Date of Award

2015

Degree Name

Geography

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.S.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Kevin Law

Second Advisor

Godwin Djietror

Third Advisor

Joshua Hagen

Abstract

Appalachia needs a way to sustainably develop. Cannabis Sativa L. may be a possible source of sustainable development for West Virginia. The goal of this study is the identification of possible sites for industrial hemp fiber cultivation areas, both the total agricultural potential and with current land use land cover classification limits, and which of these sites have the potential for acid mine drainage phytoremediation.

Using LUCIS classification and binary analysis, three major separate outputs were created answering the three study questions. The agricultural layer revealed that West Virginia can utilize hemp farming for 23.48% of the state. The second output, urban layer, reduced the amount of hemp suitable sites to 2.89% of the state. Hemp suitable sites were carved by adding stakeholder preferences reducing the suitable sites to 2.71%. The last layer, contamination, revealed that 1.28% percent of the state is capable of performing phytoremediation under the current classification.

Subject(s)

Cannabis -- West Virginia

Cannabis - Growth -- West Virginia.

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