Matching Items (6)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Water
- Creators: School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Description
The study examines cross-cultural perceptions of wastewater reuse from 282 participants from four global sites representing varied levels of socio-economic and political development from the Global North and Global South: Spain, New Zealand, Fiji, and Guatemala. The data comes from the Global Ethnohydrology Survey conducted by the School of Human Evolution and Social Change during the summer of 2013. The Global Ethnohydrology Study is a transdisciplinary multi-year research initiative that examines the range of variation in local ecological knowledge of water issues, also known as "ethnohydrology." Participants were asked about their willingness, level of disgust, and concern with using treated wastewater for various daily activities. Additionally, they were asked to draw schematic representations of how wastewater should be treated to become drinkable again. Using visual content analysis, the drawings were coded for a variety of treatment levels and specific treatment processes. Conclusions about the perceived health implications from wastewater reuse that can stem from drinking treated wastewater were made. The relationship between humans and wastewater is one that has many direct social and health impacts on communities at large. In reaction to global limitations of freshwater, wastewater serves as a valuable resource to tap into. This research examines the cross-cultural public health concerns about treated wastewater in order to draw conclusions that can aid in strategic implementation of advocacy and public education about wastewater reuse.
ContributorsPatel, Sarah Shakir (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Rice, Jacelyn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Children's drawings are increasingly being used to assess understanding and diagnose misconceptions about water issues and the environment. As part of Arizona State University's Global Ethnohydrology Study and Community Health and Medical Anthropology Field School, 315 pieces of artwork from 158 Guatemalan schoolchildren, ages 9-10, were collected using ethnographic field methods. The children were asked to draw two pieces of art: one showing how they saw water being used in their neighborhood today and one showing how they imagined water would be used in their neighborhood 100 years from now. Using visual content analysis, the drawings were coded for the presence of vegetation, scarcity, pollution, commercial sources, existing technology, technological innovation, domestic use, and natural sources of water. The study finds that (1) students' drawings of the future contain significantly more pollution and scarcity than those in the present, and (2) both boys and girls depict existing technology significantly more often in the drawings of today than the drawings of the future. Additionally, (1) boys are significantly more likely than girls to draw more negative depictions of water (i.e., pollution and scarcity), and (2) boys are significantly more likely than girls to depict the natural world (i.e., natural sources of water). Through examining gendered perceptions and future expectations of climate change and water issues, this study explores possible areas of intervention in environmental education in a developing country.
ContributorsMcAtee, Hannah Lee (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Brewis, Alexandra (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
In this project we examine the geographical availability of water resources for persons experiencing homelessness in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A. Persons experiencing homelessness spend a significant portion of their time outdoors and as such have a higher risk of dehydration, heat-related illness, and heat stress. Our data was collected using archival data, participant- observation, focal follows with water distributors that serve homeless populations, phone and internet surveys with social service providers, and expert interviews with 14 local service providers. We analyzed this data using methods for thematic coding and geospatial analysis. We find that the sources of water and geographic availability vary across the economic sectors of the population and that they become more unconventional and more difficult to access with further isolation. We conclude that many persons who are experience homelessness have inconsistent and unreliable access to water for hydrating, maintaining hygiene, cooking and cleaning for reasons that are largely due to geographic inaccessibility.
ContributorsWarpinski, Chloe Larue (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Whelan, Mary (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Chronic stress often leads to cognitive deficits, especially within the spatial memory domain mediated by the hippocampus. When chronic stress ends and a no-stress period ensues (i.e., washout, WO), spatial ability improves, which can be better than non-stressed controls (CON). The WO period is often the same duration as the chronic stress paradigm. Given the potential benefit of a post-stress WO period on cognition, it is important to investigate whether this potential benefit of a post-stress WO period has long-lasting effects. In this project, chronic restraint (6hr/d/21d) in Sprague-Dawley rats was used, as it is the minimum duration necessary to observe spatial memory deficits. Two durations of post-stress WO were used following the end of chronic restraint, 3 weeks (STR-WO3) and 6 weeks (STR-WO6). Immediately after chronic stress (STR-IMM) or the WO periods, rats were tested on various cognitive tests. We corroborated past studies that chronic stress impaired spatial memory (STR-IMM vs CON). Interestingly, STR-WO3 and STR-WO6 failed to demonstrate improved spatial memory on a radial arm water maze task, performing similarly as STR-IMM. Performance outcomes were unlikely from differences in anxiety or motivation because rats from all conditions performed similarly on an open field task and on a simple object recognition paradigm, respectively. However, performance on object placement was unusual in that very few rats explored, suggesting some degree of anxiety or fear in all groups. One possible interpretation of the unusual results of the 3 week washout group may be attributed to the different spatial memory tasks used across studies or external factors from the study. Further exploration of these other factors led to the conclusion that they did not play a role and the STR-WO3 RAWM data were anomalous to other studies. This suggests that a washout period following chronic stress may not be fully understood.
ContributorsFlegenheimer, Aaron Embden (Author) / Conrad, Cheryl (Thesis director) / Bimonte-Nelson, Heather (Committee member) / Ortiz, J. Bryce (Committee member) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The Culture, Health, and Environment Lab (CHEL) at Arizona State University uses anthropological methods and field-based studies to research how cultural knowledge may be used to help understand and respond to contemporary environmental and health issues—primarily the global challenges of water insecurity and obesity. In their efforts to research water insecurity and it implications, CHEL has been working on studying water insecurity through the Global Ethnohydrology Study (GES). The Global Ethnohydrology study examines local knowledge and perceptions of water issues, using transdisciplinary methods in a multi-year and cross-country program. In the 2015-2016 study, the GES examined water, hygiene norms, and hygiene stigma. It sought to investigate how hygiene norms are impacted by the level of water security, examining if water-poor communities have laxer laxer or more accommodating hygiene norms. This paper will explore the development of the codebook for this study, following the process in which the qualitative data from the GES 2015 was organized through a series of codes so that it may later be analyzed.
ContributorsPfeiffer, Ainsley Josephine (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Schuster, Roseanne (Committee member) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
The Science of Water Art project is a collaborative work that brings together professionals, community members, college students and children to think about the role that water plays in each of our lives. Using a sample of 4th grade classrooms in Maricopa County, over 3000 drawings of children's perception of water today and in the future were collected. The 9-11 year olds were asked to draw pictures of 1) how they saw water being used in their neighborhood today (T1), and 2) how they imagined water would be used in their neighborhood 100 years from now (T2). The artwork was collected and coded for nine different themes, including: vegetation, scarcity, pollution, commercial sources of water, existing technology, technology innovation, recreational use, domestic use, and natural sources of water. Statistically significant differences were found between boys and girls for vegetation, technology and domestic use themes. This project allows for a look into how climate change and water insecurity is viewed by younger generations and gives a voice to children so that they may share their outlooks on this vital resource.
ContributorsVins, Holly Elizabeth (Author) / Wutich, Amber (Thesis director) / Newland, Judy (Committee member) / Beresford, Melissa (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2013-05