Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Design And Physical Boundary In Temporary Post-Disaster Relief Shelters: Analysis Of Existing Literature, Min-Hye Jang

Theses

Natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, cyclones, storms, earthquakes, wildfires, and landslides displace people. As responses at the community resilience level, the temporary post-relief shelter is critical for the community's rapid recovery. Converting existing public facilities is the fastest way to respond to a crisis. However, the Hurricane Katrina Superdome Shelter alerted society to the prevalence of sexual assault in transitory catastrophe contexts. Not only has sexual abuse occurred, but prior shelters did not equip every user with physical barriers to suit their needs. This study examined academic journals, articles, and books to identify issues with natural disaster shelters created …

Quantifying Landscape Change Using Different Spectrometers, Spectral Unmixing, And Uas Imagery, Bianca Cilento

Theses

Climate-driven land cover change and biodiversity loss are problems impacting food security, economic growth, human health, and cultural identity of arctic environments, such as Stordalen Mire, Abisko, Sweden (68.35’ N, 18.82’ E). The sensitive nature of these remote areas necessitates large-scale, less-invasive monitoring of environmental change via remote sensing combined with low-impact, cost-effective field validation of remote sensing products. This project assesses the accuracy and utility of two low-cost spectrometers, the Sherwin-Williams® ColorSnap® and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science and Technology Education for Land/Life Assessment (STELLA-Q), in conjunction with ArcGIS and GoogleEarth Engine programs and aerial imagery …

Unearthing The Past: A Comprehensive Study Of Natural And Anthropogenic Changes At An Archaeological Site Through Hydrogeologic Connectivity Utilizing Gis, Mehlich Ii Phosphorus Extractant, And Ph, Dana L. F. Herren

Theses

This thesis aims to thoroughly analyze the Mehlich II Phosphorus Extractant and pH levels at the Bains Gap Village Site in Anniston, AL., while examining the impact of various environmental factors and human activities on them. Phosphorus is often used in archaeology as an indicator of human activity. Soil core samples were collected to analyze anomalies in phosphorus levels.

To establish any relationships, phosphorus and pH levels from soil cores were correlated with findings from past excavation units and features. The potential effects of hydrogeologic connectivity on soil phosphorus and pH levels were investigated. Geospatial technologies were used to manage …

The Ghanaian War Against Malaria: A Geospatial Approach To Malaria And Healthcare Access In Ghana, Emmanuel Aklie

Theses

This geospatial research project aims to analyze the complex factors influencing malaria incidence in Ghana, including healthcare access, cultural beliefs, and preventive measures. Using GIS mapping and spatial analysis, the study examines malaria distribution and healthcare facility locations to identify hotspots and access inequalities. Combining quantitative data from sources like Demographic and Health Surveys with qualitative methods like surveys and interviews, the project analyzes the relationship between malaria prevalence and vaccination rates, bed net usage, and cultural views on treatment. By taking a comprehensive approach focused on evidence-based insights, the research seeks to inform targeted interventions by the Ghanaian government …

Transfer Learning Across Domains And Sensing Modalities, Chowdhury Sadman Jahan

Theses

Transfer learning facilitates the training of a deep learning (DL) model with limited or no labeled data, by initializing the network parameters using a similar model already trained on a different but related dataset or task. This dissertation examines two special cases of transfer learning for image classification tasks: cross-modal supervised learning, and cross-domain unsupervised adaptation. This dissertation proposes to apply cross-modal transfer learning to guide the training process of a DL model on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images via knowledge distillation from a DL model trained on corresponding electro-optical (EO) images. Furthermore, this approach explores class-balanced sampling strategies and …

Curation And Analysis Of Ai Ready Environmental Justice Datasets : A Proof-Of-Concept Study, Paridhi Parajuli

