Digital Commons Network^™

Modeling The Impacts Of Sea Level Rise In Coastal Virginia At Multiple Scales, George Murray Mcleod Iv

OES Theses and Dissertations

Relative sea level is increasing along the Mid-Atlantic coast of the United States and the rate of relative sea level rise (ΔRSL) for Coastal Virginia is approximately double the rate of global sea level rise (ΔSLRG)(1). The potential impacts posed to communities by ΔRSL are best understood by examining the spatial relationship between the upper limits of ocean-connected waters and the geographic positioning of critical natural and societal assets. This research examines this problem at three spatial scales to quantify the impacts of ΔRSL and storm flooding events on (i) structural and transportation infrastructure for the tide-influenced coastal zone of …

Land Use Analysis On Vertiports Based On A Case Study Of The San Francisco Bay Area, Wenbin Wei, Kerry Rohrmeier, Tiffany Martinez, Michael Winans, Heungseok Park

Mineta Transportation Institute

Vertiport research and development trails in the emerging commercial air taxi sector known as Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). Published scholarship remains limited as federal, state, and local governments have yet to create or implement policies for the rapidly progressing larger AAM ecosystem, which is designed around autonomous electric vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft. With the potential for frequent low altitude flights, long-range planning must demonstrate awareness, knowledge, and utilization of geographic information science to select safe and just vertiport locations. This study summarizes the AAM literature and offers planners a set of stakeholder-informed parameters to use in a no-cost preliminary …

Snow Distribution And Influence In Taylor Valley, Antarctica, Using Remote Sensing, Katherine Mcnulty, Peter Doran, Mark Salvatore, Suniti Karunatillake

LSU Master's Theses

The McMurdo Dry Valleys is the largest ice-free area in Antarctica, but seasonal snow covers the valley floors sporadically throughout the year. In this study, a model to estimate areal snow coverage from satellite imagery was created. An area-volume model was created to estimate the amount of snow water equivalent (SWE) from the snow area extracted from the imagery. Snow cover influences the total albedo, the hydrologic budget, and the soil moisture and soil temperature in Taylor Valley (TV). Quantifying snow precipitation in TV is challenging because snow redistributes with winds, sublimates, or melts within a short period. Previous estimates …

Mapping Abortion Access: Teaching About Abortion Through Geography, Molly Broscoe, Elaina Johns-Wolfe, Michelle L. Mcgowan

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

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.

Prepare For, Respond To, Recover, And Learn From Disasters: Using Data-Driven Methods To Model And Understand Disaster Resilience, Jinwen Xu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Community resilience reflects the ability of human communities to prepare for, respond to, recover, and learn from disastrous events. Community resilience carries different meanings in different phases of disaster management (i.e., preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation). With the emergence of new geospatial data sources, human activities now can be captured through social media, mobile signals, and nighttime illuminations, which makes it possible to describe the conditions among various communities before, during, and after disasters. Therefore, this dissertation explored the use of different types of geospatial data sources (social media, nighttime light remote sensing, land-use data, and census survey data) during …

Low-Altitude Uav Imaging Accurately Quantifies Eelgrass Wasting Disease From Alaska To California, Bo Yang, Timothy L. Hawthorne, Lillian Aoki, Deanna S. Beatty, Tyler Copeland, Lia K. Domke, Ginny L. Eckert, Carla P. Gomes, Olivia J. Graham, C. Drew Harvell, Kevin A. Hovel, Margot Hessing-Lewis, Leah Harper, Ryan S. Mueller, Brendan Rappazzo, Luba Reshitnyk, John J. Stachowicz, Fiona Tomas, J. Emmett Duffy

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Declines in eelgrass, an important and widespread coastal habitat, are associated with wasting disease in recent outbreaks on the Pacific coast of North America. This study presents a novel method for mapping and predicting wasting disease using Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with low-altitude autonomous imaging of visible bands. We conducted UAV mapping and sampling in intertidal eelgrass beds across multiple sites in Alaska, British Columbia, and California. We designed and implemented a UAV low-altitude mapping protocol to detect disease prevalence and validated against in situ results. Our analysis revealed that green leaf area index derived from UAV imagery was a …

