Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Northern Bobwhite Habitat In Semiarid Rangeland Using Landsat Imagery, Jeffrey G. Whitt, Kelly S. Reyna

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Multiple studies have attempted to model northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) distribution using classified remotely sensed imagery in combination with pattern recognition software. These models tend to be more accurate in humid subtropical regions. To identify bobwhite habitat in subhumid and semiarid rangeland, we performed our own classification on 4 LANDSAT scenes of Clay County, Texas, from July and December 2015. Stands of mature little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) provide excellent bobwhite nesting cover and could be identified using LANDSAT imagery. Habitat was scored from 0 to 1.0 based on estimated range health, presence of little bluestem, and …

Geographic Information Systems (Gis) And Predictive Modeling Of Body Disposal Sites, Annemarie Catherine Gundel

Masters Theses

Homicide victims are often discovered by accident or located through witness testimony, both of which are unreliable methods. Moving a victim’s body from the scene of the crime to a secondary disposal site may further complicate their discovery, delaying recovery, identification, and evidence collection. Homicides are exponentially more difficult to investigate, solve, and prosecute without a body. In the medicolegal context, a body disposal site prediction model is an alternative to relying on luck or witness testimony. Predictive models were created using body disposal data collected from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), Connecticut, to explore the feasibility …

Conservation Reserve Program Grasslands And Ring-Necked Pheasant Abundance In Minnesota, James F. Drake, Richard O. Kimmel, J. David Smith, Gary Oehlert

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) abundance was measured on 15 study areas using roadside counts during the summers of 1990-1994 to examine possible relationships to permanent grasslands and 9 other cover types. The majority of permanent grasslands was enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and likely would have been actively used for agriculture if not for the CRP. Roads were divided into 300 m segments and the proportion of each cover type was determined within 200 m and 800 m of each segment. A non-parametric procedure was used to determine the most significant predictors of number of pheasants observed on …

Delineation Of Gambel's Quail Habitat In The Trans-Pecos, Texas, Alfonso Ortega-Sanchez, Louis A. Harveson, Roel R. Lopez, Michael R. Sullins

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Gambel’s quail (Callipepla gambelii) are a common quail species in southwestern states of the United States and the northwestern states of Mexico. In Texas this species occurs in the Trans-Pecos region, are underutilized, and could become an important game bird and source of income for ranchers in the Chihuahuan Desert region of Texas. Salt cedar (Tamarisk spp.), introduced from Asia for ornamental and erosion purposes, is invasive in the western part of the Rio Grande corridor that generally creates monocultures that choke out the native vegetation of the region. Knowing this, the objectives of this study were to: (1) delineate …

Streambank Erosion Mapping On The Nottoway River Using Gps-Based Above-Water Video, Emine Fidan

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This project concerns the development of streambank erosion maps on military installations utilizing GPS-based above-water video mapping and image georeferencing techniques. The river mapped was the Nottoway River at the Fort Pickett military installation on October 10-11, 2015. Kayak-mounted above-water cameras were utilized to capture georeferenced images of streambank erosion. These GIS-based erosion classifications were utilized to develop erosion maps for determining streambank erosion conditions along the river. Areas of high erosion were identified as about two percent of the river (2167 ft. of streambank length). These maps allow for the opportunity to revisit the sites to determine changes in …

Reflecting Human Knowledge Of Place And Route-Choice Behavior Using Big Data, Jiaoli Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

Exploring human knowledge of geographical space and related behavior not only helps in understanding human-environment interactions and dynamic geographic processes, but also advances Geographic Information Systems (GIS) toward a human-centric paradigm to make daily life more efficient. Today’s relatively easy acquisition of various big data provides an unprecedented opportunity for geographers to answer research questions that previously could not be adequately addressed. However, new challenges also arise regarding data quality and bias as well as change in methodology for dealing with big data that are different from traditional data types.

Representing people’s perception of place and studying driver’s route-choice behavior …