RSS 1.0Geography and Sustainability
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Bicycle Infrastructure And Accessibility In Boston’s Environmental Justice CommunitiesThis project focused on bicycle infrastructure in Boston, including the city's count of bicycle infrastructure and cycling accessibility. Infrastructure included Bluebike stations from November 1st, 2023, and bicycle trails from the 2020 MassDOT Bike Inventory. Accessibility explored the gaps in Boston's bicycle infrastructure in environmental justice (EJ) 2020 census block groups. As of the 2020 Census, 460 of the 581 census block groups in Boston are EJ designated, meaning that approximately 79.17% of census block groups are EJ designated. 2020 EJ designated census block groups' count of bicycle infrastructure and their accessibility to bicycle infrastructure in Boston, MA were analyzed in ArcGIS Pro using spatial joins, distance accumulation, and a suitability modeler. The average number of bicycle trails in a 2020 EJ census block group was 4.22, while the average number of Bluebike stations in a 2020 EJ census block group was less than 1 (0.465). Bicycle lanes were the most common bicycle trail type across the EJ designated census block groups, but 139 (30.22%) of the EJ 2020 census block groups had zero bicycle trails, showcasing a need for bicycle trail connection in these areas. More than the majority, or 302 (65.65%), of EJ designated census block groups had 0 Bluebike stations as of November 1st, 2023. Accessibility to bicycle infrastructure was highest in the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown, such as the North End, West End, Beacon Hill, Back Bay, Fenway, South End, Chinatown, and the South Boston Waterfront. Accessibility was more varied elsewhere, particularly in the West Roxbury, Hyde Park, Brighton, Dorchester, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, and Roslindale neighborhoods. Bicycling is an essential aspect of multimodal transport and should be constantly evolving and improving.
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"The Importance Of Transparency In Municipal Governance"; A Case Study Of North Shore MassachusettsThe United States has a turbulent past filled with the use of force and displays of negativity regarding public engagement. There are laws enacted protecting the public, allowing a positive exchange of information, and ensuring the availability of resources. This research will explore the factors influencing citizen engagement: What are the factors influencing citizen participation in local government, and what municipalities encourage these interactions? An incident in Massachusetts where a private citizen was denied their civil rights at a ZBA meeting, provides the context to explore the limits of public interactions and government transparency. Using a grounded theory approach, survey data was collected and analyzed along with socioeconomic and geographic factors to create a GIS (Geographic Information System) product that could be useful in examining citizens’ participation in local government. I will test the limits of public interactions and governmental transparency in a survey open to SSU students and North Shore townspeople. The data will show a correlation between interactions, location, and several different factors such as race, income, social status, employment, business ownership, and utilization of governmental services. Using the grounded theory approach, the collected data will be used to create a GIS product. Conclusions and suggestions drawn from pairing the GIS product with survey data will be offered to strengthen interactions in both urban and regional planning as well as civic engagement across geographies.
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Water Advocacy in Massachusetts: A Guide for Curious and Concerned CitizensThis paper addresses the need for citizen engagement and action in the face of the ongoing man-made climate crisis that is rapidly depleting Earth's finite freshwater resources. Focusing on the Ipswich River in Essex County, Massachusetts, identified as the 8th most endangered river in America, the research done explores the interconnected challenges of excessive withdrawals, rising temperatures, droughts, floods, pollution, and invasive species paired with the multifaceted challenges surrounding water politics, highlighting the complexities of collaborative governance across multiple jurisdictions. The solution proposed is the creation of a climate action toolkit specifically tailored to freshwater bodies in Massachusetts, aiming to bridge the information gap between governing bodies, local organizations, and the average citizen to foster grassroots action. Existing water conservation toolkits, guides, and websites often target governing bodies and corporations, or provide low-effort, generic, and vague recommendations that are well-known in the current year. In contrast, this toolkit seeks to empower citizens with knowledge about their role in water management and inspire community and political mobilization through advocacy and lobbying education. Drawing on extensive research from scientific studies, environmental reports, and scholarly insights, this thesis advocates for the pivotal role of citizens in driving effective change. It emphasizes the need for accessible, localized tools that empower individuals to become informed decision-makers and proactive contributors to environmental conservation efforts.
