved to better represent their experiences? Through a critical feminist lens, I analyzed contemporary cartographic methods in 86 maps published by Western sources, interviewed seven humanitarian workers, and developed an alternative mapping technique that more accurately reflects Syrian border crossings. By rendering Syrian border stories and experiences visible with cartography, my work enhances interaction between critical cartography, border studies, and critical, feminist perspectives and gives Syrians a geographic voice as yet unavailable to them through conventional cartographies.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Borders
Cartography
Critical theory
Feminist theory
Mapping
Syria
Mapping Syrian Refugee Border Crossings: A critical, feminist perspective
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/108462020-09-25T13:12:59Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Doke, Jared
2013-02-17T18:57:34Z
2013-02-17T18:57:34Z
2012-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12509
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10846
Every year thousands of people are reported lost or missing in wilderness areas and in response, a search and rescue (SAR) operation is launched to locate, stabilize, and extract those missing. Actually locating the subject is often the most difficult of these processes. This study attempts to improve upon search operations by analyzing lost person behavior at the "local" level. If a search manager knew what a lost subject was most likely to do when lost, then they could plan the search accordingly and return them to safety much quicker. Additionally, if National Park officials knew who was becoming lost, and when and where this occurred, steps could be taken to prevent these people from becoming lost in the first place. Eleven years (2000-2010) of Search and Rescue case incident reports from Yosemite National Park (2,308 in total) were examined and 213 searches were retained for analysis. It was determined that approximately 62% of incidents involve missing hikers. Nearly two thirds of the searches were for one subject and about two-thirds of these involved males. The mean age of missing persons was 36 years old. Most people were reported missing in July, on Saturday, and between the hours of 2 and 3 p.m. Almost half of people reported as missing were actually lost while others were merely separated from their party, or overdue. Contributing factors include losing the trail accidentally, failure to communicate the intended plan, and miscalculating the time or distance of the planned route, among others. Within a Geographic Information System (GIS) the Initial Planning Point (IPP), the point at which the person was last seen or known to be, and the found location was georeferenced for each incident using the point radius method. This allowed for a Getis-Ord Gi* analysis to be conducted of both the IPPs and found locations and "hot spots" were identified for each. The GIS also provided an environment for analyzing lost person behavior. Within Yosemite National Park lost hikers most often utilized route traveling in order to reorient themselves. Additionally, descriptive lost person behavior statistics for hikers were calculated, including: horizontal distance from the IPP to the found location, vertical elevation change from the IPP to the found location, dispersion angle from intended destination to the found location, and the track offset of the found location. These "local" results were then compared to "international" statistics presented by the International Search and Rescue Incident Database (ISRID) using a chi-square goodness of fit test. It was found that the ISRID data provided for horizontal distance from the IPP and track offset were not suitable for use in Yosemite while the data pertaining to vertical elevation change from the IPP and the dispersion angle could potentially be utilized for search planning.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Geographic information science and geodesy
GIS
Sar
Search and rescue
Yosemite
Analysis of Search Incidents and Lost Person Behavior in Yosemite National Park
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/195352018-01-31T20:07:54Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
French, Keith Andrew
2016-01-03T03:16:57Z
2016-01-03T03:16:57Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14200
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19535
This research explores a new method of visualizing population dynamics using a static map medium. This involves the calculation of vectors that indicate the change in mean population center in a study area over a period of time. I calculate these vectors by examining the change in mean population center inside a moving window from one time period to the next. Using different sizes of these moving windows will yield results that tell different stories about the dynamics in the study area. The second component of this approach involves developing methods of displaying these vectors—collectively, a vector field—on a static map. Using the hue, saturation, and value (HSV) color model, I assign the hue component of color to the direction component of the vector and the value component of the color to the magnitude component of the vector. A significant challenge arises in assigning hues to particular directions. I explore this by conducting a study of respondents’ association of hue with the cardinal and intermediate directions. Based on the results of this survey, I have developed my own system of hue-direction for display of vector fields. Finally, I assess the methodology by conducting a survey that presents the respondents with a few example maps and asks several questions to determine if the respondent is able to correctly read and interpret the maps. Complemented with more traditional visualizations of population change, this contribution should enhance visualization of population dynamics with static media.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
color
direction
HSV
population
vector
A New Approach for Visualizing the Spatial Distribution of Population Over Time
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/191662018-11-16T17:03:35Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Attwairi, Almokhtar M.
