Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Green To Gray: Political Ecology Of Paving Over Green Spaces In Moscow, Russia, Mikhail S. Blinnikov, Liudmila Volkova

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Moscow, Russia is the largest city in Europe with over 12.6 million residents. The remarkable fact is that it is also a biologically diverse ecosystem with a few dozen specially protected natural areas, including 15 large forest parks and a variety of smaller nature-places. The recent landscaping “improvements” conducted by the Moscow government since 2010 greatly increased negative impacts on the green infrastructure, e.g., a lot more paving, systematic grass mowing, widespread planting of exotic plant species, increased residential and commercial construction, more noise, etc. While quantification of the impacts of the above on the biota is not easy, we …

A Conceptual Agent-Based Model Of Farming Households’ Vulnerability To Winter Storms, Yiyi Zhang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Vulnerability assessments are implemented to identify regions and groups at risk and factors that need to be addressed to reduce vulnerability. Existing assessments have allowed multidimensional factors to be examined in various settings and adopted complex models to simulate human-environment-weather interactions. However, these models are far less accessible than traditional models due to model abstraction and there has been limited research detailing a formalized way to simulate the interactions between rural households and external changes in response to a specific extreme weather event. To supplement applied efforts in vulnerability assessments and address the challenge in communicating agent-based models, this study …

Mapping And Describing Geospatial Data To Generalize Complex Models: The Case Of Littosim-Gen, Ahmed Laatabi, Nicolas Becu, Nicolas Marilleau, Cécilia Pignon-Mussaud, Marion Amalric, Xavier Bertin, Brice Anselme, Elise Beck

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

For some scientific questions, empirical data are essential to develop reliable simulation models. These data usually come from different sources with diverse and heterogeneous formats. The design of complex data-driven models is often shaped by the structure of the data available in research projects. Hence, applying such models to other case studies requires either to get similar data or to transform new data to fit the model inputs. It is the case of agent-based models (ABMs) that use advanced data structures such as Geographic Information Systems data. We faced this problem in the LittoSIM-GEN project when generalizing our participatory flooding …

Qualitative Analysis Of Users’ Negative Reviews On Tripadvisor: International Tourists’ Reviews On Gyeongbokgung Palace In Seoul, Korea, Jung Eun Hong

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

With the rise of Internet, many people have shared quantitative and qualitative feedback on their travel experiences on travel websites. As the largest travel site, TripAdvisor allows users to post reviews; conduct discussions with other users; and rate destinations, hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Through thematic and discourse analysis of user reviews on TripAdvisor, this study gives tourists’ negative reviews of visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, Korea. The study findings show that tourists evaluated the palace was not real, impressive, interesting, tourist friendly, and neither was it worth visiting. The findings of this study may be helpful in expanding research scopes …

Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis In Traffic Safety, Amin Azimian, Dimitra Pyrialakou

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper presents an exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) of road traffic crashes at different severity levels in West Virginia (WV). Although ESDA can support transportation safety decision-making by helping planners understand and summarize crash data, it is underutilized in practice. This paper describes the application of five representative easy-to-use method to identify crash patterns and high crash-risk counties in WV. Analysis of crash data from 2010 to 2015 indicated that traffic crashes in WV were not spatially correlated. However, crash severities were found to be positively correlated.

A Pilot Study On The Relationship Between Urban Green Spaces And Fine Particulate Matter, Sohyun Park, Seungman Kim, Jaehoon Lee

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study aims at identifying the relationships among various variables that influence city-wide PM_2.5 pollution levels in the six largest cities in Texas. The variables were categorized into three groups for statistical analysis: 1) urban components (city land area, urban population, population density); 2) green space components (coverage, percentage, connectivity, and shape); and 3) meteorological factors (ambient temperature and wind speed). To identify the relationship between meteorological features and daily PM_2.5 concentration, we used descriptive statistics for each city and all six cities combined. A bivariate statistical test was used to examine the correlation between urban and green …

