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SEDAAG 2014 ABSTRACTS Anthony J. Abbott, Stetson University, William Bartram and Geographical Uncertainty William Bartram published his seminal natural history in 1791, Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Though many maps of his journey have been produced in the last four decades, Bartram’s narrative is actually geographically enigmatic. The first popular map of his journeys appears in the Atlas of Early American History—archival evidence showing its production to be a costly and contentious affair—and this map has been reproduced several times by scholars and in popular texts. Three conditions of geographic knowledge matter for Bartram’s milieu: the information that Bartram would have had available at his home in Philadelphia, the formal cartography and survey knowledge available to him in the regions he visited, and the informal knowledge held by his travel companions and guides. Review of the of the information available in the Library Company of Philadelphia, the work of the Surveyor General for the Southern District, and consideration of the proprietary nature of location for traders illuminate the state of geographic knowledge for Bartram at the time he experienced his Travels. Pete D. Akers, University of Georgia, Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind Belt Shifts During the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (10-20 ka) as Detected in Five Argentine Speleothems Past climate changes in South America are poorly known, despite their potential to greatly aid our understanding of millennial-scale global climate fluctuations. Five speleothems from the leeward slope of the Andes were examined for paleoenvironmental evidence over the period 10000-20000 cal yr BP. Multiple proxies contained within the speleothems, including oxygen and carbon stable isotopes and petrography, identify two periods of significant change. Regional warming at 16.9 ka forced migration of the westerly wind belt and associated Pacific moisture south to 50°S, while not significantly altering leeward precipitation at 35°S. The period from 13.5-12.7 ka was arid on leeward slopes at 35°S due to strengthened local westerlies that promoted rain out on the windward side and dry winds on the leeward. Westerly winds are theorized to have strengthened due to increased latitudinal temperature gradient caused by hemispheric climate differences during the contemporaneous Bølling-Allerød and Antarctic Cold Reversal periods. Weakened winds during the Younger Dryas (12.7-11.7 ka) allowed moisture to return to the leeward slopes at 35°S. Derek H. Alderman, University of Tennessee, Can a Street Name Do Justice to the History of the Enslaved? The Politics of Remembering, Forgetting, and Finding Surrogates for the Past The struggle to recognize the memory of historically marginalized groups such as African Americans is not an easy and direct retelling of history through the landscape. In particular,

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street name commemoration is a process that can be fraught with conflict because of the complex dialectic between remembering and forgetting and the difficulty of finding a suitable surrogate or symbol for long repressed and suppressed memories. My presentation provides examples from the US, particularly the American South, of how the naming process serves as an arena for struggles over remembering and forgetting the history of slavery, recognizing that the commemorative landscape is the product of a creative and selective mixing of these two memory processes. As African Americans seek to remember slavery through street names, they face not only political struggles over whether to forget or remember, but also the difficulty of finding a suitable commemorative surrogate or signifier for representing the history of slavery. Deciding how the enslaved will be memorialized on street signs has important implications for how the enslaved experience is narrated and the extent to which we do justice to this history. Mariana Alfonso, Jill Gambill, and Jason Evans, University of Georgia, Learning How to Become Resilient: St Marys Flood Resiliency Plan Established in 1787, St. Marys, is one of the most vulnerable cities in Georgia to anticipated coastal changes, such as increased coastal flooding, rising seas and intensified storm surges, as well as the home to valuable historical assets. The St Marys Flood Resiliency Plan is a project expanding upon a similar award-winning project on Tybee Island that has garnered national attention, including from the U.S. Senate, and has served as a model for numerous sea level rise, flooding and climate adaptation planning efforts throughout the Southeast. This poster intends to discuss the ongoing reform to the National Flood Insurance Program and how the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Community Rating System program, may provide local residents flood insurance rate reductions as proposed adaptation actions are implemented. Additionally, it displays the phases involved in the development of the St Marys Flood Resiliency Plan and how research and collection of information may provide the basis for developing policy recommendations in the form of a tailored resilience and adaptation plan linked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Community Rating System program. Following the lines of the Tybee Island Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan, the authors seek to illustrate through the St Marys Flood Resiliency Plan a replicable methodological approach, intended to generate a resiliency plan that stimulates the incorporation of sea level rise, flooding and climate adaptation into long-term public work projects. Michael Allen, Old Dominion University and Scott Sheridan, Kent State University, Variability in Heat Events (1948 – 2012): Duration, Frequency, and Seasonal Timing Much research evaluates the role of heat on various processes including human health and behavior. As the climate system continues to change, the role of these events will remain an emphasis of bioclimatological research. This study considers the changes associated with heat episodes over a 65 year time period (1948 – 2012). Using thresholds of mean apparent temperature, events were defined based upon 3-day running averages for 60 U.S. locations. Shown to be important characteristics associated with health outcomes, changes in frequency, duration, and seasonal timing in heat events were evaluated. Significant changes were found,

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although spatial and temporal variability existed. Understanding the variability associated with long term trends in anomalous temperature events is an important aspect to better preparing for these events. Lauren Anderson, University of Georgia, Mergers and network effects: Understanding the increase in percentage of non-weather-caused flight delays in the United States from 2004 to 2013 Flight delays are a costly problem in commercial aviation, and one that is without a readily available solution. With delays in the United States projected to increase in the future (FAA FACT 2), a thorough understanding of delay causes that are most closely within human control is crucial. This study uses statistical and network analyses to understand the increase in percentage of non-weather-caused flight delays in the United States after 2003, which is the year that the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) began reporting detailed delay data. Despite fluctuating percentages of total delay in the system from 2004 - 2013, the overall percentage of non-weather delay (NWD) has increased consistently during this time. When analyzed for ten individual air carriers, percentage of NWD exhibits several drastic changes, with sharp one-year increases being found to correlate with air carrier events such as mergers, bankruptcy, and route additions. The five largest one-year increases are further analyzed to identify the specific route-level components most influential in the observed increase. Networks are constructed in Gephi software to compare the changing structure and route characteristics of air carrier networks for the years before and after each event. Findings delineate the specific routes and airports most responsible for the five identified air carrier NWD percentage increases, which in turn have played a role in the entire-system increase in NWD during the study period. The identification of specific system components most responsible for contributing to congestion-related delays can provide critical direction for targeting and reducing future delays. Jana Archer and Ingrid Luffman, East Tennessee State University, Groundwater-surface water connectivity in a karst system: Dye-tracing Morrell Cave, Bluff City TN The purpose of this project was to examine surface and groundwater connectivity in the Morrell Cave springshed to identify the hydrologic connection between Dry Creek and Morrell Cave Stream in this karst landscape near Bluff City, TN. In this dye trace experiment, two fluorescent dyes (Fluorescein and Rhodamine WT) were injected in to Dry Creek at two different locations, and an ISCO automated sampler plus twelve activated charcoal samplers were deployed on the surface and subsurface (in Morrell Cave) to identify and quantify dye movement. Fluorescein was detected midway through the cave system, and after 136 hours appeared in water samples drawn from the ISCO sampler, which was deployed at the cave entrance. Rhodamine WT did not appear in the cave nor the ISCO, but was detected at Morrell Spring (as was Fluorescein). Groundwater velocity from the Dry Creek injection point to Morrell Cave is estimated to be a minimum of 0.05 m/s, assuming a straight line distance from injection point to

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cave. This research shows that Dry Creek is one of multiple water sources for the Morrell Cave stream. Ike Astuti and Sachidananda Mishra, University of Georgia, Deepak Mishra, Dow Agrosciences LLC José J. Hernández Ayala, University of Florida, Tropical cyclone rainfall over Puerto Rico and its relations to environmental and storm specific factors Tropical cyclone rainfall over the island of Puerto Rico is common during the months of June through November, however the factors that cause this rain to vary from one storm to another over the island have not been studied. The aim of this paper is to understand how storm specific characteristics such as location, duration, proximity to the center, intensity, horizontal translation speed and environmental factors such as relative humidity, precipitable water and vertical wind shear affect tropical cyclone rainfall variability over Puerto Rico. Rain gauge data for 87 tropical cyclones within a 500 km radius of Puerto Rico during 1970-2010 were analyzed to determine the averaged total storm rainfall over the island. Correlation analyses of the individual predictors and a principal component regression (PCR) were implemented to identify which of the factors contributed the most to TCR variability. Correlation analysis results identified precipitable water, proximity to the center of the storm, mid-level relative humidity, storm duration, horizontal translation speed and longitude as the predictors with the strongest influence on rainfall. The PCR showed that a component comprised of storm duration, center proximity and horizontal translation speed accounted for more than 60% of the rainfall variability. When an additional component comprised of precipitable water, mid-level relative humidity and longitude was considered, the PCR model explained 69% of the rainfall variability. Emily Ayscue, University of Georgia and Scott Curtis, East Carolina University, Types of Forecast and Weather-Related Information Used among Tourism Businesses in Coastal North Carolina This study profiles weather and climate forecast users among coastal tourism businesses, a large and diverse consumer of climate and weather information. An online survey of tourism business owners, managers and support specialists was conducted within the eight North Carolina oceanfront counties asking respondents about forecasts they use and for what purposes as well as why certain forecasts are not used. Respondents were also asked about their perceived dependency of their business on climate and weather as well as how valuable different forecasts are to their decision-making. Business types represented include: Fishing, Outdoor Recreation, Accommodations, Food Services, Parks and Heritage, and Other. Weekly forecasts were the most popular forecasts. MANOVA and ANOVA analyses revealed outdoor-oriented businesses (Fishing and Outdoor Recreation) as perceiving themselves significantly more dependent on

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climate and weather than indoor-oriented ones (Food Services and Accommodations). Outdoor businesses also valued short-range forecasts significantly more than indoor businesses. This suggests a positive relationship between perceived climate and weather dependency and forecast value. The low perceived dependency and value of short-range forecasts of indoor businesses presents an opportunity to create climate and weather information resources directed at how they can capitalize on positive climate and weather forecasts and how to counter negative effects with forecasted adverse conditions. Kyle Bailey, Bob Oliver, and Christopher Gaffney, Virginia Tech, The Road to Rio: Infrastructure, Image, & New Media Rio de Janeiro, Brazil began an unprecedented era of mega-event hosting by bidding for and winning both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. The power of mega sporting events is linked to their ability to attract a global audience and intense media scrutiny. The era of globalization and advancements in online communication technologies have facilitated a “globalization from below” in the form of new media – blogs, social media, and online activism. As the Internet evolves, so do the formation and function of new media and their ability to challenge neoliberal institutions and dominant narratives as evidenced by the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street movement, and G20 Summit protests in London. This research has identified the major themes in the international media coverage of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil before the 2014 FIFA World Cup, specifically the 12 months leading up to that event. This research centered on interviews with international and new media journalists from Rio de Janeiro, the New York Times, BBC, Wall Street Journal, and several other outlets. These journalists were questioned about the role of citizen journalist and new media outlets, not only in reporting news on the ground in Rio de Janeiro, but also in how their presence helped shape the media's geography of the city. The data reveals much about how the dynamic of citizen journalists as reporters AND sources impacted the depth with which stories were reported and the reflective nature of how stories were reported by traditional media outlets in Rio de Janeiro. James Balcomb, Jeffrey Colby, and Chuanhui Gu, Appalachian State University, Comparison between point clouds generated from LiDAR and Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques. Although highly accurate and of great utility, three dimensional (3-D) LiDAR point clouds are costly to produce thus making it impractical to capture 3-D data at a high temporal resolution or for very small areas. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) , consumer grade digital camera, and Structure from Motion (SfM) software were used to create a 3-D point cloud of a riparian area in western North Carolina. The study area included a variety of surface cover types such as closely mowed lawn, tall grass, brush, and a variety of tree species of varying heights. The SfM generated point cloud was compared against a professionally produced LiDAR point cloud collected approximately two and a half years prior. The average difference in height between the SfM point cloud and the LiDAR point cloud was two feet and the R2 value was 0.875. As would be expected, differences in height were greatest in areas of heavy vegetation. The differences in

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height may be due to growth occurring over the course of three summers, but also due to the tendency of the SfM process to fill in canopy gaps. Overall, this study supports that it is possible to produce low cost 3-D point clouds, comparable to those generated using LiDAR data, using a small UAV, a consumer grade digital camera and SfM software. Matthew Balentine, University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Gerald Webster, University of Wyoming, The Rise and Fall of the Republican West In their 1981 book entitled Section and Party, J. Clark Archer and Peter Taylor identified a group of Rocky Mountain and Great Plains states as constituting the Western Periphery, one of the United States’ three electoral sections in presidential elections. They further suggested that consecutive regional sweeps by Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s began an electoral epoch called the New Western Normal Vote. However, since the 1988 presidential election Democratic Party candidates have captured Arizona and Montana once, Colorado three times, Nevada four times, and New Mexico five times. Thus it seems that the dominance of the Republican Party in the Interior West has declined and that the spatial distribution of that decline appears to be anything but random. This paper seeks to place the most recent losses of Republican support within the historical context of the Western normal vote in order to better understand recent trends. This paper represents a portion of a larger body of work and a continuation of research presented at the 2014 AAG conference in Tampa, FL. Traditional and folded T-mode factor analysis, along with county level election returns from 1952 to 2012, are used to analyze and identify the spatiotemporal changes in the study area’s electoral patterns. Special attention is given to a finer spatial analysis of changes that have taken place over the study period. Robert Barnett, Western Carolina University, Examination of the relationship between evergreen health and precipitation in Mount LeConte, Tennessee using satellite derived NDVI data Phenology is a way of studying plant health. Based off certain spectral reflectance values phenological differences can be analyzed using remote sensing imagery. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be calculated to help classify vegetation and track its changes temporally. In this study we used NDVI to study areas of evergreen dieback on Mount LeConte, Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and applied climate data to help determine the cause of the dieback. We used MODIS Aqua (MYD09Q 1) 250m Surface Reflectance 8-day composite imagery, from March 30-April 6, 2004-2013, to create our NDVI. Our NDVI values tracked peak greenness across different elevation gradients for all the years we used to create representative values for a southern Appalachian forest. Ancillary data such as GIS layers and climate data were used to try and detect the changes in NDVI values and to help possibly explain why these changes occurred. Through this study we saw minor trends in climate and changes in NDVI values and its association to evergreen dieback.

