Physical and Environmental Geography Commons^™

Colorado Front Range Parks Location Mapping Website, Leah Alvarado

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

With current technology, using location based services has become easier than ever. There are services that can help a person find a home, save money, or even find a bathroom. In Colorado, parks are managed by the park and recreation department of a city, town, county, or by a district. Depending on the city, information on the parks that they service comes in different formats and information varies. Some department have online maps others have a map in a portable document format, and some offer no mapping but, a list of parks. Finding a park with consistent data formats and …

Baseline Study Of The Relationship Between Green Space And Age, Chris Schulze

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Current research on green space and human health is spread among many academic disciplines and is growing. To aid researchers and local governments in understanding the relationship between the two, this study presents a baseline analysis of the spatial relationship between green space and age. It considers how a city’s population is distributed around green space and looks at spatial and statistical patterns related to age and location. This study identifies a gap in current research and looks at green space and age in a geographic manner. The findings of this literature review and analysis provide researchers with another way …

Quantitative Community Geography: A Preliminary Evaluation Of Nitrogen Dioxide Levels And Possible Solutions To Exposure Rates In Npu-V, Atlanta, Ga, Alyssa M. Combs, Maria C. Martinez, Kumar K. Amarnath, Hannah Kaplan, Mary Winsor, Rebecca A. Pickering

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Developing A Gis Methodology For Mapping Elements Of Urban Greenspace, Paulita A. Bennett-Martin

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument 2012 Resource Brief, Marcia Wilson, Kara Paintner, Isabel Ashton, Michael Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

Includes brief information on plant community monitoring, aquatic invertebrate monitoring, weather and climate monitoring at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska, USA from 2012.

Scotts Bluff National Monument 2012 Resource Brief, Isabel W. Ashton, Michael Prowatzke, Kara Paintner

United States National Park Service: Publications

Includes brief information on plant community monitoring, air quality monitoring, and weather and climate monitoring at Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska, USA in 2012.

The Global Availability Of Landsat 5 Tm And Landsat 7 Etm+ Land Surface Observations And Implications For Global 30m Landsat Data Product Generation, V. Kovalskyy, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

With the advent of the free U.S. Landsat data policy it is now feasible to consider the generation of global coverage 30 m Landsat data sets with temporal reporting frequency similar to that provided by the monthly Web Enabled Landsat (WELD) products. A statistical Landsat metadata analysis is reported considering more than 800,000 Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM + acquisitions obtained from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center archive. The global monthly probabilities of acquiring a cloud-free land surface observation for December 1998 to November 2001 (2000 epoch) and from December 2008 …

An Environmental And Historical Study Of The Nipomo Mesa Region, Jason C. Carr

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Proximal Sensing As A Means Of Characterizing Phragmites Australis, Travis Yeik

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Phragmites australis is an invasive wetland weed found throughout much of the United States. Documenting and mapping the growth and spread of this emergent macrophyte can be an important step in developing and implementing successful management strategies. Characterizing the phenology of a vegetation species with a sensor capable of hyperspectral resolution, positioned at close proximity to the canopy of interest, is often a first step necessary for understanding the basic species-specific reflectance patterns, and for quantifying the manner in which light interacts with the plants comprising particular communities. Spectral data over a P. australis canopy were collected during 22 field …

Landscape Configuration And Urban Heat Island Effects: Assessing The Relationship Between Landscape Characteristics And Land Surface Temperature In Phoenix, Arizona, John Patrick Connors, Christopher S. Galletti, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The structure of urban environments is known to alter local climate, in part due to changes in land cover. A growing subset of research focuses specifically on the UHI in terms of land surface temperature by using data from remote sensing platforms. Past research has established a clear relationship between land surface temperature and the proportional area of land covers, but less research has specifically examined the effects of the spatial patterns of these covers. This research considers the rapidly growing City of Phoenix, Arizona in the United States. To better understand how landscape structure affects local climate, we explored …

The Periglacial Landscape Of Utopia Planitia; Geologic Evidence For Recent Climate Change On Mars., Mary C. Kerrigan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The northern plains of Utopia Planitia, Mars, hosts an abundance of potential periglacial landforms including scalloped depressions, gullies, and polygon networks. This research was undertaken to investigate the distribution and stratigraphy of scalloped depressions in Utopia Planitia and to reconstruct the past environment in which this periglacial landscape formed. To that end, a revised geologic map of the region has been produced. We define, for the first time, a new Periglacial Unit, the youngest geologic unit in Utopia Planitia. We have also developed a model for the formation and evolution of the periglacial landscape examined by assessing the use of …

Analyzing The Foodshed: Toward A More Comprehensive Foodshed Analysis, Meara Butler

Geography Masters Research Papers

Foodshed Analysis is a tool used by researchers to measure the feasibility of providing more local food to a community. That there are economic, environmental, and societal benefits provided by eating locally produced food is a central assumption of Foodshed Analysis research. These benefits, however, are not inherent to a localized food system, but instead are goals that local food system participants must work to achieve. Foodshed Analysis may be a helpful tool that can be used to advise food system reform to the benefit of a community’s economy, environment, and society, but, in order for this tool to be …

Wallace: The Review, And Wallace: The Preview, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

In this essay commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of his death, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is remembered for his main contributions to biogeography, and pointed to as a possible source of inspiration for future work in that field. As one of the science’s “fathers,” Wallace established both methods for study and a long-lived geographical systemization of animal distribution patterns. His efforts, moreover, may yet have the potential to inspire further new studies in the subject.

