Geography and Sustainability

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Course flyer: GEOG 313

Course flyers – GEOG 313 & GEOG 433

Dear Students,

Professor Yingkui Li is offering two courses in Fall 2021 that may be of interest to you. Please see the flyers below. Feel free to email Professor Li if you have any questions.

GEOG 313 flyer

GEOG 313

Geospatial Field Methods of UAVs, Lidar, and GPS

Interested in learning how to fly drones (UAVs) and use LiDAR? Want to learn how to apply these technologies to create interesting, 3-dimensional maps? GEOG 313 is the class for you! In this course, we will explore the applications of drones, LiDAR, and GPS to obtain process, and analyze geospatial data.

GEOG 433

Landform Analysis and Landscape Planning

Interested in surface processes and natural disasters related to landscape planning, such as landslides, flooding, sediment transport, soil erosion, and human impact on environment? GEOG 433 is the class for you. This course helps you understand the scientific knowledge of surface processes, learn the principles and methods to mitigate natural disasters and human impact on environment, and acquire “real-world” techniques for landscape planning.

Course flyer for GEOG 340

Course flyers – Geog 340 & Geog 442

Dear Students,

Prof. Madhuri Sharma is offering two courses this Fall 2021 that may be of interest to you in terms of contents as well as in terms of fulfilling several required majors, etc. for you. Please see the flyers in this pdf. Note that GEOG 340 is for UG but 442 can be taken by grads and undergrads both. Feel free to email Dr. Sharma if you have any questions.

GEOG 340 flyer

GEOG 340

Economic Geography-Core Concepts

  • Economic geography: location, distance, place & scale of economic concepts
  • Evolution of capitalism, capitalism types
  • Innovation & Kondratiev Waves of economic activity
  • Demand & Supply theory + population economy
  • World Systems Theory + core, periphery, semi-periphery
  • Globalization / spatial division of labor
  • Spatial interactions, distance decay and gravity model, Central Place Theory
  • Transnational & multinational corporations
  • Environment, economy, and food (in)security
  • Gender economy and race/ethnic economy
  • Culture of consumption, poverty/income inequality
GEOG 442 flyer

GEOG 442

Urban Spaces/Urban Society

  • Differences—Where, Why, and How?
  • Understand and discuss the theories and empirical patterns of socio-spatial disparities and complex relationships due to human diversity
  • How these factors interact with each other to produce spaces and opportunities of difference
    • Urban ecology theories, neighborhoods & communities
    • Gentrification, capitalism, crises in capitalism & uneven
    • Race/ethnicity, diversity & multi-culturalism
    • Ethnic and gender economy
    • Environmental racism, white supremacy, white privilege (political-economy discourses)
    • Globalization, deindustrialization & metropolitan problems (race, crime, poverty)
    • Urbanization: developed & developing world
  • Evaluation criteria: movie review, article critique, group-based class discussions and commentary, mid-term exam, short class presentation for all students, final exam
Book jacket for Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time

Professor Shaw published a new book: Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time

Professor Shaw published a new book: Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time

Book jacket for Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time

Professor Shih-Lung Shaw just published a new book titled “Mapping COVID-19 in Space and Time: Understanding the Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of a Global Pandemic”. It is co-edited by Dr. Daniel Sui.

Here is the link to the eBook: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-030-72808-3. The print version of the book https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030728076 will be available in about 2-3 weeks. Please feel free to contact Professor Shaw if you have any questions about this book. 

About this book:

This book describes the spatial and temporal perspectives on COVID-19 and its impacts and deepens our understanding of human dynamics during and after the global pandemic. It critically examines the role smart city technologies play in shaping our lives in the years to come. The book covers a wide-range of issues related to conceptual, theoretical and data issues, analysis and modeling, and applications and policy implications such as socio-ecological perspectives, geospatial data ethics, mobility and migration during COVID-19, population health resilience and much more.

With accelerated pace of technological advances and growing divide on political and policy options, a better understanding of disruptive global events such as COVID-19 with spatial and temporal perspectives is an imperative and will make the ultimate difference in public health and economic decision making. Through in-depth analyses of concepts, data, methods, and policies, this book stimulates future studies on global pandemics and their impacts on society at different levels.

Kelsey Ellis

Professor Ellis received UTK ISSE Grant

Professor Ellis received UTK ISSE Grant

Professor Kelsey Ellis just received a grant from the UTK Institute for a Secure & Sustainable Environment (ISSE). Her project is titled “Beat the heat: Building adaptive capacity of vulnerable populations in Knox County to combined stressors from climate change and urban heat“. Her collaborators on the project include Jennifer First (Social Work) and Kristing Kintziger (Public Health). 

