Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Queries In The Presence Of Obstacles, Jun Zhang, Dimitris Papadias, Kyriakos Mouratidis, Manli Zhu

Kyriakos MOURATIDIS

Despite the existence of obstacles in many database applications, traditional spatial query processing utilizes the Euclidean distance metric assuming that points in space are directly reachable. In this paper, we study spatial queries in the presence of obstacles, where the obstructed distance between two points is defined as the length of the shortest path that connects them without crossing any obstacles. We propose efficient algorithms for the most important query types, namely, range search, nearest neighbors, e-distance joins and closest pairs, considering that both data objects and obstacles are indexed by R-trees. The effectiveness of the proposed solutions is verified …

Continuous Medoid Queries Over Moving Objects, Stavros Papadopoulos, Dimitris Sacharidis, Kyriakos Mouratidis

Kyriakos MOURATIDIS

In the k-medoid problem, given a dataset P, we are asked to choose kpoints in P as the medoids. The optimal medoid set minimizes the average Euclidean distance between the points in P and their closest medoid. Finding the optimal k medoids is NP hard, and existing algorithms aim at approximate answers, i.e., they compute medoids that achieve a small, yet not minimal, average distance. Similarly in this paper, we also aim at approximate solutions. We consider, however, the continuous version of the problem, where the points in P move and our task is to maintain the medoid set on-the-fly …

Spatial Cloaking Revisited: Distinguishing Information Leakage From Anonymity, Kar Way Tan, Yimin Lin, Kyriakos Mouratidis

Kyriakos MOURATIDIS

Location-based services (LBS) are receiving increasing popularity as they provide convenience to mobile users with on-demand information. The use of these services, however, poses privacy issues as the user locations and queries are exposed to untrusted LBSs. Spatial cloaking techniques provide privacy in the form of k-anonymity; i.e., they guarantee that the (location of the) querying user u is indistinguishable from at least k-1 others, where k is a parameter specified by u at query time. To achieve this, they form a group of k users, including u, and forward their minimum bounding rectangle (termed anonymzing spatial region, ASR) to …

Medoid Queries In Large Spatial Databases, Kyriakos Mouratidis, Dimitris Papadias, Spiros Papadimitriou

Kyriakos MOURATIDIS

Assume that a franchise plans to open k branches in a city, so that the average distance from each residential block to the closest branch is minimized. This is an instance of the k-medoids problem, where residential blocks constitute the input dataset and the k branch locations correspond to the medoids. Since the problem is NP-hard, research has focused on approximate solutions. Despite an avalanche of methods for small and moderate size datasets, currently there exists no technique applicable to very large databases. In this paper, we provide efficient algorithms that utilize an existing data-partition index to achieve low CPU …

Integrating Custom Mapping And Structure Preplanning With Gis For Emergency Responders, Zachary M. Hittie

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Accurate information can mean the difference between life and death for emergency responders and the people they serve. At the Harrisonburg Fire Department, laptops with customized databases for street maps and building preplans are one source of information for first responders. Another available resource is a Geographic Information System for the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. However, ESRI’s ArcGIS® software is far from user-friendly in a mobile atmosphere. The objective of this research is to develop new software that integrates the ArcGIS® tool suite with custom street map files and structure preplan databases into a single application on a …

Ua668/4 Ogden College Of Science & Engineering Geography & Geology Administration, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the administration of the Geography & Geology department.

Internet Gis As A Historic Place-Making Tool For Mammoth Cave National Park, Ann E. Epperson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This project laid the groundwork for an Internet-delivered Public Participation Geographic Information System to facilitate exploration and discovery of the past communities of the Mammoth Cave Park area. The emergence of Internet Web 2.0 design along with distributed GIS services allows for anyone to interact with and add to the information found on central Internet sites. Historical geography often relies upon public participation from individuals outside the academic world to provide narrative descriptions, photographs and manuscripts of past places and events to augment information held by institutions and academia. A public-participation website for the Mammoth Cave Historic GIS (MCHGIS) created …

