Over 9 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB) were reported worldwide in 2013. While the TB rate is much lower in the US, its uneven distribution and associated explanatory variables require interrogation in order to determine effective strategies for intervention and control. However, paucity of case data at fine geographic scales precludes such research. This research, using zip code level data from 837 confirmed TB cases in Tarrant County obtained from Texas Department of State Health Services, explores and attempts to explain the spatial patterns of TB and related risk markers within a framework of place vulnerability. Readily available census data is then used to characterize the spatial variations in TB risk. The resulting model will enable estimations of the geographic differences in TB case variables using this readily available census data instead of time-consuming and expensive individual data collection.

This thesis interrogates sense of place and place attachment in the Big Empty on the north central Texas plains. The region stretches from the Red River on the north to the Colorado River basin on the south and from the Cross Timbers on the east to the Caprock escarpment on the west. Since 1930, the Big Empty has seen sustained and severe population decline such that some counties there now register less than a quarter the population they did at their peaks during the interwar years. Through in-depth field interviews, I examine sense of place and place attachment amidst apparently irreversible decline. I also describe conditions of postindustrial rurality arising from rolling reconfigurations of economic and social relations, particularly changes in scale in farming and the diminished centrality of productivist agriculture in local economies and culture, and how these conditions become legible through the study of place.

Rainfall interception is one mechanism by which tree canopies can reduce surface runoff in urban areas. The objectives of this research were to: 1) quantify rainfall interception by urban tree canopies, and 2) determine the influence of vegetation and microenvironmental factors on rainfall interception rates. In the city of Denton, Texas, 30 mature post oak (Quercus stellata) and blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) trees were selected for study. Trees were assigned to one of three categories: clusters of trees on greenspace (CG), isolated trees on greenspace (IG), and isolated trees surrounded by pavement (IP). Throughfall (the volume of water that travels through the canopy and reaches the soil surface) collectors were placed beneath these trees and rainfall collectors were placed in nearby open areas. Throughfall and rainfall were collected daily from 19 March to 4 July. Interception was calculated as the difference between throughfall and gross rainfall. Over the study period, there were 27 days with measurable rainfall; daily rainfall ranged from 1-51 mm. Over the sampling period, rainfall interception for individual trees ranged from -10% to 49%, indicating high spatial variability in interception. Percent interception was highest for the CG treatment (22.7 ± 3.8 SE), intermediate for IG (27.4 ± …

Software as a service (SaaS) is a primary working pattern and a significant application model for next generation Internet application. Web GIS services are the new generation of the Software as a service that can provide the hosted spatial data and GIS functionalities to the practical customized applications. This study focused on developing a webGIS based application, Soil Moisture-Based Irrigation Scheduling Tool (SMIST), for predicting soil moisture in the next seven days using the soil moisture diagnostic equation (SMDE) and the upcoming seven precipitation forecasts made by the National Weather Service (NWS), and ultimately producing an accurate irrigation schedule based on the predicted soil moisture. The SMIST is expected to be capable of improving the irrigation efficiency to protect groundwater resources in the Texas High Plains and reducing the cost of energy for pumping groundwater for irrigation, as an essential public concern in this area. The SMIST comprised an integration of web-based programs, a Hydrometeorological model, GIS, and geodatabase. It integrates two main web systems, the soil moisture estimating web application for irrigation scheduling based on the soil moisture diagnostic equation (SMDE), and an agricultural field delineation webGIS application to prepare input data and the model parameters. The SMIST takes …

Elemental carbon (EC), a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass, contributes to climate warming and poor air quality. In urban areas, diesel fuel trucks are the main source of EC emissions from mobile sources. After emission, EC is deposited to receptor surfaces via two main pathways: precipitation (wet deposition) and directly as particles (dry deposition). Urban trees may play an important role in removing EC from the atmosphere by intercepting and delivering it directly to the soil. The goal of this research was to quantify the magnitude of EC retention in leaf waxes (in-wax EC) and EC fluxes to the soil via leaf litterfall in the City of Denton, Texas. Denton is a rapidly growing urban location in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. A foliar extraction technique was used to determine EC retention in leaf waxes. Foliar samples were collected monthly, from April through July, from pairs of Quercus stellata (post oak, n=10) and Quercus virginiana (live oak, n = 10) trees. Samples were rinsed with water and chloroform in a two-step process to determine EC retained in leaf waxes. A Sunset OC/EC aerosol analyzer was utilized to analyze the EC content of extracts filtered onto quartz-fiber …

It is well established that national retail chains impact small, single location retail businesses in terms of revenue generation, retail structure, retail type diversity, and location. This study examines the retail structure and diversity of five retail districts in the City of Denton, Texas. The analysis focuses on one central business district (CBD), one traditional retail strip center (University Drive, also known as US HWY 380), one special retail district (Fry Street District), one traditional enclosed shopping mall and associated development (Golden Triangle Mall), and one power retail center (Denton Crossing). The empirical foundation for the investigation is a historical business database covering years 1997 to 2010, obtained from Info Group's Reference USA. This Reference USA database includes location, industry, and status (single versus chain location) information for each business. Retail diversity and evenness were measured for each of the five retail districts using the Simpson's Diversity Index and the Simpsons Measure of Evenness, leading to specification of the differences that exist in retail structure and diversity among the districts. Golden Triangle Mall and Denton Crossing were primarily chain location in composition while Fry Street District, the CBD, and University Drive were primarily single location in composition. Across all years, …

