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This thesis examines the effects that the “Great American Energy Boom” had on crime, health, and sense of place in Midland, TX from 2009-2014. This oil boom greatly impacted the economy of the city. Midland witnessed record low unemployment rates and unprecedented economic growth due to increased oil and gas production. In the international literature on towns who have secured large oil and gas projects, ‘Boomtown’ has a particular meaning. In particular, the ‘Boomtown Syndrome’ describes the attitudes and issues communities develop and face from the inception of the project through to the end of construction when operations start and the large construction workforce is drawn down. Social disruption theory asserts that communities experiencing resource booms generally “enter a period of generalized crisis and loss of traditional routines and attitudes”. This research focuses on a boomtown, examines the social disruptions that resulted from the boom and measures the effect that these disruptions had on local residents. To examine this impact, I conducted interviews with city officials, health professionals, law enforcement professionals, and community residents. Natural resource booms, and all booms, tremendously transform communities economically and socially. The effects of these booms permeate all facets of the community. These effects transform the experiences of the residents of the community as well as the perception of the city from visitors and outsiders. In Midland, the oil boom had many unintended social and economic consequences that will affect the city for years to come.

The Los Angeles River is a complex dynamic human landscape. Humans have interacted with, and modified the LA River for their convenience since prehistory (Gumprecht 2001). Situated within the human-environment interactions literature, this project works from a critical paradigm stance to explore the Los Angeles River as a human landscape. Prior works focus merely on quantifying fish community assemblages on the LA River, and neglect to view these fish as artifacts of a diverse city. The LA River is a novel ecology, an example of a natural place that exists in a state altered by human activity. Recent movements in the literature argue for the acceptance of novel ecologies as "nature". First, this project evaluates current exotic fish assemblages on the LA River. Fish surveys establish a recent update to prior studies evaluating exotic fish on the Los Angeles River. Through the innovative application of side imaging (SI) sonar, aquatic habitats are mapped. An overlay analysis compared patterns of habitat use on the LA River to the natural history literature describing these fish species' patters of habitat use expressed in native ranges. Lastly, this project combines physical habitat data, with ecological data to establish in analysis of similarity, comparing the traits of an exotic species’ home range distribution to those of the Los Angeles River. This provides a preliminary assessment of the human dimensions of the River as well as ecological adaptations of fishes that allow them to thrive. This study found that native ranges were statistically similar to the LA River. Moreover, exotic fish from ecoregions with a greater human footprint were found to do better as exotics in another human landscape (LA River) than those from areas with less human disturbance. Next, a qualitative study of LA River angler internet videos showed that anglers' behavior and tactics vary along demographic lines. The complex social and cultural issues of the surrounding city translate to the LA River as evidenced by fishing activities. Sustenance fishing was discovered, as was underlying issues of race and class, all evident in angler behavior. Since nature is a social construction (Cronon 1996), a product of one's cultural upbringing and social discourse, understanding who interacts with the river, and how interactions vary along demographic lines, provide a basis to critique current restoration and revitalization efforts. The river should arguably reflect the reality of those who use and interact with it, not those with the most power or money. Many people currently still view the Los Angeles River is as “natural” despite the presence of exotic and introduced fish species, and a concrete edifice. A long standing stigma has plagued the LA River, causing people to view it as a dirty, dystopian landscape. This study, however, shows that in many ways, it is still a “natural” and thriving ecosystem. Human activity has created the modern incarnation of the Los Angeles River, and human activity is responsible for creating the River as it exists today. The "human" and "natural" components of the LA River have become inseparable. Due to the significant role human activity plays in shaping the Los Angeles River and its species, this project upholds the notion that the aquatic habitats of the Los Angeles River are indeed a human landscape.