2015-12-11T22:16:46Z
2015-12-11T22:16:46Z
2015-08-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14208
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19166
This study focuses on the urban growth and management of the city of Tripoli, Libya with an emphasis on the contribution of the economic, social, and political factors in urbanization. Despite the fact that urban planning authorities established and developed several projects and planning generation series, there have been such issues and challenges tackling the fast growth of urban centers, which resulted in population concentration and shortage of services such as housing. This has led to a massive and random expansion in urban areas, which has eliminated huge agricultural and green spaces in favor of new urban areas. Based on archival data, interviews, and very close knowledge of the study area, I argue that there have been constant difficulties in managing and controlling the urban expansion within urban centers in general and Tripoli in particular. In this study, I examined the role of each factor of urban growth and urbanization in the Libyan case compared to Africa in general in line with the theories of Myers (2011), Beall and Fox (2009), Forester (1998), and others. Furthermore, I addressed the question of whether the rapid growth of the city of Tripoli is related to the urban policy and planning strategies through the emphasis on laws and regulations. Planners have stressed reforming the urban planning system and developing a solid relationship with political power and enhancing the role of technology toward developing a modern planning system. Finally, I attempted to focus on the involvement of politics in the urban planning system, which was inspired by the deep and strong role of the social system. There has been a remarkable degree of social and political interference in planning, which has weakened the democratic process and resulted in very corrupt and disorganized urban planning practices, which will be a very important topic for further research. The three GIS data layers used for this research is included in the supplementary files.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
African studies
AFRICAN STUDIES
REMOTE SENSING
URBAN GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT
URBANIZATION
URBAN PLANNING
ANALYZING URBAN GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT FOR THE CITY OF TRIPOLI, LIBYA
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/190302018-01-31T20:07:54Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Drager, Kim
2015-12-03T03:24:55Z
2015-12-03T03:24:55Z
2015-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13875
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19030
The majority of ant-related bioturbation research has focused on physiochemical properties of the nest mound. However, ants are also known to line subsurface nest components (chambers and galleries) with coarse material, and may expand or backfill areas as colony size expands and contracts. These alterations may contribute to significant redistribution of soil material leading to alterations in soil physical and hydrological properties. The goal of this study was to examine the physical, chemical, and hydrological effects of the subterranean portion of ant nests on the soil profile. We measured soil in the field that was located near (<2 cm) and away (<1 m) from ant nests, and compared them to unaltered soil approximately 2 m away. Two-dimensional tracings of nest architecture were used to predict the nest effect on hydraulic properties of a fine-textured soil. In addition, we took approximately 1600 ant specimens from one of these nests and placed them into two formicaria with coarse-textured soil that approximated horizons in the field. Overall, the mound showed the largest differences from the original soil, having lower bulk density and higher total carbon than the rest of the nest. Ant-altered portions of soil extended laterally well beyond the surface mound in soils with vertic properties, whereas effects of ants on nest carbon were restricted to nest walls in coarse-textured soils. This difference was due to ants utilizing interpedal spaces of vertic soils that were open during dry years. Hydrologic properties calculated from cross-sectional photographs and tracings of the excavated nest showed that ant activity significantly increased the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil, and was associated with faster increases and decreases in moisture content. This preferential flow effect was present, but more muted in coarse textured soils with naturally high saturated conductivity. Regardless of soil type, the effects of ant altered soil diminish with increasing depth, as nest structures decrease in density and the soil becomes harder to excavate, especially during dry years.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Soil sciences
Entomology
Biology
ants
bioturbation
pedology
social insects
soil biology
soil chemistry
MODIFICATIONS OF FINE- AND COARSE-TEXTURED SOIL MATERIAL CAUSED BY THE ANT FORMICA SUBSERICEA
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/277512019-06-27T21:42:04Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Thelen, Austen James
