Scholarly Works, School of Public and International Affairs

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Motivating conservation action in the Upper Midwest: Source attention, information seeking and sharing, and farmers' land management decisions
Wald, Dara M.; Diaz-Manrique, Miguel; Witzling, Laura; Comito, Jaqueline (Wiley, 2025-01)
Adoption of on-farm conservation strategies, such as edge-of-field practices, has the potential to reduce nutrient runoff, promote greater biodiversity, and improve water quality. To date, adoption rates among farmers are extremely low. Communication with farmers has been identified as a vital strategy to encourage the voluntary adoption of these practices and policies that promote on-farm conservation. Yet little is known about which information sources shape farmers' concerns about conservation practices, perceptions of the risks and benefits of conservation practices, and ultimately, adoption behaviors. Using the Social Amplification of Risk Framework, the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model, and a cross-sectional survey, we examined farmers' concerns about nitrate loss and water quality, perceptions of the risks and benefits of conservation practices, attention to messages and information sources, and communication behaviors. We received N = 474 completed surveys. Attention to agricultural associations was associated with decreased concern about nitrates and diminished perceptions of the benefits of edge-of-field practices. Farmers paying greater attention to non-agricultural and social media sources were more likely to share and seek information. Attention to interpersonal sources was associated with greater adoption behaviors. This work highlights the importance of farmers' social networks, exposure to multiple information sources, and the need to identify new strategies for engagement and direct communication with hard-to-reach audiences. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of this work for conservation communication and land management practices to promote environmental health.
Assessing the need to grow natural resources professionals' competencies beyond conservation
Baker, Julia A.; Grudens-Schuck, Nancy; Arbuckle, J. Gordon; Wald, Dara M.; Janke, Adam K. (Taylor & Francis, 2025-04-13)
Agricultural expansion and intensification have caused significant environmental challenges, which will be exacerbated by climate change. Accordingly, widespread public and private investment in conservation is essential to continue producing food, fiber, and fuel while accessing clean water and protecting biodiversity. Current rates of conservation adoption on farms in the United States are not sufficient to address conservation challenges. Natural resources professionals work at the interface of agriculture and conservation by building cooperative relationships with farmers to increase conservation adoption. We conducted a needs assessment to identify core competencies that could enhance natural resources professionals’ efficacy in increasing conservation adoption. Methods included synthesizing peer-reviewed literature, interviewing conservation agency and organization administrators, and conducting listening sessions with academic researchers and natural resources professionals. Five themes emerged. First, although natural resources professionals are often educated and experienced in conservation, early in their careers, they often lack expertise in agricultural production and farmer decision-making that is necessary to craft compelling and actionable messages that resonate with land managers. Second, an improved understanding of how to integrate agriculture and a diversity of conservation practices could improve their efficacy on the job. Third, natural resources professionals need to be able to communicate clearly and effectively in a way that builds trusting relationships with land managers. Fourth, natural resources professionals need to know how to apply social-scientific principles to effectively motivate behavior change. Finally, networking with colleagues across disciplines can enhance professionals’ ability to make holistic recommendations for farms. These findings indicate the potential for educational interventions and networking opportunities to empower early career natural resources professionals to work cooperatively with farmers and land managers to increase conservation adoption on private agricultural land and improve environmental outcomes.