Dr. Shih-Lung Shaw

Professor Shih-Lung Shaw elected President of UCGIS

Professor Shih-Lung Shaw elected President of UCGIS

Dr. Shih-Lung Shaw

UTK Geography Professor Dr. Shih-Lung Shaw has been elected President-Elect of the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), which is a non-profit organization that creates and supports communities of practice for GIScience research, education, and policy endeavors in higher education and with allied institutions. It is the professional hub for the academic GIS community in the United States, with partnerships extending this capacity abroad. 

It will be a three-year service and Dr. Shaw will serve as President-Elect, President, and Past President of UCGIS. We thank Dr. Shaw for his service and leadership in GIS. Congratulations!

Jamie Alumbaugh

UTK Geography student Jamie Alumbaugh received AAG research grant

UTK Geography student Jamie Alumbaugh received AAG research grant

Jamie Alumbaugh

UTK Geography graduate student Jamie Alumbaugh received a research grant from the Paleoenvironmental Change specialty group at the April 2021 meeting of the American Association of Geographers. The grant will support her dissertation research using ancient sedimentary DNA along with other evidence in lake sediment cores to understand long-term patterns of environmental change and human-environment interactions in the Andes mountains of Ecuador.

Sally Horn exploring a lake in Costa Rica

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received a Lifetime Achievement Award

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received a Lifetime Achievement Award

Sally Horn exploring a lake in Costa Rica
Sally Horn exploring a lake in Costa Rica

UTK Geography Professor Sally Horn received the Karl and Elisabeth Butzer Award for Lifetime Achievement in the study of Paleoenvironmental Change at the April 2021 meeting of the American Association of Geographers. Presented to Sally by the Paleoenvironmental Specialty Group, this award is named after the late Karl Butzer, a geographer who specialized in the study of sedimentary and archaeological evidence of past environments, and his wife and research partner, Elisabeth Butzer, whose continuing research focuses on archival evidence of environmental change. Sally received the award in recognition of her efforts, along with dozens of collaborators and graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Tennessee and elsewhere, to document the long-term environmental history of the circum-Caribbean region, South America, and the southeastern U.S. based on lake sediments and other natural archives.

Dr. Carol Harden

Professor Emerita Dr. Carol Harden received AAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Professor Emerita Dr. Carol Harden received AAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Source: http://news.aag.org/2020/12/2021-aag-honors

Dr. Carol Harden

Dr. Carol Harden, the 2021 recipient of the AAG’s Lifetime Achievement Honors, is the quintessential field scientist, professional association leader, and effective science communicator. She has been at the forefront of advancing geography’s role in the natural sciences, whether in the AAG, National Research Council, National Geographic Society, or National Science Foundation. Over a half-century career, Harden has established herself as one of the leading figures in contemporary physical geography and environmental science. More broadly, she has had a tremendous influence across our entire discipline, owing to the many roles she has played at the University of Tennessee, AAG, National Research Council, and National Geographic Society, and as editor of Physical Geography.

Since the 1980s, Harden has done fieldwork in the Andes, including a year on a Fulbright to Ecuador. Her commitment to international fieldwork and diversity in geography and other field disciplines and her encyclopedic knowledge of physical geography allows her to evaluate critically, and advocate for support of, fieldwork, especially by diverse scholars from around the world. In addition to her Latin American research, she has generated a substantial body of research in the U.S., mainly in Appalachia, on soil erosion, watershed hydrology, water quality, and human impacts.

Harden is currently the Chair of the Geographical Sciences Committee and a Member of the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, both for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). She was recently a member of the prestigious and influential Committee on Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society. She has also served as a member and Chair of the Nominations Committee, Geology, and Geology Section, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Harden was a member (2017) and then Chair (2016-2020) of the Geographical Sciences Committee (GSC-NASEM). In 2010-2012, Harden served first as Vice President and then as President of the American Association of Geographers. She is a compassionate listener and a fair-minded leader. Harden is a mentor with an impact on cultivating new and early-career disciplinary leaders. She does this with a clear vision of geography’s role in science, higher education, and society, allowing her to see and realize new opportunities and build new initiatives. A strong sense of collegiality and caring has allowed her to engage in constructive and productive dialog across several disciplinary divides. For these qualities and achievements, the AAG recognizes Carol Harden as the 2021 recipient of the AAG Lifetime Achievement Honors.

Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people across the state. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

Wild weather: 4 essential reads about tornadoes and thunderstorms

Wild weather: 4 essential reads about tornadoes and thunderstorms

Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people across the state. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
Debris near Lebanon, Tennessee, after tornadoes struck on the night of March 3, 2020, killing more than 20 people across the state. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

Jennifer Weeks, The Conversation

Springtime in the U.S. is frequently a season for thunderstorms, which can spawn tornadoes. These large storms are common in the South and Southeast in March and April, then shift toward the Plains states in May. Scientists have warned that 2021 could be an active tornado year, partly because of a La Niña climate pattern in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Past research has suggested that La Niña increases the frequency of tornadoes and hail by concentrating hot, humid air over Texas and other Southern states, which helps to promote storm formation.

These four articles from The Conversation’s archives explain how tornadoes form, why night tornadoes are more deadly, and how in rare cases thunderstorms can take a different but equally destructive form – a derecho. We also look at a neglected aspect of disaster response: disposing of massive quantities of waste.

1. How thunderstorms generate tornadoes

Most tornadoes are spawned by large, intense thunderstorms called supercell thunderstorms. The key ingredients are rising air that rotates, and wind shear – winds at different altitudes blowing at different speeds, and/or from different directions.

Forecasters can’t always predict when or where a tornado may form, but they are very good at identifying the conditions that have the potential to support strong tornadoes. As Penn State university meteorologists Paul Markowski and Yvette Richardson explain,

“The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center routinely predicts large outbreaks days in advance. ‘High-risk’ outlooks capture most major tornado events, and strong tornadoes rarely occur outside of tornado watches. We have less ability to forecast tornadoes in more marginal situations, such as within non-supercell storms.”

2. A special risk in the South: Night tornadoes

Tornado strikes are bad news at any time, but especially when they occur at night. Night tornadoes are more than twice as likely to be fatal as daytime twisters, for several reasons: They are harder for storm spotters to see, people may sleep through alerts, and victims are more likely to be in vulnerable structures such as mobile homes at night.

Night tornadoes are more common in the South because of regional atmospheric conditions there. University of Tennessee geographer Kelsey Ellis and Middle Tennessee State University geoscientist Alisa Hass write that communication challenges are a serious problem in their state, where nearly half of tornadoes strike at night.

“Experts in Tennessee recommend having multiple methods for receiving warnings at night,” they note. “This strategy allows for backup options when power goes out, cellphones go down or other unforeseen circumstances occur.”

WILD WEATHER

4 essential reads about tornadoes and thunderstorms

What causes some supercell thunderstorms to become tornadoes?

3. Derechos: Storms without spin

In rare instances, weather systems can generate organized lines of thunderstorms called derechos, from the Spanish word for “straight ahead.” For a storm to qualify as a derecho, it has to produce winds of 57.5 mph (26 meters per second) or greater. And those intense winds must extend over a path at least 250 miles (400 kilometers) long, with no more than three hours separating individual severe wind reports.

Most areas of the Central and eastern U.S. may experience a derecho once or twice a year on average. They occur mainly from April through August, but they can also occur earlier in spring or later in fall. And they can inflict heavy damage. A derecho that swept across the Midwest in August 2020 generated over US$7.5 billion in damages – the nation’s most costly thunderstorm.

Derechos can be even harder to predict than tornadoes, and once they form, they can move very fast. As Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Russ Schumacher warns,

“Communities, first responders and utilities may have only a few hours to prepare for an oncoming derecho, so it is important to know how to receive severe thunderstorm warnings, such as TV, radio and smartphone alerts, and to take these warnings seriously. Tornadoes and tornado warnings often get the most attention, but lines of severe thunderstorms can also pack a major punch.”

An August 2020 derecho crumpled this grain storage tower in Martelle, Iowa. Phil Roeder/Flickr, CC BY
An August 2020 derecho crumpled this grain storage tower in Martelle, Iowa. Phil Roeder/Flickr, CC BY

4. Cleaning up after storms

Tornadoes and other natural disasters often leave huge quantities of debris behind – uprooted trees, splintered buildings, smashed cars and more. It can take communities months or even years to clean up, and the process typically is slow, expensive and dangerous.

Sybil Derrible of the University of Illinois–Chicago, Juyeong Choi of Florida State University and Nazli Yesiller of California Polytechnic State University study urban engineering, disaster management and planning, and waste management. They see a need for new technologies and strategies that officials can use to figure out what materials storm debris contains and find options for separating, reusing and recycling it.

“For example, drones and autonomous sensing technologies can be combined with artificial intelligence to estimate amounts and quality of debris, the types of materials it contains and how it can be repurposed rapidly. Technologies that allow for fast sorting and separation of mixed materials can also speed up debris management operations,” they write.

“Turning the problem around, creating new sustainable construction materials – especially in disaster-prone areas – will make it easier to repurpose debris after disasters.”

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

Jennifer Weeks, Senior Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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