The Maricopa County Heat Relief Network (HRN) is an ad-hoc partially self-organized network with some attributes of hierarchical coordination that forms each year to provide heat relief and hydration to residents in need by operating as cooling centers. These HRN organizations are a collection of non-profit, governmental and religious organizations. This dissertation looks at the HRN from a complexity governance perspective and engaged different parts of the network in interviews to learn more about their perspective in delivering heat relief. Further, participatory modeling with a prototype agent based model was done with the HRN coordinating agencies to look for emergent outcomes in the HRN system and learn from their perspective. Chapter one evaluates organizational theory and complexity with climate adaptation, hazard preparedness and resilience in the HRN. Chapter two presents results from interviews with HRN facility managers and evaluates their perspective on how they function to offer heat relief. Chapter three finds that the HRN is a good example of complexity governance when engaged through a participatory agent based modeling approach. Chapter four engages the HRN coordinators in participatory agent based modeling interviews to increase their systems level awareness, learn about their perspective on heat relief delivery, and how the system can be improved. Chapter five looks across the different levels of the HRN investigated, the facility managers and coordinators, for differences and similarities in perspectives. The research conducted in this dissertation shows different levels of systems awareness of the different parts of the HRN and how participatory modeling can be used to increase systems awareness. Results indicate that there was very little horizontal network connection between HRN facility managers and most of the interaction was vertically coordinated indicating opportunities for increased network communication in the future both horizontally and vertically if communication interventions were put in place.

Exertional heat stroke continues to be one of the leading causes of illness and death in sport in the United States, with an athlete’s experienced microclimate varying by venue design and location. A limited number of studies have attempted to determine the relationship between observed wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and WBGT derived from regional weather station data. Moreover, only one study has quantified the relationship between regionally modeled and on-site measured WBGT over different athletic surfaces (natural grass, rubber track, and concrete tennis court). The current research expands on previous studies to examine how different athletic surfaces influence the thermal environment in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area using a combination of fieldwork, modeling, and statistical analysis. Meteorological data were collected from 0700–1900hr across 6 days in June and 5 days in August 2019 in Tempe, Arizona at various Sun Devil Athletics facilities. This research also explored the influence of surface temperatures on WBGT and the changes projected under a future warmer climate. Results indicate that based on American College of Sports Medicine guidelines practice would not be cancelled in June (WBGT≥32.3°C); however, in August, ~33% of practice time was lost across multiple surfaces. The second-tier recommendations (WBGT≥30.1°C) to limit intense exercise were reached an average of 7 hours each day for all surfaces in August. Further, WBGT was calculated using data from four Arizona Meteorological Network (AZMET) weather stations to provide regional WBGT values for comparison. The on-site (field/court) WBGT values were consistently higher than regional values and significantly different (p<0.05). Thus, using regionally-modeled WBGT data to guide activity or clothing modification for heat safety may lead to misclassification and unsafe conditions. Surface temperature measurements indicate a maximum temperature (170°F) occurring around solar noon, yet WBGT reached its highest level mid-afternoon and on the artificial turf surface (2–5PM). Climate projections show that WBGT values are expected to rise, further restricting the amount of practice and games than can take place outdoors during the afternoon. The findings from this study can be used to inform athletic trainers and coaches about the thermal environment through WBGT values on-field.

Interdisciplinary research has highlighted how social-ecological dynamics drive the structure and function of the urban landscape across multiple scales. Land management decisions operate across various levels, from individuals in their backyard to local municipalities and broader political-economic forces. These decisions then scale up and down across the landscape to influence ecological functioning, such as the provisioning of biodiversity. Likewise, people are influenced by, and respond to, their environment. However, there is a lack of integrated research, especially research that considers the spatial and temporal complexities of social-ecological dynamics, to fully understand how people influence ecosystems or how the resulting landscape in turn influences human decision making, attitudes, and well-being.

My dissertation connects these interdisciplinary themes to examine three questions linked by their investigation of the interactions between people and biodiversity: (1) How do the social and spatial patterns within an arid city affect people’s attitudes about their regional desert environment? (2) How are novel communities in cities assembled given the social-ecological dynamics that influence the processes that structure ecological communities? (3) How can we reposition bird species traits into a conservation framework that explains the complexity of the interactions between people and urban bird communities? I found that social-ecological dynamics between people, the environment, and biodiversity are tightly interwoven in urban ecosystems. The regional desert environment shapes people’s attitudes along spatial and social configurations, which holds implications for yard management decisions. Multi-scalar management decisions then influence biodiversity throughout cities, which shifts public perceptions of urban nature. Overall, my research acts as a bridge between social and ecological sciences to theoretically and empirically integrate research focused on biodiversity conservation in complex, social-ecological systems. My goal as a scholar is to understand the balance between social and ecological implications of landscape change to support human well-being and promote biodiversity conservation.