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Shelby Barrett1, Emma Strong2, Jeffrey Frazier3, 1William Carey University, 2University of Southern Mississippi, and 3Texas A&M University at Galveston, Coastal Texas Oceans II - Enhancing Remote Sensing Capabilities of the Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS) Through the Use of NASA EOS and Open Source GIS Sargassum is a pelagic brown macroalgae that can be found floating in large, dense mats in the Gulf of Mexico. In open water, Sargassum mats serve as a valuable habitat to unique communities of marine organisms. However, when large quantities of Sargassum land on Texas beaches, they pose a serious threat to the Texas coastal economy and ecotourism industry. The decomposition of Sargassum and the organisms therein give rise to unattractive odors. Sargassum can also trap plastics, paper, medical and industrial waste. The removal of these large mats is both costly and time consuming, especially if unexpected. If provided with early notice of the arrival of Sargassum, land managers can be better prepared to allocate resources for beach cleanup. This project assisted scientists at Texas A&M University at Galveston in the use of NASA EOS data, specifically Landsat images, to track Sargassum mats in the Gulf of Mexico as they approach the Texas Gulf Coast. This monitoring capability is part of the Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS), which aims to warn coastal managers of these Sargassum mats approach so that managers are better prepared for proper cleanup efforts. This project focused on providing SEAS with an improved method for enhancing detection and prediction of Sargassum mats prior to deposition on the Texas Coast. The project used Landsat data to calculate various spectral indices such as Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Floating Algae Index (FAI) to help the SEAS staff assess the potential of alternative Sargassum detection methods. Melanie Barron, University of Tennessee, Achieving Environmental Justice in the Industrial US South: A Case Study in Anniston, Alabama This research interrogates the role of the legal system in struggles for racial and environmental justice through the lens of the struggle for environmental justice in Anniston, Alabama, where an ongoing struggle ensues to ameliorate the destruction caused by decades of toxic industrial pollution. Beginning with the narrative of the litigious process to cleanup PCB pollution left by Monsanto, this research seeks to place the Anniston case in the context of broader political, economic, and ecological trends that contribute to the ongoing production of racialized inequality in the industrialized US South. This work contributes to critical environmental justice literatures that examine the role of global political economic trends and the state in the production and perpetuation of racialized space. Manali Baruah, University of South Carolina, Are Community based Resource Management Areas Democratically Representative?

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Are community based resource management establishments effective democratic institutions? Presenting the specific case of a Community Resource Management Area (CREMA), this study examines whether community resource management institutions in Ghana are downwardly accountable and representative. This study is based on nine months of fieldwork conducted between April to December 2012 in a pilot REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) site in the cocoa landscape of Ghana’s western region. 50 semi-structured interviews were conducted to answer this question. Respondents include policy makers, NGO officials and CREMA residents. Primary field data is complimented by the analysis project documents to look at the institutions involved at the site, their divisional mandates, and their power and accountability relationships. This paper argues, how in spite of the stated commitment towards more inclusive forestry policies and reforms to democratize resource management, non-democratic local institutional arrangements in forestry were established, how non-representative and unaccountable actors and institutions are empowered and maintained in the name of democratic decentralization and participatory forestry in Ghana. A way forward would be to create mechanisms for downward accountability, transparency and scrutinizing the procedures of democracy together with concerted efforts to deepen popular engagement with processes and meanings of democracy. Joby Bass, University of Southern Mississippi, Inscribing Profanity: ethnic derogation in a US toponym; distribution of the word 'nigger' on the landscape of the U.S. Though toponyms have made up a vibrant area of research and, though the use of slurs in toponyms has been addressed, a map of the distribution of the use of the term 'nigger' in U.S. toponyms has not been made. This study maps the extent of the term across the U.S. and examines its use and distribution. The term is overwhelmingly used to name physical features, mostly water and topography. The term is also concentrated in the western U.S., with a secondary presence in the northeast, making it a “blue state” phenomenon. Thomas L. Bell1, Scott A. Dobler1, Charles J. DeCroix2, Scott A. Dobler3, 1University of Tennessee, 2Western Kentucky University, 3Mammoth Cave National Park, If It Makes You Hoppy: The Geography of Home Brewing in the Southeastern United States In 1976, laws regarding the brewing of beer for home consumption in the United States were relaxed causing an explosion of interest in the practice. Entrepreneurial home brewers offering their beer for sale to the general public began the era of craft breweries. But what is the spatial relationship between home brewing and commercial craft brewing today? The spatial distribution of craft breweries has been examined by geographers, but not that of home brewers. Of the 1,700 registered home brewing clubs, 287 are located in the ten states that comprise the Southeastern Division. There is a strong positive correlation of both home brewing clubs and craft breweries with the population of these states (r = +0.88 and r = +0.89 respectively. Some of the clubs are not, however, located where there are breweries. Instead clubs fill spatial voids and thus may be a harbinger of future craft brewing activity. Furthermore, some of the home

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brewing clubs are located in “dry” counties perhaps as a way to skirt Puritanical laws regarding the production, consumption and distribution of alcoholic beverages. Home brewers are overwhelmingly male, white, affluent, and well-educated. Home brewing meets the theoretical criteria for inclusion in the sociological construct of “serious leisure.” Participants engage in the exacting science of brewing but are also provided with a creative outlet for experimentation if they so desire. Self-actualization needs are achieved through the satisfaction of producing a hand-crafted product within a community of like-minded individuals who are also serious about their leisure-time hobby. Stefanie Benjamin, University of South Carolina, Plantation Sites as Anti-Racist Landscapes: Interpreting How Counter-Narratives are Presented Through Enslaved Community Performances at Historic Plantation Sites It is crucial for the discussion around race and America’s past of marginalizing people of color to be critically analyzed, specifically at plantation sites. Plantations act as a space for anti-racist education by addressing the dominance placed historically and presently on Whiteness and the White elite class. This paper proposes a critique of how enslaved narrative performances are interpreted by visitors at two plantation sites in the Carolinas using participant observation, photography, and interviews. The counter-narrative and performance pieces (i.e. dramatic slave readings) of the enslaved community at plantation sites are vital in how we are reshaping American history to include the reality of the institution of slavery. Future work will ask residents to use Volunteer Employed Photography as a methodology in analyzing the enslaved narrative at Somerset Place Plantation in North Carolina. This work will contribute to a larger PhD dissertation including the involvement of visual methodology that can disrupt the hegemonic images of plantations and act as a way to bring about a discussion of plantation house museums as anti-racist landscapes. Sergio Bernardes and Marshall Shepherd, University of Georgia, Assessing Exposure of Infrastructure and Populations to Extreme Precipitation in the Southeastern United States Regions of the southeastern United States face increasing vulnerability to hydroclimatic extremes because of population growth and increasing population density. The southeastern United States has experienced both “tails” of the hydroclimatic spectrum in the past 50 years, namely flooding and drought. Recently, we have explored several key questions related to assessing exposure of infrastructure and populations to extreme precipitation in the Southeastern United States. Our primary objectives are to (1) define “extreme” precipitation in the Southeast, its distribution and level of statistical significance; and (2)couple extreme precipitation data coupled with other datasets identify hazards to population and infrastructure. Using the Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory DAYMET, we defined extreme daily rainfall events as events greater than 25 mm/day. Several analyses were conducted to quantify the spatio-temporal attributes of the “extreme” days. These analyses included spatial analysis of percentage of extreme days (including by seasonal breakdown) and time series of

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trends. One of the more novel aspects of the study is the development of an exposure index based on knowledge of the extreme event analysis. The objective of the exposure index is to capture potential human vulnerabilities to the threat of flooding, landslides, and erosion in the Southeast, particularly Appalachia and the Coweeta region. Stephen S. Birdsall, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Human Agency and Organic Landscape Lobotomy Landscape is usually considered the surface configuration of an area’s material reality as understood by viewers and as a cumulative expression of the culture of the people living in the area. Among the significant and purposeful human contributions to landscape are markers of remembrance. These markers take many forms, among which monuments and place name identifiers may be the most prominent. The original meanings portrayed by these markers can be lost over time as generations pass and culture and landscape change. When the symbolism represented by a memorial previously erected becomes sufficiently odious and offensive, the memorial may be removed, or even destroyed. In this paper, I offer a different manner of appreciating landscape as concept and reality and ask whether and under what circumstances the removal of offensive memorials functions as an acceptable form of cultural landscape lobotomy. Anne-Teresa Birthwright, University of the West Indies, Double Exposure and Coffee Farming in Jamaica: A Case Study of the Vulnerability and Livelihood Experiences Among Lowland and Blue Mountain Coffee Farmers This paper examines double exposure as the synergistic relationship between two major global forces, climate change and economic globalization. The concept of double exposure has been increasingly recognized for its effect on some of the most vulnerable sectors, specifically that of agriculture. Such is the case of the Jamaican agricultural sector and particularly its coffee sub-sector, which has long been one of the major earners of foreign exchange. At the centre of the sub-sector is the iconic Blue Mountain coffee with its global reputation for quality and prime access to lucrative niche markets worldwide. Though not attracting the same prestige, coffee is also produced in upland areas outside of the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica, where it is often labelled Lowland coffee. Double exposure, has had differentiated impacts across these two coffee production systems. This paper focuses on the comparative results of the survey of Lowland coffee farmers in Frankfield, Clarendon and Blue Mountain coffee farmers in Spring Hill, Portland by using a mixed methods approach. There has been a steady decline in Lowland and Blue Mountain coffee production over the past 30 years, which has negatively impacted the livelihoods of small farming communities. Analysis of field interviews and secondary data showed that farmers in both locales were plagued by economic and climatic pressures, chief among which were, the global recession, infrequent rainfall, extended droughts, increased temperatures and the prevalence of pests and diseases. Coping strategies for both areas are limited; however, farmers appear to remain resilient in the face of these economic and climatic challenges.

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Alan Black, University of Georgia, Effects of Winter Precipitation on Automobile Collisions, Injuries, and Fatalities in the United States To better understand the links between winter precipitation (snow, sleet, and freezing rain) and travel risk, data on weather conditions and vehicle crashes, injuries and fatalities are gathered for 13 U.S. cities. A matched pair analysis is used to construct hourly event-control pairs to determine the relative risk of crash, injury, and fatality. Winter precipitation is associated with a 19% increase in traffic crashes and a 13% increase in injuries compared to dry conditions. The type of winter precipitation (snowfall vs. ice precipitation) had no significant impact on the relative risk of crash. The relative risk of crash was significantly higher during the evening (1800-2359 local time) than during other times of the day. More intense precipitation led to increased relative risk of crash and injury compared to less intense precipitation. Relative risk of crash, injury, or fatality was not significantly higher during the first three winter precipitation events of the year as compared to subsequent events. The sensitivity of U.S. cities to winter precipitation varies from city to city in a manner that is not easily explained. Future research will be required to determine which safety interventions are most effective in each city and revise or expand safety programs appropriately. Adam Bledsoe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, A Terra de Todos Nós: Critiquing Order and Progress in Bahia, Brazil This paper explores development projects that have taken place in the Bay of All Saints in the state of Bahia, Brazil. Specifically, I look at the ways in which notions of order and progress acted as the organizers of Brazilian national policy with regards to its economy and population and how this came to play out in a particular region of the state of Bahia. Demonstrated in this paper is the fact that Bahia’s demographics and historical role in the Brazilian economy have contributed to a national concern regarding the perceived backwardness of the state and its inhabitants. As a result, development efforts taken up by the military dictatorship, especially the efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, focused on utilizing one of Bahia’s natural resources—the Bay of All Saints—as a way of realizing progress for the state. While recognized as a moment of industrial and commercial growth, this push for modernization and development also brought numerous adverse effects to local populations—both at that particular moment and continuing generations later. This paper acknowledges that hegemonic notions of development, rooted in rational, Western ideas of modernity continue the modern project of erasing practices and subjectivities that compete with dominant ideas of progress. Rachel Bobich, Nicole Gamboa, and Sunnie McAllister, Florida Atlantic University, CASE STUDY: Variance of water quality parameters in Coupon Bight, Fl

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Bynum Boley, University of Georgia, Sustainable Tourism and Indigenous Food Cultivation: The Potential for a Symbiotic Sustainable Relationship A topic of increasing concern among the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the increased homogenization of world agriculture crops resulting in many indigenous crops to be listed as endangered. With this challenge in mind, this paper discusses how the symbiotic relationship between sustainable tourism and indigenous food cultivation may be one avenue to provide the market-based incentives necessary to increase cultivation of these endangered and neglected crops. It is argued that sustainable tourists’ preferences for ‘alternative hedonic’ experiences embedded in the geographical character of place provide the economic incentives for increased cultivation of indigenous foods while these foods, in turn, constitute an important piece of a tourism destination’s competitiveness. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this symbiotic relationship has many tangential outcomes important to sustainability such as psychological, social, political, and economic empowerment of indigenous crop farmers, an increased regional identity based upon the uniqueness of the community being highlighted, and increases in biodiversity and food security through agriculture that is not as concentrated on producing exotic crops demanded by the global market. These outcomes, and the symbiotic relationship as a whole, highlight the important link between sustainable tourism and indigenous foods. The relationship also speaks to the need for more research into how sustainable tourism and indigenous crops mutually benefit one another. Claire Bolton, University of Georgia, ‘Race Talk’ in Christian Community Development Geographies of race and urban space are shaped by the presence of faith-based organizations that aim to 'do good' in disinvested parts of cities. The ways in which these groups constitute racial subjectivities through lenses of religious faith presents a meaningful angle from which to understand their impacts within urban processes. The Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) is a network of primarily evangelical member organizations that aims to restore disinvested urban neighborhoods with an approach that is at once spiritual, emotional, physical, economic, and social. A key part of the CCDA's spatial strategy involves relatively privileged people moving into such neighborhoods so that residents can benefit from their resources of money, time, and social capital. John Perkins, the evangelical African American founder of CCDA, fully intended for whites to be a part of these community-level programs and 'intentional neighboring' practices. In fact, racial reconciliation is one of CCDA's original organizing principles, along with redistribution (of resources) and relocation (to struggling neighborhoods). This paper aims to contextualize this movement of white evangelicals that is actively trying to overcome racial separation and foster 'just' urban spaces within the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA). To achieve this research objective, the paper first queries the historical and present relationship between white evangelicals and race issues in

