Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Data Fusion Methods For Improved Demographic Resolution Of Population Distribution Datasets, Amy Nicole Rose

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite the availability of multiple global population distribution datasets, these datasets are limited by their lack of demographic depth. Although large area spatial datasets of population distributions currently exist, similar spatial representations of other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are scarce. Spatial microdata that include detailed demographic information are rarely available for small areas, thus limiting the complex analysis of population subgroups. To address the lack of demographic resolution in existing population distribution datasets, a first step would be to develop large area microdata that can be attached to a country- or global-level population distribution dataset. This can be achieved by …

A Study Of Colloquial Place Names Through Geotagged Social Media Data, Yuan Liu

Masters Theses

Place is a rich but vague geographic concept. Much work has been done to explore the collective understanding and perceived location of place. The last few decades have seen rapid expansion in the use of online social media and data sharing services, which provide a large amount of valuable data for research of colloquial place names. This study explored how geotagged social media data can be used to understand geographic place names, and delimit the perceived geographic extent of a place. The author proposes a probabilistic method to map the perceived geographic extent of a place using Kernel Density Estimation …

Time Series Analysis Of Modis Ndvi Data With Cloudy Pixels: Frequency-Domain And Sizer Analyses Of Vegetation Change In Western Rwanda, Ephraim Robert Love

Masters Theses

Remote sensing is a valuable source of data for the study of human ecology in rural areas. In this thesis, I attempt to analyze the presence of a long-term trend indicative of post-resettlement adaptation in the vegetation signals of Western Rwanda. There is a dearth of research utilizing medium resolution imagery to study difficult environments, such as tropical-montane regions, where complex topography and cloud cover diminish image accuracy. I attempt to add to the extant literature on frequency-domain smoothing methods as well as the literature on human-environment interaction in tropical-montane regions by applying a harmonic filtering and smoothing algorithm to …

Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Taxi Availability And Pick-Ups: A Case Study Of Suzhou, China, Yicong Zhong

Masters Theses

This study utilized a seven-day taxi trajectory dataset to investigate the difficulty of finding vacant taxis in Suzhou, China, by analyzing the imbalance (IMB) between rider pick-ups and the number of vacant taxis on each road segment in Suzhou. To recognize significant local high vs. low frequency patterns of events, and to make the values of imbalance as representative as possible, a hierarchical structure of multi-resolution time windows that split each hour into as many as four parts was developed based on the minimum variance method of hierarchical clustering (Ward, 1963). In addition to imbalance, the second variable to be …

Using Gis To Identify At-Risk Populations Of Military-Generated Dust, Darcy Ann Ayers

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

This project uses GIS and an anthropological perspective to identify local populations surrounding Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) that are most at risk from military vehicle-generated dust. Using ArcGIS, the following data was analyzed in order to better understand impacts from dust on the local population: • Prevailing wind rose data from National Water and Climate Center under the USDA National Resources Conservation Service, • Digital Elevation Model (DEM) map of the island provided by National Elevation Dataset from USGS, and • The US Census data of the local population distribution surrounding the military base at PTA. When studying demographics, I …

Integrating Social Media In The Development Of A Special Event Population Dynamics Model, Kelly Michelle Sims

Masters Theses

With society’s increasing participation in social media, scientists now have access to new sources of data that reflect our daily activities in space and in time. Such data are plentiful and, more notably, at an unprecedented granular level. The ability for users to capture and express their geolocation through their phones’ global positioning system (GPS) or through a particular location’s hashtag or Facebook Page provides a great opportunity for modeling spatiotemporal population dynamics. High resolution population models and databases for episodic special events can be extremely useful for enhancing emergency management and response. This research assesses the feasibility of improving …

Impacts Of Climate Change On The Evolution Of The Electrical Grid, Melissa Ree Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

Maintaining interdependent infrastructures exposed to a changing climate requires understanding 1) the local impact on power assets; 2) how the infrastructure will evolve as the demand for infrastructure changes location and volume and; 3) what vulnerabilities are introduced by these changing infrastructure topologies. This dissertation attempts to develop a methodology that will a) downscale the climate direct effect on the infrastructure; b) allow population to redistribute in response to increasing extreme events that will increase under climate impacts; and c) project new distributions of electricity demand in the mid-21^st century.