Enhancing Equity In Public Transportation Using Geographic Information Systems And Spatial Optimization, Ho-Seop Cha, Alan T. Murray

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Public transportation is a vital part of urban living. For instance, public transportation services help reduce road congestion, oil consumption and air pollution, and they serve people who need to travel throughout urban environments at the same time do not have access to private vehicles. The latter aspect is an important matter of social justice. Therefore, it is important to understand why the interest in equity in transport is growing, why public transportation should favor the transport disadvantaged, and why analyses of equity measurement and improvement are needed. Measuring the level of access to public transportation among the transport disadvantaged …

Special Thanks To Reviewers 2018-2019, Woonsup Choi

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Sincere thanks are extended to the following individuals who reviewed manuscripts submitted to the International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research during the period of 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019.

Effects Of Stormwater Green Infrastructure On Watershed Outflow: Does Spatial Distribution Matter?, Benjamin Fahy, Heejun Chang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) has become a popular method in urban stormwater management. We examined how spatial distribution of GSI affected rainfall-runoff relationships in a recently developed neighborhood in Gresham, Oregon, USA for the 2017-2018 water year. Runoff ratio, peak discharge, and flashiness were compared under four precipitation scenarios (of differing intensity and duration) and different spatial arrangements of GSI. Distributed GSI reduced runoff ratio (10 - 20%), peak discharge (26 - 68%), and flashiness index (56 - 70%). Distributed GSI outperformed centralized structures for all metrics, reducing runoff ratio (22 - 32%), peak discharge 67 to 69%, and flashiness …

Visualization Of Uncertain Boundaries Of Undersea Features, Hyowon Ban, Hyo Hyun Sung

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

There have been several studies that detect, measure, analyze, and visualize the undersea features by using technologies in multiple disciplines including geography and oceanography. However, definitions of the undersea features often vary among the existing leading literature. Due to this reason the geographical boundary for a certain undersea feature is sometimes not identical among the definitions. In this study, we explore semantic uncertainty in the definitions of some undersea features and apply approaches from fuzzy-set theory and geographic information science on empirical bathymetric data to visualize the uncertain boundaries of the undersea features. Results from this study demonstrate that the …

Temporal Trends And Origins Of Lake Erie Cadmium Contamination In Relation To Sediment Substrate Type Using Multivariate Kriging Analyses, Danielle E. Mitchell, K. Wayne Forsythe, Chris H. Marvin, Debbie A. Burniston

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Using the kriging spatial interpolation method, Cd sediment contamination in Lake Erie from 1971 (263 samples) and 1997/1998 (55 samples) were mapped as continuous data surfaces. Although the most recent data set is two decades old, the roughly 25 year period between the two comprehensive lake-wide surveys represents a period of intense binational management action to reduce sources of contamination. To improve interpolation accuracy between two different sampling densities, auxiliary variables including lake-wide sediment substrate types were integrated into spatial analysis of Cd contamination patterns. The potential for adverse biological impacts posed by Cd sediment contamination to humans and aquatic …

Using Gis And Remote Sensing To Map Grassroots Sustainable Development For A Small Ngo In Nepal, Suzanne C. Walther, Elizabeth M. Dengenis, Krishna Gurung

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Geographic information systems, through analysis and visualizations, can aid in pursuing and improving sustainable development. Thousands of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in developing countries provide a wide range of services and local organizations with fewer resources must often be more efficient to offer their services effectively. The accessibility of spatial data for assessment and, in turn, improved planning could enable these organizations to increase efficiency, thereby maximizing aid and sustainable development, as well as the number of people helped in a variety of ways. Focusing on mapping outreach and quantifying land use for a locally run NGO in Nepal, this study …

Implications Of Dam Removal: Modeling Streamflow In Lansing, Michigan Using The Soil And Water Assessment Tool, Ryan J. Filbin, Laiyin Zhu, Lisa Dechano-Cook, Lei Meng