2019-04-19T20:30:03Z
2019-04-19T20:30:03Z
2017-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15100
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/27751
The North Caucasus region of Russia is certainly one of the world’s most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse. The region’s landscapes reflect legacies of Russian imperialism and Soviet rule, along with contemporary Russian federal administration. The North Caucasus also constitutes a zone of religious transition between Christianity and Islam. These qualities, all of which may potentially serve as markers of identity among the region’s local population, have long constituted a challenge for ethnic Russian, and/or Russian state dominance, and thus have promoted state-led efforts and policies (namely “ethno-federalism” and “federal district reform”) that attempt to achieve a cohesive sense of regional identity for the North Caucasus. This dissertation examines empirical understandings and perceptions of regional and territorial identity as expressed through the collective experiences, attitudes, and opinions of young adults in the contemporary North Caucasus. The project aims to investigate how “the region” ranks among other identity markers of North Caucasus’s many ethno-national and socio-cultural groups, recognize how residents of the region understand it in terms of territorial composition and meaning, and discern any nuances among the population regarding the use of regional policy by the Russian state so as to influence perceptions and discourses on identity, security, and economic development (efforts which I term “constructive regionalization”). The research methodology includes analysis of survey data, as well as a GIS-based cognitive mapping exercise, to indicate statistically significant differences of opinion on the importance of identity markers and their territorial salience. These differences are explained via qualitative interview data gained directly from participants in the field.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Regional studies
Constructive Regionalization
Federal District
North Caucasus
Regional Identity
Regionalism
Stavropol
Regional Identity and Constructive Regionalization in the North Caucasus: Group Perceptions and Nuances from Inside the Region
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/55242020-07-27T12:40:21Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Alhosani, Naeema M.
2009-10-13T04:18:15Z
2009-10-13T04:18:15Z
2009-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10397
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5524
This study investigated visual search for simple and complex geometric and pictorial point symbols displayed on light and dark smooth and textured map backgrounds. Group-administered tests asked subjects to count occurrences of target symbols. Efficiency of visual search was determined by analyzing subjects' self-recorded counts and times for accuracy and speed. Results for symbols indicate that simple geometric and pictorial symbols are easier to search, especially when their shapes differ considerably. In contrast, complex geometric and pictorial symbols differing only in minor details of shape or orientation are harder to search. Results for backgrounds show that high value contrast between symbol and background (e.g. black symbol on white ground) facilitates search, while low contrast (e.g. black symbol on dark gray ground) yields poorer results. Since subjects also found it harder to identify symbols displayed on textured backgrounds (e.g. aerial photograph, satellite image, or relief shading), visual noise is another background factor.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Cartography
Map
Symbolization
Visual perception
Visual search
The Perceptual Interaction of Simple and Complex Point Symbol Shapes and Background Textures in Visual Search on Tourist Maps
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/118152020-10-16T13:17:03Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Alhosani, Naeema M.
2013-09-17T19:53:11Z
2013-09-17T19:53:11Z
2005
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/11815
This thesis investigates the historical significance of traditional Arab navigation technology (after the advent of Islam), drawing upon Arabic primary sources and other relevant literature. Modeling wayfinding as a geographical activity in which members of a culture use its technology to interact spatially with the physical environment, it systematically compares the techniques, tools and other features of Arab wayfinding in two environments, sea and land, forming a transportation network from Mecca in Arabia westward to Spain and eastward to China. It also considers Arab and neighboring cultures as innovators in navigation and geography, including the compilation of maps and text for Al-Idrisi's Book of Roger, which summarized Arab geographical knowledge for the European king, Roger II of Sicily, in 1154 A.D. It concludes by reflecting upon the diffusion and lingering significance of Arab learning in Mediterranean Europe and Africa, suggesting further research to bridge gaps in the historical record.
