Digital Commons Network^™

“I Think I Discovered A Military Base In The Middle Of The Ocean”—Null Island, The Most Real Of Fictional Places, Levente Juhasz, Peter Mooney

GIS Center

This paper explores Null Island, a fictional place located at 0° latitude and 0° longitude in the WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984) geographic coordinate system. Null Island is erroneously associated with large amounts of geographic data in a wide variety of location-based services, place databases, social media and web-based maps. Whereas it was originally considered a joke within the geospatial community, this article will demonstrate implications of its existence, both technological and social in nature, promoting Null Island as a fundamental issue of geographic information that requires more widespread awareness. The article summarizes error sources that lead to data being …

Measuring The Exposure And Vulnerability Of Transit Riders To Cold Temperatures In London, Ontario, Armin Mahboubi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Due to the expansion of suburban areas in many cities around the world, accessibility to public transit through walking has become a new challenge for riders. Considering the impacts of climate change in creating more extreme weather, such as extreme cold, heat, or flooding, transit riders may thus be at a higher risk of exposure for various weather-related illnesses (Fraser & Chester, 2016).

Using ArcGIS Pro and ArcMap software, and data collected from City of London’s Open Portal, the United States Geological Survey, Open Mobility Data, and Statistics Canada, the exposure and vulnerability of transit riders to cold temperatures in …

The Growth Of Starry Stonewort (Nitellopsis Obtusa), An Aquatic Invasive Species, In Two Michigan Lakes, And Its Suitable Habitats In The Midwest And Northeast United States, Emily Neuman

Masters Theses

The growth of starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa), an aquatic invasive species, in two Michigan Lakes, and its suitable habitats in the Midwest and Northeast United States Aquatic invasive species are a major threat to freshwater ecosystems, but gaps remain in our knowledge on how these species invade, grow, and thrive. This thesis aims to understand how an invasive macroalga, Nitellopsis obtusa (starry stonewort), grows within the littoral zone of two drowned river mouth lakes and suitable habitat preferences across 17 Midwest and northeast U.S.A. states to aid in aquatic invasive species management. In chapter II of this thesis, …

Cartographic Vandalism In The Era Of Location-Based Games—The Case Of Openstreetmap And Pokémon Go, Levente Juhasz, Tessio Novack, Hartwig H. Hochmair, Sen Qiao

GIS Center

User-generated map data is increasingly used by the technology industry for background mapping, navigation and beyond. An example is the integration of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data in widely-used smartphone and web applications, such as Pokémon GO (PGO), a popular augmented reality smartphone game. As a result of OSM’s increased popularity, the worldwide audience that uses OSM through external applications is directly exposed to malicious edits which represent cartographic vandalism. Multiple reports of obscene and anti-semitic vandalism in OSM have surfaced in popular media over the years. These negative news related to cartographic vandalism undermine the credibility of collaboratively generated maps. Similarly, …

Visualization Of Uncertain Boundaries Of Undersea Features, Hyowon Ban, Hyo Hyun Sung

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

There have been several studies that detect, measure, analyze, and visualize the undersea features by using technologies in multiple disciplines including geography and oceanography. However, definitions of the undersea features often vary among the existing leading literature. Due to this reason the geographical boundary for a certain undersea feature is sometimes not identical among the definitions. In this study, we explore semantic uncertainty in the definitions of some undersea features and apply approaches from fuzzy-set theory and geographic information science on empirical bathymetric data to visualize the uncertain boundaries of the undersea features. Results from this study demonstrate that the …

Regional Textile Production: Mapping The Pacific Northwest Fiber Network, Caroline Vogl

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Inspired by the slow food movement, more people have started to question the source of their clothing and textiles due to the environmental and human rights abuses in the current global fashion industry. The Pacific Northwest in particular is a place where questions about textile production and sourcing have been raised and where many textile farmers, retailers and makers already exist. Currently there are many gaps in production and a lack of connection between the various players in this regional economy. The first step in creating a stronger regionally-based fiber economy is to connect the participants in this economy. To …

Towards An Efficient, Scalable Stream Query Operator Framework For Representing And Analyzing Continuous Fields, John Whittier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advancements in sensor technology have made it less expensive to deploy massive numbers of sensors to observe continuous geographic phenomena at high sample rates and stream live sensor observations. This fact has raised new challenges since sensor streams have pushed the limits of traditional geo-sensor data management technology. Data Stream Engines (DSEs) provide facilities for near real-time processing of streams, however, algorithms supporting representing and analyzing Spatio-Temporal (ST) phenomena are limited.