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the United States. Secondly, the paper analyzes how key CCDA texts connect race to the practice of Christian community development. Dawn S. Bowen, University of Mary Washington, Roadside Gardens: Unexpected Landscape Features on of Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula Unexpected landscape features on Newfoundland’s Northern Peninsula are small gardens situated beside the area’s principal roads, often miles from the nearest settlement. Analysis of these gardens, based on field work, interviews with gardeners, and literature about the subject, shows that the gardens came into existence in the 1960s in conjunction with construction of the first roads that penetrated this part of Newfoundland, and that their utilization follows well defined patterns. These include cultivation techniques, types of crops, consumption of the produce, and means of protection against predators, including moose and caribou. Today, numerous gardens have been abandoned, and most of those that remain are worked by older men and women who will not be able to continue this practice much longer. As the gardens disappear, and weeds and trees take over their sites, it is apparent that Newfoundland is losing another element of its cultural distinctiveness. June Brawner, University of Georgia, Mapping Memories in the Southern Landscape: Antebellum Houses as Artifact and Memorial The landscape of the Deep South is dotted with antebellum homes, each concealing a series of past-lives, operating as storehouses of the plurality of local memory. These collective histories are made manifest across geographic space, as many of these homes have become museums proper, even as they continue to operate as informal landmarks. As histories of residence and artifact intermingle, these points of shared remembrance are described by locals in terms of sensory memory and nostalgic narrative, stories often neglected in official presentations of the past. When these landmarks become premeditated displays of the past, they become subject to ‘official interpretation’, typically reported in terms of time lines and key events, and rarely in the tangible, sensuous, everyday experiences of lived-in spaces. How are the past lives of antebellum homes expressed and experienced today, and how do these loci (Connerton 2009) in the southern landscape operate as inter-generational points of recollection? Particularly, in what ways are the narratives of place and power surrounding these homes reinforced or reconstructed by local people? How are these – often overlapping or contested – histories negotiated in the lives of the living? Perhaps most importantly, whose stories are inherently selected against through the focus of materiality in house museums? This paper uses a sensory ethnographic approach, coupled with personal interviews and a multi-sensory take on cognitive mapping, to present the legacy of these homes in terms of loci – informal points of remembrance – and memorial – authorized and interpreted commemorations to the past, written onto the topography of the modern South.

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Candace Forbes Bright and David L Butler, University of Southern Mississippi, “Controlling Culture: The Complex and Messy Relationship Between Plantation Owners and the Topic of Slavery” Slavery heritage tourism sites, such as tourist plantations, serve a pedagogical purpose through details of the architectural complexities of the “big house,” tales of the past plantation owners, and details of the possessions within the house. The owners and operators of tourist plantations, as designers of the experience, are unearthing a difficult past through repressed historical narratives through “symbolic excavation.” This paper examines the complex and messy relationship between plantation owners as designers of the plantation experience and the topic of slavery. To examine the role of the plantation owners and operators in the construction of the tourist plantation experience, the researchers interviewed the owners of four Louisiana River Road plantations. The researchers were interested in the role that the owners played in constructing the plantation experience, but specifically, their inclusion of slavery in that experience. The interviews reveal varying views on the tourist demand for the inclusion of slavery and varying degrees of desire to include slavery in the plantation narrative and landscape, but yet, common propagation of myths surrounding slavery at the plantations. These three areas of findings serve as an outline for the paper. George A. Brook, University of Georgia, Late Pleistocene-Holocene sedimentation history of Lake Ngami, Botswana, at the Kunyere-Nchabe River inlet: A response to climatic fluctuations Lake Ngami is a 3000 km2 internal drainage basin at the distal end of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Several ephemeral rivers drain into the lake, the most important being the Thaoghe in the northwest and the Kunyere and Nchabe in the east; the lake sumps at 919 m. Deltaic sediment sequences at the eastern end of the Lake Ngami basin, where the Kunyere-Nchabe River enters, reveal at least two cycles of sedimentation in the basin consisting of sheet like or lensoidal fine sand units associated with thick flood plain fines and lenses of diatomite. The younger sequence insets within the older sequence. Event 1 of delta formation which approaches to the Kunyere-Nchabe confluence floodplain levels ~928 m was deposited when the lake was bigger and deeper than the younger overlying Event 2. None of four diatom assemblages identified in the sediments correspond to acidic marsh settings suggesting deep lake conditions during Events 1 and 2 with relatively high pH water. OSL ages indicate that Event 1 occurred between 51.4±7.6 ka and 28.0±2.9 ka when the lake was probably higher than 928 m, and Event 2 between 10.5±3.2 ka and 3.8±0.3 ka when the lake reached 926-928 m. These major events may have been punctuated by short -lived wet and dry intervals but overall the time period indicates wetter climate with higher discharge from the Okavango system into the lake. Andrew Brown and Jennifer Rahn, Samford University, Creating Landslide Susceptibility and Inventory Maps for a Small Volcanic Island: A Case Study On Saba Dutch Caribbean ???

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According to the World Atlas of Natural Hazards, landslides are the most frequent and widespread natural hazard on Earth. It is important to know where landslides could occur to inform the local population of this hazard. Steep volcanic islands in the Caribbean are very prone to landslides. This paper takes the existing topographic map and transforms it using GIS to create a DEM and then a slope gradient map. From there susceptibility and inventory maps were created to show the vulnerably of specific areas on the island. The maps were used to inform the public of possible danger areas. Surveys of the local population’s perceptions of risk before and after viewing the maps will also be discussed. Rob Brown, Appalachian State University, The Consecration of Ordinary Space, or “Down on 2nd and Dryades, the Indians Gonna Take ‘Em Down” Each year on Mardi Gras day, the intersection of 2nd and Dryades streets in New Orleans, Louisiana becomes a gathering place for one of North America’s most vibrant and living folk traditions. The Black Mardi Gras Indians of the city’s Uptown neighborhoods converge here and create a space of meaning and celebration. For more than 100 years, African American men (and occasionally women) in New Orleans have organized themselves in scores of groups—known inside the culture as “tribes” or “gangs”—whose focus is the region’s annual Carnival celebration. These groups, formed in hierarchical structure, create handmade elaborate costumes to be worn on Mardi Gras Day. With ostrich plumes, sequins, brightly colored satin fabric, and intricate beadwork, gang members create “suits” that make loose reference to the traditional dress of nineteenth century North American Plains Indians. My aim in this project is to interpret the ways in which the Mardi Gras Indians consecrate the workaday space of an urban intersection into a place of spiritual significance In this research, I have used a combination of ethnography, field observations, and documentary photography. Ethnographic fieldwork—through the philosophy of humanistic geography—forms the core of my analytical foundation. Humanistic geography situates people at the center of geographic experiences, and I believe that this interpretive approach can lead to a clearer understanding of how Mardi Gras Indians construct their geographic world. Vincent Brown, Kelsey Ellis, and Sarah Bleakney, University of Tennessee, Tennessee tornado threat: Risk variability across the Volunteer State Abstract: Tornadoes are one of the most deadly atmospheric phenomena that impact the United States. Tornado risk varies greatly across the country, and even within a given state. We assess the variability of tornado risk for the three most populated cities in the state of Tennessee: Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville. Focusing on these cities will provide insight on tornado risk

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in three different portions of the state, while diminishing the bias due to underreported tornadoes in rural areas. We specifically analyze tornadoes that occurred within 100 km of each city center between 1950 and 2013. Nashville reported the most tornadoes (426) during this time period, followed by Memphis (390), and Knoxville (176). The most active years for each city occurred within the last 16 years. Memphis reported the most tornado-related fatalities (256), compared to 72 and 70 in Knoxville and Nashville, respectively. All three cities reported the most tornadoes during the spring months (March-April-May). However, there were differing frequencies during the winter, summer, and fall seasons. The data indicate that some portions of the state are more likely to experience multiple-tornado days, and such outbreak days may be increasing over time. The variable risk and vulnerability across the state of Tennessee, coupled with a possible increase in tornado outbreaks, advocates for more research in this area. Further understanding the spatial pattern of tornado risk and vulnerability is vital for protecting life and property in the Volunteer State. UG poster Jeff Burleson, University of West Georgia, Cultural Geography of Agricultural Festivals in Georgia Georgia cities host a variety of festivals and fairs throughout the year named after various crops and plants both native and foreign to the state. Among the festivals, some have a historic recognition as being a recognized part of a community's tradition, while others are manufactured events with the intent of advertising and selling a product, be it the stated crop or a company hosting the event. The purpose of my poster is to help visualize the different festivals around Georgia and allow viewers to observe how the regional festivals of Georgia tie into the local agriculture and history of the region. Through use of ArcGIS several maps help to show the spread of festivals around various cities in Georgia as well as the use of colors to denote the type of festival. Additional maps will sort the festivals based on how long the festival has been held in Georgia. Glenn Campbell, Eastern Kentucky University, Connecting Civil War Mapmaking to Geographic Education In a Civil War reenactment setting, whether it be at an actual battle reenactment or a living history program, the geographical mission for the Topographical Engineer Unit is to have the audience, especially students, to leave with a greater understanding of basic geographic ideas in respect to mapmaking and map interpretation. Major components would include: a) what information is necessary, how we obtain it, and ultimately display it on a map, and, b) learning about map principles of orientation, distance, direction, scale, and symbols. In demonstrating this, we show how to take a portion of the Earth’s surface and shrink it down to fit onto a piece of paper. This small piece of paper, known as a map, then will show the locations of important manmade features and physical landscape features, in respect to conducting military operations. It was in the spring of 2014, that a systematic method was created utilizing a hands-on mapmaking exercise that would have students actually perform the tasks of drawing and interpreting maps.

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Harrison S. Campbell Jr., University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Convergence vs. divergence among U.S. metropolitan areas Neoclassical theory posits that long run rates of change in regional per capita income and output should converge over time given well functioning markets and free factor mobility; there is much literature to support this proposition. More recently, some research has pointed to divergence in the rate of per capita income growth suggesting cumulative causation or endogenous growth is currently more prevalent. This paper empirically tests the convergence-divergence debate among U.S. metro areas and suggests fruitful areas for further research. Shane Canup, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, A Historical and Geographical Analysis of Race and Public-Private School Choice: The Case of Sumter, Clarendon, and Lee Counties, South Carolina With nearly 60 years having passed since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the presumption is that schools have been fully integrated. Indeed, laws segregating schools have long been eliminated. However, many students currently attend schools overwhelmingly dominated by one race, and studies have shown patterns of school resegregation in recent years. Although there are many reasons for this phenomenon, a large contributor – particularly in the rural American South – has been the emergence of private schools in areas where private schools had historically operated. These schools, informally called “segregation academies” or “white-flight schools,” opened in the 1960s-1970s as an alternative to integrated public schools. Many of these schools continue to exist with overwhelmingly white student populations. This research examines the current state of public-private school choice in Sumter, Clarendon, and Lee Counties in South Carolina – ironically the site of some of the first legal steps taken toward school integration. Using a mixed methods approach, the social, demographic, and political factors that help to explain why parents choose public or private school for their children will be explored. The focus is to assign a geographical perspective to public-private school choice and its associated factors, such as race and income. Inquiry into the history of segregation in schools, in attempt to determine the extent that this history affects public-private school choice today, will also be investigated. Janna Caspersen, University of Tennessee, Welcome to Chiraq: The Politics of Renaming and Resisting Place Identity Chicago’s newest nickname Chiraq started in 2009 with local rapper King Louis’s track ‘Chiraq Drillinois’ and continued to be popularized as other rappers from same area, collectively known as the drill music scene, became trendy. In April of 2014, the violent nickname became

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nationally known via mainstream media with Nicki Minaj and Lil Herb’s single, ‘Chi-Raq.’ This sparked local activists to strengthen their anti-chiraq movement by hosting public events, selling t-shirts, and petitioning the federal government. Naming processes are largely influenced by varying power relations, showing who does and who does not have the authority to name a place, and further illustrating how dominating some conceptions of identity can be (Rose-Redwood, Alderman, & Azaryahu, 2009). ‘Chiraq’ is challenging Chicagoans in positions of power to critically consider the social and economic politics of their underrepresented, alienated population. This paper will attempt to draw out the connections between the struggle over a place-nickname and what Rose-Redwood designates as, “the intertextuality of spatial inscription” (Rose-Redwood, 2008, p. 433). These connections will allow for a better understanding of how symbolic resistance is tied to the daily material struggles of those contesting the identity of their home (Adebanwi, 2012). There is no doubt that ‘Chiraq’ is not making any friends, but it is making waves. Jaclyn Catania, East Carolina University, Exploring Variations in Infrastructure Damage on Long Beach, NY: A Post-Sandy Case Study Much is known about geomorphology and barrier island responses to storm events, but no research at present has considered densely developed barriers and compared geomorphological, manmade, and socioeconomic characteristics of the island with the effects of the storm. There is a need for this research to take place to improve community resiliency in the future. This research took place on Long Beach, NY, where Super Storm Sandy cost millions of dollars in damages to the community and displaced thousands of residents. It analyzed damages to infrastructure after Sandy and correlates the damages with various pre-storm characteristics, first being variation of geomorphological characteristics on the beach/ dune system, coastal protection structures such as the sea wall and groins, and physical and socioeconomic structure and characteristics of neighborhoods; i.e., road orientation, housing density, demographics, household income, etc. Using ArcGIS the many elements considered for this research were plotted. Transects were then drawn 500 meters apart with DSAS (Digital Shoreline Analysis System) and at each transect data was compiled for how far the beach/ dune retreated/ accreted, the extent of the debris line onto the island, the angle of the road to the beach, presence or lack of a sea wall, distance of transect from groins, housing density and demographic information, but most importantly infrastructure damage for each property. All data will be statistically analyzed using PCA and multiple regression to reveal correlating trends between characteristics of geomorphology and the neighborhoods prior to Sandy and the storm-related infrastructure damage patterns exhibited. Mary Grace Chambers, Abdul Sherif, and Shrinidhi Ambinakudige, Mississippi State University Assessing the Accuracy of LiDAR Data in Relation to Building Heights

