Segundo relatório sobre a situação da saúde no mundo, da OMS em 2006, cerca de ¼ da carga global de doença decorre de causas ambientais evitáveis. Partindo do pressuposto que a interface saúde-ambiente está ainda inserida de forma incipiente na prática da saúde, torna-se relevante a obtenção de conhecimento sobre o modo como a Saúde Ambiental está incorporada, de fato, na assistência à saúde na lógica da Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS) em modelo de atenção da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF). O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar a inserção da Saúde Ambiental nos 8 (100%) serviços da ESF de um município do interior de Minas Gerais, à luz de fatores ambientais priorizados para ações no campo da Vigilância em Saúde Ambiental, pela OPAS/OMS e pelo Subsistema Nacional de Vigilância em Saúde Ambiental (SINVSA). Trata-se de um estudo exploratório-descritivo e de abordagem mista (qualitativa e quantitativa). A geração de dados foi realizada por meio de grupos focais (GF), entrevistas e análise documental. Os GF e entrevistas foram realizados com 40 (45,97%) sujeitos das equipes de saúde da família desta investigação. Para a análise documental foi utilizado um Check List, construído a partir dos fatores de risco ambientais tomados como referência. Foram avaliados 132 (1,8%) prontuários do total de famílias cadastradas nos serviços pesquisados. Com a aplicação da Análise de Conteúdo Temático foram categorizadas 4 unidades temáticas: determinantes ambientais na concepção do processo saúde-doença das equipes de saúde da família; determinantes ambientais nas ações de saúde desenvolvidas na ESF; determinantes ambientais nos territórios das equipes de saúde da família; e, conhecimento das Equipes de Saúde da Família sobre Saúde Ambiental. Os sujeitos, em seus depoimentos, revelaram, de certa forma, um conceito ampliado do processo saúde- doença, uma vez que grande parte abordou outros aspectos, além dos físicos, na concepção de saúde, sem, no entanto, ter sido observado, em seus depoimentos, significado para os fatores ambientais. Também, no que se refere às ações em seu cotidiano, revelaram ações com o foco na promoção da saúde e prevenção e tratamento de doenças, também sem citar aspectos da Saúde Ambiental. Em contrapartida, foram constatados nos prontuários 67 registros de ações relacionadas a determinantes ambientais, pelos agentes comunitários de saúde (ACS). A divergência entre discurso e registro de atividades permite pressupor uma prática de ações desarticuladas e até mesmo mecanizadas, sem significado para seus atores, no que se refere ao objeto de estudo. As respostas dos sujeitos sobre determinantes abrangeram diversos fatores que correspondem às áreas priorizadas pela OPAS/OMS e SINVSA, tais como vetores, reservatórios e hospedeiros, animais peçonhentos, qualidade da água para consumo humano, contaminantes químicos e desastres ambientais naturais. Comparando-se com os documentos analisados, tais áreas não foram identificadas na mesma proporção que nos GF e entrevista. Ao considerar o conjunto dos depoimentos, alguns fatores ligados à Saúde Ambiental foram identificados, porém de forma fragmentada; embora ao agrupá-los foi possível perceber uma ligação com o conceito de Saúde Ambiental. No entanto, os resultados revelaram fragilidade na concepção e ação dos sujeitos da pesquisa, em termos da sustentação de concepção e conteúdos da Saúde Ambiental em sua prática, confirmando a hipótese de que o processo de inserção da Saúde Ambiental no contexto da Estratégia Saúde da Família no município estudado está incipiente na prática da saúde e muito aquém da práxis na saúde / According to a report on the health situation in the world, from WHO in 2006, about a quarter of the global total of disease is due to preventable environmental causes. Assuming that the health-environment interface is still inserted in the incipient health practice, it becomes important to obtain knowledge about how the Environmental Health is incorporated, in fact, in health care in the logic of Primary Health Care (PHC) model of care in the Family Health Strategy (FHS). The aim of this study was to analyze the insertion of Environmental Health 8 (100 %) of the FHS services of a city in Minas Gerais, in the light of environmental factors prioritized for action in the field of environmental health surveillance, PAHO / WHO and Subsystem National Environmental Health Surveillance (SINVSA). This is an exploratory - descriptive approach and mixed (qualitative and quantitative). The data generation was done through focus groups (FG), interviews and document analysis. The GF and interviews were conducted with 40 (45.97 %) subjects of family health teams in this investigation. For documentary analysis was used Check List, constructed from the environmental risk factors taken as reference. We evaluated 132 (1.8 %) records of all families enrolled in the services surveyed. With the application of Thematic Content Analysis were categorized four thematic units: environmental determinants in the design of the health - disease family health teams; environmental determinants in health care developed in the ESF; environmental determinants in the territories of family health teams and, knowledge of Family Health Teams of Environmental Health. The subjects in his testimony revealed, in a way, an expanded concept of the health-disease process, once largely addressed other aspects, besides the physical, the concept of health, without, however, have been observed in their testimony, meant for environmental factors. Also, with regard to actions in their daily lives, revealed actions with a focus on health promotion and prevention and treatment of diseases, also without citing aspects of Environmental Health. On the other hand, were found in the records 67 records actions related to environmental factors, the community health agents (CHA). The divergence between discourse and activity log lets assume a practice of disjointed actions and even mechanized, without meaning to his actors, with regard to the object of study. The subjects\' responses on determinants covered various factors that correspond to areas prioritized by PAHO / WHO and SINVSA, such as vectors, reservoirs and hosts, venomous animals, water quality for human consumption, chemical contaminants and natural environmental disasters. Comparing with the documents analyzed, such areas were not identified in the same proportion as in GF and interview. When considering the set of discourses, some factors related to Environmental Health were identified, but in a fragmented way, although the grouping them we could perceive a connection with the concept of Environmental Health. However, the results revealed weaknesses in the design and action of the subjects in terms of sustaining the design and content of Environmental Health in their practice, confirming the hypothesis that the process of insertion of Environmental Health in the context of the Family Health Strategy the studied community is incipient in the practice of health and well short of praxis in health

