The role of science in marine policy, and environmental policy in general, is a debated topic. Currently, there is an increasing desire for transparent and participatory democracy that involves more input from local residents and other non-experts. These demands often conflict with the increasing complexity of problems and the real...
Housing is the single most important environmental factor associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity (United Nations, 2007). Most Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, and an estimated two-thirds of that is spent in the home (Klepeis et al., 2001). Studies show a link between substandard housing...
This study investigates the barriers faced by fats, oil, and grease (FOG) as an energy feedstock in the state of Oregon. FOG, which typically originates in food service establishments (FSEs), historically has been treated as waste, yet it also has the chemical make up to be an energy feedstock in...
Michigan’s State Department of Education issued a resolution in 2003 calling for all public K-12 schools to repeal their American Indian mascots and in 2013 the Michigan Department of Civil Rights filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education in response to school districts failing to do so....
This study addresses the question: "What are the incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation in the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and how do they factor into Reclamation's management of water in the western United States?" Incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention (i.e., actions taken to avoid conflict) and...
Several distinctive environmental movements of the past century have had major influence on public policies in the United States. More generally, social movements that push environmental issues into the limelight have the potential for significantly altering public perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, thus driving big policy changes. This thesis examines the...
The First Gulf War that took place in Kuwait in 1991 resulted in one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of mankind. Extreme pollution affected the soil, waters, and the air in Kuwait. In this research I try to look into how the Kuwaiti government reacted to those...
Water governance has been identified as a crucial component to improving conditions and balancing supply and demand of water resources in the water-scarce Middle East North Africa (MENA) region. Finding a method for, and commencing the process of, evaluating water governance is thus imperative. This study analyzes the potential to...
In the Middle Rio Grande region of New Mexico, challenges such as droughts, growing urban demand for water, and newly listed endangered species have forced people to change the way that they manage water. New challenges in water governance have created cooperation among agencies that often have conflicting interests, goals,...
On June 23, 2016 the United Kingdom (UK) held a vote to determine whether to remain in the European Union (EU) or withdraw. The British exit from the EU, or Brexit, is the antithesis of two centuries of progressive social work theory developed by a series of prominent social workers...
People in the US and Europe eat the most meat worldwide, lose or waste about 20% of this product overall, and they waste the most food per capita. Food waste is currently addressed as an issue of volume, so programs and policies target foods that are wasted more by weight...
Group Engagement Theory describes the relationship between citizen perceptions of policy, individual identity and status judgements, and individual group engagement decisions. Utilizing a least likely crucial case methodology, this paper uses the case of Josephine County, Oregon to determine the validity of the Group Engagement Theory prediction that citizen identity...
Environmental scientists, land managers, and policy actors are increasingly presented with high-stakes high-uncertainty problems stemming from human-ecosystem interactions. To help address these problems, scientists frequently use models that produce enormous geospatial and temporal datasets that are constantly modified and often seek input from communities outside their discipline. To assist scientists—as...
Although dam construction has been an integral tool in development initiatives for nearly a century, dams can have significant negative impacts on local residents, particularly those who are permanently displaced from their homes and must be resettled elsewhere. Dams have unique impacts on indigenous peoples. As a result, many dam...
Despite widespread public support for renewable energy development, the siting of wind energy facilities can prove problematic due to opposition from surrounding communities. I propose a unifying framework to explain community response to wind energy development – showing how concepts from environmental sociology related to local biophysical and socioeconomic conditions...
Climate change increases weather unpredictability, threatens communities whose livelihoods depend on natural resources, such as rural communities. Utilizing a Community Capital Framework (Flora and Flora, 2013) and Governance of Complex Adaptive Systems (Duit and Galaz, 2008), this study concentrated on the role of cultural and political capital in supporting rural...
Under the Paris Agreement, parties submitted documents outlining their commitments to climate change mitigation and adaptation, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are set to be updated to increase ambition by 2020. Costa Rica and México are known for their significant national actions on climate change, so comparing these two...