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Balk: A Geographic Analysis of the Impact of a New Professional Sports Stadium on Residential Real Estate Values in MinneapolisThe City of Minneapolis, Minnesota and Hennepin County, Minnesota are among the many government entities that have committed taxpayer funds to finance a professional sports stadium. Both the city and county approved the financing of Target Field in 2007. The new stadium is now the home of the Minnesota Twins, a Major League Baseball franchise. Previous empirical studies have offered differing opinions on whether a new professional sports stadium has an effect on residential real estate values in the surrounding area. This thesis uses a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model to analyze the effect that Target Field had on residential real estate values in the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Using GWR analysis of a hedonic real estate price model, this thesis concludes that being close to Target Field had a significantly positive effect on residential real estate values in Minneapolis in 2016. However, when applying the same model to real estate sales data from a year prior to the approval of Target Field, properties in the vicinity of the location of the ballpark may have been more valuable before the ballpark was built then they were in the years that followed its opening.
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Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Identify Magmatic Strain Accommodation: The Case Study of Mt Marsabit, KenyaPrevious research has demonstrated that the morphology and linear arrays of extrusive volcanic features indicate the presence and orientations of the magmatic constructs that feed them. In extensional tectonic environments, like the East African Rift (EAR), trends of these subsurface dikes can be controlled by inherited lithospheric structures or by the direction of applied stress. Mapping extrusive volcanic features with remote sensing allows for detailed geo-spatial analysis that can reveal valuable data regarding the state of stress in the region or the presence of pre-existing fractures and other lithospheric structures. Mt Marsabit, Kenya (2.32°N, 37.97°E) is a basaltic shield volcano located on the eastern edge of the Turkana Depression in Northern Kenya. The Turkana Depression is a topographical low area of extensional deformation linking the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) and the Kenya Rift, characterized by a very thin rifted lithosphere (50-60 km; Fishwick, 2010; Kounoudis et al., 2021). While there is typically a predominant north-south orientation of structural and volcanic features in the EAR, some features in east Turkana (e.g. the Dilo-Durkana, Mega, and Hurri Hills volcanic fields) demonstrate superficial NE-SW trends, oblique to the main rift trend. The monogenetic volcanic field situated on Mt Marsabit is no exception and hosts hundreds of tuff cones and maar craters exhibiting an apparent NE-SW trend. The cause of these trends is so far unknown. Here we present data from the mapping and analysis of extrusive volcanic features on Mt Marsabit in an effort to improve our understanding of the tectonic and structural controls on crustal magma transport in this off-axis region of rifting. Analysis of the morphology of these features is performed in ArcGIS Pro while alignments of these features are analyzed in MATLAB. Previously published geological maps are also examined. This volcanic field exhibits a strong northeast-southwest trend in both morphology and linear arrays. Similar trends are observed in other volcanic fields in the eastern extent of the Turkana Depression. The obliquely oriented dikes in these fields may be a result of a combination of controls: en-echelon deformation zones associated with a component of strike-slip deformation; and a rotation of the local stress field.
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Don't Tread On Climate Policy: American Nationalism And U.S. Climate PolicyThe United States has a turbulent relationship with both domestic and international climate change policy, fueled by American nationalism. While there are robust fields of research on both nationalism and climate policy separately, research on connections between the two has only just begun in the past few years. When that scope is further narrowed to specifically American nationalism and U.S. climate policy, the field becomes even more sparse. I argue that this void in the conversation is a significant grey area that gives anti-climate actors particular power in determining the fate of U.S. climate policy. Utilizing messaging that plays to the political hegemony of American nationalism has enabled anti-climate actors to kill, weaken, or delay indefinitely a number of important pieces of climate policy. In this paper I will compare and contrast four such policies: the Kyoto Protocol, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (cap and trade), The Clean Power Plan, and The Paris Agreement. I will identify a thread of common themes through each policy, including organized American nationalists, anti-globalism nationalist messaging, American nationalism in electoral politics, mistrust of the United Nations, and examples of American exceptionalism and isolationism. In an age where we have dwindling time to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis, understanding the systemic role ideologies like American nationalism play in disrupting climate policy is crucial.