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper uses hydrologic modeling methods to determine the effects of dam removal in Lansing, Michigan, on the streamflow of the Grand River, flooding risks, and flood mitigation strategies. In Michigan, more than one-half of the state’s dam infrastructure is more than 50 years old, and more than one-third are classified as having a moderate-to high-risk potential. Lansing, Michigan, contains two moderate-to high-risk dams along the Grand River that are a significant hazard to the surrounding community in the event of structural failure. This research utilizes the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to model the impacts of the Moores …

Improving International Development Evaluation Through Geospatial Data And Analysis, Malte Lech, Juha Ilari Uitto, Sven Harten, Geeta Batra, Anupam Anand

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Increasing availability of new types of data strengthens geospatial research in different scientific fields and opens up opportunities to better measure results and evaluate the impacts of development interventions. This article presents examples where geospatial approaches have been applied in evaluations and thus demonstrate the potential use in informing policy design through scientifically sound evidence as well as learning.

The authors illustrate innovative ways of employing geospatial data and analysis in impact evaluations of international development cooperation. These interventions are concerned with topics such as biodiversity conservation, land degradation, sustainable use of natural resources, and disaster risk management. Recent methodological …

Using Drones To Generate New Data For Conservation Insights, Paul Lorah, Alice Ready, Emma Rinn

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Human impact on the environment is driving a decline in biodiversity that heightens the need for informed management of conservation lands. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, are an increasingly cost-effective tool for generating high-quality data used to map landscape features, analyze land cover change and assess the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Traditional sources of remotely sensed data such as satellites and aircraft can be costly, inflexible and unable to detect fine-scale surface variation. This paper explores the advantages (and challenges) of analyzing data collected by drones to generate useful conservation management insights. We focus on three key …

Critical Citizenship Education Through Geography, Jung Eun Hong

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

In a current globalized world, citizens are expected and encouraged to understand cultural diversity and respect individual differences. Furthermore, they are also expected to become responsible citizens for recognizing and actively participating in issues on social justice and human rights at local to global scales. That is, our diverse society demands “critical” citizens who are interested in public affairs, concerned about inequality and injustice, and motivated to change and improve our society. In response to an increased need for actively engaged and participating citizens in a today’s world, critical citizenship education has been suggested as a new framework for the …

Nasa Astronaut Photography Of Earth: A Resource To Facilitate Students’ Learning And Using Geospatial Concepts, Zahra Ghaffari, Injeong Jo, Nathan Allen Currit

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Spatial thinking is considered a fundamental cognitive skill and there has been more focus on it in recent years due to improved geospatial technologies. Teaching spatial concepts to students by using publicly available resources is an appropriate method to increase spatial thinking ability. More than 1.5 million photographs are publicly available through the Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website. We wanted to explore the effectiveness of using photographs to improve students’ spatial thinking by using a set of these photographs.

In this research, we selected uncataloged photographs from the International Space Station astronauts’ collection and asked undergraduate students in …

Learner Requirements And Geospatial Literacy Challenges For Making Meaning With Google Earth, Lynn A. Moorman, Susan Crichton

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This research contributes an educational research perspective to teaching and learning with geospatial technologies. This work considers the literacy of a geospatial text that is readily accessible to students, but often assumed to be intuitive to read– dynamic scalable satellite imagery, which often serves as base maps for common navigation, GIS, and virtual globe applications. Within the context of a STEM project, Grades 5 and 6 students were observed and interviewed to identify knowledge and skills that were required to make meaning of Google Earth imagery. A qualitative methodological approach incorporating a thinkaloud data collection protocol was followed to stay …

Improving Spatial Thinking Through Experiential-Based Learning Across International Higher Education Settings, Kyle C. Flynn

