Matching Items (8)
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- All Subjects: Social Research
- Creators: Budruk, Megha
Description
This dissertation explores vulnerability to extreme heat hazards in the Maricopa County, Arizona metropolitan region. By engaging an interdisciplinary approach, I uncover the epidemiological, historical-geographical, and mitigation dimensions of human vulnerability to extreme heat in a rapidly urbanizing region characterized by an intense urban heat island and summertime heat waves. I first frame the overall research within global climate change and hazards vulnerability research literature, and then present three case studies. I conclude with a synthesis of the findings and lessons learned from my interdisciplinary approach using an urban political ecology framework. In the first case study I construct and map a predictive index of sensitivity to heat health risks for neighborhoods, compare predicted neighborhood sensitivity to heat-related hospitalization rates, and estimate relative risk of hospitalizations for neighborhoods. In the second case study, I unpack the history and geography of land use/land cover change, urban development and marginalization of minorities that created the metropolitan region's urban heat island and consequently, the present conditions of extreme heat exposure and vulnerability in the urban core. The third study uses computational microclimate modeling to evaluate the potential of a vegetation-based intervention for mitigating extreme heat in an urban core neighborhood. Several findings relevant to extreme heat vulnerability emerge from the case studies. First, two main socio-demographic groups are found to be at higher risk for heat illness: low-income minorities in sparsely-vegetated neighborhoods in the urban core, and the elderly and socially-isolated in the expansive suburban fringe of Maricopa County. The second case study reveals that current conditions of heat exposure in the region's urban heat island are the legacy of historical marginalization of minorities and large-scale land-use/land cover transformations of natural desert land covers into heat-retaining urban surfaces of the built environment. Third, summertime air temperature reductions in the range 0.9-1.9 °C and of up to 8.4 °C in surface temperatures in the urban core can be achieved through desert-adapted canopied vegetation, suggesting that, at the microscale, the urban heat island can be mitigated by creating vegetated park cool islands. A synthesis of the three case studies using the urban political ecology framework argues that climate changed-induced heat hazards in cities must be problematized within the socio-ecological transformations that produce and reproduce urban landscapes of risk. The interdisciplinary approach to heat hazards in this dissertation advances understanding of the social and ecological drivers of extreme heat by drawing on multiple theories and methods from sociology, urban and Marxist geography, microclimatology, spatial epidemiology, environmental history, political economy and urban political ecology.
ContributorsDeclet-Barreto, Juan (Author) / Harlan, Sharon L (Thesis advisor) / Bolin, Bob (Thesis advisor) / Hirt, Paul (Committee member) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
This study explores the potential risks associated with the 65 U.S.-based commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs) and the distribution of those risks among the populations of both their respective host communities and of the communities located in outlying areas. First, I examine the relevant environmental justice issues. I start by examining the racial/ethnic composition of the host community populations, as well as the disparities in socio-economic status that exist, if any, between the host communities and communities located in outlying areas. Second, I estimate the statistical associations that exist, if any, between a population's distance from a NPP and several independent variables. I conduct multivariate ordinary least square (OLS) regression analyses and spatial autocorrelation regression (SAR) analyses at the national, regional and individual-NPP levels. Third, I construct a NPP potential risk index (NPP PRI) that defines four discrete risk categories--namely, very high risk, high risk, moderate risk, and low risk. The NPP PRI allows me then to estimate the demographic characteristics of the populations exposed to each so-defined level of risk. Fourth, using the Palo Verde NPP as the subject, I simulate a scenario in which a NPP experiences a core-damage accident. I use the RASCAL 4.3 software to simulate the path of dispersion of the resultant radioactive plume, and to investigate the statistical associations that exist, if any, between the dispersed radioactive plume and the demographic characteristics of the populations located within the plume's footprint. This study utilizes distributive justice theories to understand the distribution of the potential risks associated with NPPs, many of which are unpredictable, irreversible and inescapable. I employ an approach that takes into account multiple stakeholders in order to provide avenues for all parties to express concerns, and to ensure the relevance and actionability of any resulting policy recommendations.
ContributorsKyne, Dean (Author) / Bolin, Bob (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Pijawka, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
In this study, the researcher develops a documentary-driven methodology to understand the ways four women in the United States use their involvement in the belly dance phenomenon to shape their ongoing individual identity development. The filmmaking process itself and its efficacy as a process to promote self-understanding and identity growth among the participating belly dancers, are also investigated phenomenologically. Methodological steps taken in the documentary-driven methodology include: initial filmed interviews, co-produced filmed dance performances, editorial interviews to review footage with each dancer, documentary film production, dancer-led focus groups to screen the film, and exit interviews with each dancer. The project generates new understandings about the ways women use belly dance to shape their individual identities to include: finding community with other women in private women's spaces, embodying the music through the dance movements, and finding liberation from their everyday "selves" through costume and performance.
