Matching Items (12)
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- All Subjects: Food Systems
- Creators: School of Sustainability
- Creators: Herrmann, Marcus
Description
Understanding and predicting climate changes at the urban scale have been an important yet challenging problem in environmental engineering. The lack of reliable long-term observations at the urban scale makes it difficult to even assess past climate changes. Numerical modeling plays an important role in filling the gap of observation and predicting future changes. Numerical studies on the climatic effect of desert urbanization have focused on basic meteorological fields such as temperature and wind. For desert cities, urban expansion can lead to substantial changes in the local production of wind-blown dust, which have implications for air quality and public health. This study expands the existing framework of numerical simulation for desert urbanization to include the computation of dust generation related to urban land-use changes. This is accomplished by connecting a suite of numerical models, including a meso-scale meteorological model, a land-surface model, an urban canopy model, and a turbulence model, to produce the key parameters that control the surface fluxes of wind-blown dust. Those models generate the near-surface turbulence intensity, soil moisture, and land-surface properties, which are used to determine the dust fluxes from a set of laboratory-based empirical formulas. This framework is applied to a series of simulations for the desert city of Erbil across a period of rapid urbanization. The changes in surface dust fluxes associated with urbanization are quantified. An analysis of the model output further reveals the dependence of surface dust fluxes on local meteorological conditions. Future applications of the models to environmental prediction are discussed.
ContributorsTahir, Sherzad Tahseen (Author) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Thesis advisor) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Chen, Kangping (Committee member) / Clarke, Amanda (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Desert ecosystems are one of the fastest urbanizing areas on the planet. This rapid shift has the potential to alter the abundances and species richness of herbivore and plant communities. Herbivores, for example, are expected to be more abundant in urban desert remnant parks located within cities due to anthropogenic activities that concentrate food resources and reduce native predator populations. Despite this assumption, previous research conducted around Phoenix has shown that top-down herbivory led to equally reduced plant biomass. It is unclear if this insignificant difference in herbivory at rural and urban sites is due to unaltered desert herbivore populations or altered activity levels that counteract abundance differences. Vertebrate herbivore populations were surveyed at four sites inside and four sites outside of the core of Phoenix during fall 2014 and spring 2015 in order to determine whether abundances and richness differ significantly between urban and rural sites. In order to survey species composition and abundance at these sites, 100 Sherman traps and 8 larger wire traps that are designed to attract and capture small vertebrates such as mice, rats, and squirrels, were set at each site for two consecutive trap nights. Results suggest that the commonly assumed effect of urbanization on herbivore abundances does not apply to small rodent herbivore populations in a desert city, as overall small rodent abundances were statistically similar regardless of location. Though a significant difference was not found for species richness, a significant difference between small rodent genera richness at these sites was observed.
ContributorsAlvarez Guevara, Jessica Noemi (Co-author) / Ball, Becky A. (Co-author, Thesis director) / Hall, Sharon J. (Co-author) / Bateman, Heather (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Current farming demographics in the United States indicate an aging and overwhelmingly white group of farmers, stimulating the need for engaging a younger and more diverse population. There is an opportunity to engage these populations through farm-based internship and apprenticeship programs, which are immersive programs on small-scale, sustainable farms. These programs are unique in providing hands-on training, housing, meals, and a stipend in return for labor, presenting a pathway to social empowerment. The potential outcomes of increasing diversity and inclusion in farm programs are absent from the research on the benefits of diversity and inclusion in other work environments, such as the corporate setting. This paper presents the results of a study aimed at determining levels of diversity and inclusion in United States farm-based internship programs, and the viability of these programs as an effective opportunity to engage marginalized young people in farming. The study of 13 farm owners and managers across the U.S. found that the participants are focused on fostering education and training, environmental benefits, and a sense of community in their respective programs. All participants either want to establish, or believe they currently have, an inclusive workplace on their farm, but also indicated a barrier to inclusivity in the lack of a diverse applicant pool. Future recommendations for removing that barrier and involving more young, diverse interns include increased outreach and access to these programs, the use of inclusive language, and further research.