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Philip L. Chaney, Greg Weaver, and Susan Youngblood, Auburn University, Tornado Preparedness and Past Experience: The 2011 Tornado Disaster in Alabama People’s perceptions about hazards are often influenced by previous experiences with hazards. This paper investigates associations between preparedness for tornadoes and past experiences with tornadoes. A questionnaire survey was conducted immediately following the April 2011 tornado disaster in DeKalb County, Alabama. Past experience characteristics included number of tornadoes, time (years) elapsed, seeing or hearing the tornado, seeking shelter, and experiencing damage. Tornado preparedness included owning a NOAA weather radio, participating in a tornado drill, having a tornado-resistant shelter on the premises (basement, underground shelter, or safe room), and having a plan for seeking shelter. The results will help emergency mangers in developing education programs for enhancing preparedness. The findings will also provide insight into aspects of household preparedness that the community needs to consider in future efforts to build resilience against the threat of tornado hazards. Ning Chen1, Lauren Anderson1, Mohamed Amin1, Erick Braun1, Tunan Hu2, and Linli Zhu3 1University of Georgia, 2University of Wisconsin-Madison, 3Georgia State University, Utilizing NASA Imagery and GIS Modeling for the Design and Implementation of the Miami-Dade Western Greenway in Miami-Dade County, South Florida Miami is a city of rapid and constant change, some of which is at the expense of its neighboring wetland area, the Everglades. As the largest subtropical ecosystem in the United States, the Everglades are located along avian migratory routes and are home to many endemic plant and animal species. The protection and restoration of this region is critical, not only for ecological reasons, but also for the protection of water recharge resources for future urban water consumption by the 2.5 million residents of Miami-Dade County. The Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department (MDC-PROS) has embarked on an ambitious planning effort in partnership with The Trust for Public Land (TPL) to develop a Western Greenway system of trails and recreational destinations along the county’s western edge. To assist with Greenway planning efforts, this project used NASA satellite imagery to derive a vegetation index and a land cover classification map which served not only as inputs for the Land-Use Conflict Identification Strategy (LUCIS) model, but also provided tree cover parameters which can help explore more specific design and greenway alignment. Additional land use information from a Miami-Dade County 2013 Land Use Management Application (LUMA) data set provided details for the model on current urban development. Conclusions drawn from the LUCIS model identified the most suitable land for recreation, conservation, and agritourism, with a particular focus on the southern segment, where the majority of agricultural land is located. This project contributed to decision support tools of MDC-PROS and The Trust for Public Land for planning green infrastructure corridors preserving the Everglades. Ken Chilton, Tennessee State University and Huili Hao, East Carolina University, Analysis of Chattanooga Police “Field Interview” Data

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per Rachael Cofield, Columbus State University, Accessibility to Food: A Baseline of Chase House and Farley Homes Specifically this study looked at the community choice program. This program is part of the moving-to-work project created by the Housing Urban Development (HUD). Voucher recipients serve as a test group in order to determine if people will choose to move from low-income housing to various other areas in Columbus. Those living in the public housing facilities will serve as the control group while the Chase and Farley Homes are the resource-poor group (the treatment group). The voucher program intends to empower local citizens, allowing them more choices in deciding their place of habitation. It will allow city planners and officials to better understand how a social system adapts to change. It will serve as the basis for further rent reform programs. The study will establish whether or not the voucher program has merit and what factors people consider when choosing to move. My research analyzed the accessibility of resources, in particular access to food. The baseline maps hint that those living in Chase and Farley Homes may choose to remain in areas they feel allow them greater access to a valuable resource-food. Savannah Collins and Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, University of Tennessee, Detecting Tropical Cyclone Signals in Tree Growth Responses of Longleaf Pine in Lake Louise, Georgia, USA The study of past hurricanes to help interpret the patterns of current and future tropical storms is vital to our economy, society, and infrastructure. Paleotempestology uses historical, biological, and geological proxies to reconstruct tropical cyclone activity to create a record of historical hurricane patterns. A tropical cyclone (TC) is a chaotic weather event that is influenced by several elements: one vital influence is warm ocean waters from which TCs directly draw energy. In this study, linear regression was iteratively performed on tree-ring data developed at Lake Louise in Valdosta, Georgia, with monthly climate values (precipitation, temperature, PDSI) and monthly oscillation indices (ENSO, AMO, NAO). Residuals were drawn from the tree growth responses and then compared to data obtained from the National Hurricane Center’s North Atlantic Hurricane Database (HURDAT). This data includes all storms that have made tracks within a 100-km and150-km radius of our site during the period 1895 to 1999. Low values in residuals of tree-ring growth were determined to be less than –0.3. Twelve years displayed very narrow rings as indicated by very low residuals, and eight correlated with the year directly after a tropical cyclone event in Valdosta, most notably the Labor Day hurricane of 1935. A superposed epoch analysis was also was employed and displayed a statistically significant relationship between hurricane events and negative residual years. Additional research stemming from this study should include a strengthening of the disturbance signal by accounting for separate events that could also have affected tree growth. Neil Conner, University of Tennessee, Social integration & the contested notions of Irish national identity in twenty-first century Dublin

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Historically, the Republic of Ireland has been a nation of emigrants. However, beginning in the early 1990s, this changed significantly as the Irish economy went through a radical transformation triggered by rapid economic growth. This development created an increased demand for workers making Ireland an attractive destination for immigrants from around the world; transforming Ireland from a homogenous monoculture into a heterogeneous multicultural society. While there is a plethora of research on the deteriorating social relations and the increased acts of discrimination/racism in Ireland between the Irish-born ‘natives’ and non-Irish-born immigrants, much of this research has not being conducted by geographers and it has not examined issues of national identity in relation to integration. Therefore, based on ten-weeks of ethnographic field work conducted in Dublin between June 2013 and June 2014,this paper addresses this lacuna by analyzing the conceptualizations and contestations of Irish national identity as it relates to the social integration process. Ultimately, this paper assesses the perceptions of both groups (Irish- (Irish-born and non-Irish-born) about what it means to be ‘Irish’ in twenty-first century Dublin. Matthew Cook, University of Tennessee, Counter narratives in the Deep South: Glimpses of empathy in the memory of slavery From history museums and plantation tours to roadside markers and street names, the historical institution of slavery has become embedded in the United States’ cultural landscape, albeit unevenly. This is particularly noticeable in the “Deep South” states where labor-intensive cotton or sugar cane plantations once required vast numbers of slaves to economically succeed. While many historical plantations now function as museums with historical tours, they often ignore, downplay, or outright annihilate the memory of slavery from the history of the plantation. However, not all plantations and museums disregard slavery so readily, and the owners, creators, and workers at these sites intentionally employ counter narratives of slavery to evoke empathy in visitors and create a more socially just cultural landscape. This paper is an examination of three such sites of counter memory in Mississippi and Louisiana, namely the Natchez Museum of African-American History and Culture, the Frogmore Cotton Plantation and Gins, and the River Road African American Museum. Having visited these museums during recent fieldwork, I discuss each site’s counter narrative tactics and how they stand out in their discussions of slavery and African American life after Emancipation. This paper is presented as a work in progress, and I conclude with some ideas on what future directions the research will take. Courtney Cooper and Anton Siemon, Appalachian State University, An Integrated approach to Andean precipitation research through citizen science and study abroad initiatives in the tropical Andes Climate change and globalization in the Cordillera tropical Andes are ongoing and becoming increasingly prevalent. These changes carry significant local and global implications including water resource shortages and shifts in climate extremes that may influence agricultural

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production. Increased educational efforts provide a critical nexus between research initiatives and adaptation policies. This project utilizes a short-term study abroad program and citizen science observers to increase understanding of changing climate patterns in the tropical Andes of southern Peru. Citizen scientists in the tropical Andes receive special training and a small stipend to record weather observations and house meteorological equipment on their personal property. The efforts expand the observational networks in a severely data-limited mountain region, providing an important long-term contribution to the atmospheric science community and providing critical data to validate numerical modeling experiments. A second part of the project allows students from Appalachian State University to participate in a short-term study abroad experience. Learning objectives include lessons related to Andean mountain geography and tropical climate-glacier interactions. Students are also encouraged to make comparisons between physical and human processes in the southern Appalachian Mountains and the tropical Andes. Additionally, students are provided with opportunities to assist in climate and glacial research through servicing weather stations and aiding in data collection. Broad scientific benefits from these efforts include increased scientific understanding of precipitation-climate-glacier interactions in the context of ongoing climate variability and change and improved ice core-based reconstructions of past climates in tropical mountain environments. Lauren Cox and Justin Hart, University of Alabama, Two centuries of compositional and structural changes in forests of the Alabama Fall Line Hills Documenting changes in forest composition and structure is useful for establishing place-based targets for land management. Using historical archives and current composition data, we quantified forest conditions following impactful changes in land use throughout two centuries to chronicle changes in forest composition and structure. This study includes 55,425 ha of the northwest portion of the Oakmulgee Ranger District of Talladega National Forest in the Fall Line Hills of west-central Alabama. To quantify conditions prior to widespread Euro-American settlement, we analyzed General Land Office surveys of 1820 and 1842. To document conditions during the first half of the twentieth century, we used Franklin Reed’s (1905) A Working Plan for Forest Lands in Central Alabama and Roland Harper’s (1943) Forests of Alabama. To quantify current forest conditions, we sampled 80 fixed radius plots stratified across a topographic gradient. The pre-settlement forest was composed of primarily Pinus spp. (68% relative frequency). We estimated total density of 370 stems/ha. Reed (1905) reports that longleaf pine (P. palustris) land covered 78.1% of the tract surveyed prior to heavy logging in the region. Harper (1943) notes that roughly 50% of all stems in this area were evergreen in the mid 1900s. Pinus spp. occurred on 89% of plots sampled in 2014. Current density for all species is 493.1 stems/ha. Our results provide quantitative comparisons between current management regimes and pre-settlement forest conditions that can be used to set desired future conditions for restoration on public lands. Scott Curtis, Douglas Gamble, and Jeff Popke, East Carolina University, A Daily Soil Moisture Model for Assessing Small Farmer Water Management: A Case Study in Southwest Jamaica

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Ongoing work in St. Elizabeth Jamaica, the “breadbasket” of the island, has demonstrated that access and storage of water are critical for small farming survival, especially in the face of drought. Understanding climatic and socioeconomic forces that either trigger water purchases for use on the farm fields, or lead to the abandonment of fields altogether are important in discussions of vulnerability and climate change adaptation. A weather station consisting of a rain gauge, thermometer, and soil moisture probe was installed on thirteen farms across southwest Jamaica in June 2013. Recently, a full year of data was downloaded and this study specifically examines how modeled soil moisture compares with the actual soil moisture recorded at the daily time scale. It is hypothesized that variations in these two quantities may point to the extent of irrigation practices. This will be confirmed by examining farmer log books, where farmers track irrigation and perception of drought. Using a modified Hamon Potential Evapotranspiration equation, soil moisture was computed as a depth in mm, while soil moisture observations were given in volume of water per volume of soil. After normalizing the data, there was a range in correlations between the annual time series with the highest correlations indicating a natural system and lack of irrigation infrastructure. However, intensive irrigation use can be detected. Times when the model is negatively biased also tend to be times of dry-spells when irrigation water is added to the soil. Janae Davis, University of South Carolina, Exploring Place Attachment and Alienation Associated with Congaree National Park Among Local African American Fishers Though national parks are venerated as symbols of American pride and heritage, they are not esteemed and supported by all U.S. citizens, particularly African Americans. A legacy of exclusion can be seen in the prevalence white middle class visitors (Johnson & Bowker, 2004). It can also be discerned in many African Americans’ negative impressions of national parks which have contributed to low rates of visitation (Le & Holmes, 2012). The purpose of this study is to understand the factors shaping place attachment and alienation associated with Congaree National Park among local African American fishers, a group that holds intergenerational ties to the land and its resources. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, place relationships are explored to explain why some local African American fishers prefer the park and why others have chosen not to fish there at all. Preliminary findings show that what was once an unrestricted landscape that supported the livelihoods and bonding of community members is now one of regulations that have either banned or severely limited most traditional activities. Conditions underlying place attachment are rooted in participants’ childhood memories while processes of alienation can be found in their perceptions of displacement, preferential treatment to white visitors and views of nature that conflict with those held by the National Park Service. This study contributes to literatures examining the reasons for high rates of non-visitation to national parks among African Americans, the impacts of national parks on African American communities and the processes that inhibit positive place relationships.

