Excessive nitrogen loading to surface water bodies has resulted in serious environmental, economical, ecological, and human health problems, such as groundwater contamination and eutrophication in surface water. One important source of nitrogen in the environment, especially in densely populated coastal areas in Florida, is due to wastewater treatment using onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems (OSTDS) (a.k.a., septic systems). Moreover, due to the population expansion, nitrogen loads from septic systems are expected to increase. Therefore, sustainable decision-making and management of nitrogen pollution due to septic systems are urgently needed. In this thesis, two software are used to simulate the whole process of nitrogen (ammonium and nitrate) transport starting from septic systems to finally reach the surface waterbodies. One software is VZMOD, and the other one is the ArcGIS-based Nitrogen Load Estimation Toolkit (ArcNLET). VZMOD is seamlessly integrated with ArcNLET in the way as follows. VZMOD is firstly used to simulate the flow and nitrogen transport in the vadose zone, which is between drain field infiltrative surface and water table, based on the assumption of steady-state, one-dimensional vertical reactive transport with constant incoming fluxes of water, ammonium, and nitrate. The ammonium and nitrate concentrations, given by VZMOD at the water table, are then used as the inputs to the modeling of ammonium and nitrate fate and transport in groundwater in ArcNLET, considering heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity and porosity as well as spatial variability of septic system locations, surface water bodies, and distances between septic systems and surface water bodies. In addition, the key mechanisms controlling nitrogen transport, including advection, dispersion, and denitrification, are also considered in ArcNLET. The study sites of this thesis research are the Main-South Canal (MSC) drainage basin and the City of Sebastian located in Indian River County in southeast Florida. Surface water bodies (e.g., rivers and streams) and groundwater at the two site discharge to the Southern Indian River Lagoon, where the ecological and biological integrity has deteriorated in the last several decades due to the decline in water quality caused in part by nitrogen pollution. There are in total 12,741 septic systems in the MSC area, while in the City of Sebastian, the number of septic systems is 4,883. The process of simulating nitrogen reactive transport from septic tanks to surface water bodies consists of the following three steps: (1) based on the site-specific data, such as DEM, waterbodies, septic locations, hydraulic conductivity and porosity, forward models of VZMOD and ArcNLET is developed, (2) based on the measured data of system state variables, such as water level and nitrogen concentration, the forward models are calibrated, and (3) the calibrated models are used to simulate nitrogen plumes and to estimate nitrogen load from the septic systems to surface water bodies. Considering the modeling ability and the site complexity, two questions, (1) what are the nitrogen characteristics of these two sites, (2) can my model be able to capture these nitrogen characteristics, have been investigated in this study, and the major findings are as follows: (1) The simulated nitrogen plumes and load estimates exhibit substantial spatial variability in the both sites, and the depth from drainfields to water table is important to nitrogen reactive transport, especially the ammonium nitrification to nitrate. (2) Ammonium and nitrate loads for the Main-South Canal drainage basin are largely located in the south to the South Canal drainage basin. Along the ditches and canals, the ammonium concentration is lower due to the small distance between water table and drainfields. There exists a region located in the southeast drainage basin where ammonium loading is high. (3) Incomplete nitrification process is exposed under the vadose zone while the denitrification process is mostly complete in the saturated zone in the Main-South Canal area. (4) The nitrification process is largely complete under the unsaturated zone while the denitrification process is incomplete in the saturated zone in the City of Sebastian area. (5) Reduction ratio is lower while nitrogen loading to surface waterbodies per septic system is larger in the City of Sebastian area than in the Main-South Canal area. (6) The flow model calibration in the City of Sebastian area is not as satisfactory as in the Main-South Canal area, because of the simplified assumption that water table is a subdued replica of topography used in ArcNLET is not satisfied at the study site. These results can be used to support the on-going Basin Management Action Plan. More efforts, such as investigating the soil condition (e.g. micro-bacteria content, dissolved oxygen or dissolved organic carbon and pH) and specific septic system environment, are also needed to verify these results and to develop more insights about the nitrogen processes in the study areas. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Scientific Computing in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester 2017. / November 08, 2017. / ArcNLET, Calibration, Nitrification/Denitrification, Nitrogen load estimation, Septic systems, Surface waterbody / Includes bibliographical references. / Ming Ye, Professor Directing Thesis; Xiaoqiang Wang, Committee Member; Sachin Shanbhag, Committee Member.

