Geography Commons^™

Accuracy Assessment Of Measuring Linear And Areal Features In Aerial Imagery, I-Kuai Hung, David L. Kulhavy, Daniel R. Unger, Reid A. Viegut, Yanli Zhang, Nicholas C. Schiwitz

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

As part of natural resource education in the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU), students were instructed to take areal and linear measurements of grounds remotely using available platforms including aerial orthomosaic derived from UAS (unmanned aerial system) acquired imagery, Google Earth Pro, and Pictometry. The onscreen measurement was conducted at five different map scales, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, and 1/5000. Accuracy of the measurements was assessed by comparing the onscreen measurements to ground truth data verified with a measuring tape. Results show that measurements based on the UAS were more accurate …

Quantifying Current Soil Brine Contamination Within The Smackover Oil Field In Arkansas Using Multispectral Digital Imagery, Victoria Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A remote sensing study was performed to quantify current soil brine contamination across the historic Smackover Oil Field in south-central Arkansas, United States. The oil field was established in 1922 and was not subject to the future waste regulations created by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. Brine is a waste product of oil manufacturing which contains water with high salt levels. The storage and transport of brine in the oil field created landscape scarring across the study area.

Landsat 9 multispectral digital imagery was utilized to create supervised classification maps based on earthen pits and creek scarring across the …

Initial Limnology Of Laguna Pozo Verde, Costa Rica: Bathymetry, Water, Sediments, And Diatoms, Sally P Horn, Erik N. Johanson, Mauricio Murillo Herrera, Kurt A. Haberyan, Taber Friedel, Chad S. Lane

Geography Publications and Other Works

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Costa Rica has hundreds of lakes, many of which have never been scientifically studied. Objective: To carry out a first, basic limnological study of Laguna Pozo Verde in Juan Castro Blanco National Park, Costa Rica (~1935m elevation), to provide baseline data for studying future changes. Methods: We measured water depths and temperatures, and Secchi depth; analyzed surface sediments; and examined maps and satellite imagery. Results: Though described by some as formed by volcanic processes, Laguna Pozo Verde likely formed in a landslide, which occur frequently in this rainy area on the steep south slope of the inactive Porvenir …

Agricultural Groundcover Update November 2023, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

Summary

• About 98% of the grainbelt had adequate (more than 50%) vegetative groundcover to prevent wind erosion in November 2023. This amount of groundcover is normal for the middle of harvest.
• In the northern half of the grainbelt, a larger-than-average area had 51–60% groundcover, which is expected to decrease to below 50% over summer.
• Just over 2% of the grainbelt (324,000 ha) had less than 50% groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion. Mullewa to Morawa Ag Soil Zone had the highest risk of wind erosion and 9.7% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover.
• Less than 0.5% of the …

Big Data Applications And Challenges In Giscience (Case Studies: Natural Disaster And Public Health Crisis Management), Amir Masoud Forati

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the application and significance of user-generated big data in Geographic Information Science (GIScience), with a focus on managing natural disasters and public health crises. It explores the role of social media data in understanding human-environment interactions and in informing disaster management and public health strategies. A scalable computational framework will be developed to model extensive unstructured geotagged data from social media, facilitating systematic spatiotemporal data analysis.The research investigates how individuals and communities respond to high-impact events like natural disasters and public health emergencies, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. In particular, it assesses the impact of socio-economic-demographic …

Beyond The Tide: A Comprehensive Guide To Sea-Level-Rise Inundation Mapping Using Foss4g, Levente Juhasz, Jinwen Xu, Randall W. Parkinson

GIS Center

No abstract provided.

Towards Understanding The Geospatial Skills Of Chatgpt: Taking A Geographic Information Systems (Gis) Exam, Peter Mooney, Wencong Cui, Boyuan Guan, Levente Juhasz

GIS Center

This paper examines the performance of ChatGPT, a large language model (LLM), in a geographic information systems (GIS) exam. As LLMs like ChatGPT become increasingly prevalent in various domains, including education, it is important to understand their capabilities and limitations in specialized subject areas such as GIS. Human learning of spatial concepts significantly differs from LLM training methodologies. Therefore, this study aims to assess ChatGPT's performance and ability to grasp geospatial concepts by challenging it with a real GIS exam. By analyzing ChatGPT's responses and evaluating its understanding of GIS principles, we gain insights into the potential applications and challenges …

Agricultural Groundcover Update October 2023, Justin Laycock

Natural resources published reports

Summary

• About 98% of the grainbelt had adequate vegetative groundcover (more than 50%) to prevent wind erosion in October 2023. This amount of groundcover is normal at the end of spring and pre-harvest in most areas.
• There was a larger than average area with 51–60% groundcover, and groundcover in these areas is expected to reduce over summer to below 50%.
• About 2% of the grainbelt (293,000 ha) had less than 50% groundcover, which is inadequate to prevent wind erosion. Mullewa to Morawa Ag Soil Zone had the highest risk of wind erosion and 8% of this farmland had inadequate groundcover. …