Assessing Linkages Among Landscape Characteristics, Stream Habitat, And Macroinvertebrate Communities In The Idaho Batholith Ecoregion, Andrew C. Hill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Understanding the composition of lotic communities and the landscape processes and habitat characteristics that shape them is one of the main challenges confronting stream ecologists. In order to better understand the linkages among landscape processes, stream habitat, and biological communities and to understand how accurately our measurements represent important factors influencing biological communities, it is important to test explicit hypotheses regarding these linkages. Increasing our understanding of aquatic communities in a hierarchical context and recognizing how well our measurements represent factors structuring aquatic communities will help managers better evaluate the influence of land management practices on aquatic ecosystems, direct conservation …

Spatial Epidemiology Of Birth Defects In The United States And The State Of Utah Using Geographic Information Systems And Spatial Statistics, Samson Y. Gebreab

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Oral clefts are the most common form of birth defects in the United States (US) and the State of Utah has among the highest prevalence of oral clefts in the nation. The overall objective of this dissertation was to examine the spatial distribution of oral clefts and their linkage with a broad range of demographic, behavioral, social, economic, and environmental risk factors through the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics. Using innovative linked micromaps plots, we investigated the geographic patterns of oral clefts occurrence from 1998 to 2002 and their relationships with maternal smoking rates and proportion …

Putting Artists On The Map: A Five Part Study Of Greater Cleveland Artists' Location Decisions - Part 2: Profiles Of Artist Neighborhoods, Mark Salling, Gregory Soltis, Charles Post, Sharon Bliss, Ellen Cyran

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A series of reports detailing the residential and work space location preferences of Cuyahoga county's artists.

Land Use As It Relates To Land Slope, James D. Plourde, Bryan C. Pijanowski

GIS Day

The goal of this project is to analyze the relationship between the slope of land and agricultural land use. The output was analyzed to determine a threshold point at which agriculture practices drop off in relation to higher slope values. Slope of the land is important to agricultural practices because it impacts drainage and net crop primary production. Agricultural land was extracted from the 2001 National Land Cover Dataset using reclassification tools in ArcGIS 9.3. The slope of the contiguous United States was derived from the United States Geological Survey National Elevation Dataset by using the slope tool in the …

Management Of Land Use Land Cover Through The Application Of Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems And Simulation, Praveen Jha

Praveen Jha Dr

Deforestation and degradation of forest areas, including those in the Protected Areas (PAs), are major concerns in India. There were 2 broad objectives of the study: the technological objective pertained to the development of state-of-art programs that could serve as Decision Support Systems while finalizing plans and policy interventions, while the other objective aimed at generating geo-spatial data in 2 PAs. A part of the Eastern Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, Manas Tiger Reserve (MTR), Assam, India having an area of 2837.12 sq km and an important part of Rajaji-Corbett Tiger Conservation Unit, Rajaji National Park (RNP), Uttarakhand, India, having an area …

Rich Internet Geoweb For Spatial Data Infrastructure, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this information age, more and more public statistical data such as population census, household living, local economy and business establishment are distributed over the internet within the framework of spatial data infrastructure. By and large, these data are organized geographically such as region, province as well as district. Usually, they are published in the form of digital maps over the internet as simple points, lines and polygons markers limited or no analytical function available to transform these data into useful information. To meet the analytical needs of casual public data users, we contribute RIGVAT, a rich internet geospatial visual …

Popular People Help Experts Predict Flu Outbreak?, Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Popular people are the trendsetters of society, especially when it comes to the next flu outbreak, according to preliminary research from Harvard University. The hypochondriac effect may have also exaggerated how predictive the friend group was, says Ed Hsu, associate professor of Public Health Informatics at the University of Texas. Those in the friend group are more likely to know someone who has the flu and hence may be more likely to think (and report) that they are coming down with it themselves.