Preparation Of Curve Number Grid Map Of Rawanduz River Basin In Kri Using Gis Techniques, Israa D. Ahmed, Jehan M. Fattah Sheikh Suleimany

Polytechnic Journal

The study is being conducted with the goal of applying various models and techniques for catchment delineation and providing the opportunity to determine the Curve Numbers (CN) for the Rawanduz river basin (2956 Km2), which is located in the northeastern section of Iraq, Kurdistan region, by utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS). Satellite data (Landsat 8 OLI) for 2020 was utilized to build land cover classes, with a classification accuracy of 90% and a Kappa index of 86.18%. The hydrologic soil map for the region is digitized from the Iraqi soil map. In specifically, Soil Conservation Service-Curve Number (SCS-CN) is technique …

Drought Vulnerability Modeling Over Mandawa Watershed, Northern Iraq, Using Gis-Ahp Techniques, Zhyan A. Ahmed, Jehan M. Fattah Sheikh Suleimany

Polytechnic Journal

Drought is among the most severe natural calamities induced by lack of water, having a negative implication on water resources and agriculture in the affected area. Drought types and severity vary by location, so understanding the spatial distribution can aid in developing measures to overcome this natural hazard. In this study, the areas vulnerable to droughts in the Mandawa watershed in the Kurdistan region of Iraq were determined by employing seven associated factors: rainfall, temperature, LULC, surfaceslope, soil texture, elevation, and distance to rivers. Satellite imagery of Landsat 8 OLI for 2021was employed to create the Land Use and Land …

Challenges Of Documenting Historic Water Systems Integrating Open-Source Water Data With Archaeological Datasets In Utah, Anna S. Cohen, Molly Boeka Cannon, Kelly N. Jimenez

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Geospatial research in archaeology often relies on datasets previously collected by other archaeologists or third-party groups, such as state or federal government entities. This article discusses our work with geospatial datasets for identifying, documenting, and evaluating prehistoric and historic water features in the western United States. As part of a project on water heritage and long-term views on water management, our research has involved aggregating spatial data from an array of open access and semi-open access sources. Here, we consider the challenges of working with such datasets, including outdated or disorganized information, and fragmentary data. Based on our experiences, we …

Vermont Public Schools’ Water Tap Lead Exposure: A 2017 – 2021 Spatial Analysis, Logan Solomon

Environmental Studies Electronic Thesis Collection

Vermont’s Act 66 law requires all taps in Vermont’s public schools to be tested for lead. This study uses GIS to analyze public school test results from the first round of testing in order to discover data patterns and examine if lead exposure is an environmental injustice. The results indicate that lead distribution is not an environmental injustice and that Vermont’s testing level for remediation has resulted in most taps containing lead not being replaced, leaving children’s health at risk. Recommendations are provided to inform state decision makers and maps are generated to offer context to the public. The study …

Multisensory Experiences In Archaeological Landscapes—Sound, Vision, And Movement In Gis And Virtual Reality, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristy Primeau,, David E. E. Witt, Graham Goodwin

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision, sound, and movement at the ancient Maya city of Copan from a multisensory and multiscalar perspective bridging concepts and approaches from different archaeological paradigms. Our methods and interpretations employ theory-inspired variables from proxemics and semiotics to develop a methodological framework that combines computation with sensory perception. Using GIS, 3D, and acoustic tools we create multisensory experiences in VR with spatial sound using an immersive headset (Oculus Rift) and …

Evaluating Behavioral Intention To Increase Classroom Geotechnology Usage Following Geoinquiry Implementation, Erika S. Klose

