Geography Commons^™

Hierarchies For Event-Based Modeling Of Geographic Phenomena, Rui Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modeling the dynamic aspect, or change, of geographic phenomena is essential to explain the evolution of geographic entities and predict their future. Event-based modelling, describing the occurrences rather than states of geographic phenomena, gives an explicit treatment of such change, but currently does not have the support of the mechanisms to enable the shifts among different granularities of events. To account for different tasks, a hierarchical representation of the event space at different granularities is needed.

This thesis presents an event-based model; a general framework for representing events based on precondition and postcondition using Allen's temporal interval logic. It captures …

Context-Specific Preference Learning Of One Dimensional Quantitative Geospatial Attributes Using A Neuro-Fuzzy Approach, Georgios Mountrakis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Change detection is a topic of great importance for modern geospatial information systems. Digital aerial imagery provides an excellent medium to capture geospatial information. Rapidly evolving environments, and the availability of increasing amounts of diverse, multiresolutional imagery bring forward the need for frequent updates of these datasets. Analysis and query of spatial data using potentially outdated data may yield results that are sometimes invalid. Due to measurement errors (systematic, random) and incomplete knowledge of information (uncertainty) it is ambiguous if a change in a spatial dataset has really occurred. Therefore we need to develop reliable, fast, and automated procedures that …

A Data Model For Exploration Of Temporal Virtual Reality Geographic Information Systems, Jorge Alberto Prado De Campos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geographic information systems deal with the exploration, analysis, and presentation of geo-referenced data. Virtual reality is a type of human-computer interface that comes close to the way people perceive information in the real world. Thus, virtual reality environments become the natural paradigm for extending and enhancing the presentational and exploratory capability of GIs applications in both the spatial and temporal domains. The main motivation of this thesis is the lack of a framework that properly supports the exploration of geographic information in a multi-dimensional and multi-sensorial environment (i.e., temporal virtual reality geographic information systems). This thesis introduces a model for …

Structuring A Wayfinder's Dynamic And Uncertain Environment, Michael D. Hendricks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wayfinders typically travel in dynamic environments where barriers and requirements change over time. In many cases, uncertainty exists about the future state of this changing environment. Current geographic information systems lack tools to assist wayfinders in understanding the travel possibilities and path selection options in these dynamic and uncertain settings. The goal of this research is a better understanding of the impact of dynamic and uncertain environments on wayfinding travel possibilities. An integrated spatio-temporal framework, populated with barriers and requirements, models wayfinding scenarios by generating four travel possibility partitions based on the wayfinder's maximum travel speed. Using these partitions, wayfinders …

An Egocentric Spatial Data Model For Intelligent Mobile Geographic Information Systems, Christopher E. Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals in unknown locations, such as utility workers in the field, soldiers on a mission, or sightseeing tourists, share the need for an answer to two basic questions: "Where am I?" and "What is in front of me?Because such information is not readily available in foreign locations, aids in the form of paper maps or mobile GISs, which give individuals an all-inclusive view of the environment, are often used. This panoptic view may hinder the positioning and orienteering process, since people perceive their surroundings perspectively from their current position. In this thesis, I describe a novel framework that resolves this …

Perceptual Sketch Interpretation, Markus Wuersch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sketching is a creative form of describing a spatial scene. People perceive such a scene in a straight forward way and build a mental model of the objects contained in a sketch. Whereas these objects might be regions, a sketch only contains lines and, therefore, developing automated sketch interpretation means outlining a rationale to grouping lines according to the objects they belong to. Automated sketch interpretation allows efficient processing of sketches. Labor intensive manual extraction could be brought to a minimum and, therefore, spatial data in form of sketches and spatial information extracted from sketches would be available more readily. …

Public Commons For Geospatial Data: A Conceptual Model, Chakravarthy Namindi Sharad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wide variety of spatial data collection efforts are ongoing throughout local, state and federal agencies, private firms and non-profit organizations. Each effort is established for a different purpose but organizations and individuals often collect and maintain the same or similar information. The United States federal government has undertaken many initiatives such as the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, the National Map and Geospatial One-Stop to reduce duplicative spatial data collection and promote the coordinated use, sharing, and dissemination of spatial data nationwide. A key premise in most of these initiatives is that no national government will be able to gather …

