Thesis (D.Min.)--South Florida Center for Theological Studies, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (January 14, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-104)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois, 1966. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-196).

After Deepwater Horizon oil reached the Florida coast, oil was buried in Pensacola Beach (PB) sands to ~ 70 cm depth, resulting in Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) concentrations up to ~ 2 kg per meter of beach. This study followed the decomposition of the buried oil and the factors influencing its degradation. The abundance of bacteria in oiled sand increased by 2 orders of magnitude within one week after oil burial, while diversity decreased by ~ 50%. Half-lives of aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons reached 25 and 22 days, respectively. Aerobic microbial oil decomposition, promoted by tidal pumping, and human cleaning activities effectively removed oil from the beach. After one year, concentrations of GC-amenable hydrocarbons at PB were similar to those in the uncontaminated reference beach at St. George Island/FL, and microbial populations that disappeared after the oil contamination had reestablished. Yet, oxihydrocarbons can be found at PB to the present day.

Two common limpets, Collis~ (Acmaea) digitalis and Collisella (Acmaea) scabra have overlapping distributions in the upper int.ertidal .spray zone. Haven (1971) found that Q. digitalis is more abundant on vertical surfaces while Q. scabra dominates horizontal surfaces. He assumed this preference to be due to differential abilities to withstand desiccation. In this study I report field work demonstrating a high correlation between the-ratio of abundance of Q. digitalis/ Q. scabra and angle of slope of substrate. Length (mm) of Q. scabra declines linearly with angle, but Q. digitalis shows no such trends. Results of laboratory measurements of angle of substrate and small and large members of the species do not alone explain the size distribution and abundance relationships found be·tween the two species in the field .• Although resistance to desiccation may play a part in determining distribution and abundance, especially in the upper intertidal, it is clear that other factors may be important, such as food resources. Fecal pellets were used as a technique to study food resource partioning. Limpet size and abundance is related to the availability of microalgae on a particular slope of substrate. Differences in the amount of movement between the two species may be. related to time and distance traveled in foraging for food. The ratio of abundances of these limpets and its relation to substrate angle needs to be studied from the point of view of competitive interactions with respect to food resource partioning, since these species seem to have tolerances to desiccation greatly exceeding environmental stress conditions.

The fast growth of the urban population affects city life by degrading natural and social resources. Urban developments modify resources such as forest, land, and water, but also modify the intimate relationship of people with the landscape. Many times, the damage of those resources is irreversible, and provokes dramatic changes in the natural landscape and the uniqueness of the place is missing. Despite the intense discussion that landscape architects and scientists worldwide hold about social and environmental aspects in urban environments, many questions about how to support natural and cultural landscapes, or why to keep them are not answered in the existing waterfronts and re-developments at the water's edge. For this reason, the recovering of urban waterfronts is an opportunity to promote ecologically healthy environments, address sense of place, support human gatherings, and encourage economic revitalization. This thesis and its research analyzes the components of the natural regional landscape in recovering waterfronts in order to avoid the loss of the uniqueness of a place. A section of beachfront in St. Augustine Beach, Florida that has suffered beach erosion and development pressures was chosen for the study. The result is an alternative proposal to costly dredging and beach reclamation that includes a series of tools, interventions, and landscape modifications of this threatened site. This proposal aims to return the site to a balanced and friendly landscape. Waterfronts in cities are an opportunity to reconnect communities with their cultural and geographic landscape. / Master of Landscape Architecture

With advances in modern technology, satellite-based data is rapidly becoming a viable option for geotechnical site characterization. Commercial satellite data offers high resolution (~25-200 cm), increased spatial coverage on the order of kilometers, short revisit times leading to high temporal coverage, and allows for data to be analyzed rapidly and remotely without the need for physical site access. These advantages are particularly attractive for characterizing coastal sites, where both the strength properties and moisture content can change rapidly in response to tidal stages, wave runup, and storm events. To date, there have been limited investigations into the use of satellite-based data for characterizing geotechnical properties of sandy beach sediments. Furthermore, the use of these moisture contents to estimate the soil strength of beaches has been limited. The goal of this research was to develop pathways to estimate the moisture content of sandy beach sites utilizing satellite-based data. For this study, both optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images were collected at two sites: the Atlantic beach near the US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina and three distinct sites located near Yakutat, Alaska (Cannon Beach, Ocean Cape, and Point Carrew). During satellite overflight, ground measurements of moisture content, grain size, unit weight, porosity, and bearing capacity were collected. Using the field measurements, this research (1) developed a framework to estimate the moisture content of sandy beach sediments from satellite-based optical images; (2) investigated the necessary collection parameters to estimate the moisture content from SAR images; and (3) developed a framework to estimate the bearing capacity of sandy beaches using moisture contents derived from satellite-based images. The results of this study demonstrated that optical images can produce reasonable estimates of the moisture content when compared to field measurements and are strongly influenced by local morphology. Additionally, SAR images with incidence angles of 30°-50° produced the best results when compared to field measurements. Finally, using the spatial estimates moisture content produced from satellite data and standard sediment, maps of bearing capacity can be developed to predict beach trafficability. / Doctor of Philosophy / The strength of sandy beaches is impacted by the density, particle size and shape, distribution of grain sizes, mineralogy, and moisture content. For coastal sites, which typically have a dominant mineralogy and a limited range of grain sizes, a main factor changing is the moisture content. This varying moisture content can result in the increase or decrease in soil strength, and impacts modelling for coastal challenges such as erosion or beach trafficability (i.e., the ability to drive on the beach) on large scales. It is common to measure moisture content through sampling or moisture probes, but these represent point measurements and may not accurately capture the spatial and temporal moisture contents at a beach. Recently, satellite-based images have become popular for assessing processes and environmental changes over large areas. However, their use for mapping moisture content at sandy beaches has been limited, and the proper models are unknown. As such, the goal of this research is to investigate the use of satellite images to map moisture content over large areas. For this study, measurements were conducted at two sites: an Atlantic beach located near the US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, North Carolina and three distinct sites located near Yakutat, Alaska (Cannon Beach, Ocean Cape, and Point Carrew). Simultaneously with ground measurements, two different types of images were collected. The first, optical data, collects data over the visible (400-700 nm) and near infrared (700-1300 nm) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. These satellites use the sun to light the scene and the amount of energy reflected back to the satellite is used to estimate the moisture content. The second, X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data (wavelengths of 3.1 cm), sends its own energy source to the ground and uses the returned energy to estimate the moisture content. Both optical and SAR are able to produce reasonable estimates of moisture content when compared to field measurements. These estimated values of moisture content are then tested in a model to estimate the sand strength, with those estimated values also following the expected trends. Ultimately, this work can be used to contribute to understanding how moisture content varies at sandy beaches and improve trafficability predictions in sandy beach environments.