Theses

Equity and Environmental Justice (EEJ) advocates for unbiased distribution of environmental impacts across communities, regardless of social and economic characteristics. After extreme events like natural disasters, EEJ gains importance due to evident disparities in impact among communities. Addressing these injustices requires comprehensive datasets and analytical methods for quantification and resolution. While AI and advanced data analysis offer promising solutions, creating AI-ready EEJ datasets is challenging due to heterogeneity in the data surrounding EEJ. In this work, we focus on curating novel datasets for EEJ targeting a few recent extreme events - Maui Wildfire, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Ida. We demonstrate …

Ambient Temperature Modelling With Ecostress And Private Weather Stations, Gaurav Khatri

Theses

This thesis explores the development and application of a novel data architecture for predicting ambient temperatures across US cities, focusing on integrating multi-source data i.e. ECOSTRESS land surface temperatures, urban surface properties, and crowdsourced weather data. The methodology is designed for scalability and adaptability across different urban regions, employing rigorous data quality control to enhance prediction accuracy. The validation of this model across diverse urban settings, demonstrated through rigorous RMSE comparisons and spatial mapping, validates its superiority over traditional models. Through experiments in diverse climatic conditions in Madison, Wisconsin, and Las Vegas, Nevada, the study assesses the model’s generalizability and …

Interlacing Unstructured Data With Deep Neural Nets For Predicting Pervious And Impervious Land Cover Types, Srivani Athmakur

Theses

This research delves into the intricate task of delineating land cover types in Tallahassee-Leon County and emphasizes the need for detailed granularity beyond existing classification systems. Utilizing cutting-edge GIS data, the study harnesses the power of deep learning algorithms, including U-net, UNetPlusPlus, FPNnet, and DeepLabV3Plus. A unique approach, ”Interlacing Unstructured Data with Deep Neural Nets,” integrates shapefiles and Tiff images to enhance classification metrics such as mean intersection over union, pixel accuracy, and loss functions. The research aspires to significantly improve the precision of land cover classification, holding implications for urban planning and environmental management. By innovatively integrating unstructured data, …

Predictive Methods And Data Pattern Analysis For Reducing Car Plate Theft, Noor Alzayani

Theses

The project titled " Predictive Methods and Data Pattern Analysis for Reducing Car Plate Theft" seeks to provide innovative solutions to combat car plate theft. The project contains data of 6500 thieves who have stolen number plates and were involved in various other types of criminal activities by putting that number plate in their vehicle. The data collected for the present project is from the emirates of Dubai. It contains information related to thieves age, education, nationality, type of crime committed, area in which crime is committed, number of crimes committed, timing of crime, residential status of criminal, visa status, …

Exploitation Of Spatial Content For Enhancing Pansharpening And Image Fusion Performance, Rey Ducay

Theses

Designing algorithms that spatially enhance hyperspectral imagery is an active area of research due to their many wide-ranging applications such as target detection, precision agriculture, forest management, security/defense applications, among others. This body of work focuses on the effects of spatial content on one’s ability to fuse imagery. Different types of spatial content (e.g., spatial clutter of man-made structures like buildings, types of trees in a forest, different species of grain in a farm, pixels containing water, plumes/clouds, etc.) and spatial artifacts such as edges and corners are explored as to how they affect the sharpening process. This is achieved …

Strategy-Specific Differentiation In Response To Resources And Drivers Of Spring Migration Phenology In Rocky Mountain Elk, Storm Crews

Theses

Elk (Cervus canadensis) are known to exhibit high movement strategy diversity compared to other ungulate species. Most elk populations are migratory or partially migratory, presenting unique conservation and management challenges. For example, successful maintenance of multiple seasonal ranges and connectivity between them is necessary to conserve populations with migratory behaviors. Further study of the structure and maintenance of movement strategy diversity within partially migratory populations is needed to assist management and refine fundamental ecological theory. Improved understanding of the determinants of elk migratory timing is also important, with the dynamics of significant drivers likely to shift under future climate change …

The Future Of Deep Fakes: Analyzing The Potential Future Consequences Of The Widespread Use Of Deepfakes On The Policing Sector, Maryam Salem Alshamsi

