Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Expanding the Fisheries Management Tackle Box: A Multiple-Model Approach to Support Better Decisions(2023) Hayes, Christopher Glenn; Wainger, Lisa; Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Sciences; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Marine fisheries provide critical ecosystem services but face an array of stressors like climate change and overfishing. Managing fisheries is challenging due to limited information and the need to make complex tradeoffs among ecological and social objectives. Decision processes that include integrated social-ecological models and equitable stakeholder engagement are increasingly recognized as approaches to improve the likelihood of achieving management goals compared to those that rely solely on stock assessment models with limited stakeholder input. Additionally, advanced technologies offer new opportunities to understand marine ecosystem dynamics, including human behavior. This research adds two examples of underutilized tools: multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and agent-based models (ABMs). In the first case, I compared management recommendations for the Chesapeake Bay oyster fishery arising from A) stakeholder engagement using group negotiations and B) preferences elicited from individuals using an MCDA approach. The recommendations were consistent across methods, suggesting that group effects did not bias group negotiation outcomes. The second case investigated New England groundfish reporting behavior based on stock dynamics, quota markets, and fishery observer coverage. First, having an observer onboard was found to significantly reduce the probability and magnitude of reporting error (ie., an observer effect) using a linear mixed effects model of data from vessel trip reports and remote vessel monitoring systems. Next, an ABM was used to explore emergent responses to policy changes - varying levels of observer coverage and the strength of the observer effects - on fish catch, reporting error, and profit outcomes, given fisher interactions and responses to fish population dynamics. Scenarios with strong observer effects resulted in increasing marginal improvements in reporting accuracy at high levels of observer coverage. MCDA and ABM can contribute to a multiple-model approach by allowing fisheries managers to integrate diverse stakeholder perspectives and use additional data sources that could lead to better fishery outcomes.Item The role of gossip in the evolution of cooperation(2021) Pan, Xinyue; Gelfand, Michele J.; Nau, Dana S.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The prevalence of cooperation in human societies is astonishing. Scholars from many disciplines have been sought to understand why it evolves. Some studies have indicated that gossip may play an important role in the evolution of cooperation. However, there has yet to be a systematic attempt to test this hypothesis directly. In this thesis, I developed an evolutionary game theoretic model and examined the role of gossip in the evolution of cooperation as well as the mechanism of the evolution of gossipers. I found that gossip increases reputation accessibility and makes the utilization of reputation information effective and necessary. The utilization of reputation information not only leads to more cooperation but also motivates individuals to manage their reputation by cooperating more with gossipers. As a result, gossipers gain an advantage over non-gossipers, and this leads to the evolution of gossipers. I also examined the factors that moderate these results.Item Traffic Analysis on Cumulative Land Development and Transportation Related Policy Scenarios(2014) Zhu, Zheng; Zhang, Lei; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Numerous methods have been developed to evaluate the impact of land developments and transportation policies on transportation infrastructures. But traditional approaches are either limited to static performance or a lack of behavior foundation. With only a few activity-based land development models in practice, this thesis integrates dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) with agent-based positive travel behavior model as a feasible tool for land development and transportation policy analysis. The integrated model enhances the behavior realism of DTA as well as captures traffic dynamics. It provides a low-cost approach to conduct new traffic analysis which emphasis on not only regional/local system mobility, but also individual behaviors. A land development analysis and a flexible work schedule policy analysis are illustrated in this paper. Unlike traditional land development impact studies, a great deal of travel behavior shift is obtained via this integrated model, which creates a new way for land development and policy analysis.