Geography Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
A 7500-Year Paleolimnological Record of Environmental Change and Salmon Abundance in the Oregon Coast Range
(University of Oregon, 2012) Kusler, Jennifer; Kusler, Jennifer; Gavin, Daniel
Pacific salmon
Open Access
A Comparison of Early Holocene and Late Holocene Vegetation Structure and Fire Frequency in the Puget Lowland
(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Kozlowski, Natalie; Gavin, Daniel
The Puget Lowland of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) has a dynamic post-glacial vegetation and climate history. Vegetation structure and fire frequency may be affected by a variety of factors such as large-scale climatic change, as well as more local factors like changing natural and human ignition sources. This study examines forest dynamics and fire disturbance events in the Puget Lowland throughout the Holocene through the use of a new lake sediment record. It was found that vegetation structure in the early and late Holocene did not react to fire disturbance events in the same way. Even further, increasing human presence and modification of land during the late Holocene lead to marked changes within the pollen and charcoal records and lake productivity. It is important to recognize that the relationship among vegetation, fire frequency, climate, and human influence is constantly changing and may not reflect patterns that have been observed in the past.
Open Access
A Critical Geography of the United States' Diplomatic Footprint
(University of Oregon, 2017-05-01) Moore, Anna; Murphy, Alexander
The practice of diplomacy has changed dramatically in recent decades as a result of technological advancements and shifting geopolitical concerns. No longer confined to the cloaked and closed-door practices of elite state institutions, the diplomatic landscape has broadened, and been made visible, across space and scale. Amidst this rapidly changing environment, it is imperative to understand how states are adjusting their material diplomatic infrastructure and what that means for everyday diplomatic practices. While many countries have adjusted to twenty-first century diplomatic realities by adapting to a more mobile, maneuverable diplomatic corps and fewer facilities, the United States remains committed to a widespread diplomatic network, the largest in the world. This diplomatic footprint is the hallmark of universality, a sustained effort over time to acquire near total diplomatic coverage by dotting the world with embassies and consulates designed to look, work, and behave in a similar, if not, ageographic, manner. Attending to this understudied phenomenon means studying the historical and geographic conditions out of which this relatively even and uniform diplomatic apparatus materialized. It further means analyzing the contemporary pattern of U.S. diplomatic infrastructure against the shifting terrain of diplomatic norms and space. Drawing empirically on interviews with elite diplomatic practitioners, substantial archival material, and the researcher’s own experience working within the U.S. diplomatic assemblage, this study has sought to examine why the United States remains committed to universality and what embassies and consulates actually do to secure U.S. foreign policy goals. Specifically, the study—presented in this dissertation as three discrete original research articles—is framed by the following research questions: (1) What ideas and policies shaped the geographical footprint of U.S. diplomatic infrastructure over the course of the twentieth century? (2) How does the globe-girdling U.S. diplomatic assemblage reflect and influence geopolitical ideas and practices? (3) How does the grouping of diplomatic missions along regional lines reflect and influence U.S. foreign policy?
Open Access
Aging in Place: The Paradox of Community Eldercare in Urban China
(University of Oregon, 2019-04-30) Yu, Yi; Su, Xiaobo
Population projections indicate that China will be the most rapidly aging country in the world in the near future. To meet the challenge of providing eldercare in a context of shrinking family sizes––where children are no longer able to care for their aging parents–-the Chinese government has selected community eldercare as its major solution. Despite the increasing popularity of community eldercare facilities, little is known about how they operate, their impact on the aging population, and their workforce. Drawing on qualitative date collected during six months of fieldwork in Beijing and Shanghai, this dissertation investigates how community eldercare facilities are established and operated, how they promote the Chinese government’s “healthy aging” agenda, how and to what extent they replace home care, and what kinds of working conditions they create for their caregivers. Findings reveal that (1) The local government collaborates with NGOs to set up community eldercare programs. Instead of striving for autonomy, these NGOs enjoy positive and collaborative relationships with their local governments, which allows them to have access to more eldercare projects and to occupy (and build) the eldercare market to earn future profits. (2) The community eldercare programs support the government’s “healthy aging” agenda, which promotes a lifestyle intended to facilitate independence and mobility. The eldercare programs’ support of this agenda allows the Chinese government to govern at a distance. (3) Community eldercare centers aim to provide a homely feeling for older adults in order to replace home care and facilitate aging in place; at the same time, they constitute a space of control. (4) Caregivers working to create homely feelings at community eldercare centers are required to work in accordance with care ethics, which places them in a “prison of love.”