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Studying Land Cover Change In The Goviefe Todzi Sacred Forest, Volta Region GhanaSacred natural sites can be defined as any place in nature possessing a unique spiritual significance to peoples and communities. Throughout the world, sacred natural sites support ecological biodiversity, provide habitat stepping stones, and play a crucial role in the continuation of traditional spiritual practices. These variables in combination create a unique biocultural landscape that warrants conservation and conversely, sacred sites offer a mode of conservation. This research examines land cover change within the Goviefe Todzi sacred forest, located in Ghana’s Volta region, using satellite imagery. We utilized techniques in digital image processing to generate land cover classification maps of the study area for 2012 and 2015. Land cover classifications of high resolution QuickBird-2 and WorldView-2 imagery informed the hypothesis that closed forest cover within the sacred site decreased at a lesser rate than neighboring non-sacred closed forest cover. The Global Forest Change dataset from the University of Maryland framed our understanding of how forest cover changes within the study area and how it fits into the global context of forest cover change. Results demonstrated that the Goviefe Todzi sacred forest exhibited less closed forest loss when compared to non-sacred forest and closed forest was most often converted to open forest in the event of a land cover change. We recognized that other factors such as accessibility to nearby settlements, pre-existing agricultural fields, the time span of the study, as well as the topography of the sacred forest may also contribute to its lack of closed forest loss.
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Need for Greater Access to Language Services in Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities in the Commonwealth of MassachusettsThis research assesses the geographic access to drug treatment centers providing interpretation services for limited- or non-English speakers seeking drug or alcohol treatment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Only 68% of the available treatment centers serve languages other than English. A lack of language services may contribute to rates of relapse. This research uses rasterized surface distance analysis, also known as Euclidean distance analysis, to measure the average straight-line distance from each Census tract in Massachusetts to available treatment centers. The results of the Euclidean distance demonstrate how access to treatment services varies for those who speak English less than “very well.” This research may potentially impact healthcare policy in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by providing sound and necessary data for policymakers and other interested stakeholders to make practical decisions on providing language services for addiction treatment in the Commonwealth.
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Public Opinion: How Strong Is the Public Voice in Society Today?Many scholars of the present day have various questions about prominent aspects of the "democratic citizen's" role in the democratic process. These questions include: (1) Should ill-informed citizens have the right to voice their opinion in the public sphere? (2) Does the "everyday citizen" really have the capability to place the "good of the many" over their "own individual desires"? (3) Do only those of the "civic mind" who are "well-off" financially have the ability for their voice to be heard over the voice of the many?, and (4) What actually constitutes the "democratic process"? In the present day, all American citizens have the right to vote, if they should so choose. In order for the process of democracy to be fully utilized, though, it is pertinent that these democratic citizens make it a point to educate themselves before voicing their opinions in the public sphere. Without the basis of a proper education, "ill-informed" citizens, given enough resources, have the opportunity to voice their "ill-informed" views to the public. Many historic politicians have suggested that those citizens who are "well-off" financially, often have the proper basis of of an education to be accurately involved in the process of democracy. These democratic individuals will also have the means for their voice to dominate the public sphere; thus overshadowing and influencing the "everyday citizen's" voice in society. This monopoly of public opinion tends to sway the process of democracy in favor of those citizens who are "powerful" enough to make their opinions heard throughout the fabric of society regardless of whether or not these "powerful" opinions fully coincide with the opinions of the general public. This research utilizes a case study on casino location choices to explore the actual strength of the public voice in society, today.
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An Analysis of Cycling Infrastructure and Cycling ActivityOver the last decade, the City of Salem, Massachusetts has made significant investments in infrastructure to support cycling in the City, such as the construction of new bike lanes and cycle paths. To what extent do these investments meet the actual activities and needs of cyclists? What routes do cyclists commonly use? To better understand cyclists' usage of roads in the City of Salem, this research will analyze user-populated information from Strava, a mobile application that records a user's coordinates as they cycle through Salem. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) will be used to analyze and create maps that highlight the aggregate habits of cyclists in Salem and compare those to cycling infrastructure, and public safety. This information can be used to help guide cycling growth and investment in the City of Salem. The research and analysis is valuable for demonstrating the true impact and usage of cyclists on roads in Salem.
