This work, containing reflections on human-nature relationship, the perspective of the process of capitalist accumulation and in the light of geographical science and of Marxist theory , aims to analyze the relations between the state and capital , implied in the process that defines the commodification of landscape from the natural activity of ecotourism in the National Parks that are part of the National System of Conservation Units . It is noted therefore that the State, in view of the continuing need for capital expansion and responding to changes of modern times, proposed to be implemented in the National Parks and its environs, ecotourism as an economic activity capable of promoting " sustainable development . " However, this activity is the type of tourism in which nature itself is a commodity that should be consumed. The interference of the commodification of natural landscapes in the production of space these protected areas and their surroundings, with the territorial capital of the tourism demands geographers reflect the purpose of the particularities of results and contradictions of this process that transforms these spaces of accumulation territories of ecotourism, before the regime of flexible accumulation of the capital system, but also imposes question what defines it. And in this sense, it is necessary to note that the analysis of reality, without disregarding the changes observed with the rise of postmodern cultural forms, maintains the central argument is that the relationship between the state and capital that define this process. Besides the growth of visitation to National Parks, some observed in recent years related to public policy, such as a result of investments made in the Parks Program Guide , as well as related to private initiative , as investments made in some of these initiatives Conservations Units by companies that have the issue of support visitation services , supporting the continuum of this process . However, nothing guarantees that this will evolve in the future to the point of being mean to restructure the space of all the National Parks and its environs, which generally constitute the traditional territories of several and / or productive leisure activities, there view are the capitalists who, following the logic of capital, make the choices of the spaces in which they will realize their investments. The analysis highlights the fact that the actions of the State, for the development of ecotourism in protected areas that category were not followed in many of these by significant capital expenditures. But it should be noted that even before being perceived any significant interference with the territorial capital ecotourism in many National Parks, these conflicts of interests related to this process are observed, like the conflicts arising from the expropriation of areas with natural landscapes of great scenic beauty that must be turned into tourist attractions. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the mystification around ecotourism, as well as the need to evaluate the results of this territorialization in the production of space based on social interest. And since the process being analyzed in this work, is ongoing, or even just begins, there is no pretense to launch definitive conclusions about the same, making it necessary to indicate its further analysis. / Este trabalho, contendo reflexões em torno da relação homem-natureza, na perspectiva do processo de acumulação capitalista e à luz da ciência geográfica e da teoria marxista, objetiva analisar as relações entre o Estado e o capital, subentendidas no processo que define a mercantilização da paisagem natural a partir da atividade do ecoturismo nos Parques Nacionais que integram o Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação da Natureza. Nota-se, deste modo, que o Estado, atendendo à necessidade contínua de expansão do capital e respondendo às mudanças dos novos tempos, propõe que seja implementado nos Parques Nacionais e em seus entornos, o ecoturismo como uma atividade econômica capaz de promover o desenvolvimento sustentável . Entretanto, esta atividade é a modalidade de turismo na qual a natureza, em si, é a mercadoria que deve ser consumida. A interferência da mercantilização das paisagens naturais na produção do espaço dessas Unidades de Conservação e dos seus entornos, com a territorialização do capital turístico, exige dos geógrafos refletir a propósito das particularidades, dos desencadeamentos e das contradições desse processo que transforma esses espaços de acumulação em territórios do ecoturismo, diante do regime de acumulação flexível do sistema do capital, mas também impõe questionar o que o define. E, neste sentido, é mister observar que a análise da realidade, sem desconsiderar as mudanças observadas com a ascensão de formas culturais pós-modernas, sustenta o argumento central de que são as relações entre o Estado e o capital que definem esse processo. Além do crescimento da visitação aos Parques Nacionais, algumas iniciativas observadas nos últimos anos, relacionadas à política pública, a exemplo dos investimentos realizados em decorrência do Programa Turismo nos Parques, bem como relacionadas à iniciativa privada, como os investimentos efetuados em algumas dessas Unidades de Conservações por empresas que têm a concessão de serviços de apoio à visitação, sustentam a perspectiva de continuidade desse processo. Todavia, nada garante que este evolua a ponto de no futuro ser significativo para a reestruturação do espaço do conjunto dos Parques Nacionais e de seus entornos, os quais, de modo geral, constituem tradicionais territórios de atividades produtivas diversas e/ou de lazer, haja vista serem os capitalistas que, seguindo a lógica do capital, fazem as escolhas dos espaços em que irão realizar os seus investimentos. A análise da realidade evidencia que as ações do Estado, em prol do desenvolvimento do ecoturismo nas Unidades de Conservação dessa categoria, não foram seguidas em muitas destas por investimentos expressivos de capital. Mas deve-se observar que, mesmo antes de ser percebida qualquer interferência significativa da territorialização do capital com o ecoturismo em muitos Parques Nacionais, nestes, são observados conflitos de interesses relacionados a esse processo, a exemplo dos conflitos decorrentes das desapropriações de áreas com paisagens naturais de grande beleza cênica, que devem ser transformadas em atrativos turísticos. Assim sendo, é importante atentar para a mistificação em torno do ecoturismo, bem como para a necessidade de avaliar os resultados dessa territorialização na produção do espaço com base no interesse social. E, visto que o processo em análise neste trabalho encontra-se em curso, ou mesmo apenas se inicia, não se tem a pretensão de lançar conclusões definitivas sobre o mesmo, fazendo-se necessário indicar o prosseguimento da sua análise.

