Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Convolutional Neural Network Approach To Predict Non-Permissive Environments From Moderate-Resolution Imagery, Seth Goodman, Ariel Benyishay, Daniel Runfola

Arts & Sciences Articles

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained with satellite imagery have been successfully used to generate measures of development indicators, such as poverty, in developing nations. This article explores a CNN-based approach leveraging Landsat 8 imagery to predict locations of conflict-related deaths. Using Nigeria as a case study, we use the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) dataset to identify locations of conflict events that did or did not result in a death. Imagery for each location is used as an input to train a CNN to distinguish fatal from non-fatal events. Using 2014 imagery, we are able to predict the …

Crowdsourcing Street View Imagery: A Comparison Of Mapillary And Openstreetcam, Ron Mahabir, Ross Schuchard, Andrew Crooks, Arie Croitoru, Anthony Stefanidis

Arts & Sciences Articles

Over the last decade, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) has emerged as a viable source of information on cities. During this time, the nature of VGI has been evolving, with new types and sources of data continually being added. In light of this trend, this paper explores one such type of VGI data: Volunteered Street View Imagery (VSVI). Two VSVI sources, Mapillary and OpenStreetCam, were extracted and analyzed to study road coverage and contribution patterns for four US metropolitan areas. Results show that coverage patterns vary across sites, with most contributions occurring along local roads and in populated areas. We also …

Geoboundaries: A Global Database Of Political Administrative Boundaries, Daniel Runfola, Austin Anderson, Heather Baier, Matt Crittenden, Elizabeth Dowker, Seth Goodman, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Articles

We present the geoBoundaries Global Administrative Database (geoBoundaries): an online, open license resource of the geographic boundaries of political administrative divisions (i.e., state, county). Contrasted to other resources geoBoundaries (1) provides detailed information on the legal open license for every boundary in the repository, and (2) focuses on provisioning highly precise boundary data to support accurate, replicable scientific inquiry. Further, all data is released in a structured form, allowing for the integration of geoBoundaries with large-scale computational workflows. Our database has records for every country around the world, with up to 5 levels of administrative hierarchy. The database is accessible …

Gis & Middle Earth, Robert A. Rose

Arts & Sciences Open Educational Resources

Did Frodo take the best path to destroy the One Ring?

With the right spatial data layers and utilizing the power of a geographic information system, a least cost path analysis could reveal whether there was a better route that Frodo could have taken from the Shire to Mount Doom to destroy the ring of power.

After several years of development, the Center for Geospatial Analysis at William & Mary, has developed an extensive list of GIS layers of Middle Earth, including a 50 meter elevation model, roads, rivers, realms and many others. These data formed the basis for an …