ContributorsLascola, Dania (Co-author) / Biel, Braden (Co-author) / Cloutier, Scott (Thesis director) / MacFadyen, Joshua (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The objective of the research was to simulate interdependencies between municipal water-power distribution systems in a theoretical section of the Phoenix urban environment that had variable population density and highest ambient temperature. Real-time simulations were run using the Resilient Infrastructure Simulation Environment (RISE) software developed by Laboratory for Energy and Power Solutions (LEAPS) at ASU. The simulations were run at estimated population density to simulate urbanism, and temperature conditions to simulate increased urban heat island effect of Phoenix at 2020, 2040, 2060, and 2080 using the IEEE 13 bus test case were developed. The water model was simulated by extrapolated projections of increased population from the city of Phoenix census data. The goal of the simulations was that they could be used to observe the critical combination of system factors that lead to cascading failures and overloads across the interconnected system. Furthermore, a Resilient Infrastructure Simulation Environment (RISE) user manual was developed and contains an introduction to RISE and how it works, 2 chapters detailing the components of power and water systems, respectively, and a final section describing the RISE GUI as a user. The user manual allows prospective users, such as utility operators or other stakeholders, to familiarize themselves with both systems and explore consequences of altering system properties in RISE by themselves. Parts of the RISE User Manual were used in the online "help" guide on the RISE webpage.
ContributorsSchadel, Suzanne (Author) / Johnson, Nathan (Thesis director) / Hamel, Derek (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Sustainable Engineering & Built Envirnmt (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Feed Your Senses is an illustrated book made to holistically communicate links between local food systems and cultural wellbeing. Food was the center of my household growing up; my mom’s love of food, cooking, and experimenting with flavors molded my palette from a young age. As I got older, I realized that everyone has a deeply personal relationship with their food - no matter what their upbringing. My developing interests in food took off when I started traveling and experiencing the uniqueness and vibrancy of food culture. Food became the object of every trip I took.
The summer after my Junior year, I studied abroad in Denmark and was given the opportunity to create my own research topic. My interest in Sustainability has always revolved around food, so I started thinking about ways that I could incorporate this interest with the geographical backdrop of Århus, Denmark. Food is a medium for so many uniquely human creations: celebrations, art, connection, and taste. Food is also a big driver of climate change, as the meat and agriculture industries account for more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions. However, I wanted to research more than food. I wanted to incorporate balance; a balance of local and global food systems, a balance of individual and community relationships, and a balance of science and art. I wanted to show how food is a driving force in achieving global sustainability and resilience.
After much contemplation, I began researching the connections between local food and community wellbeing in the city. I interviewed farm-to-table chefs, local farmers, farmer’s market vendors, street food vendors, and consumers on their relationships with food. The topic itself was flexible and open-ended enough so that each interviewee could relate it to their lives in a unique way. I loved the research so much that I decided to continue interviewing stakeholders in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Through the continuation of my research in Arizona, I was able to include a comparative element that offered a better perspective on the matter. I found that the history of the country itself has a significant influence on people’s mindsets and actions surrounding food and the environment. The common theme I heard from all interviewees, however, was their confidence in the power of food to unite people to one another and to the natural world.
I chose to create this illustrated book because my research experience was a whole and inseparable experience; it could never be fully expressed in words. I wanted my project to be an intellectual and visual map of my journey, inspiring the reader to go on a journey of their own. Therefore, I partnered with an undergraduate art student at Arizona State University, Sofia Reyes, to help create my vision. I shared my experiences, photos, and stories with her so that she could create the beautiful watercolor paintings that make the book so visually appealing and accessible to all demographics. The images act as a way of engaging all of our human senses, initiating a stronger connection to the material presented.
Creating this project was my favorite experience as an undergraduate, and I feel fortunate to be able to tell the stories of those intimately tied to the local food system. I am in the process of entering my book in various competitions including Writer’s Digest, Reader’s Favorites, The Food Sustainability Media Award, and The Indie Book Awards. I am also going on to publish the book through a small publishing company.