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Kendall Dean, Joshua Holland, and James Burgess, University of North Alabama, Urban Land Use Change in the Nashville Metro Area, 1986-2006 Urban planning is an important aspect in the study of geospatial science and the use of remote sensing to determine land use is a vital part of that study. Urban planning is not as simple as looking at a current map or aerial image of a city and deciding what will go where. Land use maps are employed to determine what is there prior to expansion of the periphery of an urban area so that the effects of urban sprawl can be determined, at least to some degree. This use of land use maps extends to a number of different areas, such as environmental concerns, zoning, and how expansion will affect suburban areas. The models created by these studies can be useful in predicting where urban sprawl will be halted or where it will or can accelerate. This project will take these ideas and apply them to a rapidly expanding urban area in order to view how urban sprawl has affected its environment and itself. The Nashville Metro area is one of the fastest growing urban areas in the southern states making it a good subject to study urban sprawl and land use. Its growth over the last thirty years makes it a particularly good choice because it is well within the temporal resolution of available Landsat data. Keith Debbage, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, The Geography of Difficult-To-Fill Jobs: A Case Study of Greensboro, NC

Some scholars have recently argued that a “skills gap” exists where there is a strong demand for certain types of workers and a large supply of jobseekers in a particular labor pool, but the skills of the applicants do not match the needs of the employer. That said, evidence of skills gaps are often based on anecdotal accounts and non-scientific surveys rather than on careful empirical studies. The purpose of this paper is to partly remedy this problem by empirically determining what sort of potential “skills gap” exists in Greensboro, NC – a region that has suffered more than most during the recession because of its traditional manufacturing roots in textiles, tobacco and furniture. Based on a survey of 111 Greater Greensboro businesses/organizations that participated in a 2014 Workforce Development Survey sponsored by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, I found that many Greater Greensboro – High Point area employers are finding it difficult to find the workers they need. The survey captured 1,561 difficult-to-fill jobs in 2013 although this was lower than the 1,775 difficult-to-fill jobs reported earlier in 2011. Most of the difficult-to-fill jobs seemed to be geographically concentrated just south of the Piedmont Triad International Airport region especially between Greensboro and High Point, and also in southeastern Greensboro and the urban core areas of both Greensboro and High Point. Perhaps a more spatially targeted workforce development program is needed and additional collaboration is required between Greensboro and High Point if we are to solve these problems. Neil Debbage, University of Georgia, The Urban Heat Island Effect and City Contiguity

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The spatial configuration of cities can affect how urban environments alter local energy balances. Previous studies have reached the paradoxical conclusions that both sprawling and high-density urban development can amplify urban heat island intensities, which has prevented consensus on how best to mitigate the urban heat island effect via environmental planning. To investigate this apparent dichotomy, we estimated the urban heat island intensities of the 50 largest cities in the United States using a unique grid-based methodology and quantified their urban morphologies with spatial metrics. The results indicate that the spatial contiguity of urban development, regardless of its density, is a critical factor that influences the magnitude of the urban heat island effect. A ten percentage point increase in urban spatial contiguity was predicted to enhance the annual average urban heat island intensity by roughly 0.4 °C. Therefore, city contiguity should be considered when devising strategies for urban heat island mitigation, with more discontiguous development likely to reduce the urban heat island effect. Overall, unraveling how urban morphology contributes to urban heat island intensity is paramount given the human health consequences associated with the continued growth of urban populations in the future. Eliud De Jesus, East Carolina University, The abandoned structures and lots in the walkable districts of the train of San Juan, Puerto Rico in the 2013. This investigation focus on the study of abandoned structures and lots surrounded the first 5 train stations of the San Juan train system on the island of Puerto Rico, called Tren Urbano. The train, located in the Northeast side of the main island, it is the only one in Puerto Rico and one of the few in the Caribbean region. Its main objectives are to offer an alternate option of transportation, reduce traffic congestion, and increase job accessibility in the nearby sectors. The stations studied are Sagrado Corazón, Hato Rey, Roosevelt, Domenech y Piñero. The study was conducted using a 500 meters radius buffer zone from each train stations’ entrances; the government classified the zones as the walkable district of the stations, in which you could get easy access to a variety of services and other businesses. The study of Tren Urbano’s development and objectives were compared with its existence. A total of 96 structures and 29 lots in the 500 meter radius were found for a total of 125 parcels abandoned. From the 96 structures, 81 were non-residential use and 15 were residential use. The percent of the total parcels abandoned per station was 29% Sagrado Corazón, 22% Roosevelt, 18% Piñero, 17% Hato Rey, and 14% Domenech. There are many actions which can be done, like the implementation and improvement of plans for this area. One option would be re-activating and re-implementing the plans for this sector. The Tren Urbano is one most ambitious project in Puerto Rico’s history. Elizabeth C. Delmelle, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Fifty Years of Neighborhood Classifications and their Transitions: A comparison of four US cities, 1970-2010 This paper examines the 50-year longitudinal trajectories of neighborhoods (Census Tracts) for four cities with distinct locations, and internal and external dynamics: Buffalo, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; and Portland, Oregon. Using a longitudinal Census

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database from 1970-2010, a k-means clustering procedure is used to establish 5 classes of neighborhoods: Suburban, Stability, Blue Collar, Struggling, and New Starts. The transitions and sequences of neighborhoods through these groups are compared, revealing marked differences in the dynamics of urban neighborhoods. Findings show that while struggling neighborhoods, characterized largely by high poverty and unemployment levels, were very unlikely to transition out of this group over the course of 50 years for the cities of Buffalo, Charlotte, and Chicago, nearly half Portland’s struggling neighborhoods transitioned to a neighborhood of higher socioeconomic status over the decade. Results also indicate that when aggregated together, the picture that emerges is one of great stability, with the overwhelming majority of neighborhoods remaining in the same class for all five time stamps, but when analyzed separately, neighborhood sequences are found to be rather heterogeneous. Finally, the spatial distribution of these classes is analyzed through time by city. David Dorrell, Georgia Gwinnett College, Bottom-Shelf Colonialists On the 100 year anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, it is worth noting that in terms of colonial history, 1914 was the high-water mark for European domination of the rest of the world. Looking at a map of the time it must have seemed, indeed it was, that the entire non-European part of the planet was a colony, a former colony, or a future colony of a European power. Just as there were premier colonizers-the Portuguese, British, Dutch, French and Spanish- there were others of lesser rank. The Germans, Japanese and Belgians would occupy a middle tier of colonialism. Of course the Austro-Hungarians and Turks should be included on this list, but by WWI they were fading rapidly. Even below these were Denmark and Italy. The large successful colonizers were not the only examples of colonialism that we can investigate. There were others, and the fact that they are now considered irrelevant is in itself remarkable. The fact that a tiny duchy in Europe, which was often fighting for its very existence, was able to secure and hold territory, even ephemerally, is worthy of attention. There were abortive colonial exercises that did not even reach these meager levels. The full range of colonialism was filled with places that never managed to make any money from the enterprise, or convert the natives, or get to pose as a powerful nation, or do anything other than provide a footnote in history. This is their footnote. Dawn M. Drake, Missouri Western State University, Another Look at von Thünen: Dairy Cows in my Backyard Economic geography examines the distribution of economic activities on Earth’s surface. Von Thünen’s Isolated State Model predicted that dairy farms would locate near the central market. Historically this was due to the lack of refrigeration. Farm-to-market distances for dairy products needed to be short to prevent spoilage. Even though food preservation technology has advanced, many dairy farms are passed through the generations. We often teach students that dairy farms remain close to the central markets today, despite not needing to be, given the use of

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refrigerated trucks. As urban spaces expand, the farms are in competition with residential and commercial land uses. In other words, the dairy cows find themselves in suburban backyards. This research examines whether the prediction of the suburban dairy farm is legitimate in the US today. Using data from the US Department of Agriculture’s Census of Agriculture and the Rurality Index, it will seek quantitative relationships between numbers of dairy cows and levels of rurality. Looking at trends in the data related to the number of dairy farms and size of the farms, in terms of head of cattle, and comparing that to the rurality level of the county should reveal interesting patterns that either confirm or refute the relevance of von Thünen in the US dairy industry today, answering the question, “are there dairy cows in my backyard.” Kelsey Ellis, David Howe, Jon Hathaway, Lisa Reyes Mason, and Vincent Brown, University of Tennessee, Summer in the City: Climate variability across four Knoxville neighborhoods The Knoxville Urban Observatory is collecting physical and social data relevant to environmental sustainability across four urban neighborhoods in Knoxville, Tennessee. This work focuses on the spatial and temporal patterns of the meteorological observations (temperature, humidity and wind) collected during summer (July-August-September) 2014. Data were collected in 5-minute increments at two weather stations in each neighborhood. Data were also gathered from two additional stations for comparison: on a main street downtown, and within a nature center just outside of the city. Preliminary analyses of temperature data indicate that variability within a single neighborhood is not as great as the differences between neighborhoods. The largest temperature differences are observed at night. An urban heat island signal is primarily seen downtown, but at a variable degree among the neighborhoods. The preliminary findings detail the spatial patterns of climate variability during a Knoxville summer, provide insight on the sampling procedure necessary to understand urban microenvironments, and begin to increase our understanding of the sufficiency of green infrastructure at mitigating the effects of urban land uses. James Elsner, Holly Widen, and Tyler Fricker, Florida State University, Modern Methods in Tornado Climatology Tornado climatology has become a popular topic of research due to climate change. It is of societal value to understand how climate variability affects tornado activity; however, this research can be strongly contested due to inconsistencies in the dataset. Here we present some new analytical approaches to study the tornado climate problem. The approaches move beyond using frequency, EF ratings, and kernel density smoothing to assess changes in tornado activity conditional on climate. The nascent field of tornado climate will grow as more researchers become familiar with the available dataset and with techniques for working with it in an appropriate manner. We hope this talk will inspire more research on this important topic.

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Johanna Engstrom, University of Florida, The effect of teleconnections on river discharge in southeast United States This paper aims to investigate the impact on teleconnections on the river discharge in southeast United States using Principal Components Analysis and Spearman rank correlation. A time lag will be used to cover for the teleconnection’s impact on both precipitation and temperature variations. Preliminary results show that the teleconnection that can explain most of the river runoff varies by season. The overall strongest natural contributor to the variability in river runoff in southeast U.S. is ENSO, which rules both these variables through the winter and spring. The single strongest correlation was found between river runoff and NAO in JJA, giving a correlation coefficient of 0.42. The least influential teleconnection is the PNA that shows very limited impact on the hydrologic variables studied. Caitlin C. Finlayson, University of Mary Washington, Emerging Spiritual Landscapes: Exploring the Role of the Body in Sacralization Geographers of religion have continually called for greater attention to the lived religious experience as well as to the unofficially sacred, but with a few exceptions, these calls have gone largely unanswered. The lived religious experience presents an opportunity for geographers to explore the intersection of performativity and spirituality, and further investigate the role of the body in mediating a spiritual experience of place. This paper explores the growing body of literature on the corporeal religious experience, both within geography and in other disciplines. It further positions the body as central to experiences of sacred space, and presents a theoretical and practical framework for how research on this topic might proceed. Alex Fortanbary and Jennifer Rahn, Samford University, How to Start an Insitu Coral Nursery for Coral Transplantation: A Saba Case Study – Preliminary Work The purpose of this paper was to identify and summarize the variety of methods used to set up coral nurseries and to develop an implementation plan for the Caribbean island of Saba. Coral reefs around the world are deteriorating at an alarming pace. Coral nurseries are one way that to combat the ever-changing climate in oceans today. Coral nurseries start with harvesting small branches of existing coral and then letting them grow at an ideal nursery site. Once grown to a certain size, the healthy coral fragments are then transplanted back onto the natural reef. This research concluded that the three most successful types of structures used to support the nurseries are mid-water floating nurseries, attached-to-substrate nurseries, and leg fixed nurseries. Other factors are the different type of attachment procedures, the ideal location for these nurseries, and outside variables that can affect coral polyps. This research also discusses the location and implementation plan for the installation of a coral nursery on Saba. Successful coral nurseries will rely on perfection of methods with efficient and caring management, which ideally could lead to large-scale re-growth around the world to enhance coral reefs.

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Tyler Fricker, Florida State University, Empirical Estimates of Tornado Kinetic Energy Using the Storm Prediction Center’s Tornado Database Nothing on earth is so uniquely spectacular, terrorizing, and destructive as the tornado. Historically, tornadoes have been studied using the damage they leave behind. However, advances in surveying techniques and the creation of the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF-Scale) has led to better and more complete data surrounding these phenomena. Currently, the Storm Prediction Center’s (SPC) historical tornado database is the most up-to-date and readily available tornado dataset in the world. While previous research on tornado power and intensity has been limited to theoretical attempts, this study works with observed and empirical data. Using a methodology seen in Fricker et al. (2014), this study estimates a kinetic energy for each tornado available in the SPC database dating back to 2006. These new estimates of kinetic energy aid tornado climatology research, as they invoke change from previously used theoretical and empirical calculations to observed and empirical calculations. This allows for comparisons to be made between different tornado characteristics including: year, day, state, and EF-category, creating knowledge that can be disseminated to policymakers, insurance companies, and public health officials alike. Robert Friedrichs and Julie McKnight, University of Tennessee, Assessing Three Methods for Measuring CO2 Flux at the Water Surface-Atmosphere Interface: Applications for LiCOR Technologies This research involved identifying the ability of the LiCOR 8100A IRGA unit at detecting carbon dioxide flux from the water's surface to the atmosphere. The goal of this project was to ascertain whether or not this unit could be used to take effective measurements in areas such as small rivers and streams, sites that usually get overlooked or underestimated when accounting the carbon budget of the planet. The LiCOR 8100A unit was tested for efficiency at the task by comparing the data it collected with several other data sets, taken from several other methods using a different LiCOR IRGA unit. The other unit under examination in this project was the LiCOR 820, it was tested using two different methodologies. The first involved a continuous measurement of flux in the survey chamber. The second involved taking manual extractions from the air hoses running from the survey chamber to the IRGA, these extractions were then me measured manually in a lab setting. The success of this research would have identified a new and efficacious method with which to fill in the missing gaps in the carbon budget, and allow for a more complete understanding of the Earth as a system. However, through comparison of the methodologies tested it was determined that the LiCOR 8100A tends to overestimate the amount of carbon dioxide flux and is therefore unsuited for this application. Chris Fuhrmann, Mississippi State University and Chip Konrad, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Climate trends and future scenarios for the Southeast United States: Results from the 2014 National Climate Assessment