Since the adoption of neoliberalism, many cities have taken to integrating nature with capital accumulation to create a sense of place. This has been closely tied to urban greening, or green "revitalization." As part of curating this desired character, city governments are working to roll out plans to restore and renew neighborhoods using their natural landscapes through methods such as reforestation, the creation of parks, and commercial development. These cities, deemed Entrepreneurial cities, are increasingly incorporating natural or green spaces into their development of character as part of their branding schemes. This research focuses on the role of nature as the site of economic development and community revitalization within Dallas, Texas. This research examines how the City of Dallas uses nature to attract capital, and how the narratives of development relate to residents' visions for development in the historically neglected Joppa neighborhood in the Trinity River Corridor. Development near Joppa could be an example of how the natural landscape is being used to not only attract developers but also to bring a different ‘class' of resident into the area. By exploring this intersection of nature and capital in Dallas, we can better understand the nuanced ways through which the neoliberalization …

The Texas High Plains produces the most substantial amount of cotton in Texas. The region is a semi-arid area with limited precipitation, and it is, therefore, susceptible to climate change. Cotton production in the Texas High Plains is mostly dependent on irrigation to increase yield. The overall goal of this research was to study the interrelationships between climate change and cotton yield using correlation analysis and also to study how climate has changed in the region using trend analysis. A three-decade data (1987-2017) was analyzed to establish the relationship between climate change and cotton and also to determine how climate has changed in the area over the last 30 years. The research used precipitation and temperature data to assess climate change.The results of this research showed that annual mean temperature has lesser impacts on cotton yield, and the correlation between annual precipitation and cotton yield is insignificant. It also found out that high rates of temperature at the boll opening stage of cotton growth results in decreased cotton yield and that at the boll development and boll opening stages, precipitation is needed. Again, the research indicated that, on average, there had been a significant increase in temperature, but precipitation trends …

Intention for this study is driven by finding patterns that may be shown to reveal primary factors of influence for the abundance and diversity of wetland birds. These correlations may be used to promote wetland management strategies for the benefit of waterbird species, and help illuminate current local wetland conditions for waterbirds, respectively. The idea is to help enliven individuals to become a more conscious steward and manipulator of our environment through incorporating structural and biological components into wetland development and management strategies, and broadly speaking, urban development practices.

This study uses topographic profiles, washover fan volumes, and shoreline retreat rates to explore relationships between barrier types and Hurricane Harvey storm washover sedimentation. Pre- and post-Hurricane Harvey topographic profiles were created on 15 transects using Bare Earth LiDAR (2016) and surveyed elevations (2019). Depth and area of washover fan measurements were collected to estimate washover fan volumes. An inverse relationship was found between washover fan volume and pre- and post-storm barrier heights. Based on the topographic profiles, one section of shoreline had a scarp up to 3m high which blocked overwash, but appears to have increased shoreline erosion. In contrast, a low-lying section of shoreline generated relatively large washover fans, but experienced less shoreline retreat. Shoreline retreat was further quantified between 2014 and 2019 using Google Earth Imagery from 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2019 to track migration of the shoreline. The entire shoreline in the study area is undergoing relatively rapid retreat, but the results suggest that Hurricane Harvey increased erosional rates. The Colorado River Jetty borders the study area and may have acted as an anthropogenic barrier, likely reducing storm surge energy and contributing to marsh aggradation on transects in its close proximity. The study findings indicate that …

This research project focuses on using a multiproxy approach to discriminate between overwash and non-hurricane marsh sediments within the bed of a coastal lake. 3 marsh cores were collected in an area of McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge just south of Clam Lake that are known to contain 4 hurricane overwash deposits, Ike, Rita, Carla, and Audrey. LOI and XRF analysis were used to determine the signature of the hurricane overwash layers. 3 more cores were collected from Clam Lake where there are no visible sand layers. The elemental signature of the overwash layers found in the marsh cores was used to run a hierarchical cluster analysis on the lake cores. This was able to determine the effectiveness of XRF's ability to distinguish between hurricane overwash and marsh sediments. The combination of cluster analysis, LOI, and XRF can tentatively identify hurricane overwash deposits in a coastal lake, however, it is more successful in the marsh cores. Results in the lake cores are somewhat inconsistent and uncertain, possibly because there may have not been enough overwash deposits to identity or that the XRF analysis needs more distinct sand layers to distinguish between overwash and marsh.

This study implemented a GIS-based analysis of local climate zones (LCZ) in Denton, TX with data sets from 2009, 2011, 2015, and 2016. The LCZ scheme enables evaluation of distinct regions' thermal characteristics with greater granularity than conventional urban-rural dichotomies. Further, the GIS-based approach to LCZ mapping allows use of high-resolution lidar data, the availability of which for the study area enabled estimation of geometric and surface cover parameters: height of roughness elements, sky-view factor, and building surface fraction. Pervious surface fraction was estimated from National Landcover Database impervious imagery. A regular grid was used to estimate per-cell mean values for each parameter, and with a decision-making algorithm (if/then statements) two maps were produced (2011 and 2015) and six LCZ identified in each: LCZ 6 (open low-rise), LCZ 8 (large low-rise), LCZ 9 (sparsely built), LCZ A (dense trees), LCZ B (scattered trees), and LCZ C (bush/scrub). Post-processing was carried out to ensure identified zones met the spatial minimum for qualification as LCZ. Landsat Collection 2 Level 2 surface temperature products from various seasons of 2011 and 2015 were acquired to examine LCZ thermal differentiability, and preliminary surface urban heat island intensity values were estimated. Particular attention was afforded to …