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2012 Annual Report, Isabel W. Ashton, Stephen K. Wilson, Daniel J. Swanson, Michael Prowatzke, Phil Graeve

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) plays a vital role in protecting and managing some of the last remnants of native mixed-grass prairie in the region. The Northern Great Plains Inventory & Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Fire Ecology Program (FireEP) surveyed 12 long-term monitoring plots in Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in 2012 as part of an effort to better understand the condition of plant communities in the park. We measured plant diversity and cover, looked for the presence of exotic species that may be newly invading the park, and evaluated the amount of human and natural disturbance …

Early Summer Dissolved Oxygen Characteristics In Restored Streams In Seoul, Casey Thoenen, Woonsup Choi, Jinmu Choi

Geography Faculty Articles

Abstract : This paper presents an evaluation of stream restoration projects in Seoul with a focus on dissolved oxygen. Five test sites across four streams were measured for dissolved oxygen (DO) in late May to early June in 2012 and compared against a set of minimum and maximum thresholds. Only one test site, Hwarang-cheon, showed measurements below 6 mg/l DO. Towards the upper limit, the Hwarangcheon site was the only tested stream which was not at risk of DO supersaturation. The Danghyeon-cheon site had the highest probability of supersaturation, with DO saturation exceeding 130% expected 86.5% of the time. When …

Impacts Of Land Cover Changes On Ecosystem Services Delivery In The Black Hills Ecoregion From 1950 To 2010, Suzanne Cotillon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Environmental degradation generated by land use choices and human activities is the first driver of change in the provision of ecosystem goods and services. One of the challenges in ecosystem services research is to evaluate the contribution of each land cover unit to ecosystem services delivery while considering multiple services. In this thesis, I develop a framework to assess the capacity of many land covers to independently produce ecosystem services (i.e., potential production) and the capacity of the whole landscape to deliver multiple services to the population (i.e., potential supply). In the first part, this methodology is used to report …

Daily Modis 500 M Reflectance Anisotropy Direct Broadcast (Db) Products For Monitoring Vegetation Phenology Dynamics, Yanmin Shuai, Crystal Schaaf, Xiaoyang Zhang, Alan Strahler, David P. Roy, Jeffery Morisette, Zhuosen Wang, Joanne Nightingale, Jaime Nickerson, Andrew D. Richardson, Donghui Xie, Jindi Wang, Xiaowen Li, Kathleen Strabala, James E. Davies

GSCE Faculty Publications

Land surface vegetation phenology is an efficient bio-indicator for monitoring ecosystem variation in response to changes in climatic factors. The primary objective of the current article is to examine the utility of the daily MODIS 500 m reflectance anisotropy direct broadcast (DB) product for monitoring the evolution of vegetation phenological trends over selected crop, orchard, and forest regions. Although numerous model-fitted satellite data have been widely used to assess the spatio-temporal distribution of land surface phenological patterns to understand phenological process and phenomena, current efforts to investigate the details of phenological trends, especially for natural phenological variations that occur on …

The Hedonic Method Of Valuing Environmental Policies And Quality, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

Benefit-cost analysts attempt to compare two states of the world, the status quo and a state in which a policy having benefits and costs is being contemplated. For environmental policies, this comparison is greatly complicated by the difficulty in inferring the values that individuals place on an increment to environmental quality. Unlike ordinary private goods, environmental goods are not directly exchanged in markets with observable prices. In this chapter, the hedonic approach to inferring the benefits of an environmental policy is examined.

Mapa Del Corredor Socioambiental De Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali, Madre De Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) Y Pando (Bolivia), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa del Corredor Socioambiental de las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) y Pando (Bolivia).

Map of the Amazonian boundaries between Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil) and Pando (Bolivia).

Mapa De Amenazas En Las Cuencas De Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali Y Madre De Dios (Perú), Pando (Bolivia) Y Acre (Brasil), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Amenazas en las Cuencas de las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali y Madre de Dios (Perú), Pando (Bolivia) y Acre (Brasil)

Map of Threatened Borders of the Amazon Basin between Ucayali and Madre de Dios (Peru), Pando (Bolivia) and Acre (Brazil)

Mapa De Territorios Indígenas Y Áreas Naturales Protegidas En Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali Y Madre De Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) Y Pando (Bolivia), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Territorios Indígenas y Áreas Naturales Protegidas en las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali y Madre de Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) y Pando (Bolivia)

Map of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas in the Amazon Borders between Ucayali and Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil), and Pando (Bolivia)

Mapa De Desafios Cartográficos 2013, Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Desafios Cartográficos 2013

Map of Cartographic Challenges 2013

Mapa De Infraestructura Vial Y Área De Influencia En Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali, Madre De Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) Y Pando (Bolivia), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Infraestructura Vial y Área de Influencia en las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) y Pando (Bolivia).