It is a basic premise of this thesis that an environmental crisis exists in the world today and has been worsening at least since World War II. The crisis is evident in the population explosion, the deteriorating air and water quality, and the depletion of our natural resources. With the feeling that all persons must become aware, concerned, and involved with the environmental crisis if the trend is to be reversed, this study is concerned with one segment of the population – high school students. Sociologists, and especially human ecologists, have not been concerned professionally with the environmental crisis, but instead with spatial distributions of phenomena in cities. They have developed no theory that has been pertinent to helping mankind resolve his environmental problems, although potentially the field of human ecology could do so. Because of the lack of such needed theory, suggestions made to alleviate the crisis have been disorganized: population control, political action, economic action, and education. Education, with the intent to generate data to guide curriculum development, is the focus of this study. This exploratory study investigated the awareness, concern, and involvement of high school students with the environmental crisis. Two groups of students were interviewed: those who had taken an ecology course (informants), and those who had not (random). A total of 98 students and 5 teachers were interviewed at two Portland high schools, Reynolds and Aloha, in the spring of 1971. The interviews consisted of three parts: a ranking of the importance of ecological problems by the students using ecological pictures, followed by a discussion of the reasons for the order; an interview using direct questions; and a questionnaire asking background information. All interviews were tape recorded. The data was coded, and statistically analyzed by a computer. The data indicate that the ecology courses did influence the informants. The Reynolds informants tended to view attitude change as the most important task to alleviate ecological problems, whereas the Aloha informants saw the major task as reducing population growth. Each of these views reflected the major emphasis of the respective courses. The courses, each with different activities also influence the ecological involvement of the informants in different ways. In background characteristics the informants tended to come from smaller families, more often had no religious preference, camped more, and spent more time in wilderness areas than the random students. The informants were similar to the random students in the following ways: educational backgrounds and occupations of their parents, length of time lived in their present home, enjoyment of outdoor leisure activities, and extent of travels. There is a difference in the awareness, concern, and involvement of the informants as compared to the random students. Both groups see an ecological crisis in the world and in the Pacific Northwest, and both are concerned about man’s chances of survival on earth, but they differ in the reasons they give and the problems they see. Informants were also more actively involved in ecological activities in school and outside of school.

A study was made to determine the environmental education needs of Rhodesian African primary school pupils and procedures for meeting those needs within the framework of an Environmental Science Course which would complement an Environmental Social Studies Course. Procedures used to investigate the needs and ultimately determine the scope, aims, methods, and materials for the course were: (1) two questionnaires to stratified samples of education officers, supervisors, headmasters, and teachers--the first to 168 and the second to 504; (2) a questionnaire and interviews with local professional environmentalists; (3) classroom observation and trial teaching of lesson units, as they were developed, across a broad spectrum of schools; (4) an informal survey of the activities and materials produced by agencies and organizations concerned with environmental issues; (5) review of currently existing geography, science, and gardening courses and materials; (6) meetings with provincial education officers, headmasters, and supervisors; (7) meetings with teacher trainers in three major teacher training institutions in the country; and (8) reference to pertinent literature. Results of the questionnaires provided the basis for the topic content of the course, and defined the major areas of concern as being: natural resources, agriculture, the natural physical environment, the man-made physical environment, health, and body systems. Areas emerging from the study which required special attention were: language, traditions, limited physical resources, introduction of new teaching-learning approaches, rural nature of 90% of the schools, terminal aspect of primary education for roughly 80% of the pupils, communication of the teacher-learner strategy, large proportion of teachers with minimum training, and meeting national needs and aspirations in a time of war. The main outcome of the study was a curriculum plan for an Environmental Science course whose broad aims are to: (1) make pupils aware of the ecological inter-relationship of the physical and biological factors that make up the environment, and of man's relationship to it; (2) motivate pupils to responsible action toward better management of the environment so as to ensure survival and improve the quality of life; (3) provide pupils with basic skills and concepts in science, gardening, and geography; and (4) foster the development of positive interests, attitudes, and aesthetic awareness of the environment. The components of the system are presented, as well as a scheme, tentatively incorporating 50 lesson units. Recommendations regarding the learning objectives (content, concepts, skills, attitudes) teaching approaches, instructional materials, pacing, the role of the participants, and pupil assessment procedures are given. The curriculum plan, as presented, was approved by the Ministry of Education for further development and eventual implementation into the schools of the country. Recommendations are made for the next phase of the project. These emphasize the development and evaluation of instructional materials, establishment of teacher training programs, and evaluation of the curriculum.

