Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Other environmental policy'
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David, Rebecca Brady. "What Makes Water Policy Sustainable? An Analysis of Water Policy in US Cities." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6647.
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This dissertation works to create a clearer understanding of sustainability in water policy. Current water policy in four US cities was compared to a matrix of recommended sustainability themes that have been presented in the literature to determine the extent of which these themes have been implemented into water policy. To best analyze policy for sustainability it is necessary to look at the policy of cities that are considered sustainable. This was determined by a city’s inclusion in “Most Sustainable US Cities” lists. The two cities that best represented sustainability were Austin, TX and San Francisco, CA. The research also included cities that are not considered leaders in sustainability but are similar in demographics, population, and state; these two cities are Fort Worth, TX and San Jose, CA. Finally, the same matrix was applied to the state policy to establish how state policy influences city sustainability.
The results of this study add to the current knowledge in this field as it contributes a current analysis of sustainable water policy. The final findings compile the themes into a sustainability pyramid framework of common, uncommon, and rare sustainability. It appears that the ‘sustainable’ cities have included more uncommon and rare themes than the traditional cities, while common themes are implemented across the board. Common themes are those that are traditionally associated with sustainability – themes like conservation, reuse, and reducing pollutant impact on water sources. In order increase sustainability, cities should apply more of the themes from the top of the pyramid.
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Turner, Karen R. "Modelling the impact of policy and other disturbances on sustainability policy indicators in Jersey : an economic-environmental regional computable general equilibrium analysis." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.248751.
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Costello, Paige E. "Prose and Polarization: Environmental Literature and the Challenges to Constructive Discourse." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/388.
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This work explores how authors employ literary modes to persuade readers towards one side or another of the environmental debate and whether the works promote constructive discourse on environmental issues. It uses two seminal works from each side of the environmental discourse, Silent Spring and The Population Bomb and The Ultimate Resource and The Skeptical Environmentalist, to analyze stylistic differences and similarities, to compare public reception, and to explain the increasing polarization of environmental discourse.
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Barthle, Justin. "Analysis of Managerial Decision-Making within Florida’s Total Maximum Daily Load Program." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6462.
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Water quality has evolved legislatively from protection of navigation routes and quantity of sources to more emphasis on impairments on water quality for surface and groundwater sources. Nonpoint or diffuse sources of impairments represents a major challenge for management due to the complexity of its sources and difficulty in tracking.
The most cited sections on public policy analysis focuses on the overall process agencies employ to understand the results the program yields. Often overlooked are finer details and mechanisms, such as decision-making and priority setting, which have a great impact on the overall process. To investigate these factors, we need to analyze the decision-making process used by managers.
This study focuses on using information from those with direct involvement in the establishment and implementation of the Total Maximum Daily Load program for the state of Florida. This study used decision-making analysis models from Rational-Decision-Making and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis concepts to construct questionnaires that looks to develop priorities as seen by managers’ preferences for several presented options. This methodology allowed us to structure the viewpoints and processes water quality managers use to breakdown decisions.
The analyzed results show water quality managers prefer strong management options, involvement from stakeholders with scientific knowledge, and data collected from the source or point of impact. Interestingly, opinions in the group show that urban best management practices are considered more effective than their agriculture counterparts with a disfavor for volunteer derived data.
Ultimately, the survey highlights the need for more robust enforcement and reliable measurement of non-point source of impairments. Continued public outreach and education, especially through workshops, are denoted as important tasks to completing successful TMDLs and should be expanded and strengthened by both the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and its boundary programs.
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Haskell, Hilary A. "The Seven Deadly Sins of Sustainability: Is Capitalism Really at Fault?" Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/846.
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Although capitalism is usually seen as the culprit for many of the environmental issues society faces today, it is not necessarily at fault. The Seven Deadly Sins of Sustainability: Pride, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust, and Envy, are the underlying reasons why capitalism fails in the face of sustainability. Through recognition of these human vices, better strategies can be used to address environmental issues through leveraging capitalistic economic solutions.
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Etchells, Oli. "The Securitisation of Natural Resources : A Post-structural Policy Analysis of the United Nations Environmental Peacebuilding Programme." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Institutionen för globala politiska studier (GPS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-46111.
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Increasingly, natural resources have come to be considered in dual dimension as objects that both increase the risk of violence and pose an opportunity to build peace. This linking of natural resources to question of conflict, peace, and security denotes the ‘securitisation’ of natural resources, taken to mean the “discursive construction of an existing threat to a referent object legitimizing extraordinary means.” This begs the question, what might these ‘extraordinary means’ entail? This thesis investigates this question by analysing the United Nations Environmental Cooperation for Peacebuilding’s 2016 report, a body tasked with researching the resource/conflict nexus and producing policy to address it. Utilising a post-structural policy analysis method, I denaturalise the claims made by the policy, applying governmentality, environmentality, and critical security theories to explain the logics and rationales underpinning resource securitisation, and the effects those rationales have. The analysis suggests that the policies security framing serves to represent resource conflict as manageable only through liberal governmental reforms associated with mainstream development practice, the UNEPs monopoly of technical peacebuilding expertise, and surveillance measures placed on unsuitable countries. By emphasising these as the primary solutions, the policy removes natural resource management from public control, downplaying populations agency, and maintaining existing power relations and inequalities.
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Cagle, Lauren E. "Shaping Climate Citizenship: The Ethics of Inclusion in Climate Change Communication and Policy." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6197.
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The problem of climate change is not simply scientific or technical, but also political and social. This dissertation analyzes both the role and the ethical foundations of citizenship and citizen engagement in the political and social aspects of climate change communication and policy-making. Using a critical discourse analysis of a policy recommendations drafted by the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, I demonstrate how climate change policy documentation naturalizes a particular version of citizenship I call “climate citizenship.” Based on environmental critiques of liberal and civic republican citizenship, I show how this “climate citizenship” would be more productive and ethical if based on theories of environmental citizenship rooted in an ecological feminist ethic of flourishing. This critique of current representations of citizenship in climate change policy offers a theoretically sound basis for future engaged work in rhetoric of science focused on policy-making.
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Jimoh, Bukola S. "Energy Efficiency Technologies for Buildings: Potential for Energy, Cost, and Carbon Emission Savings." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/180.
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Buildings are a significant energy consumer and are responsible for an increasingly large percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, currently between 30 and 40 percent. Energy efficiency presents unique opportunities for building owners to reduce their environmental footprint and add value through cost savings, tax deductions, and increased market value. An analysis of 183 samples of efficiency measures in seven technology categories found that 74% of efficiency investments had a positive net present value. Building automation system and chiller plant improvements had the highest mean energy and carbon dioxide savings per square foot. Additionally, building automation systems had, on average the highest return on investment, approximately $800 above the cost of implementation per one thousand square feet. Only building envelope modifications had a negative mean return on investment. Building automation system upgrades avoided an average of 350 pounds of CO2e for every dollar spent, reducing a building’s total carbon footprint by as much as 28%. The results suggest that a significant opportunity for cost, energy, and emission savings is available across all technology categories.
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Magnusson, Julia. "Adaptive Forest Policy : The Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction through Nature-Based Solutions in Swedish and Scottish Forest Policy." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-443541.