Situated in one of the wettest climates in America, Houston, TX has had a long history of heavy rains and unprecedented floods. Unfortunately, floods have become more common over the last few decades as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of hurricanes around the globe. To complicate matters further, Houston has quickly sprawled to accommodate over 2.5 billion people. Rapid urbanization has rendered the landscape even more susceptible to floods through excess concretization and watershed disturbance. This thesis traces the history of the Bayou City in relation to the damages caused by Hurricane Harvey. By mapping out the original neighborhoods and the current demographics of the city, I argue that low-income and minority groups have been systematically forced into higher-risk floodplains via prejudice housing practices. Furthermore, I explore the roles of the National Insurance Flood Program (NIFP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the rebuilding of the city following Harvey, and I detail the sudden spike in unsheltered homeless people across the region. The thesis closes by critiquing projects that have been proposed for the future well-being of Houston (i.e. reservoir remediation, conveyance projects, coastal dykes, etc.). Evidently, local and outside experts across fields and organizations need to cooperate to determine the immediate and specific needs of neighborhoods and people across the city of Houston.

The killer whales that roam the northeastern Pacific Ocean have been the objects of studies since the 1970s, making them the most well-studied population of orcas in the world. Three distinct ecotypes of killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as residents, transients, and offshores, share these waters. The ecotypes are morphologically and behaviorally distinct to the extent that some scientists consider them separate species, with residents eating salmon, transients specializing on marine mammals, and offshores preferring Pacific sleeper sharks and Pacific halibut. Resident populations have endeared themselves to the region's locals with their striking black and white markings and their tendency to frolic in waters near the shore. However, both of the two resident populations on the coast of British Columbia and Washington State are at risk, with northern residents numbering some 300 and southern residents at just 74 individuals as of December 2018. Three deaths in the span of four months in spring and summer of 2018 brought widespread attention to the southern residents' plight. Live captures of killer whales for aquaria heavily impacted the population in the 1960s and 1970s, and today they face a combination of prey shortages, pollution, and disturbance from vessel traffic. If southern resident killer whales are to persist, federal, local, and state agencies need to quickly take mitigative action.

Understanding the extent to which human activities impact surface water resources has become increasingly important as both human population growth and related landscape changes impact water quality and quantity across varying geographical scales. Skypark, Santa’s Village is a 233.76-acre tourism-based outdoor recreation area located in Skyforest, California residing within the San Bernardino National Forest. The park is situated at Hooks Creek, the headwaters of the Mojave River Watershed, and is characterized by a diverse landscape that includes forest cover and human development, including impervious surfaces, a restored meadow, and recreational trails. In 2016, Hencks Meadow was considered degraded by human activity and restored by the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) using best management practices (BMPs) to manage stormwater runoff and mitigate pollutants entering recreational downstream surface water. Three BMP detention basins were constructed to store and improve water quality from stormwater runoff. The purpose of this study is to observe the extent to which the engineered BMP detention basins design were effective in mitigating stormwater pollution from entering Hooks Creek. Over a six to eight month period (January to August), ponds were tested in situ bi-weekly for temperature (ºC), dissolved oxygen (mg/L), pH, turbidity (NTU), conductivity (µS/cm), nitrate (mg/L), and ammonium (mg/L), with additional laboratory tests for total suspended solids (mg/L), total dissolved solids (mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (mg/L), total coliform (MPN/100mL), Escherichia coli (MPN/100mL), and trace metals (µg/L). The results of this study support that the BMP design is improving surface stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces before it enters Hooks Creek. Findings could also promote the design and implementation of stormwater BMP detention basins at other site locations where water degradation is evident. Furthermore, this research can be used to promote the necessary improvement of water quality and quantity on a widespread geographical scale.