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Middle east--history
Europe--history
Africa--history
Transportation
Arab wayfinding on land and at sea: An historical comparison of traditional navigation techniques
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/186602018-01-31T20:07:48Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Oakes, John Taysum
2015-10-13T04:16:23Z
2015-10-13T04:16:23Z
2014-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:13652
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/18660
When Apartheid ended in South Africa, so did many barriers to entry for other Africans who wished to migrate there. They came with business skills that locals lacked, having previously been barred from much of civic life, and quickly dominated in street trading. Two decades later, the lure of opportunity is still drawing millions of Africans to South Africa. The purpose of this study is to examine the obstacles and threats to livelihood that migrants encounter in South Africa, to understand the survival strategies they employ to combat these, along with the pressures from home, and to analyze the effects these strategies have on space at differing scales. This study utilized qualitative research methods and focused on migrant street traders in Greenmarket Square in the heart of Cape Town, South Africa. Migrants conveyed that they struggled with locals who exhibited high levels of xenophobia. They also struggled to understand and negotiate the South African Immigration bureaucracy, which is notoriously inefficient and sometimes corrupt. Lastly, migrants portrayed their relationships to home in complex terms, outlining both the benefits and costs, financial and emotional, of being linked transnationally to their home communities. Migrants are fond of home, but routinely feel negatively pressured to remit finances and struggle to maintain a place in the social order from afar. I conclude that migrants are exposed and at-risk, caught in between a context of poverty in the Global South and a tide of resentment, fear and stern migration policy in the Global North.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
African studies
Migration
refugee
remittance
Xenophobia
Migrancy, Markets and Survival: Transnational Lives in South African Space
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/108142020-09-24T14:02:54Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Halfen, Alan Frederick
2013-02-17T16:34:29Z
2013-02-17T16:34:29Z
2012-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12486
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10814
Aeolian dune fields are ubiquitous features of the North American Great Plains, and contained within their stratigraphy are important records of changes in prehistoric climate. Using absolute dating techniques, researchers can determine the timing of past dune field activity, which in many cases, is the result of drought. Based on a drought-aeolian activity relationship, the timing of past dune activity can, therefore, be used as a proxy for prehistoric drought. This dissertation presents three chronologies of dune activity from understudied dune fields in Kansas. Each chronology has been established using new optically stimulated luminescence ages, which in total account for nearly 25% of the total luminescence ages reported from all U.S. Great Plains dune fields. In general, dune activity in Kansas is coeval with that recorded throughout the Great Plains, but, in particular, Kansas dunes were active during defined periods of drought recorded in other regional proxies.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geomorphology
Geology
Paleoclimate science
Aeolian dunes
Great plains
Luminescence
Megadrought
Osl
Radiocarbon
AEOLIAN DUNE FIELDS OF KANSAS AND THEIR RESPONSE TO LATE-QUATERNARY DROUGHT
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39992018-01-31T20:08:06Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Krecic, Jeffrey
2008-07-31T03:28:58Z
2008-07-31T03:28:58Z
2008-02-25
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:2315
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/3999
Abstract: Observations by European settlers indicate that the distribution of pinyon - juniper woodlands has been expanding in the southwestern United States over the last two centuries. Beginning in the late 1990s, drought conditions in the region, along with ips beetle infestations have led to destruction of entire viewsheds of pinyon pine trees. The reduced availability of moisture associated with drought stresses pinyon pines and reduces their ability to resist ips beetle infestation. They are unable to produce the sap necessary to pitch out the boring beetles. These woodlands exist on a marginal environment where slight variations in the moisture balance affect the survivability of such trees. Factors such as elevation, slope, aspect, tree density and soil properties affect the moisture availability of the trees. This study looks at the nature of soil as a possible factor in a tree's ability to resist ips beetle infestation. Trees situated on deeper, richer soils with greater water holding capacity and shallower slope were expected to show an increased resistance to ips beetle infestation. The results of this research, however, did not show any statistically significant difference between the soil conditions at infested and uninfected sites. This finding leads to speculation that after some as of yet unknown point in a drought cycle, even those trees on the best soils are susceptible to beetle infestation and cannot survive.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Biology
Botany
Pinyon pine
Ips beetle
Soil
P-j woodland
Soils as a factor in Pinyon Pine mortality due to Ips Beetle infestation in Garden Park, Colorado: a case study.