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Art Driven by AdventureDiana Vreeland, a famous editor for Vogue Magazine said that "the eye has to travel." I think that this is timelessly true. Travel is an integral part of being a modern creative human. Through travel there comes an opening of the eyes, an expanding of the heart and a refreshing of the soul. Travel exposes our creative minds to new experiences and those experiences are what make each one of us successful and unique as human beings. Each one of us holds infinite creative potential. The ability to create is a very human process that arises out of personal reactions to our life experiences. The art-making process allows our interpretations to take form, captures and moment in time and adds a new piece to the puzzle that is our world. From that piece of art other people will gain a new perspective on our world, and experience their own reaction. Personally, traveling has given rise to a fascination with "place" and what it means to "journey" and how these unique types of experiences have influenced my artwork. In this thesis project, I have examined those journeys that have most heavily influenced my creative process. I explore the idea of travel and examine how a seven week cross country road trip and my study abroad experience helped to broaden my artistic productivity and deepen my connection to my self as a creative being. Also part of my thesis work was the development of an artists website as a non-physical platform, untied to any particular place, where I can organize curate and collect my work. The website can currently be found here: erinburkeart.weebly.com
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A Whale Of A Good Time: Whale Watches Spreading Conservation Through EducationEcotourists are more concerned with their impact on the environment compared to mainstream tourists. They have a strong commitment to preserving nature and look for educational experiences. These values and motives translate into the activities ecotourists choose to participate in while vacationing. Understanding ecotourist behavior is important, so that destination managers can better market their sites or activity. For example, whale watching is increasing in popularity. Whale watches are a good way to incorporate ecotourist values and help further the conservation of whales. Studies have shown whale watches have an educational component that satisfies visitor expectations. If people are satisfied with the experience, they are more likely to pass on the conservation related information they learned and get their peers to undergo a similar trip. This research project is a literature review of the history of whale watching, motivations of ecotourists, and case studies of whale watches in different areas. In addition to the literature review, I went on a whale watch tour in Cape Ann, Gloucester to see how tours on the North Shore of Boston compare to the case studies. The conclusions in this research project are important as they can be applied to any whale watch to improve visitor satisfaction and better incorporate ecotourist values.
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Prospects For Massachusetts Community Supported FisheriesMarine fisheries across the globe are challenged by unsustainable industrial fishing practices resulting in the depletion of fish populations. Fish become global commodities, traded and shipped all over the world, accumulating thousands of food miles and benefiting companies and food processor many miles from the fishery itself. Community Supported Fisheries (CSF) were created in the last ten years as a solution to unsustainable, industrial fisheries practices that undermine marine environmental health and local fishing jobs, communities and cultures. Closely related to the land-based Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, CSF seek to minimize the distance between producers and consumers, offering fresh and local fish to consumers and allowing for greater profits remain in local fishing communities. CSF are smaller in scale and support more environmentally sustainable fishing practices. This model has spread throughout the United States over the last decade with no two CSF being identical. Through personal interviews with two local Massachusetts CSF, I document the evolution of these CSF. I assess the implementation of sustainable fishing practices and consider whether the CSF model promotes the sustainability of people and planet. I examine barriers and threats to CSF success; information that will be relevant to those interested in starting their own CSF. Finally, I examine CSF marketing strategies and consider how they employ localisms (local identities, branding) to market themselves to the nearby communities based on their local surroundings and demographics.
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Public Transportation: Resources Demand And Mobility - Impact On Companies In Boston, USA And Munich, GermanyThis project researches the impact of access to public transportation on companies and their employees through a comparison between Boston, Massachusetts and Munich, Germany. Long commutes to work together with the traffic problems in the inner cities and the huge environmental impact of single occupancy vehicles, show the increasing importance of public transportation. After analyzing online sources through a literature review, interviews with representatives of different companies in both cities were conducted along with an online survey among the employees about their usage and opinion of the importance of public transportation system to their employer. In addition, to further the research, politicians’ perspectives on public transportation were included. The results revealed that companies and employees in Munich significantly rely on public transportation. Furthermore, accessibility to public transit influences the location decision of companies and employers. In Boston, on the other hand, public transit is not as widely used as many of the employees stated, that it is not suitable to their work schedule or they do not have access to it. Analyzing both public transportation networks for differences, the research unveiled that the city of Munich has a more advanced and modern public transportation system than the city of Boston. To convince companies and employees in Boston to increase their usage of the public transportation system, improvements to the schedule, accessibility, affordability and reliability should be made. A good public transportation system provides immense benefits to the community by improving the environment and quality of life, as well as attracting companies, creating jobs and increasing tax incomes.