Open Access
An Agent-Based Model of Wildlife Migratory Patterns in Human-Disturbed Landscapes
(University of Oregon, 2015-08-18) Tierney, Lauren; Bone, Christopher
In recent years, human decision-making has led to significant landscape impacts in the western United States. Specifically, migratory wildlife populations have increasingly been impacted by rural urban development and energy resource development. This research presents the application of agent-based modeling to explore how such impacts influence the characteristics of migratory animal movement, focusing on mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Western Wyoming. This study utilizes complex adaptive systems and agent-based modeling frameworks to increase understanding of migratory patterns in a changing landscape and explores thresholds of interference to migration patterns due to increased habitat degradation and fragmentation. The agent-based model utilizes GPS-collar data to examine how individual processes lead to population-level patterns of movement and adaptation. The assessment incorporates elements from both human and natural systems to explore potential future scenarios for human development in the natural landscape and incorporates adaptive behaviors, as well as animal-movement ecology, in changing landscapes.
Open Access
Analysis of Spatiotemporal Variations in Human- and Lightning-caused Wildfires from the Western United States (1992-2011)
(University of Oregon, 2015-01-14) Young, Alanna; Bartein, Patrick
The annual cycles of human- and lightning-caused fires create distinct patterns in time and space. Evaluating these patterns reveals intimate relationships between climate, culture, and ecoregions. I used unique graphical visualization techniques to examine a dataset of 516,691 records of human- and lightning-caused fire-start data from the western United States for the 20-year period 1992-2011. Human-caused fires were ignited throughout the year and near human populations, while lightning-caused fires were confined almost exclusively to the summer and were concentrated in less-populated areas. I utilize graphs and maps to demonstrate the benefit of a longer time frame in strengthening the findings and describing the underlying interactions among climate, society, and biogeography.
Open Access
Application of Paleoenvironmental Data for Testing Climate Models and Understanding Past and Future Climate Variations
(University of Oregon, 2014-10-17) Izumi, Kenji; Bartlein, Patrick
Paleo data-model comparison is the process of comparing output from model simulations of past periods with paleoenvironmental data. It enables us to understand both the paleoclimate mechanism and responses of the earth environment to the climate and to evaluate how models work. This dissertation has two parts that each involve the development and application of approaches for data-model comparisons. In part 1, which is focused on the understanding of both past and future climatic changes/variations, I compare paleoclimate and historical simulations with future climate projections exploiting the fact that climate-model configurations are exactly the same in the paleo and future simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5. In practice, I investigated large-scale temperature responses (land-ocean contrast, high-latitude amplification, and change in temperature seasonality) in paleo and future simulations, found broadly consistent relationships across the climate states, and validated the responses using modern observations and paleoclimate reconstructions. Furthermore, I examined the possibility that a small set of common mechanisms controls the large-scale temperature responses using a simple energy-balance model to decompose the temperature changes shown in warm and cold climate simulations and found that the clear-sky longwave downward radiation is a key control of the robust responses. In part 2, I applied the equilibrium terrestrial biosphere models, BIOME4 and BIOME5 (developed from BIOME4 herein), for reconstructing paleoclimate. I applied inverse modeling through the iterative forward-modeling (IMIFM) approach that uses the North American vegetation data to infer the mid-Holocene (MH, 6000 years ago) and the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21,000 years ago) climates that control vegetation distributions. The IMIFM approach has the potential to provide more accurate quantitative climate estimates from pollen records than statistical approaches. Reconstructed North American MH and LGM climate anomaly patterns are coherent and consistent between variables and between BIOME4 and BIOME5, and these patterns are also consistent with previous data synthesis. This dissertation includes previously published and unpublished coauthored material.
Open Access
Applications of Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry to Fluvial Geomorphology
(University of Oregon, 2015-01-14) Dietrich, James; Fonstad, Mark
Since 2011, Structure-from-Motion Multi-View Stereo Photogrammetry (SfM or SfM-MVS) has gone from an overlooked computer vision technique to an emerging methodology for collecting low-cost, high spatial resolution three-dimensional data for topographic or surface modeling in many academic fields. This dissertation examines the applications of SfM to the field of fluvial geomorphology. My research objectives for this dissertation were to determine the error and uncertainty that are inherent in SfM datasets, the use of SfM to map and monitor geomorphic change in a small river restoration project, and the use of SfM to map and extract data to examine multi-scale geomorphic patterns for 32 kilometers of the Middle Fork John Day River. SfM provides extremely consistent results, although there are systematic errors that result from certain survey patterns that need to be accounted for in future applications. Monitoring change on small restoration stream channels with SfM gave a more complete spatial perspective than traditional cross sections on small-scale geomorphic change. Helicopter-based SfM was an excellent platform for low-cost, large scale fluvial remote sensing, and the data extracted from the imagery provided multi-scalar perspectives of downstream patterns of channel morphology. This dissertation makes many recommendations for better and more efficient SfM surveys at all of the spatial scales surveyed. By implementing the improvements laid out here and by other authors, SfM will be a powerful tool that will make 3D data collection more accessible to the wider geomorphic community.