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Climate change may cause significant changes to our relationship with nature, triggering large impacts on ecosystems and the societies dependent on their ecosystem services. Forests are seen as a mitigating solution for their abilities to store carbon, provide forest products, enhance biodiversity along with other forest ecosystem services (FES). Forest’s natural systems have shown resilience against climate-induced disasters and have been acknowledged as an important tool to mitigate climate change. However, to ensure the continued supply of these services requires adaptable management of forest ecosystems through policy. This study aims to analyse how Swedish and Scottish public FES-related policy integrates the adaptive and mitigating methods used in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Nature-based Solutions (NBS). The method of this analysis relied on three theoretical approaches; Policy integration, Environmental policy integration and Frames to see how the concepts and methods of NBS and DRR are implemented within Swedish and Scottish forest policy. The results showed that the main message from both Swedish and Scottish public FES-related policy is that humans are dependent on FES, therefore the protection of forest land and species cannot be under-prioritised. Both countries’ goals focus on becoming climate neutral by 2045 with an increased (Scotland) or sustained (Sweden) bioeconomy to be achieved alongside carbon sequestration, increased biodiversity, and diversified usage of forests. Both countries recognise and use ecosystem services as a NBS to mitigate climate change and reduce disaster risk. The increase of biodiversity through afforestation, green infrastructure, and conservation as a method to create resilience is a common method of NBS within the policy documents, and its ability to prevent risks along several areal and hierarchical scales show methods of DRR. However, vague goals on the strategy to achieve this are seen within both countries’ policy which question their determination and ability to succeed. Their difference in forest ownership structure and history diverges their application of community engagement in FES management. It is now essential that both Sweden and Scotland implement a sustainable balance between their national strategy objectives for the sake of the environment and use the considerable political traction by methods of NBS and DRR to reach resilient forest ecosystems. Future research could further assess the results and consequences of the policy strategies to see if they have achieved inclusive, integrated forest resilience through adaptive policy.
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Nunes, Lambiasi Layla. "Sustainable life, not sustainable development - “Other” epistemologies in sanitation policy in Rural Brazil : The case of Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för tema, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-170214.
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Despite decades of global efforts to provide the whole of the world’s population with appropriated water and sanitation, these remain one of the biggest challenges of our time, with the gap being even greater in rural areas. Commonly dominated by technological and managerialist solutions, the field of water and sanitation have been subject, since its origins, to rationalities grounded in western knowledge. As a result, approaches to the topic tends to disregard deeper relationships between the social world and its historical, political, economic and cultural realizations. While many discuss water and sanitation in terms of supply, others indicate how current shortcomings are more related to power structures. Universal paradigms in water and sanitation constitutes epistemological hegemony. The present thesis explores, based on a decolonial and Latin-American political ecology framework, how dominant rationalities contribute for a great share of people around the globe to remain without access to water and sanitation. Taking as a case study Brazil’s National Program for Rural Sanitation (PNSR – in Portuguese), the thesis investigates its formulation process to understand how its constitution and final product represent alternative epistemologies, also presenting its relationships with the pursuit of sustainability. Four elements of the PNSR’s formulation are especially highlighted: the engagement with social movements; the openness to a dialogue of knowledges; the participative and qualitative methods; and, the shared approaches to sustainability. Discussions draw upon the importance of questioning dominant epistemologies; recognizing the linkages between health, sanitation, conflict and resistance in rural Brazil; and, constructing sustainability as a space for the encounter of different rationalities.Mesmo que esforços globais para fornecer água e saneamento adequados a toda a população mundial somem décadas de investimento, estes continuam sendo um dos maiores desafios de nosso tempo, com a lacuna sendo ainda maior nas áreas rurais. Comumente dominado por soluções tecnológicas e gerenciais, o campo da água e do saneamento esteve sujeito, desde as suas origens, a racionalidades alicerçadas em saberes ocidentais. Como resultado, a abordagem do tema tende a desconsiderar relações mais profundas entre o mundo social e suas realizações históricas, políticas, econômicas e culturais. Enquanto muitos discutem água e saneamento em termos de abastecimento, outros indicam como as deficiências atuais estão mais relacionadas a estruturas de poder. Paradigmas universais em água e saneamento constituem uma hegemonia epistemológica. A presente tese explora, a partir de um arcabouço de ecologia política decolonial e latino-americana, como racionalidades dominantes contribuem para que grande parte da população mundial permaneça sem acesso à água e ao saneamento. Tomando como estudo de caso o Programa Nacional de Saneamento Rural do Brasil (PNSR), a tese investiga seu processo de formulação para compreender como sua constituição e produto final representam epistemologias alternativas, apresentando também suas relações com a busca pela sustentabilidade. Quatro elementos da formulação do PNSR são especialmente destacados: o engajamento com os movimentos sociais; a abertura ao diálogo de saberes; os métodos participativos e qualitativos; e, as abordagens compartilhadas para a sustentabilidade. As discussões baseiam-se na importância em se questionar epistemologias dominantes; reconhecendo as ligações entre saúde, saneamento, conflito e resistência no Brasil rural; e, construindo a sustentabilidade como um espaço de encontro de diferentes racionalidades.
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Kinrade, Peter. "Sustainable energy in Australia : an analysis of performance and drivers relative to other OECD countries /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/3613.
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Emas, Rachel. "Successes and Shortcomings in the Implementation of National Sustainable Development Strategies: From the Greening of Governance to the Governance of Greening." FIU Digital Commons, 2015. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2197.
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The interdependence between the economy and the environment necessitates integrated policymaking that recognizes the biological limits of our world and the scarcity of these natural resources. At the 1992 Earth Summit, countries agreed to adopt a National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) which should comprise the integration of economic, social, and environmental policies across sectors, territories, and generations; country ownership and commitment; broad participation and effective partnerships; development of the necessary capacity and enabling environment; and focus on outcomes and implementation. Working from these key factors and based on decades of international research and peer reviews of these policies, this study hypothesizes four relationships to test the influence of these principles on the successful execution of an NSDS. Offering the first formal framework which theorizes and evaluates connections between these dimensions, this qualitative approach is applied to two case studies, South Africa and Germany, by the use of documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. The present study finds that embedding NSDS programs and institutions within existing policy agendas and organizations is extremely difficult, especially in countries with a solid history of environmental policy. Also, the significant role of subnational governments and entities in all aspects of policymaking must be taken into account for the effective implementation of a National Strategy. The present research examines the necessity of specific policymaking processes and implementation mechanisms for an effective National Sustainable Development Strategy, ascertains common implementation challenges, and offers recommendations for the improved implementation of National Sustainable Development Strategies.
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Jerolleman, Alessandra. "The Privatization of Hazard Mitigation: A Case Study of the Creation and Implementation of a Federal Program." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2013. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1692.
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This dissertation explores the role of the private and public sectors in hazard mitigation, an important part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) performance requirements from the Stafford Act. Hazard mitigation is the effort to reduce societal impacts from natural disasters by reducing their risk to people, property and infrastructure; before hazards occur. The goal of the work is to contribute to the literature examining the national trend towards privatization and reliance on the free market economy for the provision of government social services, through such public management movements as the “New Public Management” (NPM) of the 1980s and the general efficiency movement that encompasses a greater market orientation in public government and an increase in the use of private sector contractors as an alternative to public provision (Boston 1996).
