Digital Commons Network^™

Temporal Changes To Fire Risk In Disparate Wildland Urban Interface Communities, Nicola C. Leyshon

Master's Theses

Since 1990, thirteen fires over 100,000 acres in size have burned in California seven of which were recorded to be some of the most destructive wildfires of all time (California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection 2013). To aid the development of policy that reduces the destruction caused by wildfires, it is important to evaluate how risk changes through time in communities that are expanding into fire-prone areas. The objective of this study is to discover how the likelihood of structural loss is changing in WUI as newer; more fire resilient structures replace older structures on the edges of the …

Geographical Analysis Of Hub City Transit, Joshua Adam Watts

Master's Theses

This study assess Hub City Transit, the public bus system of Hattiesburg, MS. Statistical analysis is used to determine how well the transit system serves low income areas of the city. A 0.5 mile buffer was applied to the bus routes to determine the coverage of the transit system. Areas of disorder along the routes were also assessed to analyze the landscape routes pass through. Lastly, an analysis of ridership on each route was performed to determine the most heavily used areas, as well as to assess where riders are going on each route.

The findings show that Hub City …

Seasonal Road Layout Design In Mountainous Terrain Using Gis With The Side Hill And Least Cost Path Methods, Emil Harold Brundage

Master's Theses

Seasonal road design in mountainous terrain consists of four main phases: route selection, field investigation, surveying, and analysis. The first phase, route selection, consists of two parts: selecting control points at strategic locations, and then determining potential routes between those points. Two geographic information system (GIS) geoprocessing automations were developed to aid a road planner in determining routes between control points. Both automations utilized Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS software package. The first method developed was the least cost path method, which makes use of ArcGIS’s cost path tool to find a route between points following a gradual slope. …

Tales Of Archaeological Places: Visualizing Mayan Pre-Colonial Settlement Patterns, Angela Ivanov

Master's Theses

In order to visualize ancient Mayan settlement patterns and demography through time, data derived from 26 published archaeological sites were collected and plotted onto three discrete map media. These data were subdivided into six time periods ranging from Pre-Classic to Post-Classic, and were simulated for each map medium. Specific attention was given during the selection of geographical locations, natural landscape features, map annotation, layers and coordinates. Tabulated information were site names, coordinates, site founding dates, site decline/abandonment dates, and estimated population. Combined with existing country base map layers downloaded from online geographical sources and time series animation (an animated map), …