The research was structured in three parts. The first …

Comparing Models Of Demographic Subpopulations, Jessica Jones Moehl

Masters Theses

Understanding specific multi-dimensional demographics of populations in the United States at high resolutions is made difficult by the restriction of data released by the Census Bureau because of privacy concerns. Efforts to model these subpopulations have been increasing in recent years. These modeled populations have applications in decision making at all levels of government as well as in academia and the private sector. Two models have shown promising techniques for incorporating multiple levels of data to model sub populations in a meaningful way. These models, the Copula Model by Kao et al. (2012) and the Penalized Maximum Entropy Model by …

Assessing Survivability Of The Beijing Subway System, Yan Li

Masters Theses

The assessment of survivability is a common topic in critical network infrastructure research. In order to examine the critical components whose disruptions can cause huge system degradation, many measures have been approached to depict the characteristics of network systems. Serving more than ten million passengers a day, the Beijing subway system, which ranks third in the world for its length and annual ridership, raises survivability issues in the face of potential disruptions of network components along with its constantly increasing complexity. In this research, we provide an accessibility-based survivability measure with which to explore how potential outages of network components …

An Analysis Of The Patterns Of Crime And Socioeconomic Status Visualized Through Self-Organized Maps, Jason Carlin Kaufman

Masters Theses

This work is research to explore the association of spatial patterns between crime and socioeconomic status (SES) through the use of self-organized maps (SOM). It had been found that the spatial patterns of crime could be associated with those of socioeconomic, and this work sought to further these analyses in order to better understand how crime patterns and SES were related. To explore this association, patterns of crime and SES were examined in three cities: Nashville, TN; Portland, OR; and Tucson, AZ. Three SOMs were used in each city: one to analyze the patterns of crime, a second to analyze …

Geographic And Socioeconomic Risk Factors For Sporadic Cryptosdporidiosis And E. Coli Infection In East Tennessee, Ingrid Elizabeth Luffman

Doctoral Dissertations

This research examines risk factors for sporadic cryptosporidiosis and Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157 infection in East Tennessee, using case-control and retrospective ecological approaches. Multiple models and approaches are used to identify risk factors for the two diseases, and to examine the effect of scale on risk for disease in the individual and in the population. Risk factors examined are animal density, land use, geology, surface water impairment, poverty rate and availability of private water supply. The research objectives are, first, to identify risk factors for E. coli O157 and cryptosporidiosis in East Tennessee by relating disease data …

Online Social Network Friends And Spatio-Temporal Proximity Of Their Geotagged Photos – A Case Study Of Flickr Data, Sumang Liu

Masters Theses

This empirical study aims to analyze relationships between online social network (OSN) friends and spatio-temporal proximity of their geotagged photos, using Flickr data as a case study. First, this study analyzes whether Flickr friends tend to post geotagged photos that are closer to each other compared to Flickr non-friends in space and time. Second, this study investigates whether the number of geotagged photos posted by users is related to the distance and time difference between their geotagged photos. Third, this study examines the spatial distributions of geotagged photos of Flickr friends within specific distance intervals to further understand the geographic …

Associations Between Climate, Latitude, Fertility And The Decline Of The Us Sex Ratio At Birth, Michael C. Meyers

Doctoral Dissertations

The US sex ratio at birth (SRB) has declined since 1970, while ambient temperatures have been increasing. This study examines the temporal and spatial variation of the US SRB from 1979–2002 in association with fertility rates and climate variables. Approximately 62.8 million birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics were linked to monthly climate division data and county level socioeconomic variables to evaluate the association of SRB and environmental conditions at or near the time of conception.

Seasonal variation in US SRB is detectable in time series analysis, and is somewhat in phase with variation in fertility. Logistic …

Spatial Discrepancies Between Nhdplus And Lidar-Derived Stream Networks, Nicole Marie Samu

Masters Theses

Many organizations demand that current water resource issues necessitate improved stream network mapping for more accurate and reliable watershed analysis and modeling results, which can ultimately enable better management and policy decisions. Stream network data from the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus) and derived from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) are each widely accepted to be of superior quality compared to many other conventional datasets. Each dataset indicates potential to improve a wide range of water resource applications; NHDPlus for its high spatial accuracy and functionality, and LIDAR-derived networks for their high resolutions. NHDPlus is publicly available and widely used; …

Examining Impacts On Water Demand Resulting From Population And Employment Growth Using A Regional Adjustment Model, Steven Blake Thomas

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the currently available water use data and its limitation for use in scientific research. The first chapter offers a description of the current nationwide water data including descriptions of collection methods and trends found within the data. The varying collection methods used result in inconsistencies within the datasets and between the years. These inconsistencies have resulted in the data being used more as a point of reference than in nationwide empirical analysis of water use. There has been a calling for systematic improvements to the data, which could contribute to greater empirical analysis taking place at the …

Improvements In Multi-Tool Surveying Efficiency For Archaeological Geophysics, Caitlyn Marie Williams

Masters Theses

Conventional archaeological excavation methods are, by nature, extremely invasive and result in study areas being irrevocably altered for the sake of research. For this reason, near-surface geophysical techniques have been incorporated into archaeological investigations to aid in determining the locations of buried features with minimal damage to the site. The objective of this research was to perform a geophysical survey at an archaeological site on the Akrotiri Peninsula in Cyprus to locate evidence of a Roman naval base and to develop an improved data management workflow that will improve the usefulness of geophysical data to archaeologists.