This dissertation investigates near real-time representation and analysis of continuous ST phenomena, observed by large numbers of mobile, asynchronously sampling sensors, using a DSE and proposes two novel stream …

Topological Augmentation: A Step Forward For Qualitative Partition Reasoning, Matthew P. Dube

Journal of Spatial Information Science

The current state of the art for partition based qualitative spatial reasoning systems such as the 9-intersection, 9+-intersection, direction relation matrix, and peripheral direction relations is that of the binary set intersection — either empty or non-empty — conveying the intersection (or lack thereof) of an object in the sets deriving the partition. While such representations are sufficient for topological components of objects, these representations are not sufficient for various tasks in qualitative spatial reasoning (composition, representation transfer, converse, etc.) regarding partitions as tiles. Topological augmentation expands the current binary status quo into a system of assigning topological relations between …

Japanese Encephalitis: Assessing Disease Risk Due To Landscape Factors At Multiple Scales, Julia E. Metelka

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Japanese Encephalitis is a mosquito-borne disease and is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia. In many Asian countries, the geographical distribution of JE is dependent on a variety of human-environment interactions that can be conceptualized as a complex social-ecological system. The JE transmission cycle is influenced by a few primary human-landscape factors; the abundance and the spatial configuration of rice paddy fields (which provide habitat for the vector), the distribution of pig farms (which position the virus' amplifying host), and the location of a susceptible human population. Our models integrate population dynamics, landscape characteristics, and weather variables that …

Modeling Atmospheric Emissions And Calculating Mortality Rates Associated With High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Transportation, Alyssa Mathews

Theses

Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels are a growing pollution concern throughout the global community, as they have been linked to numerous health issues. The freight transportation sector is a large source of these emissions and is expected to continue growing as globalization persists. Within the US, the expanding development of the natural gas industry is helping to support many industries and leading to increased transportation. The process of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) is one of the newer advanced extraction techniques that is increasing natural gas and oil reserves dramatically within the US, however the technique is very …

Gis Analysis Of Brownfield Sites In The City Of Minneapolis, Shreya Vaidya

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Brownfield sites have many negative ramifications on a local area which includes loss of economy, decline in land use value and potential hazard to human health and the environment. Despite the efforts on redeveloping brownfields, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) claims that over 10,000 known contaminated or potentially contaminated sites remain across Minnesota and thousands are likely to exist but have not been identified and recorded. The objectives of this study are to map the brownfield sites in Minneapolis based on the information provided by the regulatory sources and to categorize and analyze all the sites on the basis of …

Complexity And Salience: Evaluating The Inter-Scene Variability Of Animated Choropleth Maps, Michael Dubois

Theses and Dissertations

Animated choropleth maps allow for the compilation of potentially massive time-series datasets which can portray space-time change in a congruent manner. They are also becoming increasingly common for data visualization. When users view and interact with these maps, however, there is the likelihood that the human cognitive-perceptual system may be overwhelmed by a large number of simultaneous changes in each scene: this so-called `change blindness' is a common malady when viewing successive scenes, unless scene-to-scene graphical changes are salient enough to attract the fixation of the user. Even then, there may be a limit to the number of simultaneous changes …

Twenty Years Of Progress: Giscience In 2010, Michael F. Goodchild

Journal of Spatial Information Science

It is 20 years since the term “geographic information science” was suggested to encompass the set of fundamental research issues that surround GIS. Two decades of GIScience have produced a range of accomplishments, in an expanding literature of research results as well as in the infrastructure of research. Several themes are suggested for future research, based both on gaps in what has been accomplished thus far, and on technology trends that will themselves raise research questions.