The primary question which this dissertation seeks to answer is: How has the provision of hazard mitigation services by the private sector come to be the norm and what have been the consequences. Due to the broad nature of the question and the lack of previous research, this dissertation will utilize a mixed methods approach with the goal of gaining a broad understanding of the privatization of the hazard mitigation sector in its various manifestations. The approach consists of one case study, broken down into two time periods: hazard mitigation prior to the passage of the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, and hazard mitigation following the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000. The case study is based primarily upon a series of interviews and includes several imbedded cases. They will be contextualized within an overall description of hazard mitigation focusing on the history and the context of the relevant federal legislation.
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Hinkle, Jameson. "PROOF-OF-CONCEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DNA TOOLS FOR ATLANTIC STURGEON MANAGEMENT." VCU Scholars Compass, 2015. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3932.
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The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, Mitchell) is an anadromous species that spawns in tidal freshwater rivers from Canada to Florida. Overfishing, river sedimentation and alteration of the river bottom have decreased Atlantic Sturgeon populations, and NOAA lists the species as endangered. Ecologists sometimes find it difficult to locate individuals of a species that is rare, endangered or invasive. The need for methods less invasive that can create more resolution of cryptic species presence is necessary. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a non-invasive means of detecting rare, endangered, or invasive species by isolating nuclear or mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the water column. We evaluated the potential of eDNA to document the presence of Atlantic Sturgeon in the James River, Virginia. Genetic primers targeted the mitochondrial Cytochrome Oxydase I gene, and a restriction enzyme assay (DraIII) was developed. Positive control mesocosm and James River samples revealed a nonspecific sequence—mostly bacteria commonly seen in environmental waters. Methods more stringent to a single species was necessary. Novel qPCR primers were derived from a second region of Cytochrome Oxydase II, and subject to quantitative PCR. This technique correctly identified Atlantic Sturgeon DNA and differentiated among other fish taxa commonly occurring in the lower James River, Virginia. Quantitative PCR had a biomass detection limit of 32.3 ug/L and subsequent analysis of catchment of Atlantic Sturgeon from the Lower James River, Virginia from the fall of 2013 provided estimates of 264.2 ug/L Atlantic Sturgeon biomass. Quantitative PCR sensitivity analysis and incorporation of studies of the hydrology of the James River should be done to further define habitat utilization by local Atlantic Sturgeon populations.
IACUC: AD20127
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Lewis, William Skyler. "Ballot-Box Environmentalism across the Golden State: How Geography Influences California Voters’ Demand for Environmental Public Goods." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/149.
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In California, voters frequently face ballot propositions dealing directly or indirectly with environmental protection. Records of these votes provide powerful evidence of the character of voters’ demand and willingness-to-pay for environmental public goods (e.g., air quality, watershed ecosystem services, parks and recreation), and have been used in past environmental econometrics research to produce aggregated income and price effect estimates. Using neighborhood-level voting records on seven environmental-related ballot propositions in California between 2002 and 2010, this econometric study investigates the nature of voters’ demand for environmental public goods, focusing on the effect of household income on pro-environment voting. Unlike previous studies, this study uses geographically weighted regression (GWR) to determine how estimates vary across the historically, culturally, and politically diverse state of California. Preliminary statewide results from an ordinary least-squares regression model suggest that demand decreases with voter income, and that this negative income effect is strongest among lower-income households. However, GWR results suggest that the magnitude, and even the sign, of income effects varies regionally. The San Francisco Bay Area, in particular, stands out as anomalous from the statewide model estimates: in this region, wealthier households are more likely than lower-income households to support environmental propositions, ceteris paribus. This finding is consistent across all propositions studied, which include water bonds, State Parks funding, and the California High-Speed Rail program, among others. GWR results suggest that political geography and regional culture determines the way in which income (as well as education and other factors) affects voters’ support of environmental propositions.
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Harreld, Natalie P. "Changing The Climate Narrative: How A Long-Term Climate Change Might Save Our Lives." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/897.
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The goal of this paper is to offer new insights into the climate change debate by shifting away from the heated anthropologic arguments that dominate politics, media, and popular science. Instead, I choose to rely on the long-term impacts of a changing climate on our planet. The paper begins with a break down of key processes involved in short-term and long-term climate change, using the latest research. After a foundational understanding of climate sciences is established, we will discuss the failure of the climate change debate in educating the general public about the facts of a changing climate. Finally, the importance of long-term foresight in climate policy and education, and how this perspective could drastically progress the climate debate, will be discussed.
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Savage, William. "The Full Cost of Renewables: Managing Wind Integration Costs in California." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/57.
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Wind power will be an important component of California's aggressive strategies to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets by the year 2020. However, the costs of integrating wind power's variable and uncertain output are often ignored. I argue that California must take prudent action to understand, minimize, and allocate wind integration costs. A review of numerous studies suggests that for wind penetration levels below 20%, integration costs should remain modest. However, costs are heavily dependent on market structure, and I suggest numerous ways that California can optimize its market design to manage wind integration costs.
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Winter, Alexis. "Making a Place for People at a Wildlife Corridor on Chicago's South Side." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6437.
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What role do environmental conservation projects play in the transformation of American cities? How do these projects affect city residents? In this study, I ask these questions at the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, where the Chicago Park District worked with institutional and community-based partner organizations to engage city residents in the creation of a lakefront wildlife habitat and public nature area. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observation I explored how actors at various levels understand this changing landscape and their roles in shaping it. I situate the Burnham Wildlife Corridor project in the broader context of a state-level plan, the Millennium Reserve, as well as relevant trends in urban planning and environmental governance. Using concepts from anthropology, geography, sociology, philosophy, and natural resource management, I interpret my results, with a focus on space, place, and the role of race and ethnicity in community engagement around conservation. I discuss emerging tensions and contradictions in urban environmental conservation and offer recommendations for how land managers and their partners can refine community engagement efforts aimed at increasing public participation in land management.
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Rengs, Bernhard, Manuel Scholz-Wäckerle, Ardjan Gazheli, Miklós Antal, and den Bergh Jeroen van. "Testing innovation, employment and distributional impacts of climate policy packages in a macro-evolutionary systems setting." European Commission, bmwfw, 2015. http://epub.wu.ac.at/4721/1/WWWforEurope_WPS_no083_MS32.pdf.
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Climate policy has been mainly studied with economic models that assume representative, rational agents. However, it aims at changing behavior associated with carbon-intensive goods that are often subject to bounded rationality and social preferences, such as status and imitation. Here we use a macroeconomic multi-agent model with such features to test the effect of various policies on both environmental and economic performance. The model is particularly suitable to address distributional impacts of climate policies, not only because populations of many agents are included, but also as these are composed of different classes of households driven by specific motivations. We simulate various policy scenarios, combining in different ways a carbon tax, a reduction of labor taxes, subsidies for green innovation, a price subsidy to consumers for less carbon-intensive products, and green government procurement. The results show pronounced differences with those obtained by rational-agent model studies. It turns out that demand-oriented subsidies lead to lower unemployment and higher output, but perform less well in terms of carbon emissions. The supply-oriented subsidy for green innovation results in a significant reduction of carbon emissions with a slight reduction of unemployment.Series: WWWforEurope
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Villines, Jonathan A. "USING GIS TO DELINEATE HEADWATER STREAM ORIGINS IN THE APPALACHIAN COAL-BELT REGION OF KENTUCKY." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/bae_etds/15.