The theory of ‘natural movement’ postulates that configuration of the urban grid is an important generator of aggregate patterns of movement in urban areas (Hillier, Penn, Hanson, Grajewski, & Xu, 1993). Retail and commercial land uses locate themselves at these configurationally hotspot locations to take advantage of the economic opportunities created by movement i.e. passing customers (Hillier, 1996). These concentrations of retail and commercial activities are also the work places for a good number of people and in turn, will influence the choices of residential locations. Since journey-distance and journey-time are two very important factors influencing transport mode choice, (Plaut, 2005; Pucher & Dijkstra, 2003; Schwanen & Mokhtarian, 2005; Wardman, Tight, & Page, 2007) It is hypothesized that the locations of retails and commercial areas as understood by their configurational index, will first affect the choices of residential locations and also influence choices of commuting mode. This hypothesis is tested in four US cities of Boston, Pittsburgh, Lubbock, and Salt Lake City using data collected from online open source database of the respective cities and US census bureau. Space Syntax topological and angular analyses of CAD drawn axial lines and street centerlines extracted from GIS maps are performed for all cities. ArcGIS spatial analysis tools were applied to combine land use, socio-economic & demographic, transportation and Space Syntax variables to the scale of census block-groups that was selected as the study unit. Multiple regression analyses are carried out to identify relevant and significant variables explaining each mode of transport. The findings indicate that Space Syntax variables play an important role in explaining choice of commuting mode. In addition, several linear regression analyses are performed to examine the socio-economic and demographic pattern in the context of street configuration. The results indicate that renters and non-family households are configurationally separated from homeowners and family households. Renters and non-family households live in configurationally integrated areas where businesses are located and therefore are likely to walk. On the contrary, homeowners and family households live in configurationally segregated areas and tend to drive to work. The results of comparative analysis between gridded and non-gridded cities indicates that closeness variable called ‘integration’ and between-ness variable called ‘choice’ are relevant to explain waling and driving modes in gridded and non- gridded cities respectively.

This research focuses on people's perception involving nature. Water shortages and water rights are two issues having far reaching environmental and ecological implications in Lubbock, Texas. Severe drought and a steadily increasing population suggest that Lubbock has to deal seriously with water issues. A survey of Lubbock residents will indicate how water is conserved; how they believe water issues should be addressed by government, and what factors they believe to have contributed most to water waste. Responses to these questions will be linked to respondents' demographics to determine if attitudes and opinions differ based on age, gender, educational attainment, and ethnicity. Water administration officials will also be interviewed to determine what steps Lubbock has taken to conserve water beyond implementing water restrictions upon residents. Also yard care practices will be analyzed qualitatively. Ultimately this study seeks to determine if the Geography of Lubbock residents’ homes makes a difference in how water usage is perceived and conserved in Lubbock, Texas.

Environmental inequality is the notion that the spatial distribution of environmental health hazards, hazardous waste processing and releasing facilities is unequally distributed across space, with ethnic and racial minority communities being disproportionately impacted. Prior research has found that hazardous waste facilities are more often located in and around minority neighborhoods. We conducted a study evaluating and quantifying environmental inequality in Lubbock, Texas. Our study analyzed both spatial and statistical relationships between demographics and proximity to hazardous waste releasing facilities. Hazardous waste facility data incorporated into the study were collected from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). These point-source polluting sites release hazardous waste into the environment either via the air, water or runoff at varying quantities. 2010 Demographic data, including census block group shapefiles were extracted from the US Census Bureau’s website. A multiple regression was run to test the relationships between race, education, income and proximity to hazardous waste facilities. Using GIS, nearest neighbor analyses and Ripley’s K were also conducted. A statistically significant spatial relationship was found between the proximity to hazardous waste facilities, minority communities, educational attainment as well as median income. A very significant inequality exists in Lubbock. With new advances in spatial analysis, it is now possible to measure how disadvantaged a community may be.

This study investigates the relationship between tree canopy cover and class, race and ethnicity in Lubbock, Texas in the year 2010. The primary goal of this research is to assess tenets of the environmental equity hypothesis —whites and people with relatively higher incomes have greater tree cover densities than minorities and people of relatively modest means. I seek to contribute to the environmental equity knowledge base via the following innovations: 1) the use of high resolution imagery (> 1 meter) to capture tree canopy data; 2) the use of larger scale census geography: block groups; and 3) extending previous methodological approaches in equity research to a semi-arid environment. The study’s findings support the environmental equity hypothesis. They indicate that a significantly lower percentage of tree canopy can be found in block groups containing higher percentages of Hispanics, and in particular areas that have higher percentages of Hispanics living in older neighborhoods. These findings suggest that the environmental equity hypothesis is relevant in the understanding of tree canopy distributions.