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On May 6, 2014, the U.S. Global Change Research Program publicly released the results of the 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA), an interagency effort to inform the nation about the current state of the climate. In this presentation, we will summarize the results from the NCA with a focus on historical climate trends and future scenarios for the Southeast U.S., which includes all states and territories in the SEDAAG region except for West Virginia. We will examine trends in temperature and precipitation, with a focus on extreme conditions, such as heat waves and heavy precipitation events, which have been increasing in frequency and magnitude in recent years. We will also present climate simulations of 21st century conditions across the region under selected emissions scenarios. Such projections indicate a shift towards generally warmer and wetter conditions across most of the Southeast, though regional and seasonal variations are apparent. Lastly, we will summarize the current state of the knowledge on trends and future projections of tornadoes, tropical cyclones, droughts, air quality, and sea-level rise affecting the Southeast. Jill Gambill1, Mariana Alfonso2, and Jason Evans3, 1University of Georgia, 2University of Georgia, 3Stetson University, Planning for Sea Level Rise and Flood Resiliency in Coastal Georgia

The Tybee Island Sea Level Rise Adaptation Plan is an award-winning project that has garnered national attention, including from the U.S. Senate, and has served as a model for numerous sea level rise, flooding and climate adaptation planning efforts throughout the Southeast. Projects in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida are using methodology developed by this planning effort to explore communities’ vulnerabilities, analyze the costs and benefits of adaptation options and prioritize how and where money is spent to make coastal cities more resilient to future hazards. This paper examines the recent evolution of sea level rise planning in coastal Georgia, describing how academic approaches have changed, lessons learned on the ground and the benefits of using a community-driven process to link local knowledge with academic expertise. It will illustrate how hazards research and outreach can put stakeholders at the wheel to identify vulnerable assets, prioritize where additional analysis is needed and, ultimately, make decisions about the future of their community. Drawing from examples on Tybee Island and St. Marys, Georgia, the authors explore integrated methods of engaging communities in resiliency planning and the diverse impacts that have been achieved on Tybee, from raising infrastructure to incorporating sea level rise into long-term public works projects. Doug Gamble and Scott Curtis, UNC Wilmington and Jeff Popke, East Carolina University, Drought and Jamaican Agriculture Summer 2014: A Glimpse of Caribbean Agrarian Society in a Future Warmer Climate? The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into Jamaican farmer vulnerability to drought based upon farm level observation of hydro climatic variables and farmer perception of drought. Assessment of hydro climatic variability is based upon existing climate records for the region

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and data collected on sixteen farms in St Elizabeth Parish, Jamaica 2013-2014, while perception of drought is constructed from extensive farmer interviews. This research represents a portion of a larger project with the purpose of assessing the vulnerability of Caribbean farmers in the face of climate change and economic transformation, with an eye toward improving the resilience of rural agricultural communities across the region. The observations from 2013-2014 indicate a significant drought occurred April-June 2014 which in return produced stress on small holding farmers. The amount of stress or vulnerability that each individual farmer felt from the drought is in large part based upon access to water delivery and water storage. This drought event in Jamaica may offer a window into the future of Caribbean small holder agriculture since many predictions call for a future climate with greater precipitation variability and drier summers across the region. Thus, Caribbean islands need to plan for a future in which climate change will interact with a heterogeneous landscape of farmer drought vulnerability and exacerbate the inequalities between farmers with greater access to water and those farmers with poor access to water. Leandra Gamble and Amy E. Potter, Armstrong State University, The Walking Dead” Wakes Up Tourism in Senoia, Georgia: Exploring a Fictional Landscape An hour outside of Atlanta is a town advertisements often describe as “frozen in time.” Nicknamed “Little Hollywood,” Senoia, Georgia has undergone tremendous transformation over the last several decades, as it has become the desired backdrop for the television and movie industry (Highbeam Business 2013). Building on scholarship in movie tourism (Kim 2012; Pan and Ryan 2013; Busby and Klug 2001) and particularly the research in geography centered on literary tourism (DeLyser 2003) we seek to draw upon the significance of fictional landscapes for the town of Senoia. This paper will explore the importance of the filming industry and how it has altered the economy of a town with a population of 3,500 people. Utilizing various research methods, which include archival research and semi-structured interviews, we will discuss the goals of the entertainment industry and how it has impacted not only local residents but also place itself. We will then highlight the recent developments of Riverwood Studios, the emergent tourism industry resulting from the highest rated TV series in drama, The Walking Dead, as well as the cultural collision that often occurs from the rapid changes occurring there. Njoroge Gathongo and Liem Tran: University of Tennessee, Analysis of change in population and Land Use Land Cover Changes in Taita Taveta, Kenya The increase in human population coupled with improved technology has emerged as the main drivers of land use land cover changes (LULCC). This paper evaluates if there is a correlation between LULCC and population change in Taita district, Kenya. The relationship between LULCC and population change was quantified between 1999-2009 using Landsat Images, housing and census data of the two years. A supervised classification of the Landsat images for those years was carried out and land cover types mapped included; evergreen forest, riparian, dryland forest, grassland, floodplain, cropland/settlement, bare surface and water. Land cover

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statistics for each land cover type in the 66 sub-locations were derived for each year in ArcGIS and a Pearson’s and Spearman correlation analysis was performed using R-Studio software. Even though there were LULCC in the district, statistical analysis indicated no correlation existed between LULCC and population changes at 95% confidence level. Lack of correlation between population changes and LULCC reaffirmed results from other studies which indicate population growth is not the sole driver of LULCC but there are other socio-economic, political, technological, and cultural factors that contribute to LULCC. Hence we suggest that while evaluating the underlying causes of LULCC, other factors should be studied adequately. These results will form the basis of future research in understanding the underlying causes of LULCC changes in the region. Mabel Denzin Gergan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Encountering Shamans and Seismicity in the Eastern Himalayas of India The materialist turn within cultural geography has led to an increased attention to the socio-material conditions of social and political life in what is known as the “recuperation of materiality” (Braun and Whatmore 2010; Bennett 2010). This turn exemplified within the sub-fields of Urban and Marxist political ecology signals an increased theoretical interest in the political consequences of human and non-human interactions. Despite this theoretical inclusion of the “non-human” the discipline as Castree points out is still resolutely anthropocentric “unwilling to think about nature ‘in itself’ ”. Recent work of scholars like Clark (2011) and Whatmore (2013) seek to address this lacuna by drawing our attention to the ‘geo’ within Geography. They invite scholars to see “long-term, earth processes – as triggers for collective or sociable activity” (Clark 2012) and “examine how environmental disturbances, like flooding or earthquakes might ‘force thought’ among the people affected by them and thereby, occasion new political associations and opportunities” (Whatmore 2013). However indigenous theorizations despite being far more cognizant of the non-human aren’t invited into the discussion. I examine the political consequences of a 6.9 magnitude earthquake in the Eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim, India. The epicenter of the earthquake was located at an under-construction dam site in an area considered to be sacred by the indigenous Lepcha tribe and Buddhist groups. Drawing on the case study of the Sikkim earthquake, I trace how democratic politics interacts with an unruly landscape and more-than-human actors. Shuvankar Ghosh, Bradley Bartelme, Ike Sari Astuti, Elizabeth Benyshek, Danielle Haskett, Jiaying He, Benjamin Page, Susan Wilde, Deepak Mishra, University of Georgia, Developing a Cyanobacteria Detection Tool for Georgia Inland Waters using NASA Landsat 8 OLI Data for Water Quality Protection and Restoration

The effects of anthropogenic eutrophication are intensified in Georgia’s watersheds due to increasing temperatures, higher frequency drought events and higher availability of nutrients that increase primary productivity in reservoirs. These factors may ultimately lead to the formation of toxic Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs or HABs). The abundance of phycocyanin, a phycobiliprotein, may be used as a proxy to assess the amount of cyanobacterial

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biomass that is present in a water body and is useful as a cyanobacterial bloom indicator. The Georgia Water Resources Project developed an early detection tool to aid in the identification and spatial distribution of blue green algae (cyanobacteria) for Georgia inland waters using Landsat 8 OLI data, paired with in-situ measurements of phycocyanin concentrations. This data was calibrated using different empirical models mainly 1) Vincent’s single band and band ratio models (2004); 2) stepwise band ratios; and 3) multiple linear regression slope model. In collaboration with Georgia Power Company (GPC), a model upscaling procedure demonstrated the feasibility of using Landsat 8 OLI sensor to detect cyanobacteria reflectance patterns. This procedure will assist in the maintenance of water quality throughout Georgia and is imperative due to the paucity of freshwater resources present in man-made reservoirs. From this research, we aim to identify and delineate spatial and temporal distribution of CyanoHABs in order to rapidly monitor and respond to these systems thereby improving water management decision-making for Georgia reservoirs. Brian Grabbatin, University of Kentucky, MOBILIZING THE PAST: The historical political ecology of heirs’ property conflicts Heirs’ property is a form of collective landownership that originated from the extralegal inheritance practices of southern African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Since 2010, I have been investigating resource coordination strategies and conflicts among contemporary heirs’ property owners in coastal South Carolina, where patterns of land development, driven by amenity migration and tourism, have led to economic and legal dispossession. My analysis of interview data and archival documents highlights the importance of environmental and cultural historical narratives in these contemporary resource struggles. In this paper, I will illustrate how land preservation efforts by present day heirs’ property owners evoke the ancestral struggles for land acquisition and retention during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras. Not only do heirs base their contemporary ownership claims (whether de jure or de facto) on ancestral history, but also desires to retain these properties are based on an attachment, responsibility, and pride in place that is rooted in historical land uses that provided self-sufficiency and social reproduction for their communities. Further, landowners often use historical narratives to justify ownership rights and land use practices, even in situations where these narratives are incommensurable with standard legal, economic, and legislative regimes that threaten dispossession. Ultimately, this paper illustrates that narratives of environmental and cultural history can play a significant role in confirming and establishing rights of ownership, use, and access to natural resources. Jasraj Gramopadhye, Person County Government Roxboro, North Carolina, Quantitative Analysis of Relationships between Economic, Environmental, and Human Dimensions of Urban Sustainability – Consensus, Questions, and Applicability

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The purpose of this study was to devise a quantitative method to compare benefits of socioeconomic development and associated urbanization, with its cost in terms of environmental impacts and human well-being. The study was developed on the premise that socioeconomic development is a major force driving urbanization, which in turn, incurs costs which are not accounted for in policy decision making. When a geographic region experiences rapid socioeconomic development, preferences for sustaining the growth conflict with the necessity to manage it, in order to protect the natural environment and human well-being. This requires the decision makers to design policies that balance the conflict. This study describes a sustainability indices based quantitative method which would allow the decision makers to strike the balance, reducing the subjectivity in the process. William Graves and Chuck McShane, UNC Charlotte, Declining Affluence in a 'Booming' State: Evaluating the Geography of Failure in North Carolina's Economic Development Policy North Carolina’ transformation from agriculture to manufacturing to knowledge industries has made it a model of economic development since its rapid growth in the 1970s. However, since the mid-1990s per capita incomes in North Carolina began a 17 year decline with respect to the national average. NC incomes were 94% of the US average in 1997 but dropped to 86% of the US average in 2012. This research will explore the causes of this income decline and examine the policies and conditions which triggered this reversal. This research will use a multi-level statistical analysis of per capita personal income trends from 1969-2012 among states and North Carolina counties. Time series analysis will test for the determinants of income convergence, among counties in North Carolina from 1969-2012. A variety of independent variables will be used, including measures of educational attainment, industry structure and demographics. While previous studies sought to answer whether or not income converged among states or counties, this analysis seeks to explain why income did not converge. Falling relative incomes in North Carolina suggest that the current economic development policy is not having the desired effect and should be re-evaluated. Richard Greene, Auburn University, Religious Diversity in the Southeastern United States Michael Griffo, Clemson University, Climatic Effects on Slash Pine Radial Growth Outside of Its Native Range Slash pine is a hard pine species native to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States with its range extending from Florida west to Louisiana and north into southern South Carolina. I examined a population from a pure stand of slash planted outside of this species’ native range in the Clemson Experimental Forest, SC, located in the northern Piedmont of South Carolina. The objective of my research was to determine the limiting climatic factors for slash pine radial growth at this site. My field team collected core samples from 14 individuals. I measured, dated, and verified my cross dating for this chronology for annual, earlywood, and latewood radial growth using traditional dendrochronology techniques (n = 29; COFECHA r2 = .508). I then

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compared the radial growth measurements for this population with historic climatic records for the area. Based on prior research of southern yellow pines, I expect that radial growth will be limited by winter temperatures. Margaret M. Gripshover, Western Kentucky University, And They’re Off: Foaling Patterns for Kentucky Derby Winners Born in Kentucky, 1875-2013 Since the inaugural running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1875, 103 of the 139 Derby winners were horses born in Kentucky. Kentucky’s claim to fame as the Thoroughbred capital of the world is well-founded and certainly the Bluegrass State can take pride in its domination of its namesake sporting event. The Kentucky Derby is a significant cultural institution at statewide, national, and international scales. Little scholarly geographic investigation has, however, been done on the Derby or the horses that run in it. One reason for the lack of scholarship may be due to the lack consistent data on foaling locations and the vagaries of the historic record. The purpose of this research is to identify and map the foaling locations for Kentucky-born Kentucky Derby winners, determine which birth sites have retained their horse farm functions, and explore the human and equine stories that shaped the landscapes and contributed to the cultural history of the Kentucky Derby. Twelve of Kentucky’s 120 counties have produced Derby winners. The counties that form the core of Thoroughbred breeding farms are mainly the Inner Bluegrass counties of Fayette, Bourbon, and Woodford. These three counties have produced 86 percent of all the Kentucky-born Derby winners (89 of 103), with Fayette accounting for more than half of the total. Many of these historic sites remain unknown to the general public, horse racing historians, and, in some cases, even the property owners themselves. Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, University of Tennessee, Temporal Instability in Climate-Tree Growth Relationships: Implications for Reconstructing Past Climate from Tree-Ring Data Researchers have long used tree-ring data to reconstruct past climate, a technique that has provided valuable insights on the patterns of past climate and the possible mechanisms behind those changes, at a variety of spatial scales. These reconstructions, however, make a major assumption, that the climate-tree growth relationship has remained stable over the duration of the entire reconstruction. In this paper, I demonstrate testing of the temporal stability in the climate-tree growth relationship using two sites. For the bristlecone pines, I found that these trees demonstrate a statistically significant negative response to March maximum temperature and a statistically significant positive response to May precipitation. Although most subset periods had significant correlations, many intervening periods did not. In fact, the response to May precipitation eventually subsides altogether during the most recent periods. In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it became apparent that two major phase shifts occurred in the climate-tree growth relationship for yellow pines, likely driven by longer-term climate oscillations. The first occurred ca. 1962–1965 when correlations with minimum temperature increased while correlations with drought (PDSI) decreased dramatically. The second shift occurred ca. 1986–1987, when correlations between these variables and tree growth either increased (PDSI) or