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Research in geographic education has a strong focus on the improvement of spatial thinking. For Millennials, spatial thinking curriculum could benefit from the inclusion of experiential-based learning activities. However, as universities are faced with larger class sizes, new approaches need to be incorporated by the instructors to offer improved learning environments. Courses introducing basic geography skills often incorporate lessons concerned with spatial thinking and global perspectives. Thus, the instruction of geographic tools such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), longitude, latitude, and remote sensing offer prime opportunities for experiential-based learning in geographic pedagogy. This research aimed to employ a low-cost experiential-based …

Student And Teacher Response To Use Of Different Media In Spatial Thinking Skill Development, Larianne Collins

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

The purpose of this research is to advance K-12 geospatial learning by investigating the methods (traditional paper versus digital technology) best suited for delivering content that improves spatial thinking skills. This research was designed to investigate whether instruction through different media, among other variables such as attitudes toward geography and technology, past travel experience, and demographic variables have an effect on the development of spatial thinking skills. Specifically, it examines traditional, paper aerial imagery as compared to digital imagery visualized with 3-D globes. Findings confirm that students taught by both paper and digital media showed improvement in spatial thinking skills …

Role Of Geography Courses In Improving Geospatial Thinking Of Undergraduates In The United States, Kanika Verma, Lawrence Estaville

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This national study utilizes the Geospatial Thinking Survey (GTS) to assess the geospatial thinking abilities of undergraduates in the United States. A survey of 1479 students from 61 public universities provided the data. The mean score of geography majors was the highest, while that of criminal justice majors was the lowest. The mean score of students who studied at least three college geography courses was significantly higher than those students who took less than three college geography courses. College geography courses apparently bolster student geospatial thinking abilities, thereby corroborating the stronger geospatial thinking skills of geography majors. Moreover, individual questions …

Vegetation Land Cover/Use Dynamics And Their Effects In Mbulu And Karatu Districts In The North-Eastern Highlands Of Tanzania, Leonia John Raphael

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Vegetation Land Cover/Land Use dynamics (VLC/LU) are the result of complex and compound interactions between the human (cultural, socioeconomic, and political) and the physical environment at different spatial scales. The present study assesses the spatial distribution of VLC/LU dynamics from 1987 to 2015 in the North-Eastern highlands of Tanzania using both qualitative (in-depth interviews and focus group discussions) and quantitative techniques (spatio-temporal analysis through GIS). The qualitative approach was used to elicit information on the main drivers of VLC/LU changes by land users as transitions occurred with time. The spatio-temporal analysis was used to assess the systematic vegetation land losses, …

Geography Education, Spatial Thinking, And Geospatial Technologies: Introduction To The Special Issue, Injeong Jo, Jung Eun Hong

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This special issue contains six papers on the development of students’ knowledge, skills, and practice of geospatial thinking in a variety of educational contexts. Each of the papers addresses an aspect of the research gap that deserves timely attention in the field, focusing on curriculum design, pedagogical approaches, exemplary resources or tools, and strategies to move forward for the promotion of geospatial teaching and learning. We encourage continued research efforts to accumulate knowledge about curriculum, instruction, and assessment, as well as teachers’ professional development that can help students become 21st-century citizens equipped with geospatial literacy. Further research is recommended on …

Accuracy Evaluation Of The Canadian Openstreetmap Road Networks, Hongyu Zhang, Jacek Malczewski

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) has been applied in many fields such as participatory planning, humanitarian relief and crisis management. One of the reasons for popularity of VGI is its cost-effectiveness. However, the coverage and accuracy of VGI cannot be guaranteed. The issue of geospatial data quality in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project has become a trending research topic because of the large size of the dataset and the multiple channels of data access. This paper focuses on a national study of the Canadian OSM road network data for the assessment of completeness, positional accuracy, attribute accuracy, semantic accuracy and lineage. The …

Community Perspectives On Neighborhood Characteristics And Home-Buying Decisions, Madhuri Sharma