The state of Oregon is divided in important ways along rural and urban lines, including the way people make a living, individual and group relationships with the natural world, political ideologies, and personal values. This rural-urban divide has assisted policymakers in making decisions that balance the needs of Oregonians on...
The biggest obstacle to a 100% renewable energy utility portfolio is the ability to produce enough electricity to meet peak demand windows, which typically occur in the late afternoon to evening period from 3 pm to 9 pm. A popular policy option to reduce peak demand is time-of-use (TOU) electricity...
Community driven development (CDD) is one of the recent approaches in the development arena that integrates people into mainstream development. Bringing people together into the development prospects through social capital is an important aspect of this approach that harnesses greater social inclusion and wider participation at the grass root level....
More than half of students in Washington state community colleges enroll in developmental mathematics, but a relatively small percentage of these students persist to the second year. Many students place into these courses and never enroll; others enroll at some point after the first academic term, even when faced with...
The spread of invasive species into the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States poses a serious threat to the valuable forest resources of the region. Many insects and diseases that are a threat to these forest resources can be transported inside firewood. When campers transport their firewood across borders...
In this work, I address foundational concerns at the interface of institutions, governance structure, transaction costs, and efficiency in public-private contracting. Following transaction cost economic perspective, I build and justify the theoretical models explaining that institutions may affect the economic performance of public-private contracting through the effect of transaction costs....
Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) located in Eugene, Lane County, Oregon, is developing a voluntary landowner incentive program that will provide monetary incentives to non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners in the McKenzie River Watershed, EWEB’s drinking water source for the metropolitan area of Eugene, to promote good stewardship of...
Adaptive collaborative (co-) management has received increased recognition as a novel approach to environmental governance that combines the dynamic learning features of adaptive management with the linking and network features of collaborative management. This approach is concerned with fostering sustainable livelihoods and ecological sustainability in the face of uncertainty and...
This study explores the role of classroom use of live organisms as a pathway for the spread of invasive species. The overall guiding research question is “Are behavioral changes necessary to reduce the spread from the classroom pathway?” Using focus groups comprised of key educators, this study seeks to identify...
The federal government owns 60 percent of Oregon’s forests and, since 1908, has shared proceeds from federal forest timber harvests with counties. These revenues
have provided a relatively stable source of funds for the provision of services by county governments in Oregon. Shared revenues from US Forest Service (USFS)
lands...
In the context of expanding global food trade in which we import and consume a variety of foods from across the world, insuring food safety, an essential public health issue, has become a major concern in our food supply system. Over the past several years, food related scandals of Chinese...
This study examines the association of household characteristics with forest product consumption and other benefits derived from community forest in Nepal. The analysis is based on random sample data of 80 households from a Community Forest User Groups of Baghmara Community Forestry (BCF) in Nepal. Using an OLS regression to...
Policies in Europe over the last half a century have steadily dismantled the inequality-easing processes of the welfare state. Current conditions coupled with concerns related to the recent economic downturn have heightened focus on the issue of income distribution. Education has been identified as a resource to combat such ills....
This study examines the determinants of food consumption behaviors, such as purchasing less meat products, paying attention to how and where food is produced, and reducing food waste within the household. Food consumption is particularly important given that it can often comprise between 10% to 30% of the total household...
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have emerged in the last half century as concerning global contaminants. PFASs have been found in drinking water systems causing negative health impacts for those who rely on this as their primary source of drinking water. PFASs are man-made industrial chemicals composed of carbon chains...
By 2050 the world population is expected to reach 9 billion. Fears of the impact of such a large population on earth’s environmental systems and finite resources have lead efforts by governmental and non-governmental agencies to assist developing nations in reducing fertility rates to slow population growth by direct medical...
Public policy narratives and stories are often referenced by the media, politicians, advocacy groups, and across many disciplines in academia. Studies of social and political narratives support the notion narrative matters, but often lack systematic design capable of producing generalizable findings. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has responded to this...
