Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Accuracy Assessment Of Pictometry® Height Measurements Stratified By Cardinal Direction And Image Magnification Factor, Daniel Unger, David Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Yanli Zhang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

The aim of this project was to ascertain if Pictometry^® estimated height could be used in lieu of field-based height estimation. Height of a light pole measured with a telescopic height pole was compared to Pictometry^® hyperspatial 4-inch (10.2 centimeters) multispectral imagery estimated light pole height on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. Average percent agreement between light pole height and Pictometry^® estimated light pole height summarized by Pictometry^® image magnification factors at 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%, and 300% magnification were within 98% of light pole height with percent disagreement ranging from …

Comparing Remotely Sensed Pictometry® Web Based Slope Distance Estimates With In Situ Total Station And Tape Slope Distance Estimates, David L. Kulhavy, Daniel R. Unger, Yanli Zhang, Phillip Bedford, I-Kuai Hung

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Slope distance was measured between the top of 30 light poles and their respective ground level coordinate identified within a central parking lot on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. Slope distance measured using Pictometry^® hyperspatial 4-inch (10.2 centimeters) multispectral imagery within a web based interface was compared to in situ total station and tape measured slope distance. The range for mean slope distance for Pictometry^®, total station, and tape measured slope distance was 0.05 meters. Mean slope distance was 15.36 meters, 15.37 meters, and 15.41 meters for Pictometry^®, total station, …

The Use Of Middle School Atlases In The Social Studies Classroom In South Korea, Jung Eun Hong, Hyoun Kyoung Lee

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Middle school atlases are supplementary textbooks for social studies learning in South Korea. Although atlases are developed and designed to provide various useful resources for students’ social studies learning, especially geography, atlases have not been frequently used in actual social studies classrooms, and sometimes they are never used. This study reports the causes of low adoption rates of middle school atlases in Korean social studies classrooms through the analysis of survey responses from both teachers and students. This study also addresses ways of increasing the use of atlases in the classroom.

Crowdfunding And Crowdsourcing Initiatives In Detroit, Madhuri Sharma, Brenna Elrod

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study examines the role of crowdfunding and community-based initiatives in Detroit, a city that has been hurt by economic distress for several years. We start by compiling the Kickstarter projects initiated and successfully funded all over the US during April 2009-July 2012, and later focus on those occurring in Detroit only. We conduct in-depth analyses to understand the intra-urban characteristics that provide opportunities for such initiatives. By combining the census demographic data with qualitative information collected from online surveys and semi-structured interviews, we analyze the specific roles of crowdfunding initiatives in creating sustainable urban communities. This analysis finds that …

Using Gis And Remote Sensing To Analyze Lake Level Rise Of Étang Saumâtre, Haiti, Helenmary M. Hotz, Alan D. Christian

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and is beset by catastrophic events of natural and anthropogenic origins. Therefore, Haiti is vulnerable to and ill-equipped to manage these events. Since 2004, the incidence and intensity of tropical storms over the island of Hispaniola has resulted in loss of life and been the catalyst for forced migration of the population, resulting in contamination of water and health issues, i.e. cholera. Our research uses GIS and Remote Sensing to address the potential flooding hazard to population and agriculture abutting the closed basin lake Étang Saumâtre. Our analysis of Landsat imagery …

Preparing A Small Town For A Hazardous Materials Incident: An Examination Of Evacuation Routing Algorithms And Plume Models, Joseph B. Harris, Chris Gregg, T Andrew Joyner, Ingrid Luffman

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Evacuation and shelter in place are two common protective action measures during hazardous events that involve the release of hazardous materials. These responses are complex and require advanced planning to determine their appropriateness to reduce human exposure to hazardous materials and minimize related health risks. Evacuation and shelter in place responses were assessed for people in the town of Erwin, Tennessee, USA, a small, rural town in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee, using a release of uranium hexafluoride (UF₆). The population at risk was identified using historical meteorological data and the Radiological Assessment System for Consequence Analysis tool …

Identifying Geographical Interdependency In Critical Infrastructure Systems Using Open Source Geospatial Data In Order To Model Restoration Strategies In The Aftermath Of A Large-Scale Disaster, Varun Ramachandran, Tom Shoberg, Suzanna Long, Steven Corns, Hector Carlo