Complex Impacts Of Wars On Global Sustainable Development In A Metacoupled World, Qutu Jiang, Zhenci Xu, Yuanzheng Cui, Jianguo Liu

I-GUIDE Forum

Wars and armed conflicts have had profound impacts on local and global sustainable development in an interconnected world. However, evidence on the impacts of wars is fragmented and little attention has been paid to the impacts on the 17 UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a unifying framework for achieving global sustainable development. This perspective synthesizes the scattered information to provide a holistic analysis and highlight the applications of remote sensing in assessing the impacts of wars on global sustainable development in a metacoupling world. Wars have complex impacts on all 17 SDGs, which cascade beyond conflict zones and spillover to …

Geospatial Data Integration Middleware For Exploratory Analytics Addressing Regional Natural Resource Grand Challenges In The Us Mountain West, Shannon Albeke, Nicholas Case, Samantha Ewers, Jeffrey Hamerlinck, William Kirkpatrick, Jerod Merkle, Luke Todd

I-GUIDE Forum

This paper describes CyberGIS-based research and development aimed at improving geospatial data integration and visual analytics to better understand the impact of regional climate change on water availability in the U.S. Rocky Mountains. Two Web computing applications are presented. DEVISE - Derived Environmental Variability Indices Spatial Extractor, streamlines utilization of environmental data for better-informed wildlife decisions by biologists and game managers. The WY-Adapt platform aims to enhance predictive understanding of climate change impacts on water availability through two modules: “Current Conditions” and “Future Scenarios”. It integrates high-resolution models of the biophysical environment and human interactions, providing a robust framework for …

Solving Geospatial Problems Under Extreme Time Constraints: A Call For Inclusive Geocomputational Education, Coline C. Dony

I-GUIDE Forum

To prepare our next generation to face geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints (e.g., disasters, climate change) we need to create educational pathways that help students develop their geocomputational thinking skills. First, educators are central in helping us create those pathways, therefore, we need to clearly convey to them why and in which contexts this thinking is necessary. For that purpose, a new definition for geocomputational thinking is suggested that makes it clear that this thinking is needed for geospatial problems that have extreme time constraints. Secondly, we can not further burden educators with more demands, rather we should …

Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian

I-GUIDE Forum

Given multi-model ensemble climate projections, the goal is to accurately and reliably predict future sea-level rise while lowering the uncertainty. This problem is important because sea-level rise affects millions of people in coastal communities and beyond due to climate change's impacts on polar ice sheets and the ocean. This problem is challenging due to spatial variability and unknowns such as possible tipping points (e.g., collapse of Greenland or West Antarctic ice-shelf), climate feedback loops (e.g., clouds, permafrost thawing), future policy decisions, and human actions. Most existing climate modeling approaches use the same set of weights globally, during either regression or …

Causes And Effects Of Shisper Glacial Lake Outburst Flood Event In Karakoram In 2022, Sandeep Kumar Mondal, Vatsal D. Patel, Rishikesh Bharti, Ramesh P. Singh

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Karakoram Himalayas are vulnerable to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which cause catastrophic floods in the surrounding areas. The increasing natural and anthropogenic activities, especially in the Indo-Gangetic Plains at the southern flank of the towering Himalayas, could be the cause of climate change affecting the frequency of the natural hazards in the Himalayas. In the present study, a detailed analysis of the Shisper Lake breach of 7 May 2022 is carried out using satellite remote sensing. A decreasing trend in the glacial mass balance is observed between 2017 and 2021; in this period, frequent GLOF episodes occurred. A pronounced …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, September - October 2023, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 New Faculty an Staff for the Fall 2023 Semester
Page 3 Awards
Page 4 Student Ambassadors in CNS
Page 5 Meet our Jacks
Page 6-8 Events
Page 9-11 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 12-13 Spring 2023 Dean's List
Page 14 Open PRAIRIE Data

The Great Displacement: Climate Change And The Next American Migration, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Weather/Natural Disasters

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Application Of Model-Based Time Series Prediction Of Infrared Long-Wave Radiation Data For Exploring The Precursory Patterns Associated With The 2021 Madoi Earthquake, Jingye Zhang, Ke Sun, Junqing Zhu, Ning Mao, Dimitar Ouzounov

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Taking the Madoi M_S 7.4 earthquake of 21 May 2021 as an example, this paper proposes using time series prediction models to predict the outgoing long-wave radiation (OLR) anomalies and study short-term pre-earthquake signals. Five time series prediction models, including autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and long short-term memory (LSTM), were trained with the OLR time series data of the aseismic moments in the 5° × 5° spatial range around the epicenter. The model with the highest prediction accuracy was selected to retrospectively predict the OLR values during the aseismic period and before the earthquake in the area. It …