Mapping In Philanthropy: Exploring The Use Of Mapping In Foundation Grantmaking, Jim Casey

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Foundations provide grants to nonprofit organizations in our communities, who then provide services locally. Choosing which nonprofit to fund, and which not to fund is difficult. This study examines current uses and upcoming uses of mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as part of funding decisions made by foundations. Foundations engaged in strategic funding, especially that which targets specific populations are more likely to use GIS and geospatial analysis in funding decisions. Grantmaking in response to proposals requires less strategic analysis and calls for mapping much less by comparison. As a field, nationally foundations and nonprofits have identified many uses …

Developing Tornado Climatology In The Southern Great Plains Per Phases Of Prominent Oceanic Oscillations, Nicholas M. Fillo

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Meteorologists are continually working toward a greater understanding of which atmospheric environments are most conducive for tornado development. This Capstone project analyzed tornado occurrences across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana during the period 1950 through 2009 to determine if any correlation exists between the location and frequency of tornado activity and the phases of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. While it was determined that no phase of any of the oscillations studied was significantly more dominant over the other(s) concerning frequency, this project does identify some spatial shifts in tornado activity depending …

A Gis Model To Predict Feral Pig (Sus Scrofa) Habitat On Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, Brian Schnick

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The applicable Natural Resource area of this project is animal control and wildlife management, as wild pigs can be quite destructive to landscapes (Campbell, et al., 2010) (McCann, et al., 2008). Geographic Information System (GIS) predictive models have proven to be useful in regards to other mammals (Travaini, et al., 2007), raptors (Bustamante, et al., 2004), and pest species such as locusts (van der Werf, et al., 2005). Pigs are often nocturnal and bed down in heavy cover, hindering direct observation. Additionally, Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) encompasses over 400 square kilometers. Therefore, predictive modeling is an appropriate method for …

Design Of A Comprehensive Geographic Information System For The Administration Of El Camino Real De Los Tejas National Historic Trail, Jeffrey M. Williams

Faculty Publications

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s (ATCOFA) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory were engaged by the National Park Service (NPS) National Trails System-Intermountain Region to provide GIS services supporting the NPS’s development of a Comprehensive Management Plan for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (ELTE). The scope of work was completed under an agreement with the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Research Program at Texas A&M University. ATCOFA assisted the NPS in the coordination of local landowner and other local stakeholder contacts, conducted archival research …

Process Of Planning A Community Indicator Portal: Geospatial Web Tools For Community Wide Decision Making And Advocacy, Jennifer Fu

GIS Center

No abstract provided.

Determining Heritage Oak Tree Susceptibility To Sudden Oak Death Using Gis Risk Analysis, Michelle M. Guzdek

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Sudden Oak Death (SOD), caused by the pathogenic water mold Phytophthora ramorum, has killed hundreds of thousands of oak trees in the California coastal regions, with redwood-tanoak forests being hit the hardest (Shoemaker et al., 2007). The term “sudden oak death” is used to describe the disease, because of how rapidly the pathogen has killed otherwise healthy tanoaks, virtually in a matter of weeks (COMTF 2010). SOD was first reported in California in 1994 and is believed to have originated from infected nursery or ornamental plants, but the source has never been identified (Mascheretti et al. 2008).

A Framework For Computational Thinking Across The Curriculum, Ljubomir Perkovi´C, Amber Settle, Sungsoon Hwang, Joshua Jones

Sungsoon Hwang

We describe a framework for implementing computational thinking in a broad variety of general education courses. The framework is designed to be used by faculty without formal training in information technology in order to understand and integrate computational thinking into their own general education courses. The framework includes examples of computational thinking in a variety of general education courses, as well as sample in-class activities, assignments, and other assessments for the courses. The examples in the different courses are related and differentiated using categories taken from Denning Great Principles of Computing, so that similar types of computational thinking appearing in …

Influence Of Job Accessibility On Housing Market Processes: Study Of Spatial Stationarity In The Buffalo And Seattle Metropolitan Areas, Sungsoon Hwang, Jean-Claude Thill

Sungsoon Hwang

Susceptibility Modeling And Mission Flight Route Optimization In A Low Threat, Combat Environment, Brett J. Machovina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Movement and transportation systems are a primary topic in the study of humans and their relationship with the environment. Only a few modes of transportation allow for nearly full freedom of movement that is unconstrained by rigid nodes and networks. Individual human travel (walking, climbing, swimming, etc.) is one example while rotorcraft travel is another. Although other criteria constrain movement, independence from a network allows for a unique examination of human spatial decision-making and choice behavior. This research analyzes helicopter flight route planning in a low threat combat environment with respect to geography. The particular problem addressed, which ultimately concerns …