GPS-based street-view greenspace exposure and wearable assessed physical activity in a prospective cohort of US women
Yi, Li; Hart, Jaime E.; Wilt, Grete; Hu, Cindy R.; Jimenez, Marcia P.; Lin, Pi-I D.; Suel, Esra; Hystad, Perry; Hankey, Steven C.; Zhang, Wenwen; Chavarro, Jorge E.; Laden, Francine; James, Peter (2025-07-06)
Background: Increasing evidence positively links greenspace and physical activity (PA). However, most studies use measures of greenspace, such as satellite-based vegetation indices around the residence, which fail to capture ground-level views and day-to-day dynamic exposures, potentially misclassifying greenspace and limiting policy relevance. Methods: We analyzed data from the US-based Nurses’ Health Study 3 Mobile Health Substudy (2018–2020). Participants wore Fitbits™ and provided smartphone global positioning system (GPS) for four 7-day periods throughout the year. Street-view greenspace (%trees, %grass, %other greenspace [flowers/plants/fields]) were derived from 2019 street-view imagery using deep-learning algorithms at a 100-meter resolution and linked to 10-minute GPS observations. Average steps-per-minute for were calculated for each 10-minute period following each GPS observation. Generalized Additive Mixed Models examined associations of street-view greenspace exposure with PA, adjusting for individual and area-level covariates. We considered effect modification by region, season, neighborhood walkability and socioeconomic status (SES), temperature, and precipitation. Results: Our sample included 335 participants (meanage= 39.4 years, n = 304,394 observations). Mean steps-per-minute per 10-minutes were 6.9 (SD = 14.6). An IQR increase (18.7%) in street-view trees was associated with a 0.36 steps-per-minute decrease (95%CI: -0.71, -0.01). In addition, an IQR increase (10.6%) in grass exposure was associated with a 0.59 steps-per-minute decrease (95% CI: -0.79, -0.40); however, the association was non-linear and flattened out after the 75th percentile of street-view grass. Conversely, an IQR increase (1.2%) in other greenspace was associated with a 1.99 steps-per-minute increase (95%CI: 0.01, 3.97). Associations were stronger in the spring and in higher SES neighborhoods, and among residents of the Northeast. Conclusions: In this prospective cohort, momentary street-view exposure to trees and grass was inversely associated with PA, while exposure to other greenspace was positively associated. Future research should confirm these results in other populations and explore the mechanisms through which specific greenspace components influence PA.
Semi-volatile oxygenated organics and ammonium chloride increasing sub-micron aerosol hygroscopicity, cloud condensation nuclei and PM₁ mass in the Delhi region
Lalchandani, V.; Tripathi, S. N.; Srivastava, D.; Mishra, G.; Thamban, N. M.; Mishra, S.; Tripathi, N.; Wang, L.; Prévôt, A. S. H.; Bhowmik, H. S.; Dixit, Kuldeep; Sahu, L. K.; Gunthe, S. S. (Elsevier, 2025-10-01)
Delhi-National Capital Region (Delhi-NCR) suffers from adverse air quality particularly during the winter season, thereby affecting climate, health, and economic activities, warranting the need for information on key species, sources and atmospheric pathways causing intense particulate pollution. Using over one month (February–March) of sub-micron particle (PM1) chemical composition data and κ-Köhler theory at a Delhi background site, we estimate that the water uptake ability of both PM1 (kappa, κ = 0.52 ± 0.10) and its organic component (κOA = 0.22 ± 0.04) during the late winter season are almost twice as that of global average for continental aerosols. Our results indicate that apart from previously identified ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), the semi-volatile oxygenated organic aerosols (SVOOA) directly increase the PM1 water uptake ability, and undergo co-condensation with water vapor under high RH and low temperature conditions during early morning hours, thereby increasing the cloud condensation nuclei counts (CCN vs SVOOA, linear correlation R = 0.81) and total PM1 mass (CCN vs PM1, R = 0.88) in the Delhi region. Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) results of both gas and particle phase organics suggest that semi-volatile oxygenated organic compounds were mainly associated with solid-fuel and traffic-related combustion emissions, whereas correlation with source-specific tracers suggest non-combustion emissions for NH4Cl. Results suggest that semi-volatile oxygenated organic compounds produced from the photochemical oxidation of organics emitted from combustion activities likely undergo gas-to-particle partitioning in the evening and aqueous phase processing at night, leading to enhanced SOA formation, CCN and PM1 mass.
Reply to commentaries
Toal, Gerard (Sage, 2024-09-26)
The commentaries on my essay reveal the culture of debate on the Russia-Ukraine war. They also provide some evidence for the argument I sought to make. In this response I contextualize the original essay, sharpen its political implications, and engaging the commentaries. I conclude by addressing Ukraine’s seizure of Russian territory which reveals a shifting attitude toward negotiations and territory.
What Political Status Did the Donbas Want? Survey Evidence on the Eve of Russia's Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022
O'Loughlin, John; Sasse, Gwendolyn; Toal, Gerard (Routledge, 2024-10-05)
This article reports original survey data collected in both parts of the divided Donbas region of Ukraine on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The research employs a methodological innovation by having the same telephone survey implemented by three different survey agencies: one based in Ukraine, one based in Russia, and one based in the UK. Comparing similarities and differences in results identify key effects induced by the origin of phone calls. The question of preference for final status in Ukraine or Russia was asked in all four samples. Regression model results are very similar for the two samples in the territories of Donbas under Kyiv’s control but there are significant differences between the Ukrainian and Russian survey companies’ results in the non-government controlled areas. The results reflect a situational response due partly to the origin of the phone calls as well as to important demographic differences in the composition of the sub-samples in a very tense environment that had experienced conflict since 2014.
