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open access

Assessing Outcomes of a Recycling Education and Service Program within an Elementary School

During the spring 2004 a pilot school recycling program was implemented within Robert E. Lee Elementary. The primary goal of the program was to determine how recycling education in the school would affect curbside recycling rates within the surrounding community. The program was a cooperative effort between the University of North Texas, City of Denton Solid Waste Department and Keep Denton Beautiful. Throughout the first months of the study during the spring 2004, an increase in curbside rec… more

Date: August 2005

Creator: Cunningham-Scott, Carey Beth

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Determination of Habitat Preferences of Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) on the Rolling Plains of Texas Using GIS and Remote Sensing

The Rocker b Ranch on the southern Rolling Plains has one of the last sizeable populations of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) in Texas. To investigate habitat utilization on the ranch, pronghorn were fitted with GPS/VHF collars and were released into pastures surrounded by a variety of fences to determine how fence types affected habitat selection. Habitat parameters chosen for analysis were vegetation, elevation, slope, aspect, and distances to water, roads, and oil wells. Results showed … more

Date: May 2005

Creator: Aiken, Robin A.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Ecological Association Between the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker and Southern Pine Beetle in the Homochitto National Forest: a Geographic Information System Approach

Since the introduction of management practices by the Forest Service to stabilize red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) populations, the number of cavity trees killed by southern pine beetles (SPB) has increased. A model of the landscape ecology of RCW and SPB in the Homochitto National Forest was created using data collected from the Forest Service and Global Atmospherics. The conclusions of the study were that the RCW and SPB utilize the same type of habitat and the stand hazard maps are an accurate … more

Date: December 1998

Creator: Skordinski, Karen R. (Karen Renee)

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Hydrological Impacts of Urbanization: White Rock Creek, Dallas Texas

This research project concerns changes in hydrology resulting from urbanization of the upper sub-basin of the White Rock Creek Watershed in Collin and Dallas Counties, Texas. The objectives of this study are: to calculate the percent watershed urbanized for the period of 1961 through 1968 and the period of 2000 through 2005; to derive a 1960s average unit hydrograph and a 2000s average unit hydrograph; and, to use the two averaged hydrographs to develop a range of hypothetical storm scenarios t… more

Date: December 2005

Creator: Vicars, Julie Anne Groening

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

A Storm Water Runoff Investigation Using Gis and Remote Sensing

Environmental controls are becoming more and more expensive to implement, so environmental management is becoming more technologically advanced and efficient through the adoption of new techniques and models. This paper reviews the potential for storm water runoff for the city of Denton, Texas and with the main objective to perform storm water runoff analyses for three different land use datasets; each landuse dataset created with a different methodology. Also analyzed was the difference betwee… more

Date: August 2012

Creator: Jennings, Laura

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Modeling the Relationship Between Golden Algae Blooms in Lake Texoma, Usa, Versus Nearby Land Use and Other Physical Variables

Pyrmnesium parvum, commonly known as golden algae, is an algal species that under certain circumstances releases toxins which can lead to fish kills and the death of other economically and ecologically important organisms. One of the major objectives of the study was to investigate whether a relationship exists between land use and Prymnesium parvum abundance in littoral sites of Lake Texoma, USA. Another objective was to investigate whether a relationship exists between other physical variable… more

Date: August 2012

Creator: Ware, Trudy M.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Geography of Tuberculosis in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana

In Ghana, spatial patterns of TB vary for different regions and variations may occur within the same region. This study examines TB distribution in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Behavioral, cultural and economic variables associated with TB morbidity are examined. From January 1998 to June 1999, data obtained from the Ghana Ministry of Health revealed that, men had a higher TB rate than women, TB was common among the age groups 20-29 and 30-39, a… more

Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.

Date: May 2001

Creator: Donkor, Kweku

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Technical Memorandum: Lewisville Lake Watershed Protection & Management Strategies

This report represents the findings of a study which "assessed the viability of the Water Quality Corridor Management (WQCM) model in reviewing the status of stream systems, and ultimately, established an accurate mechanism for evaluating the stream corridor and surface water quality draining into Lewisville Lake" (p. 1).

Date: September 2007

Creator: University of North Texas. Institute of Applied Sciences.