Open Access
The Ashland Area and its Environs
(University of Oregon, 1959-06) Backes, G. Byron
The Ashland Area, a well-settled agricultural subdistrict, is the southeastern-most segment of the arable valley lands of the Medford District of Jackson County, Oregon. The city of Ashland and the Ashland Area function as an important commercial and industrial section of the Medford District, although the Area lies in close proximity to the Medford focus of province and district life and is a part of the same contiguous valley system. The Area is set apart by natural physical features but its significant regionality lies in its nodal character.
Restricted
Assembling the Protest Camp: Politics, Public Space, and Occupy Protests
(University of Oregon, 2013-10-10) Duffy, Tyler; Cohen, Shaul
This thesis explores questions of politics and public space through an examination of the experiences of people involved in Occupy protest camps and local officials who were tasked with managing the protests in Eugene, OR and Madison, WI. Using assemblage as an organizing theoretical framework, this work identifies the actors involved in the production of Occupy protest camps and traces the trajectories of two Occupy protests from their beginnings to eviction day. It highlights the role of space in the protests, the ways in which protesters negotiated with local authorities for long-term use of public spaces previously prohibited by law, and some of the factors that contributed to the eviction of the protest camps. Finally, it seeks to reframe the debate on public space and conceptualizes public space as an assemblage that is continually made, unmade, and remade through the interactions of diverse, heterogeneous actors.
Open Access
Assessing the Relative Accuracy of Planet and Sentinel-2 Derived Water Maps Using Field Data
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Van Dusen, Ian; Cooley, Sarah
This study compares the accuracy of surface water maps from Sentinel-2 and Planet satellites with 43 shoreline observations on the Tanana and Willamette Rivers. High-precision GNSS rover provided the most precise results, with ~10cm accuracy. Handheld devices (BadElf: ~1m, eTrex: ~2m) were less accurate but still can be used for ground validation of satellite shorelines. For the Tanana River, Planet NDWI-derived water maps (~5m) were slightly more accurate than Sentinel-2 (~6m), despite smaller differences than their spatial resolutions. On the Willamette River, Planet achieved ~3m accuracy and Sentinel-2 ~4m accuracy using NIR-band thresholding due to minimal reflectance difference. The temporal advantage of Planet data was evident, with more clear sky observations, particularly in regions with low orbital convergence and during non-clear sky months. Despite slightly lower spatial accuracy and temporal resolution, the accessibility and reliability of Sentinel-2 data make the datasets comparable.
Open Access
Assessment of Methods for Monitoring Responses to River Restoration: Riverbed and Channel Form Changes
(University of Oregon, 2011-06) Tu, Denise Shao-Wai
On the Middle Fork John Day River (MFJD), a low gradient, meandering river in eastern Oregon, restoration includes engineered log structures intended to increase in-stream complexity and habitat diversity. Effects of log structures on riverbed topography can be captured through repeat topographic surveys, digital elevation model (DEM) of differencing (DoD), and aerial imagery. This study evaluates the (1) potential for remote sensing analysis, (2) effect of survey point density on DEMs, and (3) application of DoDs, in monitoring riverbed changes in the MFJD. An average point spacing and density finer than 0.50m and 1.25pts/m2 captures riverbed complexities. Although elevation changes were expected to be minimal, DoDs revealed -0.9 to 0.5m elevation changes associated with log structure designs. Incorporating numerical thresholds into future monitoring survey methods will improve the modeling of MFJD riverbed surfaces. Monitoring riverbed changes through DoDs can inform improvements to future restoration design and the effectiveness of log structures.
