Marin County, located in the northern San Francisco Bay Area in California, faces significant threats due to climate change, including more frequent wildfires, flooding, and increased temperatures. Adaptation and mitigation efforts are necessary in order to promote resilience amidst these changing conditions. Scorecards and similar evaluation tools have previously been...
In recent decades, local governments have desired to increase community engagement in collaborative governance processes, such as community visioning and strategic planning, in an effort to develop policies that are inclusive and supportive of those who live in the community. A key component of the community visioning process is the...
In the Pacific Northwest, USA, the cumulative impact of human development has caused decades of salmon habitat degradation and the listing of multiple populations under the US Endangered Species Act. As a result, the need for implementation of recovery goals has encouraged the development of an economy focused on salmon...
Diverse scientific fields collect multiple time series data to investigate the dynamical behavior of complex systems: atmospheric and climate science, geophysics, neuroscience, epidemiology, ecology, and environmental science. Identifying patterns of mutual dependence among such data generates valuable knowledge that can be applied either for inferential or forecasting purposes. Vector autoregressive...
The topics in this dissertation center on the snow processes that dominate mountain environments in the Western U.S. and Alaska, particularly in locations lacking long-term observational datasets or locales that are difficult to access in-person. Some are currently glacierized or have been glaciated in the recent past. Each of the...
South Louisiana has a major coastal erosion problem, exposing coastal communities to storm surge. The state is spending billions of dollars on projects that are not expected to last beyond 20 years. Research indicates that predominate stories influence problem definitions and solutions. Colten (2017) identified a shift in Louisiana's coastal...
Few studies examine whether public attitudes toward forest management practices differ between public and private forests, with virtually no recent studies examining these differences in the Pacific Northwest, despite the coexistence of millions of acres of both public and private forest lands. Knowing whether public attitudes differ between public and...
Gunung Leuser is a national park in Sumatra Island, Indonesia. This park is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the country. For instance, it is home to endangered and endemic species of Indonesia, such as the Sumatran orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran elephant, and the Sumatran rhino....
This dissertation seeks to understand Yi farmers’ livelihoods in the midst of an agricultural transition in Yunnan, Southwest China. This dissertation examines a community’s traditional knowledge related to wild edible plants (WEPs), analyzes socio-ecological vulnerability and resilience in the face of agricultural transition from subsistence farming to cash cropping, and...
Climate change and the increase in meteorological drought have generated global concern over the persistence of ecosystems already in decline from decreased moisture. Evidence suggests dryland ecosystems have been more impacted by drought because of their tightly coupled growth-water relationships and high sensitivity to environmental shift. Removal of competing vegetation...