The territorial taboo: Explaining the public aversion to negotiations in the Ukraine war support coalition
Toal, Gerard (Sage, 2024-08-30)
Despite severe and mounting war costs, many in the international coalition supporting Ukraine have publicly expressed strong aversion to negotiations with Russia, and Ukrainian territorial concessions, to end the war. What explains this aversion to negotiations and seeming taboo on territorial concessions? This commentary, drawing particularly on US policy debate, suggests that proclaimed sacred values helps explain this disposition. Ukraine’s war support network is a discursive coalition bound together by three shared narratives about the war and universal values. Stories about international law and territorial integrity, about war crimes and genocide, and about freedom and democracy, render talk about territorial concessions to Russia, as the aggressor state, taboo in different ways. Psychological factors, from commitment problems to hawkish biases, bolster this taboo. The Gaza war, however, has exposed Western sacred values as geographically limited. The territorial taboo disguises tragic trade-offs and the enormous costs of Ukraine’s fight, burdening the country with an unwinnable mission. Any settlement of the war is likely to see the territorial taboo abandoned, in de facto if not de jure terms.
Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DIDDR) in South Asia: Status, Prospects, and Challenges
Farid, Zawad Ibn; Islam, Muhammad Awfa; Roberts, Patrick S.; Glick, Jeffrey (Mavs Open Press, 2024-10-15)
The need for disaster risk management efforts to be inclusive is more pronounced than ever before. Persons with disabilities remain on the of most disproportionately affected groups during disasters. The concept of Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) has therefore received increased attention in the existing scholarship and practical measures related to disability and disaster. This chapter focuses specifically on South Asia, with particular attention to Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These South Asian countries share common challenges in disaster risk reduction measures, especially concerning persons with disabilities. This chapter prioritizes understanding regional dynamics for effective solutions and advancements applicable in settings globally. It examines how each South Asian country approaches disability-inclusive disaster policies, programs, and capabilities, considering their shared issues in this area. Looking at the DRR programs in South Asia broadly, this chapter finds that deficient policy frameworks and insufficient data availability hinder the implementation of DiDRR strategies. Additionally, the inadequate involvement of disability communities in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) programming and planning further hinders the goal of helping people with disabilities during disasters. Several factors contribute to the difficulty of collecting accurate disability statistics, including inadequate data collection tools, challenges in obtaining disability registration information, and the lack of prioritization for collecting such data, all further compounded by social stigma surrounding disability. The book chapter attempts to highlight some of the factors that facilitate or impede the involvement of persons with disabilities by demographic categories of women, men, adolescents, and children. This chapter also offers scholarly and practical implications for researchers and practitioners by encouraging them to thoroughly investigate and revisit the existing measures and interventions to advance disability inclusion within disaster risk reduction planning and implementation efforts in emergency management.
Student Food Security Status at Virginia Tech: Virginia Tech Food Access and Wellbeing Survey
Holmes, Chanita; Hall, Ralph; Misyak, Sarah; Olayemi, Victor (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 2024-10-02)
There has been a growing acknowledgment and concern about college students experiencing food insecurity at institutions of higher education [1]. Experiencing food insecurity can impact educational attainment and performance as well as student quality of life [2]. This report describes the findings of the 2023 Virginia Tech Student Food Access and Wellbeing Survey, which was administered online during the Spring of 2023. The survey aimed to examine the level of food security among Virginia Tech undergraduate and graduate students.
Read all about it: Examining newspaper coverage of the local environmental risks posed by the Radford Army Ammunition Plant
Seo, Hye-Jeong; Schenk, Todd (Routledge, 2023-03-27)
This study examines the factors contributing to the inclusion of scientific information in local news coverage of environmental risks. We conducted a content analysis of articles about environmental issues associated with the Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Virginia’s largest point source of toxic chemical releases. We coded 116 articles published between 2000 and 2019 according to three criteria: the inclusion of scientific information, who is making claims, and whether or not explicit risks are identified. Only 35.3% of the articles reviewed include scientific information. Logistic regression indicates that when an article includes claims made by state officials and/or explicitly asserts the existence of environmental risks, it is more likely to include scientific information. Articles that include claims from community activists are less likely to include scientific information. We examine potential explanations for these patterns.