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Human activity such as surface mining can have substantial impacts on the natural environment. Performing a Cumulative Hydrologic Impact Assessment (CHIA) of such impacts on surface water systems requires knowing the location and extent of these impacted streams. The Jurisdictional Determination (JD) of a stream’s protected status under the Clean Water Act (CWA) involves locating and classifying streams according to their flow regime: ephemeral, intermittent, or perennial. Due to their often remote locations and small size, taking a field inventory of headwater streams for surface mining permit applications or permit reviews is challenging. A means of estimating headwater stream location and extent, according to flow regime using publicly available spatial data, would assist in performing CHIAs and JDs. Using headwater point-of-origin data collected from Robinson Forest in eastern Kentucky along with data from three JDs obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), headwater streams in the Appalachian Coal Belt were characterized according to a set of spatial parameters. These characteristics were extrapolated using GIS to delineate headwater streams over a larger area, and the results were compared to the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD).
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Adjei, Cornelius Owusu. "Citizen Action, Power Relations and Wetland Management in the Tampa Bay Urban Socio-ecosystem." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/3942.
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Wetlands are vital ecosystems that provide ecological, economic and social benefits to societies. In the Tampa Bay region in West Central Florida, a growing population has put immense pressure on wetlands. The situation has not gone unnoticed in the public domain with concerns raised about the need to formulate policies that would protect them. However, it has been difficult to ascertain the level of citizen involvement in the decision making process.
This study aimed at investigating whether the perceptions and concerns of citizens drove them to influence local water policy. Questionnaires were used to collect data from residents living in close proximity to well fields situated in wetlands in Northwestern Hillsborough County.
Results of the research showed that residents demonstrated a high degree of knowledge about water resources in the Tampa Bay region. Residents expressed concerns about groundwater pumping and development, and attributed them to changes in their environment. However, there was little engagement from residents with decision makers to address these concerns. This study therefore recommends that improved participatory mechanisms be created by local water agencies to incorporate valuable inputs from the public.
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Mark, Kaya. "Colonialism and its Aftermaths in Vieques, Puerto Rico: How U.S. Hegemony Led to Contamination, a Superfund Site, and Local Mistrust." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2018. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1152.
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After sixty-two years of U.S. military testing, the small Puerto Rican island of Vieques and its residents continue to fight against ongoing environmental and social effects of U.S. hegemony. Starting with the arrival of the Spanish, then with U.S. occupation and use of Vieques as a military stopover, Viequense residents are used to U.S. governmental presence on their land. Despite the military’s removal from Vieques in 2003, many local residents have a fundamental lack of trust for the U.S. government. Because of this lack of trust and transparency with U.S. governmental actions in the post- World War II period, residents of Vieques do not see any difference between the USFWS, the EPA, CH2M Hill, and the U.S. Navy. However, many acknowledge that the U.S. government’s involvement may be good for the island, so there is some ambivalence about the U.S. government’s continued presence on the island, its role in developing Vieques, and bettering its current economic situation. While the majority of local activists claim that naval activities negatively affected island life through contamination of land and surrounding waters, also resulting in a range of human health problems, others argue that the U.S. Navy should not be demonized, and the island’s role in conservation should be paramount. These differing views reflect two opposing frameworks: one fighting against a colonizer and U.S. hegemony, and the other promoting a primarily conservation-based framework meant to protect non-human residents.
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Bass, Jessica. "The Potential and Limits of Extended Producer Responsibility: A Comparative Analysis Study." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1693.
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This thesis draws on the concept of product stewardship and its focus on incorporating all of the actors in a product’s lifecycle into steps to take responsibility for waste management. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recognizes the producer’s distinct potential to consider and drive change in waste management. Producers often serve like mediators between the design and use phases of a product’s lifecycle. Through EPR policies, the producer takes on the costs of ensuring safe end-of-life waste disposal. In this way, EPR can be expected to help relieve the public of some of the costs of waste disposal, and to support consideration of social and environmental impacts that a product may incur.
This thesis examines EPR policy adoption and effectiveness in order to understand its ability to meet its theoretical expectations. Exploring the consideration and implementation of EPR policy measures, and particularly a case study of these policies in California, this thesis identifies several emerging challenges and trends that define openness to, and the success of, EPR. EPR policy proposals often encounter resistance that limits their strength and reach. In order to realize the full potential benefits of EPR, regulatory bodies will need to wholeheartedly support competition and enforcement to preserve the incentives within these policies. This thesis suggests that EPR still holds strong potential to bring together the social, environmental, and economic costs of waste management, both in theory and in practice, and offers broad recommendations for efforts to support this alignment.
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Foehringer, Merchant Emma. "Radical Housewife Activism: Subverting the Toxic Public/Private Binary." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/101.
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Since the 1960s, the modern environmental movement, though generally liberal in nature, has historically excluded a variety of serious and influential groups. This thesis concentrates on the movement of working-class housewives who emerged into popular American consciousness in the seventies and eighties with their increasingly radical campaigns against toxic contamination in their respective communities. These women represent a group who exhibited the convergence of cultural influences where domesticity and environmentalism met in the middle of American society, and the increasing focus on public health in the environmental movement framed the fight undertaken by women who identified as “housewives.” These women, in their use of both traditional female stereotypes as well as radical influences from other social movements, synthesized their own unique type of activism, which has had a profound influence on the environmental movement and public health in the United States, especially in its relation to environmental justice.
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Muncy, Brenee' Lynn. "THE EFFECTS OF MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL MINING AND VALLEY FILLS ON STREAM SALAMANDER COMMUNITIES." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/forestry_etds/15.
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Mountaintop removal mining and valley filling (MTR/VF) is a common form of land conversion in Central Appalachia and threatens the integrity of stream ecosystems. We investigated the effects of MTR/VF on stream salamander occupancy probabilities and community structure by conducting area constrained active searches for stream salamanders within intermittent streams located in mature forest (i.e., control) and those impacted by MTR/VF. During March to June of 2013, we detected five stream salamander species (Desmognathus fuscus, D. monticol, Eurycea cirrigera, Pseudotriton ruber, and Gyrinophilus porphyriticus) and found that the probability of occupancy was greatly reduced in MTR/VF streams compared to control streams. Additionally, the salamander community was greatly reduced in MTR/VF streams; the mean species richness estimate for MTR/VF streams was 2.09 (± 1.30 SD), whereas richness was 4.83 (± 0.58 SD) for control streams. Numerous mechanisms may be responsible for decreased occupancy and diminished salamander communities at MTR/VF streams, although water chemistry of streams may be a particularly important mechanism. Indeed, we detected elevated levels of specific conductivity, pH, total organic carbon, and dissolved ions in MTR/VF streams. Our results indicate that salamander communities, with other invertebrates, fish, and other aquatic and/or semi-aquatic animals, are susceptible to MTR/VF mining practices.
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States, Eliza. "A Discussion of the Impact of Political and Economic Forces on Equitable Access to Potable Water in Ecuador and Recommendations for Improvement through Better Watershed Management." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/52.
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This thesis will address the impact of political and economic forces on the equitable access to fresh water in Ecuador. Demographic factors such as the rural-to-urban migration and the political and economic forces have strongly influenced the debate over the privatization of the provision of potable water and sanitation services. Within the context of Ecuador, two different approaches by the largest cities, Quito and Guayaquil, are analyzed; in Guayaquil, the services were privatized, while in Quito, the public utility was corporatized, remaining under public control. It concludes arguing that in the face of political instability and a lack of regulatory enforcement, neither public nor private provision adequately supplies marginalized communities with water and sanitation services. Watershed management is therefore crucial to maintaining a sound city water-management plan. Its flexibility and openness to innovative alliances between various stakeholders creates great potential for this approach.
