people on mountain with survey equipment

Rivers and hillslopes: deciphering the signal of sediment transport

Feb. 22, 2019

In view of modern anthropogenic impacts, forecasted changes in climate, and resulting shifts in the frequencies and magnitudes of surface processes such as wildfires, landslides and large floods, reliable models are needed to monitor and predict the short-term evolution of the Earth's surface. Models generally consider climate and tectonics to...

photo of Czech country landscape

Soils, sediments, and the legacy of medieval agriculture in Czech plužina landscapes

Feb. 8, 2019

Land-cover change from forest to agriculture is widely recognized as a primary cause of accelerated soil erosion. Floodplains in agricultural watersheds represent fluvial archives for understanding anthropogenic erosion and downstream sedimentation. These agricultural legacy sediments may be used to construct watershed sediment budgets and can help reveal pathways of hydrologic...

 GIS 3d map

PhD Dissertation Topics

Dec. 14, 2018

Cross-Scale Analysis of Surface-Adjusted Measurements in Digital Elevation Models by Mehran Ghandehari Digital terrain data forms the basis for geospatial analysis and modeling in many disciplines. Terrain is commonly modeled on a grid of pixels, assuming that elevation values are constant within any single pixel of a Digital Elevation Model...

man stooping in a stream

Risky subjects: vulnerability and uncertainty in the global pesticide boom

Nov. 30, 2018

Globally, pesticide use is increasing significantly faster than food production. The vast majority of the world’s food producers depend on pesticides, and most of those users live in the global south. I present data from Northern Laos, until recently among the world’s lowest per capita pesticide users, to explore the...

Indigenous people in the Amazon

“Differentiated citizenship” and the persistence of informal rural credit systems in Amazonia

Nov. 9, 2018

In the Brazilian Amazon, the long-distance river trading system known as aviamento has linked commodity producers in remote areas to markets in urban centers since the colonial period. Based on a case study from the rural municipality of Lábrea, this presentation explores continuities and changes in river trading from the...

4 photos showing similar past and present for housing and people on houseboats

‘‘Differentiated citizenship” and the persistence of informal rural credit systems in Amazonia.

Nov. 9, 2018

In the Brazilian Amazon, the long-distance river trading system known as aviamento has linked commodity producers in remote areas to markets in urban centers since the colonial period. Based on a case study from the rural municipality of Lábrea, this article explores continuities and changes in river trading from the...

people working in the mud

Accounting for high-frequency climate variability in adaptation and planning: An interdisciplinary approach combining natural and human archival data

Nov. 2, 2018

High-frequency climate variability is one of the most common features associated with climatic zones and yet, one of the least understood aspects of climate sciences, and unsurprisingly, one of the least implemented aspects of climate sciences in the realm of climate adaptation and policy. Semi-arid belts of the world, characterized...

Aerial shot of Rocky Flats with mountain backdrop

Unnatural Succession: Rocky Flats and the Future of Conservation

Oct. 26, 2018

For four decades, Colorado’s Rocky Flats plant served as the core facility producing plutonium triggers for the United States’ nuclear arsenal. Military production halted in 1992 and fifteen years later the site was designated a national wildlife refuge. Despite a $7 billion dollar cleanup, Rocky Flats remains controversial both for...

Aerial shot of peninsula and bay

Commodity Regions and extractive economies, territorial configurations of Chile’s neoliberal ecologies

Oct. 19, 2018

Over the past 30 years Chile has implemented neoliberal policies on the promise that open and free access to global markets through commodity exports will lead the country to its development. These policies have had tremendous territorial and economic effects, materially altering the country’s environment. Along with its historical role...

baby in water held by adult hands

“The best of both worlds?” Birth centers and narratives of out-of-hospital birth

Oct. 5, 2018

The US has seen a recent resurgence in interest in alternative birth, and a slow but steady increase in out-of-hospital labor and delivery. Although most out-of-hospital births occur at home, there is a growing movement towards birth centers and other places that fall somewhere between home and hospital. Such places,...

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