Department of Geography and Planning Graduate Theses
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Item Landcover and Seasonal Hydrological Processes as Controls on the Flux and Composition of Dissolved Carbon in High Arctic Headwater Catchments(2024-07-29) Pereira, Cedelle; Geography and Planning; Lafrenière, MelissaClimate warming is increasing air temperatures, precipitation events and the occurrences of permafrost thaw and disturbances. These changes have the potential to affect organic matter mineralization and weathering rates. Permafrost thaw can result in the release of previously frozen organic carbon in the form of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which may be converted into carbon dioxide (CO2) through mineralization. Additionally, the exposure and warming of permafrost soils due to disturbances and thawing can enhance mineral weathering by carbonic acid, a process that converts atmospheric CO2 into dissolved carbonate species. Therefore, this weathering process has the potential to counterbalance the release and mineralization of organic carbon. However, there is limited research on the potential of weathering to consume CO2 in the High Arctic. To address this knowledge gap, this study examines seasonal carbon fluxes in three headwater catchments at the Cape Bounty Arctic Watershed Observatory (CBAWO), which represent different land cover types: wet sedge, mesic tundra, and permafrost disturbance. The disturbed stream exhibited higher concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), whereas the mesic tundra and wet sedge streams were dominated by dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Despite lower DIC concentrations, the mesic tundra catchment showed significantly higher DIC fluxes compared to the disturbed site, primarily due to its higher and sustained discharge. The optical properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM) indicate that DOM from the disturbed site was fresher compared to the vegetated sites, suggesting that DOM from disturbed sites is likely more structurally labile. Therefore, as the Arctic continues to warm, the balance of the impacts of increasing weathering, and increases in the flux of DOC and their potential feedbacks on atmospheric CO2 will depend on both the extent and nature of disturbances, as well as their net impact on hydrology.Item Housing, Natural Hazards and Flood Disaster Risk Reduction in Accra, Ghana(2024-07-19) Asiedu Kuffour, Oscar; Geography and Planning; Meligrana, JohnOn March 18, 2015, the United Nations developed and approved the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). The Sendai Framework, which provided new modalities for achieving risk reduction in the next decade, contained targets and priorities for action to prevent new and reduce existing disaster risks. The scope and purpose of the framework was to guide multi hazard management of disaster risk which apply to all disasters that are caused by natural, man-made, technological and biological hazards. The expected outcome of the Framework is a substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives and livelihoods of communities and countries. Ghana is a signatory to Sendai Framework (2015-2030) which was adopted by the UN General Assembly. One of the sectors of the economy that will challenge the realization of global disaster mitigation goals is housing, especially in the developing world. Inadequate housing supply, poor planning, limited housing alternatives and poor services means more people are living in slum conditions. This study presents the story of two peri urban communities in Accra, Ghana, in West Africa experiencing housing crisis and flooding in a delta area and striving to build resilience to flood hazards. I situate the thesis within the tradition of political ecology. By keeping with this tradition, I hang the thesis on Birkenholtz Network Political Ecology. Trevor Bikenholtz develops network political ecology from regional political ecology and scale theory due to the theory’s ability to examine human and non-human actors in hazard prone spaces. Its applicability in climate change and natural disaster reduction context also makes it more favourable for flood risk research. I apply Network Political Ecology in the flood situation of Tetegu and Glefe, two communities in peri urban Accra, Ghana, to analyze the struggles of both low-income urban dwellers and authorities. I use scholarly literatures, field observation and semi structured interviews with tenants, landlords, local artisans, municipal officers, and private estate developers to understand the ways poor people navigate life in flood prone areas. The research uncovers that private estate providers are seen by government to be right stakeholders that will build adequate housing and mitigate planning challenges in Accra but they do not have the capacity to fill the housing gap. The study provides an insight into the variety of ways in which poor people make decisions about their housing. It also provides voices to the marginalized as not irresponsible squatters who flout planning and building regulations. Rather, they are victims of non-working housing policy and planning environment.Item Bioacoustics, Sound Archives, Extinction: Critical geographies of bird sound recording and the sonic production of environmental knowledge.(2024-05-23) Hunter, Hannah Frances; Geography and Planning; Cameron, Laura JeanHow do (certain) humans come to know birds through sound, to what ends, and at what cost? This thesis explores the geographies of historical and contemporary bird sound recording(s) in order to investigate the entanglements of power, place, and sound in the production of environmental knowledge. Drawing from literature in sound studies, science and technology studies, historical geography, and beyond, I critically investigate and extend the sonic geographies of these recordings and their associated practices. To do so, I address three interrelated objectives. First, I articulate and analyze bird sound recordings as cultural-historical objects as opposed to neutral representations or data points. Second, I critically investigate how environmental knowledge has and might be made through bird sound recording(s), including in dominant science and ecological artworks. Third, I critically trace the sonic geographies of particular bird sound recordings and explore what we can learn from these. I advance a theoretical and methodological framework of critical sonic geography to investigate these elements through four independent but related manuscripts. The first considers the historical geographies