Health Worker Potential for Expanded Exploration of Public “Frontlineness”: A Scientometric Analysis
Bredenkamp, David M.; Abdelrasol, Saif Tarek; Boyette, Charity L.; Comer, C. Cozette; Stovall, Connie; Talukdar, Shahidur Rashid (2024-06-28)
Public-sector frontline service scholarship in the field of public administration has been conducted under relatively limited circumstances and contexts. While literature focusing on the topic has been prolific, the context and lenses through which “frontlineness” has been viewed and observed are more limited (Chang & Brewer 2022). The scholarship on street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) has focused on a well-defined, though narrow, set of workers and work environments (e.g., teachers and nurses; schools and hospitals); those concentrated and consistent parameters may present an opportunity for greater generalizability of our understanding of SLBs than previously realized. We seek something of a new beginning: for theoretical exploration, clarity, and eventual reassessment of what frontlineness is and what it means. Healthcare has been a field in which public administration scholars have—either adjacently or directly—explored the nature of frontline work. We hypothesize, however, that there is much territory that goes unexplored due to siloing of disciplines, narrow definitions of what it means to be on the “frontline,” and more limited use in public administration scholarship of available evidence synthesis methods. One such method, scientometric analysis, provides useful tools to explore the potential of fields such as healthcare, with its results providing the “lay of the land” for further exploration. Using a scientometric analytical approach, this paper offers an answer to the following research question: What is the potential for existing research to describe the proximal relationship between a frontline healthcare employee and the frontline itself?
"There Should Be No Life": Environmental Perspectives on Genocide in Northern Iraq
Ahram, Ariel I. (Routledge, 2023-09-07)
This article examines the natural environment during the Kurdish genocide in northern Iraq. The genocide killed between 50,000 and 180,000 people and destroyed some 4,500 Kurdish villages from the 1960s to 1980s, reach peak violence during the Iran-Iraq War (1980–88). The paper uses American, British, and Iraqi archival documents to analyse how the violence affected the natural landscape and how ecological conditions constrained the violence. Iraqi leaders regarded dams and other modes of environmental engineering as levers to facilitate agricultural modernization and social integration. Protecting and projecting hydraulic power justified greater military exertion. Iraqi leaders, frustrated by the lack of progress in development and hostile to the claims of Kurdish nationalism, resorted to more coercive options to combat guerrillas. But the inadequacies of military exertion prompted the government to redouble efforts to tame unruly nature and those who dwelled in it. This escalation contributed significantly to the lethal violence against rural Kurdish society. At a theoretical level, these findings highlight the troubling ways in which policies aimed to improve environmental conditions fold into campaigns of mass violence. The article also adds to understanding of violence in Iraq, showing how Iraq’s attempts to use environmental engineering for development intersected with security concerns and ethnic marginalization to create more intensive repression.
In Search of a Middle East and North Africa Peace System
Ahram, Ariel I. (SAGE Publications, 2024-04-11)
This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of the peace system in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It views peace not merely as the absence of direct violence but as the result of institutions and systems that mitigate, defuse, and diminish conflict. The peace system of MENA operates at multiple scales and deals with multiple kinds of violent conflict. Different system components produce different forms of positive and negative peace through both formal and informal institutional channels. Consequently, peace in MENA is often uneven and unstable, with progress in one dimension coming at the expense of another. Understanding the gaps and inconsistencies within the MENA peace system can help devise a more realistic and feasible approach to conflict resolution rather than abstract and ultimately impractical ideals. The article identifies shortcomings in the current explanations for the frequency of war, explores the idea of a regional peace system that operates in regional and domestic arenas both formally and informally, and examines policy measures that might bolster or undercut the MENA peace system.
Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia [Book review]
Toal, Gerard (Wiley, 2023-01-19)
Can Common Pool Resource Theory Catalyze Stakeholder-Driven Solutions to the Freshwater Salinization Syndrome?