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

As educational practices include foundational and cutting-edge preparation, the value of problem-based instruction employing industry-standard technologies increases. Geospatial technologies (GST), are a group of professional technologies, including GIS (Geographic Information Systems), used by industries to make informed decisions with spatial data. This study investigated educator behavioral intention to use GIS/GST in classroom practice, and the moderating effect, if any, of the GeoInquiry, a curricular resource. The UTAUT framework was employed to evaluate and quantify the factors impacting behavioral intention (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions). These data were examined to identify moderation by GeoInquiry usage. One hundred …

Against The Grain: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of The Effects Of Climatic And Cultural Changes On Grain Agriculture In Northwest Washington, Natalie Furness

WWU Graduate School Collection

Local food movements are growing in popularity across the United States. Communities are interested in gaining more control over their food choices and food sources. Northwest Washington is one area where multiple communities are concerned with their food choices. Over the last 10 years, communities have invested increasing amounts of resources and energy in growing grains in San Juan, Skagit, and Whatcom counties rather than importing all their grain from Eastern Washington. This study examines how grain agriculture has changed both climatically and culturally in Northwest Washington since the late 19^th century. To address this knowledge gap, climatic factors, …

Value Mapping And The Community Wildfire Protection Planning Process In Entiat, Wa, Katharine Kiendl

WWU Graduate School Collection

Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPP) offer benefits for communities effected by wildfire risk and ignitions. CWPP’s serve several functions; they develop interlocal agreements between agencies that provide wildfire response and management, they develop hazard mitigation and wildfire education programs, and they define areas as wildland urban interface (WUI). The CWPP drafting process can impact the resources available to a wildfire risk community. However, despite the impact to communities effected by wildfire, CWPP planning is considered a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) allowing CWPP’s to be developed without public review. Given that community plans with public participation …

Distributed Energy Infrastructure Development: Geospatial & Economic Feasibility In Rural West Virginia, Xinming Andy Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Energy transition from conventional to centralized power plants, including coal-fired units, is critical for West Virginia’s long-term energy and economic future. The socioeconomic downturn in West Virginia was deeply connected with the dependence on the centralized coal industry and the coal economy. Most traditional coal communities in rural West Virginia struggle to maintain economic viability, potentially leading to outmigrations and poor energy resilience. I investigated the possibility of introducing community-sized distributed energy systems in these rural communities to improve energy resilience and accommodate the future transition from centralized coal-generated energy.

My goal was to identify rural regions where distributed energy …

Developing A Standardized Gis Model Capable Of Identifying Areas To Implement Wind Power Generation Infrastructure, Namidu Vishwanath De Silva

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project involves the use of multi-source GIS data, suitability analysis, and spatial modeling techniques to identify the most suitable areas for improving renewable energy infrastructures, primarily focusing on wind energy, within a given region. Previous literature conducted on the subject matter shows research being done in isolated areas or states. The primary objective of this project is to develop a GIS model and scripting tool that has the capability to test any input region to find the most suitable area within the given region that would be ideal for implementing new wind power infrastructure. The success rate of the …

Modeling Ceramic Transport With Gis In East-Central Arizona, Fiona Haverland

UVM College of Arts and Sciences College Honors Theses

Pottery was central to the lives of ancient peoples in the American Southwest, having both mundane and special purpose functions. Some ceramic types were widely circulated well beyond where they were crafted. However very little investigation has been done on the processes or paths used to transport pottery within social networks. This project examines the movement of a central fourteenth-century pottery type in east-central Arizona. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I analyze the physical and cultural landscapes in this area to identify possible corridors of human movement between known pottery-creator and -recipient villages. Building on existing knowledge of where pottery …

Applications Of Urban Land Evaluation And Site Assessment (Ulesa) In Chesterfield County, Virginia, Emily Hastings