The summer after my Junior year, I studied abroad in Denmark and was given the opportunity to create my own research topic. My interest in Sustainability has always revolved around food, so I started thinking about ways that I could incorporate this interest with the geographical backdrop of Århus, Denmark. Food is a medium for so many uniquely human creations: celebrations, art, connection, and taste. Food is also a big driver of climate change, as the meat and agriculture industries account for more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions. However, I wanted to research more than food. I wanted to incorporate balance; a balance of local and global food systems, a balance of individual and community relationships, and a balance of science and art. I wanted to show how food is a driving force in achieving global sustainability and resilience.
After much contemplation, I began researching the connections between local food and community wellbeing in the city. I interviewed farm-to-table chefs, local farmers, farmer’s market vendors, street food vendors, and consumers on their relationships with food. The topic itself was flexible and open-ended enough so that each interviewee could relate it to their lives in a unique way. I loved the research so much that I decided to continue interviewing stakeholders in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Through the continuation of my research in Arizona, I was able to include a comparative element that offered a better perspective on the matter. I found that the history of the country itself has a significant influence on people’s mindsets and actions surrounding food and the environment. The common theme I heard from all interviewees, however, was their confidence in the power of food to unite people to one another and to the natural world.
I chose to create this illustrated book because my research experience was a whole and inseparable experience; it could never be fully expressed in words. I wanted my project to be an intellectual and visual map of my journey, inspiring the reader to go on a journey of their own. Therefore, I partnered with an undergraduate art student at Arizona State University, Sofia Reyes, to help create my vision. I shared my experiences, photos, and stories with her so that she could create the beautiful watercolor paintings that make the book so visually appealing and accessible to all demographics. The images act as a way of engaging all of our human senses, initiating a stronger connection to the material presented.
Creating this project was my favorite experience as an undergraduate, and I feel fortunate to be able to tell the stories of those intimately tied to the local food system. I am in the process of entering my book in various competitions including Writer’s Digest, Reader’s Favorites, The Food Sustainability Media Award, and The Indie Book Awards. I am also going on to publish the book through a small publishing company.
ContributorsSykes, Chloe (Author) / Cloutier, Scott (Thesis director) / MacFadyen, Joshua (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Urban Heat Island (UHI) is considered as one of the major problems in the 21st century posed to human beings as a result of urbanization and industrialization of human civilization. The large amount of heat generated from urban structures, as they consume and re-radiate solar radiations, and from the anthropogenic heat sources are the main causes of UHI. The two heat sources increase the temperatures of an urban area as compared to its surroundings, which is known as Urban Heat Island Intensity (UHII). The problem is even worse in cities or metropolises with large population and extensive economic activities. The estimated three billion people living in the urban areas in the world are directly exposed to the problem, which will be increased significantly in the near future. Due to the severity of the problem, vast research effort has been dedicated and a wide range of literature is available for the subject. The literature available in this area includes the latest research approaches, concepts, methodologies, latest investigation tools and mitigation measures. This study was carried out to review and summarize this research area through an investigation of the most important feature of UHI. It was concluded that the heat re-radiated by the urban structures plays the most important role which should be investigated in details to study urban heating especially the UHI. It was also concluded that the future research should be focused on design and planning parameters for reducing the effects of urban heat island and ultimately living in a better environment.
ContributorsRizwan, Ahmed Memon (Author) / Dennis, Leung Y.C. (Author) / Liu, Chunho (Author)
Created2007-09-27
Description
As technology has evolved over time and the U.S. population increases each year, this thesis focuses on the ways in which food production has shifted from the original farm to table to industrialized, processed food systems. Through a rationalization perspective, this research looks to the history and repercussions of industrial agriculture as it has shifted over time. The term over-industrialization is used to operationalize the state of our current production methods. These methods focus extensively on the least expensive and most rapid methods to produce large yields of food products and pay no mind to ethics, respect of culture, land, or quality of products. Today, there is a shroud the corporations have placed over food production to ensure a “what we can’t see doesn’t affect us” belief system. In this way, the thesis provides insight on past, current, and future methods of manufacturing. I conclude that although plausible alternatives are present, continued research and substantial producer and consumer changes must be our main priority.