Fundamentals For Using Geographic Information Science To Measure The Effectiveness Of Land Conservation Projects, Robert G. Pontius Jr., Shaily Menon, Joseph Duncan, Shalini Gupta

Other Scholarly Publications

Some humans spend a tremendous amount of effort to change landscapes from a “natural” state to a “developed” state for a variety of desirable economic uses, such as urban, agriculture, transportation, and mining. Others spend a tremendous amount of effort to prevent such development in order to conserve the landscapes for a variety of important environmental uses, such as biodiversity maintenance, carbon storage, water filtration, and landslide prevention. It would be efficient in theory if a society were to focus its development efforts at locations that give the largest economic utility per area developed, and to focus its conservation efforts …

Fundamentals For Using Geographic Information Science To Measure The Effectiveness Of Land Conservation Projects, Robert G. Pontius Jr., Shaily Menon, Joseph Duncan, Shalini Gupta

Shaily Menon

Some humans spend a tremendous amount of effort to change landscapes from a “natural” state to a “developed” state for a variety of desirable economic uses, such as urban, agriculture, transportation, and mining. Others spend a tremendous amount of effort to prevent such development in order to conserve the landscapes for a variety of important environmental uses, such as biodiversity maintenance, carbon storage, water filtration, and landslide prevention. It would be efficient in theory if a society were to focus its development efforts at locations that give the largest economic utility per area developed, and to focus its conservation efforts …

Key Concepts And Techniques In Gis, Jochen Albrecht

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Spatial Analysis Of The Foreign-Born Population In Douglas Sarpy County, Nebraska – 2000, Leigh Anne L. Opitz

Student Work

For a city that was initially settled mostly by Europeans, the recent immigrants largely from non-European countries, arriving in a changed urban and societal setting, have altered the settlement geography of Omaha, Nebraska. Due to the economic attainment of many newcomers to the country, many immigrant groups are able to settle in more prosperous areas than previous immigrants, and therefore live further away from the inner city. The transportation infrastructure throughout the city has also improved since the beginning of the century, so immigrants are able widen their geographic mobility. The resulting settlement pattern of these new immigrants is therefore …

Interactive Topographic Web Mapping Using Scalable Vector Graphics, Peter Pavlicko

Student Work

Large scale topographic maps portray detailed information about the landscape. They are used for a wide variety o f purposes. USGS large scale topographic maps at 1:24,000 have been traditionally distributed in paper form. With the advent of the Internet, these maps can now be distributed electronically. Instead of common raster format presentation, the solution presented here is based on a vector approach. The vector format provides many advantages compared to the use of a raster-based presentation. This research shows that Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a promising technology for delivering high quality interactive topographic maps via the Internet, both …

Acculturation And Geographic Mobility: The Sudanese Refugees In Omaha, Nebraska, Shelby Lynn Sack

Student Work

Geographic mobility, defined simply as an individual’s ability to move from point A to point B, is a significant element in an individual’s process of adaptation - possibly affecting an individual’s social mobility. With more than 2,000 Sudanese refugees who have settled in Omaha, Nebraska, in the last few years, this study set out to identify the dominant cultural and situational factors that affect the mobility of this population. This thesis research incorporated both qualitative and quantitative techniques into the methodological design. Semistructured interviews were conducted to collect the data, which was then utilized to create activity space maps. Though …

Anisotropic-Reflectance Correction Of Multispectral Satellite Imagery In Complex Mountain Terrain, Stephen B. Cacioppo

Student Work

The utilization of satellite imagery acquired over rugged terrain is problematic because of anisotropic reflectance. A variety of environmental factors, such as the atmosphere and the topography, cause significant variation in the irradiant and radiant flux. Consequently, satellite imagery must be radiometric ally corrected to account for these variations which influence the at-satellite spectral response. In mountain terrain, the topographic effect is very pronounced, and satellite imagery must be normalized utilizing various techniques. The purpose of this research was to evaluate various implementations of the Minnaert correction technique which were designed to account for the influence of topography and land …