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/269872018-10-25T20:14:58Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
McKinney, Lisa Maria Thorp
2018-10-24T19:42:37Z
2018-10-24T19:42:37Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15560
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26987
Given the drastic loss of prairie habitat and consequent decline in grassland bird populations, identifying the factors that influence habitat selection by grassland birds has become a critical tool for effective conservation management. This study investigated habitat occupancy by grassland birds in the Kansas Flint Hills tallgrass prairie during the 2000-2010 breeding season. Boosted regression tree models were used to relate species presence to explanatory variables representing landscape, climate, and prescribed spring burning for fifteen grassland bird species. The impact of spring burning on the diversity and structure of grassland bird communities was also examined, using a selection of diversity indices and paired distance matrices correlating similarity and geographic distance. The effect of burning on community structure was further illuminated through nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination. All occupancy, diversity, and similarity analysis was based on data obtained from the U.S. Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), and evaluated at BBS stop level.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Wildlife conservation
Natural resource management
Boosted Regression Tree
Breeding Bird Survey
fire
Flint Hills
grassland birds
tallgrass prairie
Grassland Breeding Bird Response to Landscape, Climate, and Spring Burning in the Tallgrass Prairies of Kansas
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/314822024-01-16T16:44:30Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Cady, Timothy John
2021-02-27T19:52:18Z
2021-02-27T19:52:18Z
2019-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16940
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/31482
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5709-4410
Impervious surfaces and buildings in the urban environment alter the radiative balance and energy exchange in the boundary layer, increasing sensible heat flux and decreasing latent heat flux near the surface. This typically results in a positive temperature anomaly known as the urban heat island (UHI). The UHI has been attributed to increases in heat related-illness and mortality. Continued urbanization and anthropogenic warming will enhance the magnitude of UHIs worldwide in the coming decades, raising the need for viable mitigation strategies. Observational studies indicate that green spaces within urban areas can reduce local surface temperature by increasing evaporative cooling and latent heat flux, suggesting that implementing such spaces on a widespread scale may be a viable option to lessen the impacts of the UHI. This work explores the potential impact on the UHI if existing vacant lots are converted to green spaces. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was used to simulate the Kansas City, MO region with an inner domain grid spacing of 300 m that allows for block-level analysis. Within WRF, the Single Layer Urban Canopy Model (SLUCM) accounts for the combined radiative effects of natural land cover, vegetation, impervious cover, and building surfaces. Three simulations of summertime heat wave events between 2011 and 2013 are investigated, and model output was validated with surface observations. Using vacant property data and identifying places with a high fraction of impervious surfaces, the most suitable "focus area" for converting vacant lots to green spaces was determined. WRF geographic datasets were modified to simulate varying degrees of realistic conversion of urban to green spaces in these areas. The three control cases under each greening strategy were repeated with the modified geographic datasets, and the local cooling effect using each strategy was compared to each initial control run. Results show that under more aggressive greening strategies, a mean local cooling impact of 0.5 to 1.0 ◦C was present within the focus area itself during the nighttime hours following the development of the stable nocturnal boundary layer. Furthermore, additional cooling via the "park cool island" is of up to 1.0 ◦C possible up to 1 km downwind of the implemented green spaces. Quantifying the thermal impact of converting vacant lots with impervious surfaces to green spaces is an additional factor that can be taken into consideration by policy makers when considering the abatement of the UHI. It is hoped that the focus of this study will serve as guidance to both planners and atmospheric scientists alike as part of the effort to promote future sustainable cities.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
heat
numerical modeling
uban heat island
urbanization
WRF
Using Numerical Simulations to Assess Urban Heat Island Mitigation by Converting Vacant Areas into Green Spaces
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/41862020-07-21T14:54:40Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Gahman, Levi
2008-09-15T04:11:40Z
2008-09-15T04:11:40Z
2008-07-29
http://dissertations2.umi.com/ku:2612
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4186
Eating disorders have been explained as syndromes with foundations in Western ideals and values. These disturbances in eating patterns may be more widespread within varied ethnic groups than formerly acknowledged, due to shifting standards that promote the manipulation of the body. Cross-cultural research of eating disorders implies that societal change may be connected to the rise in susceptibility to such conditions, principally when issues concerning identity are involved. Examination of these behaviors in South Korea, South Africa, and Argentina utilizing historical records, journal articles, and research studies has led to the suggestion that these disorders thrive during prosperous phases of time across egalitarian societies. Utilizing the conceptualizations of Michel Foucault pertaining to disciplinary technologies associated with power and control over the body, this thesis seeks to analyze the current etiology and epidemiology of eating disorders in three "emerging" nations, and how preventative measures can be implemented to treat such illnesses.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Eating disorders