Literature on the evolution of the American higher education system includes a historical and consistent debate over the definition of the higher education mission in the country. Recent debate focuses on mission differentiation between the university and the community college. Acknowledging systemic changes in higher education historically occurred within regions...
The last decade has seen a drastic interest in microgrids throughout the world. Even though this trend might seem to be just another technological solution in the energy sector, it is a part of a greater transition from a centralized energy system to a more decentralized one. However, unlike most...
While discussing what types of campaign finance laws are and are not constitutional in his opinion in McCutcheon v. FEC, 572 U.S. ____ (2014), Chief Justice John Roberts stated that “those who govern should be the last people to help decide who should govern.” His intent was to highlight how...
Background: Legislators, policy-makers, and leaders in higher education and within communities, are increasingly turning to place-based scholarships, or “promise programs”, to encourage college enrollment and address growing public concerns regarding college affordability. One such program, the Oregon Promise, was implemented across the state of Oregon in the fall of 2016....
Food, water, and energy have strong interdependencies; actions in one sector inadvertently affect actions in another sector. Recent literature supports a “nexus” approach, whereby policies related to food, water, and energy are integrated and used in tandem rather than in isolation. Developing a better understanding of the trade-offs between food,...
The ever-increasing environmental degradation in China is leading people to pay more attention to environmental protection. Although Chinese government has made progress in dealing with environmental problems, the environment still gets worse. Thus, ordinary people began to take part in environmental issues, and make contributions to environmental protection. With increased...
This study explores Oregonians’ attitudes about and perceptions of public education. Specifically, perceptions about education quality were analyzed, looking at the perceived quality of education today and how it has changed over the last 5 years. Questions posed to respondents about education funding, explored views on additional state funding needed...
Intact sagebrush communities in the Great Basin are rapidly disappearing due
to invasion of non-native plants, large wildfires, and encroachment of pinyon pine
and juniper woodlands. Land management options include the use of prescribed
fire, grazing, herbicides and mechanical treatments to reduce the potential for
wildfire and restore plant communities....
River basins provide essential services for both humans and ecosystems. Understanding the connections between ecosystems and society and their function has been at the heart of resilience studies and has become an increasing important endeavor in research and practice. In this dissertation, I define basin resilience as a river basin...
When a catastrophic event happens, senior residents who are physically or mentally disabled, are placed at a much greater risk of injury or death. Researchers in the aftermath of hurricanes’ Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey, consistently record elderly residents presenting the most difficult challenges for emergency personnel during evacuation and post...
This research examined public perceptions of risk, behavioral intentions in the event of the M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and tsunami on the Oregon Coast, and factors that may influence both attitudes and intentions. A household survey was conducted to understand public opinion in Seaside, Oregon, which is located...
Climate change policies present multiple quandaries to the field of public policy and science studies. Despite the prevalent scientific consensus, approaches demonstrate great heterogeneity. With one side advocating for the facticity of climate change and a pro-active stance, while the other argues about negative economic trade-offs, viewpoints diverge. Between controversy...
Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Sw.) is an important warm-season perennial turfgrass, known for its tolerance to salinity. Turfgrass is used for homes, municipalities, sod farms, resorts, and sports fields. Seashore paspalum has historically been planted in sub-tropical and tropical climates because of its heat tolerance. Seashore paspalum could become an...
This dissertation examines learning driven adaptations in salmon recovery efforts and water resources management in Oregon. The case study utilizes a framework highlighting the connections between human and natural systems. Semi-structured interviews are used to analyze interactions between rural riparian landowners and watershed council staffs living and working in Oregon’s...
The absence of federal climate legislation in the United States has led to a growth of sub-federal and non-governmental programs to combat greenhouse gas emissions. One such program, the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) seeks to mitigate greenhouse emissions from higher education through the voluntary commitment of...
Selecting locations for large energy facilities represents a land use dilemma: The beneficiaries of such facilities often are not the ones to suffer from adverse local impacts. As a result, it is not uncommon for local opposition groups to form in response to such proposals, and although opportunities for public...