Confluence Volume 5, Spring 2026

There is a quiet resistance to the idea of global interconnectedness. Not because it is difficult to understand, but because it is difficult to accept. It suggests that even the smallest actions are never isolated; they extend outward, accumulate, and alter conditions elsewhere. What we eat, how we move, and...

Abstract The Chicago River has been a central component of the surrounding land and inhabitants for as long as people have been in the area. Its history has been one of care, neglect, and revitalization, but this last point varies by the location and its demographics. The developments along the...

Introduction Search and Rescue (SAR) incidents are a major operational challenge in large wilderness areas, especially in national parks with complex terrain. Yosemite National Park is one of the most active parks in the United States for SAR operations, often responding to hundreds of incidents each year. 1 Past research...

Are public spaces truly public? According to the Legal Information Institute, loitering is only a crime when a person lingers in a public space for no apparent reason or to engage in gambling or business activities (Loitering 2023). While not explicitly stated and purposefully vague, loitering laws criminalize “hanging out”...

Abstract This study investigates the spatial relationship between bicycle-friendly infrastructure density and cyclist crash rates across Denver, Colorado, with the goal of informing targeted infrastructure investments that reduce crash risk. Using five years of collision data (2019–2024), annual cyclist crash rates were standardized per 1,000 daily cyclists by combining collision...

Introduction Understanding Neighborhood Change Households move for a variety of reasons. Rossi's (1955) work established a key framework for household moves and the motivations behind them. Some are beneficial, like relocating for a new career opportunity or being closer to family for support, while others are not, like evictions or...

Introduction Deprived urban areas present an immense humanitarian risk to urban dwellers throughout the world. They have low access to sanitation, housing security, safety and economic mobility, as urban governance ignores the existence of the over 1.1 billion slum dwellers throughout the world (United Nations, 2023). Slum dwellers are largely...

Summary Teeming with life from all trophic levels, seagrass grows in vast meadows from 1 to 58 meters deep in salty and brackish waters along the coast where different species of seagrass are found pole to pole along all continents except Antarctica (Reynolds, 2018). Seagrass meadows play a huge role...

Introduction Tuberculosis is an ancient disease. Possible marks of the disease were found in a 500,000-year-old hominid fossil in Turkey in 2007 (University of Texas), and evidence of tuberculosis has been found in mummies all over the world, such as Peru (1000 years ago), Egypt (4000+ years ago), and the...