In recent years, several interrelated forces—prolonged drought, growing populations, height-ened environmental protections, sustained agricultural use, and hydrologic alterations due to climate change—have increased pressure on water users in the Western United States, where the agricultural sector accounts for up to 90% of total water withdrawals. Technology im-provements developed since the...
Development research and policy aim to improve household welfare by improving access to assets and economic opportunities (Besley & Burgess 2000; Deininger et al. 2003). In rural and agrarian contexts, these goals may be achieved by well-functioning markets for outputs, inputs, off-farm work, and credit. The status of these markets...
Rivers impacted by human activities often have multiple stressors present. The effects of multiple stressors on biological communities can often be difficult to predict, due to the potential for complex interactions between stressors and communities. This thesis explores the impacts of two stressors often associated with agricultural land use, increased...
Silvopasture is the planned and managed agroforestry system in which forage, livestock, and trees or shrubs are integrated in order to enhance individual components. Silvopasture has been identified as the most promising agroforestry system for the Pacific Northwest and Southeast United States. However, there have been few studies describing the...
In this thesis I examine the question: can allowing a wildfire to burn this year result in a net positive economic gain? To answer this question I created 2,500 multiple sets of paired scenarios (called a fire of interest) which consist of ignitions, vegetation growth, and timber harvest over the...
The overarching objective of this study is to examine and compare the vulnerabilities of bridges combining effects of earthquake-induced ground shaking, ground failure (e.g., landslides and lateral spreading), and tsunami inundation. A parametric study is performed to understand the sensitivity of economic loss and traffic capacity with respect to the...
This thesis explores the relationships that income and housing space limitations have with regard to food security in full-time recreational vehicle (RV) households. This research used a scaled survey tool and a subset questionnaire to gather information on RV dwellers' housing and kitchen spaces along with participants' food shopping, storage,...
Small landowners in the state of Oregon find it difficult to be competitive with larger companies to provide traditional forest products to consumers. Additionally, many landowners hope to be profitable from their land, but are not necessarily interested in or have the capability to harvest large tracts of timber. Specialty...
This study evaluates the distributional impacts of an alternative public roads finance method, a road usage charge (RUC) fee, on lower income households and rural households in Oregon. While previous research has relied on the 2001 and 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), this research will uses the 2011-2013 Oregon...
Oregon residents possess several options in installing solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. This study examines a range of options--tax credits and rebates, a volumetric incentive rate program, power purchase agreements from third-party installers, and solar leasing--and compares the cost of these options to not installing. The paper considers the problem of...