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- Title
- Attitudes and perspectives about backyard food gardening: a case study in South Florida.
- Creator
- Zahina-Ramos, John G., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
As cities grew throughout the past century, the availability of locally grown food declined, mostly because urban expansion occurred at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a result, city dwellers turned to commercial food market systems that import food from distant production areas. Private greenspace, which is one of the largest land cover types in cities, offers the potential for substantial agricultural production. Because urban food production on private land, such as backyards...
Show moreAs cities grew throughout the past century, the availability of locally grown food declined, mostly because urban expansion occurred at the expense of adjacent agricultural land. As a result, city dwellers turned to commercial food market systems that import food from distant production areas. Private greenspace, which is one of the largest land cover types in cities, offers the potential for substantial agricultural production. Because urban food production on private land, such as backyards, requires the willing participation of landowners, resident's feelings about and experience with food growing are important to understand. The demographic groups that were most likely to food garden were those in long-term relationships, higher income brackets, those with college education and residents over 50 years old. Incentives and programs focused on producing more from existing gardens may be most appropriate for people in these demographic groups, while other groups will most require basic food growing information. Study participants highly valued intangible benefits of food gardening (e.g., relaxation, feelings of happiness and satisfaction), often more than the provision of food. Most barriers and problems with backyard food growing, such as a lack of space and the need for gardening information, were similar for those who food garden and those who do not. Results from this study indicate that traditional agricultural incentives and perspectives must be rethought if they are to be applied in urban settings. By creating incentives and initiatives that reflect the needs and challenges faced by urban growers, urban agriculture will become an integrated part of the community, improving food quantity and quality while enriching residents' lives.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3361258
- Subject Headings
- Backyard gardens, Food chains (Ecology), Garden ecology, Green movement, Sustainable development
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Examining the relationship between urban green space and sustainable cities.
- Creator
- Bloise, Gillian., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
Urban green space plays a vital role in the stability of the environment. Green spaces are increasingly becoming an integral part of the efforts to promote sustainability because of the different areas of benefits they provide. Sustainable city ranking systems were used to identify the most sustainable urban extents within the US. Landsat TM 4-5 imagery and textural classification are used as techniques in identifying, classifying and analyzing urban green spaces within nineteen urban extents...
Show moreUrban green space plays a vital role in the stability of the environment. Green spaces are increasingly becoming an integral part of the efforts to promote sustainability because of the different areas of benefits they provide. Sustainable city ranking systems were used to identify the most sustainable urban extents within the US. Landsat TM 4-5 imagery and textural classification are used as techniques in identifying, classifying and analyzing urban green spaces within nineteen urban extents. Patch analyst was used to analyze the location, structure and fragmentation green spaces within each urban extent. The aim is to determine to what degree urban green spaces can be considered to be an integral part of the sustainability of sustainable urban extents across the US and ascertain whether or not more sustainable urban extents do have more urban green spaces. The results of the study have shown that urban extents that are ranked highly v on sustainable ranking systems do not necessarily have to have large proportion of green spaces. Results have also shown that urban extents that are ranked high on sustainable rankings will not necessarily be affected by increase in population or decrease in urban green space. Finally human modified green spaces have simple geometric shapes compared to natural unaltered green spaces that have more complex geometric shapes.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3360771
- Subject Headings
- City planning, Environmental aspects, Urbanization, Environmental aspects, Urban ecology (Sociology), Human ecology, Sustainable development, Urban beautification
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Generating space-time hypotheses in complex social-ecological systems.
- Creator
- Forbes, Dolores J., Xie, Zhixiao, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
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As ecosystems degrade globally, ecosystem services that support life are increasingly threatened. Indications of degradation are occurring in the Northern Indian River Lagoon (IRL) estuary in east central Florida. Factors associated with ecosystem degradation are complex, including climate and land use change. Ecosystem research needs identified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) include the need to: consider the social with the physical; account for dynamism and change; account for...
Show moreAs ecosystems degrade globally, ecosystem services that support life are increasingly threatened. Indications of degradation are occurring in the Northern Indian River Lagoon (IRL) estuary in east central Florida. Factors associated with ecosystem degradation are complex, including climate and land use change. Ecosystem research needs identified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) include the need to: consider the social with the physical; account for dynamism and change; account for complexity; address issues of scale; and focus on ecosystem structure and process. Ecosystems are complex, self-organizing, multi-equilibrial, non-linear, middle-number systems that exist in multiple stable states. Results found are relative to the observation and the frame of analysis, requiring multi-scaled analytical techniques. This study addresses the identified ecosystem research needs and the complexity of the associated factors given these additional constraints. Relativity is addressed through univariate analysis of dissolved oxygen as a measure of the general health of the Northern IRL. Multiple spatial levels are employed to associate social process scales with physical process scales as basin, sub-basins, and watersheds. Scan statistics return extreme value clusters in space-time. Wavelet transforms decompose time-scales of cyclical data using varying window sizes to locate change in process scales in space over time. Wavelet transform comparative methods cluster temporal process scales across space. Combined these methods describe the space-time structure of process scales in a complex ecosystem relative to the variable examined, where the highly localized results allow for connection to unexamined variables.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004284
- Subject Headings
- Environmental sciences -- Mathematical models, Indian River (Fla. : Lagoon) -- Environmental aspects, Marine ecosystem management -- Florida -- Indian River (Lagoon), Sustainable development, Wavelets (Mathematics)
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Inlet-Adjacent Shoreline Behavior at Three Stabilized Inlets in Palm Beach County, FL (USA).