A demonstration session for a proposed environmental studies school in the Four Corners Region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona was conducted in June and July of 1971. The project was conducted by the San Juan School District of Utah. The detailed evaluation of the demonstration session and the curriculum is available through the San Juan School District, Monticello, Utah.Three extensive field trips, named "environmental expeditions," were conducted with 32, 15-18 year old boy and girl participants, three full time instructors, and guest instructors from government agencies and businesses of the area. Studies of a broad interdisciplinary nature, including geology, biology, and archaeology were devoted to investigating environmental problems in the Four Corners Area.Activities of the curriculum were completed in 14 days and included such events as a river boat ride on a remote section of the San Juan River, a two day back pack hike down a remote desert wilderness canyon, the study of the ruins and the culture of the ancient Anasazi Indians of the area and studies of alpine ecological conditions in the San Miguel Mountains of Colorado. The curriculum was designed around the assumption that learning is an emotional as well as an intellectual experience. Exciting and memorable events were combined with planned discussions and student investigations.Three program goals were stated. The school will:1) provide the student with basic information so he may better understand the total environment.2) help the individual student develop a concern for environmental quality that will motivate him toward solving environmental problems.3) provide the student with information necessary for him to play an effective role in solving environmental problems. The degree of achievement of the goals was determined by measuring student attainment of stated performance objectives. Evaluation involved (a) the use of taped oral interviews with participants prior to and following the school experience; (b) a multiple choice test on ecological and environmental management principles; and, (c) a questionnaire mailed to parents of participants. Also the success of the school was judged by the following criteria:1) The success of the school as an institution. Parents were requested to make written comments about the school. Statements with regard to strong and weak points and recommended changes were made by the staff.2) Student perceptions of the school. In pre-school interviews, views, students were asked to state specific outcomes that they expected from the school. In post-school interviews, students were asked to analyze the achievement of their expectations, to point out the highlights and the low points of the school and to recommend changes in the program.The evaluation of the school indicates that the program goals 1 and 2 were achieved to the expectations of the designers of the program. Goal 3, to provide the student with information necessary for him to play an effective role in solving environmental problems, was not fully achieved.The study indicates that these changes and additions may further the success of the school.1) Emphasis needs to be placed on teaching students personal and group actions to help solve environmental problems.2) Emphasis should be added in enumerating the causes of the environmental crisis.3) More of the program should be student planned.4) A greater effort should be made to understand environmentally responsible industry.5) The multiple-choice test, used to evaluate environmental management principles and ecological relationships learning, should be used in future sessions.6) The session should be lengthened, by at least one day, with out including more activities.These recommendations have been incorporated into the revised curriculum for the school.

No description available.