of collection, power, and coloniality at the Cornell Library of Natural Sounds in the mid-20th century, exposing the complex cultural-historical geographies of recordings now held at the Macaulay Library. The second centers the historical recordings and contemporary sonic searches for the critically endangered Ivory-billed Woodpecker, arguing for the importance of considering geography in debates around the role and status of sound in science. The third considers the role of sound in memorialising extinction through artworks, and how these works produce relational sonic spaces for publics to mourn and resist extinction. The final manuscript is a research-creation experiment that animates, brings together, and extends several threads in this thesis in a series of audio essays that story the collection and afterlives of recordings of endangered birds. Ultimately, this dissertation exposes the power-laden geographies that impact how (certain) people do (and might) come to know birds through sound, and how sonic environmental knowledge itself produces power-laden geographies.Item Landscapes of conflict: Heritage of the Rideau Canal & Kingston Fortifications World Heritage Site(2024-05-24) Bazely, Susan; Geography and Planning; Bevan, GeorgeWhen inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2007, the Rideau Canal and the Kingston Fortifications were joined in a single site, but occupy geographically, historically, and phenomenologically different spaces. The inscription, driven by the parochial concerns of property owners along the canal, not by pre-existing federal heritage priorities, deters further development, but perpetuates an ultimately misleading impression of the canal and fortifications. The prevailing narrative sees the canal as an engineering marvel that with the fortifications kept British North America free from American annexation, a fear at the heart of Northrop Frye’s Canadian ‘garrison mentality’. Through a selective use of the visual record — mainly watercolours by British officers contemporary with the construction —, the canal is seen as a tranquil waterway, the preserve of isolated canoeists, not a corridor for steam-powered vessels towing barges, the intended users of the Rideau. It is no surprise then, that the site is today poorly understood by visitors and locals in Kingston, who struggle to connect a canal beyond the urban core with a fortification embedded within a still militarized space, set apart from everyday life. Without strong local understanding of the past connection between the canal and fortifications, one rooted in historical geography, the future protection of both, against a bewildering patchwork of government jurisdictions, and development pressures is uncertain. This dissertation situates the Rideau Canal within the history of British canal construction in its era and shows it as a ‘successful failure’. Certainly an engineering marvel, it was never put into operation militarily, and failed as an economic corridor. It did not lead to canal construction in Canada that used John By’s innovative slackwater techniques and represents an engineering ‘dead end’. Similarly, Kingston’s fortifications never saw action like other major Canadian fortifications but were built and maintained as a bulwark against a feared American expansion that never materialized. Analysis of their development, show that rather than state of the art defenses against an imminent threat, they were constructed mainly as a training exercise during a lull in global British fort-building, and not updated adequately to address the evolving American threat. This re-evaluation of the geography and history of the canal and fortifications does not diminish their heritage value, or global level recognition, but is a starting point for new more inclusive counter-narratives in the 21st century.Item Investigating Landscape Control on High Arctic Wetland Water Chemistry, Qausuittuq (Resolute Bay), Nunavut(2024-05-17) Landriault, Véronique; Geography and Planning; Lafrenière, Melissa; Omelon, ChristopherClimate change affects High Arctic hydrological and biogeochemical processes by increasing air and soil temperatures and altering precipitation patterns, leading to permafrost degradation and increased surface-subsurface water connectivity. In polar desert regions, wetlands serve as critical biogeochemical hotspots, impacting watershed-scale biogeochemical and hydrological processes. Since polar desert wetlands form where reliable water sources are available, spatial variations in water sources and geomorphology can result in spatial differences in wetland biogeochemistry, allowing for the classification of wetlands based on hydrogeomorphic position. Despite past studies acknowledging spatial variations in High Arctic wetland water chemistry due to landscape variations, no studies have explored the influence of hydrogeomorphology, specifically water source and landscape position, on wetland water chemistry. This thesis aims to fill this knowledge gap by evaluating the seasonal and spatial dynamics of water chemistry for hydrogeomorphically distinct wetlands throughout the growing season. We classified 15 wetland sites into five wetland types based on their hydrogeomorphic position following Woo & Young’s (2003) wetland classification in Qausuittuq (Resolute Bay), Nunavut. Water samples and ground thaw measurements were collected throughout the growing season to assess wetland water chemistry’s response to thaw progression and analyze spatial variations linked to hydrogeomorphology. Moisture content, vegetation cover, topography, geology, and thaw depth were compared between sites to understand the influence of landscape position on wetland water chemistry. Results indicate that, in the first half of the season, ion concentrations were strongly linked to thaw depths irrespective of hydrogeomorphic setting. In the second half of the season, ion concentrations were less influenced by thaw depth and more controlled by landscape factors such as moisture content, vegetation, ground ice, permafrost history, and geology. Hydrogeomorphic settings remained important in controlling major ion and nutrient concentrations in snowbank and polar desert wetlands due to their unique hydrogeomorphic positions. This thesis identifies the key landscape factors and hydrogeomorphic settings influencing wetland water chemistry. These findings are crucial for developing predictive models that can inform how climate change will impact High Arctic wetland water quality, and the health of associated freshwater ecosystems, which are important to the health and well-being of the Inuit.