Theses

In today’s world there is a growing uncertainty in terms of the truthfulness of what we see and hear. People digest a great amount of information throughout the day using their devices, yet the quality and credibility of content is in question. People question if we are experiencing and perceiving the same reality at this point. This issue is not novel, however, it has progressed and developed to a level of realism that deceives people and affect their comprehension of information. Rapid technological advancement has raised the concern of what is referred to as “Deepfakes”, a machine learning technique that …

The Effect Of Demographic Imbalance On Crime, Maher Bhadri

Theses

This study investigates demographic imbalance on crimes in the UAE by analyzing a record of crimes from 2020 to 2022 using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings reveal gender, marital status, and age imbalance among crime offenders in the UAE. Males, married individuals, and individuals in their 30s are more prevalent in committing crimes. Certain countries, accused individuals, and certain types of crimes are also more frequent in the UAE. Policymakers and law enforcement agencies can use these insights to develop targeted interventions to reduce crime rates in the country. Future studies should investigate the underlying causes of these imbalances …

Dubai Emirate Land Price Prediction Using Analytics And Machine Learning, Shaikha Ali Mohsin Alattar Alhashmi

Theses

The Dubai Emirate is a burgeoning and vibrant region that has gained significant attention in the real estate industry due to its rapid development. With an increase in demand for land, the region has experienced a substantial surge in land prices. Therefore, precise land price prediction has become paramount for real estate investors, developers, and government officials. The purpose of this study was to employ analytics and machine learning techniques to accurately forecast land prices in the Dubai Emirate.

The study employed a dataset that included influencing factors such as, location, amenities, infrastructure, size, and other variables that affect land …

Assessing The Impact Of Alfalfa (Medicago Sativa) Crop On Groundwater Resources In The Emirate Of Abu Dhabi Using Geospatial Techniques, Abdulaziz Abdulla Aljaberi

Theses

Groundwater is a major source of fresh water in the world, especially in arid and semi-arid countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where rainfall is not evenly distributed through the four seasons of the year. Therefore, it is necessary to pay serious attention to the importance of preserving groundwater resources. The agriculture sector poses a real threat to groundwater. Irrigated crop cultivation practices change groundwater levels as a result of cultivating crops or farming plants that consume large amounts of water. Alfalfa is an example of a high-water consuming crop, being a widely cultivated crop in the UAE. This …

The Psychogeographic Relationship With Memories, Popular Music, And Identity: A Case Study From 1995-2022 Of The Grateful Dead, Margaret Lane Walton

Theses

This paper will explore sonic geography and its impact on human and cultural geography through popular music, specifically the Grateful Dead, from 1995 to 2022. This research focuses on the eventization of the band and popular music post-Jerry Garcia’s death, whereas previous research has focused primarily on the band from 1965 to 1995. The infamous psychedelic rock and roll band was widely known for the created and imagined communities that it forged over their 30-year run. Recent research on soundscapes and music’s role in the study of geography precipitated the need for more attention to music geography. This paper explores …

Tourism, Mapping, Retail And Recreational Trails: A Case Study Of Connectivity Between Trails And Adjacent Downtowns In Anniston, Alabama, Usa, Jennifer Green

Theses

This study examines the estimated increase in economic impact on a geography’s local economy by creating cross-marketing efforts between expanding an established outdoor recreation trail to a closely located city downtown commerce district. This research will analyze the resulting potential rise in sales/lodging tax revenues for that city by mapping the trail and downtown district, and cross-marketing the other to users of both or either venue. Potential increase in economic impact will be estimated utilizing IMPLAN methodology by assessing the economic impact on the local economy that a percentage range of increased spending resulting from this cross-marketing effort could generate.