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

In the wake of a large-scale disaster, strategies for emergency search and rescue, short-term recovery and medium- to long-term restoration are needed. While considerable effort is geared to developing strategies for the former two options, little comprehensive guidance exists on the latter. However, medium- to long-term restoration has a significant effect on local, regional and national economies and is essential to community vitality. In part, the deficit of robust strategies can be linked to the complexity in the data acquisition and limited methodologies to understand the interconnectedness of the relevant systems elements. This research utilizes infrastructure data for Supply Chain …

Revealing The Vulnerability Of Urban Communities To Flood Hazard In Tanzania: A Case Of The Dar Es Salaam City Ecosystem, Herbert Hambati, Greg Gaston

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Losses from environmental flood hazards have escalated in recent decades, prompting a reorientation of emergency management systems away from simple post event response. There is a noticeable change in policy, with more emphasis on loss reduction through mitigation, preparedness, and recovery projects and programs. Effective mitigation of losses from flood hazards requires hazard identification, an assessment of all the hazards likely to affect a given place and people, and risk-reduction measures that are compatible across a multitude of hazards. The degree to which populations are vulnerable to flood hazards, however, is not solely dependent upon proximity to the source of …

Predicting Changes Of Rainfall Erosivity And Hillslope Erosion Risk Across Greater Sydney Region, Australia, Xihua Yang, Bofu Yu, Xiaojin Xie

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Rainfall changes have significant effect on rainfall erosivity and hillslope erosion, but the magnitude of the impact is not well quantified because of the lack of high resolution rainfall data. Recently, the 2-km rainfall projections from regional climate models have become available for the Greater Sydney Region (GSR) at daily time step for the current (1990-2009) and future (2040-2059) periods. These climate projections allow predicting of rainfall erosivity changes and the associated hillslope erosion risk for climate change assessment and mitigation.

In this study, we developed a daily rainfall erosivity model for GSR to predict rainfall erosivity from the current …

Estimating Medically Fragile Population Exposures To Tropical Storm Surges, James L. Wilson, Eileen Neuffer

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Background. A particularly vulnerable sub-population is the medically fragile. The medically fragile (MF) are defined as those who have at least one chronic condition and are electrically and pharmaceutically dependent, including the need for oxygen, and require care within 48 hours. Estimates of MF populations at risk from environmental hazards are important for emergency management planning and mitigation.

Materials and Methods. The MF population is comprised of 8% of the total population under 75 years plus all those 75+ years. Zonal estimates of MF populations are obtained by clipping block level US Census populations with SLOSH basin data (SLOSH Display …

A Soil Parameters Geodatabase For The Modeling Assessment Of Agricultural Conservation Practices Effects In The United States, Mauro Di Luzio, Martin L. Norfleet, Jeffrey G. Arnold, Jimmy R. Williams, James R. Kiniry

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Soil parameters for hydrology modeling in cropland dominated areas, from the regional to local scale, are part of critical biophysical information whose deficiency may increase the uncertainty of simulated conservation effects and predicting potential. Despite this importance, soil physical and hydraulic parameters lack common, wide-coverage repositories combined to digital maps as required by various hydrology-based agricultural water quality models.

This paper describes the construction of a geoprocessing workflow and the resultant hydrology-structured soil hydraulic, physical, and chemical parameters geographic database for the entire United States, named US-SOILM-CEAP. This database is designed to store a-priori values for a suit of models, …

An Analysis On The Spatial Characteristics Of Satisfaction On The Residential Environment Using Tweets, Youngok Kang, Jaehee Park, Aetti Kang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

The purpose of this study is to analyze the regional difference of spatial distribution of residential satisfaction by extracting the elements of residential satisfaction in the text of tweet data. We determined three themes such as “safety”, “amenity” and “convenience”, base search terms by theme. And we detailed the search terms by base search term in order to retrieve the tweets related to the satisfaction of residential environments. We analyzed the selected tweets and visualized the results of analysis on the map and then investigated the satisfaction of residential environments through the index analysis which was a proportion of tweet …

