Master of Arts / Department of Geography / J. M. Shawn Hutchinson / Windbreaks are a valuable resource in conserving soils and providing crop protection in western Kansas and other Great Plains states. Currently, Kansas has neither an up-to-date inventory of windbreak locations nor an assessment of their condition. The objective of this study is to develop remote sensing and geographic information system methods that rapidly identify and assess the condition of windbreaks in Ford County, Kansas. Ford County serves as a pilot study area for method development with the intent of transferring those methods to other counties/regions in Kansas and the Great Plains. A remote sensing technique known as object-based classification was used to classify windbreaks using color aerial photography acquired through the 2008 National Agricultural Imagery Program. Object-based classification works by segmenting imagery where areas with similar spectral, shape, and textural properties are grouped into vectors (i.e., objects) that are later used as the basis for image classification. Using this technique, 355 windbreaks, totaling nearly 1,012 acres (410 hectares), were identified in Ford County. When compared to a spatial data set of confirmed windbreak locations generated via a heads-up digitizing process, the location of windbreaks identified using object-based classification results agreed approximately 81% of the time. Mean textural and spectral values were then combined and used to place identified windbreaks into three condition categories (good, fair, and poor) using a manual classification approach. Analysis showed the area of windbreaks in good condition to be 170 hectares, with the remaining 171 hectares of windbreaks falling in the fair or poor classes. Methods detailed in this study proved successful at rapidly identifying windbreak location and for providing useful condition class results for windbreak renovation and restoration planning.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Max Lu / Given the ongoing incidence of housing displacement related to the commercial redevelopment of neighborhoods, and its implications for the health and quality of life of affected households and communities, there is a need for insight into what factors influence the quality of a move and movers' chances of successful post-move adjustment. In this study, qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 26 men and women representing 18 households from three redeveloped eastern Kansas neighborhoods was employed to examine residents' experiences of displacement. Five factors were examined: attachment to home and neighborhood, community social ties, relative sense of control and mastery over the circumstances of relocation, opinions of the amount of monetary compensation or relocation assistance received, and support for a redevelopment project. The results show that attachment to home influenced feelings about having to move, although it did not preclude contentment with a post-move dwelling. Attachment to neighborhood had both social and environmental components. Neighborhood social ties were difficult to replicate for many residents in their post-move neighborhoods. Perceptions of control over the circumstances of a move were negatively affected by problems with communication and information-sharing between residents and relocation authorities, causing stress and difficulties finding replacement housing. Satisfaction with compensation was tied to perceptions of upward housing mobility, while dissatisfaction was influenced by perceptions of having been a victim of official graft. Expressed support for redevelopment projects was in the main grudging, and support for a project did not appear to greatly influence a positive disposition toward moving. Experiences connected with displacement are not monolithic, and neither are its outcomes. Householders forced to move may concede that relocation has had at once negative repercussions and benefits. Having achieved upward housing mobility or experienced improved quality of life subsequent to moving did not eradicate residents' wish to have been 'treated better,' monetarily or otherwise, by relocation officials. This oft-expressed desire calls attention to the need for greater awareness of, and sensitivity to, the nature of residential place attachment and the special problems of those forced to move.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / David R. Seamon / This thesis provides an overview of some key researchers and research topics in the field of environment-behavior studies (EBS), an interdisciplinary field that examines ways in which the natural and human-made environments contribute to human well-being. A key aim of environment-behavior studies is to better understand clients’ and users’ environmental needs, and to design the physical environment accordingly. Specifically, this thesis highlights two key research questions: (1) What are environment-behavior studies and why are they relevant to architecture and environmental design? and (2) How can environment-behavior studies be drawn upon practically to generate more effective architectural and environmental design? To provide answers to these two questions, the thesis first introduces five “pioneers” in environment-behavior studies— psychologist Roger Barker, anthropologist Edward Hall, psychologist Robert Sommer, urban designer Kevin Lynch, and architect Christopher Alexander—and reviews their major work. This discussion provides a general understanding as to what environment-behavior studies involve and how they have design significance. Next the thesis overviews three major theories developed in environment-behavior studies: (1) territoriality theory; (2) cognitive-mapping theory; and (3) prospect-refuge theory. Each of these theories is overviewed, and pragmatic examples are provided to indicate each theory’s value for architecture and environmental design.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Bimal K. Paul / Medical tourism comprises a phenomenon where over five million patients a year are traveling across international borders to obtain various forms of health care. Most of these patients travel from developed countries to developing countries, seeking highly invasive medical treatments to less invasive and recreational medical procedures. By the year 2012, the medical tourism industry generated over $100 billion with over 50 countries making it a priority in trade for their country. With active government promotions, India has become one of the leading destinations for medical tourism. The objective of this research was to answer the questions: 1) how do the attitudes and behaviors of patients towards the concept of medical tourism influence their decision to become a medical tourist; 2) why do medical tourists seek treatment in India; and 3) what are the issues and challenges they face before coming to India as well as while in India. Interviews of thirty-four foreign patients were conducted in six sites spread across the South-Indian cities of Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai which revealed useful information in addressing the research objectives. The three most important reasons that these medical tourists chose India for their treatments were: 1) the high quality of the doctors and medical facilities in India, 2) the affordable cost of treatments, and 3) the availability of specific treatments that might not have been available in their home countries. Patients also researched the topic thoroughly before they came to India. Knowledge was gained primarily from the Internet, print media, television shows and friends. Overall, the patients had very positive attitudes towards medical tourism. Most of them felt that they could get treatment because of their positive opinion on medical tourism, their ability to get treatment if they desired, and support from their families and loved ones.