Theses and Dissertations

Urban and suburban agriculture is increasing in popularity across the United States. However, many of these farms are short-lived due to a combination of human factors (e.g., managerial, economic, cultural) and environmental or spatial factors (e.g., zoning, soil quality, distance to markets). Geospatial analysis, in the form of suitability modeling, could aid in locating suitable sites for these activities. Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) is a suitability modeling technique that generates a score for agricultural land use in traditionally rural spaces. This research explores adapting this method to encompass the complexities of placing diverse, in-ground agriculture in urban and …

Neighborhood And Environmental Predictors Of At-Risk And Problem Gambling In Massachusetts, Kendra E. Pugh

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the widespread impact and negative effects of problem gambling (PG), limited attention has been paid to the environment where PG occurs. This study investigated the relationship between gambling on lottery and the zip code where gambling occurs, as well as the influence of individual-level characteristics that predict at-risk or problem gambling (AR/PG), among Massachusetts residents. A GIS analysis was conducted to identify vulnerable areas based on neighborhood characteristics, lottery sales, and AR/PG. Overall, residents of disadvantaged areas did not spend more money on lottery or have more lottery agents than residents of less disadvantaged areas. Some indicators of disadvantage …

From Mapping Place To Mapping Space In Library Gis Work, Lena Denis

Journal of Critical Digital Librarianship

At many academic libraries, library workers run the teaching, general reference consultations, technical troubleshooting, and software and licensing maintenance in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for their institutions. This is very much the case in the Data Services unit of Johns Hopkins University’s Sheridan Libraries, where staff receive requests for help with a wide variety of mapping projects every semester. Sometimes they are straightforward requests for technical assistance, but sometimes they underpin much deeper investigations into how to situate people and significant events through time and geographic settings. This article discusses these types of requests in the context of the philosophical …

Utilization Of Gis In Tracking Disinterment And Movement Of Unknown Us Wwii War Dead: Foundations For A Geospatial Approach To Addressing Commingled Remains, Ella Axelrod

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the US was faced with the monumental task of finding and identifying over 405,000 service members who did not survive the conflict (McDermott, 2005, p. 1). Of these 405,000, 81,000 remain missing and 2,498 remain unidentified in cemeteries across Europe alone (American Battle Monuments Commission, 2022). Often, these individuals were interred and disinterred multiple times, crossing the continent in the journey from loss incident or battlefield to their final resting place. Commingling, the accidental mixing of remains, is an ever-present concern in the forensic identification of individuals from mass casualty incidents (Belcher et …

Spatiotemporal Change Detection Of The Alpine Meadows At Holcomb Valley, San Bernardino Mountain National Forest, Using Gis And Remote Sensing Techniques, Rama Ewing

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Holcomb Valley, with a general elevation between 2200-2257m, is in the Northeast of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains. Holcomb Valley is covered by Alpine meadows, unlike most mountain landscapes, which are rarely found in Mediterranean climates such as California. The cultural-environmental history of the San Bernardino Mountains in the past century speaks of intense anthropogenic activities such as timbering, grazing, gold mining, and extreme climate changes (i.e., drought, fires, floods). A study is conducted to identify and calculate the changes in the Alpine meadows at Holcomb Valley. The climatical data has been acquired to compute and visualize …

Computer-Based Forage Management Tools: Historical, Current, And Future Applications, David B. Hannaway, C. Daly, D. F. Chapman, B. B. Baker, A. S. Cooper

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Forage management has been an important human activity since the beginning of civilization. By comparison, the personal computer has been available only in the immediate past. The software developed to deal with the complexity of climate, soil, plant, animal, and socioeconomic factors has seen huge changes in a few decades. Mainframe computers facilitated numerical calculations for exploring relationships among dozens of variables. Personal computers opened the door for more individual scientist creativity and routine communication. Web-based communication globalised the option for multidisciplinary teams to tackle problems. Forage-related computer applications abound, allowing farmers, ranchers, and others to more effectively manage the …

Application Of Geospatial Technologies For Urban Planning And Management, Flood Modelling, Urban Heat Island, Water Resources Management And Planning, Hydrological Modelling, Climate Change And Water Quality Modelling Etc., Anoop Kumar Shukla Dr.