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper analyzes households’ perceptions of neighborhoods according to Brown and Chung’s framework of Market-Led Pluralism (M-LP). Using household survey responses from 100 respondents in Columbus, Ohio and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I empirically test MLP’s utility in understanding consumers’ decision making processes on where to live and who to live with. Consumers from all races/ethnicities ranked these attributes similarly, closely aligning with the M-LP. The quality of schools, safety of neighborhoods, price and affordability generally mattered to all consumers. However, African Americans’ perceptions of certain attributes as more valuable than others’ are likely due to their lower socio-economic status and the …

Variation Of Groundwater Divides During Wet And Dry Years In The Wolf River Basin, Northeastern Wisconsin, Susan A. Borchardt

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Groundwater divides and surface-water divides do not always coincide, and groundwater divides are not as easy to detect as surface-water divides. Groundwater divides are also dynamic, moving in response to environmental and anthropogenic stresses. This study will investigate how different hydrological stresses can change the size and shape of the study basin and whether the stresses together mitigate or intensify the basin’s response. This study looks at three factors that may affect the size and shape of the Wolf River basin: annual precipitation, soil permeability, and the presence of high-capacity wells. This study examined four groundwater basins that represent the …

Validating Geospatial Regression Models With Bootstrapping, Lam T. Tran, Phoebe Tran

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Spatial statistical models have been used extensively in many geospatial and environmental studies over several decades. While being very important, the issues of testing and validation in spatial statistical models are rarely investigated carefully in spatial environmental studies. Often strict theoretical asymptotic assumptions used in those models are left unexplored or unanswered in many studies. This study is to explore if bootstrapping is capable of providing more realistic statistical inference for spatial regression models while dealing with several common issues with spatial data, such as spatial dependence and unknown heteroscedasticity. With experiments on both simulated and real-world datasets, the study …

Accuracy Of Unmanned Aerial System (Drone) Height Measurements, Daniel R. Unger, I-Kuai Hung, David L. Kulhavy, Yanli Zhang, Kai Busch-Petersen

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Vertical height estimates of earth surface features using an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) are important in natural resource management quantitative assessments. An important research question concerns both the accuracy and precision of vertical height estimates acquired with a UAS and to determine if it is necessary to land a UAS between individual height measurements or if GPS derived height versus barometric pressure derived height while using a DJI Phantom 3 would affect height accuracy and precision. To examine this question, height along a telescopic height pole on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) were estimated at 2, …

Advancement Of A Soil Parameters Geodatabase For The Modeling Assessment Of Conservation Practice Outcomes In The United States, Mauro Di Luzio, Mike J. White, Jeffrey G. Arnold, Jimmy R. Williams, James R. Kiniry

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

US-ModSoilParms-TEMPLE is a database composed of a set of geographic databases functionally storing soil-spatial units and soil hydraulic, physical, and chemical parameters for three agriculture management simulation models, SWAT, APEX, and ALMANAC. This paper introduces the updated US-ModSoilParms-TEMPLE, which covers the entire United States and is organized as a framework of 22 nested and hydrologically-ordered regional geographic databases with internal spatial segmentation drainage-defined at a conveniently manageable tile (Watershed Boundary Dataset’s, WBD, 8-digit Subbasin) level. Spatial features are stored in multiple formats (raster and vector) and resolutions (10-meter and 30-meter), while being in direct relationship with the table of attributes …

Income Divide And Race/Ethnicity In Tennessee Metropolises, Madhuri Sharma

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Tennessee, like other Southeastern states, has also gained in its share of racial/ethnic diversity, but it also contains some of the most segregated and poorest (e.g., Memphis) metropolises in the southeast. This paper examines one dimension of inequality – the income divide – measured here by the 95/20 Ratio. Important questions include: How does income divide vary across the major racial/ethnic groups in Tennessee’s ten metropolises? How do they associate with diversity, segregation, and other geographic predictors? By using simple ranking and correlations analyses to explore these relationships, I find that metropolises that are large, diverse and mostly segregated, with …