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decreased (PDO) dramatically. These results suggest that a reconstruction of past climate from these yellow pines would be tenuous at best. Researchers should exercise considerable caution when reconstructing past climate from tree-ring data in the Southeastern U.S. Taylor Hafley, University of Georgia, The Suburbanization of Poverty: An Appropriate Expression? The suburban poor population of United States now outnumbers that of central cities, a development characterized as the suburbanization of poverty. This is problematic because suburban jurisdictions are reliant on property taxes for revenues, and as lower-income populations grow, these revenues will decline as the need for social services simultaneously increase (Berube and Kneebone 2013). The pattern may be a product of the imprecise division of metropolitan areas into urban and suburban jurisdictions rather than an inside-out migration of low-income populations (Cooke and Marchant 2006; Cooke 2010). In this paper, I track the number of high- and extreme-poverty neighborhoods in urban and suburban areas between 1990-2010, and use spatial statistics to map the concentrations of poverty in four metropolitan areas (Austin, Denver, Seattle, and Washington, DC) to compare the locational patterns with growth in political boundaries. I find that high- and extreme-poverty neighborhoods increased 114.3 and 81.8% in suburban areas; and 11.7 and 10.3%, respectively, in central cities. Additionally, while decentralizing to some degree, clusters of poverty remain near central cities. Poverty is changing jurisdictional boundaries as indicated by the rapid rise of high- and extreme-poverty census tracts within suburbs, but there is not a massive spatial reorganization of poverty within metropolitan areas examined here. Huili Hao and Patrick Long, East Carolina University, Assessing Place Attachment Among Second Home Property Owners in Tourism Dependent Coastal Counties Based on the purchasing motivation and use patterns, this study delineated and categorized second home property owners into three groups: investment (those who bought the property for financial investment), recreation (those who bought the property for vacation and recreation purpose) and dual motivation (those who bought the property for investment and recreation). This study then compared the characteristics of these three second home owners’ level of attachment to place and identified the motivations that contribute to the formation of that attachment. A total of 1478 respondents expressed the degree of such attachment, their support for sustainable actions and satisfaction level with community life in three North Carolina coastal counties: Brunswick, Pender and Currituck. Different from much of the place-based research in community attachment, this work included satisfaction with community life and sense of care in the models. Age, sense of care and quality of life factors were significantly associated with the investment’s place attachment. Gender and being a member of local civic organizations had a significant relationship with the recreation’s attachment. Being a member of local civic organizations and level of satisfaction with the community’s land use condition were factors significantly influencing the dual motivation group’s place attachment. Sense of care did not

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predict the attachment for either the recreation or the dual motivation second home property owner groups. John Tyler Hardin, University of North Alabama, A Spatial Analysis of Organized Crime and Terrorism: A Study of Central and South America This study offers a look into the world of terrorism and criminal enterprises. The Research is an investigation of the spatial connectedness of criminal and terroristic networks within countries of Central and South American. Previous research has concluded that these once separate organizations have joined together to form a crime-terror alliance, where both entities have began developing a symbiotic relationship. Through this study, if a spatial link is proven to exist then it is believed that human demographics and socioeconomic factors will play a role in which countries host the connection. If a connection is proven it could potentially change the way investigators and world leaders approach threats associated with criminal networks and terror units. This research could prove very beneficial to the future investigation of criminal organizations and terrorist cells globally. Dean Hardy, Jeff Hepinstall-Cymerman, and Laurie Fowler, University of Georgia, Prioritizing conservation easement recruitment efforts: A policy-informed conservation assessment of private land in the Upper Oconee Watershed In the United States, evidence of the ecological significance of private land is accumulating and driving the expansion of conservation easements held by land trusts. This has led to an increase in projects aimed at identifying efficient methods for assessing the landscape. We collaborated with two land trusts on a conservation assessment of private lands in the Upper Oconee Watershed located in northeast Georgia and collectively identified nine landscape-level conservation features that contribute towards fulfilling their organizations’ missions. We used the Georgia Land Conservation Program criteria as a guide for weighting the conservation features in the creation of an index model at the parcel level. As approximately 7% of the watershed has conservation status, we selected the highest scoring 3% of parcels with no conservation status as the areal target for identifying priority parcels. We assessed the nine conservation features in a Geographic Information System by summing scores from a grid of five acre blocks within parcels, creating an index score for each parcel. Our results show that summing five acre block scores within parcels maximizes the ratio of potential conservation gain (quantity of conservation features captured) to effort (number of land owners to contact). Under the areal target of 3%, we identified 6,382 parcels that intersect all priority blocks and selected the top 101 parcels that intersect 21% of the priority blocks for recommendation to the lands trusts for use in their easement recruitment campaigns and conservation strategies.

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Grant Harley, University of Southern Mississippi, Neil Pederson, Radford University, Stockton R. Maxwell, Harvard University, Flint River streamflow since 947 AD reconstructed from tree rings The Flint River Basin drains 22,000 square kilometers of southwest Georgia. With headwaters beginning just south of Atlanta, the Flint River and associated tributaries contribute to the supply of water for the expanding and highly populated Metro area. A multispecies network of tree-ring chronologies (n = 37) is used to reconstruct mean May–September Flint River streamflow during the period 947–2000 CE. We used a nested principal components reconstruction technique to maximize the use of available chronologies backward in time, providing the first account of multicentury water supply variability in this river. The reconstruction model provides a robust replication of the mean and variance of the instrumental record, explaining 76% of the variance during the common period (1931–1982). The model was verified by two goodness of fit tests, the coefficient of efficiency and the reduction of error statistic, values of which never fell below zero and indicates strong predictive skill over the entire period of reconstruction. Over the past 1,000 years, the extreme low- and high-flow variability seems to be misrepresented during the instrumental period. The long-term perspective of streamflow variability agrees with previous drought reconstructions in the Southeast region, but also demonstrates that previous periods of water supply shortage in the Flint River were longer and more severe than currently seen in the region today. Calvin Harmin, East Carolina University, Dasymetric Techniques Improve Mapping of Vulnerable Coastal Populations Conor Harrison, University of South Carolina, Disappearing power: Wires, regional development, and the vanishing electricity grid Recent developments in urban theory are questioning ‘the urban’ or ‘the city’ as the central analytical focus of research. While the effects of the urban condition can be clearly felt in that realm commonly defined as ‘the city’, some argue that cities are just one form of urbanization, and must be understood as an outcome of broader processes of sociospatial and socioecological transformation happening outside of narrowly defined city boundaries. Breaking down the binary between urban and non-urban shifts attention away from solely the agglomerations of capital and labor that are so often the focus of urban studies and instead towards those ‘operational landscapes’ and ecological hinterlands that make such agglomerations possible. In this paper, I examine the connections between operational landscapes and the city by tracing the development of transmission wires and cables. I first map the movement of power plants out of the city centers of numerous city centers and into the surrounding countryside. Second, I chart this movement alongside the development of electricity transmission technologies, principally in cable and wire design and manufacturing. Finally, I argue that these developments facilitated the disappearance of electricity production from our daily lives, a shift that enabled widespread environmental destruction as well as capital accumulation on massive scales.

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Evan A. Hart and Kristen Hall, Tennessee Tech University, WPA-era rockwalls as indicators of overbank deposition rates along streams in the Roaring River Valley, Cumberland River drainage basin, Tennessee Rock walls were built along streams in middle Tennessee by the WPA in the 1930s for erosion control purposes. Today, remnants of these rock walls can be seen along streams, however, most sections are in ill-repair or are collapsing. For this study, a total of 12 rock wall remnant sections have been identified in the upper Cumberland River drainage basin. The rock walls were built as dry stack limestone slabs, quarried locally and stacked parallel to streams, with some of the slabs partially embedded in the stream bank. Rock wall remnants observed in this study are approximately 1-2 meters in height and extend along the stream for 10-30 meters, although the original walls were likely longer than this and perhaps taller. For the fluvial geomorphologist, the rock walls provide an age reference for estimating rates of overbank alluvial deposition. Vertically accreted floodplain sediments are clearly visible above most of the rock wall remnants, showing the amount of deposition since construction of the wall. Overall, the amount of overbank deposition on top of rock walls ranged from 10 cm up to 1 m, which converts to an approximate deposition rate of 0.13 to 1.3 cm per year since rock wall construction (1930s). Additional insights about alluvial processes that can be gained from rock walls include the amount of bank erosion occurring since wall construction, bedload transport of wall fragments, and the spatial distribution of overbank deposition, by comparing rates across different watersheds. Danielle Haskett and David Porinchu, University of Georgia, A quantitative midge-based reconstruction of mean July air temperature from a high elevation site in central Colorado for MIS 6 and MIS 5 Sediments recovered from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site in Snowmass Village, Colorado (USA) were analyzed for subfossil chironomids (or midges). The midge stratigraphy spans ~140–77 ka, which includes the end of Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 6 and all of MIS 5. Notable shifts in midge assemblages occurred during two discrete intervals: the transition from MIS 6 to MIS 5e and midway through MIS 5a. A regional calibration set, incorporating lakes from the Colorado Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Uinta Mountains, was used to develop a midge-based mean July air temperature (MJAT) inference model (r2jack= 0.61, RMSEP = 0.97°C). Model results indicate that the transition from MIS 6 to MIS 5e at Ziegler Reservoir was characterized by an increase in MJAT from ~9.0 to 10.5°C. The results also indicate that temperatures gradually increased through MIS 5 before reaching a maximum of 13.3°C during MIS 5a. This study represents the first set of quantitative, midge-based MJAT estimates in the continental U.S. that spans the entirety of MIS 5. Overall, our results suggest that conditions in the Colorado Rockies throughout MIS 5were cooler than today, as the upper limit of the reconstructed temperatures is ~2°C below modern July air temperatures. Mathew Hauer, University of Georgia, Projections of the Populations in the United States in 2100 at Risk of Inundation under various Sea Level Rise Scenarios

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Climate change is expected to cause sea levels to rise between 1m and 2m by 2100 [1] with nearly 40% of population in the United States currently residing in a coastal area [2]. Most estimates of the population at risk of inundation rely on holding current populations constant, utilize geographies that are too large, or do not project to 2100 [3, 4]. Currently there are no projections of the population at risk of inundation in 2100 for the entire coastal US. Here we show localized estimates of the populations at risk for sea level rise in the continental United States for 2100 to be around [10 million] people under the 2m scenario. Utilizing Census Block Group geographies to better approximate future populations at risk to sea level rise, our projections more realistically assess the populations at risk for the entire continental United States at highly localized geographies. Our results demonstrate the extent to which future inundation threatens future populations. We anticipate our assay to be a starting point for more sophisticated projections of the populations at risk of the tertiary effects of sea level rise such as coastal flooding and storm surges. For example, our projections could be combined with changes in the 100-year flood plain to assess the future populations that could reside there. Peter Hawman 1, Caren Remillard 2, Hillary Essig 2, Nikos Kavoori 3, Suravi Shrestha 4, Zennure Ucar 2, Xiaohe Yu State 5, 1NASA DEVELOP National Program Office University of Georgia, 2University of Georgia, 3Georgia Institute of Technology, 4Westminster College, 5University of New York at Buffalo, Utilizing NASA Earth Observations to Enhance the Conservation Efforts of Colombia’s Most Endangered Primate, the Cotton-top Tamarin The cotton-top tamarin (Saguinus oedipus), a New World primate endemic to the forests of Northwest Colombia, is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with approximately 6,000 individuals remaining. Major threats to these tamarins include deforestation from the logging industry, agriculture, and urbanization. This project partnered with Proyecto Tití, a conservation program that makes the preservation of natural resources feasible for local communities in Colombia through education, field research, and community outreach. The NASA DEVELOP team utilized Landsat 5 TM, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI for the years 1991, 2002, and 2014, respectively, and integrated vegetation field transect data within the historic range. These data were used to produce: 1) a current, broad-scale land use/land cover map covering the entire historic range of the cotton-top tamarin, attempting to distinguish suitable habitat; 2) a historical time series illustrating deforestation within the Proyecto Tití study area of tamarin habitat; 3) a connectivity map identifying forest patches suitable for tamarin habitat and forecasting areas in need of protection and restoration; and 4. visual tools to increase public awareness of the issue. Field data collected by Proyecto Tití were used to conduct an accuracy assessment and validate the forest types. The incorporation of NASA Earth observations and technology will allow Proyecto Tití’s efforts to go farther by providing partners with visual tools and quantitative information regarding this critical animal habitat that can be used both internally, and shared with the local community. Joseph P. Henderson, Georgia Gwinnett College, Those Who Face Death: The Peshmerga and the Future of an Independent Kurdistan