Identity
Foucault, Michel
Body-image
Identity, Body-Image, and the Global Epidemiology of Eating Disorders
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/302062021-03-05T16:54:48Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Grote, Katie
2020-03-28T21:19:40Z
2020-03-28T21:19:40Z
2019-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:16452
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/30206
Indigenous resistance to the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) garnered national and international media attention in 2016 as thousands gathered near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in protest. Increased media attention spurred enquiry concerning the representation of the Indigenous peoples leading the movement. The majority of the U.S. population is ill-informed about historical and contemporary issues concerning Indigenous peoples; this limited understanding of Indigenous experience is manifest in news outlets and their audiences’ knowledge of current issues impacting Indigenous peoples. This research employs a qualitatively-based content analysis of 80 news articles reporting on the DAPL protest. These articles range in political bias and can be categorized in one of the following groups: Conservative Bias, Liberal Bias, Mainstream News, Local News, and Indigenous News. Commonly occurring codes and themes are analyzed across each category. Word count and frequency of reporting are also considered to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the media representations as they develop through time. While the non-Indigenous-led media commonly cites water security and destruction of sacred sites as the reasons for protest, the Indigenous led media also cites treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, economic vulnerability, climate change, and colonial history more frequently, indicating a more holistic understanding of the movement and the Indigenous experience. The mainstream of U.S. reporting on the DAPL protests perpetuate settler ignorance concerning the daily struggles of Indigenous Americans by ignoring the associated political and economic realities of these communities.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
content analysis
geographies of representation
Indigenous geography
media
protest - Dakota Access Pipeline
Standing Rock
Pipelines, Protectors, and a Sense of Place: Media Representations of the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/269862018-10-25T20:13:42Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
McMichael, Lucas
2018-10-24T19:41:08Z
2018-10-24T19:41:08Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15691
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26986
The individual mechanisms responsible for governing the evolution of afternoon cloud properties were explored for a case of thin stratocumulus off the coast of California by applying mixed-layer theory to Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) output. The development of a cloud-base tendency equation permitted the determination of the relative importance of mechanisms governing the evolution of boundary-layer liquid-water static energy () and total water mixing ratio (). The Control simulation performed admirably in comparison to observed estimates of liquid water content, vertical velocity variance, and radiative fluxes sampled by the CIRPAS Twin Otter aircraft. The cloud response to various environmental forcing scenarios was investigated through a suite of sensitivity tests, including variations in subsidence velocity, temperature/moisture tendencies, surface fluxes, wind shear near the inversion, and radiative forcing. In the Control simulation, rising cloud-base tendencies were related to entrainment warming and drying and shortwave absorption, while lowering cloud-base tendencies were associated with longwave cooling. Although there was substantial solar heating during the afternoon, the entrainment fluxes remained active throughout the analysis period. A reversal of cloud-base tendency was often observed in the simulations, as the reduction in shortwave warming later in the afternoon allowed for the recovery of the cloud. The evolution of cloud-base tendency is found to be insensitive to the net radiative flux divergence for most of the simulations (LWP ranging from ~10-50 g m-2). Error analysis suggests our method of entrainment flux calculation could be improved by a more complete understanding of entrainment layer physics.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Eddy
Large
Layer
Mixed
Simulation
Stratocumulus
ASSESSING THE MECHANISMS GOVERNING THE DAYTIME EVOLUTION OF MARINE STRATOCUMULUS USING LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/216902018-01-31T20:07:52Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Thorp, Zachary Ward
2016-10-12T02:24:21Z
2016-10-12T02:24:21Z
2015-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:14336
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/21690
The agritourism industry is an uneasy mixture of agriculture and tourism. Awareness and development of the industry has only become prominent since the 1980s and ‘90s, and is most developed in the European Union. This study examines the effect of distance on the economic outcomes of agritourism providers in Kansas through a geocoded survey. Gravity models are simulated using distance-modified regression variables. Survey results suggest certain business profiles (tourist traps) and visitor profiles (the day tripper, the RV traveler) are associated with relatively greater success. Model results indicate that distance variables are generally worse predictors of economic outcomes than business characteristics. Among distance variables, proximity to similar businesses and accessibility to major roads carried more weight than available income or population. Tested in alternate regions, results would likely vary due to alternate geophysical, settlement, and wealth patterns.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geographic information science and geodesy
Economics
Agritourism
Distance
Economic
Geography
Gravity
Agritourism in Kansas: Effects of Distance and Economic Outcomes
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/106422020-09-15T14:24:30Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Hungerford, Hilary B.