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Calhoun, Corinne. "Public Land and Its Management: Why the Research Is Not Enough." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/75.
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Ecological research, both basic and applied, can inform management decisions on public land in a number of ways. Most importantly, it can illuminate any negative effects of a given land use practice as well as the causes behind that effect. This type of information can be important to a management agency, such as the BLM, with a multi-use mission as these studies indicate under what management regimes a land use is in contradiction with other goals, such as conservation or restoration.
The current body of research, however, is flawed. In order to make fully informed decisions, land managers are in need of site or ecosystem-specific studies, which may not be available for the ecosystem in question. In addition, as is the case with investigations of the effects of extraction of natural gas, lack of baseline data and systematically controlled experiments lead to incomplete answering of questions pertinent to land managers.
To produce research that is more pertinent to land managers, researchers and managers can work together more closely. This could be facilitated if funding were available to BLM field offices to solicit investigation into questions they need answered locally. This may necessitate a certain level of decentralization or at least more discretionary power given to local managers within the agency. Close collaboration between researchers and land managers from the beginning would ensure the produced results could better inform management decisions.
Public land managers of the BLM cannot only consider scientific research when making land use decisions, however. Its multi-use mission statement requires an integration of conservation, restoration, recreation and resource use and extraction. This can lead to a number of conflicts or contradictions between goals. In addition, national, state, and local values and priorities play into which land use practices are deemed acceptable, often regardless of scientific research. In order to remedy the situation, boundary spanning, a transdisciplinary approach, and decentralization have been suggested.
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Scrudato, Matthew C. "Comparison of Two Potential Streamgage Locations on Scott Creek at Swanton Pacific Ranch, California." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2010. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/330.
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Two locations on Scott Creek, located 12 miles north of Santa Cruz California, are being considered for the installation of a streamgage to measure discharge. Each location offers unique considerations and challenges in gage construction and discharge measurement capabilities. A detailed flood frequency analysis was completed using a direct watershed comparison, direct equations developed by Waananen and Crippen, a Log Pearson Type III Frequency Distribution, a regional analysis, and two-station comparisons. Final results indicate a 100-year recurrence interval of 6,310 ft3/s at the Upper Scott Creek location and 6,520 ft3/s at the lower location. A detailed indirect measurement revealed that the Lower Scott Creek gage location can only maintain a discharge of 2,500 ft3/s, or a 10-year frequency event, before bank overflow. Therefore, a cableway spanning the width of the design flow cannot be constructed and stage readings at extreme peak events will not accurately represent the true hydrograph. A bridge at the Upper Scott Creek gage location will provide a means for measuring high flow events; however, the channel is in a state of disequilibrium due to debris jams within the 140 foot reach above the bridge. This site is also problematic due to the occurrence of channel avulsion which is scouring and incising a new channel which threatens to undermine the left bank wingwall of the bridge. Remediation measures have been proposed, including the installation of a cross-vane and wing-deflectors, to mitigate negative effects of erosion and reestablish a natural channel condition. The upstream location has been selected as the preferred alternative given the remediation measures are successful.
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Bekenstein, Jenny. "Campaigning on an Environmental Justice Platform: Irmalinda Osuna for Upland City Council, District 3." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/97.
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After successfully organizing around preserving Cabrillo Park in Upland and feeling a lack of local political representation, Irmalinda Osuna ran for Upland City Council in the 2018 midterm elections. As one of the many female candidates in the 2018 elections, Irmalinda led a grassroots, community-led political campaign in which she advocated for environmental justice and the preservation of parks, a more inclusive community, increased civic participation, a more efficient use of technology in politics, and support for small businesses.
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Morse, Cody. "Quantifying the Environmental Performance of a Stream Habitat Improvement Project." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2018. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1972.
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River restoration projects are being installed worldwide to rehabilitate degraded river habitat. Many of these projects focus on stream habitat improvement (SHI), and an estimated 60%of the 37,000 projects listed in the National River Restoration Science Synthesis Program focus on SHI for salmon and trout species. These projects frequently lack a sufficient monitoring program or account for the environmental costs associated with SHI. The present study used life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques and topographic effectiveness monitoring to quantify environmental costs on the basis of geomorphic change. This methodology was a novel approach to assessing the cost-benefit relationship of SHI. To test this methodology, two phases of the Lower Scotts Creek Floodplain and Habitat Enhancement Project (LSCR) were used as a case study. The LSCR was a SHI project installed along the northern coast of Santa Cruz County, California, USA. A limited scope LCA was used to quantify the life cycle impacts of raw material production, materials transportation, and on-site construction. Once these baseline results were produced, a topographic monitoring program was used to quantify the topographic diversity index (TDI) in pre- and post-project conditions. The TDI percent change was used to scale the baseline LCA results, which quantified the environmental impacts based on geomorphic change. Phase II outperformed phase I. Phase I had greater cumulative environmental impacts and experienced a 7.7 % TDI increase from pre- to post-project conditions. Phase II had 43% less cumulative environmental impacts and experienced a 7.9% TDI increase from pre- to post-project conditions. The impacts in phase I were greater because of the amount of material excavated to create off-channel features, which were a key feature of the LSCR. A scenario analysis also was conducted within the LCA component of this study. The scenario analysis suggests that life cycle impacts could be reduced by 30%-65% by using the accelerated recruitment method in place of importing materials to build large wood complexes. The results of this study suggest that managers may improve the environmental performance of SHI projects by: (1) using the accelerated recruitment method to introduce larger key pieces to the channel, reducing the need to import materials; (2) using nursery grown plants as opposed to excavating plants for revegetation; (3) minimizing fuel combustion in heavy equipment and haul trucks by ensuring clear access to the channel and streambank, using small engine equipment to clear access corridors during site preparation, running more fuel-efficient machinery or bio-fuel powered machinery, and by attempting to minimize haul distances by sourcing materials locally; and (4) utilizing a “franken-log” design (a ballasted LWC configuration with a rootwad fastened to the downstream end of a log) in LWCs which led to favorable TDI change. This study concluded that LCA could be a valuable tool for monitoring SHI and river restoration projects and that further research of the TDI analysis is justified.
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Good, Jennifer E. "Fossil Fuel Subsidies: Impacts and Reform Strategies." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/687.
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This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that fossil-fuel subsidies should be rationalized.
However, removing subsidies is politically challenging. In order to identify strategies for fossil fuel reform, the successful reform efforts of Indonesia and Turkey are examined. These cases are then used to draw lessons for governments undertaking subsidy reform. The key strategies used were to exempt some regions, groups, or fuels from reform, use funds from subsidy removal for social safety nets and other poverty alleviation programs, time the reforms strategically, and communicate clearly to the public the reason for reform and how the funds will be used. These lessons are applied to countries in the developing Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.
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Staats, Wesley A. "USE OF LIDAR-DERIVED TERRAIN AND VEGETATION INFORMATION IN A DECIDUOUS FOREST IN KENTUCKY." UKnowledge, 2015. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/forestry_etds/24.