ContributorsBrodkin, Emma (Author) / Keahey, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Perkins, Tracy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
This study uses the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate and predict the changes in local climate attributed to the urbanization for five desert cities. The simulations are performed in the fashion of climate downscaling, constrained by the surface boundary conditions generated from high resolution land-use maps. For each city, the land-use maps of 1985 and 2010 from Landsat satellite observation, and a projected land-use map for 2030, are used to represent the past, present, and future. An additional set of simulations for Las Vegas, the largest of the five cities, uses the NLCD 1992 and 2006 land-use maps and an idealized historical land-use map with no urban coverage for 1900.
The study finds that urbanization in Las Vegas produces a classic urban heat island (UHI) at night but a minor cooling during the day. A further analysis of the surface energy balance shows that the decrease in surface Albedo and increase effective emissivity play an important role in shaping the local climate change over urban areas. The emerging urban structures slow down the diurnal wind circulation over the city due to an increased effective surface roughness. This leads to a secondary modification of temperature due to the interaction between the mechanical and thermodynamic effects of urbanization.
The simulations for the five desert cities for 1985 and 2010 further confirm a common pattern of the climatic effect of urbanization with significant nighttime warming and moderate daytime cooling. This effect is confined to the urban area and is not sensitive to the size of the city or the detail of land cover in the surrounding areas. The pattern of nighttime warming and daytime cooling remains robust in the simulations for the future climate of the five cities using the projected 2030 land-use maps. Inter-city differences among the five urban areas are discussed.
The study finds that urbanization in Las Vegas produces a classic urban heat island (UHI) at night but a minor cooling during the day. A further analysis of the surface energy balance shows that the decrease in surface Albedo and increase effective emissivity play an important role in shaping the local climate change over urban areas. The emerging urban structures slow down the diurnal wind circulation over the city due to an increased effective surface roughness. This leads to a secondary modification of temperature due to the interaction between the mechanical and thermodynamic effects of urbanization.
The simulations for the five desert cities for 1985 and 2010 further confirm a common pattern of the climatic effect of urbanization with significant nighttime warming and moderate daytime cooling. This effect is confined to the urban area and is not sensitive to the size of the city or the detail of land cover in the surrounding areas. The pattern of nighttime warming and daytime cooling remains robust in the simulations for the future climate of the five cities using the projected 2030 land-use maps. Inter-city differences among the five urban areas are discussed.
ContributorsKamal, Samy (Author) / Huang, Huei-Ping (Thesis advisor) / Anderson, James (Thesis advisor) / Herrmann, Marcus (Committee member) / Calhoun, Ronald (Committee member) / Myint, Soe (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Local food sustainability has gained significant recent attention over the past decade. Considerable research points to a host of economic, social, and environmental benefits resulting from engagement with local food systems. These benefits are more apparent when contrasted with a model in which individuals participate in larger, non-local food systems for all or most of their food sourcing. As such, this project was designed to explore possible barriers, such as lack of awareness, to engagement in local foods among Arizona State University (ASU) students on the main Tempe campus. Furthermore, this creative project aimed to evaluate how a local foods program conducted in a university dining hall might impact students’ awareness and interest in local foods served on site.
ContributorsBakeman, Taylor Melissa (Author) / Wharton, Christopher (Thesis director) / Popova, Laura (Committee member) / College of Health Solutions (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to imagine and predict the ways in which humans will utilize technology to feed the world population in the 21st century, in spite of significant challenges we have not faced before. This project will first thoroughly identify and explain the most pressing challenges the future will bring in climate change and population growth; both projected to worsen as time goes on. To guide the prediction of how technology will impact the 21st century, a theoretical framework will be established, based upon the green revolution of the 20th century. The theoretical framework will summarize this important historical event, and analyze current thought concerning the socio-economic impacts of the agricultural technologies introduced during this time. Special attention will be paid to the unequal disbursement of benefits of this green revolution, and particularly how it affected small rural farmers. Analysis of the technologies introduced during the green revolution will be used to predict how 21st century technologies will further shape the agricultural sector. Then, the world’s current food crisis will be compared to the crisis that preceded the green revolution. A “second green revolution” is predicted, and the agricultural/economic impact of these advances is theorized based upon analysis of farming advances in the 20th century.
ContributorsWilson, Joshua J (Author) / Strumsky, Deborah (Thesis director) / Benjamin, Victor (Committee member) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05