The Santa Ana River (SAR) is the largest river in Southern California. The flow of the SAR begins in the San Bernardino Mountains and discharges into the Pacific Ocean at Huntington Beach. The SAR contains one of the most essential and rare biodiversity hotspots on earth. In order to protect the wildlife, and suit population demands, the SAR must meet the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulations. The SAR Reach 6 is the uppermost segment of the river, and is currently listed under the CWA 303(d) List for impaired water due to contamination of cadmium, copper, and lead from an unknown source based on limited data provided in 1997 by the San Bernardino County Flood Control District (SBCFCD). This project focused on confirming the contemporary occurrence and identifying the potential source(s) of Cd, Cu, and Pb by comparing new water sample data with that of previous studies The analysis of previous data identified an interesting correlation between high water hardness and elevated lead levels. The new results from this study suggest that there continues to be a source of these metals in the upper parts of Reach 6 of the SAR. Moreover, the limited data obtained in this study suggests that the source of the contamination is upstream to the northeast of the primary sampling site, possibly on private lands. Future, more comprehensive studies will be required to determine whether Reach 6 of the SAR should remain on the 303(d) list. Source identification if necessary, will be a further challenge.

The Darlingtonia fens, found on serpentine soils in southern Oregon, are distinct communities that frequently undergo dramatic changes in size and shape in response to a wide array of environmental factors. Since few systems demonstrate a balance among high water tables, shallow soils, the presence of heavy metals, and limited nutrients, conservative efforts have been made to preserve them. This dissertation investigates the role of fire on nutrient cycling and succession in three separate fens, each a different time since fire. I specifically analyze the spatial distributions of soil properties, the physical and ecological characteristics of ecotones between Jeffrey pine savanna and Darlingtonia fens, and the vegetation structure of fire-disturbed systems. Soil, water, and vegetation sampling were conducted along an array of transects, oriented perpendicular to community boundaries and main environmental gradients, at each of the three fens. Abrupt changes in vegetation, across communities, were consistently identified at each of the three sites, although statistical analysis did not always identify distinct mid-canopy communities. Below-ground variables were likewise distinguished at the fen and savanna boundary for two of the three sites. At the third site, discontinuities did not align with the fen boundaries, but followed fluctuations in soil NH4. My results suggest that below-ground discontinuities may be more important than fire at preserving these uniquely-adapted systems, while vegetation undergoes postfire succession from fen to mid-canopy to savanna after approximately 100 years since fire. Although restoration of ecosystem structure and processes was not the primary focus of this study, my data suggest that time since fire may drive ecosystem processes in a trajectory away from the normal succession cycle. Moreover, time since fire may decrease overall vigor of Darlingtonia populations.

This research investigated parameters that can affect the use of nanoporous silica gel as a media for accumulating a detectable amount of uranium. The unique fluorescence of the Uranyl (UO22+) ion was used to evaluate the transport kinetics and accumulation within silica gel in a static fluid and under pressure driven flow. The addition of fluid flow decreased the time constant from on the order of an hour to approximately 2s with a very low fluid velocity of 0.36cm/s. The 0.36cm/s fluid velocity was found to be the critical velocity above which there was no gain in time constant. A table top instrument was developed that can detect trace amounts of uranium in solution. The table top instrument was used to investigate how the time constant depends on the uranyl concentration, which led to the development of a new time-based method for quantifying the uranyl concentration. The time-based method of detection uses a preset threshold and, based on the time it takes to reach that threshold, the concentration in the water sample can be determined. The lifetime of uranyl in complex with silica increased to approximately 120us, allowing for gated detection and background discrimination. In addition to the fluorescent contaminants, competing cations were tested to determine how they affect the fluorescence and transport kinetics of the uranyl. The cations tested were Mn2+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, and Li+. The result shows that within the natural concentrations, Mg2+, Na+, and K+ did quench the fluorescent of the uranyl ions by collision quenching. The time constant was also examined in the presence of each cation and showed that Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, and K+ decreased the adsorption time constant. Future studies in this area should be directed toward the development of a portable version of the instrument.