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The use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) information is gaining popularity, however its use has been limited in deciduous forests. This thesis describes two studies using LiDAR data in an Eastern Kentucky deciduous forest. The first study quantifies vertical error of LiDAR derived digital elevation models (DEMs) which describe the forests terrain. The study uses a new method which eliminates Global Positioning System (GPS) error. The study found that slope and slope variability both significantly affect DEM error and should be taken in to account when using LiDAR derived DEMs. The second study uses LiDAR derived forest vegetation and terrain metrics to predict terrestrial Plethodontid salamander abundance across the forest. This study used night time visual encounter surveys coupled with zero-inflation modeling to predict salamander abundance based on environmental covariates. We focused on two salamander species, Plethodon glutinosus and Plethodon kentucki. Our methods produced two different best fit models for the two species. Plethodon glutinosus included vegetation height standard deviation and water flow accumulation covariates, while Plethodon kentucki included only canopy cover as a covariate. These methods are applicable to many different species and can be very useful for focusing management efforts and understanding species distributions across the landscape.
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Venard, Asongayi. "The Impact of World Bank’s Conditionality-Ownership Hybrid on Forest Management in Cameroon: Policy Hybridity in International Dependence Development." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2349.
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Many developing countries depend on the World Bank for development assistance, which the Bank often provides with policy reform conditions. Resistance to World Bank’s conditionality caused the Bank to posit “ownership” as a country’s real assent to its development policies. The combination of ownership and conditionality invalidates the neocolonial, false-paradigm and dualism theses in explaining the international dependence development model. This study explains this model by investigating how the relationship between conditionality and ownership in the context of this model impacts forest management in Cameroon.
Integrating theoretical and methodological insights mainly from political science, economics, geosciences, and sociology, the study finds that in this model, conditionality and ownership have a hybrid relationship that fosters and hinders effective forest management in Cameroon. This finding positions policy hybridity within this model. It proposes a nouvelle way to understand international development policies’ interactions, and the effects of the interactions on natural resource management.
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Irvine, Rebecca Shea. "The other minority : disability policy in the post-civil conflict environment." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2015. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.680070.
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The aim of this thesis is to gain a better understanding of disability's place amongst the competing priorities of the post-civil conflict policy agenda. In the redevelopment of political, economic, and social structures, conflict transformation presents opportunities for developing inclusive communities. Despite the development of policies aimed at building an inclusive post-civil conflict society, people with disabilities have largely been invisible in literature about the process. This project set out to review the evidence of prevalence of disability as a direct result of conflict, identify whether this group was recognized during the process of conflict transformation, and determine what advancements had been made to facilitate the inclusion of people with disabilities based on the implementation of post-conflict policies. The study has taken a comparative approach and focused on the experiences of Mozambique, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. Although the three case studies were selected for their different levels of human development (as determined by the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Index), they have resulted in similar findings. The prolonged civil conflicts (lasting over fifteen years) have all employed strategies of warfare that are likely to result in an increased incident rate of disability, though disability has not always been considered an issue that is directly linked to the conflict. In addition, they have all undergone conflict transformation since the mid-1990s and developed policies based on international guidance on the inclusion of people with disabilities, however; despite the presence of these policies, they have largely remained unimplemented due to a lack of political will, a failure by the governments to commit the necessary resources, or a weak collection of disability organizations and activists that have not been able to hold the government accountable.
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Andersson, Malin. "Stories of Climate Change : Circular Transformation or Business as Usual? A Discourse Analysis of Climate Change Mitigation Policy in Three Swedish Municipalities." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Tema Miljöförändring, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-176669.
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This thesis identified dominant discourses in climate change mitigation policy in three Swedish municipalities using argumentative discourse analysis. It was explored how these discourses influence the potential for success in mitigating climate change. Other studies have identified several factors that are important when working with climate change mitigation in municipalities, for example, political leadership and organizational structure. However, studies have shown that discourse is also an influential factor since it sets the frame for what can be thought of, consequently influencing policies and actions, but this has not been studied as much at the municipal level in Sweden. Previous studies of environmental policy have shown the dominance of an ecological modernization discourse, where economic growth and environmental issues are combined to create a win-win. The results in this thesis show the dominance of a strong ecological modernization where the decoupling between economic growth and environmental problems, renewable energy and technology, a global justice perspective, and a focus on collaboration between stakeholders is central. A main conclusion is that the ecological modernization discourse risks obscuring potential solutions that are not related to the market or technological innovation. However, the inclusion of a diversity of actors and a focus on justice could potentially minimize this risk. Finally, emerging discourses around transformation and circular economy could be ways to problematize the taken-for-granted ecological modernization discourse. However, their potential depends on how these concepts are framed and what is included in them.Presentation was done online due to COVID-19
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East, Jackie R. "NATURAL PHENOMENA AS POTENTIAL INFLUENCE ON SOCIAL AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR: THE EARTH’S MAGNETIC FIELD." UKnowledge, 2014. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/polysci_etds/11.
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Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, means that evidence is only suggestive – but geomagnetic readings frequently covary with social and political variables in a fashion that seems inexplicable in the absence of a causal relationship. The pattern often holds up in more-elaborate statistical models. Analysis provides compelling evidence that geomagnetic variables furnish valuable information to models. Many researchers are already aware of potential causal mechanisms that link human behavior to geomagnetic levels and this evidence provides a compelling case for continuing to develop the line of research with in-depth, focused analysis.
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Southard, Nicole. "The Socio-Political and Economic Causes of Natural Disasters." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1720.
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To effectively prevent and mitigate the outbreak of natural disasters is a more pressing issue in the twenty-first century than ever before. The frequency and cost of natural disasters is rising globally, most especially in developing countries where the most severe effects of climate change are felt. However, while climate change is indeed a strong force impacting the severity of contemporary catastrophes, it is not directly responsible for the exorbitant cost of the damage and suffering incurred from natural disasters -- both financially and in terms of human life. Rather, the true root causes of natural disasters lie within the power systems at play in any given society when these regions come into contact with a hazard event. Historic processes of isolation, oppression, and exploitation, combined with contemporary international power systems, interact in complex ways to affect different socioeconomic classes distinctly. The result is to create vulnerability and scarcity among the most defenseless communities. These processes affect a society’s ideological orientation and their cultural norms, empowering some while isolating others. When the resulting dynamic socio-political pressures and root causes come into contact with a natural hazard, a disaster is likely to follow due to the high vulnerability of certain groups and their inability to adapt as conditions change. In this light, the following discussion exposes the anthropogenic roots of natural disasters by conducting a detailed case analysis of natural disasters in Haiti, Ethiopia, and Nepal.
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Ferguson, Mary C. "Sediment Removal from the San Gabriel Mountains." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/16.
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The issue of sediment removal from the San Gabriel Mountains has been a complex issue that has created problems with beach replenishment, habitat destruction and the need to spend millions of dollars at regular intervals to avoid safety hazards. Most recently 11 acres of riparian habitat, including 179 oaks and 70 sycamores, were removed for sediment placement. Other sites including Hahamongna Watershed Park and La Tuna Canyon also face a similar fate. This thesis questions: How did we get to this point of destroying habitat to dump sediment which is viewed as waste product? What are the barriers for creating long term solutions and progressive change? What are some other options? And how should we move forward? The issues with sediment management have stemmed from regulatory compliance issues, adversarial relationships within agencies and among NGO's and the public, and the lack of a comprehensive long-term plan to prevent further habitat loss and other sediment removal issues. A recommendation includes looking at a community forestry model to include a wide cross-section of the community, NGO's and government agencies to come up with a long term comprehensive and progressive solution.