Item Type: Report

Partner: UNT Institute of Applied Sciences

open access

Investigation of Lead Hydrolytic Polymerization and Interactions with Organic Ligands in the Soil/Sediment-Water Environment

The objective of this research was to investigate lead speciation in the soil/sediment-water environment and to better understand how the species affect lead mobility under different environmental conditions. The research involved both field soil and sediment samples as well as standard lead solutions. Field samples were fully characterized and extracted by aqueous and organic solvents. The results were compared and evaluated with the metal speciation model, MINTEQA2. Hydrolytic polymerization … more

Date: December 2002

Creator: Sanmanee, Natdhera

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Use of In-Stream Water Quality Measurements and Geospatial Parameters to Predict Consumer Surfactant Toxic Units in the Upper Trinity River Watershed, Texas

Surfactants are used in a wide assortment of "down-the-drain" consumer products, yet they are often discharged in wastewater treatment plant effluent into receiving water, potentially causing environmental harm. The objective of this project was to predict surfactant toxic units and in-stream nutrients in the upper Trinity River watershed. Surface and pore water samples were collected in late summer 2005. General chemistries and surfactant toxic units were calculated. GIS models of anthropo… more

Date: May 2008

Creator: Johnson, David Richard

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Effect of Natural Gas Well Setback Distance on Drillable Land in the City of Denton, Texas

Municipalities protect human health and environmental resources from impacts of urban natural gas drilling through setback distances; the regulation of distances between well sites and residences, freshwater wells, and other protected uses. Setback distances have increased over time, having the potential to alter the amount and geographical distribution of drillable land within a municipality, thereby having implications for future land use planning and increasing the potential for future incom… more

Date: May 2014

Creator: Daniel, Michael

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

Ecosystem Services and Sustainability: A Framework for Improving Decision-Making in Urban Areas

Ecosystem services are the varied goods and benefits provided by ecosystems that make human life possible. This concept has fostered scientific explorations of the services that nature provides to people with the goal of sustaining those services for future generations. As the world becomes increasingly urban, ecosystems are reshaped, and services are degraded. Provisioning and regulating ecosystem services, landscape planning, decision making, and agricultural systems and technologies play a d… more

This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.

Date: May 2022

Creator: Valencia Torres, Angélica

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Tarrant County Atlas for Planning: A Geographic Information System for Open Space Design

This project demonstrates the construction of a land planning geographic information system (GIS) for Tarrant County, and explores how the technology could be used to select sites for a county wide open space preservation plan. As Texas' Tarrant County continues to undergo rapid change due to growth and expansion, the need for proactive, resourceful community planning is greater than ever. One crucial issue facing the region is how to preserve open areas that serve the county's citizens' ecolog… more

Date: May 1996

Creator: Stewart, Mark Pierce

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

A Data Fusion Framework for Floodplain Analysis using GIS and Remotely Sensed Data

Throughout history floods have been part of the human experience. They are recurring phenomena that form a necessary and enduring feature of all river basin and lowland coastal systems. In an average year, they benefit millions of people who depend on them. In the more developed countries, major floods can be the largest cause of economic losses from natural disasters, and are also a major cause of disaster-related deaths in the less developed countries. Flood disaster mitigation research was c… more

Access: Restricted to UNT Community Members. Login required if off-campus.

Date: August 2000

Creator: Necsoiu, Dorel Marius

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Atmospheric Visibility Assessment for Urban Areas Using Photographic Slides and Optical Densitometry

The factors involved in calculating Standard Visual Range (SVR) are discussed, and a comparison is made between the visibility reported by airport observers and the photographic slide/ optical densitometer method of calculating SVR. Using slides of Houston, Texas, from the fall and winter of 1988-89, it was found that the altitude at which the contrast measurements are made significantly affects the SVR. Also an index for predicting high and low humidity was developed using the blue/red ratio o… more

Date: May 1992

Creator: Jacob, Mary Katherine

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Selection and Use of Aquatic Vegetation by Migratory Waterfowl in North Central Texas

Assessment of aquatic plant selection by waterfowl has been conducted during the winters of 1997-2000 on 49 0.2-0.79 ha research ponds in north central Texas. Ponds were categorized by dominant plant species into eight habitat types. Census with waterfowl species identification were performed to investigate impacts of aquatic vegetation and water depth on waterfowl. Eighteen waterfowl species were observed. Peak migration occurred in late December/early January. Mixed native ponds and mixed nat… more

