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"The Trees Act Not As Individuals"--Learning To See The Whole Picture In Biology Education And Remote Sensing Research, Rebeka A.F. Greenall Aug 2023

"The Trees Act Not As Individuals"--Learning To See The Whole Picture In Biology Education And Remote Sensing Research, Rebeka A.F. Greenall

Theses and Dissertations

To increase equity and inclusion for underserved and excluded Indigenous students, we must make efforts to mitigate the unique barriers they face. As their knowledge systems have been historically excluded and erased in Western science, we begin by reviewing the literature on the inclusion of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in biology education and describe best practices. Next, to better understand how Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander (NHPI) students integrate into the scientific community, we used Social Influence Theory as a framework to measure NHPI student science identity, self-efficacy, alignment with science values, and belonging. We also investigated how students …


Assessment Of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaevaâ D.K. Bailey) Forest Communities Using Geospatial Technologies, David Richard Burchfield Jul 2021

Assessment Of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaevaâ D.K. Bailey) Forest Communities Using Geospatial Technologies, David Richard Burchfield

Theses and Dissertations

Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey) is a keystone species of the subalpine forest in the Great Basin and western Colorado Plateau ecoregions in Utah, Nevada, and California. Bristlecone pine is also the world's longest-lived non-clonal organism, with individuals occasionally reaching ages up to 5,000 years old. Because of its longevity, bristlecone pine contains an important proxy record of climate data in its growth rings. Despite its ecological and scientific importance, bristlecone pine's distribution and associated environmental drivers are poorly understood. Geospatial technologies, including unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial modeling techniques …


Improving Hydroshare And Web Application Interoperability Through Integrated Gis And His Data Services, Kenneth Jack Lippold Dec 2019

Improving Hydroshare And Web Application Interoperability Through Integrated Gis And His Data Services, Kenneth Jack Lippold

Theses and Dissertations

HydroShare is a collaborative online system being developed by the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Inc. (CUAHSI) with the goal of facilitating the dissemination, visualization, and publishing of hydrologic data and models. External web applications serve a key role in extending HydroShare's capabilities, so robust application programming interfaces (APIs) are a vital component of HydroShare's architecture. Hydrologic data stored on HydroShare are defined by a data type, and much of these data are either geospatial or time series data. Although HydroShare's API provides ways to upload and download files, as well as access certain metadata, it …


Of Fire, Mammals, And Rain: Mechanisms Of Plant Invasions, Tara Boyce Bishop Jul 2019

Of Fire, Mammals, And Rain: Mechanisms Of Plant Invasions, Tara Boyce Bishop

Theses and Dissertations

Biological invasions are driving environmental state changes on a global scale. Exotic plant species must be successful at passing several abiotic and biotic filters to establish and disrupt the native plant community assembly. Understanding where exotic plants are on a regional scale and being able to characterize how exotic plants are generally interacting with their environment is crucial information for exotic species management (chapter 1). In the western United States human-related activities are augmenting the spread of exotic plant species by increasing the ignitions of wildfire. Wildfire can lead to nutrient pulses through the removal of intact native communities and …


A Gis Approach To Archaeological Settlement Patterns And Predictive Modeling In Chihuahua, Mexico, Haylie Anne Ferguson Dec 2018

A Gis Approach To Archaeological Settlement Patterns And Predictive Modeling In Chihuahua, Mexico, Haylie Anne Ferguson

Theses and Dissertations

In this study I analyzed the pattern of settlement for known Medio period (A.D. 1200–1450) sites in the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Locational data acquired from survey projects in the Casas Grandes region were evaluated within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework to reveal patterns in settlement and site distribution. Environmental and cultural variables, including aspect, cost distance to nearest ballcourt, ecoregion, elevation, local relief, cost distance to nearest oven, cost distance to Paquimé, slope, soil, terrain texture, topographic position index, cost distance to nearest trincheras, vegetation, vegetation variety to 100 meters, vegetation variety to 500 meters, cost …


Modeling Coastal Vulnerability For Insight Into Mangrove And Coral Reef Conservation Efforts In Cuba, Maria Gomez Aug 2018

Modeling Coastal Vulnerability For Insight Into Mangrove And Coral Reef Conservation Efforts In Cuba, Maria Gomez