The availability of water is one of the key elements of urban and rural development. The Western United States has dealt with the problem of inadequate water supply for many years; in recent years the concern over ways to meet the water needs of growing populations and industries has been nationwide. This thesis is built upon the concept that municipal wastewater reuse is an increasingly important option in the development of new water supplies and that there are four identifiable factors which affect the evolution of reuse applications. In opening chapters the nature of wastewater reuse and its applications are reviewed; technological, economic, social acceptance, and legal-institutional issues are discussed as the major factors affecting the use of reclaimed wastewater. The preliminary hypothesis of this thesis is that legal and institutional factors are critical obstacles to the reuse of wastewater in satisfying municipal water demand in the State of Virginia. The objective of this thesis is to explore this preliminary statement and generate some information on the nature of legal and institutional factors in Virginia. The City of Virginia Beach is used as a case study because of the City's active interest in water supply and reuse issues, and because of the availability of information. The State level decision making context within which Virginia localities operate in the areas of water supply and sewage treatment is covered and the institutional and legal issues involved in Virginia Beach's recent reuse proposal are discussed. It is concluded that the hypothesis appears to be supported by the evidence available in Virginia Beach; however, the institutional and legal factors are strongly influenced by State agency perceptions of public health and technological uncertainties in the reuse field. Recommendations for further study are presented in the final pages. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-154) Aims to determine the effects of an outfall discharging secondarily treated wastewater effluent on benthic communities at Christies Beach with the specific objectives of: characterising the physical, biological and chemical environment of Gulf St Vincent and the study area region; ascertaining the extent to which effluent outfall has affected the macrobenthic infaunal community structure; characterising the structure of macrobenthic infaunal communities in the near shore water of the Adelaide metropolitan coast; and, determining the functional response through measurements of sediment community respiration to these changes.

Coastlines are particularly susceptible to the necessary trade-offs which occur between different ecosystem services. Should the areas be managed for biodiversity or for people? Where sandy beaches are found there is usually a management decision to be made between managing for recreation or for biodiversity. Many popular tourist beaches (particularly those with a Beach Award) are often groomed with mechanical equipment to remove any stranded seaweed and associated litter which can get entangled in the wrack. This is likely to be having a negative impact on coastal biodiversity, with wide ranging implications for the entire habitat, including the intertidal zone, sand dunes and shorebirds. Beached wrack should be allowed to naturally decompose providing a habitat for numerous species of macro-invertebrates. These macro-invertebrate communities not only include many endemic species found exclusively along the strandline but they also provide a very rich source of food for shorebirds. The re-mineralised nutrients resulting from the decomposed macrophytes should then become available to provide a rich source of nutrients to dune, strandline and marine ecosystems populations of the strandline. In previous studies grooming has been shown to have a negative impact on the invertebrates of the strandline and this study reveals that tidal range has an effect on the impacts of grooming with a higher tidal range having a more negative impact on the invertebrates. A study to observe the impacts of grooming on both adult plant and seed bank communities of the sand dunes found that grooming is having a negative impact on these populations. Grooming is predominantly driven by beach managers who aspire to gain Beach Awards in order to attract tourists to their beaches. Using non-market valuation in the form of a stated preference choice experiment and a travel cost model, it was observed that Beach Awards are not valued by beach goers but are instead influenced to visit a particular beach by good bathing water quality, high levels of biodiversity and low levels of litter. It was also shown that stranded seaweed on the beach does not deter visitors. Future management suggestions include attempting to reduce the confusion arising from the presence of multiple beach awards by either removing them altogether or by making their criteria more clear and direct with consistency in their design and designation. Bathing water quality should be completely removed from the Beach Award system and real-time information in the form of electronic signage and a publicly available App should replace it.