Structure-From-Motion Derived Snow Cover In Burned Forests Of The Western Oregon Cascades, Siobhan Ciafone

Dissertations and Theses

Forest fire occurrence in the western US has increased rapidly since the 1980s, and most western US fires occur in the seasonal snow zone. Burned forests influence snow accumulation and melt patterns for years following fire, and understanding drivers of variability in snow cover across a burned landscape at the basin-scale is necessary for accurate hazard prediction and water resource forecasting. Basin-scale surveys of snowpack are possible with remote sensing, but accurate sensing methods such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) are often cost-prohibitive. In the last decade, structure-from-motion (SfM), an optical remote sensing technique, has emerged as an affordable …

Scaling Up The Relevance Of Land-Sea Connections In Coastal Bacteria Pollution Vulnerability, Bea E. Van Dam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bacteria pollution closures of Maine’s coastal shellfish harvest areas have substantial negative consequences for coastal businesses and communities. Sustainability solutions for Maine’s shellfish harvesting areas and businesses require new types of knowledge and information to protect water quality and public health while avoiding unnecessary fishery closures. Coastal management agencies have interests in tools to support science-based management decision-making related to pollution and sustainability solutions for businesses and communities.

Prior research into land-sea connections has demonstrated uses of geographic information and statistical methods to facilitate management and science communication. Research in Maine has focused on identification and comparison of attributes influencing …

Water Quality Land Cover Change And Water Quality In Wetlands At The City Of Gresham, Or, Evelyn Barajas, Michael Gonzalez

altREU Projects

The City of Gresham, Oregon has implemented constructed wetlands around the area as an attempt to collect, filter, and purify water from different sources such as rain, agricultural waste, and domestic waste. We focused our research on three different facilities: Columbia Slough Water Quality Facility (CSWQF), Fairview Creek Water Quality Facility, and Brookside Water Quality Facility. For each of these, we conducted tests and looked at the concentration levels for nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients such as NH3-N (ammonium), NO3-N (nitrate), TKN (total Kjeldahl nitrogen), O-PO4 (phosphate), and Total P (total phosphorus), as well as heavy metals like Total Cu (total …

Analyzing The Adoption, Cropping Rotation, And Impact Of Winter Cover Crops In The Mississippi Alluvial Plain (Map) Region Through Remote Sensing Technologies, Zobaer Ahmed

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the application of remote sensing technologies in conservation agriculture, specifically focusing on identifying and mapping winter cover crops and assessing voluntary cover crop adoption and cropping patterns in the Arkansas portion of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP). In the first chapter, a systematic review using the PRISMA methodology examines the last 30 years of thematic research, development, and trends in remote sensing applied to conservation agriculture from a global perspective. The review uncovers a growing interest in remote sensing-based research in conservation agriculture and emphasizes the necessity for further studies dedicated to conservation practices. Among the 68 …

A Comparative Study Of Vinti-Based Orbit Propagation And Estimation For Cubesats In Very Low Earth Orbits, Ethan Michael Senecal

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in CubeSats and very low Earth orbit (VLEO) space missions. Mission SeaLion, a collaborative CubeSat mission between Old Dominion University, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, planned to launch a 3U CubeSat into VLEO. The VLEO mission is a particularly challenging environment for navigation and orbit propagation because drag introduces a significant perturbation for orbit models such as SGP4. Additionally, mission requirements left no capacity for attitude determination or control, further reducing knowledge of drag behavior of the satellite in flight. This deficiency is a …

The Impact Of Climate Change On Selected Pnw Watersheds Through The Lens Of Western Red Cedar Habitat, Jordan T. Hamann

Dissertations and Theses

Climate change is a real phenomenon that is exacerbating existing natural processes and developing into a new normal for the planet. This change may be devastating for Pacific Northwest populations of Western Red Cedar (WRC) west of the Cascade Mountain range in the states of Oregon and Washington. WRC is a valuable tree species for reasons both economic and cultural. Dieback among WRC is following an accelerating trend. Since dieback is usually followed by tree mortality, understanding its causes and distribution is beneficial to the overall success of the species going into the future.