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Mindfulness in Elementary SchoolsBreathing is vital to our well-being. Being attentive to our breathing and taking deep breaths can actually help our bodies relax and focus. Teaching students to pause and focus on their breath can help them handle difficult situations that arise during the school day. This technique is something students can carry with them and use as they grow up. Breathing also helps develop mindfulness, which helps improve attention skills and memory. Mindfulness also encourages compassion, kindness, and understanding. In this children's book, Bah Bah faces many difficulties on his first day at a new school. He handles his emotions discreetly by pausing and having breathing breaks throughout the day that help him relax and move on. Read along and learn to breathe like Bah Bah!
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Testing Park Cool Island GIS Analysis Methods For Use In Semi-Urban Conservation PlanningThe human and environmental impacts of urban heat islands (UHI) have become an increasingly relevant issue to city planners. This topic has spurred research into the relationships between land cover, ambient temperature, and the role of greenspace in emitting cooler air to its surrounding area, now known as the ‘park cool island’ effect (PCI). While ample research has been given to this phenomenon in dense urban areas, much less has been dedicated to semi-urban communities who may wish to inform their development practices as they expand their footprints. This research used satellite-derived Landsat Level-2 Provisional Surface Temperature data, MassGIS 2016 Land Cover / Land Use data, and MassGIS Standardized Assessors’ Parcels data to analyze parcels in Essex County, Massachusetts, for PCI intensity and the influence of land cover and parcel characteristics on PCI. LST data from July, 2016, were used to evaluate the mean temperature difference between parcels and their surrounding area to derive PCI. Replicating methods demonstrated by Cao et al. [Landscape and Urban Planning, 96(4):224-231 (2010)], linear regression analyses were undertaken to determine the relationships between PCI, parcel land cover and geometry. The 500 meter buffer distance used by Cao et al. to calculate PCI was also analyzed. Twenty iterations of the linear regression model were run based on a changing buffer value to calculate PCI. Two sensitivity analyses were performed based on these model iterations: 1) change in model performance, as expressed by its R2 value, across the range of PCI buffer distances and 2) the change in the coefficient strengths of the independent variables across the range of PCI buffer distances. The linear regression model underperformed as compared to Cao et al.’s study, however, it affirmed the 500 meter buffer distance as a parameter for calculating PCI, with that model iteration returning the highest R2 value (0.587). Buffer distances greater than 500 meters performed relatively well, however, smaller buffer values were associated with weak model performance. Among land cover coefficients, there were scale-sensitivities observed, with some variables changing in strength and polarity across the model iterations. It was determined that PCI could effectively evaluate cooling intensity in the study area, however, using it as a dependent variable within a linear regression model had only moderate performance. This was due to heterogeneity among the makeup of land cover within parcel buffer areas which inhibited the regression model’s ability to build consistent relationships between land cover and PCI.
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Which Urban Residents Vote and Why? A Geospatial Analysis of Voting Behavior in Worcester, MAThis study investigates the relationship between voter travel distance to polling places in Worcester, MA and voter turnout. Linear and geographically-weighted regression are used to evaluate the significance of travel distance and demographic control variables. Worcester appears to be unique when compared to previous studies investigating travel distance and voter turnout. Travel distance to polling place does not reliably predict voter turnout in Worcester, but vehicle ownership, race, and age do.
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Improving Compactness Measures For Political DistrictsPolitical redistricting plans often need to consider the compactness of the district’s shape. For states requiring districts to be compact, there is a need to quantify compactness. Existing measures of compactness unfairly penalize districts with coastlines and islands or whose geography itself is not compact. By incorporating information about the underlying geography into the calculation of a modified compactness score, it would be possible to use a compactness test more effectively and fairly across all districts. Several methods of incorporating such data were explored with test districts. A Python script was created to apply the calculations behind the selected method to any polygon shapefile. The script was run on the 436 districts of the 114th Congress of the United States to consider and analyze the modified compactness calculation and its usefulness. Scores for districts covering areas with a significant amount of water were improved when the modified compactness calculation was applied.
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Geography Deserts: State And Regional Variation In The Formal Opportunity To Learn Geography In The United States, 2005–2015The formal opportunity to learn geography in the United States is unevenly distributed across space, creating possible geography deserts. Data on the number of exams taken in Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) and bachelor’s degrees earned in geography are mapped at the state and regional scales. Normalized rates are ranked and grouped into quintiles. For APHG exams, states in the southeastern region of the United States are in the uppermost quintiles while states in the northeastern region are in the lowermost quintiles. The pattern for bachelor’s degrees in geography is somewhat the spatial inverse of that for APHG.