Map of Road Infrastructure and Area of Influence in the Amazonian Boundary between Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil) and Pando (Bolivia)

Augmented Realities And Uneven Geographies: Exploring The Geolinguistic Contours Of The Web, Mark Graham, Matthew Zook

Geography Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the digital dimensions of places as represented by online, geocoded references to the economic, social, and political experiences of the city. These digital layers are invisible to the naked eye, but form a central component of the augmentations and mediations of place enabled by hundreds of millions of mobile computing devices and other digital technologies. The analysis highlights how these augmentations of place differ across space and language and highlights both the differences and some of the causal factors behind them. This is performed through a global study of all online content indexed within Google Maps, and …

Gis-Based Expert Systems Model For Predicting Habitat Suitability Of Blackside Dace, Benjamin L. Blandford, John Ripy, Ted H. Grossardt, Ryan Evans, Sara Hines

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

This study presents a GIS-based predictive habitat suitability model for the blackside dace, a federally-listed threatened species of the Upper Cumberland River basin in southeastern Kentucky. The model is a rules-based system which incorporates expert knowledge about habitat preferences for the species. The five habitat factors identified by experts and included in this model are stream gradient, canopy coverage, riparian vegetation type, riparian zone width, and stream order. Using GIS, the five habitat parameters were parameterized and combined across the entire stream network. Combinations were evaluated by blackside dace experts in terms of habitat suitability. The resulting model was tested …

Fresh Squeezed: The Dilemma Of Local Food Production Along Colorado's Front Range Urban Corridor, Amanda Jessie Weaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Today, the Front Range Urban Corridor of Colorado is one example from the urban/agricultural battlefield. The history of food production and urbanization in this area is similar to many regions throughout the western United States. Originally an extraction based economy, Colorado later became agriculturally/pastorally based, and more recently became a service-based, urban economy. On the Front Range Urban Corridor specifically, the urban core of Denver and Boulder developed with rich agricultural lands toward the northeast to Weld County along the northern border of the state. Though a semi-arid region, this agricultural zone produces a volume and variety of food-based crops …

An Evaluation Of Data Collected By Middle School And College-Level Students In Stream Channel Geomorphic Assessment, Martin D. Lafrenz

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This project tested the accuracy and repeatability of geomorphic stream channel assessments conducted by two different middle school classes from the Walt Morey Middle School in Troutdale, OR and college students from Portland State University in Portland, OR. Each group surveyed the same three cross-sections in Fairview Creek, a tributary to the Lower Columbia River, in order to assess stream channel geometry, discharge, composition of the bed material, and water quality. The three student groups were all able to accurately document the stream channel geometry, including stream width and mean depth, indicating that these data can be successfully collected by …

Sagebrush Ecosystem Characterization, Monitoring, And Forecasting With Remote Sensing: Quantifying Future Climate And Wildlife Habitat Change, Collin G. Homer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems constitute the largest single North American shrub ecosystem and provide vital ecological, hydrological, biological, agricultural, and recreational ecosystem services. Disturbances continue to alter this ecosystem, with climate change possibly representing the greatest future disturbance risk. Improved ways to characterize and monitor gradual change in this ecosystem are vital to its future management. A new remote sensing sagebrush characterization approach was developed in Wyoming which integrates three scales of remote sensing to derive four primary continuous field components (bare ground, herbaceousness, litter, and shrub), and four secondary components (sagebrush, big sagebrush, Wyoming sagebrush, and shrub …

Proposing New Barrens National Natural Landmarks, Todd R. Lookingbill, Mary C. Brickle, Katharina A.M. Engelhardt

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program, administered and maintained through the National Park Service, was established in 1962 with the goal of highlighting sites that best demonstrate the outstanding geologic and biologic features of the United States. In a unique partnership between public and private landowners, the National Park Service accepts sites into the program that best illustrate the diversity of our country’s natural heritage regardless of ownership. The NNL program seeks solely to recognize these sites for their geologic and biologic significance and to strengthen the public’s appreciation for and conservation of America’s natural heritage. Potential NNLs are evaluated …

The Effect Of Visual Wulst Lesions And Trigeminal Nerve Sectioning On The Discrimination Of Magnetic Inclination In The Homing Pigeon (Columba Livia), Merissa Acerbi

Honors Projects

The ability of homing pigeons to return to their loft from unknown places has fascinated scientists for centuries. It is well established that homing pigeons, like migratory birds, posses an innate magnetic inclination compass to determine direction by measuring the angle between the magnetic field vector and the Earth's surface. Recent work has indicated that the avian magnetic compass is light mediated and appears to mediate magnetic information to the brain. This occurs via a visual pathway with processing in the visual Wulst area of the forebrain. There is, however, also evidence from other avian species that magnetic direction may …