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Lisa M.B. Harrington / While environmental concerns have played a secondary role in dam removal rationales thus far, the Condit and Elwha removal projects could signal a change in governmental and public priorities in dam management in the United States (Born et al. 1998; Bednarek 2002). For this research, I compared two dam removal projects designed to restore native salmon runs in two rivers in Washington State: the Condit Dam on the White Salmon River and the Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams on the Elwha River. This thesis asks: given choices of preserving dams that produce clean electricity and the well-established lake-based habitats created by their reservoirs or re-establishing a free-flowing river to reestablish fish and wildlife populations, how are decisions made, and what does the process and outcome mean to local communities? Research interview data was used in combination with policy documents to answer three research questions: 1) What factors affect decision-makers’ and other stakeholders’ support for (or rejection of) dam removal? 2) How did stakeholders’ perceptions and opinions play a role in the decision-making process? and 3) What can we learn from problems and successes evident from the dam removal decision processes? The main factors influencing both the Condit Project and the Elwha Project were environmental (salmon restoration), political (meeting legislative requirements for fish passage), and economic (finding the least cost fish passage alternative). The primary motivation for both projects was salmon restoration via the provision of federally mandated fish passage. The possibility of regaining a valuable resource spurred Tribal, federal, and state agencies to advocate for the removal alternative. Dam owners in both cases desired the least cost option, resulting either in their consent to removal (Condit Project) or selling the dams and relinquishing responsibility to the federal government (Elwha Project). Both took over two decades to complete and were removed in 2011. Perceptions of the relative importance of removal/retention options and dissatisfaction with the decision-making process led to polarization of the communities affected by the dam removals and contributed to the 20+ year project timelines. In order to promote good will and understanding between decision makers and stakeholders, two lessons can be learned from the Condit and Elwha Projects: 1) actively seek to include both proponents and opponents in decision-making and 2) establish robust communication among stakeholders and decision makers. Additionally, preliminary evidence indicates that dam removal does result in movement of salmonids to river reaches that had been blocked by dams, and dam removal may also lead to unintended consequences related to local environmental quality and resource access, such as short term air quality concerns and longer term effects on groundwater availability.

Master of Science / Department of Geography / Douglas G. Goodin / Volyn Oblast in Western Ukraine has experienced substantial land use/land cover change over the last 25 years as a result of a change in political systems. Remote sensing provides a framework to quantify this change without extensive field work or historical land cover records. In this study, land change is quantified utilizing a post-classification change detection technique comparing Landsat imagery from 1986-2011(Post-Soviet era began 1991). A variety of remote sensing classification methods are explored to take advantage of spectral and spatial variation within this complex study area, and a hybrid scheme is ultimately utilized. Land cover from the CORINE classification scheme is then converted to the EUNIS habitat classification scheme to analyze how land cover change has affected habitat fragmentation. I found large scale agricultural abandonment, increases in forested areas, shifts towards smaller scale farming practices, shifts towards mixed forest structures, and increases in fragmentation of both forest and agricultural habitat types. These changes could have several positive and negative on biodiversity, ecosystems, and human well-being.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / Analysis of polling documents indicates how little most Americans know about the world. Geography education is the key to offsetting geographic illiteracy. Fortunately programs designed to improve K-12 geography education are growing in number and strength. How can we teach more and better geography within the school system? Given the dominant role of history in the K-12 social studies curriculum, use of the psychological theory of dual-encoding to integrate geography and history lesson planning is one approach to bring more geography into the classroom. As part of Kansas Geographic Alliance programmatic activity, Kansas history and geography standards, with emphasis on the tested standards, were assessed to identify candidate themes for development of dual-encoded educational units and associated lesson plans. Three workshops were delivered to share these dual-encoded units and lesson plans. The workshops were for education faculty, teachers getting in-service professional development, and for a group of pre-service teachers in a social studies methods class. Attendees at the workshops provided assessment and feedback of the material. Based on informal comments and written responses from the workshop attendees, it is concluded that dual-encoding will enable considerable progress in geography education. Not only will the knowledge provided demonstrate the impact and significance of geography to history teachers and their students, but dual-encoded lessons will advance teacher content and pedagogical knowledge, and most importantly students will learn both geography and history better.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Bimal K. Paul / According to the UNAIDS (2008) estimated, in 2005, that about 2.4 million Indians were living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). This makes India one of the most HIV vulnerable countries in Asia and thus this problem cannot be ignored. The main purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the awareness about HIV/AIDS preventive measures of female college students (in the 18 to 24 age group) in Kolkata, India, who were widely believed to be members of the low risk group. Specifically, the study measured the willingness to comply with HIV/AIDS preventive measures of the female college students. Few studies have investigated the perception, knowledge and opinions of female students regarding the effectiveness of HIV preventive measures, this study will add a new dimension to HIV/ AIDS literature. In order to assess the information available to the students an attempt has been made to examine the knowledge of the respondents concerning the modes of transmission of HIV and HIV prevention methods. The study also identified the significant sources of information that the respondents used to derive pertinent information enabling them to protect themselves from the virus. A host of variables (e.g. socio-economic and behavioral) have been studied in order to identify the factors influencing the willingness to comply with the preventive measures of these college students. From the results it was evident that religion, income and age play a role in influencing the students’ willingness to comply. This study has important public health implications because the information collected can be used to design HIV prevention interventions that can reduce HIV transmission in West Bengal and other states of India.