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Handelman, Corinne. "Natural Area Stewardship Volunteers| Motivations, Attitudes, Behaviors." Thesis, Portland State University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1543073.
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To better understand the value of those who engage in environmental stewardship of natural areas, we studied volunteer steward's motivation to participate, their sustainable behaviors and attitudes toward stewardship-related constructs. Specifically, we designed and conducted a survey of volunteers who work as stewards in urban natural areas in Portland, Oregon. We hypothesize that as volunteer frequency increases: participants will be more motivated to participate for environmental reasons, volunteers will be more likely to feel a strong connection to the stewardship site, participants will be more likely to engage in public pro-environmental behaviors, and their level of environmental literacy will increase. Participants were sampled using a face-to-face survey methodology over the course of late winter and spring of 2012 during 18 different Portland Parks and Recreation sponsored stewardship events. We examined the motivations, attitudes and behaviors of the volunteers, and devised appropriate management implications for those organizing volunteer efforts. We equated a three-tiered typology of environmental literacy, based upon the frequency of volunteer participation, and analyzed our survey data using a principal component analysis, generalized linear models, and a qualitative coding analysis. The most frequent participants showed a higher likelihood of participation in public environmental behaviors, whereas participants at all frequency levels were also likely to participate in private environmental behaviors, such as removing invasive plants in one's yard. Volunteers across all frequencies of participation were motivated to engage in stewardship events by a desire to help the environment. By understanding volunteers' motivations and linked behaviors, park managers may gain insights about the recruitment, retention, and messaging of volunteers upon whom they may depend to achieve restoration goals. We recommend considering volunteers' motivations and benefits derived from participation in messaging to recruit and retain volunteers. Additionally, park managers should take advantage of educational opportunities linked to stewardship events, such as training programs and chances for volunteer mentorship.
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Bennett, Cathy. "The U.S. Forest Service : business as usual." Scholarly Commons, 2003. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/583.
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There are two prevailing views today about our forests and natural resources. Both views are considered the "right" view, each position comprising a set of values by which we make decisions and choices about using our natural resources. The "dominant world view," is anthropocentric and agriculturally based, with a strong belief that we can "fix" environmental problems through the use of technology. The key result of this view is a belief in the efficiency of economic expansion and its continued growth. The second view maintains we are part of nature, not masters of it, and that we have developed an arrogant attitude toward nature, believing we have the right to do as we wish regardless of the consequences. The result of this view is a belief in the interconnectedness of all life, thus all life has rights.
This work argues that the "dominant" worldview shaped the policies of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Consistent with this worldview, the USFS management. paradigm was to provide the greatest return, a commodity-driven focus. However, when public values changed towards a more ecocentric view, the USFS should have reevaluated its method of doing business. Instead, it remained entrenched in its management objective- timber production.
After the courts enjoined the USFS against cutting in the Pacific Northwest, aftet struggling with confrontational environmentalists and increased activism within the agency, the USFS attempted to re-write its management paradigm. However even though the policy sounds eco-friendly, the USFS is still mandated by Congress, and forced by appropriations approved by Congress, to cut trees. Different ideologies are accommodated only when they do not conflict with economics. Thus, in spite of changing values, it is still business as usual.
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Segovia, Carolina. "An approach to assess the integration of the Water Framework Directive and Floods Directive." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-444797.
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The development of the European water policy has been in a continuous improvement process during the last fifty years. The adoption of Water Framework Directive (WFD) enabled the consolidation of a fragmented policy to comprehensive approach with a focus on sustainability. The floods Directive was developed as acomplement to the WFD and promoted their integration. However, several opportunities have been identified in the implementation and in achieving integration. This paper identifies integration gaps faced by practitionersand develops an assessment framework which can be used by diverse stakeholders from policy makers to water users to understand the degree of integration in a systematic way. Indicators within the framework can shed light on the progress and optimize the development of action plans to address integration gaps and achieveefficiency gains. Although not a remedy for the complex challenges, establishing measuring systems is a first step to ensure integration of current and future directives.
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Auten, Steve R. "Mortality Assessment of Redwood and Mixed Conifer Forest Types in Santa Cruz County Following Wildfire." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2012. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/878.
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On August 12, 2009, the Lockheed Fire ignited the west slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains burning approximately 7,819 acres. Foresters and other land managers were left with challenging decisions on how to evaluate tree mortality. Big Creek Lumber Company, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)’s Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR), and other resource professionals familiar with this region teamed up to develop a method for evaluating damage and thereby mortality for redwood, California nutmeg, live oak, tanoak, California bay, Pacific madrone, big leaf maple, Douglas-fir, Monterey pine, and knobcone pine. Quantitative damage criteria were used to design three Mortality Assessment models (MA), divided into three diameter at breast height classes (1-8.9, 9-16.9, >17 inches), for all tree species. These models were compared against pre-fire data from 82, one-fifth acre fixed plots from SPR’s Continuous Forest Inventory. Since the initial evaluation using the new MA in Fall 2009, each of the 2,877 trees were re-evaluated in Spring 2010 and Spring 2011 to determine if initial evaluations from the MA in 2009 were correct. To date, predictions to determine individual tree mortality using the Mortality Assessment models have been 89.3% correct.
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Pronto, Lindon N. "Exploring German and American Modes of Pedagogical and Institutional Sustainability: Forging a Way into the Future." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/21.
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Rooted deep in Germany's past is its modern socio-political grounding for environmental respect and sustainability. This translates into individual and collective action and extends equally to the economic and policy realm as it does to educational institutions. This thesis evaluates research conducted in Germany with a view to what best approaches are transferable to the United States liberal arts setting. Furthermore, exemplary American models of institutional sustainability and environmental education are explored and combined with those from abroad to produce a blueprint and action plan fitting for the American college and university.
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Pedersen, Malin. "Första linjen-chefers upplevelser av att arbeta emot sexuella trakasserier ifrån patienter på sjukhus : En kvalitativ studie." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för arbetshälsovetenskap och psykologi, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-30105.
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Sexuella trakasserier inom vårdbranschen är vanligt förekommande, och kan ha allvarliga konsekvenser för både individen och arbetsplatsen. Enligt tidigare studier är patienter en vanlig förövare för sexuella trakasserier, men trots det har arbetsgivaren ingen åtgärdsskyldighet utifrån Diskrimineringslagen. Däremot kan sexuella trakasserier ifrån patienter röra sig om en allvarlig arbetsmiljöfråga, vilket arbetsgivaren har yttersta ansvaret för. Det saknas generellt kunskap om sexuella trakasserier ifrån patienter, och i synnerhet kunskap i hur chefer på sjukhus upplever sitt arbete med att förebygga samt hanterar sexuella trakasserier ifrån sjukhus, vilket motiverar genomförandet av föreliggande studie. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka första linjen-chefers upplevelser av att arbeta emot sexuella trakasserier ifrån patienter mot vårdpersonal på sjukhus. Studien är en mixed-method studie med kvalitativ ansats, som består av två delstudier: policystudien och intervjustudien. Policystudien bestod av en kartläggning över policydokument om sexuella trakasserier ifrån patienter inom en specifik region. Endast en relevant policy fanns och denna analyserades med hjälp av en policyanalys av Carol Bacchi: WPR. Data till intervjustudien samlades in via intervjuer med tio första linjen-chefer på sjukhuset som hade den relevanta policyn. Intervjuerna analyserades med hjälp av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet av studien visar att den analyserade policyn i liten utsträckning handlar om sexuella trakasserier, och framställer patienter som inte har förtroende för en arbetsgrupp kännetecknad av mångfald som ett problem. Första linjen-chefer i föreliggande studie upplever en viss mättnad i hur mycket som fenomenet går att förebygga, och de tror att de flesta incidenter hanteras av vårdpersonalen själva.The aim of this study was to examine first line managers experiences of working against sexual harassment from patients against clinicians in hospitals. The study was qualitative using mixed methods gathering data. The study was conducted in two substudies. The first by mapping out policys on sexual harassment from patients within a specific region, then analysed by using the policy analysis method What’s the problem represented to be? The second substudy was carried out by conducting interviews with ten first line managers in a hospital, and analysed by a qualitative content analysis. The results show that the analysed policy does not include sexual harassment to a great extent, and presents patients distrust to a workgroup characterized by diversity as a problem. First line managers experience some saturation in how much they can prevent sexual harassment from patients, and feel that most incidents are handled by the clinicians themselves. First line managers experience the policy as some what “black and white” but at the same time a good basic support tool, and therefore the managers experiences of preventing and handling sexual harassment from patients could give a more nuanced picture of the phenomenon.