ContributorsWatkins, Ramsi Kathryn (Author) / Bolin, Bob (Thesis advisor) / Hegmon, Michelle (Committee member) / Hjorleifur Jonsson (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Increasingly, wildfires are threatening communities, forcing evacuations, damaging property, and causing loss of life. This is in part due to a century of wildfire policy and an influx of people moving to the wildland urban interface (WUI). National programs have identified and promoted effective wildfire mitigation actions to reduce wildfire risk; yet, many homeowners do not perform these actions. Based on previous literature and using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study proposes an integrated wildfire mitigation behavioral model to assess and identify the factors that influence homeowners’ wildfire mitigation behaviors. Specifically, the study tests the validity of the theory of planned behavior as a foundational model in exploring wildfire mitigation behaviors, develops and empirically tests a wildfire mitigation behavioral model, and explores the role of homeowner associations (HOA) on wildfire mitigation behaviors. Structural equation modeling was used on data collected from homeowners with property in the WUI in Prescott, Arizona. Results suggest TPB provides an acceptable model in describing homeowner wildfire mitigation behavior. For HOA residents, attitudes toward wildfire mitigation behaviors play an important role in predicting intentions to perform these behaviors. Additionally, perceived constraints directly influenced actual mitigation actions. For non-HOA residents, subjective norms influenced intentions to mitigate. Implications for research and local wildfire mitigation programs and policy are discussed.
ContributorsSteffey, Eric Clifford (Author) / Budruk, Megha (Thesis advisor) / Vogt, Christine (Committee member) / Virden, Randy (Committee member) / Larson, Kelli (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Crowding and satisfaction remain widely studied concepts among those seeking to understand quality visitor experiences. One area of interest in this study is how the order of crowding and satisfaction items on a survey affects their measurement levels. An additional area of interest is the influence of personality traits on experience-use-history, crowding, and satisfaction. This study used two versions of a survey: A) crowding measured prior to satisfaction and B) satisfaction measured prior to crowding, to explore the influence of item order on crowding and satisfaction levels. Additionally, the study explored the influence of personality traits (extraversion and neuroticism) and experience use history (EUH) on crowding and satisfaction. EUH was included as a variable of interest given previous empirical evidence of its influence on crowding and satisfaction. Data were obtained from an onsite self-administered questionnaire distributed to day use visitors at a 16,000 acre desert landscape municipal park in Arizona. A total of 619 completed questionnaires (equally distributed between the two survey versions) were obtained. The resulting response rate was 80%. One-way ANOVA's indicated significant differences in crowding and satisfaction levels with both crowding and satisfaction levels being higher for survey version B. Path analysis was used to test the influence of personality traits and EUH on crowding and satisfaction. Two models, one for each version of the survey were developed using AMOS 5. The first model was tested using data in which crowding was measured prior to satisfaction. The second model relied on data in which satisfaction was measured prior to crowding. Results indicated that personality traits influenced crowding and satisfaction. Specifically, in the first model, significant relationships were observed between neuroticism and crowding, neuroticism and EUH, EUH and crowding, and between crowding and satisfaction. In the second model, significant relationships were observed between extraversion and crowding, extraversion and satisfaction, and between EUH and satisfaction. Findings suggest crowding and satisfaction item order have a potential to influence their measurement. Additionally, results indicate that personality traits potentially influence visitor experience evaluation. Implications of these findings are discussed.
ContributorsHolloway, Andrew (Author) / Budruk, Megha (Thesis advisor) / Lee, Woojin (Committee member) / Foti, Pamela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Program leadership’s decision to include an evaluator during the program planning and design phase is the critical first step necessary for evaluators to provide the
programmatic benefits associated with the evaluation profession. Several recent
developments have promoted evaluator inclusion in program planning and design
activities, including federal legislation that mandates evaluator inclusion and advocacy
efforts from evaluation academics. However, the evaluation literature presents a
collective frustration within the evaluation field due to ongoing exclusion from program
planning and design activities. Utilizing the defensive attribution hypothesis, this
quantitative study gathered responses from 260 American Evaluation Association
members and 61 Project Management Institute members to determine an evaluator
exclusion rate, develop a taxonomy of exclusion factors, and explore the extent to which
program leaders and program evaluators demonstrate defensive attributions when rating
these factors’ influence on evaluator exclusion in program planning and design activities.
Results indicated an approximately 70% evaluator exclusion rate in respondents’ most
recent program experiences. Furthermore, the defensive attribution hypothesis was not
supported in the study, as program evaluators more strongly attributed their lack of
inclusion to deficiencies outside of the evaluation practice, but program leaders also more
strongly attributed evaluator exclusion to deficiencies outside of the evaluation practice.