User Controlled Privacy Protection In Location-Based Services, Anuket Bhaduri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rapid development of location-determining technologies has enabled tracking of people or objects more accurately than ever before and the volume and extent of tracking has increased dramatically over time. Within the broader domain of tracking technologies, location-based services (LBS) are a subset of capabilities that allow users to access information relative to their own physical location. However, the personal location information generated by such technologies is at risk of being misused or abused unless protection capabilities are built into the design of such systems. These concerns may ultimately prevent society from achieving the broad range of benefits that otherwise …

Spatial Aspects Of Metaphors For Information: Implications For Polycentric System Design, Paul Charles Schroeder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents three innovations that suggest an alternative approach to structuring information systems: a multidimensional heuristic workspace, a resonance metaphor for information, and a question-centered approach to structuring information relations. Motivated by the need for space to establish a question-centered learning environment, a heuristic workspace has been designed. Both the question-centered approach to information system design and the workspace have been conceived with the resonance metaphor in mind. This research stemmed from a set of questions aimed at learning how spatial concepts and related factors including geography may play a role in information sharing and public information access. In …

People In Nature: Environmental History Of The Kennebec River, Maine, Daniel J. Michor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The quality of a river affects the tributaries, lakes, and estuary it feeds; it affects the wildlife and vegetation that depend on the river for energy, nutrients, and habitat, and also affects the human community in the form of use, access, pride, and sustainability. In an age of mass consumerism and materialism, dwindling natural resources and wild spaces, and advanced technology, the ability to make a living and at the same time enjoy the benefits of rural living is increasingly difficult. Using the entire Kennebec River watershed as the scale of investigation with particular focus on the river corridor itself, …

The Rogues Of 'Quoddy: Smuggling In The Maine New Brunswick Borderlands 1783-1820, Joshua M. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Smuggling has been an important problem in American-Canadian relations. Yet the nature of smuggling is little understood; it is by definition an elusive, secretive, and subtle practice. This dissertation explores smuggling as a social force within a border community on the United States-Canada boundary. Smuggling almost always involved the illicit crossing of political boundaries, and as such can be used as a means of studying popular attitudes toward the creation of national borders. Moreover, because smuggling is directly related to the transition to modem capitalism, this study sheds light on the roots of both American and Canadian economic development. The …

Evaluating Conflicts In The Use And Development Of Geographic Information Systems, Amber Bethell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Use of geographic information systems is increasing in governments, commercial companies, and by individual users. With such pervasive use of GIs there has been surprisingly little investigation of the values that various parties would support in the development of geographic technologies. There are many parties involved in the use of GIs each with opinions of what are good goals for developing and using such systems. This research seeks to determine differences and similarities among parties in the importance placed on supporting specific societal goals germane to the use of geographic technologies and databases. Previous research determined six areas where the …

Modeling Boundaries Of Influence Among Positional Uncertainty Fields, Joshua P. King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within a CIS environment, the proper use of information requires the identification of the uncertainty associated with it. As such, there has been a substantial amount of research dedicated to describing and quantifying spatial data uncertainty. Recent advances in sensor technology and image analysis techniques are making image-derived geospatial data increasingly popular. Along with development in sensor and image analysis technologies have come departures from conventional point-by-point measurements. Current advancements support the transition from traditional point measures to novel techniques that allow the extraction of complex objects as single entities (e.g., road outlines, buildings). As the methods of data extraction …

Ontology-Driven Geographic Information Systems, Frederico Torres Fonseca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information integration is the combination of different types of information in a framework so that it can be queried, retrieved, and manipulated. Integration of geographic data has gained in importance because of the new possibilities arising from the interconnected world and the increasing availability of geographic information. Many times the need for information is so pressing that it does not matter if some details are lost, as long as integration is achieved. To integrate information across computerized information systems it is necessary first to have explicit formalizations of the mental concepts that people have about the real world. Furthermore, these …