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Woock, Celeste E. "Seamless Lidar Surveys Reveal Rates and Patterns of Subsidence in the Mississippi River Delta." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2019. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/2656.
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Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) data are used to report the temporal and spatial patterns of subsidence as well as the potential contributors to subsidence within the Barataria and Terrebonne Bays. In recent decades, subsidence in southeast Louisiana has become a topic of substantial and growing concern to the scientific community, the local residents, and all those invested in the region. Lidar data were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the LSU Center for Geoinformatics. The data has been manipulated to map the differenced Lidar, complete an instantaneous slope analysis, and determine the thickness of the Holocene sediments. The goal was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the subsidence patterns and the dynamic processes driving subsidence within the study area. These efforts provide a better ability to plan for the future of the Louisiana working coast and mitigate against relative sea level rise and coastal land loss.
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Miller, Ryan J. "Implementing Green Roofs on Movie Theaters and Shopping Centers: Business Cases in Profitable Sustainability." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/99.
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This thesis presents the business case for installing green roofs on movie theaters and shopping centers. These businesses can then derive increased profits from the environmental benefits of reduced energy use and increased stormwater retention. After presenting the basic design and benefits of a green roof, the thesis develops stand-alone business plans for a movie theater and shopping center. The author finds that green roofs are a profitable sustainability solution for the commercial enterprise.
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Bennett, Cathy. "The U.S. Forest Service : business as usual : a thesis." Scholarly Commons, 2001. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/583.
Full textAbstract:
There are two prevailing views today about our forests and natural resources. Both views are considered the "right" view, each position comprising a set of values by which we make decisions and choices about using our natural resources. The "dominant world view," is anthropocentric and agriculturally based, with a strong belief that we can "fix" environmental problems through the use of technology. The key result of this view is a belief in the efficiency of economic expansion and its continued growth. The second view maintains we are part of nature, not masters of it, and that we have developed an arrogant attitude toward nature, believing we have the right to do as we wish regardless of the consequences. The result of this view is a belief in the interconnectedness of all life, thus all life has rights.
This work argues that the "dominant" worldview shaped the policies of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Consistent with this worldview, the USFS management. paradigm was to provide the greatest return, a commodity-driven focus. However, when public values changed towards a more ecocentric view, the USFS should have reevaluated its method of doing business. Instead, it remained entrenched in its management objective- timber production.
After the courts enjoined the USFS against cutting in the Pacific Northwest, aftet struggling with confrontational environmentalists and increased activism within the agency, the USFS attempted to re-write its management paradigm. However even though the policy sounds eco-friendly, the USFS is still mandated by Congress, and forced by appropriations approved by Congress, to cut trees. Different ideologies are accommodated only when they do not conflict with economics. Thus, in spite of changing values, it is still business as usual.
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Tischenko, Igor. "Rural Industrialization: Integrated and Sustainable Solutions for Poverty Reduction in Rural China." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2013. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/583.
Full textAbstract:
China has achieved unprecedented economic growth and consequent successes in poverty alleviation over the past three decades of economic liberalization and market-oriented reforms. Yet, in order to continue its progress in poverty reduction, while addressing pressing environmental and sociopolitical concerns, it is crucial for China’s leaders to achieve and sustain green, equitable, and robust economic performance in all parts of China. This thesis argues that a reconceptualized and strengthened rural industrialization program would enable China to maintain economic growth and assist with the transition to a domestically driven consumer economy. Moreover, rural industrialization, coupled with targeted administrative and institutional policy modifications, will enable the Chinese government to provide support to millions of its rural poor, thus avoiding social instability and potentially severe internal conflicts. Such a program would also lessen pollution and its associated costs on China’s densely populated cities, by shifting heavy urban industries to relatively less contaminated areas while adopting cleaner, environmentally sustainable technologies, introduced in a participatory manner in consultation with local communities. This approach would concurrently address regional, rural-to-urban, and intra-communal disparities, provide opportunity for “green growth” initiatives, and better equip rural populations to address growing vulnerabilities as a result of climate change.
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Larsen, Jean. "Farmworkers and Strawberry Cultivation in Oxnard, California: A Political Economy Approach." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/502.
Full textAbstract:
I argue that although the abusive conditions experienced by farmworkers have complicated causes, they have persisted and will continue to persist as long as farmworkers are stripped of virtually any political and economic power. The chapters build upon each other logically, beginning with the second chapter, which uses farmworker testimony to establish that a combination of economic and political circumstances have kept farmworkers from protesting not only methyl bromide, but every other dangerous condition they face in the fields. In the third chapter, I argue that despite commonly held assumptions, growers are virtually powerless to change the circumstances of farm workers because competition they face in the strawberry market precludes any single grower from paying their workers more than the going rate. I will conclude by arguing that to begin to improve the working conditions of farm workers, consumers will need to engage with the issue on both political and economic levels. The conclusion builds on the arguments established in the second and third chapters; namely, given that neither growers nor farmworkers will be able to leverage change within the current political and economic context, consumers are the only remaining actors with both the incentives and power to influence both the political and economic arenas. Just as scholarship that focuses on only one set of actors (i.e. only growers or only regulators) will necessarily fail to provide practical solutions because such papers tend to discount the pressures faced by and produced by other actors, so too will change be impossible without consumers who advocate that farmworkers both receive a just share of political voice and fair wages.
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Brakeall, John. "Wildfire Assessment Using FARSITE Fire Modeling: A Case Study in the Chihuahua Desert of Mexico." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/923.
Full textAbstract:
The Chihuahua desert is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world, but suffers serious degradation because of changes in fire regimes resulting in large catastrophic fires. My study was conducted in the Sierra La Mojonera (SLM) natural protected area in Mexico. The purpose of this study was to implement the use of FARSITE fire modeling as a fire management tool to develop an integrated fire management plan at SLM.
Firebreaks proved to detain 100% of wildfire outbreaks. The rosetophilous scrub experienced the fastest rate of fire spread and lowland creosote bush scrub experienced the slowest rate of fire spread. March experienced the fastest rate of fire spread, while September experienced the slowest rate of fire spread. The results of my study provide a tool for wildfire management through the use geospatial technologies and, in particular, FARSITE fire modeling in SLM and Mexico.