Colloquia

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...