Fenda A. AkiwumiUniversity of South Florida | USF · School of Geosciences
Fenda A. Akiwumi
Doctor of Philosophy
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43
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Publications (43)
This study empirically verifies the hypothesis of a link between electricity consumption and improvement in women's welfare. It tests the hypothesis that increased electricity consumption can improve women's welfare. Africa serves as the empirical referent and loglinear regression techniques are employed to test the hypothesis. Improvement in women...
More diverse representation in undergraduate classrooms may be an important step towards turning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines into more inclusive communities. In the United States of America, the individuals whose work is discussed in typical introductory science courses collectively do not represent the dive...
Tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is vulnerable to climate change. Using the Bahamas as a case study, this study presents findings from a survey administered with property managers from the coastal accommodations sector to identify their adaptation strategies to tackle climate change. We also evaluate their adaptive capacity by devel...
This study examines the direct and indirect impacts of climate change to the tourism sector on the islands of New Providence and adjacent Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The assessment was carried out by conducting a geospatial analysis of tourism establishments at risk using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). We combined the geospatial analysis...
This study mainly utilized the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) together with SWAT-CUP, both free and open source software (FOSS), to construct a distributed hydrologic flow model for the Rokel-Seli River basin, Sierra Leone, in a bid to spatiotemporally evaluate the role of changes in land use/land cover (LULC) and microclimate on streamflow...
The central hypothesis of this study is that gender-based inequality in education in Africa depends to a significant degree on electricity supply, and access to water and improved sanitation. Gender-based educational inequality is operationalized in terms of the proportion of females to males within any given group of educated people. Three groups,...
This paper proposes a novel approach to measuring the progress of small island developing states (SIDS) towards sustainable development (SD) as set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Currently, these goals do not provide adequate guidance on how countries might measure their progress towards sustainability. We use these goals and a subse...
This paper deals with the disjuncture between recognition of the important role of culture in sustainable development discourse embedded in African regional and state policies and legal instruments and the reality of externally driven neoliberal land-based development agendas in African nations. Using postcolonial theoretical notions of identity, s...
This study sought to assess the relationship between regulatory and educational approaches to nutrient management and homeowner behaviors, perceptions, and knowledge of best management practices (BMPs). Fertilizers, and pesticides applied in excess by homeowners and landscapers can impair stormwater ponds and cause nuisance algae blooms, eutrophica...
There is a paucity of studies on factors that influence the performance of community-operated urban-based water schemes in
developing countries. Consequently, there are gaps in knowledge of these factors. The study reported here is intended to contribute
to efforts aimed at bridging these gaps. It does so by employing the constant comparison analys...
Women have less access to land than men in Africa. Previous analyses have typically identified African indigenous culture as the problem’s exclusive source. With Cameroon, Kenya and Sierra Leone as empirical referents, an alternative explanation is advanced. Here, the problem is characterized as a product of Africa’s triple heritage, comprising thr...
In this paper, sources of mercury deposition to the Tampa area (Florida, USA) are investigated by analysis of one year (March 2000–March 2001) of daily wet deposition data. HYSPLIT back-trajectory modeling was performed to assess potential source locations for high versus low concentration events in data stratified by precipitation level. Positive...
Sierra Leone is in the process of reforming its water sector as part of its economic growth and development agenda, thereby providing an opportunity to formulate a coherent vision for water governance. Similar to other African countries with a British colonial legacy, Sierra Leone has a dual governance system in which Western statutes co-exist with...
Mercury is a pervasive global pollutant with debilitating health outcomes, and an exposure pathway that transcends social and economic boundaries. Wet deposition processes are central to the entry of mercury into aquatic ecosystems, where it bioaccumulates in piscivorous species. Fish consumption is the leading route to mercury exposure for vulnera...
This paper draws upon a world‐system core–periphery framework to examine the nature and causes of persistent low‐level conflict in Sierra Leonean mining regions. Conflict is endemic because of asymmetrical power relations between global core‐state corporations and peripheral weak‐state Sierra Leone, which are mirrored locally within its mining regi...
The study examines the impact of religion on women empowerment. Three religions, indigenous African, Islam and Christianity,
comprising Africa’s triple heritage, are considered. The hypothesized relationships are confirmed. Christianity correlates
with each of the four Development Targets specified for women empowerment under the third of the Mille...
This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the land policies of Cameroon and Sierra Leone and arrives at the following conclusions: 1] the land policies of the two countries embody the politico-administrative philosophies of their erstwhile colonial master nations; 2] despite their marked differences, the policies share some features in common...
The culture debate in Africa, has traditionally been the domain of professionals in the humanities and social sciences. However, in the light of current development problems, scientists have become party to the discussion since issues raised in these fields have a bearing on scientific and technological advancement. In the area of water as in other...