Strategies For Handling Spatial Uncertainty Due To Discretization, Thomas Windholz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geographic information systems (GISs) allow users to analyze geographic phenomena within areas of interest that lead to an understanding of their relationships and thus provide a helpful tool in decision-making. Neglecting the inherent uncertainties in spatial representations may result in undesired misinterpretations. There are several sources of uncertainty contributing to the quality of spatial data within a GIS: imperfections (e.g., inaccuracy and imprecision) and effects of discretization. An example for discretization in the thematic domain is the chosen number of classes to represent a spatial phenomenon (e.g., air temperature). In order to improve the utility of a GIS an inclusion …

"The Little City In Itself": Middle-Class Aspirations In Bangor, Maine, 1880-1920, Sara K. Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the inception and growth of "the Little City in Itself," a residential neighborhood in Bangor, Maine, as a case study of middle-class suburbanization and domestic life in small cities around the turn of the twentieth century. The development of Little City is the story of builders' and residents' efforts to shape a middle-class neighborhood in a small American city, a place distinct from the crowded downtown neighborhoods of immigrants and the elegant mansions of the wealthy. The purpose of this study is to explore builders' response to the aspirations of the neighborhood's residents for home and neighborhood …

Towards A Spatial Model Of Rurality, Gillian Avruskin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term rural is used to describe people, places, traditions, and spaces. It is often employed as a setting for study as well as an object of study. People’s perceptions of rural are confused and differ considerably. For over a century researchers have attempted to define more precisely this term using social, economic, and or ecological components. However, problems of interpreting official definitions and measurements exist. These definitions require extensions in order to capture a more objective meaning of the word. This thesis presents the foundations of a new approach to measuring and defining rurality. A spatial based approach is …

Image-Based Change Detection Using An Integrated Spatiotemporal Gazetteer, Georgios Mountrakis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses image-based change detection. Motivation was provided by the lack of algorithms that incorporate in their solution diverse types of pre-existing and complementary information and have the ability to interact with a spatiotemporal environment. The main differentiation with our approach is that we develop our algorithm within an integrated spatiotemporal environment and we make use of all change evidence that might exist within that environment. In addition, a change resolution model is developed that will distinguish meaningful changes based on user requirements. A model for change is proposed that establishes a general framework for the incorporation of image …

Topological Equivalence And Similarity In Multi-Representation Geographic Databases, Joao Argemiro De Carvalho Paiva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geographic databases contain collections of spatial data representing the variety of views for the real world at a specific time. Depending on the resolution or scale of the spatial data, spatial objects may have different spatial dimensions, and they may be represented by point, linear, or polygonal features, or combination of them. The diversity of data that are collected over the same area, often from different sources, imposes a question of how to integrate and to keep them consistent in order to provide correct answers for spatial queries. This thesis is concerned with the development of a tool to check …

Integrated Spatial Reasoning In Geographic Information Systems: Combining Topology And Direction, Jayant Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have gained wider acceptance and application, the interest in spatial modeling and reasoning has deepened. The purpose of a model and reasoning framework is to permit a user to experiment and study causal relationships in the real world by operating on the model only. Traditionally GISs employ purely quantitative methods to represent and infer spatial information. This approach has serious shortcomings when dealing with qualitative spatial information, which may be incomplete or imprecise and does not contain knowledge of the geometry of the spatial objects, which humans are particularly adept at utilizing in their daily …

An Examination Of Selected Ethnic Foodways In The Upper Midwest, Gregory A. Mader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many geographers recognize regional studies as a guidepost of geography. Cultural geographers have long identified the significance of ethnic regions and the differences between various ethnic groups in matters of housing, work, agriculture and diet. In many cases foodways and regional cuisine are distinct enough to act as a key identifier of a cultural region. This thesis uses church and other local cookbooks to identify specific ethnic and non - ethnic foods eaten by the Dutch of Northwestern Iowa, the Norwegians of the North Dakota-Minnesota border area, and the German-Russians of Southern North Dakota. From this source of information, patterns …