Gis Applications For Coal Mine Subsidence In The State Of Colorado, Charles J. Strickler

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The state of Colorado has an extensive history of subsurface coal mining. Due to the widespread extraction of coal, numerous subsidence events have occurred, causing both costly and potentially dangerous conditions. The two most common types of underground coal mines in Colorado are slope and shaft mines, which are prone to roof collapse that can propagate to the surface in the form of sinkholes and troughs. Sinkholes and troughs can occur over prolonged periods of time or as instantaneous events, which may leave landowners little reaction time and expensive repairs. As of January 2010, no spatial database existed that covered …

Tracking Sources Of Enrollment At Etsu Through The Use Of Gis., Charles Thomas Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to look at fall freshmen enrollment data for East Tennessee State University and see if patterns in the enrollment exist. This paper focuses on fall freshmen enrollment during the years 1997, 2002, and 2007 at ETSU. Once the data were gathered, they were mapped and statistically analyzed using geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analysis software.

Many things were learned from the GIS maps created and statistical analysis. First, the maps showed that from 1997 to 2007, ETSU's enrollment became more consolidated in the East Tennessee region and moved westward into Middle and Western …

Palm Beach County Community Indicator Portal, Fiu Gis Center

GIS Center

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Efficacy Of Modis Satellite-Derived Start Of Growing Season For Jurisdictional Determination Of East Texas Bottomland Hardwood Wetlands, Karen Malone, Hans Michael Williams, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Crucial to the determination of a jurisdictional wetland is the definition of “growing season”. Satellite imagery is being utilized in other ecological applications, but is lagging in wetland growing season determination. Both cost and temporal limitations historically have restrained use of satellite imagery in assessing the start up of the growing season. Multiple commercial satellites are available that provide high resolution imagery, but the cost are prohibitive for most studies. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage the Landsat and the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite programs. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper …

A General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library Test Application Using A Geographic Cellular Automata Model, Qingfeng Guan, Keith C. Clarke

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

A general-purpose parallel Raster Processing programming Library (pRPL) was developed and applied to speed up a commonly used Cellular Automaton model with known tractability limitations. The library is suitable for use by geographic information scientists with basic programming skills, but who lack knowledge and experience of parallel computing and programming. pRPL is a general-purpose programming library that provides generic support for raster processing, including local-scope, neighborhood-scope, regional-scope, and global-scope algorithms as long as they are parallelizable. The library also supports multi-layer algorithms. Besides the standard data domain decomposition methods, pRPL provides a spatially-adaptive quad-tree-based decomposition to produce more evenly distributed …

Islands In The Stream: Searching For Structure In The Aboriginal Fishery Along The Snake River, Travis Jay Pitkin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The ethnographic literature describing indigenous groups that traditionally inhabited the course of the Snake River commonly cites anadromous fish as an integral and seasonal part of their subsistence pursuit. This study maps known fishing sites and associated landscape variables along the Snake River. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to analyze known fishing sites within the framework of surrounding physiographic features as they related to fishing strategy, salmon behavior, and decisions regarding fishing site selection. Examining the immediate stretch of adjacent river, relevant physiographic features are identified, inventoried, and their intervals recorded. The locations of Snake River fishing sites …

Random Forests Applied As A Soil Spatial Predictive Model In Arid Utah, Alexander Knell Stum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Initial soil surveys are incomplete for large tracts of public land in the western USA. Digital soil mapping offers a quantitative approach as an alternative to traditional soil mapping. I sought to predict soil classes across an arid to semiarid watershed of western Utah by applying random forests (RF) and using environmental covariates derived from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and digital elevation models (DEM). Random forests are similar to classification and regression trees (CART). However, RF is doubly random. Many (e.g., 500) weak trees are grown (trained) independently because each tree is trained with a new randomly …