2013-01-20T15:56:43Z
2013-01-20T15:56:43Z
2012-05-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:12056
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/10642
This is a dissertation about how Niamey, Niger is experienced in neighborhoods, through bodies, and around water. I examine the particular colonial and post-colonial historical processes that impacted development and distribution of Niamey's water infrastructure, and trace shifts in governance of this infrastructure over time. To understand how the contemporary city is experienced, I explore it through households and neighborhoods and the very different ways that people outside the piped water network get water. The city, through this understanding, becomes not a city of fragments or splinters, but a city of neighborhoods and relational spaces. This understanding of the city highlights spaces of alternative practices and foregrounds local experience in ways that dystopian discourses of fragmented cities hold implicit, but fail to bring to the surface. I further foreground local experiences by looking at the ways in which water affects bodies, both materially and metaphorically. In this view of the city, bodies are intimately implicated in struggles over natural resource governance, and power over water infrastructure is also about power over bodies. These relational understandings of cities and bodies are brought together to imagine new governance possibilities and urban futures.
en
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
African studies
Urban planning
Body
Infrastructure
Neighborhoods
Niamey
Niger
Water
Water, Cities, and Bodies: A Relational Understanding of Niamey, Niger.
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/41962020-07-21T16:30:16Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Jones, Aubrey R.
2008-09-15T04:30:46Z
2008-09-15T04:30:46Z
2008-08-20
http://dissertations2.umi.com/ku:2628
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/4196
A suite of regional climate model runs was conducted to examine the impacts of mean soil moisture and model resolution on precipitation events in the U.S. Central Plains, and to investigate the relative impacts of energy balance partitioning and net radiation in soil moisture-precipitation feedbacks. Results indicate the presence of a positive feedback between soil moisture and precipitation in the U. S. Central Plains. Energy balance partitioning controls the occurrence of feedbacks, while net radiation was not impacted by mean soil moisture. Spatial scaling properties of modeled fields were examined to determine whether these fields exhibit scale invariance. There is large temporal variability in the scaling coefficients of soil moisture, Bowen ratio and soil temperature. Results imply that scaling characteristics determined from a limited time series of remotely sensed images may not be sufficient for inferring spatial dynamics of soil moisture.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Atmospheric sciences
Geography
Soil moisture
Land-atmosphere feedback
Spatial scaling
Regional climate model
IMPACTS OF SOIL MOISTURE VARIABILITY ON CONVECTIVE PRECIPITATION IN THE CENTRAL PLAINS THROUGH LAND-ATMOSPHERE FEEDBACKS
Thesis
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/55902020-07-27T15:21:56Zcom_1808_1260com_1808_1815col_1808_1952col_1808_14127
Willey, Karen Lynn
2009-11-02T23:53:06Z
2009-11-02T23:53:06Z
2009-07-30
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:10527
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/5590
During the middle Wisconsinan, the Gilman Canyon Formation (GCF), consisting of three loess units and three soils, formed on the loess plateaus of the central Great Plains about 40-25 ka. Stable carbon isotope analysis of the lower two GCF loess units (L1 and L2) at the type locality in southwestern Nebraska, Buzzard's Roost, revealed a mixed C3/C4 grassland. Strongest pedogenesis (GCF S3) and C4-dominance correlated strongly with a peak in summer insolation for the northern latitudes. Soil 2 (S2), L3 and a weakly-expressed S1 developed successively as insolation values declined and delta13C values synchronously dropped back, reflecting the emerging boreal environments of the Late Wisconsinan and deposition of the Peoria Loess. As the Pleistocene ended, Peoria Loess deposition waned sufficiently for pedogenesis to prevail across the central Great Plains, resulting in development of the upland Brady Soil and temporal equivalents in other landscape positions. Climate warmed rapidly between early (13-11 ka) and