Date: May 2001

Creator: Smith, JoEtta Kaye

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Estimating Postmortem Interval Using VNIR Spectroscopy on Human Cortical Bone

Postmortem interval (PMI) estimation is a necessary but often difficult task that must completed during a death investigation. The level of difficulty rises as time since death increases, especially with the case of skeletonized remains (long PMI). While challenging, a reliable PMI estimate may be of great importance for investigative direction and cost-savings (e.g. suspect identification, tailoring missing persons searches, non-forensic remains exclusion). Long PMI can be estimated by assessi… more

Date: May 2018

Creator: Servello, John A.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

The Influence of Disease Mapping Methods on Spatial Patterns and Neighborhood Characteristics for Health Risk

This thesis addresses three interrelated challenges of disease mapping and contributes a new approach for improving visualization of disease burdens to enhance disease surveillance systems. First, it determines an appropriate threshold choice (smoothing parameter) for the adaptive kernel density estimation (KDE) in disease mapping. The results show that the appropriate threshold value depends on the characteristics of data, and bandwidth selector algorithms can be used to guide such decisions a… more

Date: December 2017

Creator: Ruckthongsook, Warangkana

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Detecting the Presence of Disease by Unifying Two Methods of Remote Sensing.

There is currently no effective tool available to quickly and economically measure a change in landmass in the setting of biomedical professionals and environmental specialists. The purpose of this study is to structure and demonstrate a statistical change-detection method using remotely sensed data that can detect the presence of an infectious land borne disease. Data sources included the Texas Department of Health database, which provided the types of infectious land borne diseases and indica… more

Date: May 2002

Creator: Reames, Steve

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Residential Grid-Connected Photovoltaics Adoption in North Central Texas: Lessons from the Solarize Plano Project

Residential Grid-Connected Photovoltaics (GPV) systems hold remarkable promise in their potential to reduce energy use, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy costs to consumers, while also providing grid efficiency and demand-side management benefits to utilities. Broader adoption of customer-sited GPV also has the potential to transform the traditional model of electricity generation and delivery. Interest and activity has grown in recent years to promote GPV in north central Tex… more

Date: August 2016

Creator: Jack, Katherine G.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Spatially Explicit Modeling of West Nile Virus Risk Using Environmental Data

West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging infectious disease that has widespread implications for public health practitioners across the world. Within a few years of its arrival in the United States the virus had spread across the North American continent. This research focuses on the development of a spatially explicit GIS-based predictive epidemiological model based on suitable environmental factors. We examined eleven commonly mapped environmental factors using both ordinary least squares regress… more

Date: December 2015

Creator: Kala, Abhishek K.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Photo-induced Toxicity of Deepwater Horizon Spill Oil to Four Native Gulf of Mexico Species

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in the accidental release of millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Photo-induced toxicity following co-exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is one mechanism by which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from oil spills may exert toxicity. Blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) are an important commercial and ecological resource in the Gulf of Mexico and their largely transparent larvae may make them sensitive to PAH photo-ind… more

Date: December 2015

Creator: Alloy, Matthew Michael

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Mass Spectrometry-Based Identification of Ceramic-Bound Archaeological Protein Residues: Method Validation, Residue Taphonomy, and Prospects

Despite the variety of successful reports of the preservation, recovery, and identification of archaeological proteins in general, there are few positive reports regarding mass spectrometry-based identification of ceramic-bound proteins. In large part, this shortage is due to the lack of consideration for the unique taphonomic histories of such residues and, in general, methods development. Further, because negative results are rarely published, there is no baseline to which results can be comp… more

Date: December 2018

Creator: Barker, Andrew Lewis

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries

open access

Developing a Forest Gap Model to Be Applied to a Watershed-scaled Landscape in the Cross Timbers Ecoregion Using a Topographic Wetness Index

A method was developed for extending a fine-scaled forest gap model to a watershed-scaled landscape, using the Eastern Cross Timbers ecoregion as a case study for the method. A topographic wetness index calculated from digital elevation data was used as a measure of hydrologic across the modeled landscape, and the gap model modified to have with a topographically-based hydrologic input parameter. The model was parameterized by terrain type units that were defined using combinations of USDA soil… more

Date: August 2014

Creator: Goetz, Heinrich (Heinrich Erwin)

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation

Partner: UNT Libraries