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The Kurdish Security Forces (KSF), or Peshmerga, are the combat forces of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq. In existence since the 1920s, the Peshmerga have historically been in conflict with the central government of Iraq as well as internally between the two parties of the KRG, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KRG). With the integration of the Peshmerga into the Iraqi Security Forces in 2010, the KSF is presently playing a critical role in the defense of Iraq from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Efforts by the United States to arm and equip the KRG to combat ISIS forces are undertaken with the risk of strengthening the KRG to an extent which would make Kurdish independence a more likely possibility. The Peshmerga’s seizure of the contested, oil-rich area around Kirkuk city in July 2014 points toward future consolidation of disputed KRG territory in their bid for independence. Jeffrey Hepinstall-Cymerman, University of Georgia, Patterns of land cover and human population change across the southern Appalachians from 1990 to 2010 Substantial population growth has been observed over the past 20 years in the Southern Appalachians. The desirable combination of aesthetics, climate, and proximity to amenities likely fueled this growth. As population densities increase and land cover is altered, the already climatically stressed water resources of the Southeast will be further reduced. We evaluated land cover change for the region from 1991, 2001, and 2011 and compared this with population data from 1990, 2000, and 2010 census data at multiple spatial extents. We used administrative (state, county, census tract, and census block) and biophysical (watershed boundaries and hydrologic units) definitions to compare across nested extents. Forest loss, primarily from urbanization was seen across all states and most extents, with greatest losses occurring in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Concomitantly, population density increased at state extents and increased in counties ringing the region. If past trends continue, the Southern Appalachians can expect to experience continued losses of forest cover potentially resulting in further strain on important ecosystem services. Currently, we are exploring socioeconomic drivers of land use change to build a more complete understanding of the processes behind observed land cover change and to model change into the future for the region. Hannah Herrero, Jane Southworth , and Erin Bunting, University of Florida, Observing Change in Savanna Vegetation in the Chobe Riverfront, Botswana from 1990 to 2013 This paper evaluates the change in savanna vegetation along the Chobe Riverfront in Botswana from 1990 to 2013. For this study, remote sensing data from the study area of the Northern Chobe National Park Riverfront area was selected for analysis. Classifying land cover type in savanna environments is challenging because the vegetation signatures are similar due to the specific composition of savanna vegetation. Therefore, there are difficulties in making discrete clarifications in such landscapes. This study indicates that there has been a transformation of vegetation in Chobe National Park, especially directly along the Chobe River, towards an increasing amount of bush from grassland. This could be, in part, due to an increasing number of elephants utilizing the Riverfront. The forested area at a further distance from the River has also had areas of loss of percent cover. To address the issue of difficulty in classifying this landscape,

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the Random Forest Algorithm was applied to predict land cover classes. In more recent years, this technique had an overall accuracy nearing 80%. This study provides land use planners and managers with a viable tool for analyzing land cover type and change through statistical classification for remote sensing data. Nik Heynen, University of Georgia, Can science writing collectives overcome barriers to more democratic communication and collaboration? Lessons from environmental communication praxis in southern Appalachia Despite compelling reasons to involve non-scientists in the production of ecological knowledge, cultural and institutional factors often disincentivize engagement between scientists and nonscientists. This paper details our efforts to develop a bi-weekly newspaper column to increase communication between ecological scientists, social scientists and the communities within which they work. Addressing community-generated topics and written by a collective of social and natural scientists, the column is meant to (1) foster public dialogue about socio-environmental issues and (2) lay the groundwork for the co-production of environmental knowledge. Our collective approach to writing addresses some major barriers to public engagement by scientists, but the need to insert ourselves as intermediaries limits these gains. Overall, our efforts at environmental communication praxis have not generated significant public debate, but they have supported future co-production by making scientists a more visible presence in the community and providing easy pathways for them to begin engaging the public. David Himmelfarb, University of South Florida, Cassandra Johnson Gaither, USDA-Forest Service and Meredith Welch Devine, University of Georgia, The Perils of Resurrecting ‘Dead Capital’: Heir Property Interventions and Contradictions of Value along the Georgia Coast For populations historically excluded from the mainstream economic, political, and legal spheres such as the African American residents of the Lowcountry, property passed to heirs outside of official probate channels, or heir property, is prevalent. Legal scholars and practitioners pointed out that the clouded, collectively-owned title for such property has kept owners from realizing the land’s economic potential and has rendered it vulnerable to expropriation. To date, proposed solutions to the “heir property problem” focus on individualizing land tenure. Yet such interventions tend to overlook the diverse social values heir property can have as common pool, family-owned resources. This paper uses Marx’s work on the contradiction between use and exchange value central to capitalism to understand how the tensions between economic and social values play out in recent efforts to stem the tide of heir property loss along the Georgia coast. We question whether such interventions that focus on bringing so-called “dead capital” to life may in fact deepen the subordination of social forms of value and exacerbate the on-going pressures of dispossession.

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Nelson Holden and Timothy Mulrooney, North Carolina Central University, Effects of Malfunctioning Septic System in Durham County on Water Quality using application of GIS Water is such an unequivocal necessity for any functioning society. In this day and age, household water is not only used for its nutritional value, but as a means to clean and transport waste. It is necessary that this water is not mixed or commingled in any way, shape and form. Contamination that comes from mixture of waste with our drinking water is cholera. Countries such as Haiti, Zimbabwe and Mexico. Have experienced an outbreak of cholera because mixing of drinking water and basic sanitation. In the Research Triangle Park region on North Carolina, Falls Lake, including the lower portion where Raleigh gets its drinking water, has failed states and federally water quality standards tests. Pollutants of the water can come from many different sources. One source of the pollution could come from “High Population of Malfunctioning Septic Systems of Durham County” according to John Huisman, senior environmental specialist at the North Carolina Division of Water Quality (DWQ). My project will see what extent a relationship exists between water quality and the proximity to malfunctioning septic systems in the Upper Neuse River Basin Watershed. Spatial dimensions of water quality can be mapped within the confines of a GIS (Geographic Information System) to determine if and how water quality can change with space. The first step I would need to take is understand how Septic systems can effect surface water. Next I will need to locate all Septic Systems in Durham County, which was obtain from Durham County GIS Department, and obtain all of the water quality information of certain nutrients that can be harmful to the environment. Water quality data was collected by the USGS for a single station over a period of years can be consolidated and mapped at the station level. One of these factors are malfunctioning septic systems, which can be mapped with respect to their proximity to Falls Lake and existing water monitoring stations. For future work on this project I will look to see if a relationship exists between water quality and proximity to malfunctioning septic systems, which can be mapped using a GIS. Genevieve Holdridge, David Leigh, and, Stephen Kowalewski, University of Georgia, Late Quaternary arroyo formation in the Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, Mexico Studies of late Quaternary paleosol-alluvium sequences in the deeply incised arroyos (up to 37 m) of the Río Culebra Valley in the Mixteca Alta, Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca, Mexico provide insight regarding climatic and anthropogenic drivers on hydrologic response, involving arroyo formation, during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. After a comprehensive survey in the Río Culebra Valley, ten profiles of paleosol-alluvial stratigraphy were chosen for in-depth description and sampling. Radiocarbon dates from samples collected (mainly from paleosols) indicate that strata are preserved since the late Pleistocene. The results of the paleosol-alluvial stratigraphic interpretations in both the Río Culebra Basin and the nearby Río Verde Basin, Nochixtlan are compared to the regional paleoclimatic signal from stalagmites obtained from Guerrero. It is found that during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, times of stability (i.e., paleosol formation) tend to form in drier periods, while instable periods (i.e., arroyo cycles) are prevalent in wetter and wet to dry transition periods. From the late middle through the late Holocene, human land management, in the form of lama-bordos (e.g., system of check-dams) and hillslope

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terraces, occasionally overprint the climatic signal, making it hard to untangle anthropogenic and climatic effects on stability and instability in the landscape. Overall, it is concluded that regional scale climatic drivers influence both arroyo cycles and paleosol formation throughout the late Pleistocene and Holocene, being influenced by the North Atlantic cooling events up until 4500 BP when ENSO dominates the paleoclimatic signal. Sally P. Horn, University of Tennessee, Soil Charcoal Evidence of Fire History in an Oak Ridge, Tennessee Forest Charcoal particles in soils provide site-specific evidence of past human-set and natural fires. Records of fire history based on soil charcoal are of low resolution in comparison to records derived from the study of fire-scarred trees, but soil charcoal records often cover much longer periods of time, and do not depend on the presence of trees that form fire scars. I focus here on soil charcoal as a proxy for past fire in forests of the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This research, education, and demonstration project occupies land purchased by the U.S. government in 1942 for the construction of the Manhattan Project. Soil cores were collected in 5-cm or 10-cm intervals to the depth of refusal to test whether the frequency of charcoal particles >2 mm in soil increments showed a relationship with land use at the time property was acquired for the Manhattan Project, and to compare soil charcoal frequency and masses in a modern oak hickory forest with results from other vegetation types in Tennessee and beyond. Thomas F. Howard, Armstrong State University, The Buenaventura River and the Great Basin For some 50 years in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries it was thought that there was a Buenaventura River flowing from the Rocky Mountains all the way to the central California coast. This misunderstanding began with the conflation of two quite distinct rivers in Utah and was extended by a combination of wishful thinking for a convenient water passage across North America, plus ignorance of endorheic basins, which were outside the experience of most European and American geographers of the time. The discovery that there was no such river and that a large area of the interior west was in fact the Great Basin is usually attributed to John C. Fremont, but we shall see that the discovery was not a sudden one and that there is some doubt as to whether Fremont was the first to understand the topographical reality of this region. Brad Huff and Amanda Rees, Columbus State University, Developing a Community Geography Program and Pedagogy at Columbus State University Community geography, a sub-field of geography has only recently become a term used in hiring geographers in the United States. Beginning with a brief discussion of community geography this paper discusses the evolving pedagogy of community geography at one institution, Columbus State University. Utilized by both professions in the program, this paper explores the two classes to identify elements that distinguish community geography in the classroom. These elements

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include: number of credit hours, average class size, prerequisites, the declared major of students who took the class, core reading choice, teaching strategies, introduction to Community Partners, site visit to community partner and/or research site, students have recognized roles within the larger project, concluding reflection paper integrating theory and practice, experience of community project outcomes. type of student work, publishing of student work online. The paper concludes with some of the strengths and limitations of the evolving pedagogy of community geography at CSU. Chen-Ling Hung and Allan L. James, University of South Carolina, Estimating Impervious Surface Areas and Flood Risks in a Small Urban Watershed Flood risks in urban areas increase greatly with land use. Percentage area of impervious surfaces (PAIS) is an important parameter for expressing and measuring hydrologic conditions in urban areas. Maps of PAIS are not often available, but they can be estimated by indirect methods. This paper uses a detailed map of PAIS as a reference map to examine the potential for using other spatial data measured from parcel and zoning maps to estimate PAIS. Data were processed using standard GIS methods and extracted for statistical correlations in a spreadsheet. Although univariate predictors of PAIS were limited, multivariate statistical models show a potential for predicting PAIS in a small, densely urbanized South Carolina watershed. These methods may be used to identify intensely urbanized areas suitable for application of low impact development to reduce flood risks. Michael Husebo, University of Georgia, Migration and working-class activism in the poultry complex of Northern Georgia Nicole S. Hutton, Graham A. Tobin and Linda M. Whiteford, University of South Florida, Changing demands on Third Sector Organizations following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand Non-profit, non-governmental, and faith based, collectively referred to as Third Sector Organizations (TSOs), are able to provide health care and social services to marginalized groups. By offering an alternative to and back-stopping government and private health and social services, TSOs are able to build resiliency amongst their target audiences. Following a natural disaster, TSOs are able to identify and address unmet needs and maintain a sense of community within their operating areas. The organic nature of community recovery, consequently, changes the role of TSOs in formal and grassroots efforts over time. Levels of involvement can also be dependent on connectivity within the sector and with other sectors, as well as resource availability. Narratives collected from TSOs in Christchurch, New Zealand following earthquakes in September 2010 and February 2011 show that health and social service organizations across the third sector organically respond to shifting demands based on resources

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one to four years later. Findings indicate that movements related to the earthquakes, such as mental health and improved housing have gained national traction, other recovery planning issues related to green spaces and improved language for campaign materials identified by TSOs as necessary for capacity building amongst marginalized groups have been bolstered by government and community consultation. As new office space and housing becomes available, it is important to track the impact of terminal relocation on staff stress, involvement with emerging forms of integration into recovery planning, and opportunities to improve organizational effectiveness based on experiences from the post-earthquake operating environment. Jordan Hyche, University of North Alabama, Urban Expansion in Dubai, U.A.E. from 1998 to 2013 with Satellite Remote Sensing The city of Dubai located in the United Arab Emirates has been under constant urban and agricultural change since the mid-1980s which has helped it become one of the largest cities in the world. This project looks to illustrate the changes in land cover and land use caused by such growth from the time period of 1988 to 2013. This research intends to compare two remote sensing classification methods: Supervised and Unsupervised, to determine which method is more accurate and efficient for the purpose of analyzing growth in Dubai, U.A.E. throughout the past twenty-five years. The results showed where the urban or agricultural change began and which direction it has taken since 1988. This directional change has been mostly in part of taking advantage of desalination. This has enabled Dubai to plant agricultural crops more inland, as well as, the use of new farming methods and begin urban sprawl. Ultimately, the Supervised Classification was determined to be the best method. It is the more appropriate method because the team determined training sites and signatures, and the different classifications were more distinguishable. Aidan Hysjulien, University of Georgia , Researching Geographies in Motion: Walking Interviews and Spatial Theory

The walking interview is a recently emerging qualitative methodology that attempts to weave together sit-down interviews and participant observation. It is firmly grounded in the theoretical position that the act of moving with and in space affects the way people experience and understand the world. This methodological approach works towards a more robust understanding how the performance of socio-spatial practice is directly affected by the folding, unfolding, and refolding of subjectivies and materialities as we move with-in space. It can be used to understand how the multiplicity of interacting scale work to shape the everyday spaces, while also illuminating how everyday practice has an important constitutive role in the production of space. This methodology has been shown to allow for interactions with things in space to become fruitful elicitation probes, it helps to weaken the often uncomfortable power dynamic between researcher and participant, and is exceptionally well suited for understanding how narratives, memory, and knowledge are entangled with the materiality of space. Despite the walking interview being theoretical grounded in spatial thinking, geographers have been slow to utilize and experiment with this method. The central argument of this paper is that geographers and walking interviews are uniquely suited for one another. The walking interview is a decidedly

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geographic method that has only recently begun to form and has exciting potential to molded and shaped by geographers. Embracing this method can help expand our methodological toolbox and open up possibilities to engage new questions.