Nicholas School of the Environment
Master's projects by Nicholas School of the Environment students, including the Duke Marine Laboratory.
The masters project is done in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the professional Master of Environmental Management or the Master of Forestry degree. While the MP may include original laboratory or field research, it may also take the form of management plans, handbooks, educational curricula, or other such products. Each student is advised by a faculty member who reviews and approves the project prior to completion.
A masters projects that is original research should not be as large as a masters thesis although it should be of publishable quality but not necessarily comprehensive enough to stand alone as a publication. A masters projects that does not follow the usual format for scientific research should follow a framework that is considered good practice in an appropriate field.
Duke migrated to an electronic-only system for masters projects between 2006 and 2010. As such, projects completed between 2006 and 2010 may not be part of this system, and those created before 2006 are not hosted here except for a small number that have been digitized.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Recent Submissions
-
Prioritizing land conservation in East Tennessee: A parcel-scale geospatial analysis to assist a land trust's multi-criteria decision making
(2018-12-10)With increasing development pressures, ever-present funding limitations, and complex stewardship responsibilities, land trusts place a premium on devoting resources to the most promising conservation projects. Taking advantage ... -
Carbon for Conservation
(2018-04-27)The Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina chapter (TNC NC) is exploring opportunities to secure additional financing for their conservation work through the sale of carbon offset credits in regulatory or voluntary markets. ... -
Effects of hunting and human disturbance on wildlife near villages in northeastern Gabon
(2018-04-27)Bushmeat from wild animals is the primary source of protein and income for many rural communities in northeastern Gabon, but mammals also provide valuable ecosystem services that may be jeopardized by unsustainable hunting ... -
Carbon for Conservation
(2018-04-27)The Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina chapter (TNC NC) is exploring opportunities to secure additional financing for their conservation work through the sale of carbon offset credits in regulatory or voluntary markets. ... -
Strategic Planning For U.S. Industrial Water Use: Visualizing Texas, North Carolina, and Indiana Historical Trends and Projections
(2018-04-27)Chemical, oil & gas, and textile manufacturing industries are the major divers of United States industrial water use, shaping both the economy and water trends in the regions they inhabit. Texas (TX), North Carolina (NC), ... -
Environmental and Economic Impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative on Pakistan’s Energy Sector
(2018-04-27)In 2013, China announced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which broadly aims to interconnect over 65 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa through infrastructure investment and economic development. A flagship component ... -
An Economic Assessment of Extreme Heat Events on Labor Productivity in the U.S.
(2018-04-27)Extreme Heat Events (EHE) across the U.S. have become more common as climate change continues to progress. There have been numerous studies on the mortality effects of EHEs but relatively little has been done to study the ... -
LEMUR SPECIES-HABITAT RELATIONSHIPS AT MULTIPLE SPATIAL SCALES IN RANOMAFANA NATIONAL PARK, MADAGASCAR
(2018-05-27)Lemur populations are threatened by many factors, but are most impacted by habitat loss, fragmentation, and alteration. Studies have shown that there is a lag time between habitat disturbance and species response. Thus, ... -
Mapping Rio Grande Water Rights: A Decision Support Tool for Ecosystem Restoration
(2018-04-27)The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNC-Texas) and TNC (TNC-Global) are pursing efforts to identify and acquire water rights that could be dedicated or in other ways managed for the benefit and protection of environmental flows. ... -
Breaking Down the Lithium-Ion Cell Manufacturing Supply Chain in the U.S. to Identify Key Barriers to Growth
(2018-04-23)While the U.S. government has invested millions in research efforts surrounding energy storage and lithium-ion technology over the past four decades, much of the manufacturing capacity has gone to other countries. This trend ... -
Theory versus Practice in Payment for Ecosystem Services in Totonicapán, Guatemala
(2018-04-27)Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) initiatives are a popular and wide-spread market-based approach to mitigating detrimental impacts of rapid land-use change that threatens vital ecological resources such as water, soil, ... -
Sacred Groves’ Contributions to Forest Loss Prevention and Habitat Connectivity in Southwest India
(2018-04-27)Research in the conservation space has most often focused on traditional protected areas like national parks as being the model places that provide the benefits and values of conserved land like high biodiversity, healthy ... -
Redevelopment Plan for Barrang Lompo, Indonesia
(2018-04-27)Barrang Lompo, Indonesia is a tiny island located off the coast of Makassar, Indonesia. The island has minimal development, no sanitation system, limited natural resources, and a bleak future. It is home to around 5,000 ... -
Seagrass Mapping and Human Impact Evaluation Using Remote Sensing Imagery at Core Banks, North Carolina
(2018-04-27)Seagrass can provide key ecological services to neighboring habitats in tropical and temperate regions, but evidence shows that they are experiencing significant widespread decline. Coastal human population pressures have ... -
Financing Renewable Energy in Cuba
(2018-04-27)Cuba’s 2014 commitment to generate 24% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 presents a unique opportunity to explore how an island nation can decarbonize its power system. To successfully increase ... -
Tailoring Water Services in Remote and Isolated Indigenous Australian Communities
(2018-04-27)Freshwater is an essential global resource, but climate change and human development have degraded the quality and quantity of freshwater. A large percentage of the global population is experiencing water stress from water ... -
As the Grid Gets Cleaner, Will Microgrids Lower Emissions in New York?
(2018-04-27)In New York, severe storms such as Hurricane Sandy in 2012, have knocked out power to large areas, raising interest in building microgrids, which provide resiliency. The state has set a goal to produce 50% of its electricity ... -
EVALUATING ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC MANGROVE SYSTEMS
(2018-04-27)Although their total area constitutes only a small percentage of global tropical forests, mangroves supply a wide range of goods and services that benefit people, flora and fauna. They protect coastlines from the impact ... -
Automating Offshore Infrastructure & Vessel Identifications Using Synthetic Aperture Radar & Distributive Geoprocessing
(2018-04-27)Global Fishing Watch (GFW) recently published the first worldwide industrial fishing effort data set learned from processing 22 billion Automatic Identification System (AIS) observations. Despite quantifying 40 million hours ... -
Urban Forest Planning for the Forest History Society
(2018-04-27)For this Master's Project, we worked with a local nonprofit called the Forest History Society (FHS) to assess how FHS can attain their educational and outreach goals through the creation of a new headquarters site on a 10-acre ...
RSS 1.0