This dissertation is an evaluation of the generalization characteristics of machine learning classifiers as applied to the detection of coral reefs using remote sensing images. Three scientific studies have been conducted as part of this research: 1) Evaluation of Spatial Generalization Characteristics of a Robust Classifier as Applied to Coral Reef Habitats in Remote Islands of the Pacific Ocean 2) Coral Reef Change Detection in Remote Pacific Islands using Support Vector Machine Classifiers 3) A Generalized Machine Learning Classifier for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Coral Reefs in the Red Sea. The aim of this dissertation is to propose and evaluate a methodology for developing a robust machine learning classifier that can effectively be deployed to accurately detect coral reefs at scale. The hypothesis is that Landsat data can be used to train a classifier to detect coral reefs in remote sensing imagery and that this classifier can be trained to generalize across multiple sites. Another objective is to identify how well different classifiers perform under the generalized conditions and how unique the spectral signature of coral is as environmental conditions vary across observation sites. A methodology for validating the generalization performance of a classifier to unseen locations is proposed and implemented (Controlled Parameter Cross-Validation,). Analysis is performed using satellite imagery from nine different locations with known coral reefs (six Pacific Ocean sites and three Red Sea sites). Ground truth observations for four of the Pacific Ocean sites and two of the Red Sea sites were used to validate the proposed methodology. Within the Pacific Ocean sites, the consolidated classifier (trained on data from all sites) yielded an accuracy of 75.5% (0.778 AUC). Within the Red Sea sites, the consolidated classifier yielded an accuracy of 71.0% (0.7754 AUC). Finally, long-term change detection analysis is conducted for each of the sites evaluated. In total, over 16,700 km2 was analyzed for benthic cover type and cover change detection analysis. Within the Pacific Ocean sites, decreases in coral cover ranged from 25.3% reduction (Kingman Reef) to 42.7% reduction (Kiritimati Island). Within the Red Sea sites, decrease in coral cover ranged from 3.4% (Umluj) to 13.6% (Al Wajh).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that, as the world population grows, food and water shortages will become even more serious issues (IPPC's 2014 predictions about the future effects of climate change (CC), Year-round growing (YRG) may provide a way for communities to extend growing seasons, expand local farm systems, and provide food year round. This case study included a detailed analysis of responses from representatives of all sectors of rural Mesa County, Colorado, regarding YRG and a local food and farm plan due to CC. The case was bounded by time (6 months of data collection) which provided an in-depth picture of responses from the community. The theoretical framework for the study was Kingdon's multiple streams theory; a local, conceptual framework was provided by Liu, Lindquist, Vedlitz, and Vincent, who identified the key factors for local agenda-setting, defined in the policy literature as an important step in policymaking. Research questions explored YRG as a way to mitigate CC and as a potential platform to create policy towards a local food and farm plan. Twenty-one citizens from all sectors of a small community in western Colorado were interviewed about their perspectives on CC, YRG, and an agenda for a local food and farm plan (LFFP). Data were coded to identify themes and patterns. Results revealed that most participants were not concerned about CC, although they would like to see YRG and a LFFP thrive as a free market enterprise. Policy makers' support of rural farming through YRG and LFFPs would reduce both the distance food travels and the use of fossil fuels; it would also help create a path to a more sustainable future.

The Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality modeling system (CMAQ), coupled with Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM), fifth Generation Mesoscale Model system (MM5), and Goddard Earth Observing System-CHEMistry (GEOS-Chem), was used to simulate atmospheric concentration of ozone and particulate matter over the continental United States 12-km and 36-km (CONUS) domains at year 2000 and year 2050. In the study, GISS GCM model outputs interfaced with MM5 were utilized to supply the current and future meteorological conditions for CMAQ. The conventional CMAQ profile initial and boundary conditions were replaced by time-varied and layer-varied GEOS-Chem outputs. The future emission concentrations were estimated using year 2000 based emissions with emission projections suggested by the IPCC A1B scenario. Multi-scenario statistical analyses were performed to investigate the effects of climate change and change of anthropogenic emissions toward 2050. The composite effects of these changes were broken down into individual effects and analyzed on three distinct regions (i.e., Midwest, Northeast and Southeast). The results of CMAQ hourly and 8-hour average concentrations indicate the maximum ozone concentration in the Midwest is increased slightly from year 2000 to year 2050, as a result of increasing average and maximum temperatures by 2 to 3 degrees Kelvin. In converse, there is an observed reduction of surface ozone concentration in the Southeast caused by the decrease in solar radiation. For the emission reduction scenario, the decline of anthropogenic emissions causes reductions of both ozone and PM2.5 for all regions. The emission reduction has compensated the effect of increasing temperature. The overall change on the maximum daily 8-hr ozone and average PM2.5 concentrations in year 2050 were estimated to be 10% and 40% less than the values in year 2000, respectively. The modeling results indicates the effect of emissions reduction has greater impact than the effect of climate change.