Geography Commons^™

The Impact Of Subjective Risk Analysis On Real Estate Prices In The Nisqually Region Following The 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, Ryan Espedal

All Master's Theses

Earthquakes are an environmental hazard that pose great risks to communities almost every day. With earthquakes, the main cause of concern is physical destruction of property, however, there are also psychological effects that are researched and discussed much less. In 2001, the Nisqually area of western Washington experienced a substantial earthquake that produced minimal physical damage but caused a significant decrease in real estate prices. Studying single-family homes from 1986-2012, this research utilizes hedonic property models to measure the change in consumer’s subjective risk calculations with reference to real estate purchases after the Nisqually earthquake, measure the relationship between earthquake …

Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans

All Master's Theses

This research explores the claim that “geotagging ruins nature” by quantifying and qualifying patterns in geotag use and visitors’ experiences in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in Washington, United States. Many have raised concerns that geotags increase recreational visitation to public lands, which subsequently contributes to negative resource impacts. Others, however, claim that geotagging has made the outdoors more accessible to less privileged communities and raise concerns that condemning geotags will perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups from outdoor recreation. This debate is studied within federally designated Wilderness, which is legally defined as “untrammeled by man,” a definition rooted in problematic …

Comparing Rusle Ls Calculation Methods Across Varying Dem Resolutions, Amanda Moody

All Master's Theses

Soil erosion is a global problem that reduces land productivity and causes environmental degradation. Soil erosion models, such as the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), are used to estimate the severity and distribution of erosion. The topographic factor (LS), which combines slope length and angle, is an important part of RUSLE. This work compared two methods of L calculation, the grid cumulation (GC) and the contributing area (CA) methods, and two methods of S calculation, the neighborhood (NBR) and maximum downhill slope (MDS) methods. These were compared across digital elevation models (DEMs) of 1, 5, 10, and 30m resolutions. …

Sampling The Local Fare: Fishes At The Sam Israel House Pit (45gr76), Soap Lake, Washington, Adam Fruge

All Master's Theses

The Sam Israel site is a precontact archaeological complex with numerous fish bones at the north end of Soap Lake, Washington. Excavated in 1976, the fish remains recovered from there were never fully analyzed prior to this research. Since this inland Columbia Plateau site had thousands of fish bones, it contained untapped potential for our understanding of ancient local fish procurement. As such, I conducted a detailed analysis of 2,862 fish bone specimens from the Sam Israel House Pit locus to: study a larger sample of fish bones in greater detail than was done before; compare the distribution of fishes …

Holocene Fire History Reconstruction Of A Mid-Evaluation Mixed-Conifer Forest In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Zoe Rushton

All Master's Theses

Fire histories of mid-elevation mixed-conifer forests (MEMC) are uncommon, particularly in the eastern Cascades of Washington. As a result, fire regimes and the effects of 20th century fire suppression in these forests are not well understood. In the summer of 2014 a 7.80 meter-long sediment core was extracted from Long Lake, located approximately 45 km west of Yakima, WA, which exists in a grand fir-dominated mixed-conifer forest. Fire activity for the Long Lake watershed was reconstructed using macroscopic charcoal analysis and pollen analysis was used to reconstruct vegetation change through time. Charcoal results show low fire activity in the early …

Geomorphic Consequences Of Hydroelectricity And Transportation Development Near Celilo Falls, Lower Mid-Columbia River, Washington, Noah I. Oliver

All Master's Theses

Along the Columbia River, hundreds of miles of transportation infrastructure and over sixty hydroelectric dams have been constructed. This altered a rich cultural landscape with evidence of 10,000 years of continuous occupation. Researchers have attempted to understand the impacts of anthropogenic factors on the Columbia River, focusing on the riverine environment. However, the effect of transportation and hydroelectricity developments to eolian landforms on the floodplains and adjoining slopes have not been studied. Focusing on 2,800 acres near Celilo Falls, this study 1) establishes a baseline condition of eolian landforms from 1805 to 1900; 2) conducts an air photo increment analysis …

Water Demand, Adaptive Capacity, And Drought: An Analysis Of The Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon And California, Patricia Snyder

All Master's Theses

Freshwater demand and scarcity issues are an issue of global concern, in particular for the American West as global climate models suggest precipitation regime changes and an increase of drought. This research conducts a case-study of the Upper Klamath Basin, located in south-central Oregon and northern California, a microcosm of the arid and semi-arid American West that experienced an economically, socially, and ecologically impactful drought in the early 2000s. Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods this research: 1) identifies key stakeholders, their goals and key policies; 2) conducts an adaptive capacity assessment of water management within the basin; …