late (10-9 ka) development of the Brady Soil. Early Holocene temperatures, inferred from carbon isotopic signatures of the Brady Soil, rose 8-10°C above those of the Late Pleistocene. The Holocene record in loess sections of the central Great Plains generally lacks resolution for environmental reconstruction, but canyons systems of the upper Republican River suggest massive Altithermal erosion from c 8-5 ka. T-2 alluviation, with periodic soil formation, ensued from c 5 ka to onset of the Medieval Warm Period (c 1 ka), when erosion initiated a fresh gully cycle. Modern soils at Konza in northeastern Kansas suggest that delta13C in C4 environments such as those of the GCF S3 and the Brady Soil are insensitive to minor variability with landscape position and can therefore be confidently used for paleoenvironmental reconstruction despite the often unknown paleolandscape position of sampled paleosols. Further research is needed, however, to resolve the issue of low surface soil delta13C values relative to biomass found in modern soils, a phenomenon that could lead to an under-representation of C4 plant contributions.
EN
openAccess
This item is protected by copyright and unless otherwise specified the copyright of this thesis/dissertation is held by the author.
Geography
Geology
Brady soil
Climate change
Gilman canyon formation
Holocene
Quaternary
Stable carbon isotopes
Environmental and Pedogenic Change in the Central Great Plains from the Middle Wisconsinan to the Present
Dissertation
oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/268992020-10-13T19:40:10Zcom_1808_1815com_1808_1260col_1808_14127col_1808_1951
Sears, Laurel Birdsong
2018-10-22T15:57:24Z
2018-10-22T15:57:24Z
2017-12-31
http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:15578
http://hdl.handle.net/1808/26899
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8952-8172
Abstract This project explores the definitions of sustainable food system planning and how it is approached through the disciplines of Urban Planning and Human Geography. It evaluates an emerging tool in food system planning, the food system action plan, using public participation as a baseline to understand its possible sustainability. Finally, this project seeks to add to the understanding of food system planning tools with primary research using the photovoice technique with members of the Lawrence, KS community. The food system is intricately tied to economic systems, to social structures or systems that affect all peoples’ ability to access what they need and the systems of nature and the environment. The way cities and regions are constructed or planned deeply affect how people get their food. Changing from global to more locally proximate production and consumption, from invisible to visible food producers is part and parcel of a sustainable food practice. Cities and regions are turning to the planning process to address how communities get their food. One technique to address food system issues is the creation of food system plans. As an emerging technique, I address whether these food plans support sustainability and how these cities, counties and regions have developed these plans. I evaluate adopted food plans nationwide based on their stated public participation measures, using public participation measures as a way to understand community sustainability. Overall, public participation measures are expanding and maturing nationally, with over half of the food system plans documenting their public participation processes well. Using a community based research method, photovoice, I engage seven Lawrence KS community members to document how they experience food in their lives. The City of Lawrence has spent 1.5 years research and creating a food system plan. In the planning process, these seven community members were trained as community data gatherers. In this project, they continue that work. They were instructed to critically engage in the food system and their own experiences, using photography and critical captions with the end goal to affect local food policy. The outcome is heightened engagement and understanding among those creating policy and stakeholders experiencing local food policies at the grassroots level.
en
openAccess
Copyright held by the author.
Geography
Urban planning
Sustainability
Food Planning
Food Systems
Geography
qualitative research
Sustainability
Urban Planning
THE PUBLIC VOICE AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD SYSTEMS: Community Engagement in Food Action Plans
Thesis
mods///col_1808_14127/100