Making Water Resource Decisions More "Informationally" Efficient: Development Of A Geospatial Water Rights Decision Support System For Kittitas County, Washington, Michael Pease, Jeremy Murray

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

In semi-arid river basins like the Yakima River Basin in central Washington State, United States of America, water demand can exceed available supply on an annual basis. More informed decisions about water supply and current allocation have the potential to improve water management. This research created a geospatial water rights database for the Yakima River Basin. The creation of a publicly available decision support system mapping water rights can provide water managers another tool to help achieve this goal. This paper describes the creation of the Decision Support System. In addition it looks at the current utility of the system, …

Freshwater Springs Preservation In Jejudo: Reinterpretation Of Springs As An Ethnological And Environmental Resource, Chang-Yu Hong

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

On Jeju Island, there are many freshwater springs because it is a volcanic island with abundant precipitation and rainwater. While springs were once plentiful in the island, due to depletion and urbanization pressures, many of the traditional wood and rock structures and spaces surrounding springs have become severely deteriorated. Until the 1970s springs served as vital community resources for water provisioning for drinking and household use, agriculture and livestock. However, after most springs fell into disuse, hydraulic engineers have maintained Jeju’s springs with a concern for springs with strong flow and good water quality but disregarding human activities such as …

Uncovering The Influence Of Household Sociodemographic And Behavioral Characteristics On Summer Water Consumption In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Chang-Yu Hong, Heejun Chang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

As urban areas continue to expand, sustainable urban water resource management has become an important issue in green and sustainable city planning. Using single-family residential (SFR) household survey, we identified the determinants of household summer daily water consumption from 2000 to 2005 in Portland, Oregon. The multiple regression results show that approximately 41% of variations in SFR water consumption is explained by average building size, household attitude to water conservation, community engagement of household, and presence of native plants in the garden. The multi-level modeling results show that household attitude to water conservation is an important predictor of SFR water …

Assessing The Impacts Of Climate Change, Urbanization, And Filter Strips On Water Quality Using Swat, Mike Psaris, Heejun Chang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Precipitation changes and urban growth are two factors altering the state of water quality. Changes in precipitation will alter the amount and timing of flows, and the corresponding sediment and nutrient dynamics. Meanwhile, densification associated with urban growth will create more impervious surfaces which will alter sediment and nutrient loadings. Land and water managers rely on models to develop possible future scenarios and devise management responses to these projected changes. We use the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to assess potential changes in stream flow, sediment, and nutrient loads in two urbanizing watersheds in Northwest Oregon, USA. We evaluate …

Sensitivity Of Urban Water Consumption To Weather And Climate Variability At Multiple Temporal Scales: The Case Of Portland, Oregon, Heejun Chang, Sarah Praskievicz, Hossein Parandvash

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

The sensitivity of municipal water consumption to climate and weather variability is investigated for Portland’s water provider service area between 1960 and 2013. The relationship between detrended seasonal urban water use (the difference between total water use and base use) and weather and climate variables (precipitation, maximum temperature) is examined at daily, monthly, and seasonal scales using stepwise multiple regression and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. At a seasonal and a monthly timescales, interannual variation in maximum temperature is the most important predictor of seasonal water consumption per capita, explaining up to 48% of the variation in seasonal monthly …

Measuring And Modeling Of Urban Growth And Its Impacts On Vegetation And Species Habitats In Greater Orlando, Florida, Sunhui Sim, Victor Mesev

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Urban growth is widely regarded as an important driver of environmental and social problems. It causes the loss of informal open space and wildlife habitats. Timely and accurate assessments of future urban growth scenarios and associated environmental impacts are crucial for urban planning, policy decision, and natural resource management. In this study, five distinct scenarios ("no constraints", "compact development", "transit-oriented development", "agriculture protection" and "environmental protection" scenarios) were tested on Greater Orlando, Florida, along with conservation objectives and projections for future land use/cover from development demands. The study examined the consequences of alternative scenarios of urban growth on potential habitat …

Introduction: Geospatial Analysis Of Urban Environment, Changjoo Kim

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

To provide a timely snapshot of current research that utilizes geospatial analysis and modeling in urban environment, the Korea-America Association for Geospatial and Environmental Sciences (KAGES) and the editorship of the International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research (IJGER) organized a special issue of IJGER on the theme of geospatial analysis and urban environment. Eight articles out of 13 submitted manuscripts have been published in this issue. This article provides an overview of the articles published in the special issue.