An on-site archaeologist determined …

Human Interactions In Physical And Virtual Spaces: A Gis-Based Time-Geographic Exploratory Approach, Ling Yin

Doctoral Dissertations

Information and communication technologies (ICT) such as cell phone and the Internet have extended opportunities of human activities and interactions from physical spaces to virtual spaces. The relaxed spatio-temporal constraints on individual activities may affect human activity-travel patterns, social networks, and many other aspects of society. A challenge for research of human activities in the ICT age is to develop analytical environments that can help visualize and explore individual activities in virtual spaces and their mutual impacts with physical activities.

This dissertation focuses on extending the time-geographic framework and developing a spatio-temporal exploratory environment in a space-time geographic information system …

Predictive Modeling In Western Louisiana: Prehistoric And Historic Settlement In The Kisatchie National Forest, Erik Nicholas Johanson

Masters Theses

This thesis is an effort to provide the US Forest Service with a tool to effectively and efficiently protect and manage the cultural resource heritage of the Kisatchie National Forest. The development and subsequent evaluation of modeling efforts are vital to the archaeology of the region. There are two goals of this modeling project: to evaluate the active US Forest Service Predictive Model and secondly, if warranted, which it was, to improve upon previous models in the region. To do so 23 environmental variables were analyzed, many of which are inter-related, to develop a new set of probability zones while …

Employment And Business Establishment Growth In The Appalachian Region, 2000-2008: An Application Of Smooth Transition Spatial Autoregressive Models, Wan Xu

Masters Theses

Industry clusters can be important components of regional development. The effects of industry clusters on growth typically vary across geography, which has implications for targeted development strategies. Employment and business establishment growth in the Appalachian region (2000 – 2008) was regressed on industry cluster concentration indexes controlling for local determinants. The hypothesis that local response to growth determinants is geographically heterogeneous was tested using Smooth Transition spatial process models. This class of models exhibiting regime switching behavior is useful for identifying regional clusters, providing another tool for exploring relationships between geographical determinants and economic growth.

Design And Implementation Of An Object-Oriented Space-Time Gis Data Model, Ziliang Zhao

Masters Theses

Geographic data are closely related to both spatial and temporal domains. Geographic information systems (GIS) can capture, manage, analyze, and display spatial data. However, they are not suitable for handling temporal data. Rapid developments of data collection and location-aware technologies stimulate the interests of obtaining useful information from the historical data. Researchers have been working to build various spatio-temporal data models to support spatio-temporal query. Nevertheless, the existing models exhibit weaknesses in various aspects. For instance, the snapshot model is plagued with data redundancy and the event-based spatio-temporal data model (ESTDM) is limited to raster dataset. This study reviews existing …

Geospatial Data Accessibility In Web 2.0 Environments, Sara Helen Mcnamee

Masters Theses

Geographically referenced data is becoming a robust source of information because the use of place-based relevance searching is being employed as a popular form of information access and dispersal. To address this trend, the researcher conducted a study on the usability of the USA National Phenology Network (http://www.usanpn.org/), engaging 6 volunteer participants structured usability test of the USANPN mapping application. The participants were asked to complete two tasks, and data was collected both during (in the form of a think aloud exercise) and after the test (in the form of an exit interview). From the data collected, the researcher aimed …

Using Volunteer Tracking Information For Activity-Based Travel Demand Modeling And Finding Dynamic Interaction-Based Joint-Activity Opportunities, Yitu Xu

Masters Theses

Technology used for real-time locating is being used to identify and track the movements of individuals in real time. With the increased use of mobile technology by individuals, we are now able to explore more potential interactions between people and their living environment using real-time tracking and communication technologies.

One of the potentials that has hardly been taken advantage of is to use cell phone tracking information for activity-based transportation study. Using GPS-embedded smart phones, it is convenient to continuously record our trajectories in a day with little information loss. As smart phones get cheaper and hence attract more users, …

Gps Locations And Costa Rican Topo Maps, Kenneth H. Orvis

Geography Publications and Other Works

Over the past several years I have been working with Sally Horn and our U.S. and Costa Rican collaborators on several projects in Costa Rica related to paleoenvironmental research. Such research requires accurately locating geomorphic and archaeological features in the field, using GPS and the 1:50,000 scale topographic maps produced by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Doing so is a challenge to the uninitiated, because GPS locations (including elevation) appear to be just plain wrong when you match them to the map. A position collected on the north side of a stream plots on the south side on the map, or …