Mount Hood is an Oregon icon. The mountain has as long and rich a history of recreation and tourism as almost any other place in the American West. But contemporary landscapes on Mount Hood reveal a recreation and tourism industry that has struggled to assert itself, and a distinct geographic divide is evident in the manner in which tourism has been developed. Why? In this study I chronicle the historical geography of recreation and tourism on Mount Hood. I examine the evolution of its character and pattern, and the ways in which various communities have used it to invest meaning in the places they call home. Despite the efforts of early boosters, Mount Hood has never been home to an elite destination resort like Aspen, Sun Valley, or Vail. Instead, modest recreation developed alongside timber and agriculture, and today the area is primarily a regional attraction. Unlike destinations with national and international clienteles that play a significant role in shaping lives and landscapes, local and regional interests are the primary drivers of recreation and tourism on Mount Hood. Communities on the mountain have incorporated the industry into their lives and landscapes to varying degrees. Mount Hood is also inextricably tied to Portland, and as an integral part of the city's history and identity, reflects its residents' tastes, values, and priorities. This combination of local and metropolitan interests has left an imprint on Mount Hood that reflects tensions and contradictions that define Oregon in the early twenty-first century: past vs. future, old vs. new economies, urban vs. rural inclinations, progress vs. status quo, and upscale vs. modest tastes. Spatially, temporally, and psychologically, Mount Hood straddles the divide between two visions: a service-based economy in the Willamette Valley, heavily dependent on technology, and a traditional, resource-based economy in much of the rest of the state.

Potential impacts of climate change on the water resources of the Pacific Northwest of the United States include earlier peak runoff, reduced summer flows, and increased winter flooding. An increase in impervious surfaces, accompanied by urban development, is known to decrease infiltration and increase surface runoff. Alterations of flow amount and pathways can alter water quality through dilution or flushing effects. I used the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) modeling system to investigate the relative importance of future climate change and land use change in determining the quantity and quality of freshwater resources in north western Oregon's Tualatin River Basin. The basin was chosen for this study because it is rapidly urbanizing and representative of other low-elevation basins in the region. BASINS models were calibrated and validated using historic flow and water quality data from 1991 to 2006. The goodness-of-fit for the calibrated hydrology, suspended sediment, and orthophosphate models was high, with coefficients of determination ranging from 0.72 to 0.93 in the calibration period. The calibrated models were run under a range of eight downscaled climate change, two regional land use change, and four combined scenarios. Results included average increases in winter flows of ten percent, decreases in summer flows of thirty-seven percent, and increases in fifth percentile flows of up to eighty percent as a result of climate change in the Tualatin River Basin. For land use change, the results included an increase in annual flows of twenty-one percent for the development-oriented scenario and a decrease of sixteen percent for the conservation-oriented scenario, with amplified changes at the sub-basin scale, including more than doubled winter flow. For combined scenarios of climate change and urban development, there is a projected increase in winter flows of up to seventy-one percent and decrease in summer flows of up to forty-eight percent. Changes in suspended sediment and orthophosphate loading broadly tracked hydrological changes, with winter increases and summer decreases. The results are relevant to regional planners interested in the long-term response of water resources to climate change and land use change at the basin scale.

