Matthew H. Connolly

University of Central Arkansas | UCA · Department of Geography

In May 2007, a tornado (classified as EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale) touched down in the small Midwestern town of Greensburg, Kansas. Eleven people lost their lives, 95 per cent of the urbanized landscape was destroyed and hundreds of residents were left temporarily homeless. The town's decision to rebuild as a ‘green city’, and the many implic...

Since the inception of computerized geographical information systems (GIS) in the late 1960s, statistics have played an essential role in GIS analysis activities. Spatial and aspatial descriptive statistics are used to explore, classify, and visualize geospatial data, helping to evaluate cursory distributions and patterns, as well as suggesting mor...

Fish assemblages are useful in evaluating the health of aquatic ecosystems. Over time, fish assemblages will respond to anthropogenic disturbances but may also simultaneously respond to conservation efforts in a watershed, shifting the taxonomic and functional structure of the assemblage. We quantified temporal changes in taxonomic and functional s...

Irrigation has been widely implemented across the globe as a mitigation strategy to combat climate change and erratic rainfall. Irrigation in the confined geographic region like the Arkansas Delta of the US has likely affected heat and moisture fluxes at the land surface with possible effects on regional climate conditions. Irrigation unquestionabl...

Final poster completed for requirements of our capstone course at the University of Central Arkansas in the Environmental Science Program. The purpose of this project was to provide Central Arkansas Water with baseline geomorphological survey data on the middle course of Reece Creek (a tributary to Lake Maumelle, a primary drinking water reservoir...

This work provides an overview of the methods we developed to involve stakeholders in our investigation of mountain bike impacts on Ouachita Trail segments in a protected drinking water source drainage basin in Central Arkansas.

Previous research on mountain bike impacts has well-documented mountain bike activity effects under highly controlled experimental conditions in existing multiple use recreation areas. Several studies used specific bike frames, rider weights, and a priori numbers of trail passes. While influential and informative, these studies did not address impo...

In hydrological studies, or studies with a hydrological component, a lot of time can be spent selecting and running models to determine precipitation potential runoff path and intensity. Runoff potential estimates are useful for understanding water quality, sediment transport, and potential flood zones. This study examined whether or not a generali...

Identifying suitable impact study sites in environmentally sensitive areas is often challenging due to conflicts between stakeholders, and resource protection concerns. These challenges may be amplified when selecting impact study sites in protected public drinking water supply watersheds. Lake Maumelle is the principal drinking water supply for th...

Throughout the world, beach erosion has been exacerbated in recent years by poorly informed management decisions, rising sea level, and increased tropical storm intensity. Beach erosion is especially important in Caribbean island nations due to the process' joint economic and geomorphic impacts. This study assesses the 7 km of shoreline along Treas...

Beach erosion is a problem throughout the world due to human management and rising sea level. The Ozarks Environmental and Water Resource Institute has partnered with organizations in Treasure Beach, Jamaica to monitor historical and future beach erosion rates for 7 km of coastline. Aerial photography was used to determine beach location for the ye...

Fiscal and environmental pollution prevention benefits have become increasingly important in recent years, as utility and management agencies continue to face shrinking operational budgets and growing high-quality drinking water demands. Successful Watershed Protection Plans often help provide low-cost high-quality drinking water using conservation...

Texas is one of the most productive wine-producing states in the United States. However, both the physical and ecological environments of Texas can present challenges which can complicate viticultural practices. Insects in particular are difficult to control and growers typically use strong insecticides in order to sustain commercially viable viney...

Physical (pH, temperature, conductance) and geochemical (major ions) characteristics of groundwater are used to define water types for aquifers within varying geologic regions. Water type can provide hydrogeologic information, such as differences in aquifer materials, rock/water interaction, and changes in redox conditions that occur along groundwa...

Texas is one of the most prolific wine-producing states in the United States. However, both the physical and ecological environments of Texas present a number of challenges which complicate viticultural practices. Insects are particularly difficult to control and growers regularly apply strong insecticides to maintain a commercially viable vineyard...

The uneven spatiotemporal distribution of fresh water resources often creates socio-political disputes due to mismatches between municipal supplies and demands. These disputes are especially important in arid and semi-arid regions such as Texas where municipal demands continue to rise in the face of dwindling supplies, prolonged drought cycles, and...

Human and natural processes continuously alter the quality, quantity, and spatial distribution of fresh water. These changes in the characteristics of fresh water are especially important in arid and semi-arid regions such as Texas where socio-political disputes arise from the mismatches between fresh water supplies and demands. Research suggests t...

The proliferation of online emission calculators and the growing popularity of carbon footprint assessments recently underscores an emerging interest among Americans in understanding their personal environmental impacts, especially in relation to greenhouse gas emissions. While studies have quantified carbon footprints at a variety of geographic sc...

This study analyzed the individual and joint influences of social, urban, and physical landscape characteristics on patterns of municipal water consumption at the county scale for the state of Texas using a cross-sectional research design on three distinct temporal slices (1990, 2000, and 2010). Global multiple linear regression models and measures...

The disproportionate amount of water runoff from mountains to surrounding arid and semiarid lands has generated much research in snow water equivalent (SWE) modeling. A primary input in SWE models is snow covered area (SCA) which is generally obtained via satellite imagery. Mixed pixels in alpine snow studies complicate SCA measurements and can red...

The disproportionate amount of water runoff from mountains to surrounding arid and semiarid lands has generated much research in snow water equivalent (SWE) modeling. A primary input in SWE models is snow covered area (SCA) which is generally obtained via satellite imagery. Mixed pixels in alpine snow studies complicate SCA measurements and can red...

The United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) has long been a source of rigorously tested monthly precipitation and temperature data for the contiguous forty-eight United States. The availability of important probabilistic tools such as gamma distribution parameters and deciles, however, has been rare. Furthermore, the role of accredited...