Basic Science Collection

Human activities are altering the natural landscape on the earth’s surface. The thermal environment of densely populated cities is also experiencing rapid change. Remote sensing provides the necessary spatial and temporal data to understand cities' complex human–climate interactions. However, the complex temporal and spatial variability of human activities, urban landscapes, and urban climates make understanding the interactions among them challenging. The study of human–climate interactions is also complicated by the mixed pixels of remote sensing data.

Therefore, I am looking to collaborate with those who want to do research in the field of Remote Sensing and GIS application in water …

Spatial And Age Disparities In Covid-19 Outcomes, Qian Huang

Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 has caused significant social, economic, environmental, and political impacts globally and affected communities unequally in the U.S. The pandemic has also sparked interest in age-specific manifestations of infection, for example, studies confirmed the risk of increasing age with COVID-19 severity. However, the nonstationarity effects of health determinants among age groups have not been well examined. This study aims to explore the nonstationarity effects of social, behavioral, environmental, health care access, and political contexts on COVID-19 outcomes. This study poses three broad questions: 1) how did COVID-19 vaccinations align with COVID-19 daily cases and deaths in the United States; 2) …

Combining Historic Records And Multi-Criteria Habitat Suitability Analysis For The Potential Reintroduction Of Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens Rafinesque) Into Tributaries Of Lake Erie, Kylie P. Wirebach, Christopher Pennuto, Dimitry Gorsky

Biology Theses

Predicting the location and quality of habitat for imperiled species is an increasingly important application of modeling technology. The Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is a widely-extirpated fish of the Laurentian Great Lakes whose recovery is dependent on the availability and connectivity of suitable stream habitat today. This is especially true in Lake Erie, where the largest Lake Sturgeon fishery was once found. I predicted that modern habitat suitability would be dependent on land use legacies from the past 200 years, with western Lake Erie tributaries having less suitable habitat compared to the eastern Lake Erie tributaries. I developed a multi-criteria …

Empirical Evaluation Of Route-Based Landscape Experiences, Garet Openshaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis explores a method of visual analysis that aims to create a more in-depth understanding of how individuals see and visually perceive their environment. Here we explore a geospatial tool, called Visual Magnitude, to assess road-based experiences. We aimed to provide evidence of a relationship between the tool and scenic rating preferences from a survey. The content of this thesis is split between two articles. The first article, contained in Chapter 2, focuses on optimizing the selection of viewpoints along route-based envrionments. In this study we ask the question is there an optimal sampling rate of viewpoints along a …

Evaluating Spatial-Temporal Patterns In Us Tornado Occurrence With Space Time Cube Analysis And Linear Kernel Density Estimation: 1950-2019, Darrell L. Wiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research estimated the spatial-temporal patterns of tornadoes in the continental United States from 1950-2019 using the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center’s Severe Weather GIS (SVRGIS) database. This study employed Space-Time Cube Analysis and Linear Kernel Density (Kernel Density Linear Process, (KDLP)) rather than the standard Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) approach; to evaluate whether tornado hotspot locations and intensities shift over time.

The first phase of the study utilized KDLP to map changes in tornado hotspots and qualitatively assess decadal shifts in hotspot locations and intensities by occurrence and magnitude between decades using ArcGIS Pro and CrimeStat. Next an …

Pesticide Application Management Toolset For Worker Protection Standards, Nathan W. Thorson

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The application of Pesticides has become a widely adopted practice within modern agriculture, however this practice poses a significant health risk to farm workers and crop advisors when pesticide exposures occur. Current safety standards require documentation of each application to help mitigate human exposure, yet these standards rely heavily on antiquated data collection formats and complex communication systems putting little emphasis on notification timeliness. Our objective was to reduce the risk of pesticide exposure for all farm workers and crop advisors by utilizing technological automation processes to reduce the number of links within the communication system. This proved successful though …