The Pacific Northwest is dependent on seasonal snowmelt for water resources that support a significant portion of its economy. Increased temperatures resulting from higher concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases may cause disruptions to these resources because of reductions in the annual snowpack and variations of the timing of snowmelt. This study reconstructs and applies a GIS-based distributed hydrologic model at a monthly scale to assess the effects of future climate change on runoff from the Upper Clackamas River Basin (located near Portland, Oregon). Historic flow data and snow measurements are used to calibrate and test the perfonnance of the hydro logic model for a contemporary period (1971-2000), and the model is run for two future scenarios (2010-2039 and 2070-2099) using IS92 climate change scenarios from two global climate circulation models (Hadley and Canadian Centre for Climate) as inputs. The results forecast that mean peak snowpack in the study area will drop dramatically (36% to 49% by 2010-2039, and 83% to 88% by 2070-2099), resulting in earlier runoff and diminished spring and summer flows. Increases to mean winter runoff by by the 2070-2099 period vary from moderate (13.7%) to large (46.4%), depending on the changes to precipitation forecasted by the global climate circulation models. These results are similar to those of other studies in areas dependent on snowpack for seasonal runoff, but the reductions to snowpack are more severe in this study than similar studies for the entire Columbia Basin, presumably because the elevations of much of the Upper Clackamas Basin are near the current mid-winter snow line.

This research examines the relationship between understory plant diversity and logs in a Pacific Northwest (PNW) Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)-western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) old-growth, coastal forest. These forests are renowned for their high forest productivity, frequent wind storms, and slow log decomposition rates that produce unmatched accumulations of coarse woody debris (CWD) yet few studies have examined the relationship between CWD and understory vegetation ecology. My research addressed this topic by comparing understory plant census data between paired fallen log and forest floor sites (n=20 pairs). My objectives were to: 1) determine the influence of substrate type on community composition and diversity, and 2) examine successional pathways and species assemblage patterns on CWD in various stages of decomposition. To meet these objectives I employed non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) ordinations and unsupervised cluster analyses to identify and compare community assemblages on both substrates. These methods revealed similar species diversity and evenness between log and forest floor sites with compositional differences within and between substrates corresponding to habitat availability for colonization and light and moisture gradients. My results also suggest understory successional pathways related to decay class and characterized by an initial abundance of bryophytes, forbs, and seedlings followed by woody shrubs. Understory communities developing on logs also experienced increasing diversity, evenness, and divergence from forest floor communities consistent with log decomposition. These results differ from findings for boreal forests that reveal increasing similarity between substrate communities with increasing decay class. Recommendations for future research include the employment of a more robust sample size and direct measurements of environmental variables. Additional comparator studies are also needed to confirm the effects of forest type and decomposition on the relationship between CWD and forest understory communities. This study demonstrates how fine-scale wind disturbance fosters biodiversity through the creation of CWD substrate. My results and future research are essential for the development of silvicultural models designed to promote biodiversity in PNW coastal forests.

This study investigates the hydrologic effects of urbanization in two Portland, Oregon streams through a comparison of three hydrologic metrics. Hydrologic metrics used in this study are the mean annual runoff ratio (Qa), mean seasonal runoff ratio (Qw and Qd), and the fraction of time that streamflow exceeds the mean streamflow during the year (TQmean). Additionally, the relative change in streamflow in response to storm events was examined for two watersheds. For this investigation urban development is represented by two urbanization metrics: percent impervious and road density. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to evaluate the relationship between the hydrologic metrics and the amount of urban development in each watershed. The effect of watershed size was also investigated using nested watersheds, with watershed size ranging from 6 km2 to 138km 2. The results indicate that annual and seasonal runoff ratios have difficulty capturing the dynamic hydrologic behavior in urban watersheds. TQmean was useful at capturing the flashy behavior of the Upper Fanno watershed, however it did not perform as well in Kelley watershed possibly due to the influence of impermeable soils and steep slopes. Unexpected values for hydrologic metrics in Lower Johnson, Sycamore and Kelley watersheds could be the result water collection systems that appear to route surface water outside of their watersheds as well as permeable soils. Storm event analysis was effective at characterizing the behavior for the selected watersheds, indicating that shorter time scales may best capture the dynamic behavior of urban watersheds.