Assessing Survivability Of The Beijing Subway System, Yan Li, Hyun Kim

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

The Beijing subway system, the third largest in the world, serves more than ten million passengers a day. As Beijing is the capital city of China and thus a booming urban center, its subway system has experienced rapid evolution from a local single line system to a complicated network. Due to its constantly increasing complexity, the system is both a critical asset for a local transit artery and a bridge between intercity transportation modes, increasing the issue of network survivability in the face of potential outages of network components. In this study, we provide a connectivity-based survivability measure with which …

Precipitation Patterns And Trends In The Metropolitan Area Of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Anke P.M. Keuser

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study investigated changes in mean and extreme precipitation in the metropolitan area of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in an attempt to find the effects of urban areas on precipitation patterns. Precipitation data were obtained from a gridded (8-km spacing) historical climatic dataset for Wisconsin for 1950-2006. The Mann-Kendall test and the Sen’s slope test were applied to investigate temporal trends. Monthly wind directions were examined against monthly precipitation patterns. Main findings from the study include the following: (1) Annual precipitation significantly increased in the northern part of the study area during 1950-2006, whereas extreme precipitation showed virtually no trends; (2) The …

Using Fine Resolution Orthoimagery And Spatial Interpolation To Rapidly Map Turf Grass In Suburban Massachusetts, Daniel S.M. Runfola, Thomas Hamill, Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr., John Rogan, Nick Giner, Albert Decatur, Samuel Ratick

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This paper explores the use of spatial interpolative methods in conjunction with object based image analysis to estimate turf grass land cover quantity and allocation in Greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. The goal is to learn how accurately turf grass can be estimated if only a limited portion of the study area is mapped. First, turf grass land cover is mapped at the 0.5 m resolution across the entire Plum Island Ecosystems (PIE) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, a 1143-km² area. Second, the turf grass map is aggregated into 120 m cells (N = 84,661). Third, a random sample …

Impacts Of Remotely Sensed Land Use Data On Watershed Hydrologic Change Assessment, Gi-Choul Ahn, Steven I. Gordon, Carolyn J. Merry

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Urbanization affects the stream system of a watershed. Increased urbanization alters the land cover and surface characteristics, the stream channel characteristics, and pollutant load of a stream system by increasing the amount of impervious surface. Once rural, forest, or wetland areas are changed to streets, highways, parking lots, sidewalks, and building rooftops. This results in large volumes of runoff being generated for an intense storm over a relatively short time period. As a result, sensitive ecosystems are likely to be damaged by increased urbanization.

Projecting the impact of land use changes on a watershed scale often requires the use of …

Measuring Spatial Health Disparity Using A Network-Based Accessibility Index Method In A Gis Environment: A Case Study Of Hillsborough County, Florida, Huairen Ye, Hyun Kim

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

In recent decades, the health care delivery system in the United States has been greatly transformed and more widely examined. Even with one of the most developed health care systems in the world, the United States still experiences great spatial disparity in health care access. Increasing diversity of class, culture, and ethnicity also has a significant impact on health disparity. The goal of this paper is to address the spatial disparity of health care access using a network-based health accessibility index method (NHAIM) in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment. Ensuring a desired level of accessibility for patients is the …

Effects Of Land Cover Change On Water Quality In Urban Streams At Two Spatial Scales, Sonia Singh, Heejun Chang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study examines the relationships between land cover change and water quality change in three urbanizing watersheds in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States: Burnt Bridge Creek, Salmon Creek, and the Tualatin River. All three watersheds have had many of their water quality parameters exceeding Total Maximum Daily Loads as required by their state’s environmental agencies in the past decades. By using the National Land Cover Datasets classified by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) for 1992, 2001 and 2006 and water quality data for a period between 1991 and 2010, this paper aims to examine whether changes …