Theses and Dissertations

Cuba’s expansive coral reefs and mangrove habitats provide a variety of ecosystem services to coastal communities including nursery grounds for fisheries, shoreline stability, and storm and flood protection. While Cuba’s coastal habitats are some of the most preserved in the Caribbean, they are under increasing threat of degradation from the impacts of climate change, increased tourism, and coastal development. With the goal of sustainable development, Cubans need to assess the storm and flood protection benefits these coastal habitats provide, and integrate this information into future expansion and management plans within the National Protected Areas System (SNAP). Using the open source …


A Learning Vector Quantization Based Geospatial Modeling Approach For Inland Wq Remote Prediction Jan 2018

A Learning Vector Quantization Based Geospatial Modeling Approach For Inland Wq Remote Prediction

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

Quick and accurate quantification of lake water quality (WQ) is essential for its management and improvement. Use of geotechnology (remote sensing, GIS, and GPS) applications is a step forward in improving our ability to effectively quantify and manage the WQ of ungauged lakes. Beaver Reservoir, a drinking water source for over 280,000 people in northwest Arkansas, is facing increased chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and suspended matter (SM) content in the lake. This study is designed to qualitatively predict the Chl-a and SM content in the lake on a spatial basis from Landsat-TM image digital information. A Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) classification neural …


Assessing Phosphorus Sources With A Gis-Based Phosphorus Risk Index In A Mixed-Use, Montane Watershed, Josiah A. Johns Jun 2017

Assessing Phosphorus Sources With A Gis-Based Phosphorus Risk Index In A Mixed-Use, Montane Watershed, Josiah A. Johns

Theses and Dissertations

Elevated phosphorus (P) loading of freshwater lakes and reservoirs often results in poor water quality and negative ecological effects. Critical source areas (CSA) of P in the watershed can be difficult to identify and control. A useful concept for identification of a CSA is the P risk index (P Index) that evaluates the P risk associated with distinct source and transport pathways. The objectives of this study were to create a GIS model that adapts the Minnesota (MN) P Index for use at the watershed scale in a mixed-use, mountain environment, and to evaluate its effectiveness relative to field-based assessment. …


Myobservatory - An Information Management System For Supporting Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships, Yoram Rubin, Christopher Michaelis Mar 2017

Myobservatory - An Information Management System For Supporting Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships, Yoram Rubin, Christopher Michaelis

Open Water Journal

This paper provides an overview of myObservatory (myO), a free (for non-profit use) web-based information management system that specializes in multi-stakeholder, geospatial projects. myO important features include rich graphic and interactive data display, multiple data entry modes, user-access control tools, project-management tools, built-in and user-defined quality assurance tools, thorough and comprehensive documentation, and flexibility in customizing the system (e.g., by embedding user-defined algorithms) to meet special project needs.


Modeling Of Urban Planning Actions By Complex Transactions On Semantic 3d City Models, Maximilian Sindram, Thomas H. Kolbe Jun 2014

Modeling Of Urban Planning Actions By Complex Transactions On Semantic 3d City Models, Maximilian Sindram, Thomas H. Kolbe

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Decision support for environmental planning requires the impact analysis of envisaged actions. These actions often are adapted from measures specified in regulations or other legal doc­uments given in natural language. Their realization involves (possibly complex) changes to specific parts of the environment. For example, the energetic retrofitting of a building typically comprises the insulation of the faҫade and replacement of the windows. In general, different actions or combinations of actions can be chosen for the optimization of certain key performance indicators (KPI) like the over­ all energy demand or C02 emission of a city district. This requires the assessment …


Investigating Virtual Globes For A Prototype Community Archive Of 3d Subsurface Data, Derek C. Whitman Jun 2014

Investigating Virtual Globes For A Prototype Community Archive Of 3d Subsurface Data, Derek C. Whitman

Theses and Dissertations

Geoscience data sharing and processing is very advanced in terms of surface data. Subsurface data sharing has not received the attention that surface data sharing has received and so there are fewer applications or software packages which focus on it. This research is funded by the NSF EarthCube GEO Domain program in an effort to develop a continental-scale repository of 3D subsurface data to facilitate the sharing of complex 3D data and to enable the development of geoprocessing tools and workflows that operate on that data. The work in this thesis is a small part of the EarthCube project with …