The Geography And Geomorphic Development Of Gifford Point Near Bellevue, Nebraska, Constance L. Watson

Student Work

Anthropogenic influences frequently produce more lasting effects on the landscape than natural forces (Hook, 1994). Many areas of the world have been altered to accommodate human needs. Throughout history, rivers have been diverted or dammed in attempts to provide safe travel routes, irrigation, or energy. Gifford Point is as much a product of human forces - the need for a stable, navigable waterway - as it is of the Missouri River from which it was originally formed. This study explores the factors contributing to geomorphic changes to the point during the past 100 years with emphasis on anthropogenic changes resulting …

The Improvement Of Digital Image Classification Over An Urban Area: A Probabilistic Relaxation Approach, Yafei Lu

Student Work

Digital image classification is a technique to extract land cover information from imagery using certain classification schemes. Additional information, either in a map, digital or verbal format, from multi-sources other than satellite imagery can be integrated into a classification scheme to improve its performance. The research in this field is essential because data interpretation has long been a weak link between the functions of two powerful systems: data acquisition by the remote sensing system and data storage, renewal and retrieval by the geographic information system - that has been more and more involved in the geographical research with the development …

An Improved Method Of Assigning Spatial Characteristics In A Raster Environment, Richard A. Benack

Student Work

This thesis will attempt to develop an improved method of handling spatial characteristics in a raster GIS environment. The possibility of assigning multiple variables to a single location in a raster map will be explored. This will be done by developing a non-traditional Geographic Information System (GIS) called the Advanced Raster Analysis Subsystem (ARASS). ARASS will constitute one stop in the continuing evolution of GIS.

The Affect Of Geographic Setting On Community Growth, Development And Redevelopment Planning At Waldport, Oregon, David R. Perry

Student Work

Geographical site and situation play an important role in community growth and in making planning recommendations. Geology, topography, climate and soils strongly influence early growth and development, determining the shape of the community and providing parameters affecting economic activities. The human situation in terms of ethnic groups, technology and the spatial relationship of the community site to regional population centers, explains the long-range evolution of the settlement. The physical landscape normally places certain constraints on human activities that require an expenditure of time, money and effort ot overcome. Additionally, human geography determines the social, economic and political needs and potentials …

The Feasibility Of Using A Geographic Information System To Monitor Change In A Portion Of The Rural-Urban Fringe In Omaha, Nebraska, John Ross

Student Work

Geographers and cartographers have long been interested in using new methods that make it possible to investigate and depict different aspects of the physical and human/cultural environment. In recent years, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have proven to be useful in studying spatial relationships and may be useful in monitoring certain types of change in the environment. A GIS is most often a computerized system designed to store, manipulate, analyze, and display large volumes of spatial data. The various applications of geographic information system have yet to be explored.

Great Plains-Rocky Mountain Camping: A Spatial Analysis, Dennis E. Bussom

Student Work

As our society becomes increasingly leisure-oriented with the growth of disposable personal income and shorter work periods, the need for recreation facilities continues to rise. Government agencies have attempted to meet this demand by the expansion of public facilities within the total outdoor rcreation resource complex. Similarly, commerical entrepreneurs have recognized the profit potential fo specific recreation elements with a resulting increase in facilities such as commerical campgrounds. Because of the difficulties in obtaining data, economic demand and supply studies have been limited mostly to the public sector. An early study stated that variables affecting public and commerical recreation facilities …

Geomorphic Mapping And Topographic Analysis Of The Barker Reservoir Area, Utah, William Clement Putnam

Student Work

A wide variety of geomorphic processes have interacted to produce a complex landscape in the High Plateaus of Utah. This study centers on the high southern slopes of the Aquarius Plateau in the drainage basin of North Creek where the landscape is primarily the result of mass-wasting processes and the subsequent modification of the mass-wasting deposits by fluvial action. The High Plateaus are composed of essentially flat-lying sedimentary strata overlain in places by volcanic rocks and separated by the scarps of highangle normal faults with the downthrow primarily on the west side. The climate and vegetation associations of the High …