This thesis identifies and explores the effects that new parking strategies and policies could have on transit-oriented development (TOD) success levels. Additionally, it makes the case for TOD parking regulation reform, and is designed to educate planners and stakeholders on how to successfully and responsibly shape parking regulation in the planning and implementation process, so that land use in the region allows the synergistic provision of sustainable transportation specifically to the Boston region. Transit-Oriented Development is viewed and defined differently throughout research and literature, with its most common traits being compact, mixed use development near transit facilities and high-quality walking environments. Due to automobile dependency in the United States, developments (including TOD) are required to provide a specific level of parking to accommodate automobile usage. Excessive provision of parking decreases urban density, walkability, housing affordability, and transit ridership. In order to comply with governmental regulations and still meet TOD goals and objectives, expensive measures such as parking garages are implemented to accommodate automobile users, leading to a less affordable development and smaller profit margins for developers. An assessment of land use characteristics around transit stations, literature pertaining to TOD and current parking regulations and policies is conducted. Best practices and strategies are proposed with the overall goal of decreasing automobile-dependency and its impacts on the urban environment. Due to TOD’s heavy reliance on extensive transit systems, the focus of the study is specifically on the 101 cities and towns in the Boston metropolitan region. Somerville, MA, which contains previous transit-oriented developments and future projects in the design process, is used as a case study for transit-oriented development.

To increase capacity for monitoring and surveillance of tick-borne diseases, publicly available tick distribution and climate change datasets are required to create accurate predictive distribution models. It is difficult, however, to assess model accuracy and utility when using incomplete datasets.  The more recent development of comprehensive tick databases for Europe and availability of climate change scenarios from multiple IPCC Assessment Reports allows for improved modeling efforts. Multiple tick datasets were combined and three climate change projections were compared by predicting current and future distributions of Ixodes ricinus ticks in Europe using the MaxEnt species distribution model. Overall, much of Europe contains suitable habitat for the Ixodes ricinus tick, both now and under future climate change projections.  Contraction of habitable areas is predicted to occur at lower latitudes and altitudes, while expansion is predicted to occur at higher altitudes in mountainous regions and the higher latitudes, primarily in northern Scandinavia.

The perception that wildfires are completely preventable has caused many structures and communities to be built in locations that will inevitably experience an uncontrollable fire event, risking human lives and infrastructure. Modification of built environments into fire-adapted communities has been explored in this thesis, through multiple strategies. Central to this analysis is the idea that sustainable human developments could adopt a form of biomimicry and indigenous design informed by the adaptions of plants, animals, and native groups that endure and even thrive with regular cycles of fire. This possibility has been assessed through the scope of fire adaptation strategies available to architects, builders, and urban planners. Design decisions including the strategic placement of buildings in relation to topography, wind, vegetation type, and fuel loads has been considered. Additionally, other mechanisms for adaptation have been assessed, such as fire-retardant building materials, building form, landscaping, and the density of built form on the scale of single homes, and broader communities. The thesis identifies a typical building site, the adjacent community, the potential threats to landscape and buildings posed by wildfire, and then explores design approaches aimed at improving fire adaptability. These factors have been considered and assessed on a qualitative level and offer new recommendations for building within fire zones. These design ideas and principles can then be applied to a variety of landscapes wherein the wildfire is inevitable, thereby exploring how fire-adapted communities may be built to sustain wildfires through a myriad of methods within a range of regions.

Historically, development in Ethiopia, is a result of intimate highland-lowland interdependencies and complementarities. However, over the course of time, this age-old equilibrium that has harmoniously ruled the economic, social and political life of the highland and lowland communities is getting weaker. This study aimed at investigating the nature and extent of links between the highland and lowland communities of Bale administrative zone and the consequent impacts on their livelihoods. Multi-stage cluster sampling techniques were employed to select 403 sample household heads from the two agro-ecological regions. Questionnaire, interview, FGD and field observations were used as tools of primary data collection. ANOVA, multiple linear regressions ans binary logistic regression were used to analize the quantitative data. Accordingly, the findings of the study indicated that the overwhelming majority (82.2%) of the respondents witnessed the presence of interaction with the adjacent agro-ecological communities. It was identified that highlanders and lowlanders of the zone are interlinked ecologically, economically, socio-culturally and politically. However, due to diminishing of ecological resources, inadequacy of agricultural products and gradual development of resentments between various socio-cultural groups, the status of the linkage is not to the level expected in the study area. In some instances, it steered them to conflict driven by various factors of natural resources, socio-economic and political elements which in turn resulted in humanitarian, social, economic and environmental consequences. Notwithstanding its devastating impacts, both the highland and lowland communities employed the legal and indigenous conflict resolution strategies to curb the problem. Hence, as both the highlanders and lowlanders are vulnerable to some sorts of stresses, seasonality and shocks, strengthening complementarities between them would have invaluable contribution for building resilient livelihoods of both communities, particularly the highly vulnerable lowlanders. / Geography / Ph. D. (Geography)