Open Access
The Baltic Pearl in the window to Europe: St. Petersburg's Chinese quarter
(University of Oregon, 2008-12) Dixon, Megan Lori, 1969-
This dissertation focuses on an urban development project outside St. Petersburg, Russia, called the Baltic Pearl. Financed by a consortium of firms based in Shanghai, China, the Baltic Pearl signals several changes in contemporary Russia. At the scale of the region and the nation-state, the project reflects growing political cooperation between the Russian and Chinese governments; it also parallels an increase in economic partnership, including use of Chinese labor. However, social processes at the scale of the city may militate against the success of this project. City residents fearful of rumored Chinese migration feel alarm over the Baltic Pearl because they associate it with narratives of Chinatowns inhabited by labor migrants; other residents already resentful of being left behind in the economic transformation associate the project with the city administration's neglect of their needs. Thus, closer examination of the Baltic Pearl offers the opportunity to gauge commonalities in the causes behind xenophobia and claims of dispossession. Using a theoretical approach based on both humanist and critical geography, I develop an original reading of Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space to which I give the term socio-spatial paradigm. This concept allows me to conduct an analysis of spatialities in statements of the vision and purpose of the Baltic Pearl made by various individuals and groups. I consider the negotiation over the project's form between Chinese and Russian officials, planners, and architects; local protest and support for the quarter as articulated in newspaper articles, blogs, a survey, and interviews; and individual narratives of spatial form in the city as recounted in a survey and interviews. The aim of the different analyses is to evaluate the capacity of St. Petersburg to adapt to global pressures related to economic restructuring and migration streams, and to become a truly "world city" in terms of cultural multiplicity as well as financial capacity. The conclusion discusses the commensurability of information gained at different scales, from interview narratives to government statements. The study asserts the need to develop better models for incorporating information gained at finer scales into our evaluation of state-to-state relations.
Open Access
Behavioral and neurological studies in tactile map reading and training by persons who are blind or visually impaired
(University of Oregon, 2011-06) Lawrence, Megan McNally, 1977-
This research investigates the relationship between map use tasks, spatial abilities and training-based effects in persons who are blind or visually impaired. A mixed-method approach using theories and methods in behavioral geography, tactile cartography and functional magnetic resonance imaging have produced finds that identify both behaviorally-based as well as biologically-based impacts resulting from systematic tactile map use and spatial thinking training. The neurological results indicate that prior to training a dominant egocentric/route strategy is used to answer all experimental map tasks, while after training an allocentric/survey strategy is used. The current study demonstrates that the adoption of an allocentric perspective is coupled with improved behavioral performance. The findings provide supporting evidence that people who are blind are capable of learning and applying sophisticated spatial strategies. The systematic progression from egocentric/route processing to allocentric/survey processing in the participant population follows traditional developmental models of spatial knowledge.
Open Access
Border Assemblages: The Political Economy of Asian Regional Vegetable Trade
(University of Oregon, 2019-01-11) Wang, Kuan-Chi; Buck, Daniel
In my dissertation, I study the spatio-temporal variegation and transnational circulation of vegetable commodities using the case of edamame beans (the largest frozen vegetable sector in Asia). My dissertation shows that food production and trade in East Asia have fundamentally changed over the past several decades. Rapid development has lifted the region out of subsistence and into middle-class and luxury consumption. As a result, East Asia is quickly becoming the center of the global food economy. The development of edamame industries is central to explaining the transformation of the agriculture and food industries across the region. I employ a mixed methods approach that includes participant-observation, semi-structured interviews with 40 edamame farmers and entrepreneurs, and GIS mapping, alongside Social Network Analysis (SNA). In my analysis, I coin the concept of “border assemblages,” arguing that edamame trade incorporates network and state-territorial characteristics. Building on this approach, my research bridges two social science sub-fields that scholars have often applied empirically but not theoretically: international politics and regional agrarian development. Three novel findings emerge from this research: First, my research adds to the literature on Asian colonialism by showing how the Japanese Empire and the post-World War Two (WWII) U.S. Cold War regime territorialized East Asia to develop a regulatory assemblage of regional agricultural production and trade. Second, after the 1980s, a new type of food regime emerged in East Asia following the introduction of new World Trade Organization food safety regulations that reterritorialized the food production networks in Asia. My research conceptualizes the emergence of the new food regimes in an East Asian context according to the political economy and ecology of edamame trade among Taiwan, Japan, and China. Third, another strand of my research contributes to the geopolitical understanding of the edamame trade with regard to food scares and contract farming. I extend the definition of contract farming to encompass international regulatory bodies and argue that trade agreements and international food laws, such as the Codex Alimentarius, have significantly shaped the agrarian landscape in Asia.