Master of Arts / Department of Geography / John A. Harrington Jr / The objective of this thesis is classify climate for the Earth’s ocean areas. The classifica-tion task is accomplished in part by using monthly average sea surface temperature and precipita-tion data from 1980-2008. Coast-to-coast coverage of the needed data were obtained from the reanalysis product produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Köppen’s classification scheme was implemented in the ArcGIS suite of software, which was used to analyze and display all of the classified map products. Russell’s ‘climatic years’ concept was used and separate classifications were produce for each year of available data. Findings indicate that the oceans are very different from land areas when it comes to the location and extent of varying climate types. Some main findings include the idea that A, C, and E climates dominate the geography of the oceans and that there are zero continental, or D, climates. Also, the Southern Oscillation plays an important part in tropical ocean dynamics and climate, but summarizing twenty nine years of mapped patterns into a summary product removes any major effect from yearly climate system anomalies. A key finding is an argument that supports the establishment of a unique Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. There are polar, ET and EF, climate subtypes surrounding both the Arctic and Antarctic poles, but only the north has the well established Arctic Ocean. Oceanic E climate areas are more pronounced in the Southern Hemisphere with circumpolar rings around the Antarctic continent. Classification results support the idea of a Southern Ocean based on the spatial pattern of climate types and in view of the fact that that the climate of the Southern Ocean area is so different from the temperate, or C, climate and its subtypes. This research is important for many reasons, the primary being that climate classification helps us better understand the world around us. It is difficult to see change in the environment without first knowing what the state of the system used to be. Classification will also help depict the changes that have happened, when these shifts in climate occurred, and with that information we can better predict what the future will hold.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Kevin Blake / With their windswept ridges and wind-rent skies, prairies and plains have often been denigrated as nothing but nothing—empty, meaningless, valueless space. Mountains and forests, oceans and deserts have been praised and protected while vast expanses of undulating grasslands have been plowed under, grazed over, used, abused, maligned. Once the largest ecosystem on the North American continent, wild prairies now persist mainly in overlooked or unwanted fragments. In part, it’s a matter of psychology; some people see plains as visually unpleasing (too big, too boring) or physically alienating (too dry, too exposed). It’s also part economics; prairies seem more productive, more valuable as anything but tangles of grass and sage. But at heart, it’s a matter of sociocultural and individual biases; people seeking bucolic or sublime landscapes find “empty,” treeless skyscapes flat and dull, forgettable. Scientific, social, and especially aesthetic appreciation for plains requires a different perspective—a pause in place—an exploration of the horizon as well as an examination of the minutiae, few people have strived to understand and appreciate undifferentiated, untrammeled space. This research seeks to change that by example, using conscientious, systematic reflection on first-hand experience to explore questions fundamental to phenomenology and geography—how do people experience the world? How do we shape places and how do places shape us?—in the context of plains landscapes. Written and illustrated from the perspective of a newcomer, a scholar, a National Park Service ranger, a walker, a watcher, a person wholly and unabashedly in love with wild places, the creative non-fiction narratives, photoessays, and hand-drawn maps address themes of landscape aesthetics, sense of place, and place-identity by tracing the natural, cultural, and managerial histories of and personal relationships with Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, South Dakota’s Badlands National Park, Kansas’s Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Station, and Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument. Prosaic and photographic meditations on wildness and wilderness, travel and tourism, preservation and conservation, days and seasons, expectations and acceptance, even dreams and reality intertwine to evoke and illuminate the inspiring aesthetic of spacious places—Zen of the plains.