The Origin Of Dark Mats At The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site (45pi408) Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, Sean Stcherbinine

All Master's Theses

The Sunrise Ridge Borrow Pit Site is a precontact archaeological site located in the upland forest soils of Mount Rainier National Park. Site stratigraphy is complicated, consisting of tephra deposits from mostly known origins that are intercalated with dark sediments of unknown origin, referred to here as dark mats. Precontact occupation has been split previously into two components based on the ambiguous depositional history of the dark mats, notably their unknown parent material, depositional environment, and relationship with adjacent tephra strata. Stratigraphic samples from excavation units, features, and one off-site excavation unit was used to investigate these data gaps. Grain …

Why Now?: A Case Study Of Split Estate And Fracking Activity In Garfield County Colorado, Janessa Zucchetto

All Master's Theses

This research examines the socio-environmental impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing activities and issues of split estate in Battlement Mesa Planned Unit Development in Garfield County, CO. Data for this research was collected during 2 months in the summer of 2015 using a series of ethnographic research methods. In doing so, this research adopts political ecology and political economy of nature as theoretical frameworks to understand the interconnections that exist between local impacts of fracking activities and a national strategy to secure gas markets internationally. I argue that the socio-environmental impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing in Garfield County, CO are not …

Eastern Washington Wildfires: Tracking Land Recovery In The Colockum Tarps Wildfire Area, Michael Balda, Allison Shinn

Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)

Eastern Washington State has seen an increase in wildfire activity because of policies of fire suppression and changing climate. The Colockum Tarps wildfire started on July 27, 2013, in Malaga, Washington, due to a water pump malfunction. After ignition, the fire quickly moved south-southwest and burned a total area of 80,408 acres of grasslands and forest. We combined fieldwork and geospatial analysis of aerial photography and satellite imagery to examine vegetative recovery within the fire area. Using ArcGIS and PCI Geomatica, we analyzed 2013 National Agricultural Imaging Program (NAIP) images and a wildfire perimeter shapefile from the Bureau of Land …

Mountain Passes And Saddle Points, James Bisgard

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Variational methods find solutions of equations by considering a solution as a critical point of an appropriately chosen function. Local minima and maxima are well-known types of critical points. We explore methods for finding critical points that are neither local maxima or minima, but instead are mountain passes or saddle points. Criteria for the existence of minima or maxima are well known, but those for mountain passes or saddle points are less well known. We give an accessible treatment of some criteria for the existence of such points (including the mountain pass lemma), as well as describe a method that …

Analysis Of Spatial Variability Of Near-Surface Soil Moisture To Increase Rainfall-Runoff Modelling Accuracy In Sw Hungary, P. Hegedüs, S. Czigány, E. Pirkhoffer, L. Balatonyi, Robert Hickey

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Between September 5, 2008 and September 5, 2009, near-surface soil moisture time series were collected in the northern part of a 1.7 km2 watershed in SWHungary at 14 monitoring locations using a portable TDR-300 soil moisture sensor. The objectives of this study are to increase the accuracy of soil moisture measurement at watershed scale, to improve flood forecasting accuracy, and to optimize soil moisture sensor density.

According to our results, in 10 of 13 cases, a strong correlation exists between the measured soil moisture data of Station 5 and all other monitoring stations; Station 5 is considered representative for the …

Alpine And Other Abandoned Towns Along The Great Northern Railroad Near Stevens Pass, Washington, 1890-1930, Stacy Marie Stanley

All Master's Theses

Despite the wealth of research on the early transcontinental railroads of the West, including certain areas in Washington State, there is little known about the railroad towns, camps and logging communities that arose due to the construction of the Great Northern Railroad in the Stevens Pass area. This thesis summarizes some of the information on the history of the study area, as well as results of a field investigation of archaeological remnants of one railroad town, the town of Alpine. Alpine was a short-lived town established during construction of the railroad ca. 1892 or a little later in 1910, and …

Guidance In Feature Extraction To Resolve Uncertainty, Boris Kovalerchuk, Michael Kovalerchuk, Simon Streltsov, Matthew Best

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

Automated Feature Extraction (AFE) plays a critical role in image understanding. Often the imagery analysts extract features better than AFE algorithms do, because analysts use additional information. The extraction and processing of this information can be more complex than the original AFE task, and that leads to the “complexity trap”. This can happen when the shadow from the buildings guides the extraction of buildings and roads. This work proposes an AFE algorithm to extract roads and trails by using the GMTI/GPS tracking information and older inaccurate maps of roads and trails as AFE guides.