Program evaluators most strongly attributed their exclusion to program leaders’
insufficient training and knowledge on the role of evaluation during the program planning
and design phase. Program leaders most strongly attributed evaluator exclusion to their
own staffing decisions, indicating a preference to not include evaluators in program
planning and design activities due to achieving previous program success without them,
assigning evaluation activities to non-evaluation staff, and a funding process that allows
the practice to occur. As the first study to explore evaluator exclusion in the program
planning and design phase, it sets a foundation for future research studies to corroborate
and build upon its findings, identify policies that encourage evaluator inclusion, and
continue efforts to establish mutually beneficial relationships in the program planning
and design phase.
ContributorsGallagher, Matthew (Author) / Lecy, Jesse (Thesis advisor) / Knopf, Richard C. (Committee member) / Budruk, Megha (Committee member) / Schuster, Roseanne (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Wildlife has been critically affected by human-induced change and in some areas, species extinction may be as high as 35%. Despite the overwhelming evidence of species extinction, habitat loss, and global climate change, current public support for conservation programs is low. One potential way to promote pro-conservation behavior is through transformative experiences as outlined in Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory (TLT). TLT works to explain the process through which people create new worldviews that can influence both attitudes and behaviors. This mixed methods dissertation seeks to understand transformative experiences and their short-term consequences in the context of wildlife viewing opportunities. Three studies were conducted to: 1) explore the key components of wildlife experiences that prompt transformation; 2) compare transformative experiences and visitor outcomes across captive and natural wildlife viewing opportunities; and 3) understand the short-term impacts of a natural gorilla-based wildlife viewing opportunity. The first study used semi-structured photo elicitation interviews. These interviews uncovered three major themes that provide evidence of critical components for fostering transformation during wildlife encounters. These themes were used to create two novel scales assessing transformative wildlife experiences. The second study used onsite visitor surveys to compare TLT and visitor outcomes at the North Carolina Zoo and at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Conservation Gallery in Rwanda. Structural equation modeling showed that onsite transformation occurred at both sites and directly influenced conservation caring, which mediated the relationship between onsite transformation and species- and biodiversity-oriented behavioral intentions. The final study included a follow-up questionnaire for visitors from the gorilla trekking experience 4-months after their trek. Hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three distinct levels of short-term response to the trek. Qualitative results from the follow-up questionnaire were also considered in the context of the three groups. Overall, this dissertation adds to the growing body of literature examining the transformative nature of wildlife experiences and contributes two novel scales that can be used in future studies. In addition, it adds to the limited onsite research examining terrestrial, African wildlife experiences. The theoretical and managerial implications for the findings from all three studies are discussed at length.
ContributorsSampson, Marena Elizabeth (Author) / Budruk, Megha (Thesis advisor) / Andereck, Kathleen (Committee member) / Larsen, Dale (Committee member) / Farrell, Tracy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Balancing conservation goals and needs of local residents is always challenging. While some believe protected areas are a safe paradise for wildlife, others suggest that it is shortsighted to ignore the social and economic challenges faced by people who live adjacent to protected areas when addressing conservation objectives. This dissertation explores the link between biodiversity conservation and environmental education programs (EEPs) administered to residents of buffer zones adjacent to three protected areas in the Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal. Using surveys and interviews, this study examined 1) the influence of EEPs on attitudes of local people toward biodiversity conservation; 2) the influence of EEPs on conservation behavior; 3) the responses toward biodiversity conservation of local people residing in buffer zones who have received different levels of EEPs; and 4) the effect of EEPs on wildlife populations within adjacent protected areas. Local people who had participated in EEPs and attended school were more likely to express a positive attitude toward conservation goals than participants who had not participated in EEPs or had the opportunity to attend school. Participation in EEPs and level of education favored expressed behavior toward conservation goals, such as making contributions for conservation or supporting anti-poaching patrols. However, EEP participants and non-participants were equally likely to engage in activities that were at odds with positive conservation behavior, such as collecting fuel wood or killing wildlife to protect their farm or feed their families. A direct comparison of EEPs given by schools versus non-government organizations showed that EEPs were largely ineffective in promoting positive conservation attitudes and behaviors. Despite heavy poaching of charismatic species such as the greater one-horned rhinoceros or tiger over past decades, Nepal recently celebrated ‘zero poaching years’ in 2011 and 2013, largely due to increased anti-poaching enforcement. The relationship between EEPs and the decline in poaching is unclear, although local officials all claimed that EEPs played an important role. These results indicate that current administration of EEPs in Terai buffer zone communities is inadequate, while also providing evidence that properly administrated EEPs may become a valuable investment for these protected areas to achieve long-term success.
ContributorsShrestha, Samridhi (Author) / Smith, Andrew T. (Thesis advisor) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Pearson, David (Committee member) / Nyaupane, Gyan (Committee member) / Budruk, Megha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015