Much work on the influence of colonialism on development in Africa has focused on macro-level indicators of development such as the GNP, GDP and GNI/cap. The study reported here focuses on micro-level indicators, namely access to improved water and sanitation facilities. The impact of colonial tenure on access to improved water and sanitation facil...
Background/Question/Methods
Cities form hubs where social and biophysical mechanisms interact to regulate massive transfers of energy and material. Our ULTRA site, the Tampa Bay Region Socioecosystem (TBRS), investigates how social organization and distribution of power drive resource transfer, and thus modify social and ecological structures and...
This paper draws from world-systems and sustainable livelihoods approaches to analyze the connections between multinational exports of rutile (titanium oxide), diminished ecological resources and resource-based livelihoods, and gendered household dynamics in a peripheralized mining region in Sierra Leone. The discussion focuses on how the extractio...
The Low Carbon Development Strategy proposed in June 2009 by the government of Guyana in response to the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries program has triggered evaluation of forest-related activities, thereby acting as a catalyst for improvements in Guyana's small- to medium-scale gold mining indu...
As more and more migrants from Africa and the Caribbean come to the United States, the definition of "Who an African American is" has surely broadened. The children of migrants from Africa and the Caribbean often don't think of themselves as Nigerian, Jamaican, African, or West Indian, but as African Americans. It is clear that these immigrants hav...
The discipline of geography in the United States has not done a good job of attracting people, other than Asians, from underrepresented ethnic groups. This article examines undergraduate geography programs in the United States to understand better the status of their ethnic diversity, particularly regarding Hispanics and African Americans, and to o...
Mercury contamination is a global environmental problem that has been responsible for some very visible community health impacts. Although many detrimental effects of mercury are recognized, the factors that lead to continued human exposures are still poorly understood. These factors include its cycling in the environment and the economic, politica...
Some of the challenges and opportunities faced by the Africa in the development of hydroelectric power, are discussed. Water is unevenly distributed throughout Africa with great variation of water events, such as droughts and floods. Spatial and temporal gaps and quality of hydrological data are major challenges to planning. Another important probl...
This paper evaluates the environmental changes in southwestern Sierra Leone, West Africa from rutile (titanium dioxide) between 1967 and 1995. Mining in peripheral parts of the world economy is a consequence of larger global economic interests. Historically, long-distance trade and export production of minerals and other natural resources primarily...
The policy of actively involving indigenous populations in decision-making processes on water reform is not being successfully implemented in African countries such as Sierra Leone. The concept of water as a marketable commodity promoted by the national government and global interests contrasts with the more holistic view of water in traditional so...
The policy of actively involving indigenous populations in decision-making processes on water reform is not being successfully implemented in African countries such as Sierra Leone. The concept of water as a marketable commodity promoted by the national government and global interests contrasts with the more holistic view of water in traditional so...
A shallow unconfined aquifer of fair transmissivity comprising highly decomposed crystalline rocks, overlain discontinuously by Pleistocene to Recent alluvial deposits was found to respond to artificially induced recharge from damming of drainage systems. This aquifer underlies five adjacent river basins draining a 246 km2 area of low to moderate r...
A number of water related projects have operated, independently and at various times, over the River Rokel (Seli) basin in Sierra Leone, West Africa. These include a hydroelectric power scheme and mining and agricul tural projects. It has not been adequately determined what the consequences of conjunctive water use within the basin are in terms of...
Due to financial constraints, water supply projects in sub-Saharan Africa confine quality studies to a limited selection of bacteriological, chemical and aesthetic parameters. Little emphasis is placed on potentially toxic chemical elements, associated with the predominantly crystalline basement rock types, that may occur naturally in surface and g...
Developing countries can rarely afford installation and maintenance costs of an entire groundwater monitoring network. However, data can be found, collected as part of feasibility studies in the mining and geotechnical sectors which stand to gain in the long term, by adequate investment in the collection of comprehensive and accurate data. Poor coo...
This dissertation evaluates environmental and social change in southwestern Sierra Leone, West Africa as a consequence of externally generated trade in timber in the 19th century and rutile (titanium dioxide) mining in the 20th century. Using a conceptual model based on world-systems theory it sought to investigate interactive connections between e...
Projects
Projects (2)
Mercury contamination is an important global environmental problem that has led to very visible community health impacts. Although the detrimental effects of high mercury exposures have long been known, there remain many unknowns concerning the factors that lead to continued exposures. These include lack of adequate knowledge of its cycling in the environment and of the social (economic, political, and cultural) issues that affect its continued use, release, and consumption. Our goal is to understand the factors affecting mercury use, cycling, and exposures from a full system perspective.