The Geometry And Topology Of Landslides, Kamal Rana

Theses

Landslides are often catastrophic, causing loss of life and destruction of property and infrastructure. Landslide susceptibility and hazard modeling help mitigate these losses by finding regions prone to landslides and providing probabilistic forecasting of landslide occurrence in a region. However, these landslide susceptibility and hazard models' efficacy depends on the quality of existing databases that often lack crucial information, like the underlying trigger and failure mechanism of a landslide. In this Ph.D. project, we developed methods to identify landslide triggering and failure mechanism information using their geometric and topological properties. For identifying landslide trigger information, we developed three different methods …

The Three-Dimensional Visualization Of Mars Dust Storms Based On Deriving Digital Elevation Maps From Satellite Imagery, Meirah Ali Alzeyoudi

Theses

This work focuses on generating a Three-Dimensional Visualization of Mars's local dust storms utilizing satellite images from publicly available archives. The work aimed to create a Three-Dimensional Visualization of two Local Dust storms, the first local dust storm occurred on May 20, 2020, in the Chryse Planitia Region of Mars, while the second one occurred on 8 June 2021, on the northern side of the Utopia Planitia Region of Mars. The visualization will assist in providing a better understanding of the dynamics of Dust Storms on Mars by indicating and analyzing the main features of dust storms on Mars. Also, …

Predicting Food Safety Compliance For Food-Serving Establishments Inspections, Huda Amin Al Zarooni

Theses

There is an enormous increase in the number of food-serving establishments with the growing urbanization, which increases the challenges for government organizations in supervising their compliance with the food safety code. Food-borne illnesses could result in severe health and economic impacts and require efficient surveillance to ensure public safety and eliminate the negative impacts. This challenge can be addressed by applying data analytics in supporting the government supervision role.

The inspections conducted by the Government generate a huge amount of data that can be leveraged by data analytics and improve the efficiency of the operations and optimize the service provided …

The Role Of The Anthropogenic Fire Regime In Protected Areas In Kenya : A Case Study In The Mau Forest Region, Stefanie Mehlich

Theses

Kenya is frequently subject to fire activity. Natural fire occurrence is part of and beneficial to most of the country’s ecosystems. However, anthropogenic activities associated with agricultural practices increasingly introduce fire activity to ecosystems that are not fire adapted, such as forest systems. Registration of small-size burned areas below an extent of 1 square kilometer, especially from fires in mixed agricultural-forest interfaces, is a substantial gap in currently available products. Addressing this issue, an improved spatial resolution fire burned area product was generated, based on VIIRS Active Fire Detections and Landsat Surface Reflectance data products, and used to characterize fire …

Implementing And Evaluating A Higher Resolution Weather Dataset On A Coupled Hydrological-Crop Model, Diego Andres Quintero Puentes

Theses

Climate change and climate variability stand as threats to agriculture, especially in low-income countries. Crop models, which simulate crop growth and development, can be used to support decision making in water and agriculture in the context of an uncertain and variable climate. RHEAS is a modeling framework that integrates a hydrologic model, a crop model, and satellite-based observations. It uses gridded input data as forcing variables for the estimation of land surface fluxes and regional crop yield. One of the input datasets is the meteorology dataset, which contains temperature and wind speed data. RHEAS includes the NCEP reanalysis dataset as …

Estimating Irrigation Potential Index (Ipi) For Ungauged Hydrological Stations In Alabama, Gelayol Mohammadnazar

Theses

This research tackles the crucial challenge of estimating low flow statistics - the 90th percentile flow duration (Q90) and the minimum 7-day, 10-year average flow (7Q10), Irrigation Potential Index (IPI)- at ungauged hydrological stations in Alabama. Given the state's variable water availability for irrigation, and lack of sustainable water resource management and agricultural planning, these statistics are essential for defining realistic and applicable criteria for water quality and quantity. Central to our study is the calculation of the Irrigation Potential Index (IPI), a key determinant of the state's water resource management capabilities. Our methodology begins with calculating Q90 and 7Q10 …

Water Microbial Pollution Risk Simulation And Prediction Using Ml, Dania Al Safadi

Theses

Water quality has been a global concern due to its scarcity as well as it is direct effects on wellbeing and food production. Therefore, many studies have been addressing this matter in order to address the consequences left behind. Consider the harmful effects of polluted water moving uninterrupted over vast distances and through countless homes. The water we drink, cook with, and bathe in would not be safe requiring an immediate response in order to reduce the damage as a direct result of the pollution. The aim of this study was to develop models that could evaluate the microbial water …