This dissertation investigates the effects of federal grant-in-aid programs on metropolitan area economic growth and recovery in "green" energy and environmental sectors of the economy, focusing on the role of self-organizing intergovernmental policy networks. Federal grant-in-aid programs are popular policy tools to bridge the gaps between fragmented local government capacities in pursuing desired policy outcomes, to facilitate collaboration and to stimulate the economy. The fragmentation of authority and responsibility for economic and environmental programs at a regional level produces institutional collective action (ICA) dilemmas. Applying a network analytic approach I examine how changes in local and regional network relationships to overcome ICA dilemmas impact policy performance. This research contributes to the literature by extending the ICA framework to examine how network structure responds to changes in the underlying problem or ICA dilemma that alter risks, and how these changes in network structure then influence policy performance. This dissertation employs an integrative model to investigate the impacts of exogenous stimuli on structural changes in networks and consequent policy performance. This empirical analysis focuses on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) as an exogenous stimulus for metropolitan green economic governance in Florida. The first analysis applies Stochastic Actor-Based Model (SABM) to test the impacts of the EECBG program on the structural changes in green economic networks among 19 metropolitan areas in Florida from 2000 to 2011. The second analysis extracts network factors from the first analysis and estimates Time-Series-Cross-Section (TSCS) models to test the hypothesized explanation for how exogenously driven changes in networks influence policy performance through green job creation in metropolitan areas. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / January 11, 2016. / Green Economic Development, Green Job Creation, Metropolitan Governance, Network Change, Network Performance, Policy Impact / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Randall Holcombe, University Representative; Keon-Hyung Lee, Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

The author of this thesis uses her own personal experience of the Old Fire that took place in the fall of 2003 in San Bernardino County to teach children ecological concepts, especially fire ecology using an art oriented methodology. Thus, heArts for the Forest was born incorporating ash from the burned forest into pottery and other art pieces to sell and raise money for reforestation efforts in the San Bernardino mountains.

No description available.

This project was developed to provide curriculum for young adults in the California Conservation Corps to help them connect to their employment with attitude and knowledge acquisition related to the outdoors.

Anthropocentric climate change is a defining issue of the twenty-first century. Considering the severity of the effects, a more appropriate term may be climate crisis. Further, the intensity of the climate crisis, whether it is more frequent natural catastrophes or record-setting heat, puts societies and ecosystems at risk. Even classrooms and students must endure rising temperatures within schools. Yet educators also play an inimitable role in preparing students for a world living in a climate crisis. This requires extensive work to promote understanding and work toward solutions. Over the past twenty years, climate change education has evolved from a topic covered primarily in science classes to a subject covered in all content areas. In social studies, educators focus on the intersection between the climate crisis and issues such as justice, migration, and economics. Yet one of the primary methods for getting people to care about climate change is often missing from social studies curricula. The role of place is usually left unaccounted for in social studies despite place playing an important role in changing individuals’ mindsets about climate change. In addition, the voices that need to be heard most, including those living in locations most susceptible to climate change, are often marginalized. This qualitative study explores how educators in a vulnerable locale account for place when teaching climate change by asking the following question: How/where do social science educators in vulnerable locales form a sense of their place, and in what ways is that sense of place used accounted for when teaching climate change? The sub-questions for this study include: What ecological and cultural experiences and learning inform conceptions of place? How do teachers’ conceptualizations of climate change engage with local and global discourses of land, people, and society? How do teaching contexts (such as place-based education or predominant native schools) create variation across these research questions? This study used various methods, including semi-structured interviews, sensory ethnography, and visual elicitation, to understand how teachers incorporated place into their teaching and how different perspectives of place can inform a more holistic approach to teaching climate change. The study took place in Hawai‘i, a state and former sovereign kingdom with one of the most unique ecosystems in the world. It is a Pacific Island that faces unique challenges from climate change. Moreover, Hawai‘i has a strong understanding of the importance of place that is present through its Indigenous roots and its educational systems. The findings suggest that through a network of embedded and embodied knowledge, participants developed a relationship with land that affected not only who they were as individuals but also how they taught climate change.