Watershed Modeling Using Gis Technology: A Critical Review Jan 2010

Watershed Modeling Using Gis Technology: A Critical Review

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

Understanding and managing water resource problems involves complex processes and interactions within the watershed surface and subsurface. The imposition of total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulations on the pollutant influx to a watershed has created a strong demand for new assessment tools. The spatial scales relevant to transport of the pollutants may span many orders of magnitude, ranging from field plots to regional hydrological systems. As the demand for and development of watershed modeling capabilities have evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) in tandem with remote sensing technologies have played an essential role supporting both data collection and analysis. This paper …


Predictive Modeling Of Sulfur Flower Buckwheat (Erigonum Umbellatum Torrey) Using Non-Parametric Multiplicative Regression Analysis, David B. Davis Nov 2009

Predictive Modeling Of Sulfur Flower Buckwheat (Erigonum Umbellatum Torrey) Using Non-Parametric Multiplicative Regression Analysis, David B. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Impacts of humans on ecosystems in western United States have necessitated ecological restoration, which includes the development of native seed that can be used for revegetation efforts. Development of such seed sources are costly and time consuming. This study describes the use of non-parametric multiplicative regression analysis (NPMR) to develop a predictive model for occurrence of sulfur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum Torrey) population seed collection. This perennial forb species is of interest for seed source development in the western United States. Presence and absence data for E. umbellatum was taken from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Big Game Range …


A Gis-Based Strategy For Managing Levee Simulation Data, Jeffrey R. Handy Jul 2008

A Gis-Based Strategy For Managing Levee Simulation Data, Jeffrey R. Handy

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding and improving the state of the nation's levees has become a national priority following the devastating events surrounding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Federal legislation passed in 2007 created a new national Committee on Levee Safety and spurred the development of the National Levee Database, a central repository of information relating to the location and state of levees across the United States (Water Resources Development Act, 2007). One of the major goals in developing such a database is to improve the safety of America's levees. The National Levee Database, however, does not include features for storing seepage and slope stability …


The Maya Footprint: Soil Resources Of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico, Ryan V. Sweetwood Mar 2008

The Maya Footprint: Soil Resources Of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico, Ryan V. Sweetwood

Theses and Dissertations

Agricultural yields in Northwest Yucatán are constrained by climate, thin soils, and low fertility. Despite this, the ancient Maya city of Chunchucmil Yucatán, Mexico, boasted an immense, dense, and wealthy population during the Middle Classic period (ca A.D. 400-700). Soil physical and chemical properties were explored to determine how the ancient Maya of Chunchucmil fed themselves. Soil profiles were collected from various locations within ancient Chunchucmil's suspected sustaining area. The physical and chemical properties, carbon isotopes, black carbon, and coprostanols of soil profiles sampled were compared to ancient rural settlement and remotely sensed images, such as AIRSAR (airborne synthetic aperture …


An Interface Of Drainage Division For Modeling Wetlands And Riparian Buffers In Agricultural Watersheds Jan 2007

An Interface Of Drainage Division For Modeling Wetlands And Riparian Buffers In Agricultural Watersheds

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

In a complex watershed, isolated wetlands, riparian wetlands and riparian buffers provide important functions such as flood attenuation and water quality improvement. For conservation purposes, it is critical to properly delineate drainage areas for these features such that their impacts on runoff, sediment and pollutant transport can be reasonably simulated. However, traditional methods for watershed delineation typically fill depressions or ignore riparian features in order to maintain the continuity of surface flow pattern. In this study we develop an ArcView geographic information system (GIS) interface for watershed delineation that accounts for wetlands and riparian buffers. Based on digital elevation model …


Estimating Spatial Sediment Delivery Ratio On A Large Rural Catchment Jan 2006

Estimating Spatial Sediment Delivery Ratio On A Large Rural Catchment

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

Soil erosion and sediment yield from catchments are key limitations to achieving sustainable land use and maintaining water quality in streams, lakes and other water bodies. Controlling sediment loading requires the knowledge of the soil erosion and sedimentation. However, sediment yield is usually not available as a direct measurement but estimated by using a sediment delivery ratio (SDR). An accurate prediction of SDR is important in controlling sediments for sustainable natural resources development and environmental protection. There is no precise procedure to estimate SDR, although the USDA has published a handbook in which the SDR is related to drainage area. …