Impacts Of Spatial Resolution And Viewing Angle On Remotely Sensed Estimates Of Spartina Alterniflora Aboveground Biomass, Avery Miller

Theses

Coastal salt marshes sequester large quantities of “blue carbon” in plant biomass and sediments, and provide numerous other valuable ecosystem functions and services. However, these ecosystems are increasingly threatened by external stressors, including rising sea levels and a changing climate, which have resulted in large losses of tidal marsh habitat. Measuring plant biomass is critical for understanding how carbon storage may be affected as stressors continue to cause marsh losses, and for improving conservation and management efforts. A number of studies have quantified aboveground biomass (AGB) in salt marshes using remote sensing techniques, and with the development of high resolution …

Dynamic Algorithms And Asymptotic Theory For Lp-Norm Data Analysis, Mayur Dhanaraj

Theses

The focus of this dissertation is the development of outlier-resistant stochastic algorithms for Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the derivation of novel asymptotic theory for Lp-norm Principal Component Analysis (Lp-PCA). Modern machine learning and signal processing applications employ sensors that collect large volumes of data measurements that are stored in the form of data matrices, that are often massive and need to be efficiently processed in order to enable machine learning algorithms to perform effective underlying pattern discovery. One such commonly used matrix analysis technique is PCA. Over the past century, PCA has been extensively used in areas such as …

Invasive Species Identification And Monitoring Using Computer Vision, Street View Imagery, And Community Science, Liam Megraw

Theses

Invasive plants present significant challenges for ecosystem integrity, biodiversity preservation, and agricultural production. Continuous surveillance efforts are necessary to detect and effectively respond to emerging infestations. However, monitoring methods currently available each have their own limits, whether due to cost, time, or sampling bias. Computer vision applied to roadside imagery is a previously undeveloped methodological synergy that can support existing monitoring efforts. Further, because roadsides are a vector of spread, they are an ideal pathway to monitor. In this study, we present research and management applications of a dataset generated by a computer vision model for Phragmites (Common reed) and …

Disaster Site Structure Analysis: Examining Effective Remote Sensing Techniques In Blue Tarpaulin Inspection, Madeline G. Miles

Theses

This thesis aimed to evaluate three methods of analyzing blue roofing tarpaulin (tarp) placed on homes in post natural disaster zones with remote sensing techniques by assessing the different methods- image segmentation, machine learning (ML), and supervised classification. One can determine which is the most efficient and accurate way of detecting blue tarps. The concept here was that using the most efficient and accurate way to locate blue tarps can aid federal, state, and local emergency management (EM) operations and homeowners. In the wake of a natural disaster such as a tornado, hurricane, thunderstorm, or similar weather events, roofs are …

Deep Feature Learning And Adaptation For Computer Vision, Abu Md Niamul Taufique

Theses

We are living in times when a revolution of deep learning is taking place. In general, deep learning models have a backbone that extracts features from the input data followed by task-specific layers, e.g. for classification. This dissertation proposes various deep feature extraction and adaptation methods to improve task-specific learning, such as visual re-identification, tracking, and domain adaptation. The vehicle re-identification (VRID) task requires identifying a given vehicle among a set of vehicles under variations in viewpoint, illumination, partial occlusion, and background clutter. We propose a novel local graph aggregation module for feature extraction to improve VRID performance. We also …

Reflectance And Emittance Spectra Of Intimately Mixed And Layered Media, Charles A. Tabor Jr

Theses

The remote characterization of intimately mixed and layered media is a com- plicated and yet critical aspect of understanding the natural and human ac- tivities that induce the mixing and layering of surface media. The study of this environment is aided by two Hapke models that attempt to address these challenges in the context of reflectance spectroscopy. The Hapke mixing model predicts the spectra of intimate mixtures based upon end member spectra and known geophysical parameters but has not been evaluated over a wide range of non-powder mixtures which are common in littoral environments. The Hapke model for the diffusive …