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Description
Since 800 CE— long before the creation of the National Park Service (NPS) in 1905 — the Havasupai Tribe has depended on the natural resources and diverse ecosystem of the Grand Canyon. A deeper examination of how the national park came to fruition however demonstrates an often negated and harrowing history of land theft, forced assimilation via reservation systems, and genocide. Political ecology is a way of considering how power dynamics, resource management, and society intersect. In the United States, this approach exposes the ways that anti-Indigenous legislation originating in the Department of the Interior has functioned both as a driver of ecosystem degradation and structural barricades to Native American self-determination. In order to achieve a just and sustainable future for all, it is necessary to dismantle hegemonic discourses regarding Indigenous communities.
ContributorsRuiz, Marissa (Author) / Jakubczak, Laura (Thesis director) / Ostling, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
In urban planning and design, creating emotional bonds, known as place identity, between people and their surroundings is paramount to improving the well-being of those who reside there. However, determining how to alter the built environment in order to increase place identity is a difficult task to achieve. Walkability is a good mechanistic link between the built environment and place identity. Walkability is comprised of a suite of factors that take into consideration both the natural and built environment. This thesis aims to determine if walkability is positively correlated with place identity in an extreme climate such as Phoenix. To test this, ecosystem services and disservices are used as factors to measure overall walkability. We found that access to recreational opportunities, aesthetic features of the pathway, and safety were all significant predictors of place identity. This has positive implications for walkable infrastructure to be strengthened in desert cities.
ContributorsSiefert, Janelle (Author) / Larson, Kelli (Thesis director) / Kelley, Jason (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Watts College of Public Service & Community Solut (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
The creation of this study was driven by my belief in the importance of transforming and reimagining human-nature relationships for sustainable futures and my interest in understanding the implementation of nature-based learning in schools. Through observations of children in an outdoor education setting, I sought to answer the following research questions: “How do children that have engaged in nature-based learning view themselves in relation to nature?” and “What can be observed about children’s personal understandings of nature and their personal relationships with nature in their writing and drawings?” This study was implemented with participants in third grade outdoor education classes at a local charter school in South Phoenix using multiple participatory research methods. My findings add to an existing body of knowledge and research focused on understanding children’s relationships with nature and the impacts of nature-based learning. In the conclusion of this paper, I pose additional questions about conceptualizing children’s relationships with nature and exploring their nature connectedness through research, share reflections on my personal relationship with nature, and discuss how my observations support benefits of nature-based learning as argued by existing scholarship.
ContributorsSetka, Emma (Author) / Goebel, Janna (Thesis director) / Vanos, Jennifer (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Division of Teacher Preparation (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has the potential to have devastating effects on ecosystems on both a local and global scale, making it one of the most environmentally threatening phenomena occurring today. In order to minimize deforestation in the Amazon and its consequences, it is helpful to analyze its occurrence using machine learning architectures such as the U-Net. The U-Net is a type of Fully Convolutional Network that has shown significant capability in performing semantic segmentation. It is built upon a symmetric series of downsampling and upsampling layers that propagate feature information into higher spatial resolutions, allowing for the precise identification of features on the pixel scale. Such an architecture is well-suited for identifying features in satellite imagery. In this thesis, we construct and train a U-Net to identify deforested areas in satellite imagery of the Amazon through semantic segmentation.
ContributorsGiel, Joshua (Author) / Douglas, Liam (Co-author) / Espanol, Malena (Thesis director) / Cochran, Douglas (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
After traveling to Spain to study abroad, I noticed a large amount of shops selling goods related to Japanese anime, which helped inspire the topic of my honors thesis. In this paper, the cultural impact of Japanese animation and comics on Spain is explored. The history/origin of anime in Spain, the early reception of these works in Spain, the importance of the anime fandom, the intersection between Spanish and Japanese culture in anime and anime-inspired films, and the positive representation of Spain in these works are all relevant topics that constitute the argument of this document. Sources in both English and Spanish are utilized.This paper explores the surprising connections between the two countries. The way in which their cultures interact through the consumption of this form of media was quite fascinating to look into.
ContributorsMalinski, Joseph (Author) / Walton-Ramirez, Anne (Thesis director) / Wilson, Bradley (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Marine fisheries are a globally significant source of economic and food security, however high bycatch rates can threaten marine biodiversity putting both ecosystems and fisheries at risk for degradation. Although bycatch reduction technologies exist that can reduce the uptake of bycatch without significantly impacting target catch, bycatch rates remain high. To understand the factors that affect fishers’ change readiness we reviewed 15 interview-based studies assessing fishers perspectives on bycatch and bycatch reduction strategies. In sum, the perspectives of 1,991 fishers were assessed in these studies across 10 different countries from 2006-2023. One key finding that arose was the potential importance of agency. This factor closely relates to change readiness and was identified as an essential component for effective bycatch reduction. Additionally, it was discovered that the kind of proposed strategy is important. Bycatch reduction methods that are equally effective in capturing target catch while reducing non-target catch and are accessible are more likely to have favorable responses from fishers. Agency and change readiness are interconnected and may be influenced by a variety of factors such as income, education, experience, and beliefs/values. Incentives and education/engagement programs may be useful in fostering fishers’ willingness for change and improving the efficacy of bycatch reduction strategies.
ContributorsHendrix, Gabrialla (Author) / Senko, Jesse (Thesis director) / Vargas, Cindy (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
The ecological niche of a species can shift due to changing environmental conditions and lead to the species to undergo selective pressures to adapt to them. Ecological niche models are used to predict a species’ distribution based on its ecological niche. Ecological niche models can be integrated with a geographic information system to predict a species’ geographic distribution based on environmental variables. In this project, two reptile species that inhabit wide and variable geographic ranges, Uta stansburiana and Gopherus berlandieri, had their ecological niches predicted and mapped based off population data and climactic data. These ecological niche maps were then compared to sample populations of each species to infer and predict whether certain populations of each species were possibly under increased selective pressures. Based off these maps and comparisons, this study infers that the two species differ in which environmental variables are the most relevant to their suitability. This study also predicts that populations of U. stansburiana experiencing extremes in their most relevant values for temperature and precipitation could be under greater selective pressures, while populations of G. berlandieri experiencing lower values for their relevant temperature and precipitation variables could be under greater selective pressures. Furthermore, it can be inferred from this study that differences in these variables across each species’ range could be influencing genetic variation among their populations, in line with previous studies. Further genomic study of each species can be used to test these inferences.
ContributorsLukasik-Drescher, Zachary (Author) / Kusumi, Kenro (Thesis director) / Araya-Donoso, Raúl (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2024-05