Through the use of ESRI's ArcGIS …

Comparing Drone2map Versus Pix4dmapper When Creating Orthophoto Mosaics Over Homogeneous Land Features, Victoria Williams, Daniel R. Unger, David Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Yanli Zhang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This study evaluated two popular software packages currently used within the natural resources profession to create orthophoto mosaics: Drone2Map and Pix4Dmapper. Of particular concern was how effective these two software packages would perform in creating orthophoto mosaics over a city park in East Texas consisting of forest, open grass, and urban concrete surrounding a lake. Two drone flights over the city park were conducted. One flight was at 76 meters (250 feet) above ground with a single pass configuration. The other flight was at 122 meters (400 feet) above ground with a double pass configuration. Upon the completion of each …

The Relationship Between Water Temperature And Proximity To Surface Urban Heat Islands Within The Lower Chesapeake Bay Watershed For The Summer Of 2019, Sarah Kerner

Student Research Submissions

Surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) are land surfaces with high concentrations of impervious surfaces like roofs, roads, sidewalks and other infrastructures that trap, absorb, and re-emit heat throughout the day/night and typically present higher temperatures than their surrounding rural areas. In this study, I evaluate how presence of and distance to SUHIs are associated with water temperature in the lower Chesapeake Bay watershed for the summer of 2019. When heavy precipitation events occur, flooding creates stormwater runoff, which is exposed to the hotter temperatures in urban areas. This introduces thermal pollution to nearby rivers and streams disrupting aquatic ecosystems. The …

Monitoring Dam Stability Using Psi And Sbas Analysis, Rejoice Thomas, Wenzhao Li, Shahryar Fazli, Nikolay Grisel Todorov, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Water preservation and maximization of its efficient use is key in areas facing water scarcity like California. One of the most important resources available to us are dams, which are useful to address a variety of needs like water supply, flood control, and maintaining environmental flows. However, if not managed properly, dams can be disastrous to humans and wildlife alike, different water species, habitats, and even impact water quality for a region. In this context, we have used newer Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry techniques like Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) and Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) to estimate the displacement rates at …

Detection Of Subsidence In West-Central Florida Using Persistent Scatterer Interferometry And Near-Surface Geophysics, Tonian R. Robinson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three studies that employ Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI, also known as PSInSAR) to better understand how subsidence in west-central Florida relates to underlying geological processes. In the first study, near-surface geophysical methods (Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electrical Resistivity (ERT)), terrestrial remote sensing applications (Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Structure from Motion (SfM)), and PSI were used to monitor the spatial and temporal behaviors of a suspected growing sinkhole in the Sandhill Boyscout Reservation, Hernando County, Florida. The survey area was located within and around a topographic low assumed to be the surface of the …

The Flow Of Power: Addressing Asymmetric Flood Risk In The Upper Valley, Eric Vr Hryniewicz

Geography Undergraduate Senior Theses

Floods are the most damaging natural disasters in America. Land use change in upland watersheds can increase the probability and severity of floods (Bronstert, Niehoff, & Burger, 2002). When watersheds are divided by political and private property boundaries it leads to a misalignment of incentives in which downstream users lack recourse for upstream land use decisions contributing to flood risk. In this thesis, researchers interrogate the attributes of town officials and towns that determine what motivates town governments to act on flooding and what motivates and enables town officials to collaborate on planning and how do they collaborate in practice. …

Public-Ish, Aliah Werth

Masters Theses

Climate change affects public space, and architecture must establish tenets that prioritize pedestrians in this difficult era. Greywater re-use can be a mechanism for creating shade, and in turn, public space.

As heat waves grow more intense, the vast swaths of asphalt that connect commercial zones pose greater risks to public health and to urban vitality. This thesis records the typical material, spatial, and lived conditions of strip malls in urban heat islands, and demands more from infrastructure in public-ish space.

Heat violence weaves through Los Angeles’ built form. Parking space minimums, required setbacks, and height restrictions pull buildings away …

Reintroducing Hemp (Rongony) In The Material Palette Of Madagascar: A Study On The Potential Of Hemp Clay Components And Its Impact On Social And Ecological Communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina

Masters Theses

When mentioning the word hemp, especially in the local language of Madagascar, the literal translation does not set it apart from marijuana, as they are both called “rongony” - creating the stigma around hemp as the negative stereotype of marijuana. However, the material has been used by the ancestors of Madagascar, as well as across cultures, in its fibrous form to produce fabrication like textile goods and packaging. During colonization, the prohibition of hemp intensified, and since then, any activity related to either of these plants is prohibited and will end in severe punitive measures. This thesis explores the strengths …

The Affective Landscapes Of Herbalism In New Mexico, Samantha Angelou Stroud

Geography ETDs

Herbalism, or practices which use plants for medicinal purposes, is tied to traditions in several cultures of the American Southwest, including Indigenous herbal medicine, Mexican-American curanderismo, and Western herbal traditions. Herbalism has been steadily gaining mainstream popularity since the late 1960s, alongside counterculture, holistic health, and back-to-nature movements, introducing many newcomers to the practice. This study asks: How does herbalism create and attach meaning to plants, cultures, and place in New Mexico? What are the affective landscapes produced by herbalism in New Mexico? And, to what extent do meaningful attachments manifest in ethics and actions of care? I argue that …