Perceptual Regions Of South Dakota, Steven L. Payton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The state of South Dakota has been divided into many different regions. Some of these regions are the result of formal classification by professionals "such as geographers, geologists and pedologists, whereas others reflect the informal opinion of a layman or nonprofessional. Some distinctions exist, perhaps, for convenience, whereas others express a sense of pride and belonging in community or territory. Regardless of the motivation, the resulting perceptual regions are abstractions of space that illustrate how the residents of South Dakota interpret their environment. This paper is a cultural study. The objective of this study is to determine whether South Dakota …

South Dakota's Evolving Settlement Landscape : Primary Factors Of Site Selection, Catherine Marion Lockwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Maps, rather than historical literature, form the primary data base employed in this study. Historical and current literature is used to supplement map interpretation. Techniques frequently employed in settlement geography are utilized to examine anomalies of site selection. While particular aspects of several theories and methodological procedures fundamental to settlement geography research are incorporated within this study, individual trait (e.g. house type) and typology studies are not an area of focus. Distribution and clustering of individual homesteads and towns, however, are discussed with respect to factors of location. Demography, population density, and carrying capacity are concepts that are alluded to, …

The Coteau Des Prairies: An Area Study, Orville E. Gab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a systematic geographical analysis of the Coteau des Prairies of eastern South Dakota. The Coteau is a flatironed-shaped plateau about 200 miles in length pointing in a northerly direction (Fig.1). The northern tip of the flatiron-shaped Coteau ends at Sargents Point, North Dakota, about 15 miles north of Marshall County, South Dakota. The heel of the flatiron or the southern edge of the Coteau des Prairies would just about follow the border between Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties of South Dakota. The eastern edge of the Coteau's extent in South Dakota parallels the Minnesota border. In Deuel County, …

A Trade Area Study Of Kadoka, South Dakota, Loren G. Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The picturesque beauty of a small Midwestern town sitting amid the farmlands or ranchlands is a common image conjured up by many Americans thinking about life in rural

America. It inspires a familiar scene. A grain elevator usually breaks the skyline and is situated on the ever present railroad line. A water tower stands against the blue sky. One particular street, usually named Main, is lined on both sides with businesses and shops. This is the heart of a small town, surrounded by a body of homes, churches, a school, and a gas station or two. From the hinterland around …

Midwestern Mosaic: A Study Of The Homogeneity Of Ethnic Populations In Omaha, Nebraska, 1880, Kathleen Louise Fimple

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to delimit neighborhoods in an urban setting using the ethnic homogeneity of the population as the major criteria. The study will seek to compile data at a very large scale--i.e., city blocks or streets--and present cartographically an accurate delimitation of community and neighborhood. In addition, some analysis of the ethnic homogeneity of such areas will be carried out in order to assess the selective inclination of certain national groups to concentrate spatially. The specific study area is Omaha, Nebraska, in the year, 1880.

Factors Affecting Oat Yields In East-Central South Dakota, Thomas M. Brandner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The social and economic importance of accurate crop-climate forecasting and agricultural data acquisition has been noted. The advances in methodology to analyze the relationship, has also been touched upon. The particular problem considered in this paper is to determine what factors play a significant role in the output, of oat yields. The yields will be correlated with monthly precipitation and temperature figures and a yearly fertilizer application variable. If some of these variables are found to be significant-they can be used in an equation to help predict oat yields. It is hoped that this study will add to the knowledge …

The Lake Dakota Plain: An Area Study, Anselem H. Rumpca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a systematic-area geographical study of an ancient glacial lake bed [sic] called the Lake Dakota Plain. Most of the Lake Dakota Plain is located in the northeastern part of South Dakota with a small area in adjacent North Dakota. The present study will be limited to that portion which lies in South Dakota. This area study is not limited to one criterion such as location, climate, or human occupance [sic]. Rather, it incorporates the sum total of all the criteria included in a systematic-regional study.