Grant, Stanley B.; Rippy, Megan A.; Birkland, Thomas A.; Schenk, Todd; Rowles, Kristin; Misra, Shalini; Aminpour, Payam; Kaushal, Sujay; Vikesland, Peter J.; Berglund, Emily; Gomez-Velez, Jesus D.; Hotchkiss, Erin R.; Perez, Gabriel; Zhang, Harry X.; Armstrong, Kingston; Bhide, Shantanu V.; Krauss, Lauren; Maas, Carly; Mendoza, Kent; Shipman, Caitlin; Zhang, Yadong; Zhong, Yinman (American Chemical Society, 2022-09-14)
Freshwater salinity is rising across many regions of the United States as well as globally, a phenomenon called the freshwater salinization syndrome (FSS). The FSS mobilizes organic carbon, nutrients, heavy metals, and other contaminants sequestered in soils and freshwater sediments, alters the structures and functions of soils, streams, and riparian ecosystems, threatens drinking water supplies, and undermines progress toward many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is an urgent need to leverage the current understanding of salinization's causes and consequences?in partnership with engineers, social scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders?into locally tailored approaches for balancing our nation's salt budget. In this feature, we propose that the FSS can be understood as a common pool resource problem and explore Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom's social-ecological systems framework as an approach for identifying the conditions under which local actors may work collectively to manage the FSS in the absence of top-down regulatory controls. We adopt as a case study rising sodium concentrations in the Occoquan Reservoir, a critical water supply for up to one million residents in Northern Virginia (USA), to illustrate emerging impacts, underlying causes, possible solutions, and critical research needs.
City of Bluefield Housing Study, 2023
Jones, Mel; Zahm, Diane; Brown, Tyler; Boyce, Tyrone; Brummond, Jenna; Ekram, Khondaker Moham; Fox, Evan; Hartwick, Ali; McKinney, Brant; Poore, Michael (City of Bluefield, West Virginia, 2023-11-30)
The Implications of Human Mobility and Accessibility for Transportation and Livable Cities
Sanchez, Thomas W.; Ye, Xinyue (MDPI, 2023-10-12)
Understanding human movement and transportation accessibility has become paramount in shaping the very fabric of our communities [...]
Homefront to Battlefront: Why the U.S. Military Should Care About Biomedical Cybersecurity
Brantly, Nataliya D. (Army Cyber Institute, 2021-04-01)
Immunity to the cybersecurity risks and potential hazards presented using biomedical devices. US Military and civilian personnel use these devices on the Homefront and battlefield. As the use of biomedical devices increases with time and blurs the lines between private and professional, more attention is required of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to understand the strategic importance of securing biomedical devices. This work provides a better understanding of biomedical devices and analyzes current use of biomedical devices within DoD. It also provides recommendations on actions DoD can undertake to safeguard its workforce today and in the near future. This article examines the significance of cybersecurity for biomedical devices within the context of US national security and demonstrates the important role biomedical cybersecurity plays for DoD.
The landscape and evolution of urban planning science
Haghani, Milad; Sabri, Soheil; De Gruyter, Chris; Ardeshiri, Ali; Shahhoseini, Zahra; Sanchez, Thomas W.; Acuto, Michele (Elsevier, 2023-05)
The science of urban planning has drawn on a wide range of disciplines and research perspectives. This makes it challenging to define the boundaries and directions of the field. Here, nearly 100,000 articles on urban planning are analysed to objectively determine divisions, temporal trends and influential references and actors of urban planning. In terms of the structural composition, four broad divisions are identified: (1) governance and policy, (2) economics and markets, (3) housing and (4) built and natural environment. In terms of the temporal evo-lution, the earliest trends were related to "welfare economics", "agglomeration economies", "urban economics", and "urban growth machine". During the 1980s and 1990s, the focus moved towards "regional policy and development", "social welfare", and "urban renaissance". This trend continued during the 2000s and 2010s, heading to "urban morphology", "participatory planning", "urban sociology", "global cities", and "political economy". The field has recently headed towards areas of "resilience", "smart cities" and "urban green space". These transitions have been derivative, and the paradigm shifts have been very gradual. Another key observation is a notable increase in author connectivity and international collaboration. The results provide objective insights into how the science of urban planning has historically transitioned and where it is headed.
Where theory and practice meet: Good government, merit-based civil service, and HRM courses
Guy, Mary E.; Mastracci, Sharon (Routledge, 2023-03)
MPA programs are the only place where public sector human resource management (HRM) is taught. When HRM is not among the list of required courses, programs forgo their responsibility to teach the next generation of public servants why merit-based civil service is crucial to a functioning democracy. The danger of ignorance is reflected in an Executive Order issued in 2020 that would have removed job protections from thousands of federal civil servants. While the Order was rescinded in 2021, it has many advocates and remains on the agenda. This is a wake-up call to MPA programs to require students to learn why job protections are the bedrock of good government, a bedrock as foundational as a free press and more foundational than budgeting skills. However, 97% of MPA programs require a budgeting course but only 72% require an HRM course. If theory and practice meet in MPA classrooms, then HRM has to be there.

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