The Elwha River Restoration: Landscape Change, Salmon, And Sense Of Place, Kelseyanne Johnson

All Master's Theses

Removal of the Elwha River dams to restore the ecosystem and salmon fisheries is the largest project of its kind in the history of the United States. Spanning decades and affecting generations, this project has changed and will continue to change the landscape. This research examined the influence of the anticipated return of salmon on 18 key stakeholders' sense of place of the Elwha River. For almost all stakeholders, changes to the Elwha landscape are welcomed as they expect that salmon will restore the ecosystem to its natural state. Narrative data revealed dominant themes in participants' sense of place expressed …

Applying Gis Metrics To Determine Degree Of Glacial Modification In Mountainous Landscapes, Carl Delbert Swanson Ii

All Master's Theses

The ability to quantitatively assess the degree of glaciation in mountainous areas can be a powerful tool in unraveling the evolution of landscapes, and provide key insights in regions where field research is difficult. Here we determine, test, and apply metrics that assess the relative degree of past glacial modification in mountainous landscapes. Results show that slope results can be used to quantitatively assess the degree to which an area is modified by glaciation. In particular, analysis of basins using slope frequency distribution curves and slope vs. elevation plots capture steeper slopes, flatter valley bottoms, cirques, and arêtes of glaciated …

Mapsnap System To Perform Vector-To-Raster Fusion, Boris Kovalerchuk, Peter Doucette, Gamal Seedahmed, Jerry Tagestad, Sergei Kovalerchuk, Brian Graff

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

As the availability of geospatial data increases, there is a growing need to match these datasets together. However, since these datasets often vary in their origins and spatial accuracy, they frequently do not correspond well to each other, which create multiple problems. To accurately align with imagery, analysts currently either: 1) manually move the vectors, 2) perform a labor-intensive spatial registration of vectors to imagery, 3) move imagery to vectors, or 4) redigitize the vectors from scratch and transfer the attributes. All of these are time consuming and labor-intensive operations. Automated matching and fusing vector datasets has been a subject …

Automated Vector-To-Raster Image Registration, Boris Kovalerchuk, Peter Doucette, Gamal Seedahmed, Robert Brigantic, Michael Kovalerchuk, Brian Graff

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

The variability of panchromatic and multispectral images, vector data (maps) and DEM models is growing. Accordingly, the requests and challenges are growing to correlate, match, co-register, and fuse them. Data to be integrated may have inaccurate and contradictory geo-references or not have them at all. Alignment of vector (feature) and raster (image) geospatial data is a difficult and time-consuming process when transformational relationships between the two are nonlinear. The robust solutions and commercial software products that address current challenges do not yet exist. In the proposed approach for Vector-to-Raster Registration (VRR) the candidate features are auto-extracted from imagery, vectorized, and …

1998 Debris Flows Near The Yakima River, Kittitas County, Washington—Some Geomorphic Implications, Martin R. Kaatz

Geography Faculty Scholarship

The geomorphic consequences of debris flows and their asso- ciated storms have been documented in many parts of the United States. Few, if any, have been studied and documented in central Washington. The importance of recurrent debris flows in sculpting Washington landscapes has not been generally recognized compared to other processes. Arid and semi-arid regions are particularly vulnerable to debris flows triggered by sudden intense thunderstorms. Most such areas are sparsely populated and eyewitnesses are uncommon. By contrast, semi-arid central Washington is relatively well popu- lated, and there are likely to be people who have observed the storms. Such witnesses …

A Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Riparian Vegetation Along Satus Creek On The Yakama Indian Reservation, Kathryn Gellenbeck

All Master's Theses

Satus Creek provides critical habitat for the Yakima River Basin steelhead. A diverse community of riparian vegetation is important for healthy fish habitat; vegetation changes can affect shade, cover, channel structure, water quality, and food availability. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and illustrate riparian vegetation change, both temporally and spatially, along three separate reaches of Satus Creek. A Geographic Information Systems approach was applied to assess the vegetation change by comparing plant species composition and density on 1949 and 1995 aerial photographs. The GIS approach allowed patterns and trends in the vegetation to be identified. In less …

Range Sheep Industry In Kittitas County, Washington, Reginald M. Shaw

Geography Faculty Scholarship

This article summarizes the sheep industry in Kittitas County, Washington State as a microcosm of the entire Pacific Northwest sheep industry.