- Creator
- Vandamas, Edward A, Briggs, Tiffany Roberts, Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
Shorelines are a primary source of attraction for the nearly two million tourists who visit Palm Beach County annually. Many of Palm Beach County beaches are located on barrier islands, separated by a series of inlets which serve as access points to the Intracoastal Waterway. However, inlets are often cited as a source of erosion, through interruption of littoral drift and interaction with nearshore hydrodynamics (e.g., causing wave diffraction or refraction). In an effort to mitigate...
Show moreShorelines are a primary source of attraction for the nearly two million tourists who visit Palm Beach County annually. Many of Palm Beach County beaches are located on barrier islands, separated by a series of inlets which serve as access points to the Intracoastal Waterway. However, inlets are often cited as a source of erosion, through interruption of littoral drift and interaction with nearshore hydrodynamics (e.g., causing wave diffraction or refraction). In an effort to mitigate potential negative impacts of the economically important tidal inlets, Palm Beach County has installed a sand transfer plant (STP) at two inlet locations, the Lake Worth Inlet and the South Lake Worth Inlet. Through analysis of annual aerial photography and beach profile surveys taken between 2000 and 2009, this study will determine what effect, if any, these sand transfer plants are having on the inlet-adjacent shorelines north and south of the two inlets with STP, as well as an inlet without an STP (Boca Inlet). This study hopes to increase the understanding of shoreline dynamics in Palm Beach County, which could recognize important alongshore patterns, such as the occurrence of erosional hot spots, to assist in future mitigation efforts.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004554, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004554
- Subject Headings
- Beach erosion -- Florida -- Lake Worth Inlet -- Prevention, Beach erosion -- Florida -- South Lake Worth Inlet -- Prevention, Coastal changes -- Florida -- Palm Beach County, Coastal zone management -- Florida -- Palm Beach County, Geodynamics, Soil conservation -- Florida -- Lake Worth Inlet, Soil conservation -- Florida -- South Lake Worth Inlet, Sustainable development
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- A methodology to assess the feasibility for light rail transit in a low to medium density environment via geographic information systems and image interpretation.
- Creator
- Kennard, Dylan., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
The world currently has more people living in cities than in rural areas. In the United States this is no exception, and as a result government policy is focusing on the supply of 'green' jobs that help repair and expand its infrastructure in an attempt to help curb non-renewable resource use. The expansion of public transportation throughout the country is one facet of the multi-pronged US government policy. In the tri-county area of South Florida (Palm Beach County, Broward County, and...
Show moreThe world currently has more people living in cities than in rural areas. In the United States this is no exception, and as a result government policy is focusing on the supply of 'green' jobs that help repair and expand its infrastructure in an attempt to help curb non-renewable resource use. The expansion of public transportation throughout the country is one facet of the multi-pronged US government policy. In the tri-county area of South Florida (Palm Beach County, Broward County, and Miami-Dade County) a research study known as the South Florida East Coast Corridor Transit Analysis (SFECCTA) entered Phase 2 in January 2009. This study looks at incorporating the FEC freight corridor which transverses the downtown areas of 47 cities into a major North- South commuter system. This system would also supplement the existing commuter Tri- Rail corridor. The proposed methodology in this manuscript attempts to address the issue of providing an adaptable, efficient and convenient public transportation in a low to medium density environment where the automobile is the preferred mode of travel. Emphasis is placed on connecting existing origin and destination locations in and around the greater West Palm Beach metropolitan area in Palm Beach County, FL. The goal of the methodology is to establish potential routes that will connect high amounts of residence to places of social interaction, consumption, employment, and the proposed SFECCTA regional transportation system with Light Rail Transit as the end goal. As a result the proposed corridors focus on creating dedicated and shared right of ways that already exist via the road network. The discussion and conclusion provide methodology successes, improvements, and economic development recommendations.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2009
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/369192
- Subject Headings
- Railroads, Local and light, Environmental aspects, Railroads, Planning, City planning, Environmental aspects, Sustainable development
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- Title
- Statistical correlation between economic activity and DMSP-OLS night light images in Florida.
- Creator
- Forbes, Dolores J., Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Geosciences
- Abstract/Description
-
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area ...
Show moreThe Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Optical Line Scan (OLS) instruments collect data from an altitude of approximately 830km above the surface of the Earth. The night light data from these instruments has been shown to correlate by lit area with national level Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and to correlate with GDP at the State level by total radiance value. Very strong correlation is found between the night light data at a new, larger scale, the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) within the state of Florida. Additional statistical analysis was performed to determine which industries within each MSA explain the greatest amount of variance in the night light data. Industrial variables exhibited strong multi-collinearity. It is therefore impossible to determine which industries explain the greatest variance in the night light image data.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3175019
- Subject Headings
- Earth, Rendering (Computer graphics), Urban ecology (Sociology), Sustainable development
- Format
- Document (PDF)