Open Access
Bordering From Above: Aircraft, Enforcement, and Territorial Anxiety at the US-Mexico Border
(University of Oregon, 2022-02-18) McLaughlin, Samuel; Cohen, Shaul
The invention of powered flight altered both mobility across territorial borders and states’ ability to govern or enforce those borders. This thesis examines the incorporation of three types of aircraft—airplanes, helicopters, and drones—into the US apparatus of enforcement at its border with Mexico, through qualitative analysis of newspaper archives, pilot histories, and interviews with humanitarian aid activists. A close study of the roles and functions of aircraft within the broader system of border enforcement illuminates the technologically-provoked anxiety that motivates border intensification, the close but complex links between public representations and bordering practices, and the importance of larger political-economic circumstances in determining the means of enforcement.
Open Access
Building Resistance from Home: EcoVillage at Ithaca as a Model of Sustainable Living
(University of Oregon, 2008-09) Fischetti, Diana Michelle, 1976-
Because of the personal, social, economic, and environmental impacts of material consumption, resistance is afoot. The creation of new places is a tool used by those resisting the negative aspects of consumer culture. One example is the ecovillage: an intentional community whose members strive to live in a socially and environmentally sustainable manner, to practice voluntary simplicity, and to cultivate meaning, life satisfaction, and fulfillment. This research involves a case study of EcoVillage at Ithaca, located in New York, the goal of which is to create a model of sustainable living that is appealing to mainstream America, reduce the ecological footprint of inhabitants and increase meaningful relationships within the community. Through its educational mission and accompanying outreach, EcoVillage at Ithaca models an alternative to middle-class, mainstream American culture. EcoVillage at Ithaca's impact beyond the lives of the individual residents demonstrates its effectiveness as a space of resistance to consumer society.
Open Access
Catalonia Is a Country: World Heritage and Regional Nationalism
(University of Oregon, 2010-03) Landers, Matthew Worth, 1984-
Since 1975, the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia has been renegotiating its political and cultural place within Spain. The designation and promotion of places within Catalonia as World Heritage Sites-a matter over which regional authorities have competency-provides insights into the national and territorial ideas that have emerged in recent decades. This study of the selection and portrayal of World Heritage sites by Turisme de Cata1unya shows that the sites reflect a view of the region as 1) home to a distinct cultural group, 2) a place with an ancient past, and 3) a place with a history of territorial autonomy. These characteristics suggest that even though many Catalan regionalists seek a novel territorial status that is neither independent of nor subservient to the Spanish state, the dominant territorial norms of the modem state system continue to be at the heart of the Catalan nation-building project.
Open Access
Climate Change and Culture Change in Salluit, Quebec, Canada
(University of Oregon, 2011-12) Ginsburg, Alexander David
The amplified effects of climate change in the Arctic are well known and, according to many commentators, endanger Inuit cultural integrity. However, the specific connections between climate change and cultural change are understudied. This thesis explores the relationship between climatic shifts and culture in the Inuit community of Salluit, Quebec, Canada. Although residents of Salluit are acutely aware of climate change in their region and have developed causal explanations for the phenomenon, most Salluit residents do not characterize climate change as a threat to Inuit culture. Instead, they highlight the damaging impacts of globalization and internal colonialism as a more serious problem. This counter-narrative suggests that focusing narrowly on climate change can obscure the broader and more immediate challenges facing Inuit communities. Such a realization demonstrates the need for researchers to locate climate change within a matrix of non-climatic challenges in order to mitigate threats to indigenous cultures.
Embargo
Cognitive Agents and Pedestrian-Oriented Redevelopment
(University of Oregon, 2016-11-21) Perdue, Nicholas; Lobben, Amy
Walking is one of the most commonplace forms of human expressions, yet the forms, motivations, and practices of walking vary greatly and are often at odds with dominant discourses in urban and transportation planning. As interest in pedestrian-oriented studies continues to grow, there is danger that dominant discourses will continue to reinforce the framing of pedestrians and the practices of walking as slower moving versions of the private automobile and ignore deeply embedded emotional, personal, and cognitive aspects. As such, understandings of pedestrian transportation and human agency during walking must be explored in increasingly human-centered terms in order to understand how changes to the material environment actually impact people and daily practices. The purpose of this dissertation is to give considerably more attention to the human elements of walking by creating a set of new theoretical and practical frameworks for deeper representations of the pedestrian in the urban space and within a larger transportation system. The three articles presented in this dissertation outline an alternative, human-centered representation of the pedestrian, providing theoretical, methodological, and practical solutions to conceptualize how soft variables such as emotion, motivation, and especially cognition influence the practices of walking.